Weekend Update

This weekend was the end of Ramadan and we had a five day weekend to celebrate. A group of nine of us went to the resort town of Hammermet. It was a great break from my family and school. Tomorrow I have my first Arabic exam and then after that I promise to make a big update with pictures, until then I just wanted to check in with everyone. I'm safe and I had a crazy time this weekend.Also I am officially half way done with the program!
I miss everyone and thanks for reading my blog!

Dogs, Cats and Rams...oh my?

There is a wolf pack living on my street.
Ok, It’s more like four homeless dogs that live in the three half built houses that surround mine. In Tunisia the idea of pets is pretty strange, only the rich own a dog and having a cat for a pet is laughable. I personal have a entire family(who I’ve named) who lives underneath my window.
As for the idea of animal control, Tunisians don’t have anything like a pound. When I asked my host cousin what they did with the all the extra dogs the answer was one of the most darkly comic things I have ever heard.
In the summer months men driving a large van roam up and down the streets. When these men find a dog they jump out of they van and shoot it. They shoot the dog with a handgun in the street! They don’t take the dog into the van and then kill it, they shoot it in the street. Amira was telling me that they don’t always hit the dog the first time and will run after it on foot, shooting at the animal! I hope you understand what I mean by darkly comic.
Another common animal practice is ram fighting. Its just like cock fighting except with rams. It’s legal and very regulated with many different leagues. I walked past one of these rams training the other day and I wish I could have taken a picture because the rams are painted with patterns and bright colors. This one I saw had orange stripes all over him.
Us in America have such a different image of animals and their rights. In a country with great poverty the idea of spending government money on wild cats and dogs is out of place. I obviously disagree with this awful treatment of animals but when my host cousin heard that I knew many families that chose to have Dogs instead of children, she was disgusted. She said that it was the most selfish thing that she had ever heard. “If you are blessed enough to be in love and can afford to have children then it is a great disservice to God if you don’t have them.” While I don’t know if I agree with this either, I am fascinated by the difference in Tunisian and American values.

This picture is of the happiest puppy I have ever seen. He lived behind a restaurant near Douga and would wag his tail so hard that he would fall over <3!

One month down...

Well I have survived my first month. I can’t believe that I have only seven weeks to go!

I haven’t been going on too many adventures, Its still Ramadan and people are constantly exhausted. I was planning on going to a football game but it was rained out.
And by rain- I mean monsoon. The past two days it was been monsooning at night. Sheets of rain with endless thunder for around five hours each night. Today we lost power but regained it in less than an hour. Tunisian streets are not adapted for such high quantities of rain and flooding is a major problem. Last night we drove to Grandmas house ON THE MEDIAN…yes. The median of the freeway, the actual street had around two feet of water covering it and objects where floating by us as we drove.

Magically most of it was gone this morning so I could go to Saturday class. Our teacher has been killing me with class lately the past three days I have had six straight hours of Arabic. Six… is too much. I really can’t handle one more second of class or studying. Which is perfect timing because we have an exam next week (I think, Tunisian schools aren’t organized like they are in the west. The only rule about exams is you have to tell your students at least a day before. Other than that its all free game.)

The largest difference between Tunisian and American schools is the lack of choice. When each student is 15 they make a choice whether they wish to study sciences or languages (although everyone learns English, French and Arabic). At the age of 18 they take the baccalaureate exams. This single test determines what schools they can attend and what feilds they can study. My host cousin wanted more than anything to be a doctor however she didn’t place high enough in her philosophy exams and that brought down her total score. She is now attending the school of telecommunications. I think this is system only hold the country down. Students work harder in subjects they truly care about. If I would have taken such tests I doubt I would even attend college due to my problems with handwriting and spelling. By placing such weight on the single exam Tunisia is missing out on many bright students and forcing others into careers without passion which can only bring them limited success.


The picture is the view from my widow. From which I sing songs and watch the crazy men make e-brake turns in the roundabout everyday at 7.

To anyone who wishes to Write me..

I'm not going to give away my address on this blog but simply email me if you need it. If you have already tried to send me a letter I will not get it. In Tunisia the Post Office will only give letters to the people who are registered to live at the house.
DO NOT PUT MY NAME ANYWHERE ON THE LETTER.
Instead address the letter to my host father.
I'm sorry for all the confusion and If you ask me for the correct address and name of my host father I will email it to you.

Thanks!

Edit- I've received Grandmas letter but no one else's. I really have no idea how the system works....

Katie Update

Hello everyone! Sorry its been so long since I last updated, it seems like some weeks I can use the internet every day and others like it doesn’t even exist.

Lately it seems all I have been doing is going to school and sitting around at home. School is…fine. We are supposed to have Arabic for a hour and a half each day but our teacher decided we need help and upped our hours to four each day. It pretty much makes me die a little. Believe it or not I can get overdosed on Arabic. I guess I forgot how much I hated learning the language in the states and thought it would be better over here. Wrong! Oh well, when I am done with these next seven weeks I never have to take Arabic ever again (OSU doesn’t offer a 3rd year).

Other than class I have been doing nothing with my host family. This can be very boring but I usually have enough homework to eat up the time. I’ve made it halfway through Ramadan and I believe if I can make it through the next two weeks, we will start going on field trips again and life will speed up a little. As for this weekend Friday night I went to the American Embassy for Happy Hour (Yeah I had no idea they offered that ether) and last night I went ‘out’ to a café with my host sisters. Tonight we are all going over to Grandmothers house because a Uncle who lives in Canada surprised everyone by flying down and we are going to have a feast in his honor (more food? What a surprise…).
I miss everyone so much! As I said before I can’t wait for the end of Ramadan because I’m sure the trips will cut down on the boredom factor. Until then my friend is loaning me Mitchners “Hawaii” which will give me something to do other than watch Deal or no deal (which I caught a video of by they way!).

<3

Katie

Dating and Living with a Conservative Tunisian Family

Before I type a single word I want to say all that I have learned has come from interactions with my host family. This paper reflects only one Tunisian family and is by no means an attempt to generalize.

My host cousin is just about the kindest person you could ever hope to meet. She has a great gift for languages, memorizing any English spelling I tell her instantly. Last night we were speaking about how we where both a little bored and the fact slipped out that she hadn't gone out with her friends in over two years. I was completely shocked and inquired why this was so. She told me that her mother hasn't allowed her out of the house without her brother for many years, this includes everything from meeting a group at the café's to walking to the store at night. These rules are the same for all female members of her extended family. Every night she stays at home and watches her brothers go out. She is denied the independence that Americans associate with adolescence. None of the younger women (age 19-23) I have spoken too can drive whereas all the young men can. Part of the reason for this is high price of a license (500 d) but the greater reason is separate world of young men and women.
In the west a child slowly moves out from under their parents control with age. They either go to a university or move out and begin a job. In Tunisia adulthood is pushed back until after marriage. The children will live at home until then and when they live under their parent's roof they are held to strict rules. At the age of 19 and 20 women cant leave the house and they often have “secret boyfriends”. These boyfriends would be described as simply friends by western standards. They meet with their boyfriends about once a week in a public place. The Tunisian women I have spoken too have dated their boyfriends for over a year and they have never experienced a long kiss. This is something that should be saved for marriage. Last night my host sister, her two cousins and I went out to a café. During our stay she noticed some of her friends from school walk in the door. She went over to the group and talked to them a while and when she returned she was grilled by her male cousin aka chaperone. This grilling was killing me, it took all of my self control not to yell at him that is was none of his business if his cousin spoke to a boy, she was 19 and had to start making her own choices. This was our chaperone whom wouldn't even let us three girls get coffee alone. I sat in silence for a while and let my American values sulk for the moment, watching the other Tunisian young women (some around 14-16) smoke and chat with men, I discovered that my culture shock was made much worse by living with such a conservative family.
When my host Grandmother was married she never saw her husband until after the wedding. This was in the 1950's the same time my grandparents would go out for drinks and dancing (something that my host sister and cousin have never done). Its only natural that the nature of physical relationships “progressed” more slowly than those in the west.
Living with a family in nonwestern culture has shattered my mental conceptions of the world over and over again. Living with no other Americans is very difficult for travel and often very lonely but I am thankful for it, not for the language aspect but for the fact that I truly am living a new life instead of taking a vacation.

Me: I've always thought that I was conservative when it comes to relationships but I guess I'm kinda a tramp.
Cousin: (laughs) Welcome to the family.

Culture Shock- Bathrooms

(Warning this update may be more than anyone wants to know.)
I have a dirty confession to make. I haven’t showered in two weeks.

My host family doesn’t have a shower just a deep bathtub. I haven’t taken a bath in around 12 years and it took me a while to get used to bathing again. Now I’ve grown to love my baths, they supply a wonderful escapism. My family only has one full bathroom and another small toilet in a cleaning closet of the side of the balcony. This smaller bathroom intimidates me and I try to avoid it.

Going to the bathroom when traveling is often part of the adventure, maybe too much of an adventure in Tunisia. What is considered a clean bathroom is nothing like the states. For example, last night I went to a concert in the nations finest opera house. While the architecture (French) was stunning, the restroom was tiny with no soap and broken toilets.

All of this pales in the face of my mortal enemy….the hose.
Tunisian’s do not use toilet paper. Instead each toilet is equipped with a hose. I know I am not alone in thinking that wet does not equal clean and well…maybe I should just leave this topic here all I have to say is Mom, that Charmin to-go has been a lifesaver.

School Days

Today is the last day of the first full week of school. Our teacher is a nice guy but class is challenging. I guess I forgot how hard Arabic is. Thankfully most of the class is at about the same level except my spelling is way behind everyone else (what a surprise). I also find it exhausting to study Arabic due to the fact that I get overloaded with the language every second.

Tonight I will be going to a cultural Tunisian music concert. Its part of the many Ramadan festivals and should be a great show.

The picture shows my school. Its the Language institute of the University. In Tunisian colleges every major has its own building for example music or telecommunications. These mini-schools are scattered all over the city. I've meet a lot of amazing Tunisian students so far. Today we met a great group of people who told met over and over how much they love America and how it is their dream to visit their. We Americans don't realize how blessed we are. So many of us hate America but we have never traveled beyond the western world. My friend was trying to tell the students why she hates America and they asked her where she would rather live. She replied with she hates America but enjoys living there. The Tunisian students told her that they could not understand the difference between the two. Tunisia is not a democracy, they don't have many of the freedoms that we abuse.
America is by no means perfect but we need to respect what we have and peacefully work to let others enjoy those freedoms.

Ramadan Culture Shock

As you may or may not know Sunday was the first day of the holy month of Ramadan. It is a lunar month measured from crescent moon to crescent moon. During the daylight all Muslims fast from food, water, tobacco and sex. The reason behind the fast is to feel as the poor feel. I think this is a wonderful idea and I am in awe that the entire nation unites under Ramadan. All the restaurants are closed during the day and the superettes open at four to give people time to shop. Everyone one gets off of work at two, at which they rush home and sleep. Its scary to be stuck in the crazy traffic, all the workers rushing home to sleep. After a certain point in the day the streets are deserted. Then at around 7:30 everyone breaks the fast. The entire family comes together every night. We usually go to my host Grandmothers house. She doesn’t speak a word of English but I’m pretty much in love with her. She points at me and says “Binty Binty” (daughter, daughter) and then kisses me and holds my hand (Tunisians great by kissing each other on both cheeks. I have just now gotten the hang of this). We eat in her lovely home, which is about 15 minutes away. The food is traditional Ramadan fare. For example today we had eggplant with meat and cheese. Tunisian meals consist of many courses and during Ramadan they always have Briq as one of the courses. It’s a egg fried in a pastry shell, the yolk remains runny and you suck it out. Sounds gross but its pretty much my new favorite food, although I try to only eat half of mine cause I’m pretty sure its 100% fat. After the meal the family watches some TV and plays cards. I learned a new game called “Scurba”. Slim got a little frustrated teaching me cause I’m so bad but its fun anyway. Then everyone heads home and goes to bed around one or two, ready to wake up at five and have a huge breakfast before starting the day.
I was going to try to join the fast but my family won’t let me. They tell me its too hot not to drink water. I’m pretty sure Selwa’s main goal is to get me so fat I need to by two tickets back on the plane. But don’t worry too much I’ve figured out a system. I eat breakfast in the morning (Coffee, Juice, dates and weird toast with Nutella) and then I don’t eat until night but I tell Selwa I ate at school. She’s wise to me however and sulks whenever I turn down food. I feel bad but it must be done or to quote my host cousin Slim “your family wont recognize you when you come back.”

Picture V 2.0

Dougga = Love. This is the temple of Jupiter.


And the second picture is my first view of Tunisia. The busy streets of Tunis from my hotel room.

Thank you everyone for commenting. I like to know who reads this. If anyone has any questions please ask me and I will do my best to answer them.

Picture time!

I dont have much time but I will try to post some pictures.
The frist is my Host family (Donia, Selwa and Meki). The second one is me being a huge nerd.

I can only post a few du to slow internet.




Oh and Olivia guess what I watched today? The Tunisian version of Deal or No Deal. Pretty much it was the best thing ever. They chose random members of the audience to open the shoe-boxes which contain the dollar amounts. Mixed in with the amounts of money are animals you can win (for example the man today won a rabbit). When you knock off a small number music will play and everyone dances. If you knock off a large number the evil laugh from triller plays and if you lose everything taps plays. SO FUNNY. I can't even explain how much fun I was having watching that with my host family.

And final Mamok Ramadan everyone! Today was the first day of Ramadan, more on that later

Culture Shock- weddings

I am going to try to write mini culture essays every once and a while so you at home (or in Scotland or Italy) can understand a little more about this country where I will live the next three months.


In Tunisia weddings* take 6 days. Three of which are just for the henna. The actual day of the wedding begins with the immediate family walking the couple up to a pair of solid silver chairs where they will sit for the majority of the wedding. The whole family comes women wearing long dress and men wearing modern suits. The women stand in circles and dance, men will not dance (Rather like Americans). The bride wears an enormous white dress. It is embroidered by hand and takes a full year to make. For this reason the dress is rented for a price of 30000 dinear (2500 do. The dress comes in two pieces a full skirt and a bra like top that shows a little of the stomach. The brides hair has jewels and a tiara with veil. The hair costs around 700 to style. The groom wears a western black suit. They exchange rings at this reception. It looks like a great deal of fun and my host mother says if im lucky i will go to one before I leave.

* All this information was taken from a home movie of my host brothers wedding.

Everyone I am Alive!

Sorry that this is the first time that I have written. I am in the "America-Middle east educational center" it’s the only place with fast enough internet that I can log on to blogger. So far I haven’t found a way to upload pictures but don't worry I have a ton!

Tunis= Worst culture shock of all time.

I arrived at 215 Friday morning (I left Tuesday at 2). When I awoke I found my self in busy downtown Tunis. I feel overwhelmed every time I go there because it is always crowded, loud and hustlers are everywhere. I stayed there for one day visiting the world famous "Cite Bou Sied" and drinking delicious Tunisian tea with pine nuts in it.

The next day I was taken to my host family. I was one of 3 people out of 18 that where picked to live alone with their host family (don't ask me why). This was/is intimidating. I live in a small apartment in a suburb of Tunis. I live with Meki my host father, Selwa my host mother and Donia my host sister. I think they thought I spoke more Arabic than I do (which is about none) because they speak no English. This makes things extra challenging. The first night they had a huge welcome dinner with 25 family members there (In Tunis all the family lives very close just like Chicago). We ate fish.

And I mean the whole fish with the head still on it. Scary but tasty. Selwa stuffed me until I was hurting with bread, soup and fish.
The next day we when to the ancient city of Carthage. Now I know I’m a nerd because whenever I go to a very old historical place I get so excited that my belly aches. So long story short I was in nirvana and took way too many pictures.
The next day we went to the American embassy and today I went to this center. Class starts Thursday and Ramadan starts on Sunday (more on that later).

I miss everyone but I am finally getting used to living in Tunisia. (Kinda)
I don't know when I can write again but I promise to try at least once a week!

I made it... to Frankfurt...

I should have made it to Tunisia this morning at one but as you might have guessed that didn't work out. Due to poor weather my flight from Portland got pushed back three hours. This was enough that I completely missed my flight to Frankfurt (something United promised me would not happen). I then had to stand in line for two and a half hours to get my flight rebooked. I was going to have to spend the next 24 hours in the terminal but thankfully I have a huge family, some of which live in Chicago. My fathers cousin picked me up and let me stay at his beautiful home. Then in the morning more family came to see me and show me around the city. And by city I mean we never left the suburbs but we did get to see such landmarks as the house where my Father was born and Wolfies hot dog stand. All in all it a great way I could have spent the the layover. Then I hopped on eight hour flight to Frankfurt. I watched two movies (X-men and Over the hege) and sadly didn't sleep at all. Now of course I feel like passing out but I am only at hour 3 out of 12. You see I arrived here at 10 in the morning and I leave at 10 at night. Right now its not even one yet...longest layover ever. I'd try to get out and see the city but by no means can I miss my flight so I guess I just have to sit here until
A- I pass out.
B-The man on the Standy wheely thing with the embroidered horse shirt takes me away.
C- I die due to the rank fumes of duty free perfume and cigarettes.
D- I win a Porsche by buying duty free.
E- I go broke due to the price of internet.
Or F- I hold out for the next nine hours and make it to Tunisia.
Does anyone know the German word for Starbucks?

I leave in less then 24 hours!

I can't believe its already time to go. I've known about this for months but it still manages to feel like the trip has snuck up on me. The plan for tomorrow is leave portland around two, fly to Chicago before taking a plane to Frankfurt. Once I head to Frankfurt I have a nine hour layover. Yes, you read that right nine hours! I have no idea how I will pass the time. I don't plan on heading into the town because knowing me i'll get lost and miss my flight to Tunis.
Well its time to finish up my packing. I'll write to you all again once I arrive in Frankfurt.

T-Minus a month. (Kinda)

I leave for africa on the 12th of september. I don't know if I even realize that I am leaving yet. I feel like I am still in the planing and dreaming stage. I can't remember any arabic beyond hello and goodbye and I haven't even started thinking about packing.
But I have started this blog.
Instead of catching up on my arabic or something useful I am setting up my public blog. Oh well, I need a break. My commute home took two hours today!


Well ladies and gentleman without further ado let me present my travel blog- Katie in Tunisia.