Lessons Learned

1) Cat litter is hard to find. Still Looking. going to the beach next for some sand as a last resort.

2) When out and about around town, don't order whiskey - especially Scotch. One glass cost me 20 TD.
This seems to pertain to anything imported - especially illicit items like alcohol.

3) 1.5 TD (Tunisian Dinar) is approximately 1 Dollar US. So about 75 cents to 1 TD no?

4) To put things in perseprctive a steak hache sandwitch - a delicious meaty creation with spices, greens, and even french fries inside a baked pita like roll is about 3.5 TD. A four star meal - you know, the kind inside an old 19th c. mansion with the three waiters including the guy that brushes your hairless table for stray crumbs - that amazing meal with wine and all the extravagance including a phenomenal Kanoune performer - that cost 90 TD. Cabs are dirt cheap. You can ride all over town for less than 5TD easy.

5) I need a tan.

6) I need to learn Tunisian Arabic. Everybody here just about speaks French. But you are still a pasty white French speaking foreigner. These factors cause opportunistic Medina scammers to want to personally befriend you by telling you that they have a brother in Chicago - its always Chicago - and then to personally take charge of your once random wandering as they steer you toward their "preferred" establishments. Just say no. or perhaps la - ayeeshick.

7) There are plenty of truly great, honest, cordial people who likely do want to befriend you and not use you to make themselves a few dinar. Stick with those.

8) CNN in English is on cable TV here, but strangely, it cuts out more often than it is on. Its the only station that acts this way. On the internet, youtube is unavailable due to censorship, as apparently now is skype, and virtually anything naughty - so I have heard anyway. No whiskey and no US TV news. Its a good thing I have lots of books.


9) If you don't know what President Ben Ali looks like. Come to Tunisia. You will.

10) Prior to coming over here I received about 6 different shots for various innoculations and a round of pills for typhoid. I was told during my medical brief never to drink unbottled water, or to eat fresh vegetables. I am somewhat careful about the water I gulp down but eat nearly anything that looks clean. So far so good. I was told about a million other things I am not supposed to do but have forgotten many or find them extremly impractical. Try to do better when you come over.

11) Drink Celtia! It is Biere de Luxe!

12) Walking through the medina's narrow covered alleys at night is a fascinating test for the senses. Ancient cobbled roads, high walls looming on either side with awnings on each side nearly touching one another create a breezy expericence optimal for hot sunny North African days and haunting for the solo traveler at night. The smell of urine, spices, the cloying scent of a passing young Tunisian male, garbage, bread, the remains of the day all serve to guide your way through the nocturnal labyrinth. There are no lights. While packed full of shopkeepers, tourists, and locals by day, the medina is nearly empty at night. I had no idea where I was going really - just walked until I hit car traffic and found a navigable street. At dusk the medina transforms itself into the domain of the cats.

13) Learn the major city streets by heart BEFORE you get here. It helps.

14) Law and Order in French ROCKS!

15) Fifteen lessons is enough to bore anybody to death. Le fin.