Update!

Hiii!  

Okay, a lot has happened since I last posted.  The most important thing is that I've moved in with my host family!  YAY!  My host family consists of me, my host mother (28 years old and pregnant and due any day now- wow!) and my host father.  Luckily Toney who is also on my program is living with the family downstairs.  The family downstairs is my host father's sister, her daughter, her mother and maybe her other sister?  I don't exactly know but there's a lot of family around so the house is never empty which is really nice.  Three other families that my friends from the program are staying in are also somehow related to me.  But anyway, living with a host family who speaks barely any English, a tiny bit of French but mostly Arabic has been interesting.  The first night was a LOT of charades but in a fun way.  We are able to communicate very well and my Arabic is improving every day (although obviously still a challenge).  

The food here is AMAZING if you cannot tell already.  I've been with my host family for 2 nights and the first night we had green peppers that were stuffed with cheese and some veggies I think and also soup and salad.  Yum.  Last night we had scallops stuffed with something along with cheese (YUM) that went with a type of mashed potatoes that was sweetened and had herbs or something.  It was great.  The best part is that this morning I had freshly squeezed orange juice that I literally squeezed myself right before I drank it.  AMAZING.  I could definitely get used to this.  

I just got back from a 4 hour break that we had in the middle of the day.  We went into the capital of Tunis and searched for this place that had the traditional Tunisian dish, "Leblebi ", which was incredible.  And get this- 8 dishes of leblebi (a TON of food which consists of about a bun size of fresh bread, chickpeas, harissa (this amazing spice thing that is on everything and I guess is red peppers and hot), cumin, oil, egg (runny), lemon, and other random spices and sauces), one huge bottle of water and a bunch of extra bread was about 12.30 dinar which is NOTHING.  To give an idea of prices a sandwich and a drink is about 5-12 dinar.  

This is a picture of some of us at the Leblebi place.  You can also see a version of Lee's leblebi on the bowl closest to the front.  Mmmm.  

So basically it's beautiful out here.  The views are AMAZING.  The last night we were staying at the hotel (because the next day we went to our host family) we went to this place we have now called "the view".  It is simply breathtaking.  The funny part about it is that it's also a kind of romantic random spot so when two of my friends and I went we kind of interrupted some romantic moments.  But anyway, Saturday night two of my friends and I hung out there before dinner and I still can't get over how beautiful the view was.  I wish that my description would do some justice but I'm going to try anyway.  So basically we're on this kind of overlook with trees, some random cliffs, and brush and clear spots.  On one side is a restaurant and the other is eventually houses.  Directly below are also houses (all houses = white with bright blue doors) and then below to the right is a harbor with big boats.  The moon lights everything so much that we can hike down to the ocean (which we are overlooking) while even going through trees and still see where we are walking.  So we are sitting on this point over the ocean with mountains in the distance, a city in the distance and other mountains really far away over which a lightening storm is occurring.  We couldn't believe what we were seeing.  This amazing view with the sound of ocean waves breaking right below us.  Wow.  It's really hard to imagine with this description but let me just tell you, I wish you could have been there.  

So we went to that place before dinner, hung out then trekked back to dinner with the group.  After dinner we ended up going back to the view and then three of my friends hiked down to the ocean which proved to be QUITE the adventure.  I'll save that story for when I get back to the U.S.  

Another adventure was on Saturday when we went into Tunis on a "drop-off" exercise.  Basically we went on a type of scavenger hunt with the group and had to navigate etc. by ourselves for the first time.  It was really fun and there are stories but I'll spare you.  

This is a picture from our first day in Tunis.  It was taken on the top of a roof in Tunis.  The moutain in the distance is known as the "two-horned" mountain due to its two horns at the top.  How appropriate.  

Okay, this is long so I'll end here.