Waiting for Christmas...

This year has been hard for me to get into the spirit of the Season. Partially because, once again, Christmas has snuck up on me. How does that happen every year?? Some of this lack of spirit has to do with the country we are living in this year. Tunisia is approximately 98% Muslim and have many other holidays to celebrate and don't usually go nuts with the lights and tinsel for Christmas like we do. I have spent many Christmas' without snow and can completely feel "in The Spirit" in warm weather. However, without the lights on the houses and music in the malls it is just feeling like any other time of year. We decided not to bring any of our Christmas decorations from home (except our Stockings, of course!) and did find a couple trees and some lights for the house. So our upstairs living room looks festive. And you can see our little tree and lights from the street. I'm hoping it perks up some folks walking by our house (and doesn't offend anyone).

Tonight while putting Hunter to bed, I asked her what the most exciting this about Christmas is. She said opening presents and seeing Santa. "Maybe I'm going to wake up and see his reindeer!" Oh, how I forget sometimes how fun it is believing in Santa Claus and his elves and Mrs. Santa and the reindeer. We talked about his magic sleigh that can slide on snow at home in Canada or on sand in the desert. And luckily we have a flat roof that he can land on safely so he won't slide off! ;)

Yes, Hunter is VERY excited about getting presents. However, she has been just as excited about finding things to wrap for everyone else in the family as she is about inventorying who has the most gifts under the tree. We all have little wrapped gifts under the tree filled with stuff Hunter found in the house and thought we would like... again. It is such a sweet and selfless act and is the true meaning of Christmas all the way. She is thinking of giving and isn't worried about how big or expensive the gift is or what she will get in return. She only wants to give something the recipient will enjoy.

She was so intent on finding the right gift for Elliot. Yesterday as we walked toward the Souk in the Medina she whispered that she wanted to find a purple baby shirt for Elliot for Christmas. We looked and couldn't find one. Today, while we were in the Carrefour mall, she and I shopped alone to find gifts and she took me in to a toy store (usually one I avoid because of the overpriced, cheaply made toys) to find something for her little sister. As much as I really would rather not have another crappy toy with a million pieces in our house, I just couldn't stop Hunter as I saw how much love and caring and thought for Elli she put into finding just the right gift. She pulled toys out from the shelf thinking this was just the right one, and then put it back realizing that it might not be what Elliot wanted. Finally she decided on a set of hospital tools for dolls. The big decision then was the get the one in the blue or pink cardboard box (all the actual toys were exactly the same). She chose the blue because that is the one she figured Elliot would like the best (although Hunter would have preferred the pink box). She was so proud and looked so grown up paying for her lovingly chosen item. She will be beaming when Elliot unwraps her gift on Christmas morning. My heart is full. <3

Elliot on the other hand just wants to tell Hunter all about the gift she is giving every time Hunter walks in the room. She does understand it is supposed to be a secret but she is just too excited to surprise her big sister! It will be a fun Christmas!!! I just hope my girls sleep in more than I did. I think I was still waking up at 5am well into my teens.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!!

Hammam with Mom!

Sorry, folks. No photos from this adventure! Actually, you probably won't be sorry.

Today was the day. I finally took my mom to the hammam. I booked us an appointment at the same place where I had my first hammam thinking it was easy and the woman there was helpful and led me through it all. It worked a little differently today.

So, we got "ready" and went into the hammam. There really isn't much to it since, well, you don't wear much. Anyway, in we went in and hung out in the chilly hammam while the steam started to warm things up. We waited quite a while and just as we couldn't see anything in the steamy hammam, "la femme" came in to get us ready. No, we did not do all of this fun stuff on our own. We had someone else to do the dirty work. Fortunately, Mom has heard many of my stories from the Hammam so was ready for what she was getting into. I let her go first. And as I had prewarned her to PLEASE not groan or shriek, she was well behaved. It was funny looking over and seeing her lying facedown in the superman position getting the skin scrubbed of her. And also while she was being stretched and twisted, presumably to help her relax now that her muscles were warmed up. But really, I find it hard to completely relax when you don't know where that steel wool glove is going next.

After we had our "gommage" or peeling we had a clay mud or "algae" rubbed and left on us. It was minty so felt cool on the skin for a while and I actually felt chilly inside the finally hot steam room. As the hammam woman (I'm really not sure of her official title. How do you properly "name" the woman who scrubs the skin off your hoo hoos?) led us back and told us to shower off I felt a terrible stinging in my eye. For some reason I tried to ignore it so as not to draw attention to myself (silly if you have understood exactly what I look like at this point) but once it started feeling like a needle in my eye I tried to get it out, only to find I had had an ant biting my tear duct!!! What the hell kind of a pampered ant hangs out in a hammam waiting to bite eyes??? So once I got past that excitement, we showered off and relaxed for a bit before our massages. Luckily we were clothed this time... for a while.

I haven't mentioned that we left the girls home alone with my dad, who, on our way out the door said, "So you won't be more than 2 hours." Notice it wasn't a question. So we get out of the hammam and see that we have been in there for more than an hour. Only about 40 minutes until Dad expects us home and we haven't had our massages. As I said, we relaxed for a few minutes, trying to figure out if we had to go find the massage room or if someone would find us. Luckily someone found us and guided me first to the massage. Which turns out was a massage table set up in the hair salon. Strange since I had been there before and had actually been in a massage room. What if I had also wanted to get my hair done? How would they have gotten around that? So at first I was actually concerned that the hair dresser was just filling in for the masseuse but, if she was, she was pretty good. I'm not sure a hair dresser would have the hands 2 hour-long massages. Just another of the unexpected things today. I didn't specify (in my barely-French booking of the appointments) how long we wanted our massages, I just thought we would get half an hour. But after my leg massage took 15 minutes I figured I had been mistaken. So poor Mom hung out (and dozed I think) for an hour while I was in my massage. I couldn't really relax knowing Dad was home alone with the girls and wasn't expecting us to be gone for 4 hours. But, the massage was lovely! I rushed out of the massage as Mom went in, showered and drove home without Mom. It turns out that Dad and the girls were doing fine. Next time we know we can leave them for longer!! ;) Mom enjoyed her massage, I think. Her next adventure was riding the taxi home alone. Which is always an adventure. So interesting trusting someone you can't communicate with to take you somewhere neither of you really knows how to get to. But she made it home safe and sound.

So whether she goes again or not, at least Mom has experienced a real Tunisian hammam! I think she will be the last of my guests I escort into the hammam. The rest of you are on your own! ;) I thought I could do it like the Tunisian woman do, but, as it turns out, hanging out naked with women you know (even your Mom) is just a little awkward. Christopher had a teammate in Germany who met his girlfriend's parents for the 1st time at a Turkish Bath or Hammam. And they don't wear ANYTHING! Wow!

So, next adventure... taking Mom to the Centre-Ville Souk. Dad has been there so it will be fun to go with Mom, Dad and the girls. Let's see what we will find!

(Just kidding Mom. It was fun showing you my new found pampering place! <3 Thanks for being a good sport!)

Getting resettled

Thing have been good lately. Besides having a house full of sick people. We have been back in Tunis for over 2 months now and the time has flown by. Hunter is so comfortable in school and it is so fun going to visit her class and to hear all the kids calling her name and saying hello. She has friends from different Kindergarten classes and different grades (although she often doesn't know which grade or their name) but also seems to be getting into her own little group of friends who play often play together at recess. I have volunteered a few times in Hunter's classroom and being able to see her in that environment, away from home is wonderful. She is a quiet, polite, hardworking girl. Her teacher says that she is great at cleaning up and even helps others with their mess without being asked. I have also been told that she doesn't get as frustrated when she doesn't know how to spell a word like she did at the start of the year. A great accomplishment. Hunter has been learning so much in school so far. She can spell most words that she can sound out and is constantly wanting to write. She makes up words, she writes the same things as she wrote about at school, she will copy words off boxes or she will just write lists of names. It is fun to see how interested she is in learning her letters and different words. She is also bringing home a book a night to read to us. She is so proud when she finishes a book! She also enjoys singing her songs from her Arabic and French classes. I can keep up with the French and I know if she is mispronouncing something but I have to let her do her own thing with Arabic. I have no idea what she is saying! I do know that she is getting her throaty sounds down. She isn't afraid of a little throat gurgle! ;)

And Elliot is still enjoying her time at home alone. She does like to follow Hunter's lead in drawing pictures and can draw a great banana with a face and moustache! Now that the weather is a little cooler and wetter we aren't going on our adventures as much but we really should get back to our walks. Sometimes she is soooo slow that it kills me, but I know she enjoys touring around the neighborhood and seeing everything. The new stuff and the familiar, like the guards, coffee shops and kitties. We are still going to Elliot's gym class on Tuesdays and, although she seems to pick that day to be the most difficult to get out of the house, she comes home telling me how much she enjoyed the class. We are realizing that other people in the class do speak English so we have both been making some friends. The teacher, Petra, speaks German, French and English, although the class is mostly in French. One day we were playing with the parachute and Petra was counting in French and I heard Elliot mimicking the numbers. She had no idea what she was saying but liked the rhythm of it. So she is picking up bits of other languages too.

We are excitedly getting ready for our first guests in Tunisia to arrive on Sunday! My parents will be coming to stay with us for bits and pieces of the next two months. We hope they spend a lot of time here but they are also planning on seeing more of Tunisia and possibly taking a trip to Europe. We are so close you have to take the opportunity! We have been busy getting the bed ordered and buying extra towels and dishes. When we started rebuilding our home we just bought the essentials and now that we know we will have extra people here we are slowing getting more. I have also ordered a book shelf and a dresser for the girls' room to be made by a local carpenter which is exciting. I have seen a couple pieces he made for a friend and they were very nice so I'm crossing my fingers I was able to communicate my wishes to him! We will see in the next few days!

We have an extra long weekend coming up with Aid El Idha, a religious holiday celebrated by the Muslim people 40 days after Ramadan. It seems to be similar to our Christmas in that it is a big family holiday with a LOT of food. Delicious food though! We are starting to see the pens of sheep all over the city in preparation for Aid. Families will start buying a sheep to keep in their back yard this coming week and they will then slaughter it on the night before Aid (Friday night maybe?). This is to commemorate Ibrahim's willingness to sacrifice his son, but instead was able to sacrifice a sheep. It is all very interesting. I am hoping we will be able to get out of the city and go to one of the resorts down the coast of the country... but we will see what Travis' work schedule is. As usual. I am just going to have to start leaving him at home! ;)

Ahhhh... I'm back! It has been way too long since I've written and we've been doing a lot...

We had a wonderful trip home to Canada. It was like being dropped right back into our lives in Calgary. And driving was very easy after not doing it for almost 5 months! We spent a couple weeks in Calgary visiting with friends (and shopping), then went to Clearwater Lake in SK to spend some time with family. We were lucky to have been able to see so much family while at home! We got back to Calgary to spend one more week in our house and finish up our/ my shopping!!! We arrived in Canada with 4 partially filled suitcases and came back to Tunis with 8!!!

Once we returned, we had a few days to recover from jet lag/ flu/ ant invasions and then Hunter started Kindergarten!!! I was a little worried as she had only been to the school twice and it was all new to her, but... as I should learn, she was fine. Travis dropped her off for the first 2 days and she didn't need him at all. She just walked into the classroom and owned it. Her teacher commented after the 1st day, "She sure isn't shy, is she?" Wonderful! She came home after the 1st day as if she had been doing this forever. And I think Elliot and I missed her more than she missed us. Elliot had a couple of tough mornings as Hunter left on the bus but is fine now that we are getting into a bit of a routine. And it is nice to spend some one-on-one time with just Elli.

Today Elliot started her own "school". It is a MiniSport class for 2-3 year olds. I wasn't sure exactly what to expect but knew that anything with other kids would be good for Elliot. The set-up is very much like Gymboree (with lower standards in newness and cleanliness) with balance beams, soft mats and balls. The teacher is German and she speaks French and English. The class is in French, which was a fun surprise, but the teacher does translate to English for the important points. Today Elliot seemed a little out of sorts and having to change into extra shorts at the class didn't help. She was wearing a cute skirt (which I FINALLY convinced her to wear instead of her bathing suit!) but the teacher thought she should wear shorts instead so lent Elli an extra pair she had. They were blue and red plaid and Elli was NOT impressed. She kept complaining about them and trying to take them off during class. Luckily she was mostly distracted by the balance beams, trampolines and zip line. Pretty fun! We had a driver today which was handy as I didn't have to walk to find a taxi. However, the driver didn't speak any English either so it was interesting. ;) Luckily he understood my finger pointing and the few directions I know in French. Unfortunately there isn't a lot of conversation during the rides. Now that I am going to Hunter's school more I will probably be using driver's more often. Either that or I will have to learn to drive in this crazy Tunis traffic. Which would be a good idea considering all the company we are likely to have.

We did hit some HOT weather when we got back to Tunis at the end of August which was tough but an interesting part of the experience. We did have one cool day of 15 (on which we decided to go to the beach!) but besides that we have had lovely weather hovering around 30C. And now the evenings are cooling off, it is lovely! The pool is getting cool and even the girls aren't wanting to jump in every day but they do splash for a few minutes every few days. The sea, however, is still about 25C so lovely. For the kids, not for me. ;)

The girls thought it was a bit chilly one evening while walking to dinner. It was about 26C!


Elliot found a napping kitty to visit with on the way to Monoprix!

We also experienced our first Ramadan here in Tunisia. For the most part we didn't notice much difference except that our coffee places and restaurants were closed during the day! That got annoying. Considering these people don't eat from sun up until sun down, we tried not to eat or snack out in public. But we had a few slip ups. Mostly it was just Elliot eating and I don't think people mind quite as much when a child is eating in front of them after 10 hours of fasting. We did have a lot more people begging/ asking for money on the streets. I generally turn them down as I'm not familiar with the protocol here yet. It seemed odd they were asking for money to eat during Ramadan when they weren't supposed to be eating during the day anyway. But I think I actually should be giving them a little something. Ahh, I'll figure it out eventually.

We were invited to our first Iftar, the meal taken at in the evening during Ramadan when Muslims break their fast. This year, the accepted time to eat was 7pm. It was actually usually still light by then, but by the end of Ramadan it was dark by 7pm. We went to Travis' coworker's home where his wife had spent half the day making soup, lamb couscous, salad, farsi (stuffed) octopus and so much more!!! I think there were a bit offended that we didn't eat more but it just impossible!! I don't possibly know how you can eat all that food. Of course, we hadn't been fasting since 430am!!! Unfortunately I didn't take my camera so don't have any photos of our lovely meal in their backyard.

Tomorrow Elliot and I will be busy baking cupcakes for Hunter's bday party at school on Thursday. Friday is her 5th birthday and she is counting down the days!!! We will be driving to Tabarka at noon on Friday for a golf tournament this weekend, so we plan to take a cake and celebrate with whoever is at the hotel on Friday evening. It looks like it will be nice enough for Hunter to spend at least some of her birthday on the beach like a promised when we told them we were moving!!! Travis says he is baking Hunter's birthday cake again this year so we'll see what he comes up with. ;)

This little cutie was sunning himself in our garden a few weeks ago. We have never seen a chameleon here before or since but it was an exciting few minutes!

I am sitting in our living room watching the aqua waters in the Gulf of Tunis. It is a little cloudy today so the water isn't as clear as some days. But I can almost make out the individual white buildings on the other side of the Gulf, on the peninsula called Cap Bon. At least, I'm pretty sure that is what I see.
Every day this feels more like home. I am used to the ugly tile in our bathrooms, and the broken side walks. The girls really like walking on the street like the locals instead of on the sidewalks. It is easier as there are usually cars parked or trees growing on the sidewalks anyway. The food is looking much more familiar and going shopping isn't so scary and overwhelming. I haven't really learned to make much Tunisian food, but that will come.
Elliot's exciting news is that she is potty training!! Yay!! We bought a potty a while ago but she wasn't too interested until a couple weeks ago. Suddenly she told me she had to go and went!! We were so excited! And she really enjoys our cheering and praise of her. I think she will probably be pretty much all trained by the end of our visit in Canada this summer. But we'll see.
We registered Hunter at the American International school for Kindergarten in the fall. We were very late getting her in so she is 1st on the waiting list. I am sure someone will move or be transferred in the next couple months so she can get in... but if not we will probably send her to a French school for Kindergarten instead. I don't think it would hurt her at all to get a good base in French for a year and I'm pretty sure she could catch up in anything she missed in the American school. So we will see how that all works out. We booked out flights home before registering Hunter so her school starts the day after we get back. Oops! But they will need to do testing on her to make sure she is at the Kindergarten level so she will start a few days later anyway. There are so many kids from all over the world and so many different kinds of schools that no everyone is at the same level as the other kids their age. I have heard it is quite common to have a two year age gap between kids in the same class. I'm sure it makes for interesting dynamics. Oh, and the principal of the elementary part of the American school in Canadian so it was very nice to meet her.
Hunter and Travis had some kind of stomach bug this past weekend so we didn't get up to too much. Hunter was fine on Saturday so the girls and I went to a friend's BBQ which was fun. There were about 6 kids so they were well occupied and I had a good visit with a few of the women I'd met at different functions. We had been invited to another BBQ on Sunday, Father's Day, but since both Hunter and Travis weren't feeling well, we stayed home. Elli and I had a fun day going out and about together. We went for a little workout session in the morning and then went for a juice date and groceries. In the afternoon we were going for more groceries and ran into friends so went for ice cream with them. It was fun to just hang out with Elli on her own. And Hunter and Travis got some good snuggle time watching movies too. Luckily, by Monday everyone was feeling better... and Elli and I didn't end up with the same bug.
Tonight I am going out with my friend Ania to her Capoeria class. I took one class in Calgary about 7 years ago and loved it but never went back. So it will be fun to try it again. Remembering the class from so long ago, I know I will be sore tomorrow!

June already!

Wow!! I can't believe that we have been in Tunisia for 3 months today! It was only 3 months from the time we made the decision to move until we actually got on the plane and that seemed to take much longer. I guess we've been having fun!
It's been a long time since my last blog. I see I only updated twice in May so I promise to write more often in June. I'm sure I'll want to be inside more anyway since it is getting pretty warm. Last week we had some rain and windy days but more often than not, our weather has been in the high 20s. I think it has been a little cooler than usual but not cold by any means. I'm not even sure where our coats are anymore. We haven't used them in a while. This week is supposed to be 30+ all week! In fact, Wed, Thurs and Fri are predicted to be 36C!!!! I think we will spend plenty of time in our pool and at the beach in the next few days. Wow! We are planning a trip home to Canada in July/ August which I think will be a nice break from the heat. I think even a couple weeks of 30C weather will be a cool relief from what we have coming! But it is nice to be in the sun in June instead of recovering from frost bite!! LOL

So, what have we been up to? I have started going to the gym although very sporadically. It feels good to get back to working out a bit. I'm hoping we can figure out a schedule so that both Travis and I can make it once a week. But so far Travis hasn't gotten to go. It is a small gym so the hours for men and women are separate and Men can only go Mon, Wed. and Friday afternoons until 7pm which is inconvenient for Travis. I've gone on a couple of Saturday mornings while Travis goes out with the girls. I think it works quite well so we'll see if we can keep it up. I've missed the last couple week though.

Last weekend we were off to Tabarka, in the NW corner of the country, close to the Algerian border. Travis had been in the desert all week with work, got home at about 2pm on Thursday to pack and pick us up and we were off at 230pm to go to Tabarka where Travis and some of his coworkers where looking at rock formations. It was a busy week for him but the girls and I had a good time by ourselves and looked forward to the time at the hotel. We didn't get to spend much time with Travis there as he was out in the field during the day and out for dinner with the work guys at night. Luckily we got one sunny day on Friday to play in the pool and on the playground.
That's the most beautiful view from a swing set I've ever seen!!

The girls also made a little friend while were there, Lena Yasmine. She and her family were staying for the week from Algeria. I had a visit with her mom too. We were able to communicate through a little English and a little French.

Both nights the girls went to the Club Enfant (Mini Club) "mini disco" and thought it was great! They were a little shy to do much dancing (or it could have been the funny songs in other languages, like Skinamarinkydinkydoo and the Chicken Dance!) but they watched and participated a little. Both nights they had had enough after half an hour. Which was perfect because I had had enough by then too! Hunter spend extra time picking out the perfect outfit for the disco both nights! Wow, I wonder how much thought she'll put into outfits when she's 16!!

The girls and I have made some friends here in Carthage. We were actually introduced through her blog when Travis was looking for carseats online. He came across Ania's blog and wrote to her. We found out she lived not far from us so not that we are settled we were able to get together with her and her kids, Victor (3.5 yrs) and Mila (9 months) for a splash at the beach. Hunter was calling Victor "Kaiser" for a while. Funny. I have no idea where she would even know the name Kaiser. Anyway all the big kids (that includes Elli. She tells us she is a big kid now) had a great time together. Ania is Polish, but met her French husband in Dublin where they lived until October before moving here. Her husband, Gilles, works for PayPal. I hadn't even thought of who runs PayPal until I found out Gilles was employed by them. We haven't actually met Gilles, but they seem like nice people that we hopefully will get together with often. Ania introduced us to a new beach and the train on the same day! Hunter had been asking when we could take the train somewhere but since I didn't really know how to use it or where it went, I was hesitant. Not to mention that I really had only seen the school boys hanging off the ends and out the doors. I wasn't excited taking the girls on it. But Ania had taken it a lot so I thought we'd see how it was. We did fine and even though I rode for about 10 minutes with the door wide open behind me, no one fell out. I realize that trains like this are common in different parts of the world but it is pretty funny when I compare them to the trains in Calgary. The Tunis trains would NEVER been allowed to run in Calgary. Dilapitated might be a light description of them. But I felt safe enough and hung on to the girls tightly! And the beach was very nice too. It was a little wavey the day we went but the kids had fun getting wet and Hunter taught herself to "belly surf". And there wasn't a lot of garbage on the beach. Definitely a good, yet uncommon, thing.

I haven't take the girls back on the train to the beach on my own again but probably will now that little Victor has broken his arm. Poor dear fell off a bouncy house the day after our beach day and will be in a cast for the next 6 weeks. It will be a very dry summer for him. The girls and I have discovered a little beach just down the road from us though. We see school boys swimming down from our little "beach" area so the water must be fairly clean (I am hoping) and there isn't too much garbage. I do keep the girls out of the dry sand as this is what the stray cats use as their Litter boxes. Ick! And we try to avoid the broken glass.

We wandered down to the beach yesterday and the girls played for about an hour before the tide started coming in. This time I put them in their swimsuits so they didn't have to walk home wet.


I did though, as we lost Hunter's sand rake in the water and found it down the beach a bit. I just had shorts on so walked home looking like I'd wet myself. We skipped the grocery store on that trip. ;)

Oh, we are also getting some tables made for around the house. So far we have just had the frames made and we still have to go pick out the marble tops. Then we will have a small table for the balcony off the dining room on the top floor, a kitchen table for our downstairs kitchen and a bit table for out on our patio by the pool. I also would like a table for our sitting our in the garden off the basement kitchen, but that will come later. We also need to get cushions for the low benches that are built-in in the basement kitchen. Slowly slowly we are figuring where all the stores are and how to get stuff.
It is already mighty hot out today. The girls are napping and then I think we will spend the afternoon by the pool, swimming and having a BBQ. I can't think of a better way to spend a hot Saturday afternoon!

Have a great weekend!

Spring!

Well, I definitely know it's spring here as all the parkas and winter jackets have finally disappeared. On May 1st exactly some Tunisians started wearing shorts and all the winter coats disappeared. Even though the weather had been quite warm before that, they seem to go by the calendar instead of the temperature. The colour of clothing has also changed as you can now see colours other than black. All these and the high 20 degree weather are signs that spring has sprung in Tunis!
We have been having a lot fun with this warm weather. Last week the girls and I went swimming in our pool on 3 or 4 of the days. It was a little chilly to jump in but was refreshing once we got splashing around. Hunter is getting more confident swimming and floating in her tube. She always has her life jacket on and climbs in and out of the pool herself. Today she climbed on her tube, pushed away from the edge and just floated around the pool. She started getting nervous as she floated toward the deep end but kept her cool and floated for a couple minutes before I fished her out of the deep end. She was quite proud once she got out. ;) Elli isn't able to go in on her own but is happy splashing around the edge or just getting dunked in if the water is a little cold for Travis or myself to get in.
The girls and I have found a sandy area down by the sea where we like to stop in the morning to play. We can walk about 10 minutes (at the most) to the sea in front of our house and the girls have a great time building sand castles and running away from the waves. Next time I will just put them in bathing suits as their clothes get soaked anyway. We don't have a nice swimming beach near us but this works great to give the girls their fix of sand and sea during the week. We do see boys from the local schools swimming in the sea everyday. We can take the train to a beach in Sidi Bou Said but we haven't learned to take the train yet and have to find the beach. We have met a woman (through her blog actually) from Ireland with 2 kids a little younger than our girls. She said she goes to the Sidi Bou Said beach often so one day we will go with them for a play.
Hunter and Elli and I went to visit Les Thermes d'Antonin (Baths of Antonin (or Antoine, I think)) here in Carthage. I had walked through them when I was here in November and knew the girls would enjoy walking and climbing around the ruins. They had a wonderful time! We stopped to have a snack at the start and then the girls had a great time running and picking up rocks and walking into underground tombs/ rooms. And once we got down to sea level to the baths Hunter thought it would be a great place for Hide and Seek. I agree! The girls also found a stage to have a little concert on.
Hunter dressed like Hannah Montana and Elli was dressed like Miley Cyrus. Elli's poor little cute shoes were quite beat up by the end of the trip. And so were her knees.
But it was a very fun time, nonetheless.
I think Hunter even understands a bit of the history and how old all this land is. Last week she told me, as we were going for a walk, "Carthage is the most powerful city in the world, because I am the most powerful girl in the world and I live here." So there you go. That's how she sees things.
Last weekend we went to Bizerte which is about an hour north of Tunis on the coast. At first it didn't appear to be such an interesting little town but as we walked we found the Medina, the old town. We didn't have time to go in but we walked through the harbour. It's a very busy, interesting area and we plan to go back again some weekend soon.
Tomorrow Travis is playing in a gold tournament in Hammamet with some other Canadian guys. On Monday, he will travel down to Tataouine for 3 days to look at stuff in the field. On Thursday he will fly back here and then we will all drive to the west side of Tunisian to Tabarka where Travis will going out to the field again on Friday while the girls hang out at the hotel or discover the town. On Saturday Travis will stay with us and then we will drive home later on Saturday. So it will be a busy week for Travis. The girls and I will have to find more things to do to keep us busy. The wife of Travis' coworker is here this week so we might take her down to the Souk (market) in the Medina one day and maybe find something else to show her another day. It's hard to entertain too much with the girls, but we'll see what we can show her.
The past couple nights we have gone out to eat and Hunter has told me how nice it is that I get the day off. So, while Travis is gone I plan to find a few more fun places for us to eat and take a few more "days off". Ahhhh... even a few meals not cooked by me, makes a difference.

The BEST days!

The weather has been beautiful lately and we are sure enjoying being outside! The girls and I have been taking walks around the neighborhood throwing grass in the sea, wandering through ruins and going to cafes for lunch. And sometimes stopping for ice cream.

We don't get too far from home on foot as the little legs I travel with get tired and distracted easily. But we have gotten used to taking taxis around and so are starting to venture out a bit more. On Monday we met with a group of women for coffee. They are officially called the "BG (British Gas) Group" but it is really just ex-pat women getting together. It was nice to finally get there and meet some more women. Unfortunately there weren't any other big kids there but the girls drank their OJ and played by themselves and were great. Hunter was such a big girl, making conversation with two of the women, introducing herself and Elliot and telling them how old she was. I was so proud of her!

The weekend gave us gorgeous hot temperatures so we spent our first afternoon by the pool.

The girls had a great time floating and dipping in the pool, although it was still a bit chilly for Mom and Dad.

On Sunday, Hunter wanted to go to a park, so we went to a park in Sidi Bou Said and played for a little while. We were there early enough, there weren't a lot of other kids there. We stopped at the Salon de The for a snack and then played a bit more before heading to the beach. It was about 27c on the beach and the sand was a little hot on our feet. We don't really have any beach toys yet but the girls had a great time finding shells and playing in the sand.

Hunter did grab an old bottle but we got her to put that aside. Ick! Travis was pretty excited when he saw a guy with a KTM fixing his bike so went over to see if he could help.

He was impressed to see the guy in full gear, fixing his bike in the sand. They ride at the beach every Sunday so maybe Travis will make some new friends!

On Wednesday, the girls and I hopped in another taxi and headed to the Medina! I was a little apprehensive as I didn't know how the girls would do in such a busy place with many nooks and crannies. But they did FANTASTIC!!!

It was a lot of fun actually.

Luckily it wasn't too busy, but there were a few tour buses down there so at times we were surrounded by a lot of traffic. However, nothing got broken and no one got lost!! And we came away with a few little prizes. And I got my shopping basket that I've been wanting since we got here.

It was a long few hours and we were tired but the girls thought it was all very interesting. And when we got home, most of the rest of our furniture was delivered. We still have two chairs coming. And the delivery guy actually told me it would come, "tomorrow or after tomorrow"!! And surprisingly, it didn't come "tomorrow" so who knows when we will get it. Oh well, we have a few more seats in the house now and the house is starting to look more like a home each day.

I'm not sure I wrote about Hunter's haircut 2 weeks ago. I finally decided to take the plunge and just go to the hair salon down the street. I thought we agreed on a few centimetres, shown by our fingers but apparently that wasn't a guarantee. Hunter ended up with an Orphan Annie haircut!!! I didn't quite cry as I was sitting and watching it all happen but I was close. I couldn't believe we had just gone in for a little trim and she got about 4 inches taken off. And I know I said NO to bangs but she sure got bangs. Oh wow!!! Well, at least Hunter was ok with it and only commented that it would be a while before she has a pony tail again. But at least it's easier to brush now!

So, needless to say, I am taking my time trying to find an English speaking hair dresser for myself!

In the last two weeks we have definitely made headway on making our home more homey. Last week I ordered 2 couches, a loveseat, 2 big fluffy chairs for looking at the sea and two more chairs for the living room. So we should have all the seating taken care of for our TV area in the basement and our living room on the top floor. It will be a great improvement on the office chairs we have gotten used to cuddling up in.

Next will be my quest for accessories, decorations and RUGS!! It is hard to hear anything in the abyss that is this marbly cement palace. The echoes bounce all over the place, much to the pleasure of the girls. Although they have stopped yelling just for the sake of listening to their own echoes. Thank Goodness.

Our day to day life hasn't changed much yet as we still don't have many friends. It's really not that bad but I think we all need to get out more and associate with different people so as not to annoy each other so much. Although the people at our local market, Monoprix, know the girls well enough that they don't even need to stand and stare longingly at the candy section of the deli to be given candies. Yesterday one of the men (who told Hunter in French that he loves her and she is beautiful. Awww.) told the girls to follow him and he gave them candies and told them to come back tomorrow for more. Nice. Then they moved down the aisle and were given cookies too. Lovely. At least they don't mind coming shopping with me.

Part of the draw of the walk to Monoprix is also that we walk over the train tracks, or railway, as Hunter corrected me today.

This is the LRT that travels from Tunis centre to Sidi Bou Said, which is a community up the coast but still really part of Tunis. A lot of kids travel on the train, perhaps going to and from school for lunch, I'm not sure. The way people travel the train here is much different than ours is run in Calgary. For example, there aren't necessarily doors on all of the entrances to the train. And the doors that are there, seem to be easily pried and held open. Also, there seems to be no law against hanging off the train or standing between cars. The first day we saw a teenager hanging on to the train, hanging and dragging his feet along the platform. I'm sure my jaw dropped as I saw that. But I'm a mom now so not supposed to be cool about all that stuff anyway. As much as I would never get used to that in Calgary, it doesn't shock me as much now. Just as the garbage on the street or stray animals don't make us blink an eye. Or seeing a vendor pushing his cart of food down the highway, or people riding motorcycles without a stitch of gear on. It's all strange and I'm not sure why it still happens but it's the way things are done here.

Yesterday the girls and I went for a two hour walk, travelling a few more streets from our house. I let the girls lead and they chose to go up a set of stairs down the street from us. As they walked they were picking flowers, and bugs and diseasey looking leaves. Neither of the saw the big man with the machine gun and both girls bumped into him. We have some important person living down the street so there is a guard in front and behind the house. We after say Bonjour to the front guard but have never gone behind the house before. Neither girls seemed to be too concerned about running right into someone and Elliot didn't blink an eye when he swooped her up and gave her a kiss. It shocked me a bit that she was rubbing right up against his big Aug (or whatever Travis told me it was). I was told the guns aren't loaded during the day, but still.... Not something you run into every day. I wish my camera had been working. I also wish I'd had a camera when we saw two dogs locked outside a window between the iron window cage and the window. It was airy but still a strange place to keep your pets.

We had a lovely walk and got down to the water where the girls had a fun time throwing bits of grass and leaves into the sea. We walked right on to the beach as the tide was out a bit and watched our grass being swept out to sea. That ended when Elli sat in the water. We also walked in to some park area with ruins. I probably should have read what it said. Something about Anthropological, I think. Anyway, we mostly looked at all the ant hills and noticed that when you step on the hill thousands more ants come out. It was fun. Then we dodged bees pollinating the flowers in the grass. There are a lot of bees here.

I've started being a bit more adventurous and have been buying seafood from the seafood guy at Monoprix. It's not that big of a deal but I often don't really know what I'm talking about. I usually just point and nod. Apparently we have the best, freshest seafood in the city because the President lives in this area and gets his seafood here. Good garbage pick up and fresh seafood. It seems to me he's doing a fine job. Anyway, I've gotten chevrettes (not to be confused with crevettes which are bigger shrimp. I got mixed up.) which were a pain to peel and didn't amount to much but were tasty. And I got salmon steaks the other night. I squeezed a bit of a citrus fruit on them from our yard (which turned out to be Bergamot, not Lemon) and they turned out fine.

Phew... I'm noticing that I can be long-winded. I'm sure I'm the first to notice. ;) I'm going to bed and will update with the rest of our adventures another time.

Good night from Tunis.

Our weekend in Djerba

Since we have just gotten internet in our new house (YAY!) I will write a couple posts so as not to make one too long...

The last I posted was that we were taking a weekend trip to the Island of Djerba. We flew down Thursday afternoon so had the afternoon and early evening to explore the beautiful resort Hasdrubal Thalasso Prestige Resort & Spa. (Hasdrubal was Hannibal's brother in Carthaginian history, Phoenician soldiers) What a beautiful resort!

Probably the most beautiful place I will ever stay! We had a suite so the girls would have their own room and what a suite it was! Our room was at least twice as big as any hotel room I've stayed in

and each bedroom had its own balcony overlooking the pool and sea. And the bathroom was a like a spa! Lovely! One of the best parts was having a stand up shower!!! Not only a stand up shower but one that had the shower nozzle on the wall! Oh sweet heaven!

It was a working weekend for Travis so he and his coworkers drove out to Tataouine on Friday for a big presentation (they actually made quite a few of the newspapers in the country, (including the President's parties paper), and radio and TV). The girls and I had a lovely day playing at the beach and in the pools. I never did make it too far into the pools as it was still a little chilly for me, but the girls had a wonderful time. Especially after they met a friend, Sasha, from Switzerland.

We ended up meeting him and his family at every meal after that which all the kids enjoyed. On Saturday we spent the morning at the indoor pool and the girls had a great time swimming and playing.

Elli stripping in the hall. She kept yelling that Cookie Monster was going to get her.

Hunter is a great swimmer and as long as she has her life jacket on she has no fear, even in deep water. Elliot doesn't have any fear either, with out without a life jacket. She just doesn't have any inclination paddle once in the water. She would sink.

We enjoyed and relaxed for the afternoon and took a flight back to Tunis with the rest of the company. It was a lovely weekend and we will definitely be back. I still can't believe that we are an hour's flight, at the most, (many resorts are with in an hour or two of driving) from such beautiful resorts!! We didn't get to see much of the island this trip beside the drive to and from the hotel but I think there are many interesting places on such a small island.

Finally, we've moved!

The last couple weeks have been busy... although I do try to make it home for the girls' naps in the afternoon. That is essential. I stressed last week about getting all our bedding so we could move to our new house. Travis had to work late most nights, unfortunately (mostly for him, he had very long days) so we weren't able to get out in the evenings. Finally on Thursday, Feres from Travis' office was able to take the girls and I out to a few shops to get what we really needed to move in. Namely, towels, bedding and pillows. I still haven't found sheets that fit the girls beds but I got flat sheets to wrap around the mattress for now. The girls were quite pleased with their new beds! (I will add photos when I am able to access internet from home)
So we have moved in and are living quite simply right now. We have one of two working fridges so I run up and down the stairs a lot in the day. We use the upstairs kitchen right now because that is where the table is but the working fridge is downstairs. I won't need the gym after all that exercise! We haven't had time to get out shopping to the rest of the furniture but Travis did pick up a TV and we have some office chairs, that weren't being used in the Storm house, for right now. It works for now.
We are also waiting for the new car. Well, mostly Travis is waiting. It really hasn't bothered anyone else that it's late. ;) It will be here tomorrow, or after tomorrow. Kind of the philosophy of Tunisians. Just like our shipment will be here next week, or after next week. Who knows when we will finally have everything in order! Most days it's ok and I can handle living in limbo but sometimes it does get to me and I would just like to have it all done.
Tomorrow, Thursday, afternoon we are flying to Djerba (pronounced 'Jerba'), an island down the coast of Tunisia, for 2 days. Travis and some of his co-workers will be going to Tataouine on Friday for a scholarship presentation the company set up. The girls and I will stay at the resort and play in the sun. On Saturday, we will have Travis and will either spend the day at the beach or perhaps go the Medina to look around. It will be nice to have a shower or two in a stand up shower!
On Monday night, we were invited to the home of the Canadian Ambassador for a cocktail party in honour of a merger or buy out of Storm and Talisman Energy. Or something like that. There were a lot of reps from other companies too. I visited with the wife of the Ambassador, Sarah, and the wife of the Consul, Nallin, quite a bit and look forward to seeing them again. Sarah sent me the information to a book club and an International Woman's Group which I look forward to joining once things settle down a bit for us. I was also able to visit with many other people Travis does business with, so it was nice to put faces to names. It was mostly just nice to be able to dress up and visit with other adults, no matter what language there were speaking! ;)

And we are lucky to have Amira and Rym, Travis' coworkers' daughters, as babysitters already. The girls had a lot of fun.
I think we are going to work on getting our marble tables built in the next couple weeks so we can have balcony and patio tables. And of course, we would like to get couches. Travis is going to be ordering a new fridge, washing machine and microwave soon which will be nice, although they might take a couple weeks to arrive. So we will probably be making another trip or two back to the company house.
Hunter is very observant as to the differences between Calgary and Tunis. Last week she asked if she could start throwing garbage on the ground because everyone else does it. We explained that no, we weren't going to start doing that, we would still pick up garbage and throw ours away. And no, when she gets a truck she can't let her friends ride in the back of the truck just because it looks fun and just because they do it here. The environment here makes for interesting conversations with her. And Elliot has discovered a new favorite word. Radar. She heard it while we were talking about the addition of a radar and a police car at the spot that Travis decided not to stop for the police officers telling him to pull over. That officer did not happen to have a radar or car at the time. Yes, Travis is figuring this Tunisian driving stuff out just fine.
The girls and I toured the new neighborhood yesterday. We didn't find anything too surprising but we were able to get down to the water fairly quickly. There is no beach, just rocks, seaweed and garbage, but it is fun to get close to the water and have an undisturbed view of the sea. Although I still think we have a better location as we can sit up on our balcony and see so far out to sea. This morning we saw two ferries or cruise ships going by! Often we see smaller yachts or tiny fishing boats out there also.
And another nice thing we have learned this week is that our garbage gets picked up twice a day. Because we live so close to the presidential palace there are a lot of perks... fresh fish in the market and a lot of garbage pick up and cleaning of the streets. The bowlful of spaghetti that was dumped on the grass across the street from our house two days ago was gone yesterday!! I'm not sure if it was a stray dog or city worker who got to it, but it was all cleaned up!!

So, on to a relaxing weekend and then another week of learning about Tunisian life!

We've made it 1 Month!

I can't believe we have been here for a month already!! Wow, the time has flown by. The novelty of being in this beautiful marble palace is wearing off, though, and we are itching to get into our own house and get settled. We found out today that our container coming on the ship has only made it to Barcelona so it will take a while longer to get here. It would be nice to have more than 4 outfits for each of us. And the girls are growing out of theirs or just plain wrecking them. Oh well. More shopping!!! Perhaps at the frip ("freep") - a swap meet with lots of new clothes. Apparently some European brand names. I will have to check out the craziness sometime. We have been out shopping for the house too but I can't remember the stuff we have packed and don't want to double up. So we will do without some stuff until we see what we have I guess.

Today the girls and I looked for a store with "good" bedding. Good right now for me means sheets that don't feel like sandpaper. Unfortunately we didn't find the shop. That will just give us another adventure for another day. However we need it for the end of this week. So we might end up with sandpapery sheets for a bit until we can take the time to look for some good stuff. We met Travis at his office and went to a hotel supply store to look for kitchenwares. When I told Hunter that Dad had called and were were going to the office to see him she asked why the boss of the office wanted to see us. I said that it was Dad who wanted to see us and she said, "But Dad is the boss of the office and he wants to see us at the office. Why does he want to see us at the office?" I think she thought we were in trouble since she has found out that Travis is now a "boss". Up until then it would have just been a visit to the office. Anyway, we got to the store and there was a lot of good quality kitchen stuff which was lovely to see. We picked out a set of dishes, some knives and a pot... with a lid!!! The dishes no longer have the bowls so we came away with only a pot and knives. So still no cereal at the new house! And the shopping continues. Again, this not driving is no fun. I think I will have to learn to maneuver the crazy streets of Tunis soon.

Next week we are going to the Canadian Ambassador's for a work dinner party. Something about a project they are doing... I'm just interested in the party part. So, since all my clothes are on a boat in Spain I get to go shopping for something to wear. I have no idea what is suitable for a party like this (suggestions are welcome) but we'll see what is out there. I may even need new shoes, who knows!!! ;) Oh course, shopping with the girls and having to change in change rooms with only curtains for doors is always a fun, fun challenge. I might come home with 5 dresses just so I can try them on in peace. Or at least without the whole mall watching me.

We have been learning so many things since we've been here. For example, the oranges on the orange trees in our backyard right now are not really for eating. They are gross. The blossoms are probably to be used for orange water which is used for flavouring desserts or hands at the end of a meal. Thompson or Blood oranges, however, are delicious. We don't have those trees though. Also, when crossing the street, I just hold on to the girls and drag them. Pedestrians don't have the right of way. Don't make eye contact with drivers because if you do, you are more likely to be run over. They know you have seen them and will assume you are going to get out of the way. So I try to stop Hunter from waving at everyone she sees!!! Most of the police don't have guns although they do have holsters. But guards at embassies or consulates hang out with machine guns. They aren't mean, they are still smiling and will make silly sounds at the girls. It's strange. The girls love to see the donkeys pulling carts of scrap metal down the streets. I figure that if donkeys can make it in Tunisian traffic, I should be able to drive in it.

Every day I am realizing what an amazing opportunity this is. Today I was looking at all the people we saw and thinking that the more I see and the more I travel the more I see the similarities in everyone. On the surface, cultures have differences, of course, but every one works, cooks and plays essentially the same. The kids Hunter and Elliot meet play the same games even though they don't speak the same languages. I'm not sure if this makes sense but it is interesting to meet new people and find they have do the same things day to day and have the same interests and concerns.

Another thing I've learned is that couscous is NOT supposed to only take 5 minutes to cook!! When we tried to explain that to our friends here they had no idea what we were talking about. They take 2 hours to steam their couscous. Silly people. ;) Of course, theirs tastes much better and is much more interesting and I intend to learn how to cook Tunisian couscous in a proper "couscousiere" steamer pot.

Although I will probably leave out some of the spices. A lot of the traditional food here is very spicy.

As of last night we have company in the house again. "Papa" Terry and Jeff are here this week. The girls actually had an argument yesterday about whose "Papa" Terry is. Elliot has taken quite a liking to Terry and has gotten a big possessive. Both girls get very excited when the guys from the office come. Next week the house will be full of Travis' coworkers so we will be out before then. Roy, one of the guys who was here a few weeks ago, asked Travis if we would be here when they were here as he really liked having the girls in the house. Travis told him we wouldn't be but I thought he should have offered to leave the girls here for the week!!!

It will be a busy week shopping and getting ready for our move into the new house. And next week we are off to Djerba with Travis and coworkers. They are going for a project presentation in the desert. We will go for the beach!

Good night from Tunis.

BBQs & Baths

Tonight I finally went for the Hammam I've been waiting for since November. Although it is a bit of an awkward situation for me still, it is relaxing and lovely and I hope to get used to being naked and having a woman rub mud all over me while we live here. LOL... yes, I know how that sounds and that is pretty much exactly what it is like. WOW!!! When I first went to the Hammam in November I really had no idea what I was walking in to. I had no idea I would be almost completely naked or that I would lay on a hot marble slab while a woman I could not communicate with dumped buckets of warm water on me, scrubbed me with what felt like steel wool and then rubbed me down with "gommage" or some muddy scrubby stuff. And then after all that I would have my hair washed by this woman. It was all very strange to me, however when I came out of it I couldn't wait for it to be a part of my regular life, as it seems to be for most Tunisian women. So tonight I made it back there and the same woman was there and we still couldn't communicate very well but we made it through. The process wasn't as foreign to me this time but it was still a bit strange. I almost started giggling at one point so I was glad she was scrubbing my feet at that point. I'm not sure I could have explained why I was giggling with only hand gestures! It's an interesting experience that I hope to master by the time we get company as I plan to send all of our female visitors in for a bit of Tunisian culture! hee hee hee

This past weekend we got to experience another part of Tunisian culture... the BBQ. I really had no idea what to expect. Travis told me we were going with one of his coworkers, Chokri, and his family to a mountain for a BBQ. We love BBQs but I never know what other people's version of a BBQ is going to be. Not knowing how to dress I wore a long dress as it was a nice sunny day, forgetting that everyone here thinks it is still cold out so I got a few funny looks and questions throughout the day. Everyone else was in long sleeves and sweaters! But we had a wonderful time. We drove south through the town of Zaghouan to Le Temple des Eaux (The Temple of Water). Along the way we drove right beside aquaducs built by slaves over 2000 years ago.

The construction was AMAZING!! Hunter was even impressed and we talked about how hard it would be to built these structures and how strong you would have to be. She figured there were even very strong woman who probably helped in the building process. The as we got through Zaghouan we were able to water right to the source of the water for the aquaducs.

The technology and contruction for transporting water over 40 kms to a few different communities was incredible.

The spot chosen for the BBQ was beautiful. Others had obviously been to the spot before (we could tell from all the garbage laying around. Littering doesn't seem to be a big deal here... at ALL! Today Hunter figured it was great that we could just start dumping all our garbage on the ground too!) but it didn't seem to be a marked out spot, just a good one. It was almost at the base of a mountain in the bush, with a beautiful view. The kids had a wonderful time exploring and walking around in the bush. The BBQ was delicious! Chokri and Lamia grilled some hot peppers, tomatoes and garlic to make a quick and wonderful Salade Mechouia, a traditional Tunisian salad.

It is a spicy dish but it is a favorite. We also had 3 lbs of fresh lamb. Yum, I like lamb but there is nothing better than lamb grilled over olive wood with just a little lemon juice. Travis and I took turns making noises of satisfaction after each bit of this wonderful meal. I'm pretty sure we can handle trying all of this when we get some kind of a grill here. I forgot to take a picture of the lamb grilling but here it is all ready to be cooked.

It was a lovely day and I'm sure we will be out for many BBQs while we are here. Towards the end of the day the kids decided to build their own firepit and so collected many rocks and sticks until it was just perfect. They insisted it be lit and Hunter figured it would be great to cook over.

Unfortunately they have no idea what marshmallows are here... so we will have to get some over here and show them how to make s'mores!!

Tomorrow will be an exciting day as some of our furniture is being delivered to the new house. We have only ordered the beds and dining room table so far but that should be enough for a week or two until we see what else we really need. We won't move in right away but will have to be out of the company house by the 12th of April as that is when Travis' coworkers fill it up! I am looking forward to being able to start decorating a home to make it our own. We'll see what kinds of fun local decor I can find!! First things first, I need to get myself a beautiful tea set for the lovely traditional mint green tea they serve after dinner. Actually cereal bowls and spoons will probably be a priority.