Tunisia: Thursday, March 4 - Last day in Tunisia

Our last day in Tunisia! We woke up at 5:45am and had breakfast at 6:30am and checked out and headed north to visit the ruins of Carthage. We first stopped at a little Punic children's cemetery that the ancient Romans had wrote about saying that the Carthaginians sacrificed their first born and laid their ashes in this cemetery. But our Professor said that this tale has since been disproven and they now believe it is a cemetery of stillborn children that they sacrificed to the gods, although how you sacrifice something that is stillborn is beyond me.







In this little cave area is apparently were they had the sacrificial stone. Perhaps where they burned the bodies?

After the Punic cemetery we continued on to the ruins of Carthage, which was a Roman Bath complex built right up against the Mediterranean Sea. The weather was very beautiful that day too, so it was nice to walk around in them. The bath ruins are just below the President of Tunisia's Palace and were were forbidden to take pictures in that direction. It was pretty much just a big white wall and you could see palm trees and only a small bit of the Palace. The water was prettier to photograph anyway..













Next we went to the American Cemetery for the fallen soldiers in WWII. I was actually surprised there was an American Cemetery in Tunisia. Our Professor, Maria, had said that The United States rents the land from the Tunisian government. Hopefully they will always be able to pay for that plot of land. The cemetery was fairly large and had the name of each soldier on a white cross marking their grave site. There was a long wall in front of the graveyard with all the names of the fallen who's bodies were never found. In the far corner, at the end of the list of names, there was a beautiful mosaic of Tunisia and surrounding countries. There was also a mass grave for all the unknown solders. I also found a little chapel area with an altar and a few pews.







"Honor to them the trod the path of honor"



"Here are recorded the names of Americans who gave their lives in the service of their country and who sleep in unknown graves. 1941 - 1945. Into thy hands oh Lord"







"Some there be which have no sepulchre their name liveth for evermore" - The mass grave



"1941-1945. In proud remembrance of the achievements of her sons and in humble tribute to their sacrifices, this memorial has been erected by the United States of America."



Also written in French..



And Arabic









The altar says "I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish"



I was glad that Maria took us to see the cemetery. It was humbling and always makes me proud of those in my family who have and still serve in the army. Until I studied abroad, I took for granted how completely isolated it can feel being in another country that doesn't always understand you. Especially after being in the desert parts of Tunisia that are known to have very similar terrain to Iraq, you start to really feel the thousands of miles between you and home. I fortunately was on spring break, having the time of my life. But many before me died in most of the places I had been. It was a good reminder who's debt I truly owed for this experience.

It was nice to be back on American soil for a bit, even if it was rented. After the cemetery we headed to our last site, Sidi Bou Said. The village was really beautiful and is known as an artsy town. The streets are small and windy and you have to walk up the hill to get to the heart of it. We first ate lunch, I had another Shawarma with lamb, this time I got frites on top (french fries!!). We walked around a bit, had many people trying to get us to look in there shops. But I just wanted to take pictures and enjoy my last moments in Tunisia without haggling for some little trinket.









A huge rain cloud lingered and made it windy and cool. But thankfully never dropped buckets of water down on us.









Soon it was time to go to the airport. I couldn't believe my trip was over already!



Bisslema Tunisie!



Ciao again Roma!

This was by far one of the BEST parts of my semester abroad! And the night in the desert I will remember forever as one of the best moments of my life! Maria is planning on having a 10 year reunion, starting from the first year she began taking students down for their fall/spring break. She said it will probably happen in about 6 or 7 years. I would definitely LOVE to go!

Hope you guys enjoyed reading about my adventures!
Ciao and Bisslema!

Tunisia: Wednesday, March 3 - Making the trek back to Sousse..

Woke up at 4:15am! Had breakfast at 5am and was back asleep on the bus by 6:30am. This day was mostly filled with driving back up the country to Sousse. I pretty much had my eyes closed the whole time and tried to sleep as much as possible to pass the time. One of the stops we were at had a fun map of Tunisia which you can see all the places we've been how just how much of Tunisia we've seen.



once we got close to Sousse we got out to see the mausoleum of the founder of Tunisia, kind of like the George Washington of America. I forget his name and we didn't get to go up close to it but it looked pretty from far back!



We finally made it to Sousse and were sent off to shop in yet another souk. This time, however, there was a department store that had things to buy without haggling. It pretty much looked the same as a souk except there was a larger cash register area and escalators going up 3 floors. But there was stuff everywhere and although people weren't pestering you to look at stuff, there were workers following you around "helping" you hold stuff. Which is incredibly annoying. But I think that's all they got paid to do. We also ate lunch outside near the department store. Everyone got a shawarma, I got mine with lamb. It was good. Still prefer couscous and brik but it was a nice change. After spending about two and a half hours in the souk we all got back on the bus and headed back to our hotel, had dinner, and packed for the airport. Tomorrow would be our last day in Tunisia!

Tunisia: Tuesday, March 2 - Salt lake, Tozeur students, Date palm oasis, and Mountain oasis

This day was quite the busy day. We woke up around 5:15am, had breakfast at 6am, and was on our way to Chott el-Jerid (salt lake) by 6:30am. This was really cool place to be. It's about 6 million years old and it's just a big sheet of salt. There's a little stream of water running along both sides of the road, and some parts were blood red. It used to be completely under water thousands of years ago. It was the strangest place to be with absolutely nothing but flat, white land in every direction.











It was ridiculously cold and windy there.

We continued driving through the salt lake until we reached Tozeur to meet the university students at the school where Maria teaches Italian (she's such an interesting person, right?!) I only got a picture of the empty classroom so I don't have pictures of the students but they pretty much look like everyday kids, some of the girls had their hair covered but they were up on their fashion like anybody in the States.



Some of the students spoke fairly good english but most knew Spanish and some knew Italian. It was interesting to hear some conversations but it was quite overwhelming because it pretty much was a flood of students and they all wanted to know you and take pictures and ask a bunch of questions. At times you kind of felt like a bit of a celebrity. We only spent maybe an hour there and got back on the bus. Many of the guys had marriage proposals apparently. haha.

Next we headed to the date palm oasis where we rode by horse and carriage into the forest of palm trees to learn about how dates are grown and cared for. I don't really remember much to be honest but the man telling us about them must have learned his english from a british person because he spoke it with an accent.









Victoria and I riding like the wind! Ok not really.



This is the man with the accent telling us about the date process. He's holding the pollen from the males tree.



This guy showed us how they climb up the palm tree with NO SHOES! We were told that they go up each tree this way 3 times, the first time to pollinate the female and wrap the pollen branch with a rope, the second to take off the rope, and the third to pick the dates.



Our driver gave us these flowers on our way back to the bus! Then asked for a tip. Thanks for ruining the moment driver man. And no you will not get a tip.

After the date palm oasis we had a bit of free time to go get lunch. We found a little restaurant that served brik and couscous. Perfecto.

Afterward we got into 4x4's which were basically land rovers that took us up to the mountain oasis where we saw Chebika and Tamerza. Chebika had such an amazing view. Unfortunately there were stands and people selling things all in the oasis so it totally killed the "oasis" vibe but I still enjoyed it.



The land rovers



This is the border control booth for Algeria. To the left of this picture you can see straight over to another country!





Humaira and I on top of the mountain









After Chebika, we went to Tamerza which basically was just another place to shop. Apparently only a few months before there was a flood that wiped out everything in the little canyon that we were in so much of where you used to be able to walk was fenced off.

On the way to Tamerza there is a spot you can stop and see a view of both Tunisia and Algeria from high up. We took a class picture there!





Algeria is behind the mountains to the right.

On our way back to the bus we did a surprise off roading experience through the desert which was a ton of fun! Thank god for seat belts! Our driver played all sorts of interesting music from dance arabic music to usher to....get this.....the MACARENA! I almost died of laughter haha

We took the long drive back to the hotel from the mountain oasis on the bus. We passed through the salt lake again and stopped to watch a bit of the sunset!









Alyx and I attempted some ninja kicks on the salt lake. haha.



I met this little guy behind a stack of wood next to the pit stop that we were stopped at. He was so happy to see me but I was so sad to see him chained up in unsanitary conditions with the harsh wind and no where to take cover. He must have been so bored too. I wanted to take him with us!

We finally made it back to the hotel hours and hours later (we were on the other side of Tunisia!) and had dinner and immediately passed out from the long day.