Milestones

I am taking a detour and not posting about all the trips we have taken.  Instead, I will post pictures of Antoinette's Junior Prom and Alyssa's First Communion.  Antoinette's prom was Saturday night Memorial Day Weekend.  Alyssa's First Communion was Sunday.






Processing into the church




There were only four children, Alyssa said, "I am the only white person."  We are a minority.



Egypt Part. 3

Sorry this is so late, I have a part-time job now and hardly find any free time.  I need to post some more Egypt pictures before we go to Sicily in April.  The last time I posted we were notified we got two of our luggage.  Surprise!! We arrived at the airport and  All four of our suitcases were there.  They made it through the Egyptian uprising and the clothes were clean and folded.  They weren't touched...  God is good all the time.



They had a nice New Years Eve dinner for us on the ship in Luxor.  The kids weren't that impressed other than the tomato that was on fire.



 

 

Saturday morning we visited the Karnak Temple ( a photo of what it might have looked like.  The complex is huge.

This is the base of one of the columns

You can see the cartouch (family name) in the circle.  Also there were all these columns, if they were closed on the top like a lotus flower  that meant it was night

The top of this column lotus  is open so it meant day.  There were so many columns the kids started getting bored with the tour so we took a break and played "hide and seek" around the columns.  It was fun.

 





Doesn't this look like the Washington Monument?  They had quite a few of these at Karnak Temple

We visited one more Temple the Luxor Temple before we went on our 4wheel Safari that evening.



Sunset on the Sahara Desert

We didn't take any pictures of us 4 wheeling in the desert because they made a DVD for us that has it live.  That sums up the cruise in Egypt.  We boarded a plane and we were off to Cairo next.  That will be part. 4.

Egypt Part. 2

Great News!  I got a call today, they have two of our luggage at the airport in Tunis and we can pick it up on Saturday.  I am hoping the other two will show up and we can pick them all up at the same time. 

I left off with the city of Luxor.  We arrived at the port a little late because the Nile River was choppy due to the wind so they had to go slower.  We had lunch and by 1:30pm we are docking our first stop was going to be Edfu Temple.  We had a horse and carriage ride to the temple.  The carriages outnumber the cars in the city.  They are everywhere.

Here are  pictures of the Edfu Temple



Inside wall at Edfu Temple



Notice the size of the entrance



symbolic statue of King Ramsey II

One of our drivers

In the morning, we went to the Valley of the Kings.  We could not take pictures at the Valley of the Kings but on the way there we saw some hot air balloons.

Egypt

This is for real, before the Egypt Revoulution and before the Tunisian Revoulution we went to Egypt for a cruise on the Nile River and spent two days in Cairo.

We left on the 28 of December and returned the 4th of January.  We packed four suitcases that we never saw the whole time we were gone.  A matter of fact we still have not received our lost luggage.  Do you know how difficult it is to travel with only one change of clothes?  It was a big bummer for the kids because the cruise boat had a pool and they weren't able to use it.  Luckily, we did lots of sight seeing and they didn't have a lot of time and we spent time on the boat eating and sleeping.

I won't mention the reason why are luggage got lost was due to our flight into Egypt was delayed and we missed our connecting flight and we had to fly standby.  Myself and Alyssa got on a morning flight and the rest were stuck in Cairo.  What I have learned in living in Tunisia is that exspect delays and always prepare for the unexpected because it will happen.

Despite all the problems, we did enjoy our trip to Egypt and would recommend Mephis Tours when things return back to normal.

Komomo Temple- Alyssa & I visited this site while Jim and the rest just made the boat that morning before it cast off.




Egyptian Calendar- Komomo Temple



What the cruise boats looked like.

I will post more pictures on another blog, the pictures are taking to long to upload.  I will try on a different date.









Christmas Time



We spent Christmas in Tunisia.  Zachary kept saying it didn't feel like Christmas because there was no snow.  We had Christmas early when all our stuff came about two weeks before Christmas.



The Whole gang including Goliath



Zachary smirking thinking we don't own a wii and his Aunt bought him a wii game.

Jim and I bought the kids a wii while we were in Germany.  We decided wouldn't it be funny if we didn't wrap it up under the tree and to wait until they were done opening all the gifts that they received from their Aunt & Uncle's that were wii games.  We told my family that we were buying them a wii and that some wii games would be a good gift.





Family Night Board games for the wii, great if we only had a wii...







Wow really a wii!!!

There were also tears, Grandma made a stuffed cat, Jack who is back at my Dad's is missed by Ariana.

The hunter to bad there is no place to hunt.

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