Monthly Archives: August 2013

I finally have some of my stuff!

The operative word here is “some”. The first of my many shipments to arrive wasn’t the one that was supposed to arrive first (because that would make too much sense), but it was the one that was supposed to arrive second. So my methodical plan for packing things in the order in which I wished to receive them was really a complete waste of time.

The customs situation is interesting to say least – apparently all of my shipments are at the port, hanging out, waiting to be cleared through customs. And no one can predict when it will happen. So I guess I should be grateful that I have “some” stuff. And, the “some” that I received included my bedding, so no more welcome kit/motel-style comforter (which can’t really qualify as “comfort”ers, since “comfort” did not seem to be a consideration when manufacturing them). At any rate, I’m taking tiny steps toward making my apartment feel more like home. Hopefully more will materialize soon.

My bed!

Guest room bed!

The first day of this weekend began with church and ended with flip cup.

I kicked off the morning with a “coastal tour” around Algiers, planned by the CLO. We began at Notre Dame d’Afrique, a 19th century Roman Catholic church, after a windy drive down the hill from the Embassy and ultimately up another hill on the other end of town until we reached the church. Sadly it wasn’t open yet for the day when we arrived so we couldn’t see the inside, but the outside is quite striking and the view is great – looking out over the water (and a soccer pitch).

Next we drove over to a couple of public beaches, which were packed. Our group of 11 consisted of 9 women and I think we doubled the number of females on the beaches. Such is life here, I suppose. Also, comparisons were made to the Jersey Shore due to the preponderance of plastic chairs and umbrellas. Never having been to the Jersey Shore myself, I can’t say. Decide for yourselves:

We finished up the morning with a nice fish lunch overlooking boats:

After lunch, it was back home to whip something up for a birthday party I was attending that evening. I found a Tunisian brand of cake mix at the grocery store and thought I’d give it a whirl. Chocolate chocolate chip cake is hard to screw up, right? Right. Not quite Betty Crocker, but it was tasty enough to serve to people at the party. At which there was flip cup. And I’m pleased to report I still have the touch, thanks to my excellent Indiana University education. The corn hole was less successful. I went down to the Marines on that one.

One of the main “tourist” attractions in Algeria (I use the quotations marks because tourism is really not big here) is the Casbah, or citadel, which is the old part of Algiers. The area was instrumental in the Algerian rebels’/freedom fighters’ strategy during their war of independence in the 1950s, and was the setting for the film, The Battle of Algiers.

It is also now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. For various reasons it’s difficult for us, as U.S. Embassy folks, to go to the area on our own, so our fabulous CLO (Community Liaison Office) planned a trip for us to go. A van-full of us headed over and met a guide who took us on a fantastic tour of the windy roads of the Casbah. We ended up at the home of a local guy who has made a business of cooking traditional Algerian meals for tourist groups.

The Casbah is basically on the side of a big hill, sloping down to the water. We started at the top of the hill and worked our way down. The first stop involved climbing to the roof of a house and over looking the entire area:

Here’s me on that same roof:

Then we went down and began to make our way through the area, which is well known for it’s narrow, haphazard streets, like these:

We briefly went into a lovely mosque (no photos allowed on the inside):

And, after a couple of stops at teeny tiny little workshops of guys who crafted various items out of wood and copper, and sweating like it was my job in the extremely direct sunlight, we ended up at the bottom of the hill at a restored palace. Most of the Casbah has fallen into disrepair (many houses are being desperately held up by makeshift scaffolding consisting of planks of wood), but the palace in the lower Casbah, which sits smack dab on the water, has been turned into a museum. The tile work inside was amazing (the blue ones came from the Netherlands!):

One final discovery in the palace – during the renovations, they discovered a Roman bath!

The Roman Empire of course extended into Algeria once upon a time, and there are apparently Roman ruins scattered around the coastal areas of the country. Much more to explore over the next 2 years!

After the tour was complete, our van picked us up at the bottom of the hill and drove us back up to the top, where we had a great but massive lunch consisting of some traditional Algerian standbys, like borek, chorba, and rechta noodles with chicken. After topping it all off with sweet mint tea and fruit, I was ridiculously stuffed and was very happy to get back in the van and head home to crash!

…is great. Probably twice the size of any previous apartment I’ve lived in. Which, granted, isn’t saying a whole heck of lot, but still. And I have stairs! INSIDE the apartment. And a patio. With a view. Have I mentioned the view?

Of course, I still don’t have a wireless internet connection, almost 8 weeks in, but who’s counting? (Me. I’m counting.) Anyhow, I’m making do. And hopefully my shipments will start coming in soon, which will help the place feel more home-y.

Other highlights: I’m within walking distance of the embassy – my commute is 10 minutes door to door. Also, there’s a little shopping street about 10 minutes in the other direction, with a couple of small corner grocery stores, a bakery, a butcher, and, (as I recently found out since Ramadan is now over) an alcohol store. There’s a lot of Algiers that’s not easily accessible by foot, however, so in theory I will eventually get a car. But I’m not in too much of a hurry just yet. We’ll see how life goes.

Meanwhile, here are a couple of photos of my apartment pre-household shipments:

Super big kitchen

Living room (a couple of photos in the bookcase courtesy of mom and dad!)

Upstairs Landing

Stairs!

Washer & Dryer! Didn’t have that in New York!

And…the patio!

Well, I made it to Algiers and am actually starting to feel like I kinda could sorta belong in the Embassy community here. Ramadan began a week after I arrived, so it’s been difficult to do much for the majority of my time here, since pretty much everything shuts down for the month. Which actually is OK, because just getting used to my job and trying to make friends with the embassy folks has been time consuming enough. But things have finally settled down long enough for me to try and get back into this blog thing. Another big problem is I still don’t have internet in my house, which is not the complete end of the world, but I’m ready to have internet in my house.

On the plus side, my apartment is GREAT. Within easy walking distance of the Embassy, it is by far the biggest place I’ve ever lived (which, granted, isn’t saying a whole lot). It’s a split level apartment with a patio and a fantastic view of Algiers and the Mediterranean:

Here it is at night:

I’ll post more photos of the interior of my place later, after my shipments arrive. Which could be a couple more months, given the lengthy customs process here.

On the job front, there has been a pretty steep learning curve. Having been prepared for a public diplomacy position, it was quite the change getting assigned to a consular job here, although it is proving to be quite interesting. My days are jam-packed with visa interviews of various sorts, so my French is getting quite a workout. And I’ve also had the opportunity to lend a hand in the Public Diplomacy section, which has been nice. For example, last week I sat on the Fulbright interview panel, which was really interesting. Lots of very impressive young Algerians coming to interview for the opportunity to study in the U.S.

I’ll leave it there for now, with the promise to try harder to do more regular updates!