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!