Halloween

Zachary was very determined to be Avatar even if it meant shaving his head

I apologize that it is almost Thanksgiving but October was a very busy month.  I don't know about you but as school and Fall approaches the days seem to go by quicker.  The kids had fun "trunk or treating" at the Embassy.  They got way to much candy...  The kids had a Halloween party at school, they played games and got dressed up.  The pictures are mostly from the School Halloween party.  All the Halloween events happened on Friday and Saturday.  We actually were at home Halloween night, watching tv and feasting on all the American chocolate bars.



Meet the Flinstones...

 Jim and I even got in on the fun.  I had to permanently dye my hair red because they did not have temporary hair color here.  I redyed it brown and now I have auburn hair.

Fall in Tunisia

Fall pretty much looks like summer, the temperatures are cooler.  We got our van on Friday so Saturday we went sight seeing.  We visited a park that had lots of beautiful flowers.  For all those who like flowers here is what we saw.

I also have to post a picture of their "desert fox"  to me it looks like a mouse with huge ears.  This is there mark for keeping the environment clean.

It is time to write again.  I can't believe that we have been here almost two months already.  We have news that our vehicle is on a ship and is on its way here.  I hope we now get our dip. passports soon because in order to register your vehicle here you need a dip. passport.

Halloween is just around the corner, we will have trunk or treating and I need to find creative homemade costumes for my two older children.  Zachary is going to be Avatar, the last air bender and is going to shave his head (draw an arrow on it).  I never saw the movie so Antoinette is the brains behind this costume.  We will go to the Medina and find a tan outfit that looks Oriental or Arabic.  Alyssa was given a costume here and is going to be a Southern belle or Elizabeth  like she says from Pirates of the Caribbean.  Here are pictures from last year's Halloween.

Music at the Medina

I apologize that I haven't posted in awhile, everyone knows how busy our everyday lives can get.  We had a tour of the Medina during Ramadan and we got to listen and experience some of the local music.  Hopefully, this will work and you can also listen.
Sorry, I couldn't get the video to work.

They were actually very good

I also find it funny that if you take a taxi, the taxi driver will not speak English but they will have top pop English music like Lady Gaga and Katy Perry.  I would like to ask them if they actually know what they are singing about but I do not know enough French to try and have that conversation so for now I will just keep wondering.

The traditional hat that is worn and made in Tunisia is the La Chechia.  They are wool and are traditionally worn by men.  In Libya, the color is grey.  They are made here at the Medina and shipped all over the world.  They have also made them so women can wear them so they have bright colors; green and pink.  We watched some drummers who had the traditional outfits on and they were wearing the red hat.  ( See Picture)

Labor Day

The day started out with getting kids off to school because they did not get Labor Day off.  They get Thursday and Friday off because of the Muslim holiday, Eid el Fitr.  Jim will also get those two days off.  He has a very short work week.
The Pajero that we have been borrowing has bad tires and Jim was going to change the tire that is starting to bulge.  He goes out to the vehicle and finds out that the front driver side tire is flat and this was the tire half good  not the bulging one.  He finds out that the lug wrench is missing so we take a taxi to the embassy hoping that Motor Pool will be open and that we know enough French to explain to them what tool we need.  No luck, off to Carrfour; French Walmart.  We ask the taxi to wait while we go get a lugnut wrench.  Thank goodness we find one.  We come back and the taxi driver is smiling.  He told us in French it is called a "glee".  He asks what it is called in English, Jim says, "lugnut wrench.  He says "lugnut wench", I giggle to myself.  I can definitely relate with having problems with a foreign language.
We get home and get the tire changed with the passing by of an elderly gentleman who has nothing better to do and wants to help.  Jim humors him and he watches and threads bolts for Jim.  I give him a dinar for his assistance and because it is Ramadan season.
We go in the house and cool off, Jim needs a shower and we eat lunch.  We decide we aren't going to get much sightseeing done today.
We take Jim's dry cleaning to La Marsa and try to find these special maps that are suppose to help you find things with there crazy roads.   We find only volume 2 at the bookstore and the one we really need is volumne1.  We decide to go to the La Marsa Mall and there was a bookstore that had both volume 1 & 2.  We buy both and hope this will solve the problem of being lost.  The American's swear by them.  We shall wait and see.
Jim & I then decide to take another driver to a near by place, Sid Bou Said.  This is a tourist town on the Mediterranean.  They are known for their blue doors on their houses.  We stop at a public beach and we watch a fisherman and this guy who is snorkeling.  This guy has a spear though, we are intrigued so we watch for quite awhile.  This guy finally comes out of the water and he pulls an octopus out of his pouch.  He was hunting or fishing depending on what you would call it.
We decide to head for home and we start down this road and before our eyes is the sign "American Cemetery. " That was going to be one of the places we were going to stop and see.  It is beautiful, we didn't have a camera but we will go back and visit it again.  It feels like America when you step in the garden and makes you proud of all the servicemen who sacrificed  for our freedom.  I know when I get homesick, I will go there and just sit.
A perfect end to  a not so perfect day.

Our house

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Our formal dining room, it has a patio off of it.  Ignore the clutter.

Antoinette's room

Our living room

This post might be a little boring so bear with me.  I have had a few people who want to know what our house looks like.    If you are lucky, your door might be blue or green.  The locals say the blue helps keep the mosquitos away.  I am not sure if that works or not but it sounds good.

Marble steps that wind around to go upstairs

The houses in Tunis, not our house

The Colors of Tunis

Tunis is very beautiful but then there are some parts that are dry and brown.  I am impressed with all the flowers that are grown here.  We have a gardner and we have beautiful flowers and fruit trees in our yard.
The water is so blue and it contrasts well with all the other colors.
We have only seen a small part of Tunis.  We are hoping to do more sight seeing when the weather cools off.  It is still in the upper 90's .

We are here!!

This is my first blog, so bare with me.  For those who do not know French, like myself I will only use English words.  I did find it appropriate to include the French word for family in the title.  I also found out that six in French is the same as English.
We are here and I am not sure where to begin.  I could start way back and how we got here.  We drove to St. Louis to drop our vehicle off so we actually flew out of St. Louis.  We were suppose to fly to Washington D.C. but they had a storm that morning and our flight was cancelled.  Thanks to Pedro at United he was able to book a flight from Chicago to Rome.  We had a 10 hour layover in Rome so we took advantage of the time and went and saw the Roman ruins.  On three hours of sleep, we saw the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Monument to Victor Emmanuel II, the Pantheon and the Fountain of Trevi.  I will try to post pictures, if I know how with this blog.  We decided to wait with all the Catholic Cathedrals and the Vatican for another time.  We weren't dressed right and we were to tired.  We arrived in Tunisia the evening of the 13th about 11pm.