Close encounters of the royal kind

The King of Morocco, His Majesty Mohammad V, is in Meknes.  This means that Meknes has been going insane.  It's also very clean.   It is the strangest type of insanity I've ever witnessed.  Apparently this happens any time the king goes anywhere, all the trash gets picked up and things get repainted.  There are flags everywhere (or alternately, long strips of connected flags that cover the front of basically every restaurant.)  Probably the strangest thing though is the trees.  Besides being trimmed (mostly into squares although there are some with lots of little round tree bits that look particularly Dr. Seuss-like) the bottom 3-4 ft. of every tree trunk has been painted white.  Before this happened you could see remnants of paint from last year.

An off topic side note.  I'm passively watching an Arabic cartoon about gnomes which is drawn in such a cutesy style that it looks like a bunch of little girls with massive beards... And now they're ripping their hair off  in one giant piece...  Annnnnd now one of the intentionally female characters (i.e. has pigtails and even more eyelashes) has a beard... which is trying to kill people.  I really don't understand cartoons in any language.

OK.  Back to the king.  I was waiting for the bus trying to get home from class when the king drove by unexpectedly.  There weren't any crowds or a parade or anything, I guess he was just hurrying to get somewhere.  Those of us who were waiting looked up as we heard some police motorcycles with their sirens on and saw the king texting in the back seat of his car.  It was very surreal.  I see pictures of the king EVERYWHERE.  Every restaurant, every shop, people's homes, any store that develops photos will have dozens of pictures.  I kind of forgot that he was a real person.  After that several dozen highly decorated horses went by.  This was unrelated to the king, they were going to the site of the agricultural fair.  It was nice to see such pretty horses.  There are a couple that graze on the school lawn a lot and they look pretty sad.

Going back to the cartoon situation, now Arabic dubbed Scooby Doo is on.  I should probably go turn that off... I just realized that with my haircut (especially since I really need a trim) and glasses I look like a tall version of Velma.  Halloween costume?  Perhaps....

Laila Saida  (Good night)

In which the author realizes she should not blog when tired.

Soooooo.... Ye olde blogging website as some pretty interesting features.  For instance, I just found out that I have an international audience. Specifically me (Team Morocco!), 2 people from Germany, and 3 people from Mother Russia.  How exciting.  They most likely came to me via my most common search query: "How to train orange tree to topiary."  I really do have the most exciting blog in the internet.

Because spring break happened, I have become a strange semi-nocturnal beast.  This makes 8 AM classes exceedingly unpleasant.  Especially when those classes happen to be Arabic.  I guess it's time for the nocturnal menace to re-diurnify herself.

Laila saida y'all.  (Goodness I need sleep)

For your viewing pleasure.

Hybrid Christian/Muslim graveyard.  Not pictured - graveyard cats.  Also not pictured - the adorable puppies I found here.  Why they're not pictured - because I'm a dinkus and deleted my memory card before checking if all the photos made it on to the computer.  Someone please alert Mensa about their newest inductee.

I think you will find that most of my pictures are trying to be artsy.

That's a banana tree behind me.  I'm very excited. As you can probably tell.  Banana.  Bananananananananana.

I like this one.  This is me getting lost in Tangier's medina.

Artsy photo of waaaaaaayyyyyy too small coffee cup.

BUDGIE.  Actually a cage full of budgies.  They must feed them something special to get them so brightly colored.

Okie dokie.  Good night!

Superpowers

I made it to Tangier in one piece!  Luck is on my side, because the hostel I'm staying at is in the middle of the medina (the old walled city) and is therefore rather hard to find.  I was scared that the taxi that took me from the train station part way into the medina was going to lose a rear view mirror or something, the streets were so narrow.  I was very happy to get out of the car and be able to walk myself because at least two people can pass each other in the opposite direction when on foot.  The hostel is really nice.  It is very tiny in terms of land usage, but it goes up 5 stories.  A lot of the buildings here are like that.  I went to a cafe today that had stairs at over a 45 degree angle to get to the door, and then there were 4 floors.  In the medina there aren't any skyscrapers, but there sure are a lot of tiny, tall buildings.

Anyway, today I was walking through the medina and I stopped by a flower shop.  Morocco grows and sells a lot of roses, so even the smallest shop is full of beautiful, wonderful smelling flowers.  I tried to tell the shopkeeper that I thought his flowers were beautiful, but I don't think he spoke much French (which is rather common here, what with Spain so close.  Not good for me....)  As I was about to leave he motioned for me to stop and made a bouquet for me free of charge.  This isn't the first time this has happened.  I've gotten free roses at nearly every flower shop I've stopped at here.  (I promise I don't loiter around flower shops hoping for gifts.)  I also get gifts when I go into normal shops sometimes.  It's always something little, like a key chain or a small piece of jewelry, but still.  It's very strange here.  I feel lie I have a neon arrow over my head.  

It's like a strange superpower, being able to make people stop talking, do a double take, follow you around. Honestly, I don't like it one bit.  I vastly prefer the anonymity of the US, but it is interesting to experience this.  It honestly makes me feel really lonely.  Being a celebrity must be so much worse, I feel sorry for them.  

Sorry this is a short post.  I'll hopefully be able to put up some pictures some time soon.  

Getting lost (again)

As many of you know, I have no sense of direction whatsoever (I also didn't realize that that was all one word... spell check may be lying to me... I've always gotten the feeling that it would like to make me look stupid.)

Aaaaaaaanyways.

When I first got to Meknes I was convinced that I would never be able to find my way around because it was "such a big city."  This is patently untrue.  Meknes, especially the area I live in (the Ville Nouvelle or Hamria), is actually pretty small.  For instance, it takes me about 45 minutes to walk to school.  This is one of the furthest journeys I can take and still be in Meknes, the trip goes almost from one side to the other.  Therefore, I have come to a startling conclusion.

It is actually very difficult to get lost in Meknes.

(At least in Hamria.)

((The Medina is another beast entirely.  You will most likely be eaten by Faux Guides who will try to sell you a toothpick for $50 or something like that.))

This would be great, if I didn't really want to get lost.  In fact, I set out today to do just that.  My Arabic class was cancelled (for the second time!  Yayyyy!)  and I wanted to explore the sights.  Unfortunately I seemed to keep ending up in the same place, or at least in a place I recognized.  I'm not sure what I was looking for, but I did stumble upon several things.

1) A playground/park that had no children in it.  It was entirely populated with couples.  Who all glared at me (except some of the guys who made the stupid ssssst sssssst sound... Having an actual, live girl sitting next to you is obviously not enough here.)

2)  Many fine examples of Morocco's favorite substitute for barbed wire, which is putting pieces of broken bottles into the plaster that covers the tops of the walls surrounding houses/schools/etc.  It makes them look like they have bottle green teeth.  I chalk this up to either Perrier or Heineken (although I've seen more Heineken bottles than anything else.  Anything you want to talk about, Morocco?)

3) Lots and lots of wildflowers I'd never seen before.  Next time I go wandering I'll have to be sure to bring my camera and document.  The flowers take over any spot that doesn't have active construction or a building on it.  It's also nice because the flowers conceal holes.  I Morocco, I believe the standard response to seeing a hole is, "Oh, we should fill it with trash! It looks so lonely all empty like that..."  What a sweet gesture.

4)  Lots of guard dogs.  Including one missing a large portion of its face.  Yuck.  This makes up for the fact that I saw the cutest little, fat puppy the other day.  It was so young it didn't really know what it's legs were for and kept falling over itself.  I'm going to keep imagining that one...

5) I can't really think of a #5 except that the sun was out today and that's the first time in a while.  I think spring might actually be coming!  I certainly hope so.

Zwina

Zwina (or Zwine if you're a guy) means beautiful in Darija.  It's also one of the words I hear the most on the streets of Meknes.  Unlike in the US where the phrase "cat calling" is an idiom, Moroccan boys/men actually yell at women the way they call cats.  It's mostly a hissing noise, "Tssssst, tsssssst, tsssssst."  Also kissing noises.  I've honestly heard people try and get cats' attention the same way. Sometimes walking down the street sounds like being surrounded by snakes and fish.  It's honestly kind of amusing.  But also gross.  Especially when they have almost no teeth and they follow you down the street.  (This happened to my friend and I yesterday... Super fun!)

You also get some very amusing pick up lines.  As one of my professors here noted, many boys only learn English from American TV and movies.  This means that they often say the stupidest things to you on the streets. So here, for your viewing pleasure, are some of the most amusing pick-up lines I've heard on my trip so far.

"Are you looking for me?  Because here I am!"

"Hello, I speak English very good.  Nice ass."

"Hey girl, it's your birthday."

"Have we met before?  Somewhere on the planet Mars?"  (I'm not really sure what was up with this guy, but the line seemed very practiced... Maybe it's worked before?)

(Something involving Barack Obama.  Sometimes just "Barack Obama!" yelled in a wannabe seductive voice.  It's quite disturbing...)

"You're starving?  You're starving for me!"
(after my friend mentioned that she was really hungry while we were walking.)

"Punch me in the face, you're beautiful!"  (After a conversation between my friend and I about how street harassment makes us want to punch people.)

"Very nice, I like."  (Ironically, Moroccan accents can sometimes sound very much like Borat, making this line extra amusing."

"Setta"  (Some more explanation for this.  Setta is the word for six in Darija.  This lovely gentleman was offering me 6 Dirhams (approximately 75 cents) because he hoped I was a prostitute.  Aren't guys sweet?)

"Ca va?"  (Which really just means "how are you doing" in French, but it now means "I'm an annoying boy, you should hit me")

After all this, I've decided that the only men worth bringing home from Morocco are under the age of 6 (because Moroccan children are the cutest.  Hands down.)

I accidentally ate liver today.

It was unpleasant.  I hope to never do that again.
               (The restaurant sneaked it in with my all carbohydrate meal, because they couldn't get my order right even after several promptings.  Oh well, there were some tasty, non-liver covered fries.)

I also got to play with chameleons and boxes of turtles.
               (You can buy all kinds of things in the medina or Rabat including, on the animal front, hamsters, guinea pigs, and fish.)

What else have I done recently... Let me think...
1) I finished my first Arabic course, which went very well.  Now I'm moving into Arabic 102, which will be a lot harder... Uh-oh.
2) I went to the hammam (Turkish bath where naked old women scrape off your skin for you) again with my family and didn't burn myself this time! Score for me!  (Also, my previous hammam burn is healing up nicely. It should be totally gone in week or two.)
3) I saw a double rainbow while it was raining over the mountains behind my house.  The sky was also grey and gold.  I was pretty sure the world was going to end/it was going to rain on me as I walked to school, but it didn't.
4) I have played with many cute children.  It's totally acceptable to play with strangers' children here in Morocco.  After playing peekaboo the parents will often bring the child over so you can kiss it.  I'm going to develop some bad habits that will make me seem really creepy back in the states... Fortunately, American children are far less cute than Moroccan children.  Thank goodness for small blessings.
5) I might bring a Moroccan child back with me
6) I bought bracelets with little bells and eye-balls on them.  I don't think they're a very popular item here in Meknes, since the shopkeeper gave them to me for almost nothing.  I think they're super awesome though... I'm not sure what that says about me...
7) I found out that "Al Manbat" is actually a private high school, which means that you can learn how to be batman.  Why didn't I go there?
8) Every time I think my French is improving, I have a conversation with someone and they flat out tell me that I can't speak French... Apparently some terrible non-language is coming out of my mouth... Oops.
9) About a week ago, I was trying to get into my apt. and the door was sticking. Pushed harder and finally got in and saw that the reason the door wasn't opening was because there was a woman passed out on the lobby floor.  There was no one around and I couldn't get her to wake up.  Finally a maid from another apt. came down and we moved her off the floor onto a couch and got her to wake up and drink some water.  All this was done with me speaking no Arabic/Darija and both the maid and the sick lady not speaking any English.  That is the scary story from my trip so far.  I now understand what Clara was talking about when she said that I put her into "emergency mode."  I'm sorry about that, Clara.  At least you have some form of first aid training (unlike me.  My response was to try and wake her up by yelling at her in English.  Not helpful.)
10) On a lighter note, here are some random pictures from my trip!

Me with the columns in Rabat that were stolen from Volubilis (Roman ruins near Meknes)

Roman ruins - Grainery

Roman ruins turned field.  Waste not, want not.

The sky full of birds over the ocean in Rabat.  Those of us who had never seen Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" were very excited about this.  Those who had were less so.

This is the castle I go to school in.  Parts of it are much pinker than this.

This is my Arabic professor and the drawing of a mouse he made for us.

I wasn't lying about Al Manbat.  Also, you all probably care a lot less than I do.  So be it.

Pottery at a ceramic house in Fez.  The entire room was packed with thousands of different pieces.

AJ, Karissa, and I in our beautiful djellebas AKA most comfortable articles of clothing on earth.

I hope everyone is having a happy March!

Random photos

I have managed to put my pictures on my computer, but I can't actually see what each picture is very easily.  Soooooooo, I'm going to put in random pictures and then tell you about them.  Ok? Ok.

Gena made me promise to take a picture of my feet when I got to Morocco, so I did.  Aren't I the best sister?  I know, I know.  There's another picture somewhere of my bare feet in the only mosque I was allowed to go into (you have to take off your shoes before entering.)

This is my friend Susanna in the fancy salon (Moroccan living room) in our hotel in Casablanca.  In general, all Moroccan salons are this plush and fancy.  I just went to a house today that had 5 different rooms set up like this.

This is me feeding pigeons (AKA flying rats according to everyone else on the trip.  I thought they were cute.)  

This is the inside of a public bakery in Marrakesh.  It's a pretty bad picture, but I did promise random.  I'm not exactly a great photographer.   

Moroccans are really, really, really into topiary.  Also, they line their streets with orange trees.  Sometimes there is orange tree topiary.

This is a picture of a pond at the Jardin Marjorelle, which was one of the most beautiful places I've ever been in my life.  I'll have to post more of the pictures from here another time.  

BEAUTIFUL MOROCCAN LAKE

A poor quality picture of Hadija (our cook) sleeping on my roommate Shavon in one of the three living rooms in our house. 

I'm not entirely sure what this is.... Hmmmmmm......

The inside of the tomb of Moulay Ismail (King of Morocco back in the day.  17th century I think...) in Meknes.  

And, for your viewing pleasure, two lovely pictures of some of my friends and I riding in a carriage around Meknes.  We were hungry at the time and the horse was crazy.  Christine, Susanna, and I all got the grumpy-face message, but Cathleen missed it. 

Goodnight y'all.

Walk to school

Hello all! It's been a while, hasn't it?  Oops... I've been busy adjusting to my new city and my classes.  Everything is great here, and I honestly have WAAAAAAYYY too much to talk about and not enough time/motivation.  So, instead of recounting everything I've experienced, I'll tell you about what I see on my walk to school.

Moulay Ismail University Faculte des Lettres (arts and humanities campus) is located approximately 2.5 miles from my house and, due to the way classes are set up, I generally have to make 4 trips in between the two places a day.  It should be noted that I don't always walk, I sometimes take a taxi (I have yet to work up the courage to ride the bus... I'm not really sure where it stops.)  However, when I do walk, here are some of the things I see:

No traffic lights, designated pedestrian crossings, or apparent traffic laws.  Crossing the street involves either waiting for a break in traffic or simply stepping out into the road and having the cars swerve around you.  There is no penalty for cutting someone off, making U-turns, driving like a crazy person... If I survive this (inshallah) I will never be afraid of cars again.

I also pass some interestingly named businesses.

1. Coq Magic
     (It's a restaurant that specializes in chicken. Obviously)
2. Al Manbat
    (It's the residence of the Moroccan Batman. Obviously)

Along with these stores, Meknes is home to the most terrifying mannequins on the face of the earth.  Think Chucky but with less blood and worse hair.  And they aren't like American mannequins that stare tastefully into the distance or don't actually have features.  No, they stare RIGHT INTO YOUR SOUL.  It makes me a little afraid of retail here.  Alternately, there's the medina, but that's a completely different kind of shopping experience.

I also pass a field that contains a variety of adorable animals such as cows, donkeys, and sheep depending on the day.  The graze right up to the sidewalk.  Yesterday there were 3 lambs!  They were so cute and then I realized that they were also very delicious and then I got a little sad/hungry (oh by the way, I'm not really vegetarian anymore. Shwoops!)

Unfortunately, I also pass a lot of dead animals.  For some reason they are not on the road, but basically on the sidewalk.  I'm not sure how they die there, since the traffic is crazy and the pedestrians don't go around killing dogs (from what I've seen so far.)  Anyway, it's very sad... and gross...

Then I get to school! The university is built inside the walls of an old castle and it's pretty amazing to walk through these huge gates every day.  It's also filled with palm trees, which make it seem extra exotic.  Beyond that, it's like a normal school, except that they give you coffee in glass cups at the cafe, which is much classier than normal.

OK.  Now I'm just rambling. I'll fill you in on my classes/family/amusing pick-up lines I've heard ("Nice ass. Barack Obama" for example) soon.  Hopefully :)

I'm sorry I haven't been writing...

I've been very busy for the past few days.  I had my first day of class yesterday and my first 8 am class this morning... So far I like my teachers and the city.  I've been lost a couple of times, but I think that that is normal for me.  Right now I should be working on my first homework assignment (for my arabic class... We'll see how that goes...)  

I know that I haven't posted any pictures yet. I haven't figured out how to put them on my computer (and by that I mean that I haven't tried very hard yet.)  I'll try and do that this weekend when I should have some more time and be a bit more caught up on sleep.  

So, to recap: I'm safe, busy, and not purposefully ignoring all of you!

I made it to Casablanca (and promptly got lost)

The trip here was blissfully uneventful.  I always had a widow seat and an empty seat next to me (which sounds a bit like a modern airplane blessing.  "May you always have the window seat and may there always be an empty seat next to you for your stuff." )  I accidentally sat first class on the train with a second class ticket, but apparently I look pathetic/white/obviously new to this/cute that the conductor didn't say anything.  I also didn't drop my bags on anyone's head trying to get it out of the overhead compartment (that was a close one though...)

Once you leave the train station you immediately get ATTACKED by taxi drivers.  In fact, you keep getting attacked the entire way to your cab.  I imagine that the feeling is similar to being in a school of piranhas.  Except without teeth.  Thankfully there were no teeth.  My taxi driver was this tiny man who spent most of his time yelling at people in Arabic (despite the fact that he was clearly moving against traffic as we were trying to get out of the parking lot.)  Taxi drivers don't wear seat belts because that would prevent them from leaning out the window or leaping out of their cars (in the middle of the street) to yell at someone.  He was very pleasant to me and to his friend (another taxi driver who also got in the cab) and both of them kept trying to get me to book a tour with them the next day.  Very persistent those two.  This was happening while ALL THE PEDESTRIANS IN CASABLANCA kept stepping out in front of everything.  I was convinced that there are no traffic laws in Casablanca, but then I saw a lone street light.  The rule of law is rather thin here, at least in the traffic department.  

Once I got to my room in the hotel, my roommate (Shavon from Chicago) immediately rushed me out into the streets of Casablanca (well, not immediately - I demanded a shower first) and we preceded to get lost.  We assumed we'd be able to get back to the hotel because we knew some of the tall building landmarks around it.  Unfortunately, Casablanca is not at a loss for tall buildings.  It is also not set out in a grid-like street plan.  It's more like a bunch of starfish all vaguely connected.  Also, Casa after dark is approximately 90% male, so Shavon and I decided the best plan was to walk like we knew where we're going.  This sort of sped up the getting lost process (although, if you ask Shavon, she was NEVER lost.)  We kept walking taking in the sights, sounds, and smells of the city (cats, car-horns, and the sewers :P )  and trying to find the BCMI bank or the MarocTelecom buildings so that we could get home.  It was a nice night and we weren't being stared at too much, so we decided to keep searching.

We did try and ask for directions, but either our French is REALLY bad, or the directions were wrong, because all we got was a group of guys following us and asking for our numbers. Very persistently.  The one guy kept shoving his (very fancy) phone in my face.  Unfortunately, I'm terrible at getting Moroccan guys to leave me alone, so I was too soft spoken as I told him NO repeatedly and put up my hands (it didn't help that he WAS quite attractive despite the creepy follow-you-around-and-hit-you-with-my-phone thing).  Shavon didn't have the same problem.  She just yelled at him like a crazy person, which is apparently the best way to deal with situations like these.  I'm pretty sure the initial conversation was my fault because I said "hi" back to one of the guys when he talked to me.  I really have to break my nice-small-town-girl habits because they're just going to get me in trouble here.

Then it started to softly rain.  We immediately found a cab (what can I say? We aren't THAT adventurous.)  It turns out that we were on the opposite side of the city.  Oops. The cab driver "ripped us off" by asking for the equivalent of 4 dollars for the trip.  I really have to start seeing DH as real money and not (as Shavon says) "monopoly money"...

That's all the adventure for now.  I'm just sitting in my room listening to all the perfectly functioning car horns of Casablanca.  So melodious!

America has done it again!

Ah, America.  Bravely protecting it's travelers from themselves.  Today, I was saved by my night in shining armor (a very grumpy TSA agent).  I could have easily caused harm to myself or others through the inappropriate use of my un-ziplocked travel sized bottle of hand sanitizer that I forgot was in my backpack.  In fact, I could have gotten it in my eye.  Or the pilots eye.  And taken the whole plane down.  Or something like that.  I'm not really sure why there's so much concern.  If it was a rare, explosive hand sanitizer, I'm not sure that putting it in a plastic bag will really help.  I think the TSA just likes seeing how many silly things it can get people to do.  For example, I had the opportunity to get scanned by one of the lovely vertical-MRI-type-machines that probably asses my body fat content and take note of the fact that my underwear don't match.  I'm sure the TSA judges all of us harshly. 

At least I'd remembered to empty my water bottle this time... 

LAST NIGHT STATE-SIDE

The title kind of says it all.  I think I'm all packed.  I'm sure I'll realize what I'm missing half way over the Atlantic.

I'm going on an adventure! Time to get pumped up!

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.......

I think I should write now while I still have the urge (or "la table francaise")

But, just as a warning, this might not be very interesting.  I'm just new to the whole blog thing, and I was very surprised and excited to see how many people had visited yesterday.  Blogger lets you see the number of page views you have and I had 44! I'm going to think of this as 44 separate people, and not just my dear mother checking the blog every 15 minutes.  (I love you Mama!)

Right now I'm in the midst of packing.  By that I mean that I have spread all of my things out on the floor even more than normal.  I can it "organization."  Perhaps you've heard of it?  It's also convenient because when I start feeling overwhelmed I can just throw things around or pull all my belongings over my head and make a nest.  Nesting tends to make the panic pass.

Speaking of making the panic pass, I had a lovely dinner at Kendal last night (for those of you who aren't Obies or Obie-associates, it's a fairly swanky old folks home) as a guest at their french table.  It was nice to be able to stumble along through a conversation, and especially comforting that no one really knew what they were doing.  I may have gotten a false sense of hope about my french abilities, but I'm going to hang onto it as hard as I can.  At any rate, I should still be able to say, "Do you speak English? Please, please speak English" once I get there and start stumbling around the Casablanca airport in a jet-lagged daze.  Hopefully someone will feel sorry for me and realize that I will be willing to pay them a lot of money to get me to my hotel in one piece.

I'm sure the real story will be even more bizarre.  I'll fill you in as soon as I live it.

What is a Meknes?

Meknes is one of the historic capitals of Morocco.  From what I gather from Wikipedia (the illustrious source of all knowledge) every city in Morocco has at one point been the capital.  They all get there 50 years or so of fame (this might be a slight exaggeration...)  Meknes had its moment between 1672 and 1727 under the reign of Moulay Ismail (who is the namesake for the university I will be attending and a lot of other things in Meknes.  It's a well recycled name.)

A helpful map with an even more helpful red arrow.

It's a fairly large city, with a population of nearly 1 million.  As a small town girl with no natural sense of direction, I will spend most of my time lost.  Hopefully that will be good for meeting people?  

Meknes also has some pretty sweet gates.

The Bab Mansour, largest of the 27 gates into the city.
"Bab Mansour" probably translates as  "Big Gate" or something.
Since "Bab" actually means "Gate."

There will be more of my own pictures once I actually arrive in Morocco.  Right now it's all speculation and pre-departure anxiety.  Everything is going to be just fine, right?  Right?????

<breathe in, breathe out>