Tunisia and Wichita

The past two weeks have seen a lot of miles. Two weeks ago, David Doherty, Tim Slattery, and I went to Tunisia in Northern Africa. We departed Toulouse with our African maiden heads and returned in the matured state that can only be accurately defined as (wo)manhood.

Everything was extremely cheap in Tunisia. Our first night in town we went to a café had 3 coffees and a bowl of shisha for about 3€. On the way home we purchased schwarmas, fries, and cokes for about $1.50. On Saturday we sent to the Tunis Souq (bizarre) and bought various trinkets and items. Slattery and I each purchased hookahs to add to our

collection and I also purchased from princess-esq mirrors for my twin 3 year old nieces: Indiana and Savannah.

After we left the market we went back to our hotel and booked a taxi to take us to the western city of Dougga. Dougaa is a world heritage site, so named because it is one of the largest and well preserved Roman ruins outside of Rome still in existence. We hired a taxi for about 5 hours, the driver served as our chauffeur, translator, and guide. Total cost, about $50 a piece. We could get a 10 minute taxi ride in downtown Tunis for about $0.30.

Sunday, we went to the famous city of Carthage, the city where Hannibal became famous. We again, hired the same taxi to drive us around to the various sites. Slattery put on a great show of Cher’s “Walking in Memphis” at the amphitheatre. Dave and I were entertained; I cannot speak for the rest of the audience.

Over all Tunisia was a very fun experience. It was surreal being exposed to a Muslim country without a guide and having to try to figure our Arabic on our own. Luckily, they also speak French. On a side note we arrived in Tunisia on their independence day (from France). One annoying thing about the city is that everybody wants to be your “friend.” Basically they just want to sell you crap.

On Tuesday, I had a visitor. Remember Amanda from Portugal? We went out to eat at Tex-Mex near my flat, drank some beers and hung out pretty much all night. I took half a personal day from work s

o I could do my best to entertain my guest on her one night in Toulouse. You can consider her officially added unofficial musical distribution list. Thanks to her, I now know about www.blogotheque.com and Concerts To-Go.

I dropped her of at the airport at about 8pm on Wednesday, went back to my flat, packed, slept for about 2 hours, then headed back to Blagnac to catch my flight to Wichita.

Wichita was a great time to recharge and spend some time with my two favorite people. The week consisted of sledding, a road trip to Hamilton when it had no electricity so we had to build fort in my room with blankets to stay warm for drinking games, listening to Bon Iver on the drive home through the snow coated flint hills with the sun shining brightly through the deep blue contrasting sky, BBQ at the bossman’s, a champagne party, the Pumphouse, work, a new addition to the A-team (Megan Hill), SigEps 50^th Anniversary celebration (I had an awesome date), breakfast with SigEp’s Grand National President, Steve Shanklin, a nostalgic game of Presidents and Assholes at the SigEp house, girls in bunny costumes, finally purchasing a webcam to facilitate internet dates, and sleeping in spurts whenever I had the opportunity.