Hotel Bouregreg Rabat

... to buy something with the name brand &#8220;Joos&#8221; but it was so enticingly strange like most of Morocco. Not to mention &#8220;Cool&#8221; totally rocks and it is along the same vein. <br> <br>When I was at Label Vie and I picked up some beautiful grapes. They are gloriously round globes of genuine goodness. They were totally worth 14Dh. Foreigners are given a list of what is good and what is not good to eat in Morocco. I have not had street ice cream, but I ...

Highlight of the day, me acting like a heroine. Low point of the day, the fact that I had to be a heroine. It&#8217;s actually less heroic than it sounds and it has to do with pomegranates. We&#8217;ll get back to that later. <br><br>High point, I shaved my legs. Low point, being blind, in an upright shower, with a new razor. I look like I victim of some heinous crime. <br><br>I neglected to mention in previous posts that the bathroom at Qalam wa Lawh is, for lack of ...

... hot room where everyone carried their own bucket and bathed themselves for as long as they wanted all the while scrubbing away with a "kish" to rid themselves of dead skin. The kish is simply a rough mit or mitten that one wears while showering that is just that perfect texture, not too rough but not too soft, to leave everyone feeling as smooth as a baby's bottom once we left. After getting squeaky clean we headed back to our homestay where we were again bombarded with ...

... there, I had a nice chat with a man in a combination of French and Fusha (a tab bit of English, he knew &#8220;house&#8221;). He is from Meknes and returning. I was also rereading &#8220;When Engulfed in Flames&#8221; by Sedaris as it is my only book besides dictionaries. I felt a little weird reading it in such a public place as not all the subject matter is kosher. <br> <br>I was going to say &#8220;halal&#8221; which is Muslim &#8220;kosher,&#8221; but I ...

... in Arabic. I am an Arabian charity case. There is no hope. I just nod and give affirmative grunts when pretending to follow a conversation. When I do not understand a question, it must be repeated. Several times. Each time louder and slower than the rest. The treat me like the infamous idiot child.<br><br> <br>I feel like I am able to compare my language experience with those of David Sedaris. Upon his moving to Japan he decided to take a Japanese ...

... in the hell the residence is. I tell him in Arabic to just go Souissi, one OR two, and I would figure it out. <br><br> <br>He still thinks I don&#8217;t understand. He asks again in English. I keep answering him in Arabic (because I felt I was doing pretty darn well) so he assumes a) that I still don&#8217;t understand and b) I don&#8217;t speak English.<br><br> <br>I resort to telling him where I want to go in English. But the places I know are the same. In English ...

... not a beer in sight! <br><br>The marina we are in is also cheap - 50 Euros a week. It is very new and is on the Sale side of the Bouregreg River. We have had a couple of excursions across to Rabat. To cross the river we use the little "ferries" - small wooden boats that sometimes double as fishing boats judging by their smells that are rowed standing up - they take up to about 6 persons! Their souk is much more posh than ...

The last couple of days have been pretty relaxing, relatively speaking. After work yesterday, I took a nap (exciting stuff so far, right?). I never normally do that, but was so wiped out, I just had to. It was roasting hot at the hospital and that combined with my cold just drained every bit of energy. The nap worked, and fingers crossed, I am over my cold for now. In the afternoon, we had a ...

... it turns out he spoke it pretty well -who knows how much he picked up from our chatter. Oh well. <br><br>We arrived at our riad in Fes around 7:30pm. The riad owner had a driver pick us up at the train station and deliver us right to the riad. It is a gorgeous place called Riad Dar Damana - if you're ever in Fes I would highly recommend it. Just know that a mosque is located right next door. The early morning call to prayer ...

... run after it and it will stop if the driver sees you. The process can slow things down so I'm not sure there are schedules persay, but things happen in their own time here. It's really not that much different than the CTA bus system in Chicago. :-) Well, I need to dash. I wrote all this before, went to send it, and the internet connection dropped. I had to re-do half of it! Will write more as things unfold this week. Hope all is well. B'esselama, Patty