The not-so flying falcon, and the woman with the rubber glove

Hello all,

Its been a little while since our last update so we will recap the weeks events.

As we arrived at the beach, our trip was cut short, as we were homosexually approached by a creepy tunisian man who was very fond of our American behinds. He had a New York Yankees hat on so we said hello and he proceeded to move closer closer to us while while whispering sweet arabic nothings into our ears. He removed his hat, shirt, and wallet, placed them on marks sarong and went for a swim. When he came out of the water he had a rock in his hand and gave it to mark as a gift. After our personal space was invaded we decided it was time to leave as we were not interested in what this man was offering. He tried to join us but we made it clear we were leaving alone.

Saturday 8/7/2010

- We were awoken in the morning by flies. It has been a common occurrence while sleeping here. We met Lora's co-worker Tarek who invited us on a road trip to Bizerte (about 45 minutes away). We took in a few sights such as, the old port of bizerte, , , we walked around the Kazbah (a fort), and we followed Tarek into a Mosque. A few minutes after entering a man came up to Mark and I and told us we must leave because we were not muslim. Tarek and the man got in a little argument, but eventually settle things and we moved on with our trip. After an uneventful and dull tour of the city, we headed out to Cap Serrat. Cap Serrat was a very secluded beach, it would have been nice to have made it there but we were lost got lost on the way because there really are no street signs---just like New Jersey. We ended up finding a very beautiful beach at Ras Angela. There was hardly any trash on the beach here. We soaked up some sun, played beach tennis and went for a walk down the shore for a few hours. We came across fishing boats, muslims praying, warm sand and purple rocks. We headed home from the beach showered off and went to dinner at a lebanese restaurant on the Corniche of La Marsa. Had ice cream to end a fun day.

Sunday 8/8/210

James woke up in the morning with a swollen red eye. We assumed that a piece of sand or grit got caught under his contact the night before and scratched his cornea. While James stayed home and nursed his eye, Lora and Mark headed to the Bardo Museum. Where they saw famous mosaics and statues from the Roman Empire. We then went to Cafe Journal for a quick lunch, where like all other places in tunis we were attacked by flies and homeless cats while we ate. We then headed home to relax before we headed out again to La Goulette a major fishing town. We went to Dinner at cafe vert with Lora's Argentinean friend Gaston, where we sat near the greasy foreign Ron Jeremy. We also saw a group of children in a cage in the bed of a pickup truck. It was an interesting site. A funny one to say the least.

Monday 8/9/210

Monday was a lazy day, we sat around the apartment, doing alot of nothing. While the cleaning lady took 5 hours to clean a 3 room apartment. We did our first load of laundry, and used clothes hangars for the first time. They do not have a drier, the sun is good enough for that in the desert. At night we went to dinner at La Plaza Corniche and enjoyed one of the better meals of our trip. We finished it off by listening to Adam Sandlers Classic CD, What the hell happened to me? With such goodies as, Ode to my car, The Chanukah song, The Goat, Respect, the hypnotist and do it for your mama.

Tuesday 8/10/2010

Tuesday we sat in the apartment all day bored as f**k. We cooked up dinner for ourselves that night with pasta, zuchini, carrots, onions, tomatoes and garlic. The food was pretty good. Not like home cooking, but we are working on it.

Wednesday 8/11/2010

Today Ramadan began. Basically everything closes down during the day, so there is not much to do. We sat around in the apartment all day and got to listen to the loudspeakers of the mosques all day. Not to mention that we are woken up every morning at 4am by the same loudspeakers. We passed the day playing with the pet tortoise, Tortu. Mark fed him by hand and in thanks, he pissed and shit all over the floor. Finally we decided to be productive, we took a cab to Sidi Bou Said ( a town on a hill with a nice view). The town is usually hustling and bustling but because of Ramadan, most were lethargic and quiet. (Practicing Muslims are not allowed to eat or drink between sunrise and sunset, so things can get a little hairy at times). As we walked around a lookout spot, we stumbled across 2 Americans that were being hustled by a baby falcon and its owner. Before we knew it, the falcon was on James arm and the man was talking to us about what he did. Mark snapped some photos, and he tried to take the falcon off of James' shoulder and it tried to fly away, right over the lookout down a steep glass and cacti ridden hill. The man frantically ran down the hill in his sandals, and was searching for the falcon, it was a baby so it could not fly. We both contemplated leaving the scene of the crime when we remembered we had hearts. The man found the falcon, brought it back up and let mark hold it for a minute, then took it back. He asked for a donation and James pulled out his wallet which only had US dollars. He saw that there was a few bucks in it and hustled us for 10 US dollars. (James felt bad that the guy had to run through cactus and glass to retrieve the falcon so he did not complain). Later that night we met Lora's friends (minus Lora, she was diligently working late). We had dinner around 10:30 and ended up staying till 1:45 because the owner invited us to have birthday cake and to hang out for awhile. It was a good end to a relaxing night. Bjorn arrived from Sweden at 12am, his hair looking golden as ever.

Thursday 8/12/10

We received some good news about a volunteer/job opportunity through a company called Organic Indonesia. It was the first e-mail we wrote and it was nice to have a response the day after. James has some serious e-mail skills. Bjorn took us to get cell phones in the shopping mall, so once in sweden/indonesia we will have phone access and will call everyone. We then went to the beach, soaked up some rays, thankfully no homosexual solicitations occurred this time. While Lora was at work, the boys went to the market, picked up dinner and nacho essentials. We made nachos, enjoyed some beer, good food and even better company. After dinner we were joined by lora's friends from the african development bank, where heated debates occurred about the development, or lack there of in africa.

Friday 8/13/10

Mark went to bed the night before feeling sick, in the morning he woke up with an upset stomach and a fever. Lora arranged a tour of Carthage and the tunis medina for us. Mark could not attend. Bjorn, James and one of lora's friends girlfriends joined us instead. We got to see roman ruins, a 30,000 capacity amphitheater, and roman baths in 100 degree heat, where we found rosemary bushes growing in the gardens. James decided it would be nice to have some to use for dinner that night so he ripped off a few sprigs, unaware that a guard with a large machine gun was watching. Thankfully he had better things to do than bust his chops. That night, Bjorn, James and Lora went to a dinner party at one of Lora's fellow co-workers. We had dinner, drinks and a good time. Lots of dancing. James was asked if he used to be a chippendales dancer. Bjorn systematically arranged a flirt with a nice young Rwandan lady for James. They had good conversation and enjoyed the evening talking. We arrived back home around 3am.

Saturday 8/14/10

The next morning, amidst groans, complaints about body odor and slight hangovers, we went to a hotel spa where we received a Hammam spa treatment. We relaxed in a steam bath, James and Mark had to share a foot bath because the 4th one was broken. Good thing our homosexual friend from the beach was not with us.. We were then washed by a lady with a rubber glove. She scrapped off all our excess skin and soaped up our alcohol scented bodies. After showering clean and putting on a robe we were lead to a waiting area, where we spent time relaxing before our massages. We all received 10-15 minute natural oil massages. None of the 4 massages ended happily. We had a good lunch at the spa, where we experienced the 1st rain since May. It lasted for a total of 3 minutes. We then went to rent a car for the next 9 days in order to go on our upcoming trip to the Sahara Desert.

Its getting late, we are all tired and are getting up at 7am to start our road trip. We will be visiting a roman colosseum which is preserved better than the one in Rome, as well as the areas where Indiana Jones, Star Wars, and the English Patient were filmed. If we have internet, we will update the blog if not we will post again as soon as we are back at the apartment. We look forward to the adventure but not to the 120 degree temperatures.


We hope all is well in the states, we will post pictures from the past week as soon as we can. For now our writing will have to do. Thats all folks. Until we blog again.



Health and Happiness,



James and Mark