us of a

a lot has happened since my last post. birthday come and gone. got sung to in THREE languages. can't beat that. the association i've been working with threw a pretty heart-warming surprise cake-feast. some of the girls i've been teaching brought me flowers and lovely gifts such as a large plastic key chain with sparkles and a sort of brass-foil ring. precious. i tried to wear the ring the next time i went in, but it only fit on the top of my pinky.

anyways, i was reading over my past posts and realized that i hadn't written about any of my guilty American pleasures. and i've got a few. well i mean, there's the bulk peanut butter that we somehow acquired (gift from a visitor?), and our extensive collection of american movies, tv series and of course music. it still makes me smile when i'm sitting in my living room watching like, Arrested Development for example, and then the call to prayer comes blasting through the window. or a group of women yodeling outside interrupts my Bob Dylan album. collision of worlds, in my house. there are also the trashy magazines that can sometimes be found at the used book market (left behind by a tourist?), which i must say i enjoy way more here than i ever did at home. i'm not sure what it says that i find it comforting to read about next season's fashion or look at pictures of the best and worst dressed celebrities... oh, and probably worst of all is my friend's sort of newly acquired wee-nintendo. i don't know if you're familiar with the machine- sort of like the old nintendo except you have to actually move the 'wand' with the game. so like, virtual boxing requires actual punches in the air. just picture two people vigorously punching nothing with a silly stick in their hand. i haven't decided if i like watching or playing more.

it's like i appreciate american pop-culture and weirdo gadgets that much more purely because they're harder to access here. tastes of home, though not necessarily ones that i particularly enjoyed while i was there. next think you know i'm going to be asking one of you to send me an iphone. anyways, don't worry about needing to catch me up with pop-culture updates or weird technological advances. totally on top of it.

oh, in the same vein, rachel and i have plans to make chocolate chip cookies in our neighborhood's public oven. generally people don't have ovens in their house here (specifically in the old-city), but every neighborhood has a communal stone-hearthish one. so people can be seen walking around with huge trays of bread, pasteries, whatever. so yeah, we're gonna attempt a batch of toll-house favorites soon... possibly the first batch in the derb el hammam oven. if it goes well lasagna may be the next step. i'll let you know what happens.

visitors

sorry it's been so long since i've posted... the past couple of weeks have been pretty full. matt was here for a little over a week and our dear friend alex joined us for a long weekend. pretty awesome time all around. i think it may be a trip that is better to show rather than tell. and thanks to matt's web-savvy ways i can do just that.

the selected photos: http://flickr.com/photos/mattewing/sets/72157600060717395/detail/

and if you're so inclined, the whole set: http://flickr.com/photos/mattewing/sets/72157600059890357/

the highlight of the trip was probably the three days matt and i spent hiking in the atlas mountains. we did a sort of village to village trek with a wonderful man, ali, and his donkey. i loved ali. really i did. i mean, i guess i still do. and i think he loved us. well, he loved his job anyways. he sat on his donkey swinging his legs and singing berber songs as we huffed and puffed behind. sometimes he forgot about us and rode away leaving us dumb and lost. but he always came back. and we had mandatory tea stops like 3 times a day. i think they were more for him than us, but were well appreciated just the same. oh! and get this. he thought matt was my LITTLE brother. what. haha, i guess he thought that my ability to butcher his language was a skill that came with age.

anyways, aside from our endearing guide the trek really was wonderful. the mountains were totally breath-taking and it felt really great to get a few days of fresh air. and of course to share some quality huffing time with my favorite big brother.

we had a lot of fun in the city as well. did some good wandering and exploring and saw a pretty sweet soccer game. the game was sort of an intense experience. people are really into soccer here. like, the field was lined with armed cops holding riot shields and people were throwing lit flares onto the field. but marrakesh won, so there was no violence after the game. just celebration. we walked back from the field alongside a parade of loud, crazed marrakeshi boys on motos and/or running alonside their friends on motos.

we met alex in casablanca. our first night was a very typical matt-alex evening: drinking cheap beer in a seedy bar discussing american politics. sort of felt like home for a bit. i mean, aside from the old man singing arabic love ballads and the fact that we had olives as a bar snack. anyways, the next day we got ourselves into morocco mode and had some fun adventuring in casa and marrakesh. did the sights, met some interesting people and made sure that they both left with their bellies full of yummy moroccan food and tea.

i was very sad to say good bye to the both of them, even felt home sick for a bit. but don't worry, i'm back in gear and happy to be settled into my marrakeshi routine.

moral of this post is that morocco is a stellar vacation destination, and i can be an awesome guide. promise. come!