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!