Tunisia: An amazing place to go on vacation

At this time of year about five years ago (holy crap! has it really been that long?) I was cruising around Tunisia with Mr. Field Notes. If I wasn't pregnant and if the economy weren't so horrible that we both face the real possibility of unemployment, I would have sprung for 2 tickets back there next month.

Tunisia is an amazing place to go on vacation. The small, Mediterranean country in North Africa offers a lot: quaint seaside towns (like Sidi Bou Said), ancient and very well preserved Roman ruins, deserted beaches, bird watching, cultural experiences (like meeting and staying overnight with a Bedouin family), delicious and cheap food (a perfect mix of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern food), and varied landscape ranging from beaches to mountains and fertile valleys to the Sahara Desert. It's awesome — and I totally want to go back.

Sidi Bou Said, a town that looks straight out of an advertisement for visiting one of the Greek isles, is the place I'd start. For starters, I love the white washed buildings and accent paint in a turquoise blue — a particular color that I still refer to as 'Sidi Bou Said blue.' The streets are narrow, windy and coblestone. Pull up a chair in a cafe and have mint tea or dark, rich espresso. Watch the sunset over the beach to the sound of the call to prayer. It's seriously laid back. We were warned there's nothing to do there — 'Go to Hammamet' — by the cabbie we hired to take us there. I think he just wanted the extra dinars to take us 45 miles instead of four.

We did eventually spend time in Hammamet at the end of the trip when we still had four free days and needed to drop off the rental car. I wouldn't go back. It was utterly boring.

So boring, in fact, that we resorted to making little beach creatures out of trash and god-knows-what. The round balls were not, in fact, camel turds but that's what we jokingly called them at the time. That, and 'Tunisian Turd Birds' after the 'Montana Turd Birds' I saw all the time in tourist traps growing up there.

The next time I'm in Tunisia, we'll take the train to Mahdia instead. Mahdia is the center of weaving wedding wraps in Tunisia. We never ventured in to find them because we only had one overnight stop planned there on our way to somewhere else. Mahdia had the best beach we saw in Tunisia — clean, white, and mostly devoid of people. And the luxury 5 star hotel was a steal at $80 a night. Of course, so was the super cute room we had for $8 a night in Sidi Bou Said.

Right down the road from our Sidi Bou Said hotel was a sweet garden where we sat and shared pocket sandwiches. We called them the 'Everything But the Kitchen Sink Sandwich' seeing how they were always full of all kinds of unidentifiable but delicious vegetables, plus hard boiled eggs, tuna, humus and french fries on top. We ate a lot of those sandwiches in Tunisia!

We also drank a lot of mint tea and espresso. In Tunisia they put pine nuts in the tea. I think that adds a little something special. They soak up the flavor of the tea really well but retain their nutty flavor.

Negotiating the cafes as a woman is a little unsettling though. Cafes are an almost universally male affair. I never got harassed at a cafe, but didn't feel completely comfortable amidst a bunch of men who looked a lot like the same guys who would offer 10,000 camels to Mr. Field Notes for me. That was actually funny all of the times it happened. Apparently, based on the report of a friend who recently visited Jordan, offering camels for foreign women is pretty typical and part of the shtick in the Arab world.

The cafe with the white washed dome was uniquely 'family friendly' in the sense that it may have been the only cafe we patrionized our entire three weeks in Tunisia that actually had women and children at it.

In spite of the overtly male-dominated culture, I felt very comfortable traveling around Tunisia and the people were the most warm, inviting people I have ever met in a foreign country. They bent over backwards to welcome us, even after and especially after, finding out we were Americans. I thought that was pretty damn cool seeing how at the time it was a year into the Iraq War.

Tourists Kidnapped in Tunisia: Glad that didn't happen to us when we visited there!

In 2004, just one year after the second Gulf War began, Mr. Field Notes and I traveled to Tunisia, a Muslim country in North Africa. We rented a car and drove all over the country. We didn't have an itinerary or reservations. I didn't think we were being particularly daring by going there during a war that continues to be seriously unpopular in the Arab world, but I did get the feeling twice that we could be potentially kidnapped.

That didn't happen — but it did to a couple vising Tunisia last month.

Al-Qaida in North Africa claimed responsibility in a tape aired on al-Jazeera. On it, a man who identified himself as "Salah Abu Mohammed" said the terrorist group kidnapped the two Austrians on Feb. 22 in retribution for Western cooperation with Israel. He said the hostages were in good health.

The only other details released, other than their names and ages, is that they were driving their own car — a car that had Austrian plates — near the southern border.

On either side of Tunisia are Algeria and Libya — countries that I would not enter except under very unusual circumstances. Algeria has a known presence of Islamic extremists operating near the Tunisian border and they have kidnapped tourists in the past, albeit years ago. And, Libya where Muammar Qaddafi is still dictator, was until very recently on the U.S. list of state sponsored terrorism.

Although Tunisia was a very welcoming place, and the people unbelievably friendly and hospitable, like I said before, I did twice get the feeling that we could be potentially kidnapped.

The first happened when we were befriended by a large extended family picnicking at a desert oasis near the Algerian border. We stopped and chatted with them, they fed us and then invited us to visit "their country." I really thought that meant Algeria, so when we decided to 'live it up' and take a change on strangers in a foreign land, I really thought we were going to be going across the border to Algeria, where we might very well find ourselves held for ransom. After all, journalists (Mr. Field Notes is one) do get kidnapped. We were both relieved when we zoomed right past the border. And later we had a wonderful time in their home town, which for people new to speaking English was what "our country" meant.

The next was when we in another desert town, further away from the border, looking for guide to take us into the desert to a Bedouin camp so we could live it up desert style under the stars. We found a place, but it felt really sketchy when we started talking to them. They didn't speak English very well and would talk amongst themselves in Arabic and frequently mentioned the word "American" which I had learned to recognize by studying the language before we left. They seemed unusually interested in the fact that we were American and they insisted on taking us out alone rather than with a group. I thought that was a supremely bad idea, so we got the heck out of there.

In Tunisia, we didn't really find anti-American sentiment but we did have an interesting conversation with a souk shopkeeper in southern Tunisia. That part of Tunisia also happens to be the neatest (because it was the most foreign) part of the country, but is the only place we got any bad vibes. And they were really slight, i.e. one girl stared and stuck her tongue out at me while holding her fingers up in a V on either side of her tongue as we drove by. And then this guy, who while he gave us yummy mint tea, was really excited about talking to us about 9/11. He spoke in French, which is not my first language, so I am sure I only got the gist and not the finer nuances of what he was saying about how he would have flown the planes into the buildings had he not had a family.

Otherwise, the Tunisians were very friendly and kind and not at all biased against Americans.

We drove all over the country in a little blue Fiat Punto that had Tunisian plates, and in Tunisia the rental cars all have blue plates instead of white ones. They got us through many checkpoints and out of a speeding ticket. I think that helped us not stick out so much when we were cruising around.

The tourists were pretty dumb for driving around in their own car with European plates. I think you stick out like a sore thumb driving around with European plates, especially in the south where they disappeared.

Who knows what lead up to them being snatched, but in any case, the incident is surely an embarrassment for the Tunisian government since it takes a lot of pride in its Western leaning country. It also gets most of its tourism from Europeans.

The Big 5 Personality Test & Its Connection to North African Music

I can't recall exactly when I discovered North African pop music, but I love it! My musical tastes are fairly eclectic, and it's definitely something I'm proud of. It's one of the symptoms or rather, qualities, associated with scoring high on the "Openness to Experience" part of the "Big Five" personality test.

For those of you who don't know about the "Five Factor Model" of personality, it's a conception of 5 independent traits that encompass a person's entire personality. To proponents of the FFM, once you know how a person scores on the test, there isn't really much more you need to know to understand their personality. The 5 traits that underlie all of personality according to this widely accepted model can be remembered by a simple acronym: OCEAN.

O - Openness to Experience
preference for novelty
- associated with creativity and intelligence
C - Conscientiousness
preference for following rules
- associated with being responsible
E - Extraversion
preference for socializing with others
- associated with being outgoing
A - Agreeableness
preference for acceptance & agreement
- associated with being kind and nice to others
N - Neuroticism
tendency to anxiety, worry
- associated with moodiness, fussiness

If you want to find out what your big 5 profile is, there is a totally awesome online version of it that will match you up with your Star Wars "twin personality." I did it and for years have asked my general psych students to take the test and write about it for extra credit. It is so cool. Only, perhaps, if you are from the Star Wars generation!

If you are the first to correctly guess my Star Wars twin, I will send you a very special gift from my Recycled Ideas collection :D (just add a comment with your guess!)

So back to the big O - one manifestation of my preference for variety is my tendency to listen to a wide variety of music. My collection includes: blues, soul, rap, pop, folk, rock, classical, world, hip/hop, audio books, soundtracks, alternative, punk, and country/western.

I do have my favorites, and one of them that ranks highly, at least in terms of what makes my iTunes frequently played list, is pop and hip/hop from North Africa, specifically raï. My absolute favorite artist is Khaled and my two favorites from him are Oran Marseille and Aïcha.

The first mixes French and Arabic in a rap song. I admit my French is not what it should be anymore, but as far as I can tell, the song is about the immigrant experience - moving from Algeria to France. Khaled eventually exiled himself to France because the Islamic extremists in Algeria couldn't stand the liberal themes of his music. Raï seems to provoke that from Islamic fundamentalists - sort of like the rancor between "evolutionists" and evangelical Christians.

The second, Aïcha, is a love song from a man to a woman. It's the first song written in French and Arabic in which I understood almost all of the lyrics. The man attempts to woo the woman by offering her luxurious material goods (like jewelry) and romantic displays (like poetry), to which she responds:

Elle a dit, garde tes trésors

She said, keep your treasures

Moi, je vaux mieux que tout ça

I'm worth more than all that

Des barreaux sont des barreaux même en or

Cages remain cages even though made of gold

Je veux les mêmes droits que toi

I want the same rights as you

Et du respect pour chaque jour

And respect for each day

Moi je ne veux que de l'amour

I don't want anything but love

If the English version of Aicha by Outlandish retained these themes, I would totally have my Evolutionary Psychology students analyze the song for its display of human mating tactics.

But, alas, they altered the song considerably. You can hear/listen to their rendition of Aicha if you scroll all the way down and watch the YouTube video at the bottom of this page. When I first heard the Outlandish version, I thought is was extremely cheesy, but I admit, it grew on me because it is still very, very sweet in its sentiment.

And hey, it introduced me to Outlandish, a talented trio of multicultural, multilingual young men who make some really wonderful Euro hip/hop. I just wish their stuff could be purchased on iTunes.

Los Moros y Los Christianos

"Los Moros y Los Christianos" means the moors and the christians in Spanish. Those words have been part of my vocabulary ever since my husband and I scored a really neat carved wood chess set from his dad. The box the pieces came in was labeled "Los Moros y Los Christianos." As the name implies, the pieces are miniature christians and moors. When we were at a loss as to what to use for an email address many years ago, we decided to use the term los moros. It stuck and is the name we continue to go by.


During medieval times the moors were Muslims, Arab and Berber, who lived throughout North Africa and Spain which is sometimes called the Mahgreb. Today the term moro refers not only to people of Moorish ancestry throughout that region, but also to Muslims in general in many parts of the world. Moro is also the name of blood oranges which are grown and consumed in the region, and also exported. Blood oranges have red flesh.

It would not be inaccurate to say that the Moors introduced some aspects of "civilization" to Europe. Mattresses are a good example. The word mattress come from an Arabic word meaning cushion. During the Crusades, which is what inspired the chess set, Europeans adopted the custom of sleeping on cushions thrown on the floor. Initially they were stuffed with straw. I first learned that simply by reading the dictionary I use while playing SuperScrabble with Mr. Field Notes. Our games takes days to finish and when one person takes a long time to play a word, the other usually winds up reading something. The dictionary is always nearby.

The Alhambra in Spain was constructed as a Moorish palace. I think it is one of the most gorgeous examples of architectural design in the world. Someday I will see it in person, perhaps as part of a trip to Morocco to see the Atlas Mountains and search for the "Barbary Ape" which is actually a monkey with a severely stubby tail. The name ape stuck I guess because people didn't realize they are monkeys who no longer have tails. Some monkeys don't have opposable thumbs, but they're still monkeys. That sounds like a subject for another post on hands, los manos, but really I was planning on discussing hands.

Today I received my order of hands of fatima from my new etsy expat contact in Morocco. The hands are fabulous! I first learned about hands of fatima when I went to Tunisia a few years ago. Tunisia is the county in North Africa between Algeria and Libya. It's like Morocco but is smaller and has a town sharing the name of Luke Skywalker's home town, Tataooine. Star Wars was filmed in Tunisia as was The English Patient which are some of the reasons we chose it over Morocco. All over the Magreb you will see hands of fatima. They are on tiles, door knockers, painted above doorways, and outlined in nails on the brightly colored arched doors that are characteristic of the region.

Hands of fatima are also called "hamsa" which means 5 in Arabic and Hebrew. Fatima was the daughter of the prophet Muhammed who is the person Allah chose to receive the words of the Qu'ran, the holy book of Islam. The hand is a folk symbol used in both Muslim and Jewish cultures to ward off the "evil eye" of envy. It predates Islam and Judaism.

On a beach in the Tunisian seaside town of Mahdia, Mr Field Notes bought me a tiny hand of fatima stamped with the words "souvenir de Tunisie" on the back. It hung off of a bracelet made out of cheap metal and blue plastic stones. I wore it proudly for a few months until the clasp broke. I eventually discarded the bracelet but kept the hand and attached it to a clasp so that I could wear it again on any beaded bracelet or necklace as an removable pendant. The hands are a terrific symbol to promote the idea of peace in the Middle East. I don't know exactly what I will do with the little hamsas I now have from Rabat, but I am sure they will be gifts of some sort.


In the meantime, I dream of one day going back to Mahdia to visit the textile district. We really screwed up when we only allowed ourselves one night there. Stupid. We didn't have enough time to go into town to explore the textile district. Mahdia is known for weaving. Sleyed should have planned better :D

Take Me to Tunisia

Through etsy I made a contact with a woman who lives in Morocco who will be buying me some tiny silver charms in the shape of hands of fatima (also know as hamsa). The hand of fatima is a folk symbol used by both Jews and Muslims throughout the Middle East and North Africa to thwart the evil eye. It protects one from the envy of others.

I am in love with this symbol, not because of its alleged power, but because of the multitude ways it is artfully rendered. Sometimes the hand can been seen on the arched doors of houses. I have three hands of fatima that I bargained hard for in the medinas of Tunisia. Well, one was actually negotiated on a beach in Mahdia, but that's beside the point.

As my ex-pat contact and I talked about what hands of fatima the souks in the medina have available at what price, I was hit by a serious wave of envy. Ironic really. She's the one who needs these amulets, not me!

If I could be anywhere in the world today, I'd be with my honey in Tunisia.


We'd either be soaking up the ancient ambiance of the grain storage structures in Ksar Ouled Sultane while I paint with my one armed friend Miled ...






..or we'd stroll the jasmine scented streets of Sidi Bou Said






... before heading south where life is even slower and dustier.






The desert frontier spirit lies deep within my soul.

Toto is Known For Toilets

Toilet talk forthcoming. You are hereby warned.

I'm finding my groove with the paper making enterprise now so I have developed a little routine. I make 8 sheets before 10 am, then watch The View. While watching, I do a blog post, then hit etsy. Mr. Field Notes comes home for lunch, then I referee Fight Club and make another set of 8 sheets in the afternoon. Somewhere in there I prep photos in Photoshop for adding items to my store. Now I've joined Facebook at the request of my sorority sisters. Yes, I'm a sorority girl! Anyhow, yet another thing that takes up time GAH!!!!

So the hot topic conversation I walked in on after cleaning up my paper making area this morning was TOILETS - and specifically Toto brand toilets. I have watched The View in the mornings off and on for years. I really like the hot topic bickering and even though I liked Rosie as the host the best, Whoopie is growing on me. "Toto is known for toilets," she asserted this morning. Damn right they are. And I know this brand! They are all over Japan. I never saw another brand there.

So what's so special about Toto toilets?
First, you have to understand that Japanese toilets are just different. And, we have to distinguish between the squat toilets and the "western" ones. Toto makes both, but Whoopie & Co. were not talking up the squat ones. Although they can be messier, they do have merits. You'd just never see one in an American house. Wow that would be a real shocker! Anyhow, if you've never used a squat toilet before, you haven't lived.

Squat toilets are actually pretty cool, and if you are going to have to hover over a toilet seat anyway because it's "dirty" then I can tell you from personal experience that hovering over a squat toilet is much, much more comfortable. You have to pay attention though, because if you don't direct your stream just right, you'll pee on your shoes. There's a technique to aiming too - otherwise you'll splatter your shoes, ankles, legs - all over. Aiming is something all Japanese women and men around the world have learned, but we western women just have no clue how to pee properly.

That's a lesson I learned the hard way when I had to pee in the Sahara desert by the side of the road in southern Tunisia. No rest areas, and no cover. That wasn't the worst part. Only after I succeeded in making a mess of myself did Mr. Field Notes point out I should have peed on one of the scroungy looking "bushes." I don't know if I would have believed him though. Afterall, he was the one who tricked me into thinking the gizmo for keeping sand off the road was a freaking camel parking lot!
GAH! I grew up seeing the snow versions of them! He had me; he really had me. He is a major tricky head. You have to watch out.

If you're in the desert, pee on a bush.
But, if you're in Japan, pee on a Toto.

Platform shoes are a must in Japan. I think they were invented there.


This is the prettiest bathroom I saw in Japan. It was at a Buddhist temple; I forget the name. All I remember is that it's the one with the perfect bell. I love the green slippers lined up. They're there so that you can cover your feet when you use the bathroom. In temples, you have to remove your shoes so it's really handy they set these out for visitors. I made sure the ones I used were lined up again when I was done.

In temples, gardens, and any place frequented by tourists, there is a ratio of about 8 Japanese squat toilets to 1 western style one. If you insist on sitting down, you might have to wait. Oh, and another great thing about the squat toilets is that the flush lever is at the floor so you can flush easily with your foot and be out of there without touching anything gross.

Western style Toto toilets made in Japan are fancy. They make American toilets look like we take craps in the Stone Age. Heated seats. Built in bidet, with customizable spray intensity and water temperature settings. Sanitizing seat dryer. Full flush and half flush. The price tag? $3,369.00 (and that's on sale) See more here. These toilets are standard in Japanese hotels. Most people in Japan, however, have squat toilets at home. As far as I can tell, having one of these Toto "washlets" at home is a real status symbol. By the way, some of the Toto Washlets will raise and lower the seat for you.

Here's a *very typical* cartoonish Japanese TV commercial for the Toto Washlet. You gotta see it.



The Toto Washlets make my Australian toilet (at right) look like something from Roman times. The only special thing about it is it's full/half flush - and it's unfortunate brand name: Caroma. Seriously, they named their toilet c-aroma. It is a wonderful, environmentally responsible toilet. Even my dad is envious, and if you knew him, that says a lot!