Little creepy..

Sunday, I was at a cafe with a friend when a woman and her two daughters walked in. Normal, except she was the EXACT twin of a woman that I used to go to church with and I totally had to shake my head a few times to believe it was a different person. My friend and I started discussing how everyone must have a few people in the world that strikingly resembles them. I mean, there are only SO many combinations of features/beauty marks/colorings that can be different right? But the likelyhood of individuals actually meeting or seeing their 'long lost twin' must also be very low. (Katie80- totally freaked out when I saw a girl here at the parking lot of Carrefour that might have been your long lost sister, kind of scared Fred when I wouldn't stop saying how weird that was. Forgot to tell you about that)

So have you ever seen someone or a picture of someone or someone in a video that you eerily felt looked like you? Me, never before, although i frequently see people on the street and think immediately that it's someone else. However, I came across this video today (Perez Hilton, occasional guilty pleasure) and I can't get over how much i think the singer looks like a slightly younger/thinner/more make-upped version of me (and a version that can dance/sing). I've watched this super weird video like 5 times now to see if I'm just crazy, but I really feel like i'm watching a cracked out version of myself. Am I delusional?! Just thought it was bizarre and didn't know who else to share it with...

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=48330910

I know, I've fallen off the blogging bandwagon. Trying to get back on. Back in Boston in less than a week and am staying until the 30th. Hoping to make it back for New Year's Eve to be with my boyfriend and friends here (scheduled to arrive in Tunis at 5ish on the 31st, but let's hope Alitalia doesnt screw that up). Extremely excited to be back home and relax for a few days and spend some quality time with my parents and a few friends. Sadly doesnt seem like I'll be seeing college friends, except maybe Burbs (!!!), insh'allah. Haven't seen college friends (except aneantissement Danny) since college which has been a bit of a grey cloud for me recently- could use a little of that familiarity. Plus have some big conversations to have and big decisions to start pondering, with very very little idea of what those will bring.
But for the moment, just trying to live the dream and excited to be back at home for a little holiday cheer, shopping to help stimulate the lovely economy, yummy food made by mom (plus an Anna's burrito is a must) and some cheesy Christmas music to kick off the holidays. Oooh, and for Christmas, I'm getting mom a couscoussiere (to cook couscous in) and the necessary Tunisian ingredients as well as my new skills of how to make a fantastic Tunisian couscous and will hopefully bring a little Tunisian sun to Boston for a night over the vacation- plus hopîng Youssef and Safia will help (my two Tunisian friends doing Fullbrights in Boston who have spent some time chez my parents).
Getting excited.

And the Results are in! 4 am Tunisian time : )

Being feeling very odd this past week or so. Always being super into politics and having considered taking the politician route myself, I was extremely homesick (?) by not being in the US for an election that will most likely be the most important of my lifetime. Homesick is probably not the right word, but I was actually kinda depressed- really missed the high of elections and knowing how big this high must have been for the US. Oh well, starting to get over it.
And I have to admit, when I push aside my jealousies of everyone that was there and participated and I put aside my own feelings of self pity (yes, i realize how ridiculous it is), it was also pretty fucking cool being an American in a foreign, particularly a Muslim, country for this election. Wallah, EVERYONE here was SOO into this election and the interest does not cease to amaze me. Taxi drivers for a week before the election asking me what I thought was going to happen and everyday since the election. People congratulating me (as if i did anything?!) 'mabrouk, mabrouk Obama' for something that my country did. Congratulating me for coming from a country that just inspired the world and congratulating me for our country finally starting to redeem the scalding image we have left in the world because of our foibles of the last 8 years.
Everyone here cannot believe that Obama isn't starting now. People say 'but he needs to fix the world NOW'. And yes, not just 'he needs to fix the US', but i can quote 3 people who have said world (well they actually said monde mais ca va). I don't think Obama really realized he was running for president of the WORLD. Slight exagerration, yes. But, the poor guy does have some very high expectations although I think the fact that he WON and has inspired so many people will give him some time. Well, congrats to all my friends who have been volunteering their little democratic butts off- YOU guys did it. Yeah, everyone that voted sure helped too, but without all those volunteers out there registering people, calling people, frankly pissing many people off too, the results could have been very very different.
My god. If the results had been different, I would have to be constantly explaining how the hell the American people could THINK about electing a VP who had a 20 min convo with a Canadian disc jockey pretending to be Sarkozy (sounds NOTHING like him for pete's sake) who claimed that his advisor for American culture was Johnny Hallyday! Ah, that would have been a nightmare. (for those that don't know what i'm talking about, the youtube recording of the convo was ABSOLUTELY appalling to anyone francophone and for very good reason)
Well, in any case, that little rant was just to say Congrats to the United States from what appears to be everyone in Tunisia.. myself certainly included.

My hero

When I was younger and flirting with the idea of going into the Foreign Service, my idol was Colin Powell. Although Republican, he always seemed to me to be diplomatic and he stood up for what he believed was the right thing, not just the 'popular' thing. Of course, like everyone, there were some things he did/said that I did not agree with, but overall, he impressed me and made me believe that party politics could be overcome.
Once, and I remember this very very well, when i was a junior in high school and my dad still worked at the Boston Globe, he took me as his 'date' to the White House Press Corps Conference. Essentially its where all the big media groups invite a 'celebrity' to sit at their table and watch a speech/performer and look at the president and his wife sit on stage. The Globe had John Kerry and his wife at the table which was pretty cool at the time. However, the most memorably moment of the night, and definitely in the top 10 of my life, was as i was walking through one of the hallways (by myself) i noticed a few large men in suits coming towards me and as they got closer, COLIN POWELL was right behind them and brushed shoulders with me and said, 'Excuse me.'!!!!! I nearly died or jumped into his arms or something. Instead, I teared up and vowed never to wash my shoulder- which I havent.
In any case, this makes me respect him even more.. lordy, is he eloquent!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/27265490#27265490

For those that haven't seen the recent speeches from Obama and McCain at the benefit dinner, they are actually pretty funny. Kind of nice to see them able to laugh at their criticisms for once and to put the boxing gloves aside. I particularly LOVED it when Obama said 'Perhaps my greatest weakness is that I'm a little too awesome.' AWESOME.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/16/mccain-and-obama-palling-around-must-be-the-al-smith-dinner/?hp


And on another note, simply furthering my proof that the Red Sox are the greatest sports team in the history of the world, they pretty much created some miracles last night that even Moses would be impressed with. Even if they manage to lose this weekend, this still makes their season a win.. http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/2008/10/that_just_happe.html

Wedding Bells heard literally everynight

As most of you know, I've never really been one of those 'gotta get married now' girls. When I was younger, i would have dreams of me with 3 kids in front of a big house with a big yard. There was never a husband watering the lawn in the dream- I don't think that was ever intentional, but just that my priorities were/are more to be successful/stable and to adopt kids because I love kids. It was never that i DIDNT want a husband in that dream, just more that that was less of a priority.
Here, getting married is THE most important thing for 98% of the population- maybe higher. I have not met a SINGLE person here that does not worry about or have as their number 1-3 goal to get married- even my relationship challenged, super liberal friend Sarra. I've always kind of hated this aspect of the culture here because of what it represents. Fine, family is super important and its wonderful to see big families get together for dinners etc, but a lot of the couples barely knew each other before the 'big date' and to be honest (i know to expect some backlash on this), a lot of the men are sweet/romantic/respectful and then oooops, day after the marriage, they can't be bothered to get their own glass of water or wipe their own asses (slight exageration, but not really.) My close friend and her husband are extremely liberal and they typically have an affectionate and cute (despite his ridiculous jealousy) relationship with each other, but whew, when they are at the house, he does not think about lifting a finger and she lets him get away with that! While at their house the other night, their youngest daughter knocked over the pot of hot coffee onto their son's leg and all over the couch/floor and as my friend took the son to the bathroom to clean him off, the husband just says "oh great, now the couch is gonna get stained." Didnt even cross his mind that if he got off the sofa and cleaned up the coffee, the couch would not stain (i happily did it while glaring at and lecturing him for his stupid comment- yes he is a good friend of mine so i can do that). I am not saying this is all couples and of course there are different degrees of this 'wife does everything even if she works a super long day, is sick and pregnant', but it definitely makes me angry to see.
That all being said, I am super super super happy that a very very good friend of mine and former colleague, Mohamed, recently got engaged. He is probably the nicest, most genuine guy i've ever met and has done a LOT for me here and has really been a great great friend. He is also usually very shy about talking about girls, but wow I am so happy for him. The joy radiating (yes, radiating) from his face when he was showing me pictures from his 'family engagement party' was so sincere and so wonderful. It gives me the warm and fuzzies to see someone THAT happy and has made me pause and think, ok maybe there are SOME people out here that really value marriage for the person they are marrying. I seriously hope a few years of marriage won't change how he treats/looks at his fiancee, but for once, I have faith that this guy won't disappoint. Now if everyone would stop telling me that it is time for me to get married... i think pigs will fly first. That would be pretty awesome though if pigs started to fly.

I realized today how pretty much all of the blogs that I used to/still check on a regular basis have slowed down enormously over the past 2 years. In college it seemed like if I wasnt putting up a post a day (which almost never happened), i was the 'slacker' and immediately reminded of that by either Brokeback or Williams. Those were the days when after sitting across from Mike or Adam at the library for a good hour or more only to realize that at 2 am, they were busy spending an hour writing and revising blog posts. That always baffled/shocked me. I too am certainly a part of the crowd that have neglected the blog, especially considering my multi-month hiatus. Just a weird observation that I don't really have any good analyses for.

Already thinking about coming home for Christmas. Hoping for a Barn reunion maybe in NYC the weekend right after Christmas. Might not be alone for the trip. Weird.

Barcelona=heaven

Wow. I think I am in love. What a fabulous, fun, chill, big (!!) city! A long weekend there was wonderful, but a bit of a tease. I'm ready to move there! (might actually be considering that as my next stopping point.) Great food, amazing shopping (damn lack of money), cheapest booze in Europe and a vibe that just made me feel at home right away. Felt a bit like NYC in terms of the size and amount of different things to do/see/eat, but with a more laid back, walk at your own pace aura. Ahhh sigh. When can i go back!!?? I think it also helped that we had 2 fabulous night tour guides (friends of my travelling companion) that brought us to an incredible incredible restaurant the first night followed by a few bars- one of which we all danced for hours. Then took us to a fondue (!) restaurant the next night followed by a bar with 'the best Mojitos' in Barcelona. Maybe it was the gorgeous weather, maybe it was the company i was with or maybe i just need a change from Tunis, but what a breath of fresh air!

Sweet nostalgia

Got a link to The Badger Herald and succumbed to my temptations to read the Shout Outs. It was awesome. Except made me really miss Madison and all the memories- we had some good ones. Even got nostalgic at all the shout outs from HC White at all hours of the night- ah good times. Haven't been to Madison in over a year, not sure when i'll make it back. Sad.