Ramadan: Day 3

Today is my third day of fasting. I can honestly say that it's not that bad. The first day was the worst. I was hungry all day, and the line to get food was horrible:

The first meal of the day is called f'tour. It's essentially breakfast. They have pasteries, coffee, orange juice, msmmen, soup, and other things. In order to take part of the feast, you have to buy a ticket from the cafe, which gets you in to the room where everything is already prepared. You can also go through the normal food line to get other things. So when you enter the room, the tables are covered in food and place settings.

The first day of the fast, I made the common mistake of wanting too much food. Everything I saw I wanted to eat. So I got into line to get some of the pasteries and quickly learned an aspect of Moroccan culture that wouldn't be too welcome back at home. The people in line are herded in between the food prep counter and a divider, creating a little walkway, at the end of which is a lady at a computer who takes your "cash wallet" (student ID) in order to pay for our food. I suddenly learned that people outside of the "walkway" were reaching over the people patiently waiting in line, grabbing food or tea, and going to the front of the line to purchase their items. Irate. Becaue of this, it took me at least twice as long as it should have to get through the line and to my table. I was pretty pissed. It may have mostly been because I was hungry and these people were keeping me from remedying that.

Other than that, the food was good. I ate a lot. Perhaps too much. But it was good. Later that night I was chatting with my roommate and told him about the "food line" episode, to which he replied: "Welcome to Morocco".

Yesterday and today weren't too bad at all. I didn't really get hungry until about 5pm, and we eat around 6:20. So really I only suffered for a little over an hour. I am happy that I'm doing this though. I have started to understand a bit more about the spiritual side of the fasting. I just hope I can make it the whole month.

Tajine

This is what I eat. This is tajine. This particular dish is what I ate this evening. It's called "tagine poulet aux cirton", and it is goooooood.



Ramadan begins tomorrow, which means it is the first day of fasting. I have decided to do my best to fast along with pretty much everyone else in Morocco. So tonight I went to town for a nice dinner. This task was a little more arduous than usual as I am pretty sure that I broke a toe yesterday. Let me begin with my toe.

I've been attempting to get some information about my options for course next semester. Specifically, I need to take a specific class next semester if I want to graduate from NDSU in the spring. I was on my way to speak to the one individual who could answer my request, and just let me say that walking can be treacherous....especially when you have to go up stairs....and the stairs are not all the same height. To put it bluntly, I stubbed the s**t out of the toe next to the big toe on my left foot, and fell. Unfortunately there was no one around. No one to laugh, or to say "Look at the stupid American!".
So I limped up the rest of the stairs and did what I had to do.
The rest of the day I just assumed that I jammed it, that the damage was minimal, and nothing more than temporarily inconvenient. I believed this, atleast until this moring when I woke up and my toe was black and blue in spots, and still really hurt. Because of the condition of my toe, I was forced to stay here instead of going to Fes for the weekend. A couple my friends and I had planned to take a one day class in cooking Moroccan food. Due to my injury, I stayed home.
So today I've done mostly nothing. Some reading. Played Playbabble for a little while. Took a shower. Everyone is gone from campus, so here I sit all by myself. I decided, as I mentioned earlier, to go into town for a nice dinner. Basically I wanted to pig out before the fasting begins. So I took a cab to my favorite restaurant and ordered my favorite dish. And it was goooo-oood.
I guess that's about it. I ate, now I'm going to start some more reading. I just wanted to show you all what I ate, and it appears I got wrapped up in telling a story about it. But that's all. Bye.

Still MORE Rabat.

This last group of photos is just a gathering of random shots I took from the tail end of the trip.

This is a picture of the sidewalk across the street from the Cathedral.

On the train ride back to Meknes the train was overflowing with people returning home after the weekend. Justin, Nate, and myself had to stand almost the entire way. The train cars have compartments that comfortably fit 6 people, but most were filled with 8 and the walkway that runs along side the compartments were also packed with people. This is a picture of Justin looking very comfortable and taking in the view of the landscape.
The last four pictures are just shots of the landscape from the window of the train.

More Rabat

So Rabat has by far been my favorite city. I keep joking about how I'm just going to move there instead of coming home. First off, I AM coming home. Don't worry about that. But, I am going to pursue work with the State Department after I've finished school, and I AM going to request work in the Embassy in Rabat. Sorry mom, but international work in Canada just isn't for me.
So here's some more pictures. Most of them are from the Kasbah garden. I found a better picture of Parliment and that's in here, as well as the St. Pierre Cathedral which was built in the 1930's.
Keeping checking back. I still have more pictures to post, and I will hopefully get to that soon.



















Bye!

Rabat Photos 2

Imagine that you have never seen an ocean. Never,with your own eyes, have you wittnessed something so big and so amazing. You have always wanted to, and knew that you would someday, but have yet to see it.
Now imagine that you are walking through an area that is completely enclosed in massive walls. These walls have been in existence for one thousand years. You are walking, taking in all the fantastic classic doorways, shops, and walls all painted in white and blue. Now, one of the people you are with says that if you keep walking a little more, there will be a "t" in the path and there should be a cool view. So you continue walking, take the left, which opens onto a large platform, and you see this:


(Justin, Nate, Christina, and Natalie)





This was my first time ever seeing the ocean with my own two eyes. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life, and it happened just like I described above. The only thing I left out was my response when Nate, our "guide" asked me what I thought. All I could muster was "It's kinda big...".

Rabat Photos 1

Here is the first of what will be several posts of pictures from my trip to Rabat. I'm sorry that you only get little snippets but my blog-site is acting up and it takes about 10 minutes for each picture to upload.
So, I'm not going to write too much during this photo representation of the city. The stories are minimal and the picture do a sufficient job of illustrating what I saw, and what I mean to pass on to you.
Enjoy.


This is a fountain that was half a block down the street from the hotel we stayed at.


The street that our hotel was on had a giant boulevard running down the middle. As you can see, the boulevard is lined with huge palm trees. Rabat is the capital of Morocco, and the building on the left of the screen is the parliament building. I don't think I got a better shot of parliament, but one of the others may have.


We walked through the Old Medina to get to this Kasbah. It was huge...too big to fit into a photo. I did take a video of it that I will try to post as soon as I find out how to post video. (The video takes a panoramic view of the Kasbah...and Nates head).


These are the stair leading to the main entrance of the Kasbah. At the bottom of the stairs there is another doorway leading into the Kasbah gardens. I do have some pictures of the gardens, but you'll have to wait to see those because the pics take so long to load, and also because I want to post these in chronological order: between the entrance of the Kasbah and the gardens of the Kasbah is an event that has left me a different person. And of course, you'll have to wait for that too!
The Suspense!!!!
I'm like a drug dealer like that....I keep you coming back...I hope.

THE OLD CITY

Nothing I have evern witnessed could have prepared me for what I was about to walk into. From the pictures on the previous post wou get a good idea of what the streets of the old medina are like: crowded, narrow, without symetry or pattern, chaotic. Not only did I have to compete with masses of people, but there were other obstacles.

The first obstacle is a tricky one. As a tourist, it's nice to have a guide. Someone to make sure that I don't go down a wrong alley, of the 9,400+ alleyways and streets that make up the old medina. Someone to take me to the shops that have authentic, quality products, at a not so inflated price. Someone to translate when needed and someone to shoo away the people who may want to mug or exploit me. This is very tricky. See, all tourists carry a sign with them that scam-artists and faux guides can see. These people seek you out. They see you and persist on helping you find the "good" shops. They say they don't want any money, but only want to practice their english. They want to show you the "real" medina and provide information about the city and it's history. Again, these people seek you out. And when they seek you out, it's generally not a good idea to go with them.

The young boy who insisted on helping us was quite possibly one of these faux-guides. Of course, he was also possibly a young man who genuinely wanted to help us. It is possible that his uncle has a little shop deep in the oldest part of the medina and this boy brings people to his shop to buy his genuine products. The boy may have genuinely wanted to practice his english and hopes of one day traveling to America, or going to school. The one thing I have learned by being in the medina, however, is that things are rarely genuine...especially when they seek you out.

We will never know what his true intention was. We didn't allow him to lead us too deep into the medina. We were just as persistant as he was about getting out before dark. His type wasn't the only type to seek us out though. Soon after we entered the medina, I was confronted by a guy, probably in his early twenties, who rushed up beside me and asked me if "I wanted something good to try before I die". Now, I know this guy wasn't threatening my life. I know he was just trying to get me to buy some drugs from him, but this seriously creeped me out. I ignored him and kept walking.

On the way out we were confronted by another guy, about the same age, who just kept shouting "Charlie Brown" at us. I'm not sure what this phrase means. Perhaps it has something to with drugs (brown = heroin) or maybe "Charlie Brown" is so distinctly American that that's how he identifies the tourists. Whatever it meant, it wasn't the last time someone yelled that to us.

The next day we decided to enter the medina again. This time we weren't going to be bothered by anyone. We were going to ignore anyone who tries to get us to follow them and just carry on with our business...or so we thought.

We made it through the first part of the medina, which opened up into a sort of parking lot. On one side was a couple of archways that led to an old palace. On the other was a low doorway that led to the oldest of the old medina. This is where we were approached by a couple of people. One man, in his late thirties, wanted 100dhs (approx. $10) so lead into the old medina and to show us the old shops. We declined and were approached by another boy, about twenty. He offered his services, free of charge. He only wanted to practice his english. We tried to tell him no, but he insisted on at least showing us down the right path to the old medina.

Once we entered the old medina, i noticed that the first man had followed us. I became very uneasy and insisted that we leave the medina all together. The others agreed, but the boy who was leading us became very aggetated and insistant. We stood our ground and he began to lead us back. As we left, I noticed that man was still following us. He trailed us at a distance, but always within eyeshot. He followed us all the way out of the medina and into the streets, where we were confronted by anther kid shouting "Charlie Brown". We were all on edge at this point and proceeded to where we had previously seen taxis. We got in a cab, noticed that we were still followed. Not only by the same man, but by the new kid. Once we got into the cab, I saw our two tails chatting together under a doorway. Then the kid ran over to the taxi and told us he was going to get in a cab and follow us "to make sure we get back okay". Luckily we never saw him again.

Again, I can't be sure of the intent of the people we encountered, but I'm very upset about the events. I wanted to go into the city, buy some authentic goods, and take some pictures. These people made this very difficult and I feel cheated of a wonderful experience. However, I do plan on going back. Next time I will hopefully have a native friend accompany me. Someone who knows the language and the tricks of these people. Someone I can trust.

FEZ

I just returned to Al-Akhawayn from an overnight trip to Fez. I don't know what to say about it, other than the fact that it was crazy. Just crazy. I could go on and on about what happened, what I saw, and what I experienced but if I were to do that this entry would be too large for anyone to sit and read. So I'll give you the Mc-version of what happened (which will also be long...sorry).

Brian, Alex and I took a cab (Le Grande Taxi) from Ifrane to Fez yesterday afternoon. The cab, which would comfortably seat 5, seated 7. It was hot, we were hot, sweaty, and crabby.

It was a little less than an hour to Fez. the cab dropped us off at what seemed to be a central station for Le Grande Taxi's, only without any sort of building, organization or really any structured way of doing things at all. We peeled our selves out of the cab and began to walk, with no idea what-so-ever of where we were going or what we were doing. (Note:Fez is a city of 1million people and is very very hot).

We started walking and ended up asking directions from a boy named Abdullah. Abdullah was great. He didn't speak any english, but insisted on hanging out with us. He didn't try to lead us anywhere, just wanted to hang out. So we hung out with Abdullah for about an hour.

(Brian, Abdullah, Alex)

On our walk with Abdullah we passed a Hotel, which we decided to find again so we could have a place to stay for the night. The general plan was that we would get a room, get settled in, drop off our bags and take a cab (Le Petit Taxi) to the old part of Fez.

Fez is over 1400 years old and currently is the third largest city in Morocco. the city is seperated into two parts: New Fez-Al Medina Jedid, and Old Fez-Al Medina Bali. Old Fez is completely enclosed by a wall. I don't want to give you too much of the history of the town, but it's absolutely fascinating. I'll just show some picture and to a little comentary from here on out.


(Entrance to Al-Jedid)

Once we got into the old city, we were approached by a boy who wanted to guide us to the even older-inner part of the city. We were hesitant, but accepted, all in agreance that if any of us felt uncomfortable we would turn back. I can't remember our guides name, but he pointed out some things like an old Mosque:


(Brian, Alex, the kid in front of the Mosque)

The streets of old Fez were cramped and packed. A constant flow of people were constantly moving both directions with the occassional man leading a donkey or a scooter/moped. There was so much going on that I hardly got a chance to look at any of the shops. We had been walking for about 15 minutes when we decided that we had seen enough and wanted to get back. It was getting dark and were a little nervous of being in such a crowded area after dark.



(Streets of Al-Jedid)

So, we took a cab back to the hotel, watched tv, had dinner, and went to sleep.

The hotel we got was also emaculate.


(Waiting room in Hotel Mounia)



(Travel Gnome and Fez skyline from our room)

Well, that's all I'm going to post for now. This is already long enough and I need to start my homework. I'll be posting more photos and stories.

UH-OH

Two terrible things have just happened. I will list them in reverse chronological order, the purpose of which will soon be apparent.

1. I have just been introduced to a fellow musician. My roommate, Neyl, has a friend here on campus, Hassaam, who plays guitar. He has a group of people he plays with on campus and has invited me to "jam" with him sometime.

I had found myself thinking about trying to find people to play with, but had almost instantly tossed that idea from me mind. I keep telling myself that I'm here to study, and it becomes very obvious the other day that I NEED to buckle down and study Arabic. While playing music with other people would be fun, educational, and healthy, it's a distraction that I'm not sure I can afford to have. I'll just have to take it bit by bit and attempt to control myself...but what if we rock!!! Then I guess I'll have to succumb to the ever powerful rock'n roll and let the sweetness ooze from my fingertips.

DISCLAIMER: The content of this second part may be offensive, gross, disgusting, or just unappealing to some people. I suggest that if you are one of these people, DO NOT read any further. I do not accept responsibility for what may happen if you do.

Ok? Ok.

2. It's happening. It's happening and I can't stop it. It's not depression. Not anxiety or homesickness. It's not a sense of paranoia or culture shock. It's worse.....much worse.
Apparently my "body" isn't used to some of the food, liquids, or contents thereof that I have been consuming the past week. I am forced to visit the bathroom a few times a day and am kept awake due to the incessant grumbling coming from "below". That's right.....I have diarrhea. Bad. I'm hoping it passes soon, and I'm hoping that Neyl doesn't end up requesting a different dorm or roommate. It awoke me at 3am last night, kept me up for a couple hours, and has interrupted my daily routine not once, or twice, but thrice times today. Please God, help.