I arrived home in one piece just two days ago. The experience of returning to my family, my house, my town, my country has been really more than a bit mind boggling. Not only is it strange not to hear to call to prayer five times a day, it is far stranger simply to hear so many people speaking English, and so fluently too, without Tunisian accents! To see couples kissing in public, to eat meals with forks instead of spoons and pieces of baguette as utensils, to watch crime shows instead of ninja turtles, Saudi televangelists, or Tom and Jerry dubbed in modern standard Arabic is a big change. Truly reliable supplies of toilet paper and upright showers with shower curtains are something to get used to again as well. Everything here is so clean, so green, beautified in a really different way. It was something else to eat my Dad's curry again and drive to my high school this evening to see my brother's final orchestra concert. I had been so excited about non-processed this and that, cheese, pickles, apples, and salad. There are all here in my refrigerator. No one if forcing food at me "Koul! Koul! mush benin? Behe, behe!" and it is acceptable for me to retreat into my room to read or type or just look out the window at the rhododendrons that are just starting to burst open their buds.
The only way I can describe this is that everything is familiar, yet somehow very changed. I have returned from so many trips before, even from longer ones (I lived in Australia with my family for six months when I was 13), but I have never felt so...well...bamboozled.
For old times sake, here are some of the things I left in Tunisia but could never forget...
The president's mosque from just near one of the Carthage TGM (train) stops.
My nephew (Skander) and my cousin (Amina).
Our SIT family of darbukas (mine made it safely back to Storrs, Connecticticut.
The unbelievable roses that overflowed over my neighbor's fence. There were white ones as well that had intertwined with these pink ones.
This is hopefully by no means the end of this blog. I'd love to keep writing here whensoever I am moved to talk about Tunisia-related things. In all likelihood I will be continuing my Independent study project, ("Fusion" music in Tunisian Identity in the Age of Global Stereo) next year as the basis for an honor's project / thesis this coming year upon my return to Oberlin. I am sure I will test the waters on this blog as well as you've all been listening to me ramble about Tunisia for this long already.
Signing off for now...
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