Well, we could argue that one...

I just had a researcher here in the American Corner refer to the state of Missouri as "Misery."

Chris and Jill in Sidi Bou Said

On their last day here, Chris and Jill went back to Cafe des Delices where I met up with them. Then we headed off to La Marsa to go to the Lebanese restaurant Fairouz and then ice cream at Au Petit Salem.

Sidi Bou Said on Saturday

Cafe des Delices and then our walk down to get a taxi up to La Marsa. I have a pinched nerve in my left hand, so typing long entries is out of the question for the next few days.

The cafe looking out over the Marina

Along the coast towards central Tunis

"Victory at Tripoli," or how to not write History

Every few weeks, we get some new books for the American Corner. Not too long ago, we received a book called Victory at Tripoli by Joshua E. London. It's a book on the American experience with the Barbary Pirates in the early 1800's.

A glance at the back inside cover gives you a quick biography on the author. Included in his body of work are articles for the National Review Online and Details: Promoting Jewish Conservative Values. The inside of the front cover includes this rather subtle text:

"As a new century dawned, a newly elected U.S. president was forced to confront a grave threat to the nation - an escalating series of unprovoked attacks on Americans by Muslim terrorists sworn to carry out a jihad against all Western powers. Worse still, these fanatics operated under the protection and sponsorship of rogue states ruled by ruthless and cunning dictators. As timely and familiar as these events may seem, they occurred more than two centuries ago. The president was Thomas Jefferson, and the terrorists were the Barbary pirates of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli."

By the first page, I had already read the phrase "piratical Muslim overlords." Doesn't that just roll off the tongue? Talk about nice, non-biased wording as well... not exactly the way I was supposed to write my history thesis on Sierra Leone. Unfortunately, this type of terminology persisted all the way through the introduction. Here's another gem from the last part:

"The ravages of war and the exigencies of survival pushed the Muslim North Africans into permanent battle mode, and the glory of jihad was better known, and more devotedly sought, than the long-term benefits of a stable, liberal, and egalitarian regime."

And of course, this means fertile ground to pump up America:

"The story of America's struggle against the terror of piracy in the Mediterranean stands as testament to the essential American tributes that have given rise to American exceptionalism: the problem-solving mindset of the individual overcoming life's difficulties through brains and talent, faith and strength of purpose, and guts and perseverance."

Anyways, I feel that there's very little point in quoting beyond this so what we can all retain our meals. My biggest problem with this book is that it is a potentially very fascinating story cloaked in dually destructive layers of neoconservative, war-hawk propaganda and absolutely awful prose - this guy is one of the worst writers I've ever read, and I've proof-read some pretty bad English as a third language pieces here.

I don't really know who this writer thinks he's helping. It sure as hell isn't the American people. I don't care if you wear a "Git-R-Done" trucker hat and watch Fox News, this isn't helping your comprehension of the Middle East.

Now people might be asking, "Isaac, why are you picking on this poor guy and his shamefully propagandistic and jingoistic book?"

Well, the reason is quite simple: because it's assholes like this guy that make what I'm trying to do over here just a bit harder. Luckily I got to this book before some Tunisian tried to read it and took offense at the blatantly simple usages of the words terrorism, jihad, and Muslim. I know another guy who uses simple, dumbed-down language for complex geopolitical events - his name is George W. Bush.

People from the Rainy (and Cold) Weekend

I'm having some formatting issues since I have to use IE on this computer. (Works just fine in Firefox). The first batch are from Friday night, and the second are from the rained-out night we spent playing Taboo after dinner in Sidi Bou Said.

I just got my new external flash (I shipped it to Chris and she brought it out with her), and it's a big help with these interior shots. I just tilt it up and bounce the flash off of the ceiling for room-filling light (I used it in pretty much all of the photos - for example the wider shot I took of the whole room). I like the little Nikon SB-400 that I have because it does everything I need - a more powerful flash than the built-in and the ability to angle the flash up to 90 degrees. Also, it's small and portable - compare that to the drool-inducing new Nikon D3 with a big external SB-800 flash and a pro lens - it'd weigh a few pounds too much for most of the stuff I do (not to say I wouldn't like one...). All I need now are some decent rechargeable batteries - the local ones I got for 500 millimes lasted about 80 shots before going kaput.

Chris and Jill in Tunis

Rim, Jill and Chris at La Mer in La Goulette. Notice the Akhoud in the red sauce right next to Chris's hand.

Chris taking in some shisha in La Goulette

You take people out to good restaurants, show them around, and what ends up being the biggest star of the trip is your two dogs.

Jil and Rim playing Taboo on Saturday night.

ACCESS Program Starts up Again

On Friday, AMIDEAST welcomed back the ACCESS Program for a 4-month session of weekly classes. Every Friday afternoon they come over for free English classes and a sandwich and drink. Right now, because of my responsibilities at the American Corner, this is the only class I'm teaching, but it's definitely the best reason to come to work on Friday. Some of these kids I've worked with before, and there's also some new faces.

Here, they're working on decorations - we're having a Halloween Party at the Embassy Rec Center next Saturday, so I brought in some materials to work with.

Brrr...

On Thursday I went out to the airport late at night to pick up one of my best friends from University, Chris, and her sister Jill. They're both in town for ten days on vacation, and just headed down on a bus to Tozeur yesterday. One of my favorite things to do is show people around a place that I like - be it Minneapolis, DC, Paris, Rabat, wherever. This was my first time in Tunis that I've "connected the dots" between old friends in America and my life in Tunis.

On Friday, I showed them around Amideast, and then Rim came and took them downtown - a State Department Program Specialist was here, as were all the Access students, ready to start their new session - so I had to stick around work for the afternoon. After, we met up down on Ave. Bourguiba at Cafe du Theatre and grabbed some coffee before heading up to La Goulette. I love La Goulette because it's still largely off of the tourist radar. By and large, it's still a middle class Tunisian neighborhood that doesn't have nearly the expat population of Carthage, Sidi Bou Said, or La Marsa (although that is starting to change with two new apartment buildings catering to foreigners - Lee lives in one of them, and my friend Kristian lives in the other). What La Goulette does have is a vibrant nightlife on Avenue Roosevelt, a few decent cafes, and great seafood and traditional Tunisian Jewish fare.

On Friday, I chose Restaurant La Mer, which is right across from the La Goulette institution Le Cafe Vert. They're owned by the same people (fact check on that?), and I like the fact that La Mer has a view over the Mediterranean - with a recently-completed windowed dining room on the second floor. As I've said before, if you want a decent meal and don't want to spend a lot, stay away from the fish - which is priced by weight. The four of us - Chris, Jill, Rim and I ordered 4 plates of fruits de mer - mussels, ceviches, cuttlefish and fried calamari - plus a great bottle of the St. Augustin Rose for 60 dinars, or about 15 a person. That's a very good $12 meal that also includes plenty of little starter plates. A big surprise was that one of them was Akhoud, which is the, ahem, undercarriage of a bull. Given that I'm in Tunisia, I gave it a try. I also got Chris to. It's not bad, but there's definitely a psychological block! It basically melts in the mouth (I know, what an image) and really is quite good.

After we met up with Kristian for Shisha, where I rediscovered how much of a lightweight I am with it - after a few puffs I had to steady myself and drink some tea to clear up!

On Saturday we started late with a great breakfast. Pomegranates here are in season now and only about a dollar a kilo, so Rim and I cut up some pomegranates, took out the seeds and put them in a bowl with a liberal pour of orange blossom water (eau de fleur d'oranger) and sugar. It's damn good. We then went downtown for a bit and then up to the Bardo to check out the mosaics, always staying one step ahead of the bad weather. After, we took a cab up to Sidi Bou Said, ate some of the great bambalouinis (Tunisian doughnuts) up at the top of the hill, and then went to the terraced cafe des delices with its beautiful view out over the sea. Our experience was somewhat muted by the grey skies and rather nasty bout of rain. Luckily it cleared up for a dinner at Tam Tam, not far from the Sidi Bou Said TGM stop.

On Sunday it got cold. Like a bit under 50 degrees Fahrenheit, which is by far the coldest weather I've experienced here. Factor in that I've been living in 90-degree heat and adjusting my body to that for four months, and I was shivering all day.

I'll try and get some photos up soon from the weekend. Unfortunately, my internet at home is shot - the telephone lines came down last week, and I haven't seen much to indicate they'll be fixed anytime soon...

Mangled English

This list comes from a new acquaintance, Lisa Bourial. She's originally from Illinois, and now teaches at University here, preparing University Students to take the Concours for the Ecole Normale Superieure.

Two weeks ago, she took a trip with her Tunisian husband out to Hammamet, and these are some of the gems she found on the menus:

Les entrees ------ Entrances (this is not a joke - I have a picture)

Pates aux fruits de mer ------ paste with seafood

Salade nicoise ------- Nice salad

Spaghetti aux fruits de mer ------- Spaghetti seafruits

Friture de calamar ------- Fritters of Calamar

Steak aux poivre flambe ------- Steak to peppers flamed

Chateaubriand ------- Castlebriand and at another place Chateau Brillant

Roulade de boeuf ------- Cow-Beef Olive (this one totally confuses me - no clue where they got this one

Tournedos Cordon Bleu ------- Blue Tornados Cord

Soupe a l'onion ------ Soup to the onion

Here are a couple of my favorites -

Soupe pecheur ------ soup sinner

Salade pecheru ------ salad sinner

Filet mignon ------ cute filet (Really, the menu said this)

Les Pates ------ Doughs

a few others without the French - but you get the idea.....

Fisch to the sfaxienne

Fisch of golf

Lobster and Cicada

Lamb to the oven

Lamb to the Gargoulette

Ojja to the choice

Moss to the chocolate (mousse au chocolat if it wasn't obvious)

Ice to the choice

Sensible Policy Next Door?

This article in the NY Times today talks about Libya's possible tourism development. What I found the most interesting was this:

The Libyan coast is “a unique and important and untouched ecosystem, almost the only one left in the Mediterranean — it’s like Sardegna 50 years ago before development,” said Alessandra Pome of the World Wildlife Foundation Fund for Nature, who is working in Tripoli.

Ms. Pome noted that the area was the last breeding ground for some species of turtles and tuna in the Mediterranean. “If we carelessly develop the coast here as we did in Spain, Italy and France,” she said, “the Mediterranean is going to turn into a swimming pool lined with concrete.”

This type of Mediterranean development is quite visible in parts of Tunisia. Native coral has been ravaged, drinking water on the island of Djerba has significantly decreased in quality due to tourist consumption, and one only has to step into the neon spectacle that is the resort of Hammamet to understand how banal and dangerous seaside development can be. While I'm just pulling these examples out for illustrative purposes, there are many more and less tangible losses, such as the Disney-fication that accompanies large commercial development.

I hope this won't be the same for Libya. While the Libyans are basically the equivalent of the Belgians to the French for the Tunisians - what makes it especially ridiculous is the way that Tunisians tell Libyan jokes as if they really happened - it looks like there's a potential to do development right on the North Coast of Africa for once. Plus, who wants the Mediterranean turned into a giant, homogeneous swimming pool?

Changing the Tune

Now that I've been here over four months, I've started to compare my experience here to what still stands as my longest experience abroad - Paris in the Spring of 2006 from January to early June.

Each of these experiences have been profoundly rewarding, but they have required very different approaches. Not to over-analyze (something I occasionally do), but the ways that I feel I am successful here in Tunis are vastly different from how I felt fulfilled in Paris.

Firstly, Paris was, and is very much a city that can be experienced alone. I always say, drop me off in Paris for a month alone, and you won't hear one complaint. Looking back over my Paris blog, most days were spent walking around the city and checking out what it had to offer culturally - especially the art scene. My host dad was the head of art restoration at the Centre Pompidou, so I was immersed in dinners with people from the art world and all of the exhibition openings he'd pass off to me. Often I'd go them alone, especially during the day - I'd go to Musee Gustave Moreau and stare at the intricate sketches in his unfinished paintings and then take a walk down to one of the bigger museums like the Louvre and tackle one specific part of it (it took over 20 visits, but by the end I really felt like I had "done" the Louvre). I'd stop for a coffee or read a book along the way, and I'd be completely content on my own.

Not to diminish the social aspect there, but at its core, Paris is a city that rewards the introvert in many ways. Tunis is altogether different. While there is indeed a lot to do in Tunis - I am continually impressed by all of the great cafes, unique neighborhoods, and beautiful settings along Lac Tunis and the Mediterranean - it is a city that rewards the social butterfly. At its core, based on my experiences, I've found North African society to be incredibly social. A large part of the reason I wanted to return to North Africa after Morocco was because I loved the externality and vibrancy of the society - which is further enhanced by Tunisia's remarkably Mediterranean character... I often compare Tunisians to Italians - the joke here is that Italians are Arabs who don't speak Arabic.

This character is visible right away - you see the cafes packed with men (and occasionally women) smoking shisha, drinking heavily sweetened and creamed coffee, and talking loudly from your first venture outside Carthage Airport. This social atmosphere extends to the home - when I am over with Hichem's family, it's me, plus Hichem, his brother, his three sisters, his mother and father, and quite often visiting family - I met two of his dad's brothers in one day. This atmosphere necessitates being social. There isn't a way around it if you want to be successful here. It means tearing yourself away from reading, Prison Break, and whatever else you might have enjoyed doing alone and giving in to group activities.

Overall, I enjoy it. I like the constant social contact. I make it work by having downtime just to myself everyday, and also by giving myself time every weekend to recharge my batteries - all of the socializing makes this traditionally introverted guy quite exhausted.

People from Korbous

Here's Hichem, Sahla and me overlooking the winding road down to the springs. One of my missions here is going to be changing the Tunisian perspective on not smiling in photos... Sahla is trying, to give him credit.

Sahla and me smiling through the steam.

Hichem's mom making friends with a french woman here on vacation.

Tea time

Korbous

On Friday I celebrated Aid by meeting up with Hichem's family for a couscous lunch. ( I had goat's neck, which is not my favorite cut of meat). After, we piled in the car and headed out to Korbous, the site of a natural hot springs.

Korbous is on Cap Bon, and the drive takes you through suburbs such as Hammam Lif, through a few small agricultural communities, and then finally up and down a large hill. The actual site of interest is where the springs empty out into the blue Mediterranean waters.


Once you're there, the smell of the mineral-suffused water is quite strong at first - it pours through two small pools and then down the rocks into the sea. The water is heated in underground grottoes and comes out damn near boiling. The real interest for me was down in the water - I slipped on my suit and then headed into the cool water, with Hichem and his little brother Sahla behind me.

I ended up spending around four hours in the water, taking turns sitting right by the cascade and then heading out for a swim deeper in the water. It was incredibly restorative, and since I went through such a weird spell of being sick, I made sure to spend plenty of time right under the hot springs - coming out with a few nasty red marks on my back in the process.

After we went up the hill and had a small picnic with tea and cookies, and then headed back, where I promptly conked for an hour as soon as my head hit the pillow.
If you're interested in going to Korbous, I'd recommend going during the week. I made sure to go on Aid and there was barely anyone there. During the weekend, it can be tough to find enough space in the water - so forget about a tranquil experience. There were quite a few tourists there, along with some Tunisian families and couples. If you go farther down the road until it is shut off because of falling rocks, there's an expensive touristy cafe that offers all the expected items.

If you're in the bartering mood, there's also (very) fresh octopus available for purchase. Don't spend more than five dinars a pound!

Aid Mabrouk!

Today was the last day of fasting for Ramadan, so I decided to go out in style. Geida, my roommate, and I went down to Ave. Bourguiba and grabbed a decent prix-fixe iftar meal with brik, couscous, caramel flan, and tea. After, I took her down to my favorite cafe during Ramadan - Chawachina (I totally butchered that spelling). It's back in the medina past the Zeitouna mosque and hosts nightly music and is assured to be buzzing once the clock hits 10:00. We sipped on mint tea with pine nuts, Geida went through two shishas, and I also got to taste one of my favorite late-night snacks here, draw. Draw (once again, spelling...) is basically a type of pudding that you top with fruits secs (almonds, pistachios, etc) and copious sugar and then eat while it's still piping hot. It's quite sugary and very tasty.

Chawachina is great because it's a very traditional cafe in the enclosed part of the medina right before the jewelry quarter, so you sit either along the walkway of the medina or on the benches constructed on a long hallway perpendicular to the main route. Also, when it's not Ramadan, the prices are absurdly reasonable - not more than 300 millimes or so for a cup of sticky-sweet mint tea.

The cafe was also where I got the first 2 of four small world sightings for the night. Two teachers from AMIDEAST came by to watch the music as well. Afterwards, we walked back out by the Zeitouna mosque and ran into Simon, the American professor that I ate at Dar Bel Hadj with last week. Once we were out on Bourguiba, which at that point was almost unwalkable due to the number of people, I ran into an old student from this summer, Yosr (who claims to be keeping up on this blog - so Hi Yosr!).

It was a very fitting way to end an interesting and rewarding Ramadan. Tomorrow I am off to some natural springs on Cap Bon with Hichem and his family to relax. I'm also hoping to go to the Hammam and get a serious massage.

Today went well also - we met with three representatives from an internet-based Tunisian radio station Tounes Bledi. They have about 250,000 registered listeners and get people from all over the Maghreb, France, and Francophone Canada - they are actually based in Quebec. They are going to work on promoting American Corner programming that I'm putting together, and I'm going to go and get a tour of their studio next week and hopefully soon go on the air with them - maybe even a radio show down the road...?

Ramadan Calling

Two days, on my way downtown, I picked up some really tasty almonds from one of those guys who roasts them and then gives them a sweet, red coating.

These were the same almonds I was finishing off yesterday morning when Hichem walked into the American Corner with Douraied. Looking at Hichem, I said "You have got to try these almonds! They are so damn good - have you tried them before?"

He looked at me and shook his head, "No thanks."

I persisted, a bit mystified for another five seconds... before I realized we were still in Ramadan. We all laughed it off.

Ramadan is almost over here - if the moon does what it's supposed to, it should finish up on Friday with the Aid al-Fitr. Most of the Tunis residents I know are going back to see their families for the weekend and celebrate - all of the children receive gifts as well.

Given that, I'm normally very cognizant that it's Ramadan, since it's very hard to forget, but I'll still have my moments where I completely blank on that fact - like the little almond incident.

I'll be honest and say I am looking forward to Ramadan being over. On one hand, I do love the atmosphere - the Medina at night, the iftar dinners with Tunisian families (tonight I am going over to Hichem's again), and the music, but on the other hand, it's hampered a lot of my routine. Part of the reason I haven't been writing much lately is because I've been quite sick with a nasty flu and infection, but also because I haven't been doing much on the weekends during the days - not much is open and traveling is tougher. Same goes for after work - I get off someday around four, but I can't do much because very few cafes are open.

Soon, my friend Chris and her sister Jill are coming out - I'm looking forward to showing a good friend around Tunis and around the country as well. This will be the first time that my two worlds really connect, which is always an interesting experience - it also helps in making it more real... Now I can talk with a friend back home about it in a different way.

Dar Bel Hadj

Today after work I headed up to Lee's place for a quick nap while he went for a swim and then we headed downtown to the new hotel just off of Ave. Bourguiba called Tunisia Palace. It's a 4-star hotel, and is quite nicely done. It's managed by a competent chain called Golden Yasmin. In the hotel is a large dining room with Tiffany-esque windows and also a small and clubby bar with plenty of wood called 1900. There, we met up with Simon, an anthropology Professor from the States who did Peace Corps and Fulbright work out here, plus Larry, the director of CEMAT, and his daughter and her friend who are out here visiting. After a Turkish Coffee (I'm keeping drinking to an absolute minimum during Ramadan), we walked into the medina to the restaurant Dar Bel Hadj, which is right before the Zeitouna mosque.

The Restaurant, like Dar El Jeld and one other one in the Medina, is a restored Bey's house. the central open area functions as a very nice formal dining room, and the service matches the quality of the surroundings. We had a traditional Iftar dinner, starting off with a thicker tomato-based soup, a Brik, a small salad, and then I had Mosli with Sheep - a dish with potatoes, green peppers, and saffron, thyme, rosemary, red pepper and black pepper (I know the ingredients because Rim recently cooked up a really great version of it). After that, we had a light desert and some tea. Overall, I'd recommend the place for its ambiance, and I think it's a bit less expensive than Dar El Jeld, which is around 60TD.

The conversation was good as well - Simon has two masters as well as PhD and focuses on linguistics, so he knows Tunisian Arabic very well and has done a lot of work on the educational system in Tunisia. After dinner, I went down to clear up some rental stuff with Farouk at Cafe L'Univers, and then back to check out his apartment. My lease here in Ariana is up in December, and I'm considering moving downtown to have a change of environment. (If anyone knows a place that is furnished/heated let me know!)

I know this is a bit sappy, but it's nights like this that I really enjoy being in Tunis. The city has a lot to offer if you know where to go, and it's satisfying really being at a place now where I feel quite competent in going around, knowing where to go, what to see, etc.

Alison's Birthday

Bassim, Slim, Yosra, Sarra, and Alison at Walima

Sarra and Alison

Alison striking a pose at Walima

So, last Tuesday (yep, I know this is a week later...) we went out for dinner to celebrate Alison's birthday. We had a great 30 TD meal at Walima, and then ended up at a cafe in Berges du Lac after stopping by our place.


I put up the whole photoset here. It's a lot of photos of Alison - she doesn't have a working camera right now, so I was happily conscripted to fully document the night. There's also a little series on Ari going bonkers and attacking the cat and the other dog...