June 12, 2005

Added a new section for our trip to Cap Bon; you should see it on the left.

April 18, 2005

We went shopping in Tunis today. A few months ago when some of Dan's bosses were in town we went to this hotel supplier shop downtown that carries Tunisian made china. We were planning on taking them to the china factory until we learned that it was about 45-minutes away, and that we did not have enough time to get there and back for our next scheduled event. So we called Dan's boss on the State Department side, Frank, and he told us about this shop.

Ever since we learned about Tunisian made china we have been planning on buying some since we have never bought china. We thought this would be a great thing to get from here, and to have for some time to come. After going to this shop and seeing some of the prints that they have on hand we decided that we would probably go there first and see what they had in stock when we were ready to buy. I promised Dan that we would buy china after we got back from Prague, so while we were using the Marine driver we went ahead to the shop.

We looked around, and found a print that we both liked. We expected to spend about 500 TD on china. The last time we were there the prices ranged from 350 TD to over 800 TD. I really like the 800 TD print, but that is about $600 USD. We are not prepared to spend that much on china, especially considering the fact that we will be having military movers move us for some time to come.

We found out that the store only takes checks and cash, so we had to find an ATM to withdraw money. We walked around with Sami, and he asked someone where one was. After withdrawing the money and go back to the store to purchase the china, we found out that they did not have the coffee or tea sets on hand that come with the set. They could get it by this evening. This was a little annoying because they said to come back at 5 o'clock, which is prime Tunisian rush hour, and this store is located in the heart of downtown where the traffic is the worst. After debating what to do, Dan and I decided that we would just come back for it that evening. We thought if we asked them to get it today, and we would come back tomorrow that they would not believe us. And if we paid for it, and came back tomorrow Dan's fear was that they would act like they did not know us. So we just decided to deal with the traffic.

We got there a little early, and had to wait around for the truck unloading goods to get to our boxes. So we walked around the store, and found these awesome cutting boards. They are heavy-duty plastic, and have no ridges in them. We have this small plastic cutting board, but it is annoying because everything gets into the grooves making it very hard to clean. We also have a nice wooden cutting board, but it is starting to split on the edges from being cleaned so much. Not to mention it is a pain in the butt to clean. We were prepared to buy this cutting board, but apparently everything in this store is on display and not a model to be sold. They were out of the cutting board in the color and size we wanted, and would not be getting more for another 10 days.

Our china was finally ready, and the lady gave us an 8% discount saving us about 20 TD on the set. The set originally was 300 TD, and we paid 280 TD, which roughly equals $222 USD. It is a 12 place setting set. It also includes 5 serving pieces, a coffee set and a tea set.

Now with our "breakfast set" that Dan just had to buy a few weeks ago, our regular dinner set, and our plastic pieces we are running out of cabinet room for all these dishes. We have moved our regular dishes into the kitchen cabinets. This will be a nice change since we were always having to walk out to the china cabinet to get dishes if all the plastic ones were dirty. For room in the china hutch we had to move the "breakfast set" to the cabinets below the display area. Now we only have our "nice" china and crystal on display. Our next major purchase for the house will be nice silverware. We have a very expensive French store on the corner of our street, and we went in there one day when walking around the neighbor to price pieces. For the 12 setting set that we liked it was 4000 TD. (No, you are not reading wrong. That is over 10 times the amount we spent on china.) We do not know of any other shops besides the one we bought china in and the one down the street from our house to buy silverware, so we will be asking around. We did look at the hotel supply store, but everything was very plain there. This is completely understandable since their specialty is hotel and restaurants. We just wanted something a little nicer than what they had.

The breakfast set that Dan bought a few weeks ago is only a 6 place setting. It also comes with a tea set. It is something that we would use when we have the Marines over for breakfast or lunch. Dan really wanted to buy it because in the house we build one day he wants a breakfast nook area, and wants to display these dishes in there. This set did not come with any serving pieces, but they carry this set at the Carrefour. So I could get serving pieces there if we want to add to the set. Dan's goal is to have the Marines come to our house once a week for breakfast after PTing. If this happens as regularly as he wants then we would get the proper use out of this set.

March 31, 2005

Here are photos of the view of the Mediterreanean from the Ambassador's house.

March 22, 2005

This is a typical Tunisian window! They all have some sort of sun blocker.

Here is a traditional Tunisian door. You see these in the older places.

March 15, 2005

One of the things you see regularly when you live here:

February 12, 2005

Added a new section for our trip to El Jem; you should see it on the left.

January 28, 2005

We went to the Medina here in Tunis when Dan's bosses were visiting a few days ago. The Medina means market. It is a large, outdoor market. Tunisia is famous for them. They are very historical, but are becoming more and more geared towards tourists. It is all in small, cramped, winding alleyways. It reminds me somewhat of the street sellers in NYC.

They are that persistent, and love to bargain with you. So that was fun. However, the day we went there our group consisted of 8 adults and 2 babies. It was one of the coldest days here so far. With all of us looking and buying it took forever to get from shop to shop, and made the day somewhat drawn out. It is not a place I think I would go often, but when there are new people here or people visiting it is something very Tunisian to take them too. Plus it is somewhere nice to buy small Tunisian trinkets for our house. Dan and I did not buy anything except for a stuff animal of a singing camel that Kaitlynn wanted.

It was a good experience for us to see other people with us bargain, and to realize how low we could get shopkeepers to go in their prices. They really mark them up, and then you work them down. They especially mark them up when you appear to be a tourist. So we are learning to let them know that we want "the Tunisian price" since we live here.

I do want to go back to explore the Medina some more because we only went into the very touristy location. It is very large in diameter with a famous mosque in the center of it. The Medina is actually built around this mosque. That trip will be when it starts to warm up. Then we can actually see some of the historically sites that are around the Medina, and maybe even take in a traditional Tunisian meal at one of the cafes there.

On our way to the Medina, we stopped at this kitchen store that specializes in hotel sales. Dan's First Sergeant wanted to look at china for his wife. Tunisia has it's own china factory about 45 minutes away from Tunis. We were going to take him there, but we did not realize it was so far away. We were on a bit of a time crunch, so we stopped at this shop instead. It was nice to go there because we that been thinking about buying a 12 person setting of china to own since we will be hosting some formal dinners from time to time. So we got to see some of the patterns, and see the price range from low-to-high end. We saw some stuff that we really liked. They all come with 72 pieces with them. We are going to buy ourselves a set in the spring. I am not sure if we are going to look at the factory first or not though. This shop had some good sales going on at the time we went, but we heard that that factory has tons more patterns to choose from. We have the option to go there and do a tour looking at the patterns. We would then place an order, and have to come back to pick it up in a few weeks.

November 15, 2004

This section of our website is where you'll be able to read travelogues of all the places we visit. This page will be reserved for Tunis and the things we find interesting here. You can click on any of the other places listed on the left to see other cities and countries we've traveled to. Enjoy!