What day is it again?

So, we're in Tunis now which is the capital of Tunisia- I have completely lost track of what day it is, and my computer, my watch and my blackberry are all on different timezones so I have to keep asking people what time it is. I didn't have time to do any research before I left, so I was coming here totally blind, but am pleasantly surprised- it's clean and the people are nice, and our hotel is right on the lake (lake tunis maybe??!). There are less of us on this trip so the extra-curricular activities have been much tamer (thankfully!!). Tonight we went to a traditional Tunisian restaurant, the food was okay, but was pretty much the same as the Moroccan food we had a few days ago- lots of couscous and meat.

I am pretty tired (we interviewed over 200 people today), but I will just quickly tell you the highlights of Marrakech: I had a lot of fun with the other two Canadian girls, Jen and Kelly (who both work at our hotel in Dubai), and we quickly learned that travelling with Saudi men is a very interesting experience. (The whole trip was sort of like the beginning to a bad joke.... "Three Canadians, two Saudis and a Jordanian go to marrakech...") Let me explain... In Egypt, things are quite different to canada, but Saudi is a whole other ballgame. The HRD (who is 32) was telling us about his wife, and I asked how old she is... "seventeen" he said and I started laughing, but realized quickly that he was serious...oops...they've been married over a year and they have a baby already, so you can do the math. The GM brought his wife with him, and when I mentioned to another team member that she seemed sort of young to be the mother of the teenage kids he'd referred to earlier, I found out that she was one of three wives (Muslims can have up to 4 at a time AND it's pretty common to marry your first cousins). I think she is his "traveling wife".....

The other thing about Saudi men is that they are uber-chivalrous...we were not allowed to pay for, or carry, a single thing on this entire trip.....even though the HRD is probably a foot shorter than me and 25lbs less {see photo}, he still insisted on carrying my bags all though the airport and won't let me carry my own interview binder. It even happened today with a STAPLER...they are pretty heavy you know!

Anyway, the guys had both been to Marrakech before and wanted to show us everything, so each night we had a different "surprise" planned for us.. one night it was a traditional dinner and dancing/horseriding show, another time we went to a big public market (where I made friends with that snake)....but my personal favourite was one night when they told us to meet them in the lobby and wear shorts... we didn't know what we were doing, but they took us to the hotel spa. As soon as we walked in, the spa attendant led Jen, Kelly and I into a small changeroom and sort of gestured to some flipflops on the floor- we all took off our shoes, but could tell from her face that she wanted us to take off more... apparently we were only allowed to wear bikini bottoms and NOTHING ELSE....since I had only met the girls the day before, there was a lot of nervous giggling, but we figured "when in rome..." so we stripped down. We were then led into a dark steamy room where a different woman shoved each of us onto a marble bench and proceeded to rub a sticky transparent gel (that smelled like fish ) all over us (and my girl wasn't shy with the rubbing..IF you know what I mean!)... then all three left without a word! After the initial awkwardness of being almost naked with new co-workers passed, we started to relax and chat....after about 15 minutes the women came back and shoved us into the shower. we rinsed off and then they took these rough mitts and scrubbed the heck out of us....dead skin was flying everywhere--- it was disgusting! Then we rinsed off again and they put something green on us, then another rinse and a black mud went on. After we were done we all felt really soft and exfoliated, but the process was pretty funny. Apparently Moroccan women do this weekly.

The other thing I will always remember is when the guys wanted to take a horse drawn carriage from the market to the restaurant...the driver didn't really know the way so he took a wrong turn (or maybe it was actually the way he intended to go....) and we ended up going down this super-narrow pedestrian alley...there was seriously no more than 6 inches on each side of the carriage...people were yelling and honking and had to flatten themselves against the walls of the alley..... but we were just cracking up because there was nothing else we could do! {this picture is not the alley, but it's about the same size!} Needless to say, it was a pretty fun 4 days...and it is just the beginning- it sounds like I will be having some more adventures with them over the next month.

Jeez, this was going to be a short post..... I should go, but before I do, I have to send congratulations to our amazing Canadian triathletes who competed in the worlds in Vancouver last weekend. In particular, our own Victorian triathlon sensation, Kirsten Sweetland- she didn't have the race she had hoped for (this picture breaks my heart) because of a terrible pain in her foot, but like a trooper, she finished the race anyway, and found out afterwards that the reason for the pain was a stress fracture in her heel! Most people would have stopped because of the pain, but not this tough cookie- she should be SO proud of her amazing tenacity and passion. She'll still get to go to Beijing with the team for support as an alternate and you can be sure that this isn't the last we've seen of her! Good on'ya Kirsten, hold your head high- you are a superstar :)

Okay, I'm really going now, but I hope you're all doing well. Over and out from CatinTunis.

xoxo C