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.