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.

So I am trying out Office 2007…

And I found out that I can use Word on my desktop to write blog entries and then have word communicate with blogger to post the blog entry for me. I like Office 07 so far, there doesn't seem to be any added features, but the features that are there are much easier to get at—no more digging through drop down menus. If you need something, it's right in front of you. I need to find a host for pictures now. Flikr is free, I think—does Yahoo! Have anything?

The biggest change though is that MS changed the default file format. They've gone to Office OpenXML (OOXML)—if someone sends you a document created in Word using the default setting, it'll come across as a .docx – you can change it to .zip and see the XML files directly. Versions prior to 2007 will have to have a compatibility update.

I also downloaded Vista, but I haven't been able to get the downloader to validate the file, and I don't feel like downloading the 2.5 gigabytes again.

Oh—probably the coolest thing though is OneNote, I use it to keep track of my schoolwork, it works like a notebook, creates tables automatically, an automatic calculator function. I bet though that it's at its best on a tablet though.

Third culture kids

Stefanie found an interesting article from the Christian Science Monitor today. It's an article about a phenomenon called Third culture kids. We had heard about this before doing what amounts to joining the foreign service--but I thought the article was interesting enough to pass along to you all. In that same vein, here's what Sofia and Dylan are up to: Sofia: She's riding at least three times per week—when she gets on it looks like she is an appendage of the horse or vice versa, quite amazing to see. Her teachers and all the other French folks we know tell us that there is not a trace of an American accent in her French—she stumbles on words occasionally, but very rarely. She can read just fine in both French and English. Also, she can read Arabic, but doesn't usually know what she is saying—since she's getting Arabic from Tunisian/French people they transliterate (for pronunciation purposes) using French diphthongs—the end result is that she speaks it with a slight French accent. Violin is going very well, she's really getting a feel for moving the bow across the strings, it's not nearly as scratchy as it was in the beginning. Dylan: He's started riding again--mostly because his buddy Elyes (pronounced El-ee-yes) and his girl-friend (not his girlfriend--don't make that mistake) Cecilia have started riding. Cecilia is Italian, I think Elyes is French/Tunisian. His French is the same as his sisters. He's just about ready to start reading, although we'll wait to work with him in English until after he gets French down (this worked fine for his sister). He is also learning Arabic—can't have a conversation, but he can yell at you to "be quiet". He can play "twinkle-twinkle, little star" —and by extension "the Alphabet song"...on the guitar. His favorite thing though is air guitar with all kinds of grimaces. He has a memory like a steel trap, he remembers lyrics to songs like you wouldn't believe—adult songs I listen to while he's around mind you. Oh, and he lost a tooth last night (24 January), this is the first one he's lost legitimately. I know parents like to brag about their kids—but good grief. It sounds almost unrealistic sometimes when I stop to think about it but I don't want people to think that I think that our kids are somehow morally or otherwise better than any other kids. Believe me, if you saw us at the dinner table with the two of them trying to compete as to who can make the best fake burp (yeah, I know, at the dinner table) or see Dylan making rude noises with his armpits, or see the two of them fight about not wanting to brush their teeth—you would realize that we know perfectly well that kids are kids. But the article made me think about how the perception of having tens of thousands of frequent flier miles before the age of whatever might look to some folks. Anyway, take a look at the article. And by the way, yes, I do think that Stefanie and I have the most wonderful kids in the world. (But yours are too, whoever you might be—and that's the point. :) )

War Letters

My friend, author/editor Andrew Carroll just sent me an e-mail. I hadn't heard from him in a while, but wanted to pass along some links to his books and website. His first book was called Letters of a Nation--it's a collection of letters from all sectors of American society since the birth of the nation. One of the chapters featured letters from conflicts in which U.S. troops were involved. This then evolved into a second book called War Letters, a collection of letters that soldiers had written to their families, friends and loved ones during war time. He's had two other books come out, most recently a book called Operation Homecoming --a collection of correspondence from the Iraq and Afghan wars. He has a website that he set up after War Letters came out in order to solicit more letters from folks, go check it out, it's very interesting stuff.

An Evening In Roma (and a few days too :)

After decompressing this past summer in Pittsburgh after 3 years in Cambodia, Stefanie, Dylan and Sofia were excited to head to Tunisia to see David after being away from him for 6 weeks. But....... before we did so we had to take a small detour; to Rome, Italy. Cubbie came with us and we all had a blast.

We stayed in a convent that was located just off St. Peter's Square. It was on Borgo Santo Spirito. We could see the Pope's apartment window from our room. The only negative was that there was an 11pm curfew. Not bad when you have kids but a little difficult when dinner isn't normally even served until after 9:00pm.

This photo (right) is the view from our room. It is an awful photo and you can't see us but you can get an idea of how great the location was. I could hit the Apostolic Palace with a rock from our window :) The church bells from Saint Peters woke us each morning. The nuns in the convent were great. They loved the kids. And Cubbie got to practice her Italian with them each morning at breakfast.

Saint Peters Square was one of Dylan's favorite places. He loved chasing the pigeons there. Sofia liked the square too but mostly because that is where a lot of the horse drawn carriages parked. We wanted to do a carriage ride but it was 100 Euros per person for about a 2 hour tour. That was WAY out of our price range so we opted for our own "walking tour".

Cubbie and I were pleasantly surprised that the kids were so willing to walk all over Rome. There were only a few times that we had to bribe them. When they got sluggish we promised that the next stop would be a gelateria :)

This is my favorite photo from the entire trip. Sofia, Dylan and Cubbie are throwing their coins into the Trevi Fountain and making wishes. Shortly after this was taken, we had lunch (fresh mozzarella with basil and tomato panini). And then Dylan's wish was granted. We had even more GELATO. Dylan's favorite was straciatella and Sofia's favorite was pistachio

Rome was GREAT! We had a lot of fun there.

Next time though we will all go together; David, Stefanie, Sofia and Dylan.

Our Hairy Kids

I thought I would do a post to include a little about our four legged kids to introduce them to those of you who have never met them. This is just so you have an idea who/what in the world we are talking about when we refer to Pancho, Sasha, Fabienne and now Farhouda. Plus, I like to brag about them as well as my human kids :)

This is me and "the other man in my life". Pancho and I got to spend some quality time together this summer while I was home in Pennsylvania. He is older and much quieter now than when I first got him. He takes good care of any kid that rides him. But he still likes to take adults for a quick spin.

Thanks to all the folks at Paradise and of course to Aunt Laura for keeping him in good shape and making him mind his manners.

Sofia couldn't get enough of Pancho this summer and he couldn't get enough of the attention she gave him. He was patient enough to deal with her mistakes and quick enough to keep her attention. He helped boost her confidence and got her interested in jumping. Too bad they are so far apart now because they make a perfect pair.

Sasha (for some reason looking rather small in this photo) also known at the barn as "The Tank" with her "Mommy". Although she isn't mine anymore, I know that she is in good hands and that I will always know how she is doing. Laura loves her as much as I do and so my difficult decision to part with her was made easier by my sister. I didn't have to really part with her after all. And more importantly, Pancho didn't have to part with her either.

The kids (Fabienne, Sofia and Dylan) "watching" television the night Fabienne arrived to Cambodia from Germany. At 10 weeks old she was 9.8 kilos. Poor thing had a bit of jet lag.

Fabienne and her Lab cross puppy friend Leila in our yard in Tunisia. Fabienne thinks for some reason that she is the same size as other dogs (now she is over 60 kg) and just doesn't understand when they run away and don't want to play with her.

Fabienne with her "Aw do I have to sit for another photo" face on.

Our/my newest baby is a 6 year old Tunisian Barb named El-Farhouda. It was inevitable that I would buy a horse in Tunisia. It is affordable, the horses are great and the barn is right near my house :) I would spend alot paying to ride regularly on the beach anyway so I figured why not? I asked my riding instructor to find me a suitable horse. I told him that I trusted his judgement since he knew my riding capabilities. I was a bit surprised when I realized he had chosen her for me. She was a desert horse used for Fantasia and celebrations. She didn't know much more than stop, go, and go really fast and only in a staight line! I was flattered that he thought I could train such a horse. Well, she is coming along nicely. She is a joy to ride, eager to learn and is unbelievably smart. She has really muscled out since the photo and in the two months I have had her I have really grown to love her. Unfortunately, the deal with David was "only animals that came with us to Tunisia will leave Tunisia with us." :(

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?!