Tuesday, May 06, 2003

Last week I got a call from my friend Scott Jorgensen at Base Camp. Talking about one thing or another, Scott asked why I haven't written more about living in Tunisia. After all, it all sounds very exotic and wildly interesting, living in North Africa, in the Muslim world, far from the US in these interesting times. And it's true that I haven't actually spent as much time as you might think writing about Tunisia. There is some stuff here and there, and everything in Hyperbole Abroad has been about living here. But that's still not much. So why haven't I captivated the blog universe by writing incisive, fascinating commentary about my life here? Aside from the fact that my life is not fascinating and I can't be incisive. I've given this some though, and come up with a few reasons. First of all, Life In Tunisia has really not been as much a sea change as Life With Second Baby. I don't even know what the hell is happening half the time, let alone am I capable of writing about it. Second of all, life is not all that difficult here--sure, there are differences and inconveniences, which is why I still have some work to do on Driving in Tunisia and Shopping in Tunisia. But for the most part this is a nice, easygoing and...dare I say it....sort of boring place. No one wants to read about the easy stuff. It's the crazy stuff that's interesting. Additionally, I didn't get this blog going until early December, after we'd been here for four months. So the shock and awe of living abroad had already begun to fade, and many of those more interesting first impressions didn't make it. But the most important thing, I realized, is that this is home now. I feel like Tunisia is home. How often do you find yourself writing about Minnesota or Texas or Kansas or wherever you live? Not often, because home is normal. And normal is, well, boring. Once you really feel comfortable and settled into a place, you don't notice the quirks of it unless they're really outrageous, or if you're really working hard to pay attention to them. Of course, we'll be leaving this home in barely five weeks, and then on to the US for a few weeks before settling in Dubai for a couple of years. So home will change yet again. I'm moving into the reflective stage about Tunisia, and I'm starting to look back on the year here. But I'm not quite ready to write about some of that yet. I'm still here, after all. At home. I guess I don't know what "home" really means anymore. If anything, home seems to be "where my stuff is". And now where my wife and kids are, too. Right now, home is Tunisia.   2:06:10 PM    Let's hear it. []