BURN OUT!

I am so exhausted!

Thursday was Matt's birthday, so we headed to a bar, but the guy we'd met in the Medina saw us in the city and tagged along, and it made me uncomfortable, so I had my mint tea and left early. I guess some people went back to the bar lasr night and he joined them again and got super creepy, talking about how he had shared his secrets with Cale and that we all need to go to his house next week. I have already RSVPed: NO F/ING WAY.

We went to Carthage for the museum on Friday (it cost 7 dinars, and in my opinion that was 7 dinars too expensive) and then to Sidi Bou Said. It was entirely a group day, which sort of sucked. When everyone got coffee, Toby and I opted to stay by ourselves and talk rather than get lost in the crowd. But the taxi ride home was a blast. The driver tried to explain a popular Arabic song to Matt in French: I love my mother/the earth is my mother/ I open my eyes for to see her/ donate your eyes to my mother. Then he got started on Michael Jackson and we busted out a little ABC and Jackson 5 for him.

Yesterday we had to get up at six to do a group excursion to Dougga to see the Punis and Roman ruins. Everyone was exhausted and I spent the entire bus ride sleeping, and the excursion parts sleep walking. It was interesting seeing how people live, but yesterday I couldn't have cared less. While most people capped the evening off with a creepy bar experience, I opted to stay back and smoke chicha, aka hookah, which still ended up being a bigger affair than I had hoped. Mike and I ducled out and observed some possibly repressed homosexuality in the alley between a hosteler and one of the guys who works here, and Mike was treated to a massage. After several minutes, I was outnumbered as a female five to one and decided it was time to get my white/blonde self inside.

Today, Angie, Anna, Amber, Ayda and I (wow, that is sooooo many A names; I hadn't realized who my compay was) went to find a hamam (Turkish bath) and spent the morning being scrubbed to the point of injury and having difficulty understanding whether we were breaking social taboos by being there 50 years too young, or if we were being given the American price instead of the real one.

After that, Angie, Anna, Jared, Mike, Ayda and I explored the Medina and had some tea for a few hours. The Medina was super quiet, which was such a relief.

The class is getting a tour of the city from the proprietor of the hostel. I am going to hang back and cook dinner with Eric and Mike, and hopefully learn some secrets of Tunisian cooking.