Boston

The chefs

I arrived in Boston the night before Thanksgiving, unfortunately without my luggage. I had managed to travel for 3 months without anything being stolen or lost, yet on the last leg of the journey, my bag is left behind....what luck;) Arman, his roommates and I woke up early the next morning and ran in the Gobble Gobble race. We then spent a relaxing day and cooked things for dinner. They did an amazing job, and we had a feast of a deliciously moist turkey (kudos armani), stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, beets, cranberry sauce, and brussel sprouts. We had about one dessert per person, with a few types of ice cream, an amazing cheesecake, key lime pie, pumpkin pie, banana bread and danishes. Despite having many male grad students over, we still had a fair amount of leftovers. My baggage arrived later that evening while we were watching Blades of Glory. The cheese was in a sad state, and luckily we were all way too stuffed to eat any of it. Amazingly though, a night spent in the fridge did it wonders. My bag and all the clothes in it smell of camembert cheese though...I think I need to learn my lesson and shy away from smelly cheeses from now on;)

I've been a lazy bum the past few days and have been lounging around reading and "keeping busy"=) I've uploaded lots of pics though to picasa, so y'all should check them out. I'll be in Boston til xmas, so a bientot!

Versailles

Before returning back to the states, I had a few days in France that I spent with the Wimmers. I had a great time and did a lot of cool stuff. The transition to the colder climate and the late sunrise/early sunset was a bit of a shock from Morocco. Saturday night, Laetitia, Anne Claire and I wandered around Paris and looked at all the fancy shop windows all decked out for Christmas (leche les vitrines;) We saw some pretty good break dancers on the street, and a guy selling roasted chestnuts off his improvised shopping cart which was reminiscent of the street vendors in Morocco. We had dinner at an amazing creperie and warmed up with some apple cider. Sunday, Erich and Anne were kind enough to take me to the Louvre where we saw an exhibit on Iranian art from the Sufavid era, which was pretty amazing. They also guided me around to some famous pieces, including the codex and the mona lisa. That night, they surprised me with a delicious Thanksgiving dinner. Turkey and apple pie has never tasted so good before. It was such a treat to relax with old friends again...and there was something familiar about Paris that helped me completely relax again...deep down I think I knew I was almost home.

On Monday, Anne and I drove Laetitia back to school in Reims, and we toured the Taittinger champagnery...where, oddly enough, we saw a champagne from 1981 called Arman. That kid manages to have everything named after him....Armani clothing, Armand the sculptor, and now, Arman the champagne;) Anne also kindly treated me to a delicious lunch of beef tenderloin with a yummy sauce and mashed potatoes....there's nothing like ending a long trip with delicious French cuisine=) Tuesday we spent around Versailles. Anne and I took a bike ride to the local market and looked at the various little shops. We also walked around a shopping mall and she helped me pick out some delicious French cheeses and chocolates to bring home. Some not so sober old man was ripping on me at the cash register for buying such unhealthy things. He got pretty riled up and went on for a good 5 minutes too, which was pretty entertaining. My pack got significantly heavier with the addition of champagne, cheese and chocolate, but it was all worth it.
While I was there, the metro/train government workers were on strike, yet waits for the metro were shorter than in Boston. I think the longest we had to wait the entire time was about 6 minutes....and that's with about every 1 in 3 trains running. Apparently most French don't support the strike, as the benefits for employees are exceptionally good. They get paid retirement at 55, with free use of the metro/trains, admission into many government things such as museums, and 5 weeks paid vacation among others. Another cool thing was a fully automated gas station in Paris...even the convenience store portion was automated! I entertained the Wimmers by trying (and failing ever so miserably) to pronounce "truc"...I don't know if I will ever be able to pronounce it right. Overall, I loved France and I can't wait to go back and pick grapes in a vineyard and pronounce "truc" correctly=) fully automated gas station

Fairwell Morocco

My last week in Morocco flew by and was a great end to a fantastic country. A bunch of us walked to the Marjane, which is a huge store very similar to Sam's Club or Costco and sells pretty much anything you can desire...except, much to my dismay, I was unable to find any dried mangos, which I have been craving for the last 3 months for some odd reason. Although, the Shaw's in Cambridge doesn't have any either, so I guess that isn't grounds for much complaint. Anyhoo, the Marjane is situated in a very westernized shopping mall and is obviously visited by the moroccan elite/foreigners. There was a McDonald's also, and it was interesting to view a huge ad for the "McArabia" instead of the Big Mac;) Louise and I then went for haircuts at a very nice salon. Wash, trim and style totaled 40 DH, which is roughly $5. It was amazing...and luckily, remembering my disastrous cheap haircut in Iran, I managed to come away with a pretty nice cut. Louise, however, wasn't so lucky and came away with unwanted bangs that just got shorter when she tried to get them fixed.
One of the highlights of the week was a staged Moroccan wedding for us. They hired a band and provided us all with traditional outfits and conducted a "real" wedding. It was tons of fun and a great experience. At the ceremony, there is always milk, sugar, and dates, which the bride and groom share. Just like in the Sahara, they sang the Bob Marley song, which they all seem to love. We took another trip to the hammum....and god only knows how I survived. I was in so much pain when the lady scrubbed me down, I thought for sure blood would be flowing. She must have had some pent up anger. Loubna came over to check up on me, and I asked her to tell the lady to be a bit gentler on me. The lady responded with, "but look at how dirty she is!" (which for the record, was totally untrue...I am very clean;) Loubna started laughing and apologizing and I told her not to worry and I would be fine. Loubna came back a few minutes later and saw me rolling around on the ground in agony (well, not quite). We both started laughing as I was biting back the tears and she was apologizing profusely to me. Much to our amusement, the lady told her to shut up and let her do her job and clean me. To which we started laughing even harder. It must have been a pretty hilarious sight to see me sprawled across the ground crying and laughing=)
Noor, me, Loubna
The night before I left, Noor and I took one last trip to the medina and got some of the wonderful yogurt/fruit dish. Even though it was a Friday night, the shops all started closing up early and the streets were quickly clearing....the Moroccan national soccer team had a match against France and everyone was hurrying to watch the game. We met up with some of the other kids and went to a hookah bar, which was packed with men watching the game. We managed to get a spot in a back room. Right before I left, I finished a book called "The Places In Between," which was Rory Stewart's tale of his walk across Afghanistan, from Herat to Kabul, right after the fall of the Taliban. It was an interesting story, not the most well written, but one interesting tidbit is that there is a game in Afghanistan similar to polo, but played with a dead goat's body rather than a ball. Anyone up for a game on the mall...we can borrow some goats from chaska;)

I will really miss Morocco and all the cool people and experiences I've had. I definitely want to come back one day...it's a great country that despite not being in the greatest economical position, has a lot of bright spots. Morocco, in Arabic, is al maghreb, which means sunset, or west. Morocco is roughly the size of California and has a population of 33 million. Most people are trilingual, speaking a dialect of Berber, Arabic, and French. In the north, Spanish is more commonly spoken than French and in large cities English is fairly common. It gained its independence from France in 1956 and has a life expectancy of 71 years, with 54% illiteracy (which is mostly from the rural areas). The Moroccan motto is God, King, and Country, and it is illegal to criticize any of these. The late Moroccan king related Moroccan culture to a tree with its roots in Africa and branches pointing towards Europe and the Middle East. It definitely is a mixture of all three. Berber is spoken by roughly 40% of the population, but they prefer to call themselves Amazigh (noble/free people), since Berber connotates barbarian and was giving to them by the Greeks, who could not understand the language and said they produced an unintelligible sound. Nonetheless, everyone I came in contact with referred to themselves as Berber, and it seems that the negative connotation is fairly extinct.

It seems that the war over the Sahara, which many countries refer to as the "western sahara" but morocco claims as theirs placed morocco into huge debt. The unemployment rate, which is officially 12%, is in actuality much worse since this includes people who stand on the street selling cigarettes. One of the major problems is that many people with higher education are unemployed and many are overqualified for their jobs. Around 4 million moroccans live abroad and send money back, but do not return since they would be unable to find a job in their field. Similar to Tanzania (and quite frankly, probably the rest of the world), corruption is a huge problem. 20% live below the poverty line with less than $1/day, and 30% survive on $1/day. Minimum wage, which isn't really enforced is 1600 DH/month, but people consider themselves lucky to even have a job and so in actuality will work for much less than this. Not surprisingly, the president of parliament makes 80,000 DH/month, not including free housing/electricity/cars/cleaning people.

I will be sad to leave the orphanage and all the cute kids. One bright spot though is that while I was there, I heard of about 5 kids getting adopted out of 200...which isn't so bad when you consider I was only there for 3 weeks. One of my favorite little boys, Merwan, is getting adopted by a fairly well to do moroccan couple who had lost their son. Merwan
I wish I was a bit older, because I would have adopted a little boy named Shakib in a heartbeat. He won my heart right away. He was about 8 years old, and was so smart. He would communicate with a mixture of whistling, moving his eyebrows, and snapping/pointing. He loved to give/get hugs and kisses and was a little shaytoon (every once in awhile when I was holding him, he would pull my shirt out and try to look down it;) He was very playful and observant of his surroundings. One day he asked me what my name was, and when he found out it was an arabic name, he was at first surprised and then got a big smile on his face. I hope he gets adopted someday, cuz he would make for an amazing kid. One of his friend's, Ali, was also an awesome kid. Ali was about 13 and is in a wheelchair. We would give him some entertainment by running behind his wheelchair and making him fly over bumps and around turns. He loved it and would get the biggest smile on his face. When we were occupied with other kids, he would entertain himself by rolling himself down an incline to knock some little kid over. All of a sudden you would see some 3 year old kid knocked out on the ground crying, and Ali laughing and rolling himself away. Crazy kid.
Ali
One last interesting tidbit, which I hesitate to tell because it's a bit odd...SOME moroccan men relieved themselves on the side of the busy road, often times not even bothering to attempt to hide in the shade of a small tree or shrub. (sorry, I didn't manage to snag any pics of this;) They didn't even always turn their back on the road, and were barely 15 feet from the curb! (not that I was looking or anything;) I saw this numerous times, but perhaps the funniest time was on the way back from the orphanage when I saw a guy in a suit peeing on the grass on the side of the road. Shocked, I laughed and pointed it out to Jon, who turned and saw. Not 30 seconds later, we passed another guy extremely close to the road. We both looked at each other in disbelief and burst out laughing. It's a bit ridiculous and I'm not entirely sure what runs through their heads...it's very odd for a country that is generally so modest. I mentioned this to Loubna, and she just shook her head and was a little embarassed. On that note, I highly recommend a trip to Morocco, if nothing else, to see the amazing curb pee-ers on display for free=) No, but seriously, a trip to Morocco is definitely worth it- the most amazing tea, great sights, friendly people, cool souvenirs, and an interesting mix of people...not to mention the sahara, mountains, and the mediterranean/ocean.

Volubilis and the Medinas

This past weekend I spent chilling at the house and wandering around Rabat. We also went to see Volubilis, the most extensive ancient Roman ruins in Morocco. It was very relaxing and I was in dire need of a break. Travelling around Morocco is fairly cheap, with a 2 hour train ride costing about $8....taxis are often the most expensive part of a trip. I once took a 4 hour bus ride and paid half the cost of the bus ticket for a 15 minute taxi ride. a bit ridiculous, eh? My bargaining skills have improved though, and I'm afraid that when I return to the US I will be outraged at the price of things....my brain has adjusted and 50 dirhams (or $7) is a lot of many and can go quite far.

Volubilis was pretty sweet. It dates back a long time (i think around 200 ad) and although most of it has fallen apart, it has some bright moments. It is well known for its fairly well preserved mosaics. At its peak, it inhabited around 20,000 people and was failry well developed, with hamum, court, aquaduct, etc. "The last temptaion of christ" was filmed here also. We didn't have a tour, so my theatrical friend Jared acted as our tour guide and gave a highly entertaining tour with a British accent. (he read from the travel guide book). Here Jared is giving the tour to Louise and DD.



These are some arches that were still standing and looked pretty sweet.



After spending a few hours wandering around Volubilis, we took a taxi back to Meknes, had lunch and waited for the train back to Rabat...at which point we saw this hilarious (and extremely creepy-serial killer looking dude) guy staring at us from the train.


One of my favorite pasttimes here has been to wander around the medinas...especially at night. Here's a pic of my friends Jared and Louise the other night when we went to the medina. The medinas are especially lively at night, bustling with locals and tons of great cheap street food vendors are out.



I've tried pretty much everything, minus the liver/onion sandwhich combo. My favorited has been the yogurt/fruit bowl which my canadian friends josh and luke are showcasing. it is very delicious.


My most adventurous sampling has been boiled snails from a cart...not too bad, but very salty. The big ones were rather nasty.


Here's a pic from the medina in Fes...yes, donkeys and horses are the common mode of transport in the medinas, as the alleys are too narrow for cars. Berber transport here is the donkey...they even have new and improved models too;)


This was a cool fabric shop, and my sweet talking with the shop lady allowed me to take this pic. (she usually doesn't let people take pics, but I convinced her my mum would love her;)


This is a part of the medina in rabat:



This is a leather tannery in fes...


these "babouches" are all over Morocco, and are quite comfy slippers...or muffins, as I tend to say.


This is a pic of a cute street in Chefchaouen...the entire medina is filled with cute little streets like this. The combo of white-washed walls with blue/purpley accents was stunning.


These are members of the old man's club in chefchaouen, my personal favorites. They basically had staked out a table with the best view of the square, and you could always find them there people watching. They are wearing the classic moroccan dress (jilabas) which are pretty sweet robes. There are 4 different types depending on the occasion, and men and women wear them (although they are slightly different for men and women).



Morocco has a very interesting blend of the western and arab cultures. You can be in a city with modern buildings and cinemas and mercedes, while a few blocks away in the heart of the medina you will see donkeys carrying loads. The differences are even displayed in the attire of moroccan women, with dress varying from full hijab with only eye slits, a robe with scarf, a robe with no scarf, tight jackets with scarf to no scarf and western style dress. While there is no dress code, a huge majority of moroccan women wear a scarf...probably as much to avoid male attention as for religious purposes;)

On a slightly different note, I spent an amazing few hours the other day at a hammum. I have never felt so squeaky clean before in my life. The experience was at first a bit awkward for us americans, as we didn't know the whole routine and stripping was a bit...awkward. But the women there were awesome and we all got scrubbed down so thoroughly...I never knew we had so much dead skin accumulating on us. It was a great experience and we are all excited to go back for more;) On that note, I hope you are all thoroughly scrubbing that dead skin off of yourselves=)

The Sahara

A group of us went down to Merzouga for the weekend and took some 4 by 4s into the Sahara desert. We spent an amazing night with a bunch of Beduin guys camping out in traditional Beduin tents in the middle of the desert. We also took some dromedaries for a ride for a few hours and went to see the amazing erg chebe sand dunes at sunset. I have never seen such smooth, fine, untouched sand before. Spent the night singing, dancing, and playing the drums around the fire. We "learned" the "beduin" "sandfish" song, which someone figured out was sung to the tune of "Buffalo Soldier." The guys were absolutely crazy, and admittedly, a bit hammered. I was lucky enough to see two shooting stars though,and the sky was absolutely beautiful...millions of stars in the sky. Here are some photos from the trip:

camp



Drumming round the fire



beduin music


me on dromedary



beduin dromedary leader mohamedy



erg chebe sand dune



turban me


dromedary


group lunch by toudra gorge


kasbah in valley of the kasbahs (over 2000 kasbahs here)

les photos de maroc

I finally got some time to upload some photos, so I thought I would fill you all in with a few. These are pics from the place djema al fnaa in marrakech...the huge open area with food vendors, snake charmers, story tellers, musicians, etc.



This is a pic from a cute little street shop in marrakech-there is a spice shop next to a fabric shopt:


This is in Essaouira- me playing an instrument-for genoua or something like this, some fun guys I met who showed me the local hangout spots and this is in abdelah's (the one on the right) shop where I had the most amazing tea ever, and a picture of the fish market:






These are sweet lanterns that are all over here:


The other day we had a cooking lesson and learned how to make a popular moroccan dish called tajine. It is really easy to make but has a little too much oil for my liking. Here is a pic of me and my friend Noor with the dish...tajines are basically some sort of meat with veggies, oil and lots of spices cooked over a flame in this special dish:



peeps chilling at the house:


rabat: