Title for my next academic article about the politics of being.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Bab-ilicious
Tunis must be the 'entrancing' bab capital of the world
(I am well-aware of my nerdiness, perhaps I should create a category for it):
(I am well-aware of my nerdiness, perhaps I should create a category for it):
the old city
Sidi Bou Said
Monday, June 6, 2011
Sunday, June 5, 2011
If they tell you that the role of social media in Arab Spring is overblown...
...don't believe them.
Downtown Tunis
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Sometimes your paradigms need a little shifting...
...especially when it comes to my impressions of Parisians (well maybe only need to do the shifting for the African Parisians).
It's 1:13pm/13:13 in Paris as I write this. I am sitting in Air France's Business Lounge I bogarted my way into. This has been but one part of a series of events that speak to the good fortunes I have experiencedsince boarding my flight in LAX. As soon as I landed I started time strategizing for what I thought would be an impossibly lengthy layover. Given that most airlines will not check your baggage more than 5-4 hours before a flight, I was thinking about a master plan for dividing the 9 hours before my next flight. Since I did made the bookings, LAX-CDG and CDG-TUN, separately, my luggage did not continue on to my final destination of Tunis. I approached the ticket counter with my apprehension given that I was an American who was going to "ask for something altered." Afterlaughing at my Arabic pronounciation of "Tunis" (as it sounding like me saying "To Nice" in English), the Air France ticket counter clerk told me it was my "lucky day" and checked my luggage in 9 hours before my flight. I then re-entered terminal 2 with my carry-ons. As I was unloading my electronics on the scan trays I realized my phon
e was missing. I was sure that I left it out at the chairs by the ticket counter as I was re-arranged my the content in my carry-ons to consolidate three bags into two. As I walked back, my mind was racing, preoccupied with "next steps": find wifi connection, go onto my mobile me account, locate and wipe the phone, etc. I thought it was long gone within seconds of leaving my sight. When I returned, I saw a young woman on a phone that appeared to be an iPhone. She looked at me and realized it was my phone. She was calling mycontacts to find out the owner's name! I thanked her profusely and returned to the security line. And now here I am at the Business Lounge I probably was not suppose to be in feeding on chevre, perrier, and free internet with French news playing in the background.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
On the Eve of LAX--->Paris--->TUNISIA
One of the intentions with this blog when I started it almost four years ago was to track traveling escapades and the tandem thoughts that joined them in that voyage. I am sure, although a night very much like tonight, one given to an atmosphere of nervous excitement, I never thought I would be blogging about an impending trip to a post-revolution Arab/North African country---especially the one that weathered the storm for Arab Spring to bloom. Less like four years ago, when I was preparing to spend a month and a half in my parents' homeland, I have naturally resolved to expect the unexpected and oxymoronically, to eject the expectation of the unexpected. I find that when I enter a place, space, situation tabula rasa only decorated with the vow to have good intentions, that I am the recipient of splendid serendipity, or as I learned today, "rhyming events." I guess that's an expectation to be surprised by adopting an expectation-less approach.
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