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.