Sofia's exciting day

Most important part first: she's ok. The only thing that got broken was her helmet. The only thing that was injured was her pride.

Sofia competed in a horse show today out at the military club. Jumps were set to about sixty centimeters, a height that she doesn't have a problem with.

She started out fine, she was doing really well over the first few jumps. Jump five though was fairly close to jump four...it could have been a double, but they were just too far apart to justify. Nonetheless, Sofia's horse didn't realize this and jumped a few yards too early. The horses knees hit the bar and the horse and rider did a face plant. My friend has promised me the video so you can see for yourself. Once he does I'll try to figure out how to post it here.

Kids...what can you do?

And now we are seven

So Dylan is seven. We asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday, he said he wanted to go to Magic Life because of the water slides...which we did. Pictures to follow, but I wanted to post and let folks now that he had a very nice birthday weekend. We're all a bit crispy, but I won't say that too loud since some of you aren't near anywhere that either a) has a beach or b) has weather that would make going to a beach worthwhile anyway.

Also, in keeping with the recent spirit of my posts--took a 5k jog on the beach. I don't recommend running on that particular beach though. My shoes are now soaked. If you click on the map below you can go the website where I built the map. Ask it to show you the satellite view and you can get an overhead view of the Magic Life resort. Our room was in the building closest to the beach. Pretty sweet.

Oh, mileage count = 115.51

Hippoclub Dar Naouar

Hey! Check out hippoclubdarnaouar.com --especially the employees and photo gallery pages for some familiar faces...

Happy Labor Day!

We spent labor day weekend back down at the beach. We agreed that the food wasn't as good as the place we stayed at in June and the rooms were a bit nicer at the other place, but Magic Life beats out Aldiana in several important categories. 1) Ambiance 2) Beach chair availability 3) when Magic Life says "all inclusive" they actually mean it and most importantly 4) drop the kids off at the kids club which is located in the same building as the "family" rooms and they get to play all day while mom and dad get to relax. Phew, we needed that. As part of the kids club ("Mungo Club" -- we think that Mungo is the name of the bear mascot of the club) they made microphones out of tin foil and paper and then participated in a talent show last night. Sofia was a "Rasta Girl" --she and three other girls lip synched and danced to a Shakira song. Dylan got a fake beard, mustache and chest hairs and was part of the "Harley Boys", they did an AC/DC number. After each performance the MC asked each little kid what their names were and where they were from. The MC asked each one in German and then translated the responses into English, all but about 4 of the 30 some kids were either from Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein or Luxembourg. There were two kids from Algeria--and you can guess where the other two were from. When Sofia was asked where she is from she answered, "America" --which actually got a big round of applause and some other various cheers. But when Dylan was asked where he is from he answered, "Texas!" Which got a huge positive response from the crowd. They all thought it was hilariously funny--which was actually pretty neat to see. Anyway, Dylan and the Harley Boys ended up winning first place in the talent contest (judged by three randomly selected people from the audience--all who happened to be from Austria). He was very excited about winning--especially since he was able to put his air guitar skills on display.

Islam and science

Found this fascinating article on Islam and science. Fascinating for several reasons: 1) Arrogance knows no national or religious boundaries. 2) Most of us know what the relationship between religion and science in our culture is (there isn't one, usually). But what about a culture that doesn't separate religion from anything? 3) The article gives a good overview of Tunisia in terms of its relationship with the rest of the muslim world--this is a good example of why we call Tunisia "muslim-lite". 4) The quoted exchange that follows blew my mind: [The article author was interviewing an Egyptian scientist who claimed to be both a scientist and a devout believer. The Egyptian scientist is apparently not as fundamentalist as the other guy interviewed for the article--his own self-assesment is that he can separate the two, science and religion. Yet...] [The Egyptian scientist said,] “Nobody can just write what he thinks without proof. But we have real proof that the story of Adam as the first man is true.” [To which the article author replied,] “What proof?” He looks at me with disbelief: “It’s written in the Koran.”

On the beach

We spent the past weekend out on the beach. We went to Aldiana down in Hammamet--even though it was all included, room, food, all drinks, etc.--we were kicking ourselves when the bill came. A bit more than we thought. Especially when we had to drive an hour to get there when the beach on the same body of water (the Mediterranean) is a 10 minute walk away. Oh well. It was nice not to have to worry about anything at any rate. Plus if you click on the link you'll see it is in German...good for me, not so good for Stefanie. It was like little Germany all weekend. They thought I was a German guy on holiday with my Tunisian wife--they would start in German with me and in Tunisian Arabic with her. Which worked out actually since she speaks Tunisian Arabic pretty well.

If You Can't Stand the Heat....

Recently here in Tunis we have had some REALLY hot days. Yesterday it was 47C and today it was 49C. That equates to 116 F and 120 F. Yes it's a dry heat but when it's that hot who really cares :) Going outside literally felt like someone was blowing a hair dryer in my face. Wow, and to think, I can't wait for the sirocco. Since it has been so hot we haven't been having lessons at the riding club. We just take the kids right to the beach and they swim with the horses in the Mediterranean. It's a cool site to see fifteen kids and horses swimming up and over the waves. Sofia and I went on Saturday afternoon, just the two of us. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos :(

The Lars Homestead

Here are several pictures from Luke Skywalker's boyhood home. I don't know who was more excited, Dylan or me.

Our Weekend in Southern Tunisia

We just got back from a trip to Southern Tunisia--we had a great time and wanted to share some pictures. We knew we were entering desert country when we saw this sign: This was from a few days later, but I thought the baby camel was very cute: Here's the four of us sitting on a sand dune in the Sahara:

And Stefanie and her mom:

After having ridden for days and days on our camels:

Just kidding, it was less than an hour. We were surprised later that this wasn't the first time that any of the five us had ridden a camel. We hung out with Berbers:

And Bartholomew Cubbins' brother:

And then we ended up in a very cool place. I'm not going to tell you where this is, you have to guess. I have other pictures that give it away, but post a guess if you have an idea. I'll post more pictures related to this last one in a few days or when someone gets it right, whichever comes first.

Out and About in Tunis

Since arriving in Tunisia we have had the chance to see quite a bit. It is really an interesting place to live. There are some really nice beaches here on the Mediterranean. We are fortunate enough to have a house in Gammarth (a beach community suburb north of Tunis). The ruins are unbelievable. We are enjoying life here. The upcoming long weekends will give us a chance to see even more of this beautiful country.

We have witnessed quite a bit here on the beaches (camels, horses, para sailing, topless women sunbathing while other women swim in full hijab). The kids were excited to see their first real live camels on the beach. But the novelty of that has worn off now; kind of like the elephants in Southeast Asia.

One of their favorite things to do at the ruins is to look for "treasure". They easily find old pieces of pottery, mosaic tiles and sometimes even bone fragments in the mortar at the Roman aqueducts in Carthage.

Left-Dylan, Sofia and Cubbie at the cisterns in Carthage.

Right-Sofia shows off the removable head statue. These statues were made with removable heads so that when new Roman governors came in to power only the head would have to be changed rather than the entire statue.

Of course it HAD to happen. We had to witness real belly dancing while living here. We managed to get that one out of the way pretty quickly. We still have a long list of "To Do While in Tunisia" but we will keep you posted as we tick those off the list. I just have to get David to go camel trekking in the Sahara :)

Dylan is in his glory here (at least when it comes to food). He LOVES the local chicken Shawarmas and the never ending supply of orange Fanta. And what wouldn't taste good with a coastal view like that?!