Tunisia Log Final

Spring Break(27 Feb – 10 Mar 2009)

1)

Q & ABefore we go any further I think it’s important to field a few of the questions wehave received thus far.

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How is school?

o

School is going well - both of us are now in the middle of mid-terms sothings are heating up a bit. It’s sad to say that quality teachers are hard tofind (teachers are lacking in their English skills) and as a result the coursesseem to be more about what the students make of them rather than whatthe teacher teaches.

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Also, how is the knee recovery coming along?

o

The knee is back to normal. Grant has been running on it a little bit andyesterday did some leg presses in the gym. Not to mention the extensivewalking that took place while in Tunisia on Spring Break.

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Are you able to get any exercise?

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As you may have guessed, the answer is yes. There is somewhat of a hole inthe wall gym that we go to most mornings. We also do a substantial amountof walking on weekends when exploring new cities. Alicia has a friend to doyoga with a couple times a week.

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How are Americans perceived here?

o

For this question, we so far have to break this down into our time inMorocco and our time in Tunisia. I’m sure this will be subject to change alsoas we explore other Middle Eastern countries down the road, and especiallythe closer we get to Israel. In Morocco and Tunisia Americans are wellaccepted mostly, it seems, as a result of the election of Obama. Most of thetime when someone asked us what our nationality was and we saidAmerican they would spout out “Obama” in a very receptive way. Perhapsit’s enough of a change for them, just to have him in office. Obviously, howthey perceive the U.S. presidency is going to be different than a U.S. citizen.For the most part though, I would say that we have been not so much judged by our nationality but by the color of our skin and hair (soundsfamiliar, being judged by the color of one’s skin?), and our inability to speakeither French or Arabic. The simple appearance as a foreigner leaves usextremely susceptible to travel agents (especially in Morocco) and anonslaught of staring (as in Tunisia) and begging (especially in Morocco), butmore than anything there seems to be the perception that its okay to rip-off foreigners, so every money transaction always involves a negotiation.

Overall though it just takes some getting used to, especially since due to thelanguage barrier there are aspects to the culture we will never fullyunderstand.

2)

Spring Break

DAY 1

Casablanca,Morocco

DAY 2

Jendouba, Tunisia

DAY 3

Le Kef, Tunisia

DAY 4

Douz, Tunisia

DAY 5

Matmata-El Jem,Tunisia

DAY 6

Kairouan, Tunisia

DAY 7

Tunis, Tunisia

DAY 8

Carthage-Sidi BouSaid, Tunisia

DAY 9

Bardo Museum,Tunis, Tunisia

DAY 10

Tunis, Tunisia

DAY 11

La Marsa, Tunis,Tunisia

DAY 12

Casablanca-Ifrane,Morocco

Legend

Blue = Air Red line = BusGreen = Louage/TaxiOrange = TrainPink = Light Rail

Where do we start? Tunisia was certainly an adventure for us. The best part about thetrip was seeing the amazing Roman ruins scattered throughout the Tunisian landscape. Weessentially did a circular tour of the country – and took pretty much every means of masstransportation available to us (bus, train, taxi, louage, etc.). Before embarking on our Tunisianadventures, we came armed with a little historical background of the country, a printed fast factsheet/map of Tunisia, and Al Akhwayn University library’s 1998 version of the “Rough Guide toTunisia.” Surprisingly, the 10-year old book proved to be quite useful on our whirlwind tour of Tunisia. But as we found later on, reading is definitely different than experiencing!We left the university on Friday, February 27

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with 3 fellow Moroccan students and afellow exchange student for Casablanca. Arriving in Casablanca in the early evening, we got aroom at the Hotel Ibis near the train station that would take us to the airport. We decided thiswould be our evening of “luxury” to start the trip off right. After securing our room we walkedto Rick’s Café near the Medina of Casablanca. To refresh your memory of the movie Casablanca(1942), Rick’s Café was Humphrey Bogart’s nightclub in themovie! While the movie was never actually filmed onMoroccan soil, tourists like yours truly certainly eat up theambience of the restaurant and setting. With great success,we found the café without any real problems and found thatwe were a half hour early for the restaurant to open. Luckily,we were within a short walking distance to Casablanca’sgreat draw – The Hassan II Mosque which was built in 1993.I am not sure anything could have quite prepared us for thisextravagant mosque. Built overlooking the Atlantic Ocean,the view of both the mosque and to the west was breathtaking. We arrived just as the sun was setting and thecall to evening prayer was beginning. We took somefabulous photos, people watched, and walked down near theocean listening to the waves crash against the shore. Allhunger pains had subsided at this point – it was a very peaceful setting. We then walked back to Rick’s Caféanticipating a great meal and we weren’tdisappointed. Alicia got a colorful saladand Grant got a T-bone steak (who issurprised here at our meal choices??). Wealso ordered a bottle of wine that weslowly savored. Halfway through themeal, we learned that we would have live piano music at 9pm (his name wasn’t Sam,as in the movie!). So Alicia got a coffeeand we both got dessert – Grant a brownie,Alicia an apple tartlet. In the meantime,we were receiving several text messagesfrom fellow international students who

Alicia in front of Hassan II Mosque

At Ricks Cafe