Things Going In Boxes!

Tonight is my final night in Tunisia. I was supposed to get a visit from a professor that I had talked to last week. She had promised to bring me some useful information, which I was looking forward to. Alas, she was either too busy or simply forgot to pay me a visit since I haven't heard from her since. Ah, oh well.
Yesterday I said a somber goodbye to my Arabic teacher, Ahlem. I will miss her, especially since she evidently doesn't have an email address.
I feel upset that I am not coming back with any physical books (other than a copy of "The Stranger" in French that I purchased) but I feel much more knowledgeable about the situation in Tunisia and I think that having not come here would never have led me to the realizations and insights that I gained. In the last few days, in particular, I've learned some upsetting facts about employment and school in Tunisia. Supposedly, unemployment rates are upwards of %50 in almost every line of work, which is very, very upsetting. Tunisian students go through fourteen years of highschool, all of which is focused around memorization and repetition. Few essays are ever written and anything like creative writing is unheard of. To imagine going through that kind of system to be faced with such daunting odds at finding a job is very startling.
I'm packing up an heading back to the States, where I'll be doing some more research to bulk up the solid foundation of my paper. My efforts stateside will be met with more success, I am sure of it.