Eurotour 2014: Rome

I left Tunisia early on a Friday. The night before, I planned to go out with my friend Ahlem, and then go back to spend the night at Salma's, where I had been staying for two weeks already. Ahlem offered me a bed to sleep in at her friend's house, so since we'd be out later, and it was a little far, I figured why not. Sleepover! We went and met up with the two law students and their friend, and then we went to grab pizza and chat. It was already getting late, so we bid adieu to them and went back to Ahlem's friend's house. Her husband works somewhere in sub-Saharan Africa as an oil engineer, so it was us three and her two kids (who are the same age as mine, and remarkably but Arab-typically awake at 11 pm). We at strawberries and whipped cream, tea with macademia nuts, and chatted.

I finally went to bed, knowing I had to wake up at 6 am to catch my flight, but couldn't sleep at all. Probably one of my worst nights of sleep ever, not sure what it was (maybe the late night tea, I think it's caffeinated). It was fine though, I woke up and got to the airport, which was only a few minutes drive, and checked in to my flight. We boarded the plane and then sat then what seemed like at least an hour. Turns out there was an elderly women who could not walk up the stairs to the plane, and so they needed to get a special lift for her. And that takes an hour, apparently. I wasn't feeling terribly confident in the airline, and then the pilot said "Arabic Arabic Arabic I can't understand... inshallah." I had never heard a pilot say "inshallah" before take-off before, but if you speak Arabic, you can understand that's not terribly comforting. Inshallah literally means "god-willing" but Arabs often use it to get out of social arrangements... like "of course I will there, inshallah!" It's used in plenty more contexts than that, and I'm sure pilots say it all the time, but I never noticed it and for some reason that simple word made me a nervous wreck the whole flight. I'm a nervous flier anyway, I have fairly bad anxiety on an airplane, and could not focus on anything else. Knowing that I had five more flights ahead of me, I was full of dread. Luckily, the four of the five I have taken were without incident and I am safely in New York.

Since our flight was coming from Tunis, and there is a big problem of illegal immigration, as soon as we stepped off the flight we were brusquely corralled into an hallway where we were questioned and security scanned. I have never gone through SO MUCH security as I have on this trip, despite having gone to the Middle East several other times. I caught a bus from the Rome airport after waiting in this crazy mass of people trying to go through immigration. Apparently, Italians don't believe in queues. It took over an hour to get through.

On the way to the hostel, hello Rome!

I found my hostel fairly easily, and was greeted by the strong smell of cigarette smoke. Apparently it's a "non-smoking" hostel, meaning there are huge signs on the bedrooms that forbid smoking, but that doesn't apply to the front office staff who smoke right next to the rooms. They were also the least friendly hostel staff I've ever encountered. Oh well, I was only there one night anyways, and wanted to see as much of the city as possible in that one day so did not plan on spending too much time there. I freshened up and headed out. As to not bore you on everything I saw, here is a series of photos:

Coliseum selfie

Tiny church, where I was completely alone.

Roman Forum

I was honestly so impressed by Rome. I didn't really have high expectations, and thought it might be overhyped, but it was pretty dang incredible. The coliseum from the outside was huge, bigger than I ever imagined. I didn't pay to go inside anywhere, because of both money and long entrance lines with little time, but I thought I saw a good portion of everything from the outside. After eight hours of nothing but walking and a short eating stop, I arrived back to the hostel. The other women staying with me were really cool. I was feeling brave about traveling alone until I met a 19-yr-old Australian girl who is traveling solo for three months in Europe. My few days alone suddenly didn't look nearly as impressive. I woke up thinking it was 8 am, but since my iPad didn't adjust automatically it was actually an hour later, and I needed to grab breakfast and be at the airport by 11. I rushed to a cafe where our free breakfast was being served and grabbed my croissant and cappucino, to go. I'm pretty sure the Italians were disgusted by my eating on the run. Sorry, guys.

 

Tunisia, week ithneen

This week is more of a blur than last week, mainly because I was busier, and also since I was busier I didn't stop at night to blog because I was so tired and spent less time at the house. I had two lovely lunch dates with Ahlem and Emira, two of the students I met at the meeting last week with Madame Halila. I also tried to go to the US embassy to use their library, but was thoroughly rejected even though I did argue for a good ten minutes to several men with large machine guns and body armor. That was kind of neat. Since the attacks by salifists in 2012, the US embassy is under heavy guard, and the doors are all super heavy duty and nearly impossible to open (for me, at least). I went through no fewer than three metal detectors, had to turn my cell phone off, and hand over my bag at the very beginning.

Awkward photo courtesy of my friend Ahlem

The weather turned hotter this week too, so there was a lot of sweaty, crowded bus riding. Kind of ready to be back on Madison's overly-ACed buses. No great pics of the week, sorry loyal readers.

I am very hot in this picture, and tired

Eating breakfast with mom

One benefit of looking wealthy... you can walk into any fancy hotel to use the bathroom

More skyping! I miss these faces

The most uncrowded bus I've been on!

Here are some general observations about Tunisia:

1. As a general rule, it seems like religion is a non-issue (outside of the political realm). You see women wearing hijabs and abayas sitting walking and chatting with women in tank tops and skinny jeans. The clothing is surprising actually, it's weird to see women in see-through tank tops and men in shorts. Though I don't think I've seen ANY short skirt or shorts on anyone. It's still more conservative than the US, but not as conservative as Egypt. You rarely see women in niqab... I think I've seen one or two but not any more. For the most part, people wear western-style clothes and some women wear hijabs.

2. There are feral cats and dogs, but far fewer than in Egypt. It's cleaner than Egypt or Morocco, but according to Tunisians it's MUCH dirtier than before the revolution.

3. Street food is abundant, cheap, and filling. Better than Morocco, but worse than Egypt. I miss koshari, tammayia and fuul. It can't even compete with that.

4. Their is still poverty, obviously, but I see far fewer homeless people here than in Egypt. Also, no one asks me for baksheesh, like, ever! Even when I ask for directions, or when they help me find a place I'm going, or get this! I even used a guy's phone the other day to call my friend, offered to give him money for minutes, and he turned me down and said he was happy to help! WHAT!?

5. Men here rarely look at me creepily, and for the most part are really respectful. Besides that one incident of the 15-yr-old boy, on the metro, they will actually go out of their way to stand clear of me. Maybe it's because I haven't showered in a while though...

Overall, I've enjoyed being here. The weather has been beautiful, my host family has been gracious and easy to live with, I've made some great contacts and visited some neat places. If Tim and the kids had been around with me, and we lived closer to the ocean, it might've been the perfect trip! Tunisia is by far my favorite Arab country to date.

 

 

Welcome in Tunisia

After a tearful goodbye and a bus ride where I contemplated hopping off and heading home several times, I made it to the Madison airport and onto my flight. I was really sad, alternating between kicking myself for leaving my loves behind and crying because I could just picture our sweet reunion in three weeks. It didn't take long for me to turn around because I sat next to a really awesome environmental studies grad student named Valerie who was heading to Sweden for a forum with Bill Clinton (and other famous people I forget now). We chatted the whole trip to Detroit, then I hopped quickly off the plane and ran to catch my NYC flight, on the far other side of the airport.

My depression returned when I sat down on the flight, again comprehending just how far I would be from the people I love the most for so long. A veiled woman and her husband sat down next to me, and immediately when I heard their Levantine dialect, I started chatting it up with them. I love greeting people in Arabic when they don't know you speak Arabic, because they at first are like "huh?" and then they (usually) get super happy and excited that you speak Arabic. We talked the entire two hours to New York, all about our families and our studies and the war in Syria. Her 8-yr-old son lives in Damascus, and she is only able to see him twice a year, and only after flying into Amman and driving from there into Syria, since no flights go directly to Damascus. And though I still am craving some Lu kisses and Atticus cuddles, it put my whole experience into perspective for me. Three weeks, while my kids are safely tucked into their regular life in an incredibly safe city.... I can handle this. Anywho, she was amazing and we are already Facebook friends and we already planned a future visit to hang out.

On my stopover from Madison en route to Tunis, I stayed a night with my old Cairean friends Jason and Sarah (and Charlie and Milo). We stayed up way too late chatting, and I remembered just how much I love Sarah. She is terrible at Facebook and email, so you have to hang out with her in real life to truly get her full essence. She is the greatest. And her tiny boys were so precious... Charlie was sensitive and espressive and a Superman lover. Milo was a squishy, chubby ball of perfection who still smelled like a baby and not a sweaty toddler. They had moved 90% of their belongings the day I arrived, but Sarah was still up for a long walk and pizza until late at night. They live in this amazing area of Brooklyn in a gorgeous brownstone across from a huge park, so basically the best place ever. Sadly, for all involved except the grandparents, they are moving back to Provo in a week. I am happy my trip coincided with the time before the move though, because it was a really *lovely* visit. We didn't do anything tourist-y, just went to church and ate Chipotle and went to a splash pad. Why are there SO MANY PEOPLE in New York?? I always forget this until I go back again. Do you ever run into anyone you know? I love it, but I think I prefer our tiny Madison city better.

I went to JFK that evening, and our flight ended up being delayed three hours. I sat around, read my Kindle, chatted up some old women who asked me if I was really going to talk to the "native African women" feminists. Yes, why yes I am. One of my favorite parts of the waiting was when the sunset prayer happened, and the waiting room was turned into a makeshift mosque. I sat on my flight from NYC to Casablanca next to a professor from France currently teaching in North Carolina, who is leading a study abroad group in Rabat for the summer. On my second flight to Tunis, I sat next to a Tunisian guy who works in the oil fields in Gabon, and flies home twice a month. Both were lovely to chat with.

I arrived in Tunis late afternoon on May 26th. My host, Salma, graciously offered to pick me up from the airport and I found her effortlessly. We drove to her house where I will be staying during my time in Tunis. I have a nice room with a bed and sitting area, and then I share the bathroom and kitchen with her family (she has two sons, they are 12 and 9, I think). She lives in an area of Tunis called Bardo, and it's not a wealthy area but it's culturally rich. There is a famous museum close by that I plan to visit soon, and the Tunisian parliament is right around the corner.

Salma also prepared couscous with vegetables and (I later found out) intestine and liver. It was so tasty, I ate intestine in South Africa and it was terrible but this was prepared well and subtle but flavorful. The couscous was different than Morocco, a lot spicier and less liquidy. A perfect meal though, because I was hungry but also tired and the thought of having to find something to eat the night I arrived was daunting to me.

After a rough night's sleep (always an adjustment), I woke up and ate some yogurt, then did a little iPad reading and research. Salma showed me the bus stops and metro so I could find my way into town, then we went to the local store to purchase my staples: pasta, tomatoes, zucchini, green peppers. I will eat this every day for the next two weeks -- it's our Middle Eastern staple, easy to make and ridiculously cheap. I also bought some of those weird cheese squares, some bread, and strawberries. A kilo of strawberries is only 2 dinar, which is like $1.50. Woohooooo, cheap produce!

And now, since I have a short trip, it's time to get to work. We will see how many feminist activists I can hunt down, and how many will talk to me.