TravelEatShopSleep.com: Getting Settled in Tunis pg 3

continued... Getting Settled in Tunis

We are learning many new things. Like for instance, there are certain times when it is not good to go to the huge supermarket called CarreFour. Everyone in the country is there and it is a madhouse. There are weird flavors of potato chips in foreign countries. Like ketchup for instance.
We have learned to not leave food out and to secure the garbage because the ants come from everywhere to invade your home. We only make this mistake a dozen or two more times.

Ketchup flavor???

Have a Coke and a smile?

Nice little surprise in the AM!

Our house and yard are fine. The house is large; too large in fact with 4 bedrooms, a family room, an office, 3 bathrooms and the usual kitchen, living room and dining room. The floors are lovely with marble and tiles. We have very high ceilings throughout the house. There is a rooftop deck where you can see the Mediterranean. We thought we would use it, but we don't since you have to go through the house, upstairs and then up small circular stairs to reach the rooftop deck. We have a back patio area that is great for dinners in the evening and for future BBQs for the two of us. Right now we are waiting on our shipment from the US that has our great BBQ in it. The cat likes to hang around outside and try to get dinner scraps. We have two orange trees and a lemon tree.
We wish that the yard was better situated for this house. The house is long and thin, the yard goes around it. You have to go all the way to the back of the house, through the kitchen to get outside. It is fine for us, but weird for parties. We are wanting something that is open to the outside so we will look for a new house this next year. Between the bad layout of the house and the crazy old neighbor that screams and cries, sometimes for hours, we know we want something and someplace different.

Lovely jasmine plant outside provides a
wonderful scent to the back patio area.
Momma Kitty watching us.

I love my potted flowers!

Is that a monkey in the tree?

Fresh lemon anyone?

Interesting shape.

Side yard with parking for one car under
the yellow awning.

Side yard with two orange trees and a mass of
dirt that the gardener lets weeds grow in.

The back patio has potential. It is just a bummer that it in the back of the house
and is not very accessible. Fine for us, not good for parties. And very close to
the crazy neighbor who screams, cries and sounds like he is murdering someone.

Heavy wrought iron furniture on the roof. I need
to find out if it belongs to the school and if I
can paint it and cover the cushions.

The rooftop deck has potential. Except it is
really difficult to get up here. Bummer. Good
place for an afternoon nap though.

Beautiful mosaic tile work in the house!

We are making use of the furniture that the school provided. We are adding our own items as we find them. There are some lovely crafts here. Everything from pottery to lamps to rugs to ironwork to mosaics. Many of these items I had been looking at in the States when we purchased our house in PT. I already knew that I liked this "Moroccan style".

Shopping for lighting at the store.

Shopping.

I want this big one. But since we don't know
what our new house will look like, we are
waiting a bit.

And we selected a few small rugs...

We selected a few of these...

We came home with a few of these.

I want one or two of these...

Who said that book shelves are for books???

We have also been adding to our household. First we noticed the little yellow kitty watching us and we occasionally gave we gave her scraps (big mistake). This little yellow and white kitty we soon started calling Momma Kitty...
We then found the turtle that the previous owners left behind. His name is Cheech.
I adopted a gecko that I thought I rescued from the steps at school. I put it in our bathroom at home since there seemed to be ants wandering in there too. At least Gecko would have ants and water. He soon died and I found him dried up in the shower. Oops.

Cheech likes grapes and can walk quite fast.

Momma Kitty is becoming used to us.

I thought I rescued Mr. Gecko from the steps
at school. But he may have been better off there.

Mr. Gecko did not adjust to his new residence in the
shower and he died quickly.

Our neighborhood in Carthage is a lovely place to walk. Many of the homes are huge and lived in by the wealthy. Some of the buildings are quite old. You find other locals out walking. There's a great French bakery down the street as well as a grocery store within walking distance if you aren't carrying a lot.