Tuesday, January 30, 2007

new place

hello hello

i spent the majority of the day yesterday with my two roomates moving into our new place... i thought moving in the us was a pain. omigod. we were only moving like a 20 minute walk from rachel's old place, but somehow it took all day. luckily we decided to hire a man-drawn cart to take us through the city with all our stuff. i guess its like the moroccan u-haul. so we totally loaded the cart with all of our suitcases, back packs, boxes etc. and we all sort of caravaned through the crowded, windy, pot-holed filled cobble stone streets. and it was raining to top it all off. that poor man. we almost had an accident because we couldn't quite squeeze past a donkey cart at one point. it was a pretty hilarious scene.

but the new place is really great. its much smaller, but feels more like home already. it's been fun trying to find household items in the markets- today i'm going to hunt for a spice rack and spice containers (spices in market are all in bulk, so right now all of ours are wrapped in paper or in little bags). the neighborhood is really great too, it's much farther into the heart of the old city, so it's much more 'moroccan' feeling. though its also much harder to find, which mixed with my ewing sense of direction has lead to lots of wandering. to be perfectly honest i'm in the new city right now and i have no idea how to get home...

last night we had our first house dinner. jordan's moroccan fiancee (!), nadira, was visiting from casablanca. she is a pretty amazing cook so we all helped her make a wonderful moroccan feast of carrot tagine, eggplant salad and sauteed zucchini. delicious. we all ate family style around our makeshift dining room table and then spent some time rubbing our bellies. can't complain.

oh, the one thing about living in such a residental area is that there are many many kids running around. generally that would be a nice thing, but it just so happens that we are in the middle of a month long holiday where kids are given drums and allowed to light fires. i'm not sure who thought it would be a good idea to combine children with drums and fire, but i disagree. from what i gather the drums are pretty much to see who can play the loudest for the longest. and the fires are for the older boys to jump over, that part is pretty cool to watch actually- though it yanks any maternal strings i have in my body.

ok, no more rambling. i miss you all.

maura

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

words of wisdom

today i took a cab ride and the cab driver told me, "i love americans... but your president, he is just so simple in the head." hahaha

i love marrakesh. i feel like it's an adventure every time i leave the door. my roomate, rachel, is like the best person to know in the world- she's been introducing me to people and showing me around quite a bit. and she's already hooked me up with a couple of tutoring clients. tutoring pays quite well- if i get a couple more i should be fine with money and still have pleanty of time for adventuring! shes doing a really interesting fulbright research scholarship dealing with woman's literacy. my other roomate, jordan, is doing his fulbright research in a village in the atlas mountains so he is only in the city for a few days at a time. sometime soon i think i'll join him for one of his village stays- he says its a really beautiful place. oh! we found a new apt. well, rachel did. it's really cute and is in a nice neighborhood in the 'old city.' theoretically its a one bedroom but there is enough common space that the three of us will be quite comfortable. and there is lots of couch space for visitors...

ok, thats all. i think i'm going to go bike shopping now. there are lots of very very vintage bike shops in the market. i think it will be a good way to scoot scoot around the city and do some exploring with a little more ease.

-Maura

Monday, January 22, 2007

let's get to the meat of it

hello hello hello family and friends, friends and family.

as promised i will keep up this handy blog. thank you to matt for setting this up.

sooo... i am now in casablanca getting ready to hop on a train back to my new home city, marrakesh (!). week #1 in morocco has consisted of a whirlwind tour of morocco with my dear friend lindsay (who i sadly said goodbye to last night). the week was all sort of a blur, felt like we were spinning spinning spinning and now i'm plopped down into 'real life.' yes, the reality is setting in.

but oh, our tour was grand. full of lots of laughter, long bus rides and random adventure. i definitely impressed [amused] many moroccans with my stellar [horribly broken] arabic skills. some key phrases include, "hello how are you?" "how much for that?" and "i think you must be crazy in the head." luckily my french is coming back with a little more ease...

speaking of poor communication lindsay and i had one young suitor on the street who tried to woo us by yelling "hello scrawny! yes you scrawny come speak with me!" poor guy, a compliment completely lost in translation. you can imagine the looks he got from us.

oh! in rabat we visited my old home stay family. such loving people, we were both greeted with lots of kisses and warm welcomes. and they prepared a cous cous feast for us- complete with big hunks of red meat. i didn't have the heart to tell them again that i didn't eat meat so i decided to suck it up and down the pieces that were put in front of me. and i must say, it was good. i mean bone-sucking, finger-licking good. this may be a new chapter in the life of maura.

ok, thats all for now. i have to go catch my train.

if you are reading this it probably means i miss you dearly. keep in touch! all of you!

maura