(5/29/2010) Day 7: The Excursion!!

Forgive me for not putting anything up recently y’all, I couldn’t access the internet in the Hotel Kaiser (supposedly I could from the lobby, but those sunuvguns lied to me… :D ) I however wrote some things down while I was there. So here ya go. Study Abroad in Tunisia’s first excursion, Sousse.

So today began our two day excursion to Sousse. It started with the earliest wake-up yet at 0630 and it definitely made me realize how quickly you get used to “sleeping in” and how hard it is to go back! It simply isn’t fair how that works… hahaha!! Anyways, I took the usual walk to the school, this time it was even shorter than the usual time (yes, I have been timing myself… It’s a good way to entertain oneself on the way there…) and wound up being around 15 minutes… Not bad… We showed up at the school early and waited for everyone else to show up, and when they did, we boarded the bus on our way to the first stop, Takrouna, a Berber village on the way to Sousse.

I managed somehow to board the bus last and got stuck with a seat up at the very front of the bus. What this means is that I wasn’t going to be spending a lot of time turning around and shouting to the other students on the bus…

My rowdy classmates

So I just popped in my headphones and started listening to the only play list working on my zune right now due to the fact I haven’t connected my computer to my external hard drive for forever, the “God is Great” playlist…. Y’all are wondering why I’m telling you this. Well, this would all be irrelevant except for something amazing happened on the way out of the city that kinda set the tone for the rest of this excursion. After a few minutes of driving out of Tunis, we reached the outskirts of the city. I dunno what it was at the time, but Aaron Ivey’s “The Name” came on and I was completely overcome by what I was seeing. Our tour guide Rasheed was mentioning these twin peaks you can see from where we’re living in Sidi Bousaid and was pointing out how much closer we are to them and their size. Now this wouldn’t be that big of a deal but you have to remember you’re talking to a Texan guy… These hills (probably mountains really) were really something… :D Anyways, the day was kind of overcast and just slightly menacing.

As my attention was suddenly turned to this incredible mountain, I noticed how small Tunis looked in comparison. It got me thinking…. It’s so easy for us to be proud of our works and our achievements, (which was the sprawling city of Tunis in this case) but I tell you what… at that moment, I saw what was supposed to be the biggest city in all of Tunisia contrasted against this huge mountain and menacing sky and I just realized how awesome nature can still be. But above all this, what I noticed was how incredible the Lord who created it all is. All this being said, I want to get to the top of at least ONE of those mountains before I leave here. This “coup d’oeil”prompted me to make sure to take the time and to meditate on the subject, so I pulled out David Nasser’s “A Call To Die”, which by the way I HIGHLY recommend, and I finished another day’s entry. About an hour after all of this happened, Rasheed pointed out a small but somewhat tall hill that had small buildings all over the top of it. We had arrived at Takrouna, what was going to be the highlight of my trip so far.

Takrouna, The Berber Village

We climbed up the hill in our bus through these incredibly narrow roads (so narrow I figured that one of them went up and then just continued down on the other side… I was wrong. It was a miracle there wasn’t another vehicle trying to go up / down the hill.) After some deft driving by out driver (who might I add has been incredible) we stopped at the end of the road. Everybody started getting off the bus and when it came my turn to get off… Well.. Y’ all should have been there… No doubt, out of all of the awesome and neat places I’ve been blessed to have been to, very few of them have had a view like the one there on that hillside… And we hadn’t even had gotten to the top of the hill yet.

The view from lower Takrouna

We spent some time admiring the view before heading up the hill. It seemed like at the top of each staircase, the view would only get better. That was before we made it to the top. After some walking and visiting deserted homes, we reached the "summit" of this little mountain village. Lets just say that... The view... it was........ AMAZING!!! The place I plan on getting when I retire will be on a ranch with horses and a beautiful sunset, but it may not be in Texas ladies and gents. My place will have to be built on some type of hill or small plateau because as I stood there at the edge of the top of this hill, with the wind rustling by me, and the most gorgeous view of God's creation, I came to the conclusion I was close to paradise.

The view from upper Takrouna

I could have simply of stood there for hours thinking, meditating, looking, or just enjoying the wind. As it was, I stood there for about 30 minutes, the entire time we were there before heading down the hill with the rest of the group.

We all got on the bus and started back down the windy, narrow hill and drove until we reached this out in the middle of nowhere restaurant that was popular with truckers (the Tunisian equivalent) and random travelers. The food, here at this little roadside shack, was epic!!

The Restaurant Zitouna

The Tunisian Truckers

The Soup

And the Main Course

Now y'all at this point are probably thinking I'm just saying this to make today seem amazing, but no. I myself was wondering how today wound up being so great!!! And it was only half way done... Hahaha!! After impressing our guide Rasheed again by successfully realizing Nancy Ajaram (An Arabic Singer) on a Coca Cola poster (and then admiring how pretty she is with all of the other men on the trip) we once again loaded up the bus and left for Sousse.

The city of Sousse

After arriving, we check into the Hotel Kaiser. Now Sousse is your typical touristy city and the Kaiser (surprise surprise) was the typical touristy hotel. Nevertheless, our room was big, and our tour group had an entire half of the 1st floor to ourselves. (It was good that was how it turned out... We made a lot of noise...) After giving us a little while to get situated, we went out for our next challenge. We were dropped off at the big local souk (سوق) to do some shopping (not much of a challenge, until you try to do it all in a language you're not 100% proficient in).

The typical looking souk

It rained off and on and I decided to pick up two shemaghs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keffiyeh) for 1.9 dinars (about 1.1 dollars) each to help me stay dry/warm. Now shemaghs are probably my favorite Arabic clothing item. You can use them as a cover, towel and blanket, the're pretty cool!!! I decided that would be it though, followed my buddies around and provided emotional support in difficult bargaining situations. While they were in their shops I found my time was best spent practicing my Arabic and French with the store keepers. At one point I spoke some Arabic with a storekeeper until we started talking about things outside of my vocabulary. So I asked him if we could switch to French. After a few sentences he asked me where I was from and guessed French at first. When I replied no he went through almost every European country I knew and then Canada at which point I just told him I was American. "American?!" he replied, "Nooo, Americans don't speak any other languages but English!" Hahaha!!!

Good deals were made in that Souk, but hearts were broken as well... (It's alright Luis You'll get 'em next time!!) before we left for the hotel to eat dinner and sleep. After dinner, one of the members of our group found out the bar downstairs actually sold alcohol... Uh oh... Laissez les bon temps rouler!! Following this mindset I got my party on with.... A beer... But a few of the others had enough to make it an interesting night!!! haha!! We had fun! Happy Birthday Travis! I can't wait to see how the second day of the excursion goes!!