A Day In My Life

Hello everyone! Its hard to believe that I only have one week left of the program. The time has gone by relatively fast, with the exception of Ramadan, which seemed to slow time down to a crawl. For one of my last blog entries (which I’m glad everyone is enjoying by the way!) I am going to write about a average day of mine.

I wake up at seven and eat my breakfast of coffee, sick pre-made toast and more coffee. (I think I may be a new official member of “the club”). Then my host dad drives me to school so I can arrive by 830. Now if my daily commute doesn’t sound like it would be too inserting then obviously you are not acquainted with the Tunisian freeway system. First of all Tunisians find the idea of “lanes” quite optional, technically the highways have two but its common to have three and crazy taxis drivers often make four. While my life is flashing between my eyes my host father is smoking between four to six cigarettes and singing loudly to whatever arab song is on the radio, if the song is in English (which it is about half of the time) he drums on the steering wheel. After around 20 minutes of this I arrive at ISLT/Borgiba School/ Institute 7th November at Cartridge (its been ten weeks and i’m still not quite sure what the name of my school is).
There are two language schools in Tunis with the name Borguba School. One is a posh private school in downtown Tunis and the other is dilapidated, overcrowded and in a sketchy suburb by the train tracks. Guess which one I go to. Hint-the school has holes in the roof and one the rare occasion that it rains I have to slog through puddles to get to class. Today I took my camera to school in a poor attempt to document the building. The “highlight’ is the bathrooms and I took a picture which I will spare all of you because it literally makes me gag a little. Why? Well none of the toilets flush (and I have tried many in various locations…not that you really need to know) so by the time I took my picture at 11:30…they where full. This happens everyday! Who has to clean them at night I wonder? Ok, now that I have scarred you all for life I will continue with my day.
I have Arabic class from 8:30 to 11:30….in a perfect world. During Ramadan I had school from 8:30 to 2. My teacher is a wonderful man who is under the impression that if I don’t understand its because A- my handwriting is poor or B- he needs speak louder. After my 2 to 6 hours of class I eat lunch with my friends at “Pizza Mimosa” (sadly they do not serve mimosas) where I spend 2 dinar for my “salad various ” which lives up to its name by being different everyday.
After lunch I go to culture or literature class if its Monday or Tuesday (riveting I know). After my riveting day of class I hail a cab and take it home. I know its silly but I feel a little like a bad ass when I take a cab home by myself, speak to the driver in Arabic and sing along to the blasting arab music. My Arabic is far from fluent (or even conversational) but I am able to have simple conversations with my cab drivers. Usually the conversations sound something like this-

Me- Park Enaily please.
Driver-(Speaks French to me and then sees my blank look)Do you speak French?
Me- No
Driver -You speak Arabic?
Me- A little. I am a student of Arabic at Borgiba school.
Driver- Are you British?
Me- Yes/ No I am Canadian/American
Driver- How old are you?
Me- I have been in Tunisia for three months.
Driver- How old are you?
Me- September, October, November
Driver- How old are you?
Me- OH! 20.
Driver- Are you married?
Me- No (or if don’t feel like this conversation AGAIN-Yes. To a strong arab man)
Driver-Why not? You are so beautiful.
Me- (please drive faster..) Thanks….
Driver- Why are you not married?
Me- I am too young/ I hate men/ I’m engaged/ drop me off here.
Driver- Will you marry me?
Me- Ha ha ha ha, No thank you.
Driver- I love you!
Me- Uh….Stop here. Thank you!

After I arrive home more or less single. I do homework until dinnertime and then…do more homework…Wow. I can’t wait to come back to OSU where I have a social life again.
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We had a huge dinner together as a group. I asked my host mom if she could help me make a small bowl of Tunisian salad which Selwa turned into a HUGE bowl of salad, 35 briqs, silverware, 30 oranges and a platter full of pound cake. It was without a doubt one of the most memorable thanksgivings but I missed my family.
One more week!
-Katie