Pictures of Casablanca

If you're expecting something from Humphrey Bogart's time, you are not in the right blog. I've recently bemoaned the fact that my street address has not yet been assigned in the new house we're leasing. I've been told that the municipality could take as long as five months to come around and assign the street addresses. What to do until then? How do I manage a 'change of address' for American mailing concerns until then? It was recommended that the landlord NAME the house. If the house has a name, then the address can resolve. Or so they have led me to believe.

I'm thinking "Casablanca". By the pictures, you can see why.

Now that the house is ready, I'm just chomping at the bit waiting for my household goods to arrive. We've been told the ship is in port. Hopefully, they'll have an update on our container and some kind of timeframe for the customs inspection. I can hope, right?

The house itself has some surprises. The landlords lived in it briefly while it was being built and completed. They cultivated a bunch of 'money plants' on each tread of the staircase. Imagine my surprise when they left them for me! I like houseplants. But I think I'll trim up some of those trailing vines so I don't feel like I'm living in a jungle.

The house is small by Tunisian standards. Since the culture embraces multi-generational living, most houses are really large. I didn't want to rent a house where DH and I would just 'bang around' like marbles in a huge place. And, let's face it, I'd fill the rooms with furniture. That's how I roll. Then, when we left and never had a house that big again, I'd be stuck with a lot of furniture...

So, I shopped carefully for a small place and new construction was the ONLY way to accomplish this. Apparently, I'm not the only ex-pat looking for a few less square meters to keep clean. This house has five bedrooms, or four and an office. Two of them would barely support a twin bed. I don't need more than three bedrooms, so this works out for me.

The outside is white and Sidi Bou Said blue. Inside, color is concentrated in the kitchen and bathrooms.
The kitchen is shiny red. Luckily I love red. It will clash crazily with all my purple kitchen stuff, but who cares? It's a rental.

There are three bathrooms upstairs. One is brown and yellow predominantly. You can't see it in this picture, but they have very carefully painted the ceiling to match those yellow tiles inset in the walls. Canary yellow ceiling which matches the globe on the light dangling there. I hesitate to think what my makeup might appear like when I've applied it in that room. I foresee having to open the window for daylight a lot.

The other bathroom is yellow and orange--to include a tiled orange ceiling. Very mod. I'm thinking white towels... because, really, you can't go wrong with that, right?

Upon seeing the photo of the guest suite bathroom, my very dear friend Vangie said that all she could think was "Oh Behave!" with her Austin Powers accent. It is a little mod, isn't it? I'm afraid that voice will be echoing in my head every time I go into this bathroom for a while. "Do I make you randy?" Meh...

The house is two floors, also atypical of Tunisian construction, I schlepped up four flights of stairs looking at some of the houses we turned down. We have a large open living area that looks out over the pool, a small enclosed dining area, and a small kitchen.It's not a matter of 'will my furniture fit', it's a matter of 'how will it look in this space?' or 'will it fit in a way that makes sense?' I'll take pictures after I get us moved in and you can tell me if I did okay. We're going to have to invest in some rugs and carpets. We have miles of marble floors and the house echoes now.

I can't wait to settle into this place. Our landlords, Hammadi and Fatma, have been very kind. Their daughter, who's attending medical school, translated for them. They assured us that we were to treat this as our home. Do whatever we liked, make improvements, paint, whatever. Very nice. It's reassuring to know that I can make holes in the walls to hang curtains and pictures and not worry about the damage left behind. DH will point out that we've left every place better than we found it, and he's absolutely right. We're dream renters. I've got to keep reminding myself of that. I have a ton of pictures on Facebook. If you want to see something specific, let me know and I'll post the pics.

--Sandee Wagner

My Happy Place

Today is the day that we meet the landlords at our new home, do a quick walk through and then get the complete set of keys to the place. Our new landlords, Hammadi and Fatma, are very nice people. They have already told us that if we want to make any changes to the place to go ahead and do so. According to them, "this is your house now!"

I find that a refreshing attitude. Not that I'm going to paint all the walls wild whacky bilious colors... but if I wanted to, I could!

We got a single set of keys a week ago. We've been running over to the house every couple of days to check on the progress of the work being done. Today, the finish work is ongoing and the cleaners are going to do a final deep clean.

Then it's our empty house. Just waiting for our personal effects to clear customs.

I've been waiting for the landlord to tell us the complete mailing address. I wanted to get it down exactly before I shared it with our friends and family. The house is new construction so it doesn't have a street number yet. Today I asked how long it takes before the street number is assigned... guess what they said? About five months before the municipality gets around to giving all the new houses in the neighborhood their street numbers. This is a far cry from the US where the plots in a builders' neighborhood have street addresses before anything else happens.

We are going to live in a neighborhood/town called Gammarth. You say that Ga-MART. Very French. We tell people we live near Gammarth Plage, which means Gammarth beach. Even the Arabic script on the signs looks like a Happy Face! Very upper crusty, isn't it? Doesn't sound like a place that can't be bothered to assign street addresses.

At this point, I'm considering doing a permanent change of address to DH's office address and not even try to get mail at the house. Seems like a better bet all around. I KNOW that mail gets delivered there every day.

We are just that much closer to being out of this hotel and into a new home. Keep your fingers crossed for me. I'm hoping that customs doesn't choke on my household goods and really keep us waiting!

--Sandee Wagner

Bricorama, Part II

We went back to Bricorama today with someone who speaks French/Arabic. We found some shelves there that we wanted, but they wouldn't fit in our car. To set up delivery, we figured we needed some help, so one of the gals from Bert's office offered to go with us to help translate. We managed to get some shelving for the garage AND to capture the pictures I missed last time.
I wanted to show you the solid concrete, lamb shaped barbecue pit. From the front, it looks like a mild mannered sheep. Then, out the side, WHAM! Slide out grill.

If the irony of barbecuing lamb on a sheep shaped grill hasn't yet tickled your funny bone, then surely the gazelle shaped one will make you laugh. I don't know why someone wants a concrete animal for their garden. DH has always wanted one of those big buffalos, but I've held him off.
A gazelle is an animal that is at home on the African plains, the Serengeti. Why that seems like something to immortalize and put in your backyard is completely beyond my comprehension. But here you see it, almost life sized, in its natural coloring. The artist has gone to great lengths to make sure the detail is right, from the curly horns right down to the tiny hooves. And then WHAM! Slide out grill.
So instead of going to the zoo, or some kind of drive through adventure park, you can enjoy the wildlife right in your own backyard! Plus, if your gazelle is made of concrete, then no animal was harmed in its production, right? I don't know why I find the idea of barbecuing inside the chest cavity of an edible animal funny, but I find it HYSTERICAL...

It appears to me that the Tunisians love cats--there's some cat worship in the ancient religions, and the holdover in North Africa is that cats are like cows in India... no one harms them. Pheasants (yes, those birds were all pheasants--I asked) are birds you can keep in the garden with no fear of 'hunting season' attracting rednecks with shotguns. And noone finds irony in making a cooker in the shape of animals. They appear to not like dogs very much. In the signage department, I found one sign that made me laugh. I'm sure there's a real use for this one, but the "No Weiner Dogs" sign called to me. In case you were wondering, the 5.99 TD is about $4.00 USD. I don't know what other treasures I'll find at Bricorama. I need to not go back until that Chow-Chow puppy is long gone. He's a cutie, and so Norm-like.

--Sandee Wagner

Happy Christmas Eve!

We got a great surprise today... while we were watching a movie in our room, there was a knock on the door. The hotel management sent up a hand signed invitation inviting us to attend a buffet dinner especially for Christmas Eve. How nice is that?

First came the scrolled letter tied with a big fat red satin bow. Then about thirty minutes later, the catering manager presented us with a special desert plate and wished us "Happy Christmas!"

I peeled the plastic off so you can see the yummy goodness.
In one dark chocolate shell are some chocolate covered nuts. In the other one, there are freshly made 'macaroons' which are more like meringue cookies. They just melt away on your tongue and they've flavored differently and colored them in all pretty pastel colors. Backing up the presentation is a dark chocolate bar made with a
Greek key pattern. They had it standing up vertically to keep the plastic from crushing the cups. And as the base for the whole thing is a honeyed hard shell candy circle. Really! The plate is edible!! Not the white china one, the base is though.

Amazing, really. I think it was very nice of them to go all out for Christmas when it's not even their holiday. What a nice gift on this Christmas Eve.

--Sandee Wagner

Bricorama

We knew there had to be one, it was just a matter of finding it. And we finally did. The store in Tunis what most closely resembles a Home Depot or Lowe's is Bricorama. This store is situated right next to Tunis City which is the biggest mall/shopping center in all of Tunis.

DH and I made a pilgrimage to Bricorama looking for curtain rods. We know we have some in our household goods, but I was sure that we didn't have enough long ones for the windows in our new living/dining areas. So, we went to find curtain rods. And we found them. Checked that off our list.

But we also took time to look around and see what else was available in this store. No surprise that there is a lot of 'flat pack' furniture that gives an IKEA-like analog for inexpensive storage items. There was also the largest selection of 'build it to suit' closet systems I've ever seen. Which makes sense, because there are NO closets in any of the older homes. Everyone uses wardrobes here.

What I wasn't expecting was the livestock.

Probably, it's safe to say that I never expect live animals. Although they did have three puppies for sale (wildly overpriced in my experience) they did have the most interesting birds for sale.

This guy was a good looking bird. I have no idea what kind... whether you eat him or turn him loose in your garden as a pet. There were four or five very pretty birds in the cages, but I can't say whether they were pheasants or what. They did have long tail feathers and they were not at all chicken-like.

Another interesting device that I didn't snap a photo of were the concrete cookers. They have giant (life-sized) animal sculptures of sheep and other four legged mammals. They stand in your garden looking decorative. But they have a surprise! A drawer slides out that you can fill with charcoal or wood and set ablaze for a barbecue. I had to laugh. If the cooking surface hadn't been so small, I would probably have purchased one just for the 'conversation piece' value. Next time I go to Bricorama, I'll try to get pictures.

--Sandee Wagner

Just When You Think It's Safe...

I'm a hugger. I'll admit it. I'm kind of 'touchy feely'. My husband has even warned me that I'm too touchy for actual workplace standards. I own that. I see that not everyone is a hugger like me.

When you move to a new area, where you have no friends and acquaintances, that falls by the wayside. You have to build new relationships to get to the level where you feel comfortable hugging or touching.

But not the Europeans. They've brought touch into brand new meetings. In the US, my friends and I would call it an 'air kiss'. You lean in, press your cheek to their cheek and make kissy noises right at their ear. Any heavily made-up woman has done this at one point or another just to save their lipstick.

The Europeans have adopted this as a greeting, like Americans do handshakes. We reach out our right hand, expecting to have it firmly shaken, and they pull your upper body forward and press cheeks, making kiss-kiss. It takes a little getting used to. Even for a touchy feely person like me.

When I finally got used to it, we met a new guy. A Norwegian.

Now, I am not good at geography. I'd have to pull up a world map to figure out where most of these folks come from... I don't even think I could find Norway on the map without a lot of searching. I know it's north, has some Arctic Circle in its borders so that might help me locate his home.

This guy is urbane. Like a Bond villain. He wears ascot ties and speaks seven different languages. His parents were ex-pats so he was raised all over the world and it shows. He enjoys conversation and fine wine. I like him. He's friendly.

When I 'went in' for my European kiss-kiss, he threw yet another kink into my routine. The Norwegians add a third kiss. That means you push your head to the left, air kiss, right, air kiss, then BACK to the left and do it again. You think that didn't throw me off my game? Well, it did.

At this point, I just want to wrap my arms around his neck and press my body up against him and surprise the snot out of him... Who makes up the rules to these social conventions? I just laughed and he explained to me that the Norwegians add in the third kiss. He smiled and did the cosmopolitan gentleman thing to ease us out of an awkward situation. He's my new best friend.

Yesterday, one of the Americans I met at the embassy ran by to pick something up at my hotel. I ran downstairs and handed off the package and was surprised when she pulled me into a hug. She wished me Merry Christmas and said she'd see me after they get back from their family Christmas celebration in the Alps. Yeah. I know! Skiing in the alps. It's close enough that a family can plan something like that from here. Go figure.

Anyway, as I'm navigating the deep waters of how to get along in North Africa, I'm finding myself struggling to figure out the conventions. When to hug, when to kiss, when to shake hands. DH told me just to shake hands and if they want to air kiss, they'll tug you in. Men never have to balance on high heels, they just don't get it. I don't want to be 'that guy' who isn't friendly, or doesn't give the correct or appropriate greetings. So, I'll continue to try to work this out. Give the Europeans the kiss-kiss, the Americans the hug, and the Norwegian guy the kiss-kiss-kiss.

Try to keep up. There'll be a quiz.

--Sandee Wagner

Secret Tour of the Medina

I would show you pictures... but it's a closely guarded secret. Not really. I forgot to put my memory card back in the camera so when I went out today, it was 'camera non-functional'. I'll try hard to give you my impressions and paint a picture for you by stealing images off the Internet. Thank you Google Image Search.

First, I've been to the Medina before. One of my friends took me down there almost the first week I was in Tunis. We laughed at the merchants who start shouting in the language they THINK you are, and then ripple through a bunch of languages hoping that you'll turn your head when they say something in your tongue. Apparently, we two strawberry blondes look Russian. Or there was a Russian tour in town. Either way, they started with some slavic sounding language before trying English with us.

When we went to the Medina, we entered at the mini Arch de Triumph called the Porte de France. We walked down one crowded alley, crossed over, then worked our way back down toward the main entrance. We wandered for about an hour, then had a nice cup of tea before heading back to the hotel.

This trip, we had a native guide. I would tell you her name, but I'm sure I can't spell it, let alone pronounce it. She was adorable. She was raised in Tunis and lived downtown, next to a metro train stop, and across the street from the Medina walls.

The Medina was the original 'walled city' that used to have the doors closed at nightfall. It has enormous block walls that must be 15 feet thick. I don't know if the walls are intact completely around the Medina, but I'm pretty sure you could follow them around. And it's big. With our guide, we wandered the Medina for three hours and never back tracked a single step. I had no idea it was so big. Then when we left in taxis, she had them skirt the Medina so we could get a good view of the exterior wall, and see the scale of the place.

She took us down shortcuts and alleyways I would never have attempted alone. Or in a group. Or armed with uzis. She showed us where the Tunisians shop. Where the goods are not marked up for tourists. She even helped bargain and bartered with the merchants when one of the tour members wanted something specifically. She knew the best vendors for every item and steered us to the best deals, the known values and made sure we didn't get ripped off.

Then when we were tired out, she took us home to her house where she fed us lunch. She served us cold drinks, local marinated olives, fresh bread and harissa while she prepared lunch. She made classic lubilubi sandwiches with chickpeas, a Tunisian quiche that doesn't have a crust, and even a homemade chocolate cake. That's right. After doing us the favor of shepherding our wandering crew all through the backstreets of the Medina and showing us all the secret places to shop... she took us home and cooked for us, served us lunch and made us feel like welcomed guests.

Have I mentioned how nice everyone is in Tunisia?

--Sandee Wagner

Attention to Detail

DH and I have been furniture shopping. A lot. We've been looking for something in Tunisian furniture stores that is as rare as the Snipe or Nauga--bookcases.

I learned the two French words that might come in handy: bibliotheque and etagere. Between that and hand signals with "livres" sprinkled in, I was hoping we would be okay. In Tulsa, I had built in bookshelves in almost every room. Although, I severely limited the amount of books that did come with us to Tunis, I still have more books than I have furniture to hold them.

We tried looking online (this whole country has not embraced the Internet for business or selling) and were stymied. I did find that there would be an Expo on January 28th through February 6th that would include all furniture sellers, makers and importers. Looks like it will be worth a walk through... but I digress.

DH and I went into probably 25 storefront furniture stores looking for bookshelves. One of the most interesting was in a building that included this hand painted ceiling. My little digital camera could not possibly get you enough resolution to see this vaulted creation, but I tried to take several shots to capture the glory of this colorful creation.

The reason I think it was hand painted was twofold. First, there was a low row of edging that I could see, and I followed it across the railing. It really appeared to have hand painted, almost tole painted details.

If you look closely at this detail, you can see that the green 'leaves' are not all perfectly similar. I do believe this is a lot of hand painted panels applied to the ceiling and walls, if not completely hand painted in situ. I can assure you that the furniture stores in this office building did not carry furniture worthy of their lobby ceiling. That's for sure. Well, maybe the shiny gold tufted leather chaise lounge.

Part of this ceiling detail that is hard to discern in these crappy photos is the 3-D wooden details. There were all kinds of little wooden pieces that were raised, like gingerbread, and painted with in excruciating detail.

In this picture, you can see how there are corbels lined up along this ceiling elevation, each painted out and detailed into the overall design. It was glorious. The bright colors were a folk art dream and we found ourselves on the landing just looking up, trying to take it all in. I'm sure the pictures do not do it justice.

What's most interesting is that this is a very modern office building. Not more than four years old. There is no detail or construction on the outside that says anything other than 'modern office block'. When you walk inside and find this in the ceiling, it is the only paean to a bygone age of hand craftsmanship that is alive and well in Tunisia.

I'll keep my eyes open to see if I can find any more of this.

--Sandee Wagner

Marketing Meant for Me

Well, since it's Saturday, we made our weekly pilgrimage to the grocery store, Carrefour. As we walked into the entrance, what did we see? A Chocolate Party. Now, I'm not saying that all Tunisians 'get' me. But the folks at Carrefour have my number. I AM their demographic.

The Fete du Chocolat was right up at the front entrance and was a huge sale on chocolate candies and food.
I'm not kidding. Every one of these huge floor boxes was filled to capacity with candy bars bundled for sale. Most were buy three get the fourth for free, or buy two get the third for free. It was an extravaganza of chocolate proportions. And after seeing Magolla making her homemade truffles on Facebook, with her blow by blow descriptions of each filling, I was due a little chocolate.

So, DH and I stocked up. We no longer have to pay mini-bar prices for a chocolate bar when we've had a tough day. Now, we just reach into our bag of goodies and help ourselves to some chocolately goodness.

--Sandee Wagner

Beginning To Look A Lot Like...

Here in Tunisia, since the country is 99% Muslim, they don't really celebrate Christmas. But our Christian holiday lines up nicely with their New Year's celebration, so they can decorate festively.

I mentioned that The Golden Tulip Hotel had some glamorous decorations and the next day when I stepped down into the lobby of Hotel Les Berges du Lac - Concorde, my home away from home, the decorations were UP! The color scheme of the hotel's decor is purple and silver. DH has admired it excessively. The first picture is the hall table and mirror that sits right at the base of the stairs. This was my first flash that something was beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

The tree in the lobby is not as big as the one at The Golden Tulip. You have no sense of scale here, and the trees are a little scrubby, but this tree is about one third of the size of the big one at the other hotel. At first, they had it in the center of the lobby by the front desk. It had a big white fluffy skirt and a bunch of shiny purple wrapped 'gifts' as decorations around the bottom of it. When we left for dinner last night, there were a couple of kids picking up all the boxes, shaking them and trying to tear the paper off of them. When we returned from dinner, the tree had been moved.

This morning, I was glad to see it erected at the edge of the lobby area, but you can see that the bottom is just wrapped up in the white stuff and no attempt to repeat the gifts at the bottom has been made.

The tree is decorated with fairies instead of angels. I'm sure there's some deeply philosophical reason why that was preferable for this Muslim run hotel; however, I find I can squint my eyes and imagine them as angels.
The other prevalent decoration is shiny silver mesh bags of Jordan almonds. I'm nearer the land of Jordan than I've ever been in my life, so this shouldn't surprise me. I find the overall affect of the tree to be very Merry, indeed.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas here in my home now.

The front desk has a lovely ornament made by layering those round mirrors and layers of ball ornaments. It's a beautiful touch for the Carrerra marble front desk. Notice the heart shaped ornament placed on top. Not the traditional thing for a Christmas decoration, but I can see how a sparkly purple heart would make this arrangement.
By the front entrance, there's a smaller tree decorated in the same color scheme. It's got a lot of white lights on it and they flash on and off, getting progressively more and more lit. So it starts off flashing a few, then it doubles, then triples, until all the lights flash. Then it starts over again. I found myself just staring at the sparkling lights. I wonder how long those gifts will last under this smaller tree before some kid starts bouncing them around and tearing off the foil?

They've made an effort to decorate the whole place. In the bar, where no alcohol is served, each small table has a candle centerpiece that ties in with the lobby decor.

I'm very impressed with all the decorations. The person who takes care of the lobby floral arrangements obviously did the whole presentation. Every place that usually sports some kind of flower arrangement now has a 'Christmassy' one in its stead. All shiny. Lots of purple. Not a Santa in sight. No Star of Bethlehem, no creche. No red and green. But I'll take what I can get when it comes to Holiday Cheer. This has elevated my mood. Now, I need to sit in the lobby and see if they've got any holiday music playing. Because I'm pretty tired of that one Alicia Keyes CD they are wearing out.

--Sandee Wagner

Christmas at the Tulip

About half of the ex-pats we know are staying in the hotel where we are located (which is near the office). The other half are staying in a big hotel in Gammarth called The Golden Tulip.

To welcome some new ex-pats to town, we drove up the hill to go have dinner with them in an Indian restaurant called Calcutta on the hotel grounds.

First surprise? The Golden Tulip is decked out for the holidays. This is not a Christmas tree like you're thinking. The kinds of pines in use in the US don't exist in this landscape. But they DID find a scrubby desert pine and 'top it' to use as a tree. I think it looks magical. You don't really get a idea of scale with this picture but this is a BIG tree. I'm pretty sure that lobby has 18' ceilings.

They took the time to create a 'Santa's workshop' of sorts to display some treats for guests. It was just nice to see a business going to this trouble for their guests. Les Berges du Lac - Concorde, where we are staying, has no holiday decor at all. It's pretty, don't get me wrong, it's just not festive for the holidays. I like birds of paradise and the lobby display is impressive. But it's not Christmassy, not at all.

Next surprise? The Calcutta restaurant was very VERY good. The head chef de cuisine, Mohammed ArshadHussain, invited us to try his restaurant and we were not disappointed. I had a wonderful Chicken Tikki Chaat as a starter. This finely minced cold salad had a marvelous kick. DH and I split an order and I chugged water trying to cool the heat! Then I ordered the Chicken Tikki Masala for the main course. The perfect spice, the perfect heat. It was tremendous. I'm not sure it was as good as my daughter in law's homemade Tikki Masala, but it sure came in a close second.

We really enjoyed the dinner. The company was interesting and engaging, and the food was yum! Come see me and I'll take you to this fine restaurant. Not sure whether or not the Tulip's decor will still be viewable, but the Calcutta's food will still be good.

--Sandee Wagner

Fun with Roadsigns

I have posted a few of the more troubling road signs I've discovered. I guess there are some folks who complain about the signage in the US. It's in English words (think "Do Not Pass" or "Not a Through Street" or "No Parking") and those can be very confusing to a non-English speaker. The US is a country of immigrants and yet we cling to our language.

Now that I'm on the other side of that equation, living as a non-native language speaker in a foreign land, I'm rethinking my stance on symbols and signage.

There was a professor at TAMU working on this when DH was getting his PhD. His whole field of endeavor was in trying to create a universal language of symbols for use worldwide in signage. I discussed it with him at a few faculty gatherings and he pointed out how useless some of our signs were... like the big H for hospital. We know it. We know hospital begins with an H and if we follow the blue H signs, we'll get to a hospital. But no foreigner knows our alphabet. So what's a better symbol for Hospital that all travelers, regardless of language, could recognize. He suggest a red cross. The Red Cross has internationalized that to indicate care, it would be recognizable to everyone.

But the problem is in adoption. All countries are in love with their own language and their own signage. His point? That's why the symbols should be limited to those few things that cross all borders and are important to all travelers. Airports, hospitals, motels and public transportation. Restrooms and information booths, clinics and big tourist areas. His idea? Create a hundred or so symbols that are internationally acceptable and then get everyone to adopt them. Really, it's the work of a lifetime. But he was hard at it when we left College Station.

Now, when I'm in an airport in France, I wish he'd been more successful. I look at the signage and understand only a fraction of it. When I drive through Tunis and look at the signs, I'm constantly wondering what the symbols mean.

A couple of them are understandable. A few took some time. The red circle with the big white minus sign for "One Way" is kind of intuitive. That didn't keep us from going the wrong way down a one way street a time or two.

Yesterday, we drove past the airport and I saw a sign for the first time as we zipped by. It showed a vehicle/car outline with a halo of orange or yellow jagged spears around it. (We were going too fast for a picture, but I might try the next time we head across the airport.) What does that mean? No car bombs? Exploding cars here? Beware of roadside bombs that might ignite your car? I have got nothing. We decided it couldn't mean "No car bombs" because it was missing either the red warning color or the circle slash that seems to have some similar meanings here.

I'll try to get a picture of the sign, but you guys tell me what you think such a sign might be stating. It was near the Air Freight portion of the airport, where a lot of trucks come and go. Maybe "don't stop on the verge when it's hot out or your car's exhaust will ignite the grass"?? I just don't know.

--Sandee Wagner

Shopping Foray with CLO

At the American Embassy in Tunis, they have Community Liaison Officers (CLO) whose jobs it is to make sure the personnel stationed here have fun outings and get exposure to the community. I don't know if that's in their actual job descriptions, but that's how they explained it to me.

One of the CLOs said that when folks have an idea for a trip, they email her and she sees if others are interested in the same outing, then she sets it up.

Today was a shopping trip. I didn't even ask where they were going shopping, I just said, "Yes!" There were three stops: a leather goods store; a jewelry store; and a small network of artisans who are all co-located in an area the folks call DenDen.

First stop was the leather goods store called Hayet Leather. There were shelves all around the showroom with display pieces. Purses, wallets, belts, backpacks and briefcases. There were even some home decor items like trays, boxes and umbrella stands. All the new items were displayed in an array of fun colors. You could take them down, open them up and examine every bit of them. If you decided you wanted an item, this little man went back into the back and got you a nice clean NEW one that hadn't been handled. All the embassy personnel were convinced that a lot of this leatherwork is shipped to Italy and sold by the designers there.

The prices were not 'rock bottom' but were very reasonable for the quality of the goods offered for sale. I could have spent a BUNCH of money. Quite a few of the women were buying stuff by the handful to take home to the states as Christmas gifts. It was fun to go with a group who helped spend your money--co-dependent shopping!

Our next stop was a local jewelry store called Tunisie Corail. And yes, if you are concerned about the plight of corral, you should not read any further. Apparently, it's not protected here in Tunisia. There was a lot of corral jewelry and beads. The woman who owned the shop made all the jewelry. She's very popular with the embassy crowd because if you want something a little different from something she's displayed... she'll custom make anything to your requirements.
She had a lot of very nice stones and beads. There were even some that I didn't recognize. There were some dark blue sandstone beads that were stunning. I've seen the orangish colored sandstone, which sparkles nicely, but the dark blue was exceptionally pretty. Only the fact that I don't wear navy blue (or much blue at all, come to think of it) kept me from leaving that shop with a necklace with matching earrings. Now that I think on it, it might have been nicer for Bert if I came home with something like that and just asked him to wrap it up for me for Christmas!

Our last stop of the day was a low building with lots of interconnected shops where different artisans worked. DenDen is what my friends called it, but I think that might be a nickname, nothing on any signage appeared to mirror that name. All the individual artists were there working and making their goods, and had shop space to sell them. I saw basket makers hand bending loops of cane, I saw metal workers hammering bowls and trays. I saw a lady hand weaving a traditional Tunisian rug. It was truly astounding. My favorite shop was a mosaic shop where guys were creating mosaic art and table tops from tiny squares of marble. Truly fascinating.

It was a fun shopping trip. I think the CLOs find more personnel interested in shopping when there is a gift giving occasion and the family members need to get out and shop. They announced that next Monday's trip will be downtown to the Medina and they promised a 'secret tour' of the real Medina. I can't wait.

--Sandee Wagner

Karoke, Tunis-style

I think I've mentioned that the whole area we're living in is dry. The Saudis put up the money for the development of this part of town, and in exchange, they required that all the businesses be alcohol free for 20 years or so. We keep some liquor in the room and tipple a little in the privacy of our room, but there is no drinking in public.

The bar downstairs makes gorgeous fruit drinks. I can't tell you how many times I've enjoyed a "Capisoda" wishing it had a shot of vodka in it. It might be worth it to sneak down an airplane bottle of vodka and tip it in...

All the 'bars' in this area of time serve elaborate coffees and fruit juices. Imagine our surprise when we went into Cafe Cubana for some cuban food and found that Saturday night is Karaoke Night. The Cafe Cubana is decorated in a bright Caribbean color scheme with the addition of all kinds of writing on the walls. On weeknights, with your bill, you are given a marker and invited to sign the walls. We've left messages on one of our past trips to the restaurant.
Nothing is quite like it seems around here. I explained to the Scottish couple who accompanied us that everything looks right, but it's just a bit off. Not quite right. It looks normal but there will be one thing that is just off enough to make it not quite taste like it should. The fajitas are served in a cone like bread that is NOT a tortilla. It's a flatbread made in the Middle Eastern style. It looks like a tortilla but has none of the softness or 'give'. Ditto the stuff that LOOKS like sour cream. It's not.

So, it shouldn't have surprised me when other things about this cafe appeared one way, and seemed another.Take Karaoke Night. In the US, you'd have the after work crowd of adults. They'd drink a few drinks to get loose, or use it as 'dutch courage'. In this cafe in Tunis, there is no alcohol. I expected to be exposed to a bunch of the local Arabic rock and roll. I hear it on the radio all the time. There's quite a lot of it. There's a whole 'MTV like' station on TV that is full of the local singers and their music videos. Not what I'm used to, but I recognize it as popular music. I steeled myself for a bunch of these teens wailing away to that music... and boy, was I wrong.

The DJ controlling the karaoke played the songs selected by the teens (none of whom were drinking age) and they were ALL US rock and roll hits. The biggest crowd pleaser was "Zombie" by the Cranberries.If you are familiar with this song, then you can imagine the repetitious IEIEIEIE that comes at the ends of the refrain "...ZombieIEIEIE" The kids were howling along with this lyric. That song transcended all language. Although this picture is not great, I was trying to show the monitor on the wall that showed the lyrics to sing... the lyrics are an English song. The singers are not English speakers, at all. Beyond their pronunciation, they actually miss song phrasing and connotation that a native speaker would get, even if unfamiliar with the tune.

Once again, not quite what I expected. Tunis keeps surprising me.

--Sandee Wagner

Holiday Bazaar

Today the US Government Employees Recreation Association (USGERA) in Tunis hosted a Holiday Bazaar. They have a tent-like, semi-permanent structure that they filled with vendors selling their handicrafts. There was some gorgeous local pottery, several artists with oil paintings, jewelry makers, clothing and wrought iron decorative home accents.

The club area served lunch allowing folks to come peruse the vendor tables on their lunch hour and still get something to eat. Friday was Tikki Masala day.
So aside from getting lunch, we wandered the tables and looked at the very fine local Tunisian handicrafts.

There were rugs of all colors. The style is very much like Navajo rugs, with every single design element having some kind of meaning. I've been told to research the meanings carefully before investing in a Tunisian rug. I didn't have the heart to tell the Tunisian advisor that I don't think they are soft enough to fill my house with... I want a Persian.

I bought two small leather wallets (hand made!) for about $4 each. You might think the choice of small leather coin purses was kind of random, but I find myself the lucky owner of Algerian money, Euros, Tunisian Dinar and American Dollars. My goal is to keep all the money in easily identified wallets and just grab the one for the country we're traveling to or through. That's my plan. And now I have the wallets to do it.

The Holiday Bazaar was a boon to the Americans working at the Embassy. They were able to come over on their lunch hour, do some Christmas shopping and get right back to work. I was told that USGERA does this about four times a year with different vendors each time. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?

--Sandee Wagner

What we use verbal language for...

Today I did a risky thing. I walked into a salon without speaking the language, pointed at my hair and trusted them to make me look okay.

The first time I walked into the salon, I manged to indicate an updo for the USMC Ball and got a very nice hairstyle. So this time, I made snip snip motions with my fingers at my bangs.

Then I sat down and trusted them to make me look good.

I ended up with a haircut that I would not have asked for on my own. I think it's probably a little more 'fashion forward' than I usually get. The jury is out about whether or not it will look good when I'm the one blowing it dry...

But I feel kind of empowered really. I faced a 'what's the worst that can happen' kind of situation. Don't they always say, "what's the difference between a good haircut and a bad haircut? About two weeks!" I figured that the worst that could happen is something that would only last a short time.

So I walked in, made the crazy hand motions and forgot the outcome. Just trusted.

I guess that non-verbal language works as well as the vocal type. I got the hair cut. I don't look too wild. And none of us really understood each other.

--Sandee Wagner

Christmas Traditions

I couldn't find my English/French dictionary this morning when the maid cleaning my room started asking me about my little plastic Christmas trees. I tried to explain that we were going to be here--in the hotel--in Tunis for the holiday. We're not flying back to the states.

It got me to thinking about all the ways this holiday was not going to be routine. I will not be sending out Christmas cards. I normally use Christmas cards as an opportunity to catch up with all kinds of people from our past. Old military friends, some college buddies, and lots of family we don't see through the year. I write a newsletter, hand sign a stack of cards, and try to write a short personal greeting in every card. Most years, DH sits down with me and shares the work. He complains about the number of cards, the price of postage and the hassle of writing them out. Then I remind him that it's the only contact we have each year with a lot of those people. This year, I gave my family gift cards in Christmas cards, but those will be the only cards that go out this year. First, I don't have a return address yet. Second, I'm not sure what it would cost to mail a letter to the US. By this time next year, I'll probably have a better plan.

Generally, at this time of year, I am hip deep in some kind of Christmas craftiness or baking. I do some kind of gifts for the people who report to my husband (I always think bosses should give their employees nice presents, don't you?) And the Christmas cookie exchange has been a ubiquitous part of my holidays for the past few years. You make a big batch of your favorite Christmas treats, then you go and trade off with a bunch of other cooks and you come home with a huge variety of treats, instead of a bunch of a single kind. I love Christmas baking. I love the scents and sounds. I abhor fruitcake. You couldn't pay me to bake one of those, but otherwise, most of the holiday treats bring a smile to my face. This year, I don't even have access to a kitchen, let alone the supplies needed to bake traditional goodies. Margaret Golla, a writer friend of mine (and I use the word 'friend' loosely after this week), has been posting play-by-play updates on Facebook as she does all her holiday candy making. I'm so jealous I could spit.

While we were in Texas over Thanksgiving, we stayed a few nights with friends in Friendswood, TX. This guy is the holiday decorator of the family. He pulled down a huge supply of Santas, garlands, lights and wreaths and decorated their lovely home. In our family, that's my job. All except the outside lights, because I don't do ladders. We helped him out a bit, then enjoyed the festively decorated house and yard. This year, my holiday decorations are trapped in a 40 foot container motoring slowly across the ocean headed for Tunis. I didn't even realize this would bother me. But it does. A lot.

All these traditions are things I've done for years. Because I've always been in control of my surroundings and my schedule. I could schedule my evenings and weekends. I could make lists and plot and plan. But not this year. My life is in flux. I'm living out of suitcases and my holiday will be celebrated in a hotel room. Although some of the lacks make me a little sad, the holiday is still sacred. I will spend my holiday season imagining a young pregnant woman and her new husband trailing across this landscape to get to Bethlehem to register. As I look at my hotel room, I will imagine inns bursting at the seams and an exhausted family only too glad to take up space in the stable. As I look up into the night sky, I will imagine the star shining down, highlighting the miracle birth of Jesus.

I may be skipping all my traditional trappings, but Christmas is Christmas because of Christ's birth. And no amount of stuff, or absence of stuff can change that.

--Sandee Wagner