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!
