so, i though it would be a great idea to give my neighborhood boys a frisbee that ben had left behind. i mean, they're always running around looking for things to do (their activities sometimes include kicking cans at eachother, teasing girls, playing self-created board games, and ringing my doorbell then running away). sooo, seems like a frisbee would be a welcome edition to their collection of games. dumb american. they've managed to take my innocent toy and turn it into a weapon. one time i walked out my door and saw a heard of kids chasing a boy who was clutching the frisbee and running for life, another time i saw one of the large boys hitting his little brother over the head with it. ooooopsydoo! i thought i could bring peace and fun, instead i've created a small scale frisbee war. ha, i'm sort of waiting to come out my door and have it come whizzing at my head.
anyways, i've had my ma and aunt bobby here for the past week or so. we've had some fun. now they are both tried and true marrakechias, by that i mean expert price hagglers, moto dodgers, crowd navigators and they have perfected the 'you jerk' look for annoying men on the street. we also ventured to beach for a bit for a gnaoua music festival- good music, delicious sea food, and a chance to put everyone's newly acquired marrakech crowd and haggling skills to the test...
ok, i think if i sit in this cyber cafe any longer i just might melt into a puddle.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Sunday, June 10, 2007
hi
ok, i fail at this game.
i've had some wonderful partners in adventure lately and thus have been distracted from my blog-o. mary mary mary kuhn was here for a week or so and i've had my little brother benja' bean with me for a bit now... can't really re-cap all that we've done, but will say that it has all been lovely.
um, public oven excursions have been more frequent. just this evening we made challah bread. gasp! jewish bread in a muslim oven, breaking barriers all over the place.
let's see, adventure highlights... benny and i went to a music festival in fez. pretty fun. on our first night of exploring we heard some music coming from down an alley near our hotel. special music side show? we peeked our heads down the alley and were found a group of men who had clearly been uh, partying and very adamantly wanted us to do the same. we were quickly whisked into a raging moroccan wedding! not a side show at all: small room with lots and lots of dancing people from alllll the generations. ben got to dance on the men's side with some silly boys and i got to dance on the women's side with a pre-teen who wanted to show me some new moves.
what else? lots of long bus/grand taxi/train rides have been had; complete with live birds, buckets of cow hooves, barfing neighbors, and shoe thieves (r.i.p. my black sauconys, they lived a good life).
ok, i can't write any more now. clearly i'm being a bad hostess. tomorrow or the next day we're off on a sahara bound road trip. sweet. i'll tell you how it goes.
oh, i'm coming home for like a month this summer. i'm pretty much on summer vacation now... can't complain. anyways, state side mid-july to mid-august. around? lets hang out.
i've had some wonderful partners in adventure lately and thus have been distracted from my blog-o. mary mary mary kuhn was here for a week or so and i've had my little brother benja' bean with me for a bit now... can't really re-cap all that we've done, but will say that it has all been lovely.
um, public oven excursions have been more frequent. just this evening we made challah bread. gasp! jewish bread in a muslim oven, breaking barriers all over the place.
let's see, adventure highlights... benny and i went to a music festival in fez. pretty fun. on our first night of exploring we heard some music coming from down an alley near our hotel. special music side show? we peeked our heads down the alley and were found a group of men who had clearly been uh, partying and very adamantly wanted us to do the same. we were quickly whisked into a raging moroccan wedding! not a side show at all: small room with lots and lots of dancing people from alllll the generations. ben got to dance on the men's side with some silly boys and i got to dance on the women's side with a pre-teen who wanted to show me some new moves.
what else? lots of long bus/grand taxi/train rides have been had; complete with live birds, buckets of cow hooves, barfing neighbors, and shoe thieves (r.i.p. my black sauconys, they lived a good life).
ok, i can't write any more now. clearly i'm being a bad hostess. tomorrow or the next day we're off on a sahara bound road trip. sweet. i'll tell you how it goes.
oh, i'm coming home for like a month this summer. i'm pretty much on summer vacation now... can't complain. anyways, state side mid-july to mid-august. around? lets hang out.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
wedding fun
oopsy do, worst blogger ever. hope all my loyal readers haven't given up on me (i've got at least two or three, right??)
um, things have been going really well. marrakech was god awfuly-hot last week, like i was afraid to leave the house after 11 am... but now we're being rewarded with some spring showers. i love stuff like that.
rachel and i went to a wedding in the country the weekend before last. pretty sweet... we were invited through some girls she knows through her research- fatima zorrah and amal. these girls live in the country by our standards, and the wedding was at their country cousin's farm. preeeety out there. i wouldn't say it was even in a village, we were like 6k from any sort of center.
the farm was beautiful and the family was warm and welcoming. we pretty much spent the whole weekend with the women, which was fine by me because from what i could tell they were way more fun. i was actually quite taken aback by them, these were some baaaad ass ladies; i think even the elderly gradmother could have thrown me across the room. and they did all the work for the ceremony- which included baking cake upon cake, degutting sheep, preparing tubs full of chickens, and making mystery concoctions which somehow turned into a feast. oh, and making sure that the men always had enough tea to drink as they layed around looking bored and boring. rachel and i were sometimes given small tasks, like peeling garlic or moving chairs, which were overly-praised, sort of like we were handicapped or five years old. it was pretty cute.
on the second night we went to the bride's village for the party there. so rachel and i along with about 15 other women and a live sheep piled into the back of a pick-up truck for the journey. and it was rachel's job to sit like on the sheep, haha. the ride was great- it was a total party mobile! everyone was singing and drumming the whole way- sometimes we would pass people who would always stop and cheer.
the party itself was pretty fun. lots of food and dancing. luckily the kaftans we were wearing were roomy enough that they hid our far inferior hip-shaking skills. the whole affair lasted until about 4 am, but rachel and i fell asleep in the kiddie room at like 1, which seemed very appropriate... the truck ride home is such a sleepy blur that i'm still not totally convinced it happened.
you get the idea, it was three days of this. we returned to marrakech happily exhausted and ready for urban luxories like a warm shower and vegeterian food.
um, things have been going really well. marrakech was god awfuly-hot last week, like i was afraid to leave the house after 11 am... but now we're being rewarded with some spring showers. i love stuff like that.
rachel and i went to a wedding in the country the weekend before last. pretty sweet... we were invited through some girls she knows through her research- fatima zorrah and amal. these girls live in the country by our standards, and the wedding was at their country cousin's farm. preeeety out there. i wouldn't say it was even in a village, we were like 6k from any sort of center.
the farm was beautiful and the family was warm and welcoming. we pretty much spent the whole weekend with the women, which was fine by me because from what i could tell they were way more fun. i was actually quite taken aback by them, these were some baaaad ass ladies; i think even the elderly gradmother could have thrown me across the room. and they did all the work for the ceremony- which included baking cake upon cake, degutting sheep, preparing tubs full of chickens, and making mystery concoctions which somehow turned into a feast. oh, and making sure that the men always had enough tea to drink as they layed around looking bored and boring. rachel and i were sometimes given small tasks, like peeling garlic or moving chairs, which were overly-praised, sort of like we were handicapped or five years old. it was pretty cute.
on the second night we went to the bride's village for the party there. so rachel and i along with about 15 other women and a live sheep piled into the back of a pick-up truck for the journey. and it was rachel's job to sit like on the sheep, haha. the ride was great- it was a total party mobile! everyone was singing and drumming the whole way- sometimes we would pass people who would always stop and cheer.
the party itself was pretty fun. lots of food and dancing. luckily the kaftans we were wearing were roomy enough that they hid our far inferior hip-shaking skills. the whole affair lasted until about 4 am, but rachel and i fell asleep in the kiddie room at like 1, which seemed very appropriate... the truck ride home is such a sleepy blur that i'm still not totally convinced it happened.
you get the idea, it was three days of this. we returned to marrakech happily exhausted and ready for urban luxories like a warm shower and vegeterian food.
Sunday, May 6, 2007
mmmm brownies
fyi brownies in the public oven are totally do-able (the cookies were out cause theres no brown sugar here...).
the men at the oven were very amused by the gooey mess that i was so excited about... i got a bit defensive, like i didn't think they believed me when i said chocolaty brownies were one of life's finer pleasures. soooo, i felt i needed to go back and prove it to them. i brought them a brownie and in my mood of sharing brought one to my favorite kiosk man and my favorite woodworking man. well appreciated all around. i sat with hakin, the woodworking man, and drank tea while he ate his brownie. hakin always gives me health advice, and he said that he thought the brownie was full of vitamins and thus fully approved. i think he may have confused vitamins with calories. ah well.
what tasty treat should i introduce to the derb el hammam neighborhood next??
the men at the oven were very amused by the gooey mess that i was so excited about... i got a bit defensive, like i didn't think they believed me when i said chocolaty brownies were one of life's finer pleasures. soooo, i felt i needed to go back and prove it to them. i brought them a brownie and in my mood of sharing brought one to my favorite kiosk man and my favorite woodworking man. well appreciated all around. i sat with hakin, the woodworking man, and drank tea while he ate his brownie. hakin always gives me health advice, and he said that he thought the brownie was full of vitamins and thus fully approved. i think he may have confused vitamins with calories. ah well.
what tasty treat should i introduce to the derb el hammam neighborhood next??
Friday, May 4, 2007
keeps things interesting
so. i think i've discovered why i love the marrakesh medina so much. it is a city that will always and forever keep you on your toes. not just in the typical bustling streets sneaky theives sort of a way (though it has both of those as well). but no, the medina keeps you alert in that it is an ever-changing maze. once you think you know even like a small fraction of it, something will change or you will discover some new layer that you never knew existed. like closed doors in the neighborhood will open one day and suddenly there is a new cobbler or blacksmith. was he always hiding there behind the closed doors? or what was in that room like, a week ago? shops open and close depending on the time of day, day of the week, shop owner's mood. who knows.
for this reason routines and patterns are very difficult to form- for example i had gotten in the habit of eating bissarah (yummy fava bean soup) in the morning from our neighborhood bisarrah man, mahamood. then one morning mahamood's doors were closed. rachel saw him later and he explained that now he only made bisarrah when the mood struck him. so now sometimes he's there. sometimes he can't be bothered with cooking in the morning. fair enough. so yeah, routines are out. but with routines come ruts, am i right?
sometimes small tasks can turn into adventures. like just the other day i was on my way out to buy vegetables for lunch. i was headed to the souq (market) where i always went- a nice souq not far away that always has pretty good stuff. but, on my way out stopped to talk with the woodworker across the street, hakin (my number 1 favorite neighbor). he's always full of advice, and this day steered me in the direction of a different market that he said was much better. soooo, i followed his directions- down some twisty streets and through a couple of small alleys and within like 10 minutes emerged in this totally nutty market scene. probably like 3 times as big as the one i usually go to, and with all the bustling madness you could ever want from a vegetable market. there was a sense of urgency, like if you didn't buy your vegetables they were all going to run out or something, people pushing, lots of haggling and arguing, men yelling out prices auction style, special items such as cow hooves and sheep brains... all in all i loved it. got a little caught up with the scene and bought enough vegetables to feed like a family of 10. ah well.
k, think i'm going to go cook some of those vegetable now. i have like 2 lbs of green beans i don't know what to do with. any advice?
for this reason routines and patterns are very difficult to form- for example i had gotten in the habit of eating bissarah (yummy fava bean soup) in the morning from our neighborhood bisarrah man, mahamood. then one morning mahamood's doors were closed. rachel saw him later and he explained that now he only made bisarrah when the mood struck him. so now sometimes he's there. sometimes he can't be bothered with cooking in the morning. fair enough. so yeah, routines are out. but with routines come ruts, am i right?
sometimes small tasks can turn into adventures. like just the other day i was on my way out to buy vegetables for lunch. i was headed to the souq (market) where i always went- a nice souq not far away that always has pretty good stuff. but, on my way out stopped to talk with the woodworker across the street, hakin (my number 1 favorite neighbor). he's always full of advice, and this day steered me in the direction of a different market that he said was much better. soooo, i followed his directions- down some twisty streets and through a couple of small alleys and within like 10 minutes emerged in this totally nutty market scene. probably like 3 times as big as the one i usually go to, and with all the bustling madness you could ever want from a vegetable market. there was a sense of urgency, like if you didn't buy your vegetables they were all going to run out or something, people pushing, lots of haggling and arguing, men yelling out prices auction style, special items such as cow hooves and sheep brains... all in all i loved it. got a little caught up with the scene and bought enough vegetables to feed like a family of 10. ah well.
k, think i'm going to go cook some of those vegetable now. i have like 2 lbs of green beans i don't know what to do with. any advice?
Friday, April 27, 2007
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.
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.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
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!
the selected photos: http://flickr.com/photos
and if you're so inclined, the whole set: http://flickr.com/photos
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!
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