apartment searching and such

January 16th, 2007

Today was an interesting today. I got up around 7:45, planning to spend the day with the Potsdam students, who were organizing a visit to Carthage (a world heritage site). I had considered going to Larry’s Tunisian Arabic class (taught by the “White sisters,” some French nuns living in Tunisia), but I opted for the trip instead, since I like the students and the professors who are leading them (one is an expert on Arabic literature and knew her way around the site). So, I woke up, got dressed, and ran to withdraw more money (with the purchase of my cell phone I had used up my first withdrawal). By the way, Mom, no one uses traveler’s checks – ATM is much easier, so I’m going to save the traveler’s check for Luxembourg, maybe I can use them just to pay for housing there, we’ll see. Anyway, so I hurried back to the hotel and found the students sitting in the breakfast room; they are all very friendly, so I spoke to the girl, Shannon, who will be staying here through March (working at a Tunisian Woman’s Health Organization) about here homestay. After breakfast, instead of going straight to Carthage, we went instead to the Médina to visit a music institute; apparently all of the students have to give mini-reports as they go along, and a student named Hillary gave a report about the music institute (first a sentence in Arabic, then two sentences in English, so not quite a ‘report’, but w/e). We then headed to Carthage, where we purchased lunch from Monoprix and ate first on the steps of the supermarket, then on some steps by the sea; I bought a salade mechouia (tomatoes, garlic, small slivers green vegetables I didn’t recognize – spinach maybe, garlic, lots of olive oil, and then a small amount of chicken or tuna on top), which was too spicy, some ‘table bread,’ and a few small puff pastries type things filled with meat (they didn’t have any filled with vegetables). Asma, the niece of Kacem (the man whose house I went to for dinner my first night here), had looked through the newspaper for me, looking for places where I could stay, and we called a few of them while sitting there. Oddly enough, through the rest of the day and today (the 17th), I received calls from people I didn’t know, who were returning calls Asma had made to them. “I received a call from this number they would say,” etc., but more on that later.

So, with the Potsdam student, I visited the Parc National and saw Roman Ruins, including the Roman Baths; we even walked down inside the cellars, which heated the water to be used. Afterwards, we made our way to Byrsa hill, where we saw Punic/Phoenician ruins, which the Romans built over. I also visited the Mosaic museum and looked at clay lamps made by the Phoenicians, Africans, Romans, even Vandals (of course they had the most simplistic, least decorative design). I took lots of pictures, especially in the baths, because we had a beautiful view of the Mediterranean.

After Carthage, a few people moved on to Sidi Bou Saïd, which they later reported to me was beautiful, but I went to Khereddine (by La Goulette) to look at potential housing. I looked at an apartment right next to the train station, where I could live with an English girl in a pretty apartment (well decorated, TV, nice bathroom, nice kitchen) and have my own room. As I finish my apartment searching, it’s at the top of my list. Afterwards, I returned home and returned to the hotel, dropped off some stuff, and took a taxi to the end of the metro line to look at an apartment that Asma had actually found and already visited for me (isn’t she nice? It’s unbelievable how much she’s done to help me). We had to wait a while for the woman to come, and meanwhile Asma and I had an interesting discussion. She told me that in her opinion, people in the Arab world see the Iraqi conflict between the two dominant Muslim religious groups – the Sunnis and the Shiites – as the central conflict in Iraq; this might sound obvious, but this is how she frames the entire situation. Sunnis are the minority in Iraq, and they are the great majority in Tunisia. The execution of Saddam Hussein – of a Sunnis on a great holy day of his faith (an important Muslim holiday) – was a “slap in the face” of Sunnis across the Arab world; in this way, she views the execution of SH as a sectarian murder, not because SH wasn’t a bad man (she said he was), but rather because his trial was ‘biased against him from the start’ and his execution was carried out by a Shiite-backed govn’t. So, you see, this is why the video of SH’s execution was such a big deal in the Arab world – the fact that sectarian taunts were thrown out by the executioners – taunts that referenced his identity as a Sunni – reinforced the interpretation some had of a minority Sunni leader being executed by a majority Shiite, pro-American govn’t (which, Asma told me, was comprised of men ‘just in it to get wealthy’). Asma probably isn’t the most reliable authority factually (but then again I’m not an expert either, and most of info is based on the media), she is a really good source for the sentiment among Muslim people outside of Iraq, even in North Africa.

Anyway, the woman finally arrived and I saw her house – it was tiny and cold, and far away from the metro. She was kind of interesting though – Asma told me that the woman, we’ll call her Neha, was very ‘open-minded’: she drinks and smokes, etc. Apparently, some ‘veiled girls’ (the English word Asma used) used to live with Neha, but once they found her smoking they left right away – because of this Neha was apparently really interested in living with an American (since American movies make us seem reallllly ‘open-minded’).

After visiting the house, I invited Asma to have dinner (since it was almost 9 and she hadn’t eaten yet), so we went to this place called Hollywood where a famous Tunisian singer sat across from us – and was bothered by no one (Asma told me that he is a regular). She ordered Jumbalaya (I recommended it as maybe the most ‘authentic’ dish, alongside pasta, pizza, etc.) I ordered a pizza, which ended up being a family size pizza with about 8 or 9 slices; I took most of it back to the hotel and am saving it for lunches. Asma was kind of funny though; she told me that she goes to bed every night around 9:30 or 10, so she was worried about being out so late – though she told me that her parents know and think it’s okay because she is with her American friend. I asked her if she would ever be able to stay out this late with a man; she said, “Absolutely not.” As I guessed, she also told me that her family is a bit conservative.


January 17th, 2007

Today has been a crazy day, and tonight is my last night (I have decided) in the hotel. As for now, I am getting ready to go to bed after a long day of apartment searching and a speech at the Center. First, let’s detail what I did today: catalogued some books (or was that yesterday?) and paused to read some things… began to alphabetize Larry’s huge collection of business cards…listened to a speech from a former CEMAT grant recipient – a Tunisian woman who went to BGSU in Ohio to study freedom of the press in the United States (which she determined is not quite as free as expected or hoped). This speech was attended by the press attaché from the US Embassy in Tunis, who of course, for his job, had to throw in his two contrary cents, and another Tunisian man who worked in the US Embassy and spoke amazing English. Another student also came, so there were about 5 of us. Basically, the Ph.D. student (in American studies, which, due to popular demand, is now a concentration) discussed the ‘atmosphere of fear’ in post-9/11 America in which journalists and columnists fear (even if the fear is subtle or not heeded) writing against the government for fear of retribution (think, for example, of publicized cases like that of Valerie Plame and Judy Miller).

After the speech, I went to have dinner with a girl named Juliette who is here on a Fulbright, recently graduated from Stanford and arriving from Cairo. She had a friend visiting, John (I think?), who is a professor of math at American Univ. of Cairo (even though he looks like he’s 24, he’s actually 32); he went to top US Univ. (Harvard, Columbia) and decided just because to go to Cairo, and he loves it. Larry came with us to a pasta/pizza restaurant (oh, another one), and I had seafood pasta, which was good but not delicious, and some chocolate mousse, which wasn’t really chocolate mousse but which I liked more than anything else eaten that day. Unfortunately, I had been hoping I could live with Juliette in her house in Sidi Bou Saïd, but I wouldn’t be able to come until Feb. 1st, which is a ways away. That means that I would have to in any case at least find housing to last me until, which is what I’m still in the process of ruminating over in my head.

After dinner, I saw the Potsdam students one last time, exchange contact info with them, and wished them goodbye. Afterwards, I met Kareem (the friend of Asma’s) in front of my hotel, and he spoke to me and took me to meet his family, who was wonderful. I drank some sweet tea with them and talked to them about their travels to the US, their studies, etc. etc. They all speak French pretty well if not perfectly, though the mother understood French but only spoke Arabic. We spent a good time together, and I’d really like to live with them, but there are two problems: 1) they are very far from school and from the directors of the Center, who like to check in on me, and 2) they don’t have a spare bedroom for me, they would just be giving me one of their bedrooms. I would really like to live with them – although of course living with a host family is a bit stressful at times – but I’m afraid that it would be too difficult to come into the city when I wanted to and too inconvenient for them. In any case, they told me that I can still certainly come visit them and such, which I will definitely do.

As for where I will stay, I’m not sure; I guess maybe I’ll go to the apartment with the English girl and see how that is, and maybe I will be able to change if necessary. We shall see…


January 18th, 2007

So today was pretty stressful, and busy. I moved out of the hotel, categorized cards at the Center (this was the most stressful activity of all of course… I built a card filing box out of the top lid of a shoe box and some pieces of cardboard which I cut into strips), lunched with Riyadh, and moved in the apartment in Khereddine, which is already inhabited by an English girl. I’m feeling a bit lonely right now though, because I’m here alone, and I don’t really know the house very well, and it is freezing cold. Right now, I’m wearing a sweater over my shirt, along with long pants, slippers, a scarf, and a hat, and I’m wrapped in a blanket. There is apparently no central heating in the apartment, just a small heating unit in my room which doesn’t seem to do much. I also have the feeling that I’m being bitten by mosquitoes, which I think probably is true, but maybe not to the degree I’m suddenly convinced of. In any case, moving in a foreign country has always been kind of hard for me; briefly put, I miss the hotel. I hope that I made the best decision about this housing (rather it be for the week or for the full month and handful of days I will spend here, we’ll see. I’m off to bed, if possible, and more news to come tomorrow.