First impression

Stopover in Frankfurt still felt so familiar with the prices in Euros, understable language and not so different looking environment. However, the airport there also had the honor to cause the first moment of culture shock which looked like this:

Yes, the flight was supposed to leave at 22:15 but looking at this screen being already confused with the timezone changes made me look couple of times again. Luckily the texts were changing with the more familiar alphabetical ones and I hadn't yet lost my ability to read.

The other heart pumping moment came when they gave us boarding cards in the plane. This was something no one had told me about and my fellow traveller and discussion buddy next to me didn't have a clue of either. Filling in a paper with your own basic information of course isn't a big deal, but they were also asking for an address in Tunisia, about which I had no idea. Fingers crossed I then went to the passport control, and survived. After that the hand luggage scanner already stole my attention so that I even forgot to check the first stamp I got.

When stepping out from the airport I did my best to resist taking photos after laughing a bit in my mind at the EPs (exchange participants) doing so when I have been picking them up in Finland. I might also have been too amazed and hyped about the warmth of the air. And that combined to the darkness! It has always meant something exotic for me.

As an answer to a question if people in general speak English here I got "No, French they do speak a lot". In addition to sheep, also pedestrians walk beside the highway. The sun is shining exactly from above. The wind doesn't really cool the air. It IS hot. So far the hotness has still been enjoyable, in the end this is still what I signed for with my country decision.

With 16 Dinars (6 Euros) you can get from Tunis to Sfax in 2,5 hours. The question just is how would a person without any local contacts and language knowledge have found the bus station, understood where to pay and stepped into the right louage. Thanks AIESEC for providing us these, as well as the strategical phone calls with the driver.

The host family found us, stomach has been filled, rooster is crowing somewhere in the distance. Tunisia has treated well so far.