Expatriette in...

the background noises in my life are the biggest change between my chicago life and my life in tunis. the kinds of birds chirps, the sounds of engines, the speed of people's steps, the ubiquitous call to prayer, the music playing in cars that drive by and even the sound of my own thoughts here are all just so different. the language of my dreams is slowly changing. i'm drawn to different aesthetics and the scent of almond blossoms is following me from the groves we passed on our drive through the south of tunisia. yesterday when i took off my jeans, they left perfect imprints of squares and circles from the pockets and the 3 dinar coins inside the right one. this probably means im eating too many deep fried, date filled, honey soaked rhombuses called makrouds. its a small trade off, really. we do walk an awful lot here and sometimes i jog, but most times when i try i just end up standing in front of the sea. the streets of tunis are really cosmopolitan, colorful and alive. most of the people who strut down them wear a lot of black. when we went to the south of tunisia, the landscape was a very specifically windblown antiqued sandy tan, with olive toned shrubbery and delicate hues of yellow and white flowered the rocky formations, but the people who walked those mountain roads and lived in the desert towns wore the most saturated red, pink, blue, purple and floral fabrics. the dichotomy was electric and beautiful. this is mostly a pretty easy place to live. i don't feel overwhelmed or crowded, but that doesn't make it any less complex or interesting. my host family continues to be charming, charismatic and warm. I start volunteering at a wednesday morning arts & crafts workshop with autistic children next week and my african drumming lessons are so much fun...anyone in the chicagoland/505 area wanna start a middle eastern percussion ensemble? 

Sincerely,

your expatriette in tunis.