Family and Photo Roundup

Sophie, Audrey, and Brian

I just uploaded three albums to Facebook. These are photos taken last week while my sister, cousin, and my cousin's girlfriend visited me. We started off by going to Bizerte on the 18th with Lee, where we went to the market and had an amazing meal at Le Petit Mousse. On Monday, we hung out in Tunis and visited Sidi Bou Said and Carthage. Tuesday, we headed off to Sousse, and then went to El Jem on Wednesday, and then all the way back to Tunis that evening for dinner at Hichem's - tied with Le Petit Mousse for the culinary highpoint of the trip (Thanksgiving is a close third).

After that, we celebrated Thanksgiving in Tunis. Thursday, we went out at bought food and wine at Monoprix in preparation for the big meal. Returning home around 5pm, we found out that the gas had been cut in the neighborhood. What followed was the material that Thanksgiving TV specials are made of: we proceeded to make a thanksgiving meal using rotisserie chicken and exclusively an electric hot water heater. My mom had sent out hungry jack mashed potatoes in a packet, along with a packet for gravy and stove top stuffing. All three things required hot water, so we were able to heat up enough water (and stir fast enough!) to make a meal of chicken, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce (from a can), and brie. I went out and bought some little tarts for desert to substitute for the unmade pumpkin pie. It turned into quite the fun night after all.

After that, Audrey and Brian split up with my sister and I - they went off to Nabeul on Friday and my sister came to AMIDEAST with me - where she sat in on my Access class. Friday night was rock night at Le Boeuf sur le Toit, and although the group covered way too much Staind, it was a fun show.

We rounded out the weekend with a nice day in La Marsa and some touristy shopping, along with a stop through Beb Jadid right as Club Africain beat Esperance - we went right by CA Headquarters and watched the celebrations.

It was great to have the family out here - it was a good opportunity to show Tunisia to people I love and also just to spend some time with some people I've know forever.

On that note, I'm planning on spending Christmas in Bruges, Belgium. I have great family friends there that are essentially family, and as much as I want to slaughter and eat an entire sheep for Aid al-Kabeer, I think I'll feel more at home celebrating Christmas with old friends. Hopefully I'll be able to stop off in Paris as well for a night.

Here are the photos albums:

Family Trip, pt. 1

Family Trip, pt. 2

Thanksgiving