Without a doubt, this was easily the best Spring Break I have ever had! Ten days on a planned vacation that took us J-FORCE kids through a country that a year ago had just been through a revolution. It was a remarkable experience! We stayed in four or five star hotels every night, except for the night we spent sleeping in tents in the Sahara Desert. That was an awesome night even though it rained for the first time in like five years there. More about that later...
The first two nights we spent in this hotel that was right along the beach. It kind of made me homesick for Huntington Beach. It was beautiful and some people saw camels roaming around on the beach.
Besides that, the first day we were there we went to the U.S. Embassy and heard some speeches on the state of Tunisia after the revolution. The next day we ate at this fabulous Tunisian restaurant and met Tunisian law students and hung out with them for the rest of the day. I loved talking to them about their lives after the revolution. The thing that struck me the most about their revolution was that it started through facebook and probably would not have continued if it wasn't for social media. It's crazy how somewhat simple things that we take for granted are so important in other areas of the world.
The third day we were in Tunisia we went to the U.S. Military Cemetery in Carthage. And then by the end of the day we ended up in Sousse. Then we went to Matmata where we visited the Star Wars bar and Luke Skywalker's house. After that, came the town of Douz where we rode camels through the Sahara Desert. One of my friends fell off their camel when it started bucking and almost got trampled. My camel kept digesting its stomach and the camel behind me kept trying to eat my leg. That night we spent the night in the desert in eight-person tents. It happened to be the first time in five years that it rained in the desert. Half of my tent collapsed and some people got soaked. It was actually the best night of sleep I got.
Besides all that, we went dune diving, visited the salt lake where the English Patient was filmed, took the train through the Seldja Gorge and canyons, the Islamic Great Mosque in Kairouan, the spa complete with massages in Hammamet, some Roman ruins, a few discos, and a few medinas.
The week went by so quickly and there's so much I learned from simply spending a week in another world. It was an experience I will never forget.
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