Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Canned Tuna

1.)  Suddenly it's fall in Tunisia.  It's been rainy and cold for a few days now so we've spent a lot of time at home so this afternoon I took Henry out for a drive.  We stopped off at Byrsa Hill where there were about 10 tour buses parked.  Henry loves buses, and tractors, and cars and trucks so I decided to ask (through elaborate pantomiming) one of the bus drivers if we could walk around inside.  The following is the imaginary conversation Henry and I had based on what I actually said and what he said through his very meaningful looks:

Me:  You want to go on the bus?
Henry:  Are you serious?
Me:  Come on, let's ask the driver if we can go on?
Henry:  If you're kidding we're through.
Me:  I'm not kidding.
Henry:  I mean it, woman.  You don't joke about these sorts of things.
Me (to the bus driver): Can we get on the bus?
Henry:  Let's do this thing!

He then proceded to run down the aisle and sit in one of the seats and die from sheer bliss.  For ten minutes all he could say was, "It's a bus!  It's a bus!  It's a bus!  Bus!  Bus!  Bus!  Bus!  Ooh, it's big!  It's a bus!"

2.)  You'll never guess what the most popular food is here.  Canned tuna.  I'm not even kidding.  You know how in normal grocery stores they have about 2 feet on a shelf dedicated to tuna?  Here they have an entire aisle.  Top to bottom running the entire length of one side - all canned tuna.  They put it on everything.  We went out for pizza last night and half the pizzas on the menu had tuna on them.  The dip they brought out with the bread was olive oil, harissa (a yummy local hot sauce) and tuna.  Crazy-ville.

3.)  The teenagers here love Lady Gaga.  Regularly I hear packs of them singing out, "Alejandro, Alejandro, Alejandro!"  Also, I was noticing how many teenagers there are here.  Hoardes of them!  And I thought, is there some kind of teenager boom going on?  How come there are so many?  And it struck me that maybe I'm seeing so many because they all walk home from school and hang out outside instead of being chauffered around by their parents or playing video games inside and I suddenly wanted to high five them all.

6 comments:

Tammy said...

I think Henry would love the book "Don't let the pigeon drive the bus" by Mo Williams

Tammy said...

I think Henry would love the book "Don't let the pigeon drive the bus" by Mo Williams

Valerie said...

There are similar packs of teenagers in New York. I suppose I should want to high five them as well, but, I'm too busy trying to navigate around them while they walk five abreast on the sidewalk and cluster in front of bodegas where I'm trying to buy ginger ale.

Also, gross about the tuna. I'm not a tuna fan, and the idea of it on pizza is pretty monstrous.

Katie said...

You know my thoughts on tuna, once a year if even that. This post made me want to have a victory moment right here right now. Danger zone.

Rach said...

You are a cool babysitter. How many people would think to ask a bus driver if the 2-year-old in their care can check it out. Simple pleasures.

Canned tuna? Ugh. Does everyone's breath smell like tuna there?

Go active teens. Go teens go.

krii8 said...

Well, tuna pizza was worse to think about than the blondies, I must say. Unless the blondies also have tuna mixed in!

So, did you? Did you high five them all? What did they do? Did they know what you were doing? Cliff hanger...