Better Bon

Yay, I get to go home! The inflamation of my lymph nodes are down and now I just need to take antibiotics for the next week. I'm now sitting in my hospital bed waiting for the nurse to come and take the IV out of my arm. I can't wait.

Hospital Bon

Good News: the hospital has wireless.

Bad News: I'm in the hospital.

As one doctor in Prague suggested, my only cure may be a hospital visit to have antibiotics administered through an IV. And that is where I am. Except for two visitors I've had, my time here has been kind of boring. Then, about an hour ago, I discovered I can access the wireless here and now my time has changed. I'll write more when I'm more awake -- it's about 9:10 pm and I'm already sleepy.

Third Time's A Charm?

Prague is a backpacker's destination, so when people learn of my travels, the question of whether I've been to Prague often arises. Technically, yes, I've been to Prague but I haven't really seen much besides the clock tower, charles bridge, jewish cemetary and, my personal favorite, the museum of medieval torture. When I returned from my first trip there, someone asked me what I thought of the castle. My response was "castle? What castle?". Apparently, it was that big building I passed daily on my tram ride to and from the city. So, when I learned that I was being sent to Prague for the internship I just started (for an online travel portal for backpackers, feel free to check it out at rucksack.com), I was excited to see what I missed.

I came with high hopes which were, once again, quickly shattered by a bacterial infection in my throat. I arrived in Prague on a Saturday and on Sunday I awoke to find a painful lump the size of a golf ball under my throat that gave me a double chin. The rest of my time in Prague would be overshadowed by my throat, the infection had spread to my lymph nodes causing the ridiculous swelling. The rest of my time was spent either in the doctor's office, sleeping, sweating (had a fever for a couple days), writhing in pain in the common room of the hostel, or just being miserable because I had no energy to move.

For all you Prague-lovers out there, I'd love to hear what it is you love about that city so much. While during my first visit, I feel I got to know the Museum of Torture really well. This visit, I feel I got to know doctors and my hostel's common room really well.

As a final good piece of information, I did find out that since I was not able to do any of the work I was sent to do in Prague, I will be sent back there for a third time. Let's hope nothing bad happens this time...

Catch up Bon

There is a lot to catch everyone up on and I will try to do so quickly here. If I get my act together, I will later try to post more in depth updates.

I am back in Berlin, sitting in my apartment, happy that for the first time my landlady/roommate didn't unexpectedly wake me up at 10 am on a Saturday (that is extremely early for me on a weekend) to do some ridiculous type of cleaning (more on this in another post). The weather is looking better than it has been over the past couple days, where we've had nothing but rain. I am excited to see some friends tonight that I met in Casablanca and lastly, I'm glad because I, for the first time, have a small amount of income to look forward to (read: I'm finally getting my act together here).

This past week has been relatively productive. Last Friday, I interviewed for a English teaching position. This Monday, I got a tutoring position. This Thursday, I got a paid internship, which I will start this Monday. On top of that, I found a new apartment that I will move into in June in a neighborhood that I enjoy AND on top of all of that I got to see two colleagues from New York and fully enjoyed my brief but fun time catching up with them. The only downside to my week was that my camera broke and I have yet to fix it. I took lots of pictures in Poland and on the first of May (workers day -- stories to come from that) that I would like to post but I cannot access them yet on my camera.

That is my brief summary of the week. More to come soon-ish.

PolishBon

I just wouldn't be myself if I didn't do a little bit of spontaneous travel here and there, right? I decided a couple hours ago (around 3pm my time) that I would hop on a train early tomorrow morning (6:40am to be exact) to meet up with my friend Thad who is in Warsaw. I had actually been planning on tagging along with him to Warsaw earlier this week but decided to hang around Berlin since I was in the running for a job which I did not get. There is talk that we might head over to Krakow too but that has not been decided yet. After listening to a really interesting, older broadcast of "This American Life" on a burgeoning interest in/increase of Jewish culture there, my interest in Krakow has been sparked. Plus, everyone I speak to says that Krakow is great. We'll see. Anyways, just wanted to update everyone that I will be heading over to Poland for a couple days.

BittenBon

For your listening pleasure, please play this song in the background while reading this post (ed. note "Eisbaer = Polar Bear")

As many of you may know, Berlin has recently been in the news due to a polar bear attack at the Berlin Zoo. I surprisingly only heard of the incident through my sister via Article Club. If you do not know what I am talking about, then please read the link provided at the bottom or top.

One of my good friends from the English Teacher's course, his brother was in town so I seized the opportunity to explore Berlin with them. One day of exploring led us to the Berlin Zoo. I couldn't pass the Zoo without taking a picture to commemorate, well, the ridiculousness of humankind (this is including me who was ridiculous enough to take the following picture). Anyways, for all of you following the polar bear story, although I did not make my way into the Zoo, here is me paying respect to the incident. I think, facially speaking, I did a pretty good job, yes?


The Article:
(http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1169266/Pictured-Shocking-moment-polar-bear-attacks-woman-climbed-zoo-enclosure.html)

Also, for those who actually listened to the song here is a gist of it's lyrics in English:

I want to be a Polar Bear
in the cold polar
because then I wouldn't need to scream
Everything would be so clear
....
....
....
Polar Bears don't need to cry

(to all you German speakers out there, please don't diss on my translation skillz)

In-Need-of-a-Job-Bon

I was recently called out by 2 friends for not having posted new information recently. A) thank you for calling me out. B) so much has happened since the last post that I'm not sure where to begin. I have one or two old posts that need to be finished which I may post soon. They tend to be time-stamped according to when I first started writing them, meaning they'll appear below this post.

First off, I am still in Berlin and I love it here. For those of you who have not been lucky enough to visit, Berlin is an amazing city that seems to suck people into it. It's laid-back, liberal, culturally and historically rich, very bike friendly and seems to have a certain je ne sais quoi to it. Every time I visit, I never want to leave and this is no exception. Berlin is like a 3rd home (after Philly and New York) to me. I'm lucky to have a great friend base here -- friends that I have met through my course and friends that I have already known for quite some time (some since 2001!). Berlin has actually acted as a great place to get back in touch with the western world and once again, I never want to leave!

Now the thing is, having said all of that, I am in no way, shape or form ready for my world adventures to end. Not in the least bit. However, pulling oneself away from Berlin is, for me, next to impossible. To use a cheesy analogy, it's like trying to separate oneself from their demon a la "The Golden Compass". I've only ever left in the past because I had to return to New York for school or for work. And while meeting up with the rest of the group is a priority of mine, it's hard to motivate myself to leave because I've finally found myself in the city that I have always dreamed of returning to.

I hear that the biking group is actually headed to New Zealand. This is an amazing piece of information, as one of my best friends is currently volunteering in NZ and a trip there would mean time with her. However, a flight from Berlin to NZ via Delhi (where the rest of my things currently are) might be costly, meaning that by the time I arrive in NZ, I'll be close to being out of money. Ughs. So, we'll see. I'm trying to find a job in Berlin, which isn't going too well but, then again, I could probably try a little harder than I am. Anyways, as you might see, I'm a little lost without a plan, not sure how to come about a plan, hoping to come up with a plan, but all around doing well.

EnglishTeacherBon?

My classes began yesterday and I was surprised to find out that the class is full of many funpeople and great teachers. I also found out that I will be the first person in my section to lead a 35 minute English lesson to learners who are in a pre-intermediate course. I'm sitting in the school's computer room writing this instead of looking over my lesson plan because, quite frankly, I'm kindof freaked out by this notion of running a class -- even if it only contains 4 students -- while myteacher and 4 other colleagues watch and critque me. Hopefully they'll be lenient on me since I'm the first to go. Also, while trying to rally myself for the lesson, I've convinced myself that I was chosen to be the first in my section because I demonstrated, in my interview, exceptionable ability to teach... It's very doubtful but I'd like to think that is true.

BerlinBon

Obviously, it's been a while since I last posted anything here. The short update is that I am in Berlin and am about to embark on a one month course to become certified to teach English as a foreign language. Thus far, I love being here -- the weather is not nearly as nice as the weather in Morocco or India but it could be a lot worse than it currently is.

There is not a whole lot to report about Berlin. I move into an apartment on Sunday that I will be sharing with three other people who seem really friendly. I have eaten tons of Vollkornbroetchen (whole grain bread rolls) and saw some former co-workers from New York. I also spent the night sharing an apartment with a russian punk band and also somehow found myself at a house party full of 20 year olds. It is safe to say that my time here has thus far been random.

BonVoyages

And now my time in Morocco is coming to an end. Just as the spring weather is settling in in Casa, making it too warm to wear a sweater during the day, I decide to move north where you would be insane to not wear a sweater over the other 5 layers of shirts you are wearing to try and preserve what ever body heat you might have left. Tomorrow at noon, I am heading to Berlin where on Monday, I will start a course to become certified to teach English as a foreign language. I am hoping that the certification will help me find more work abroad, prolonging my life of as a world traveler.

I am super excited for Berlin since it is hands down my favorite city in the world. Also, some former co-workers of mine will be there on Wednesday, allowing for a mini-reunion to take place.

I will definitely miss my time in Morocco. The past month has been both an adventure and a huge learning experience. I'm lucky to have met tons of people and learned a lot more about Moroccan culture and ex-pats in Morocco.

'Cause Friday I'm in Love (with Couscous)

Fridays are the day when Moroccans gather around for a large Couscous lunch. I was lucky enough to be invited to one this afternoon during my trip to Asilah, which is a small resort town on the northern coast of Morocco. The Couscous is served piping hot in a tajine and set in the center of the table. Everyone grabs a spoons and digs in. There are no individual plates. When you are stuffed, you put down the spoon, lay back on your seat, put your hand to your stomach and say "hamd'allah". In my case, you do the aforementioned steps, then jump up, yell "shukriah" (means thank you) and then bolt to the train station so as not to miss your ride back to Casa.

Friendraiser Morocco: Outcome

I ended up making one friend in Casa on my own, a 23 year-old student named Mounia. She was kind enough to meet up with me and bring me around her area of Casa. My favorite part of out meet up was the fact that she speaks little english and I speak little french but am more confident in my french abilities than she is in her english abilities (in Mounia's defense, I'm sure her english is great but that she was hesitant to use it). She brought me to a market near where she lives, called Habouss. We walked around, talked a good amount, and eventually made our way back to her apartment where we ended up drinking tea and going through each other's facebook profiles. Ah, the digital age -- you have to love it for something!

The colors in this picture are not great but this is the only picture I took of Mounia that is not blurred. We bought olives here and I plan on returning to buy more for the planned "James Bond"* party we hope to throw at Basil and Hicham's apartment.



* It is impossible to order a proper martini in Morocco -- the bartender thinks you are ordering chilled vermouth -- or Martini & Rossi -- with an olive, so we've decided to rename Martinis the "James Bond" and hope to throw a party at the apartment with Martinis, Olives, and International adventure.

Out and About in Casa

As you may or may not have noticed, I've been posting more than usual -- this is because I have lots of free time in Casa, I have high speed internet and I now have my own computer to use before Hicham sells the laptop of his that I am using as if it were my own.

Last week we were lucky to have a couple (an American girl and Australian boy) stay at the apartment for two nights -- this meant friends for me to explore the city with! Teague and Rob are (get ready) friends of a friend of a coworker of Hicham's. They had been in contact with Hicham prior to us meeting them at a Sunday lunch at Soriah's that consisted of a feast of Moroccan cous cous.

I was lucky that they wanted to explore the city with me as their tag-along. I was even luckier to find out how much I liked them. This picture on the left is of them at the Hassan II Mosque, located on the waterfront in Casa.

Our time at the mosque was spent trying to catch up with the last English-speaking guided tour of the day (non-Muslims are only allowed into the mosque when accompanied by guided tours). We showed up late for the tour but were still allowed into the mosque and directed towards the English guided tour. We ended up finding the French and Japanese tours and eventually made friends with the Japanese tour group.

Here is one last picture of the mosque. We lucked out by visiting it on a beautifully clear day.

Rain, Rain, (Don't) Go Away

I've seen the most rain over the past two weeks than I've seen over the past three and a half months. We did not encounter any rain in India or Nepal until my last two days in India, where we conveniently traveled in a truck with our baggage in the uncovered storage area during a huge downpour. Awesome. Anyways, it has rained a good amount since arriving in Casa and I still am loving it (the smell and the feel of the air). Here is a picture I took from the thunderstorm that commenced an hour ago.

An Apartment with a View

This is the view from Basil and Hicham's apartment.

Le Marché Noir

Casablanca has a physical bazaar called the black market and, as you may have guessed, it is a literal and physical black market. Marc and Hicham often disappear from the apartment in order to shop around and learn the market. I was refused a trip there last weekend because my being a westerner would have affected Hicham's chances of getting a good price on a purchase. Today, all four of us went there. I regret to inform that I did not have my camera on me, which I regret because I do not know if my description of the place will do it justice. Basil has to return there tomorrow, so hopefully I will be able to accompany him there.

The black market is a labyrinth of vendors with walkways no wider than three or four feet. The overall architecture of the place is akin to that of a shantytown of sorts in the sense that it looks like a conglomeration of tin shanty towns that were smooshed together and forced to coexist under a single system of roofs. The walkways are essentially gutters with 10 inch curbes wide enough to allow a prospective buyer enough foothold to stand on the same level ground as the seller.

The black market was the perfect cultural experience that I have been looking for since arriving in Morocco. It's a place that I would not have been able to handle on my own but loved when accompanied by people who could literally guide me through it (I would have gotten lost on my own). The highlight of the visit was when Marc and I were left behind to drink tea with the vendor that Basil was about to buy his new desktop from. Marc and I both got to practice our intermediate french, while being lectured in French on Islam by the shop owner. From what we understood, he has no respect for people who smoke, he moved to Morocco a couple years ago from Brussels because of intolerance towards Islam, he was born in Algeria, and that I am invited to his house for dinner as long as I do not smoke (I don't). All in all, these types of experiences are the reasons why I love traveling -- I got to hang out and drink tea with an Algerian-born-black-market-shop-owner and his assistant who kind of kept making apologetic remarks for the shop owner's tendency towards preaching, which, as a side note, was not nearly as bad as the preaching we received from certain Indian farm owning hosts.

Messing Around

This is what happens when the maid isn't working. I'm not proud of this, I'm just showing how incredibly easy it is to get used to having someone clean up after us. Last weekend, we didn't leave as large of a mess due to the fact that I did a huge washing of dishes and cleaning of the counters because I wasn't comfortable leaving such a huge mess for someone else to clean up. This weekend, I'm officially a despicable slob who is virtually incapable of cleaning up after herself.

10 Days In

I am on day 10 in Casa, which means I've had enough time to situate myself here. I'm trying to think of the best way to characterize my time in Morocco, so here is my lame attempt.

First off, if you want to sound like a local, refer to Casablanca as just "Casa". Then run to the nearest cafe, seat yourself down facing the street, take out a cigarette (don't worry mom, I'm not talking about myself here), order a noos-noos (sp?) or a tea, and spend the remainder of your day sitting and watching people pass by. Traffic lights are not a common sight here, which makes the act of crossing the street akin to the old computer game frogger, where you have to cross the street while avoiding getting hit. I usually wait until I see a local crossing and then I follow them.

Hicham and Basil have a maid name Khatija. She comes on a daily basis to cook and clean the apartment. It's surprisingly too easy to get used to having someone cook and clean up after you. She doesn't work on the weekends, which means the apartment is a disgusting mess in her absence and we do the bare-minimum to keep it clean. The upside to her not working weekends means that we actually get to cook our own food and the group here seems to like to cook. Last weekend's menu consisted of an Indian lentil recipe for me and fresh sardines for the boys.

Our days here vary but usually begin with a trip to the local Cafe, Le Claverole, for a petit-dejeuner. Basil and Marc have theirs with fresh squeezed orange juice, noos-noos (cappucino), and malawi (rolled up crepe of sorts), while i take mine with fresh squeezed orange juice, cafe noir (esspresso), and a croissant (don't tell the vegan gods that i'm eating butter).

I'm working on creating an itinerary for travelling around Morocco. I'm curious to learn more about the country and culture that I am missing. I'm trying to arrange it so I can see the Sahara and possibly the coast -- it's unfortunate that they're not located within close proximity to one another. I'm also working on a better way of documenting my time in Morocco and increasing my understanding of the country.

MoroccoBon

I'm in Morocco!

As an explanation -- I have two friends, Basil and Hicham. Hicham works for a bank and Basil has two jobs in the U.S. which he is able to do abroad. They live in a huge 3-bedroom apartment in Casablanca and have been pushing for all of their friends to visit them. I finally broke down and felt the need to visit them too, as did their friend Marc, who is also here.

This is definitely a change of pace and culture. This is the first time in a couple months that I have spent time away from the group and I am definitely missing them. On the upside, I am not in the least bit lonely here, since I have thus far spent my days with Basil and Marc, while Hicham is at work. And with the exception of Starcraft night -- when I sat and watched while all three boys got on their respective computers and played an hour-long computer game -- evenings have been spent with us all hanging out in apartment.

I have yet to get out and discover Casa -- today I have grand plans of leaving the apartment but that has not happened yet. I don't even know what I am going to do if I do leave, maybe I'll go shopping since I only have one outfit and it feels weird to be unfashionable a more western and metropolitan city. I guess I really need to improve the wardrobe before I hop over to Berlin with Basil...

Anthony P

Check out Anthony's blog, ASAP (only because I'm in the banner). He also updates his blog more regularly than I so he is also a good resource for keeping more up-to-date on our whereabouts.

Back to The Beginning

I've been attempting to write a new post for the past week but failed to commit to writing an entire post every time. A lot has happened since my last update. For one, we finally made it back to India. After spending seven days in Kathmandu, Cara was able to leave with a new passport filled with new Indian and Nepalese visas. After a quick shopping spree, where we stocked up on McVities (our new favorite cookie company) to bring back for Jamey and Anthony,Cara and I boarded the bus that would take us the 18 hours back to the border town where the boys were eagerly awaiting us. When we returned the border, we showered the guys in New Years hugs and then quickly made our way to India. Crossing the border was like visiting old friends -- everyone knew us. Once we made it to India, we hopped on another bus that would bring us to Delhi.

We arrived in Delhi at 4am the next morning. We had arranged for Cab (pronounced "Cob"), the cousin and neighbor of the family from the farm we stayed at in India, to pick us up at the bus station. We let him know that we arrived and awaited his arrival. 2 hours passed before we actually found him. He insisted on leading us on a wild goose chase to find him and not the other way around, which was pretty annoying considering we were the ones who are new to the area.

We eventually made it to Cab's cousin's apartment in Delhi and then set out the next day to the farm. For some unknown reason, we did not stay with Cab's family when we went to the farm (even though we were invited back by him and are going on a "road trip" with him), instead we stayed with the family with whom we had originally volunteered. Within 20 minutes of setting foot in said family's door, Cara and I were once again asked by the father/husband/man/slave-driver of the family to help his wife out in the kitchen, which is where we remained for the next couple of days. The positive side of being confined to the kitchen is that Cara and I never at a loss with things to do. Cara spent her time learning the art of chapati making and I busied myself with the dogs.

After three nights on the farm, our "road trip" continued and we set off for Chandigarh, which is the capital of two states in India (both Punjab and Haryana). We've now been in Chandigarh for at least 5 days. The most amazing part of this city is the fact that the apartment where we are staying has high speed internet. This makes up for the lack of things to do in the city. We did visit an amazing rock garden the other day and an equally beautiful rose garden, so those were nice and the city has a large lake too, so we're not at a complete loss of activities. I think we're all just so happy to be near high speed internet that we can't seem to pull ourselves away from it.

Also, I've had a small change in plans. This Sunday, January 18th, I will be making a quick detour to Casablanca, Morocco, to visit two friends of mine for a month or more. I'll be sure to still update on my Morocco travels.

Happy 2009!

I'm still in Kathmandu with Cara! It looks like she will be finished replacing the required visas for India and Nepal today, meaning we should be heading back to meet back up with Jamey and Anthony either today today or tomorrow depending on the bus schedule to the border town.

Cara and I had a low key New Year's celebration. We spent the morning in our hotel room watching movies (three to be exact but who is counting...) and eventually ventured out to get some sweets (we've become experts on the bakeries in this area). We're staying in the tourist area of Thamel, which was packed and smelled of BBQ (which now reminds us of the smell of burning human bodies because we visited Pashupati, a Hindu temple where people cremate the dead on the side of a river and anyone can watch.) so we headed back to our hotel where we spent the rest of the evening trying to beg for food from the group of Indians staying at our hotel. We successfully received a small plate each of curry and Cara had the misfortune of witnessing the cook dump the rest of the curry in the trash can without offering the rest to us. What a shame.

On a side note, I made it into a "Best 25 Music Videos of 2008" list. Last December I helped work as a production assistant for a New Pornographers' music video. Half way through production, Kurt Braunohler, the director and star of the video, and Kristen Schaal, also the star of the video, asked if I'd like to put on a unicorn suit and be in the video. I couldn't say no. The video, which is called "Mutiny, I Promise You" is half-way down the list, which is linked at the beginning of this paragraph and also here, where you can watch other videos from Kurt and Kristen's video series "Penelope Princess of Pets", which I also helped out on and make a cameo appearance in episode 7 (roughly 2 minutes and 18 seconds into the episode...). Just for the record, in the music video I am the unicorn at the beginning of the video, I'm not the unicorn that is dancing with the band.

I hope everyone had an enjoyable New Year's Eve and wish you all the best for 2009!