#subjecttests

It has been a very long day. 

Last night, our roommate, Zina, arrived at the apartment a little later than anticipated... After meeting her, experiencing her superfriendliness, and kind of wanting to cry because I can't speak words, I excused myself to bed (Erin explained that I had exams in the morning -- thank you, Erin). Erin and Zina stayed up pretty late watching TV and talking, though, so I couldn't actually fall asleep for a while. 

Anyway, I woke up at 5:30ish this morning because anxiety, got out of bed at six, and was picked up by Nadia at seven. She gave me Lärabars, which was exciting even though I never eat Lärabars (turns out the cherry ones are really good!). Got to the testing center way too early, which is what I wanted, and it was actually kind of awesome because I got to interact with people my age (and in English, maybe...). U.S. university admission exams = best networking. Can't wait for the ACT next weekend. This thing I've just said, it is a a joke. 

SAT Subject Tests. There were five people in the one subject test room in the country of Tunisia on June 7, 2014. Did I study all before taking these tests? Not really, no. Really no no. Literature? HAH. Fairly certain I misbubbled some things, but whatever, man, whatever. French? Whatever. (I don't want to think about this why am I writing about this.) Either way, I got to take the tests hours before folks in the States, which I think is kinda funny (College Board: I am most integritty).

A very long day. I got a coffee at a café near the testing center and read and reviewed Arabic vocab and traced some dashed-line letters in my small child alphabet book. And then I took a cab to Carrefour and bought bread and yogurt muesli and spinach and an extremely sketch French-to-Arabic phrasebook (it cost two dinar). And then I tried to walk home and managed to get lost (disoriented) on my one-avenue straightaway route like four blocks away from the apartment, and tried asking people where said avenue was, and apparently none of them knew, and none of them spoke French, which is great, but yeah, learning. Also, "0%" yogurt only exists here in little minicontainers of very weak plastic, and one of mine exploded in my bag on the way home, so upon entry to the apartment, when it finally happened, I got to act out "yogurt explosion" for Zina and Erin and Michael. I'm still forgetting words as soon as I learn them, so let me get back to you on the Arabic for that phrase. I highly recommend it as a prompt for improv games. 

Anyway, then lunch happened. I was prepared to have some bread and prepare the spinach I had bought, but then I was presented with this plate of pasta and told to come sit down, so I stuck some raw spinach under the pasta, hoping it would at least get a little limp, and it really didn't, and it was really nasty and bitter and things, and then even when I cooked it, it was really nasty and bitter and things, but I ate it anyway because independence and I'm taking care of myself, obvi. 

That would be the first thing I ate today without really wanting to. 

After lunch, Zina took me and Erin and Michael and Tucker to Les Berges Du Lac, where we sat in a café for a while (I had lemonade; should've had tea... live and learn, I suppose (also, sorry that this blog is pretty much just a log of what I eat (oh no, "blog is a log" is redundant))). The lake is really beautiful, though they've been filling it in to accommodate Tunis' population. After walking past the lake, we wandered around the grounds of this amusement park for a while, which was amusing. Lots of plastic elephants and some heavily refused popcorn (gee, I sound complain-y... more to come). Post-amusement, Zina led us to a restaurant where we could get lablabi, which is this Tunisian comfort food of sorts that I'd heard about from Erin and others (in the amusement park, when asked if I wanted lablabi, I'd said in French (for clarity) that I'd eventually like to try it, but I couldn't see myself being hungry for the rest of the day). Anyway, you basically take bread that's getting stale, tear it up put it in a bowl, and then you take it to the pros, who add an egg, which is then cooked by this boiling hot garbanzo bean stew stuff that gets poured on it, and then there's harissa and tuna (for some) added, and you get a little ramekin of olives and pickled vegetables, and you mix it all together and that's lablabi. I used just a little bread, hoping the garbanzo beans would be served proportionally to the bread (uh-uh), and I didn't get an egg, so in my bowl, the high olive oil content of the stew was particularly evident and frightening (I love my unsaturated fats, don't get me wrong, but...). Anyway, lablabi is a good idea and I'll probably eat it again sometime, but you really gotsta be hungry. 

Very long paragraph about lablabi. Very long day.