Eid Al Fitr and a Tejeraba at The Church

Salam!

So this weekend was Eid al Fitr, the breaking of the fast holiday.   Unfortunately Monica went to Rabat for the weekend and missed out on the festivities.  It was a lot of fun. 

First we all got up and had breakfast together.  This was really nice since we haven't really done meals together.  Even during fast breaking the rest of the month, the kids would barely touch any food before leaving the table and the dad would barely eat anything before going out and smoking.  He's been a little crabby this last month but his mood has bounced right back the last couple days :-p  

Anyway, we sat down and all ate breakfast together.  There was bread and rolls flavored with anise and "Dannon"  (because Danno is the word they use for yogurt in Darija, no matter what company makes the yogurt :-p ) and nutella and a sort of dry cereal that is a base of ground sesame seeds and different spices, including anise and cinnamon, all mixed together with almonds for decoration.

On Eid in this house there is a strict no women in the kitchen rule, so while our dad made lunch, we girls played dress up (pictures on google plus).  We probably took pictures for an hour.  Then we did a couple family shots.  Omar wouldn't get dressed up, but at least he consented to sit in on a couple pictures.

Lunch was at 4 so I figured that that was it for food for the day, but around 8ish they called me out and we had tea and cookies.  That was pleasant.  Then I went back to my room, did a bit of homework, got ready for bed, and at 11 or 11:30 I'm called out again and it's dinner!  A huge plate of roasted lamb with caramelized plumbs, sauted almonds, and sesame seeds.  (Our mom made this the night before so dad only had to heat it up :-p )

Breakfast on Sunday was eaten all together as well.  I guess I'm just used to eating breakfast at 7:30am then heading to school and no one's up yet.  And this was my first and probably only weekend at home.  So it was just soo nice to eat with the whole family.

We had what I thought was dinner around 4 but then again, real dinner was at midnight!

When we first got to Meknes, we did breakfast by ourselves because it was so early, then lunch usually out because we had to get back to class, then dinner around 6ish when we got home.  But we'd be the only ones eating and I thought that was a bit weird.  Then all during Ramadan Dinner was served sharp at 7:40pm because everyone was hungry.

But now, I'm pretty sure that we're through with the American guest act.  They were probably told during their home stay prep that Americans like to eat around 6 so that's why they were making us meals but not eating with us because Arabs are notorious for eating a late lunch and an even later dinner.  The other thing that is no longer acceptable is forks, and plates at that.  Now we eat with bread and fingers as our utensils.  I'm proud to say that I ate a good portion of a whole chicken with the aid of some bread.  It's still difficult for me though, getting my fingers messy and not wiping them off immediately. No napkins in the house either.  Just a habit from years of rules about not touching food.. Anyway, I'm really happy to be treated like a moroccan member of the family.  Although I'm really not looking forward to eating dinner so late.  I went to bed right after dinner at 12:30 last night and I woke up with heart burn..

Also news, is that I went to the church in Meknes this Sunday.  It was nice.  It's a church about the size of a small house.  Like the size of two average Columbia sized family rooms.  Pews but no books.  Luckily I brought my bible (although I did this having been told that the services are in French).  The congregation is entirely subsaharan african.  All of the women were dressed up in traditional garb.  If I knew my african countries better I could tell you what country most of them were from.  I'm pretty sure the dress is from Niger.  Ok quick google search I was right!  woo me! Although there were a lot of Nigerians at Long Reach so I shouldn't be so surprised that I knew that one..

Anyway, Catholic service Saturday nights and Protestant service Sunday mornings.  I was warned that the services lasted around 2 hours.  So I got there on time, listened to the band finish rehearsing.  We Prayed, earnestly.  Which turned into song which turned into lead prayer which turned into song (with the words projected on the wall at last so I could actually sing along and make out the meaning (there are enough cognates in French when it comes to basic words of faith)) which turned into more lead prayer which suddenly became lead prayer with everyone simultaneously praying aloud passionately and speaking very quickly, pleading to God.  And finally there was more song and then more lead prayer, and finally we said amen (for the first time!) after 45 minutes.  Then the Leader spoke some more which must have been prayer because everyone had their heads bowed.  Then people were standing, sitting, kneeling on the ground, hands raised, fingers spread towards the heavens, hands clasped pressed to their forehead and everything in between as people began praying aloud by themselves again.

The songs were mostly in French, but there was one in an African language.  A quick google search leaves me pretty certain it was Hausa.  And one song in English.

Finally we said amen again and the paster stood up.  He gave an hour long talk. He seemed to have a good sense of humor but I didn't understand a word he said.

After two hours we sang some more, which again, was one long prayer undulating from silent prayer to song that made the walls reverberate, to individual prayer. 

Then, just when I thought the service was over, we took communion.  I didn't see anything for an offering in the place.  There was no time for it in the service anyway.. But anyway, I thought it was all done when they said that it was time for announcements.  I thought this would mean announcements about coming events or things to do with the church, but instead it was a time for people to go up to the podium and tell their stories and, I assume, from our own services in Columbia, ask for prayer from the congregation.  After 5 people had spoken, each for at least 10 minutes, the congregation was sobbing and everyone was holding each other and I was completely out of the loop having not understood even a word of what anyone had said.  

Finally the leader (of the band?) (or just of prayer?) stood up and began talking.  And after 20 minutes it had been 3 and a half hours and I decided to leave.  I felt a little bad about leaving early but I just wasn't getting anything out of it and I had promised my host mom that I'd be back by 1 or 1:30 and it was not 2:30! Also, people came in at all times. And when the last person came in near the end I was like *this isn't going to end anytime soon *

Anyway, a very interesting weekend.

And, most excitingly of all, if that is a word.. is that I slept this weekend, sleeping longly and deeply (which is a very high level sentence in Arabic :-p )  I slept Saturday to Sunday 7 hours, then a 5 hour nap after our 4pm lunch, then 5 hours over night, leaving me enough time to write this email before class.  That's 17 hours over a day and a half!  I'm, as arabs say it, full of sleep *shabat al nas* same word you use to mean you're full of food :-)

I'm so glad I didn't travel this weekend.  I got to experience Eid with the family and I got to experience church in Meknes, and most importantly I finally caught up on sleep from my slight relapse 2 weeks ago.  I'm finally feeling 100% again and ready for allllllll that is in store for me this week!

il al liqaw!

Karaoke on a Boat!

Hello Everyone,

CLS took a trip to Rabat this past weekend. It's a really nice city, although I didn't take too many pictures. We stopped just outside the city at a place that's known for being the pottery center of the region. There were tons of pottery shops. I may have splurged a little. Or a lot. But I've been craving pottery since I got here. I'm just hoping it'll all going to fit in my bags. Unfortunately one of my bags got stuck with the handle up so I'm going to have to check it at the airport. Who knows how much that will cost...

Anyway, so Rabat.

I saw the Atlantic. That was cool. I Saw the ancient fortification walls around the city. We went to a market that was crammed with people. That was a little stressful. Everything is much more expensive in Rabat than in Meknes. We went to a roman ruins. Apparently a family took the ruins, used the pillars to build a house over top of the cite, then there was an earthquake followed by a tsunami in the 1700s and the whole thing was washed away and today the only thing that's left are the outlines of buildings. There was a pool that was once for bathing before prayer but became flooded and now is swarming with eels. AND the best part of the day was that there were like 10 cats near the pool. Just chilling. SO CUTE. Brenda, I remember all of those pictures you took of cats in Rabat and now I understand. Meknes, the cat's aren't in that great of shape, but Rabat has some spectacularly cute cats.

At the end of the day I stayed in Rabat with a 3 friends. I was really excited because they are really cool, really chill people and I've been wanting the chance to get to know them better.

We met up with a group of 9 at a syrian restaurant. We were all soooo excited for shamy food. We had sad hummus and my babaghanoush was mashed eggplant with balsamic vinegar and cucumbers on top. But the shwarma was good so that was something. And they didn't have baklava. But they did have banana milk (jus de banan) which is milk blended with bananas. Very tasty.

Afterward there were rumors of a restaurant on a ship that served drinks, so we made our way back to the beach. On the way we stopped at a fair and had cotton candy and rode some rides. That was a lot of fun, and the guys even offered to hold our purses (and our shoes in one girl's case :-p)! My one friend wouldn't get on any of the rides, he said he can't trust that they're safe. I went on a ride with two girls and it was one that is like an octopus. You go round and around and the legs move up and down at different intervals. Well half way into the ride the lights went out and everything slowed down, then there was a hydrolic sound and the ride began moving up and down and I was like *this is us for the rest of the night, being bounced around...* lol the ride did eventually end, but not before I made my one friend freak out by telling her that the ride was probably never going to stop :-p

Afterward we finally found the boat. It kind of looked like a pirate ship. And there was karaoke! So we ended up sitting around until 2am waiting for my friends to get the chance to sing

That night we stayed in a two bedroom apartment through “airbnb” which basically means that some rich guys owns an extra house he lends out to people. It was nice and quiet. We talked till 4am about mental illness and its effects on family life. It was really nice. The next day we slept in. First time all summer. And we didn't have an 11am check out time because it was a privately owned residence. We Went to a french restaurant and got crepes and coffee for lunch before heading back to Meknes. It was a very nice time.

Eid is supposebly sometime this week, although the meteorologists can't be trusted for reasons I don't understand so we won't know until they see the moon tonight weather today is the last day of fasting and tomorrow is Eid or if Eid is Saturday.

Because we don't know whether or not we'll have class on Friday, we're going an extra two hours today and then, in the case that Eid is on Saturday, we'll have a normal day of classes tomorrow anyway.

We had a presentation in Darija and a big paper due yesterday on “The Global Economic Crisis” and our opinion on it. And We had a big presentation today. On top of all of this there have been running OPI practice exams to prepare us for our official OPI that will be next week. I'm still recovering from my relapse last week and so all of this in one week has been really difficult and I'm really nervous about being as prepared as possible for the OPI next week.

But alhamdulillah this day is over. Now there's just the next week's OPI to worry about. .. and an hour long presentation I'm giving on unemployment in the arab world.. :-/

A lot of people are traveling this weekend, my roommate included. I've realized that much of my stress is because I'm feeling out of control and as if everything is moving too fast. It feels like my time is crowded and running out. It doesn't help that I don't know when Eid is so if I did make travel plans I couldn't know what day I'm leaving until late tonight. So I've decided to stay home. I'm going to sleep in and prepare for my big presentation next week. I might go to the token church here in Meknes. I've been told that there's a service at 11 on Sundays for protestants. Although I just found out that the services are in French, so that's a little frustrating. But the music and the people should be nice.

Paradise Found

I took a real vacation this weekend.  My friend and I took a trip out to a small beach town called Asilah.

Our first free weekend a couple people began planning a trip to Tanger and Chefchouen and then next thing you know, everyone was going.  The trip was fine, but we were constantly running into students traveling in groups of 9 and arguing where and what and when they were going to do what.

Last time it made sense - first time trying to get around the country, easier to just all travel together.  But this week, it was like sheep.  A couple people mention Casablanca and all of a sudden everyone is making plans to go to Casa.  But my friend invited me privately to go to Asilah.  We had passed it on the way to Tanger and we could see the sea from the train.  A grumpy couple of middle aged canadian archaeologists said it was their favorite location and got off at that stop.

So we went, just the two of us, no other CLS students.  No other students at all as far as we could tell.

We stayed in a little bed and breakfast, Dar Manara, run by a spanish lady.  Neither my friend nor I know any spanish but between her french and my arabic we were able to check in and figure out the time for breakfast.  We picked this place because it had air conditioning and breakfast and wifi but the air conditioning  was what sold us.  We slept in an 18 degree breezy room.  The lady did warn me not to leave it on for more than an hour or so or else, and I quote: "whboom" *gesture of something exploding* so I'm not sure what she was trying to convey would happen if we left it on too long, hopefully she wasn't really saying that the air conditioner or electricity or something would explode, but just to be safe we only kept it on for an hour at a time.  It was a cozy little room anyway.

On Thursday evening I went by a patisserie and bought cookies for our travels on Friday (for lunch really) (I hoped they would sell something more substantial) but we couldn't eat on the train on Friday so I assumed we'd get into them when we got to the hotel.  But of course, I left all of the cookies on the train next to my seat.  But it's ok because my friend had brought a couple snacks and it was 7pm anyway by the time we got in.

We went out after fatour, around 9 and places were just starting to open up.  We ate at an open air restaurant.  Paella.  I'd never had it before.  My friend, who has been to Spain, said the spices weren't spanish, but it was the first rice I've had in months!  People in Meknes are known as " the bread people" or "breadies" if you want a literal translation.  Every meal consists mostly of bread in one form or another and often if there's something other than bread on the table, bread's the only utensil you get.

Yesterday we woke up, had a hearty breakfast of bread cooked two different ways (I think bread is a pretty standard breakfast even outside of Meknes), one was a baguette and the other was kind of like a pancake sliced in half.  It's all bubbly on top.  With orange juice, jam, and REAL COFFFEEE  non of that nescafe stuff!

Then we went out and found the beach.  We estimate that we walked about 5 miles on the beach.  My jeans are soaked inside and out with sand all the way up to the knees.  But it was so worth it.  We saw a couple sandy colored crabs.  A little ways up the beach were some rocks and little pools of water and there were shell fish like the kind you might find living on a whale.  

That which you might find living on a whale

We got back to the hotel and showered.  Then we went out to a patisserie (in my defense it was the only place that was open at 2pm!) and we bought a big box full of cookies which we ate for lunch on the terrace of our bed and breakfast.  Then we took an afternoon nap and then we went back up to the terrace again.  We went out again around 9, this time to a well known spanish restaurant for a real fish meal.  I got a swordfish steak the size of my face (literally!) for $8.  The waiter loved that we spoke Arabic.  There were no moroccans in the place.  Asilah seems to be mostly frequented by grumpy middle aged spaniards and middle aged american ex-pats. 

I have decided that I'm going to live in Asilah one day.  I've never felt so comfortable anywhere else.  Quiet. No cars.  No donkeys.  Beach and beach breeze.  Very few tourists.  Murals on most walls.  I could live there.  Live a simple life with wifi and an air conditioner and cookies from that little shop for lunch every day.  Ok, I suppose I could compromise and only eat there for lunch during Ramadan.. :-p

It was a wonderful weekend.  I kept looking around corners expecting to run into a group of 9 students from CLS all trying to travel together through the narrow alleys, but there was no one to bump into.  No reminder whatsoever that we had any other obligations other than to enjoy the sea breeze and our air conditioned room.

On the train home, you could tell we were nearing Meknes because the sunflowers stopped looking toward the sun and were looking toward the ground instead.  It's so hot here.  But the worst was that the compartment we were in didn't have air conditioning.  We paid for first class but we ended up sitting in our own sweat for 3 and a half hours.  It was not fun.  And I broke the rules and drank a bit because I was starting to feel sick.  I decided I'd rather offend the other people in the compartment than let myself get sick from dehydration and heat just to be culturally sensitive.  I think I made the right decision.

I don't believe I have school tomorrow!  I'm so tired.  And my reading for tonight is a 3 page article titled "Has poetry died?" and some review of old grammar with some notes on obscure exceptions to the grammar.  Our teacher isn't testing us on the grammar from this book, it's all obscure and mostly inapplicable to anything we'll ever say, write, or read.

On the note of school, I'm considering taking one or two mental health days.  I didn't really sleep this weekend.  It could have been something about the hotel, but I was dead tired both nights and still couldn't get to sleep.  I'm still taking my medications religiously but I'm a little concerned that the stress of turning in 3 papers, a presentation, and an exam this past Friday on top of packing and planning this trip may have put a strain on me.  

I might talk to my host mom, see what she has planned for tomorrow.  Taking a preventative mental health day is fine as long as there's something pleasant to do.  I'm not at a point where I need to take a day and sleep, I'm still healthy, I just feel like I need to take a day and relax.

My No Good Very Hot Day

June 24, 2015

Today is so hot.  108 degrees.

We went to the archaeological site of Volubilis, a roman ruins that is the size of a small city.  We were there from 10-1pm.  There are no roofs at such archaeological sites.  No trees.  Just sun.  Every breath was like gulping  lukewarm milk.

There were some beautifully detailed mosaics.  Some pretty arches.  A communal toilet.  but overall the heat trumped the interestingness of the site.

I took plenty of pictures even though my fingers were burning on my black camera!

After our 3 hours in the sun at Volubilis, we went to a city perched on a mountain.  I have a couple pictures that don't do it justice on google plus.  We got off the bus and immediately started climbing.  The goal was to visit a mosque that was apparently at the top of the mountain.  

Well I wasn't prepared to be hiking and I'd already been feeling a little nauseous from all of the sun and I ended up having an asthma attack and had to go back to the bus.  But it turned out that there wasn't much to see because there was a wall around it and it's illegal for nonmuslims to visit mosques in Morocco.  So everyone except the 3 muslims in our group was pretty upset that they had climbed all that way and they couldn't even take pictures of the exterior because of the wall.

But it was so nice, the resident director escorted me down the mountain and we stopped in the shade in front of a hanoot to wait for the bus.  And the hanoot owner originally gave me a chair.  Then cold water, then invited me inside and he and his wife fanned me for 15 minutes.  I told them that I was fine, but his wife said "no, you are like my sister"  They were so kind and generous.  If there's any place that you're going to find yourself in a bit of trouble, it's best if it happens in the arab world.  There's always someone around to take you in.  Incredible care and hospitality from complete strangers.  She was not joking about being her sister.  They really took care of me.

For the moms among you:  I'm fine now, I'm drinking an inordinate amount of water religiously lately.  And next time I'll ask in advance so I'll know if I need to use my inhaler.  And yes I was wearing a hat and lots of sunscreen.  And I had eaten lunch.  And now I've slept and eaten dinner and drank some more, so everything's good.

Anyway, I talked to my mom, Monia, and she said that this kind of weather is not normal until August so hopefully after next week (week and weekend expected to be in the low hundreds) things will cool off.  Last night did cool down a bit.  Enough to sleep.  No  breeze on these hot days :-/

Stay cool for me,

Holly

Tanger and Chefchouen

June 21, 2015

Hello Everyone,

A group of my friends and I took an adventure this weekend!  First of all, the biggest news is that I actually have a couple real friends now, not just close acquaintances :-D

Anyway, we figured out the train and took it up to the coastal town of Tanger (You can see Spain from the beach - it's only 18 miles away!).  

We got in just in time for iftar.  The poor guy at the hotel was like "WHyyyy! :-p"  because we interrupted his iftar to check into the hotel.  We went to a nice quiet restaurant.  I got a lamb tajine with prunes, apple slices, pineapple, and cashews.  Pretty tastyy.  And the meal came with a complimentary small bow of soup and tea and cookies for dessert.  We went back the next night around 10:30.  The guy refilled our tea and gave us more cookies 3 times so we left him a 15 dirham tip.  My meal was  25 but the guy was nice and we didn't tip the first night.  They were probably keeping the place open for us :-)

We took a day trip to Chefchouen (shef-sho-wen).  It's a blue city.  Pictures already on google plus.

We took the train back from Tanger today.  Lots of homework to do.  We've just started the third al-kitab book.  The first reading asks us to read between the lines.  What does the author actually think?  What in the text indicates this nuance to you?  Very difficult.. but this is what getting to a level 3 is all about so I'm all in. ... except for this break to listen to music, write this email, and slowly upload pictures to google... :-p

In other news, Ramadan began this past Thursday.  It was the hottest day of our time here so far.  I thought I might give fasting a try, but it's not the hunger that's the problem here, it's the dehydration.  I'm going through so much water and it's been a struggle not to have it out during class.  I had been drinking 1.5 liters just during our 4 hour class but it's insensitive to drink water in front of our teacher and some of my classmates who are dealing with the same heat.

Apparently students have complained in the past that iftar is usually just breakfast foods and the same food every day, but Our host mom said she likes to mix it up.  The first night we had soup, eggs, and homemade pitas stuffed with veggies and ground beef.  And homemade Ramadan cookies.  I don't know what they had friday and saturday, but tonight was a different soup with some fried eggplant, homemade chicken nuggets, and barag stuffed with fish and deep fried.  So more like a samosa I suppose.. but definitely filo dough.  Figs tonight, too.  And apricots most nights.  And dates are a must, especially during Ramadan :-)

Ok, back to work..

Love,

Holly

al riHla illa Merzouga!

June 16, 2015

Marhaban ya jamaa3!

This weekend CLS took a trip to Merzouga in the Sahara.  The whole ride out, my eyes were peeled, there was so much to see.  It seemed like we were surrounded by mountains on the horizon at all times, even when we were in the desert! (which can't possibly be true but it seemed that way..).  The terrain varied a lot.  There were vast plantations filled with little trees polka-dated with pretty pink peaches. The planes were peppered with perky poppies (I'm enjoying my P's today..).  I don't think I had ever seen poppies in person before.. 

There were fields upon fields of lush green, small cities, villages, and the reef (countryside in Arabic (and yes I'm spelling it that way for you and Siri, sharjeel :-p ) .  I even saw several small communities in the reef living in tents which I thought was interesting.  They were definitely some of the most colorfully dressed people.  I saw lots of shaggy goats and turkeys and thousands of sheep.  The people in tents manage to keep hundreds of animals without fences or anything.  I wonder how they don't all just wonder off ...

It would seem that mosque minarets are in high demand among the storks in this region of Morocco.  I mean you've gotta know a guy who knows a guy to get that kind of real estate!

The most amazing thing was that in the mountains, no matter how forested or barren they were, there was always a green valley below, often with a small river running through it.  We did pass a very densely forested area where we passed a monkey crossing sign!  and on the way home we stopped and fed some monkeys, so that was fun.  There were two little itsy bitsy monkeys too!  I had completely forgotten that there were monkeys in Morocco, I don't know how..  (on a side note (monkeys reminds me of Merakesh reminds me of dancing cobras) there are dancing cobras in the sooq near our school, but you have to pay to see it, so that's probably not going to happen..)

Anyway, to sum it all up, the Atlas mountains are gorgeous and mutanawa-a (varied) .  It was really cool because almost everywhere you looked you could see the different patterns of cleavage on each slope and mountain.

The actual time in Merzouga was alright.  We stopped at - and I kid you not - "The Nomad Depot" where we were required to buy a Berber scarf and we had ourselves all Lawrence of Arabia-ed up in true orientalist fashion It was ridiculous.  

I thought that the ride on the camels was going to feel ridiculous too but to my surprise I actually found it pretty fun.  Although camel riding is not, as I guessed, good for tendinitis..  

When we got to the camp site, we were immediately greeted by howling and screaming because there was a large group from Texas A and M (yes? is that a school?) who saw the sweatshirt of one of my colleagues from a rival school. They began trying to pick a fight with us but we told them that we weren't from the same schools.  So they just banded together and sang their school songs as loudly as possible.  So we all left the tents (which were in a deep ditch) and struggled to make it up to the top of the dunes.  But some of the Texas students followed us, hollering all the way.  So we descended the dune and luckily it was time for dinner.  

At dinner it was the 27 of us chatting at a reasonable volume, a group of three women from Columbia, and the group from Texas laughing obnoxiously, cheering school cheers, and singing loudly.  After dinner there was Berber music (Merzouga and the region around it is Berber, not Arabic).  But the texas students left and didn't come back to listen to the music.  They said they had been in Meknes for Arabic since May.  But how is it that they are here for Arabic, and for so long, and they had absolutely no interest whatsoever in the little bit of culture that was around them??  All of us were just like *Americans.. *   -_-

The stars were great.  I caught one of my colleagues (doesn't that make me sound important :-p ) sitting in his tent doing nothing and I invited him to sit outside, between the tents and watch the stars with me.  Eventually more people sat down and we ended up having a really deep discussion on mental health of all things.  But then our resident director came up to us and told us that the next day we'd have to go back to speaking only in Arabic, and that ended the conversation prematurely.  I overheard one of the girls saying later that she doesn't know how to talk about mental health in Arabic and that she was unhappy that the conversation ended so abruptly.

We're supposed to stay in Arabic all the time, but no one does.  It's getting a little annoying.  People  aren't advancing in their skills because they're not allowing themselves to work through linguistic challenges.  My roommate and I were doing pretty well until something complex happened in her class and I asked her to clarify in english.  Since that day, we virtually only speak in English.  It doesn't help that she's in the level 2 class and I'm in level 4 (did I tell you guys? I'm in the highest class here, so that's interesting..)

On the ride back the next day, my saddle was off balance and it was pretty awkward trying to stay on top of the camel.  I could have said something, but I'm not sure that I or the camel driver knew enough arabic to work out the problem.. 

At the end of the day, I was just excited to be back on the bus and headed home.  We moved from Merzouga to another town where we spent the night in a really nice hotel.  We saw a few things but I wasn't really interested in any of it.  I just wanted to be home.

So all that said, I'm home now and happy about it.  Family and roommate and food and a bathroom with a toilet I've finally figured out how to flush properly! :-p  it really shouldn't have to take you two weeks to figure out a toilet.. haha..

All said and done this trip was nothing compared to my trip to Siwa in Egypt.  It certainly wasn't an adventure, nothing was up in the air, and there was no time to rest and enjoy anything.  Also, we were baaaaarley in the desert at all.  Like, the sand started and there was the hotel, and a half mile in were the tents (I don't know, how far can you walk on sand in a half hour?).  But being in the middle of no where there were no lights, so that was nice as far as the stars were concerned.

One great thing was that we had Saharan pizza!  Basically a stuffed pizza filled with meat and onions and spices!  Definitely the best thing I've eaten in Morocco to date.  

That's all for now.  Time to start slowly uploading pictures - I mean doing my homework!!...

bisalama!

Al Mishwar - Our treck

June 6, 2015

If anyone wants to look up our way to school, you'd be googling directions from the AALIM center, Meknes to the Hotel Oasis Tafilalet, Meknes.  It says it's about 2.8 miles.  

Keep in mind that there are hundreds of little alleyways not present on the map.  The AALIM center cannot be driven to, and it's not off a main road, but tucked away behind several "alleys."  I don't know, they're not "alleys" per se, you know, like they're not out of the way sketchy places, they're just part of the old medina from a time when the only things that needed to get through were people and donkeys.  Now just people use the streets :-p

This city is so clean.  No trash everywhere like in Egypt, very occasional urine smell unlike Egypt or NYC.  ..we live close to the courthouse so that might be part of it :-p but seriously, the old medina is reallyy tidy!