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Well, it's been a little while, but now that time has slowed down for a few moments I can finally catch up.

My study abroad program ended this past weekend. It culminated with a nice weekend getaway at a 5 star hotel by the beach in Gammart about 30 minutes from my apartment in Ariana - a much needed break. Overall the program feels like a joke, and thus a waste of half a year of GW tuition (that's one big financial ouch), but it's over and done with and I am the only one of the 14 of us staying. Most of them were ready to leave this country, the sub-par semester, and all of the social oddities and issues that never really go away and don't get much easier, but - like we'd been told - "you get used to it" (the stares, the comments, the invasion of personal space, the small mindedness, the apathy...)

3 and a half months here has definitely taught me how to deal with such things (and more), though I'm not sure how comfortable I am allowing myself to "just get used to it" and I'll admit I envy my friends back home a little bit, but I'm certain that I'd be happier staying here than going home. It's not really home that I miss anyway, it's my mountains in Colorado and my friends and family scattered about the country. There will be another time and place for such a domestic adventure, though, mush tawa.

On the flip side, I'm also a bit jealous of the few friends who are done with school and thus more liberated to live the life of a nomad. Part of me wishes I could just travel around the world for a little while (or maybe forever) after Tunisia, visiting friends in its various corners before settling into another lengthy stint in some other far off place. If only I could find the money (ain't that always the case)...or if I could get in good with a pilot friend...or a Saudi Prince... In any case, 3 more months still feels like such a short amount of time. It's just enough to start into a life, but not enough to really stick around and enjoy it for all it's worth.

I start working on Monday (gratis) at the Tunisian American Chamber of Commerce, and I am looking forward to having something to do during the day. This break has been nice, but between friends having exams/work/leaving the country and me having nothing to do except raise a kitten who is nothing but trouble (adorable, but trouble)...I've gotten a bit bored and a bit restless. I suppose the work won't help with the restlessness, but my week long adventures in Cairo and Athens with some old friends for the first week of June will hopefully satisfy that craving for a little while.


So, here's to the summer and staying put and living the life (while I can)