Yesterday, I went out to check out the beach with another teacher. Can't wait 'til it gets warm enough to go swimming here!
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Friday, November 25, 2011
Tunis is....
Confusing!
I've been trying to figure out what to say about my impressions of Tunis thus far. Many of you know that I haven't had the easiest transition to life here. All of my energy over the past month has been divided between planning and delivering my lessons and trying to learn to navigate life in Tunis-and neither has been easy! After more than a month here, I finally feel like I have a handle on my classes. Don't get me wrong, I'm still spending a lot of time and effort to figure out lesson plans, but at least my classes seem to run in a somewhat predictable pattern. But as for navigating life here in Tunis, that is a completely different story! After more than a month, I still feel as clueless about life here as when I stepped off the plane. There's a pattern to life here that I just can't seem to see, much less understand and try to fit into. And it stresses me out-I think, "What's wrong with me, I've lived abroad before, why can't I just adjust to life here?"
I've been talking to some of the other teachers here and most have expressed similar feelings, though there seems to be a wide variety of theories as to why this is. One teacher suggested that after you've taught in the Far East, Tunis, by comparison, just doesn't really seem that exotic-it's more westernized. While I think this might be partly true, I find that Tunis doesn't quite fit completely into the westernized mode. But yet it doesn't quite fit into the eastern mentality either. It's very confusing.
Of course this is all on top of the language barrier, which some days can be challenging enough. I knew I would have difficulty with this from the beginning, knowing no French and very little Arabic (which doesn't matter since Tunisian Arabic is quite different from the little bit of Egyptian Arabic that I learned!) But my experience with Tunisians so far has generally been that, if you don't speak the languages, they're not so inclined to be helpful. Not that they're rude, just more...indifferent. (Though I know a few of the other teachers would beg to differ.) But that's my experience thus far. I don't know-maybe my "diva moments" in India have spoiled me too much and I expect too much special treatment as a foreigner. (Though I must admit that it's nice to have some anonymity and not be constantly stared at when walking down the street!)
Anyway, those are my mussings after a little over a month. Who knows? Maybe (hopefully?) by the end of this contract I'll have figured out the pattern of life here and won't even recall feeling this way!
I've been trying to figure out what to say about my impressions of Tunis thus far. Many of you know that I haven't had the easiest transition to life here. All of my energy over the past month has been divided between planning and delivering my lessons and trying to learn to navigate life in Tunis-and neither has been easy! After more than a month here, I finally feel like I have a handle on my classes. Don't get me wrong, I'm still spending a lot of time and effort to figure out lesson plans, but at least my classes seem to run in a somewhat predictable pattern. But as for navigating life here in Tunis, that is a completely different story! After more than a month, I still feel as clueless about life here as when I stepped off the plane. There's a pattern to life here that I just can't seem to see, much less understand and try to fit into. And it stresses me out-I think, "What's wrong with me, I've lived abroad before, why can't I just adjust to life here?"
I've been talking to some of the other teachers here and most have expressed similar feelings, though there seems to be a wide variety of theories as to why this is. One teacher suggested that after you've taught in the Far East, Tunis, by comparison, just doesn't really seem that exotic-it's more westernized. While I think this might be partly true, I find that Tunis doesn't quite fit completely into the westernized mode. But yet it doesn't quite fit into the eastern mentality either. It's very confusing.
Of course this is all on top of the language barrier, which some days can be challenging enough. I knew I would have difficulty with this from the beginning, knowing no French and very little Arabic (which doesn't matter since Tunisian Arabic is quite different from the little bit of Egyptian Arabic that I learned!) But my experience with Tunisians so far has generally been that, if you don't speak the languages, they're not so inclined to be helpful. Not that they're rude, just more...indifferent. (Though I know a few of the other teachers would beg to differ.) But that's my experience thus far. I don't know-maybe my "diva moments" in India have spoiled me too much and I expect too much special treatment as a foreigner. (Though I must admit that it's nice to have some anonymity and not be constantly stared at when walking down the street!)
Anyway, those are my mussings after a little over a month. Who knows? Maybe (hopefully?) by the end of this contract I'll have figured out the pattern of life here and won't even recall feeling this way!
Friday, November 18, 2011
Dinars and Sense
Learning the money of another country is the one of the first and most obvious difficulties when travelling. Nothing makes you feel more like a foreigner than standing at a register to pay for something small and having to turn over each and every coin to identify its worth. If you're like me, you are probably imagining that the clerk wants nothing more than to reach over grab the correct change out of your hand to speed the process along!
Here in Tunisia, I've found it even more difficult than usual and I think it's because they use 3 decimal places here instead of 2. The Tunisian unit of money is the dinar. That is broken up into millimes. One hundred millemes is expressed in decimals as 00,100 (they use a comma instead of a decimal point) and there is a 100 millime and 500 millime coin. Then there are 50 millime, 20 millime and 10 millime coins. (I haven't seen anything smaller, so I'm not sure exactly why there are 3 decimal places; I just know there are.)
Now 3 decimal places instead of 2 might not seem like a big deal, so let me try to explain this by giving an example. On my last trip to the grocery store, the total bill was 18090. (It shows up with no decimal places on the screen.) My brain automatically supplies the decimal as 180.90, and then has to convert it to 18.090. Then I have the normal "foreigner" experience of trying to sift through the change in my hand.
I know by the end of my time here, I'll be handing out change with no problem, but right now it's just one big thing that constantly makes me feel like I stick out as a foreigner. Well...that and the inability to speak either Arabic or French, but I'll save that for another post...
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Out & About in Menzah
Pictures from my neighborhood:
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| Cite' Emir: My landmark for the taxi drivers |
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| A normal street scene |
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| Normally it's not this cloudy, it's usually blue skies |
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| Overlooking Tunis from Ennasser |
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Home Sweet Hut
I know everyone has been dying to see pictures of my new home, so here are a few to start you off...
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| My kitchen/dining room |
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| The patio |
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| The bathroom |
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| The bedroom half |
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| Living room half |
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