Monday, August 25, 2008

Day nine

After a lazy morning and late breakfast, we went to visit the Zaytouna Mosque at the center of the medina. Non-muslims are allowed into the courtyard only at the beginning of the day. It was a really calm beautiful space in the middle of all the hustle and bustle of the medina.

We walked around a little bit more - the highlight of which was a little boy who walked up to us and exclaimed, "Bonjour! Un dinar?" Which is basically like saying, "Hello! Dollar?"

We went back and checked out of our hotel and headed to the airport. We decided to get there plenty early, since efficiency is not this country's strong suit. It took about an hour to get our boarding passes and get through customs and security.

There was a pretty interesting social experiment once we got to the gate called "How will Sarah deal with the crazy lax parenting of other cultures?" First, this fat dirty little boy sat behind me and proceeded to knock his chair into mine. When I pushed it away, he turned around and hit me exclaiming "NO POUSSEZ!" I literally didn't even know where his parents were to give them an are-you-kidding me expression.

However, that was nothing compared to another woman who proceeded to change her preschooler's very dirty diaper on a nearby table and then leave the wipes laying there!!! I was beyond horrified and had to warn another woman (who happened to be American) who sat down beside it to eat her lunch not realizing what they were.

Once we got on the flight there were no other run-ins thank goodness and we made it to London and then JFK without incident. More importantly, our bag made it too! For those with good memories, that means Tunisair couldn't deliver our bag with an almost 9 hour layover in London but Virgin Atlantic managed to do it with only an hour and a half. God save the Queen!

We stayed the night with Dan and Laura and were up late telling tales of cultural mishaps and looking at pictures.

We're going to meet my friend Dave for breakfast tomorrow morning then we take the Bolt Bus home. We will hopefully be on our own couch with our sweet dog by 4.

2 comments:

Amy said...

Wow! What an amazing trip. I cannot wait to see pictues!

hatetoblog said...

Boy will I be glad to talk to you, sounds like a trip of a life time.
Love Mom