Who stole Christmas? :)

A little sidenote- this weekend I remembered why I chose to come to Tunisia for my internship during the winter. The weather has been simply amazing! I mean nowadays it’s not that hot that you’ll go around in a T-Shirt but almost. It’s about 20 degrees and there’s sunshine. In Sousse I could just put on my “ballerinas” and walk out of the house without a jacket! In Tunis it's a bit colder but it is not anywhere close to what I am used to during this time of year. I hope it stays that way and I can imagine that it will be a bit of a shock going back to cold, cold Vienna in January.

The downside to having no real winter in December is the fact that normally this is Christmas time and now I cannot feel the spirit at all. I’ll probably only realize it’s Christmas when we start cooking the Christmas Eve dinner and when I buy some presents. If it wasn’t for my roommates I might end up missing Christmas this year because here it’s not present at all! I kinda miss the snow and the decorations. Oh, well, I’ll guess we’ll decorate the house a bit in the next days and start having dinner with Christmas songs playing in the background. That might help to bring in the Christmas mood. At least there’s no Christmas stress here! :)

Internship Highlight- The Enterprise Days 2009

I just got home after 4 amazing days in Sousse (a touristic city in the south of Tunis). What took place was the congress that I’ve been working towards since I started my internship- The Enterprise Days. I don’t know how much I talked about it already but it is a big international congress, which happens annually in Tunisia. The topic this year was “The State and the Private Sector”. The congress hosts about 800 participants who are businessmen, politicians and representatives of international organization. Until December 10th I only imagined what the congress could be like but this weekend I actually got to experience it and guys, it was awesome!

First, though, let me give you some info about what it was like to be part of the organizing committee of this event. When I arrived here in September I started contacting Tunisian companies, as well as European associations and potential speakers for the congress. So at the very beginning it was pretty calm and although I had some dynamic situations and deadlines, it was not so stressful. As the event approached things started to get pretty stressful. The team ended up staying in the office until late at night, sometimes even midnight and this really reminded me of AIESEC conferences where this is, of course, really normal. Luckily, like for AIESEC conferences, we managed to make the work fun and there were lots of laughs and pizza orders in the middle of the night. :)

On Thursday, December 10th, we headed to Sousse. The congress took place in a super nice 5-star hotel. I lived there in a huge room during the congress and it was great! There were some really interesting and important people and the media coverage was really good! So I got to see close-up how such an international and formal congress is organized. Having participated in several AIESEC conferences surely helped, especially when it came to dealing with stress, with stressed people and with the lack of sleep.

Apart from the official sessions there were really nice sponsored lunches and a beautiful gala dinner! It was pretty cool to sit 2 meters away from former European Commission president Manuel Marin, for example. :) Everything was really great! Of course, there were unexpected situations and some troubles but this all happens behind the scenes!

After the conference Maja and I got to stay one more night in the amazing hotel and we saw parts of Sousse and even experienced night life there! It was awesome going partying with our colleagues and our boss (!!!). It’s really cool when you can work together but also have fun! I’m really happy to be in yet another team where this works out.

Eid

A few weeks ago there was a very special Muslim holiday: Eid. It happens 22 days after the end of Ramadan and it’s a pretty big holiday. In order to get an idea of its magnitude just think of Christmas. People are THAT exited about it! There are no presents but there is a special ritual that takes place during Eid. For this holiday a sheep is sacrificed. A lot of families buy a sheep and kill it in their house. Those sheep are pretty expensive, around 300 Tunisian dinars, which is about 160 EUR. The family gathers and the men kill the sheep. I actually got to see the poor animal before and I can tell you it surely knew what was going to happen to it. :) I also saw it after they killed it and I saw them pretty much taking it apart. I could describe this in much more detail but I won’t. I’ll spare all the vegetarians reading this, especially my dear sister! :) (Love you too, Schnuffy!) Before you start thinking “eeeeeew” and getting all disgusted by the image of somebody skinning an animal and taking out all its insides you have to understand the reason for this tradition. It’s a religious reason. So here’s a little background if you feel like reading about it (thanks Wikipedia): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eid_al-Adha

Just for you to know I thought I would be really freaked out by seeing a dead animal but I managed to deal with it pretty well and had a lovely lunch! :) We had a really nice BBQ and stuffed ourselves like crazy! As far as I understand on the day when the sheep is sacrificed you BBQ the meat and the next day you make a special kind of couscous dish where you also include the insides of the animal. I tried that too and it was pretty delicious although I had some trouble with eating the stomach part.

Anyway, I had an awesome time and I’m thankful to Mehdi from LC Bardo who invited me to join his family on this special day!

Tunisian Wedding

No, guys, this is not me in this picture! :)

Last Saturday I went to a Tunisian wedding! This was one of the things on my checklist and now I can tick it off! (Thanks to Cotta for inviting me and to his mother’s cousin who got married :)). We attended the last of the altogether 4 celebrations. Apparently there are many celebrations that are part of the wedding but only during the last one the bride and groom are together. The other celebrations involve things like the women going together to a hammem (Tunisian spa) for example. On the last night, the one I attended, the bride and groom show up together. The bride looks like a doll with sooooooooo much makeup and a huge and heavy-looking dress (I was surprised she could even move in it). Then they sit on a couch in front of everyone and people kinda go up to them. Every once in a while they might get up to dance but that couch is their main place. During this celebration there was no dinner. They served a lot of sweets and little snacks, as well as fresh juice (strawberry and lemon) and mint tea. There was an orchestra, which played traditional music, and people danced. It was extremely interesting to see and quite different from what I’m used to. Then again, I haven’t been to a wedding in ages so it’s a bit hard to compare. Any of you getting married soon? Invite me please :)

Btw, talking about marriage, Lindsay and I already got a little marriage proposal and for the record, we’re not getting married yet :)

Being a foreign woman in Tunisia...

As a foreigner it’s impossible to stay invisible in Tunisia. Walking on the street means people staring at you and often trying to talk to you, mostly Tunisian men who sit in cafés drinking mint tea or coffee and smoking shisha. Especially if they hear us speak English they would often try to talk to us. But now I’ve gotten really good at ignoring them and if they get really annoying then we just tell them “Barra” (Go away) and that’s that. Nothing bad has happened to me so far. These people mostly talk but don’t touch :).

Walking around on my own is not a problem although in the evenings it’s a bit tricky. Everybody warned us girls to not go out in the night alone, especially since we live in the center of the city and there are a lot and sometimes strange people walking around. But I’ve done it and it was not a problem. Sometimes it can be a bit scary but so far it’s been fine. I can say I feel pretty safe here although it’s not the same as in Vienna. I would not walk down an empty street alone at 3a.m. So I guess you gotta be careful but it’s not that dangerous as one would think.

Tunisian Food

My expectation of Tunisian food was for it to be spicy….and well, yeah, it is! :) The main ingredient that makes it that was is the “harissa”. This is something like a spicy chilly mix which they put on practically everything here. And it makes the food super spicy. I’ve gotten used to ordering meals without it or with very little of it. A little trick in case you wanna try some of that is to poor some olive oil on it. It kills the spiciness a little.

At the beginning I thought I’d really have a problem with the food because it seems like the main ingredients of most meals are olives, eggs, tuna and harissa. And I hate olives, cannot stand warm tuna and find harissa way too spicy! But I got really used to it and I found meals that I really love! So now I can say I really love Tunisian food. Some typical dishes are: ojja, lablebi, brick, couscous with fish or lamb and many, many more. (if you wanna see pictures of some of these just check out the photos I have uploaded on Facebook. I have quite some photos of food!)

Ah, and I should not forget to mention that they eat bread (French baguettes mostly) with almost everything here. You will even sometimes get served spaghetti with bread. :)

A great invention that I can eat/drink is the “jus de fruits”. There are quite a few place where you can get a kinda juice which is basically a fruit pure with coconut, lots of nuts and honey. It’s really popular here and it tastes amazing! When I go back home to Austria and Bulgaria remind me to make it some time! :)

My Tunisian Family

When I left Austria my biggest fear was not that I will have a cultural shock, not that I won’t be able to adjust to life in the country or the food, or the people, but that I will have to live with 5 other people in the same place…something I had never done before.

Before I arrived in Tunisia I got in touch with my future flat mates and I asked lots of questions about the life in Tunisia, about the flat, etc. When I arrived and the AIESEC guys took me to the flat I met a group of not 5 but 7 people :) During my first 2-3 weeks I lived with 7 other people and I shared not just a room but a bed with one girl. This was because one of the interns had 2 more weeks of his internship and another intern had to stay with us for the time being.

I didn’t know about this before I arrived so I am surprised how normally I accepted it when they told me. So I essentially shared a bed with a “stranger” the first few weeks of my arrival.

But these people are now my family here in Tunisia. I still cannot believe how amazingly well we get along. They are such cool people, sooo willing to explore this country and culture. They are so much fun to go out with, to share experiences with, to talk, to laugh… For you to know who I share my life at the moment with here is a little overview:

* Maja: Croatian; She’s been in AIESEC for about 4 years and now works in the same company as me. We laugh soooooooo much together, she totally gets my sense of humor (yes, guys, I’m funny in Tunisia. Come visit me and you’ll find out! :)). I cannot imagine life and work in Tunisia without her! Plus, she completely relates to my Balkan side :)

* Viktor: Brazilian who seems like a nice quiet guy but is aaaaalways ready to party and is such a positive person! I cannot remember one night when he didn’t want to go out partying!

* Lindsay: Canadian; originally my bed-mate, now “just” my roommate! She’s the mommy of the house always taking care of everything and making sure we kids don’t burn down the place! :)

* Carlos: The Portuguese guy who looves cooking and “hard rock” kinda music (which most of us cannot relate to) but is now too busy for all of this because he’s got his Tunisian girlfriend to take care of. :)

* Debora: also Brazilian, really funny with her awesome English, party person, who is now also quite busy with her Brazilian boyfriend but manages to integrate us very well into her new circle, hence the Brazilian parties I’ve been attending lately! Ah, yeah, she also likes to set me and Lindsay up with random guys! So far not very successfully. Her and her boyfriend’s matchmaking skills definitely need to be improved :)

I also have my amazing Tunisian friends here who have been great and are also part of my Tunisian family! They are constantly inviting us to go out, attend AIESEC events, spend holidays with their families and just overall introducing us to the Tunisian culture, food, language, mentality, etc.

People are an important part of my experience here and I’m more than lucky to have these individuals around me! I’ve only known them for 2 months but it feels like I’ve been friends with some of them forever.

First impressions of my internship

My first day in the company was pretty...let’s say strange. J I met my boss just for 5 mins only for him to give me the basic tasks for the week. Thankfully I work with another intern, Maja from Croatia, who was working there for 2 weeks before I came. So she told me about working hours, the people there, the work she was doing, etc. The first week was also kinda strange because it was during Ramadan, which meant that we only worked half the day.

Overall things were pretty chaotic at the beginning. I knew that we were organizing a big congress in December, which will host many important people and will have approximately 800 participants from many countries. When Maja and I heard that we have our first meeting as a conference team we were quite excited. We went into the conference room with all the other co-workers and the meeting started in French….and then somehow magically, after 3 mins, switched to Arabic, or rather ‘Tunisian’. For you to understand how confusing this meeting was I’d have to tell you that ‘Tunisian’ is actually a nice little mix of Arabic and French. Which means that when they speak up to one point you are wondering if they are speaking French, and you just don’t get it, or if they are, in fact, speaking ‘Tunisian’. Yeah, for most of the meeting we didn’t have a clue what was going on. And at the end of it the boss asked “So you know what to do?”….My answer to that was simply “Ahhm….Noooooo… not really”. And then we had to ask our colleagues to explain to us what it was all about.

Now I am totally used to this and I know how to get the information I need, although sometimes I get surprised by random deadlines I never heard about. I miss the AIESEC working style, with proper project overview, plan and everyone knowing where they fit in the whole puzzle and what their role is. I miss the leadership style which encourages results but does recognize efforts as well. Here we were told that results are THE most important thing and it doesn’t matter if you put 100% or 150% of your energy into it, as long as you get it done. Motivating employees is not done and the importance of team spirit is not really recognized.

Still, I’m super happy to be having this experience and to work in a different environment with a different working style. It gives me personally a lot and I learn from it every day. Plus, now I have been at this job for long enough to really have fun with my colleagues and enjoy my work.

First night in Tunisia

I’m only writing this now so it’s funny to talk about my first impressions of the country. I remember arriving at the airport on a pretty nice evening, the air was stuffy and it was hot. My flight went pretty OK and I was picked up by 2 AIESEC EB members at the airport. After that I went to my new house. My flat mates were already there, just back from another weekend trip. I dropped off my stuff and we went out almost immediately. We went to the old part of Tunis, called the Medina, which is an area composed of small streets with lots of shops selling tons of touristic stuff, small coffee houses, etc. We went to have some drinks in a coffee house. Now that I think about it I don’t remember who I talked to that night, what I talked about…I remember asking lots of questions, getting lots of answers… but that’s pretty much it. Maybe it was simply too much at the time and now I can’t recall in details how that very first evening went…

I came here during Ramadan, the Muslim holiday, which lasts 1 month. I was only able to experience 1 week of it but I got an idea of how things go and how different life is during this time. First of all, during Ramadan, religious Muslims do not eat or drink during the day. So the days were pretty quiet with not too many people on the streets, not too much action. However, after sundown the real celebrations started. Usually families and friends gather together to have typical Ramadan dinners, with special food being served during this time. I got to try the “menu” of a Ramadan dinner once in a restaurant and it was great! We barely got seated though because Ramadan dinners are popular so in the evenings everyone is eating, either out or at home.

This meant that during this time people were muuuch more active in the night. The city barely sleeps and as I’m living in downtown Tunis it was very loud in the night. When I went to sleep it felt pretty strange because we could hear that there is plenty of action still going on outside. After eating people seemed to mostly gather for coffee and for smoking shisha….more about the food and drinks later!

So my first night here was loud, warm, exciting…I expected I might be quite sad because I was far from home and not in a place that I can call home yet but I wasn’t. I felt, hmm…I remember I just felt strange, not in a good or bad way, but in a different way…in a transitional kind of way…as if waiting to figure out how I really feel about being in this new place, with these new people…

A few facts about my Tunisian adventure

* Arrival on Sunday, September 13, 2009 (this was still during Ramadan)

* Living in downtown Tunis with 2 Brazilians, 1 Canadian, 1 Croatian, 1 Portuguese

* Working as an AIESEC intern in the Arab Institute of Business Leaders, from Monday to Friday from 8h to 18h, nowadays also on Saturdays

* Date of departure (inchalla, means something like "with God's will") - January 17, 2010 = 4 months internship

Warning :)

So here starts my blog eXPerience...A few warnings before we jump into this. The author of this blog:
* has started this blog out of pure peer pressure, because it’s trendy and because thoughts have to be released somehow at some points and my 5 roommates in Tunisia do not always have the patience or the desire, or the simple capacity to listen to those

* hopes you’re going to read this even though it’s always not gonna be super entertaining (I’m not that talented in writing)

* has to warn you that all the thoughts expressed in this blog are pure opinion and a matter of personal observation.

Having said that, let’s get started...