Visit to Rome

The Tunisians take care of their stray cats... note the water left out for the kitties so that they don't get thirsty on such a hot day.

http://www.ruinedendings.com/
For those who know me, this is exactly my type of website.

Here in Tunisia, I've made another kitty friend. He's orange and white, and he's also dirty and hungry. But he's a nice kitty.

Nidhal and I went into downtown and into the souk this week to bye a chess set. We found a nice one for about $20. It's a wooden board with metal pieces. It looks quite nice, but the quality isn't that great. Even so, $20 is not a bad price. I tried to find some metal chess pieces for sale on the internet, and they were all ridiculously expensive. I think the cheapest was about $90. After doing this research, I hope to go back to the souk and pick up just the metal pieces to another set. The board to this other set was at least 18"x18", if not bigger, and the pieces were great. The pawns were archers. The guy was asking 80 dinar for the set, so I'm hoping that the pieces alone will be quite a bit cheaper than that. And then if we get the pieces, I'm hoping to make my own board (or have my dad make it).

It's been hot here the past few days. Of course, it's nothing compared to the desert, but it's still awful without air conditioning. And then to add insult to injury, the electricity went off. A box or something blew, we're guessing because of the overuse of ACs because of the intense heat.

Since I've been hear I've read (actually listened to, in this order) Black by Ted Dekker, Kiss by Ted Dekker and Erin Heely, Angels and Demons by Dan Brown, and now I'm on The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. I had read all of these before except for Kiss. Of Dan Brown's books, I had always preferred Angels and Demons, but for some reason, Robert Langdon was just so annoying this time around. I don't think I ever really liked him, but this time he was almost unbearable. As I was listening to The Count of Monte Cristo today, I came to the Rome scene and I thought I recognized one of the piazzas mentioned from Angels and Demons. Sure enough, my suspicions were confirmed when Dumas mentioned the obelisk topped by a cross in the square. What a coincidence. By the way, Piazza del Pololo, the one used by Dumas as the setting for an execution, is the earth portion of the path of illumination and therefore used again as the setting for an execution.