we've been living in tunisia for coming upon four months now. crazy really how the life has come and gone and i can't say to where it's gone - swallowed up by the black hole of trying to relocate 3 lives in close proximity with some kind of aesthetic sensibilities and organic proclivities. at first, hotels - a 4 star for three days with their wifi till we could find the best decent budget one for another week. then, crashing at a new friends' houses for another month while we waited for an apartment to open up downtown. originally we were thinking - hell yeah - downtown. i studied city planning - i know what sprawl does to people and places, and if we're going to try and learn to live in a dense urban environment, now might as well be our salingeresque episode to see how it flies. sparing most details, it did not fly well with the ground floor apartment and the t.v.-always-on preschool for holden. all other things considered we really enjoy downtown, the metro access, the arts festivals, the medina, and all the old film posters and work spaces and people watching... but when it comes to making life livable for us, we've got to live near a preschool that is cool. so... to we hit the eject button and moved 15 miles down the metro line to sidi bou - a an ex-pat community on the tip of the penisula, overlooking the mediterranean, with all the things ex-pats like at their disposal. i.e. big parks with trashcans, a marina for your yachting, and lots of other ex-pats to commisserate with about not all that much... actually it's pretty nice here.that's a brief nutshell of the serious decision making since we left the states. matt's been doing arabic, which has been difficult for a number of administrative and schedule based reasons,,, and because it's arabic and it's tough. rebekah's been advancing in her french with general conversation around town and will be taking classes at the french embassy this year. she's still keeping up the english teaching here, but is thinking that she'll probably be headed for private tutoring to kick up the income a little since my grant is not really covering all the things she's wanting (i.e. a family trip to istanbul). we got internet as a christmas present this year and it has probably preserved the sanity of our family and saved our friendships - except for the random calls when we forget that we're 9 hours ahead... sorry evan, ross, krisztian.
holden... it's kind of surreal to watch him become a person before my eyes. very noticable sometimes like when he starts telling me numbers on the house addresses that we walk by on the way to school, and then sometimes it just seems to bland into the woodwork of daily lives. that is, until, i realize someday, 'am i actually having an argument with a two year old', or... 'this kid is most certainly himself, and not something i have made' and it strikes me fully again. he's doing well i think. he's learning to play with other kids at the preschool, learning his boundaries with us, learning to go wee-wee and poop where it's supposed to go, and a million other wonderful little details about the world that i get to redirect my attention to for the next year. he is becoming used to being attacked by people wanting to kiss him here - recently opting for the bonjour-2 cheek-version instead of the full on lipsmack. tunisians love their little ones and most find him to be one of the most beautiful little kids they've ever known. i agree, but i don't know any other tikes and am probably jaded in the made-in-my-own image kind of way.
within the context of a supportive and productive environment for holden, rebekah, and myself, we're pretty much going to push the reset button on just about everything. we hope that 09 gives us time to think back, think ahead, and try to decide how we should be here in the world and what we should do. no doubt the year will not be long enough, but time spent with these questions before us should help put the next five years into perspective for us. more to come. wish it were shared in person, but until it is, peace y'all.
