I visited the Oudaias palace today, thus beginning my official status as a tourist. I also revisited the souk for some earrings. In the process, I compiled this advice for the ladies who may read this.
WAYS TO AVOID UNWELCOME ADVANCES WHILE TRAVELLING ALONE IN MOROCCO:
1. Wear a long skirt. A bandana over your hair doesn't hurt either.
2. Look like you are going somewhere with a purpose, and have your wits about you. Don't dilly-dally unless you are looking at something in particular.
3. As so many conservative Muslim advice columns (or at least one) have oft emphasized, LOWER YOUR GAZE! This is particularly applicable around men, and especially any man who is already looking at you. The idea is to discourage the notion that you are at all interested, so there is no misunderstanding. Even a second or prolonged glance raises the hopes of some male bystanders.
4. If you are approached despite these preventative measures, you have 3 choices:
a)Ignore the persuer. This is the most straightforward choice, and the easiest if your admirer is not too determined (i.e. he is with friends or otherwise preoccupied).
b)Respond politely, but without apparent interest. This is sometimes the best choice if you do not wish to be rude, and if your admirer is not actually following you. However, it runs the risk of prolonging an encounter you do not desire in the first place.
c) Humor him, but don' flirt (unless you've decided that you like this character after all). This choice may actually earn you some friends, or at least an adventure in conversation. If, however, you are trying to avoid confrontation altogether, this is not an advisable choice. In my opinion it often yields more pleasant results than the path of most resistance, as long as you don't let your guard down completely--after all, you still don't know this man.
I hope this has been amusing. :-) Sunday I'm leaving for Kinetra. Happy New Year Everyone!
Morocco Blogging
Greetings to all who still followed this link in spite of the lack of recent updates. I am in Morocco, in Rabat, at my host family's house, at the computer that Abdellah bought, and slowly readjusting myself to this strange French keyboard (zerty, not querty like we have). So far not much sightseeing, but I'm starting as soon as I finish this entry. I have 10 cities to see in 14 days or so (ambitious, yes). I've allowed for alterations should time run short, but it will be a lot of bus-riding either way--I'll try to find the CTM (nice bus line) this time, but since it only runs so often, I think it will still be a lot of mysterious crowded randomly stopping busses like last time. Oh well.
They gave me quite a memorable birthday party here (I arrived in the country and this house on my birthday), which I will post pictures of as soon as I find the USB port on this computer to upload them. Since my host mom insists on turning off the light to save electricity (it's expensive), it is hard to find anything right now, especially the typing keys, and I have to keep fixing typos. In any case, this has been a preliminary attempt to blog from Morocco. More to come incha'Allah.
Love to my loved ones, and thanks again to all who wished me a happy birthday.
Merry Christmas!
Afrikaans - Geseënde Kersfees Arabic - I'D MIILAD SAID OUA SANA SAIDA Argentine - Felices Pasquas Y felices ano Nuevo Armenian - Shenoraavor Nor Dari yev Pari Gaghand Azeri - Tezze Iliniz Yahsi Olsun Basque - Zorionak eta Urte Berri On!Bohemian - Vesele Vanoce Brazilian - Boas Festas e Feliz Ano Novo Breton - Nedeleg laouen na bloavezh mat Bulgarian - Tchestita Koleda; Tchestito Rojdestvo Hristovo Chinese - (Mandarin) Zhu Ning Sheng Dan Quai Le (Catonese) Gun Tso Sun Tan'Gung Haw Sun Cornish - Nadelik looan na looan blethen noweth Cree - Mitho Makosi KesikansiCroatian - Sretan Bozic Czech - Prejeme Vam Vesele Vanoce a stastny Novy Rok Danish - Glædelig Jul Dutch - Vrolijk Kerstfeest en een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar! English - Merry ChristmasEsperanto - Gajan KristnaskonEstonian - Ruumsaid juulup|hiFarsi - Cristmas-e-shoma mobarak bashad Finnish - Hyvaa jouluaFrench - Joyeux NoelFrisian - Noflike Krystdagen en in protte Lok en Seine yn it Nije Jier!German - Froehliche Weihnachten Greek - Kala Christouyenna!Hawaiian - Mele KalikimakaHebrew - Mo'adim Lesimkha. Chena tova Hindi - Shub Naya BarasHungarian - Kellemes Karacsonyi unnepeketIcelandic - Gledileg JolIndonesian - Selamat Hari NatalIraqi - Idah Saidan Wa Sanah Jadidah Irish - Nollaig Shona DhuitItalian - Buone Feste NatalizieJapanese - Shinnen omedeto. Kurisumasu OmedetoKorean - Sung Tan Chuk Ha Latvian - Prieci'gus Ziemsve'tkus un Laimi'gu Jauno Gadu! Lithuanian - Linksmu Kaledu Manx - Nollick ghennal as blein vie noa Maori - Meri KirihimeteMarathi - Shub Naya Varsh Navajo - Merry KeshmishNorwegian - God JulPennsylvania German - En frehlicher Grischtdaag un en hallich Nei Yaahr! Polish - Wesolych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia Portuguese - Boas FestasRapa-Nui - Mata-Ki-Te-Rangi. Te-Pito-O-Te-HenuaRumanian - Sarbatori veseleRussian - Pozdrevlyayu s prazdnikom Rozhdestva is Novim Godom Serbian - Hristos se rodiSlovakian - Sretan Bozic or Vesele vianoceSami - Buorrit JuovllatSamoan - La Maunia Le Kilisimasi Ma Le Tausaga FouScots Gaelic - Nollaig chridheil huibh Serb-Croatian - Sretam Bozic. Vesela Nova Godina Singhalese - Subha nath thalak Vewa. Subha Aluth Awrudhak Vewa Slovak - Vesele Vianoce. A stastlivy Novy Rok Slovene - Vesele Bozicne. Screcno Novo Leto Spanish - Feliz Navidad Swedish - God Jul and (Och) Ett Gott Nytt År Tagalog - Maligayamg Pasko. Masaganang Bagong Taon Tamil - Nathar Puthu Varuda Valthukkal Thai - Sawadee Pee Mai Turkish - Noeliniz Ve Yeni Yiliniz Kutlu Olsun Ukrainian - Srozhdestvom KristovymUrdu - Naya Saal Mubarak Ho Vietnamese - Chung Mung Giang Sinh Welsh - Nadolig LlawenYugoslavian - Cestitamo Bozic Papua New Guinea - Bikpela hamamas blong dispela Krismas na Nupela yia i go long yu. Il-Milied it-tajjeb - Maltese
If you're looking at this on Christmas Day, check out my avatar--->
In the meantime, here is a silly
Christmas page, where I got the multilingual block of text featured above. Scroll down to the bottom for sing-along Christmas Carols. Click on a song, then turn up the sound to hear it while you read the lyrics. And mind you, I said this was silly.
Good King Wenceslas, for example, sounds like it was arranged by the Trans-siberian orchestra.
New addition to the Blog
Meet my Avatar, who lives on the sidebar (below the "real" picture of me). She represents me, whatever I happen to be doing at the moment. Mostly she is just a fun feature to decorate the blog. I will try to update her when I have the time.
Almost Christmas Eve
Arrived in Denver last night, via ride from Jenn. It actually worked out quite well, since she was about to leave without me (I was hanging out at Misha's place) and had to return for the rent checks she had forgotten to drop off. Thus she offered to pick me up and so I was spared a ride on the bus with way too much stuff. Went out for Indian food with the family last night, then perused Morocco Guide Books until I was falling asleep.
Today we went out for breakfast, then ran errands to get last-minute gifts (mostly for my host family in Morocco, who I finally got a hold of to confirm I was visiting them). This evening was spent with Karen, who just got into town. Kristin was also there, as well as Karen's friend Jeremy. We watched a video she made of her life in Lancaster CA, then drove all over Denver making a video for her to take back with her.
Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. No plans except an open house at Aunt Sharon's, then the usual dinner and fondue at home. In any case, if I don't come back, here is a greeting for Christmas to all:
P.S. Monday I leave on a plane, stop overnight in Chicago (staying with Uncle Duane and Carol) then continue on to Morocco via Brussels. I will be keeping in touch with this blog, unless it is unreachable on the computers overseas, in which case I will use email instead.
Refugee Bags
I was trying to explain this concept to my friend Erik. These are the bags that everyone uses to go shopping in Morocco. They also use them for travelling if they don't have actual luggage.
I have one, because last time in Morocco I didn't have enough room to take home all my souvenirs and these bags are really cheap. I was debating whether to take it with me this time, but decided against it in the end. I'll take a denim tote bag I sewed instead. It served me pretty well last trip, and it's a good bag in general.
We're online!
So my random internet excursion for the day (they happen a lot when I'm bored at work) was to find pictures of Norlin Library on the web. A
Google Image Search on the subject turned up numerous results, surprisingly few affiliated with actual University websites...
In the process I also found a good picture of the
Dalton Trumbo FountainThe success of my first search inspired me to search for pictures of my own neighborhood in Boulder--Goss Grove. This actually turned up a website dedicated to our community garden. The bottom picture shows it in full bloom!
Please note that I didn't take any of these pictures. If you would like to visit the original sites where they are located, simply click on the image.
My Families, volume 3
Finally, I will present my Boulder family. I came to think of these wonderful folks as my family over the summer, when I was going through reverse culture shock from my trip. It really helped to live in a house full of people, and now that we are all on the same floor together, it's even better; we all have our own space, but company is never more than a few doors away.
Dinner in the parking lot, August of this year.
York, Brian and Erik playing HuggerMugger in our living room.
Jenn in a sarong, in my room at the summer apartment.
Chris with his head in a lampshade.
My Families, volume 2
The next family I'm going to share is my Moroccan host family. I posted a few pictures of them here before, but I thought I'd put a few more:
My oldest sister, Wafaa, next to some American students, next to my host mother, next to another student, next to me and my second-to-youngest sister, Meryem.
My second-to-oldest sister, Samira, with her son Mohammed-Khalil
My brother Abdellah, about my age, having fun with the teapot
Dancing with my two younger sisters and the
bon (live-in housemaid), Sofia. It was like a girls night in, since dancing in public mostly happens at weddings. Looks like Khadija stepped on Meryem's foot when the picture was taken.
My brother Tarik, the oldest of all the children.
Although Himi was not in my host family, I considered him part of my Moroccan family since I stayed at his house for practically two weeks. I snapped this picutre while he was sleeping.
My Families, volume 1
I've decided to do a series of posts on my families, since I feel I have a number of them. The first one, of course, will be my natural birth family. They are the ones who know me the best, I have no doubt, although there are certainly things about me they don't know. Here is our picture taken last year, about the same time of year I think.
I carried it with me on my trip, and now it is framed along with Jenn's family on our side table in the living room.
The next picture is me and my sister. We took this to make a birthday card for my mother.
Of course I have to include the pets. Here are two of them, though we have two other cats who I don't have pictures of.
And last but not least, here is our house at Christmastime last year. I think I was just trying out my new camera, but it's not a bad photo.
End of Finals and Morocco plans
Finished my last final this morning, after an entire week of being in hyper-stressed mode. Haven't quite come down from it yet--my stomach still hurts from nervousness. I started reading
Thus Spoke Zarathustra, partly to keep my mind busy and avoid boredom, partly because I've been meaning to read it for several years, partly because I borrowed it from Jake and need to return it at some point. I think I'll read it on my trip, in addition to a Michael Moore book Misha gave me. That brings me to the other thing I need to do now that finals are over--PLAN! I've started packing and thinking out things that I shouldn't leave behind, but I haven't really an itinerary to speak of, save the last four days of my trip which will be spent with Hassan. Options so far, to be refined after a consultation with my travel guide (which I've somehow misplaced--BUNTZ!):
-Marrakesh, because they have everything and there's a great deal of it I didn't see last time
-Chef Chaouen, because I hear it is beautiful
-Possibly Tangier, since I saw nothing of the north of Morocco...maybe if I'm ambitious I could see Gibralter via ferry?
-Kinetra, if my friend Himi will let me stay with him (otherwise Kinetra hasn't got much to see)
-Somewhere in the Atlas Mountains...Ifrane, perhaps? It would be rather cold this time of year, I suppose
-Casablanca, since I'm flying in through there; the only problem is that the beginning of my trip is devoted to Rabat and the end to Essaouira, so there's no efficient way to do Casa unless I pass through on my way elsewhere
-Somewhere southish; Agadir or Safi or Al Jadida, depending on sightseeing possibilities; maybe even a little into Western Sahara, though that's questionable
-Perhaps somewhere inland, in the direction of Algeria, since I didn't see much of that last time. I believe that's the area of oasis routes, which would be warmer and interesting to see, I would think
Obviously I don't need to do all of these, and to try would be both overexerting and less satisfying than just staying in one very pleasant location. I need to consult guides and websites...that'll narrow it down a bit.
Yoinked from someone's Facebook profile:
10 TRUTHS BLACK AND HISPANIC PEOPLE KNOW, BUT WHITE PEOPLE WON'T ADMIT:
1. Elvis is dead.
2. Jesus was not White.
3. Rap music is here to stay
4. Kissing your pet is not cute or clean.
5. Skinny does not equal sexy.
6. Thomas Jefferson had black children.
7. A 5 year old child is too big for a stroller.
8. N' SYNC will never hold a candle to the Jackson 5
9. An occasional BUTT whooping helps a child stay in line.
10. Having your children curse you out in public is not normal.
A bit weird...is it just the Frenchness?
Found this on the page I got by hitting the "next blog" button, top right. mms://windowsmedia.benchmark.fr/video/179.wmv
Concept (of video, not necessarily song): Pinnochio and his girlfriend and a frog play in the park. Computer animated. At some point maybe I'll try to translate it.
Hurray for Arabic!
Next semester I will be taking Modern Standard Arabic to supplement the bit I learned in Morocco. Granted, I'm not getting any credit for it since I can't actually enroll (I have a conflicting class twice a week) but this might be my last chance to take the class, so I decided to take advantage of it. In preparation I thought it might be nice to brush up with a "Learn Arabic" CD I found for a good price. It's made by the same company from which I am currently using the "Learn Russian" CD, and I like their method, so I went ahead and ordered it. I was so excited to see it in the mailbox that I popped it into my computer and did 2 or 3 exercises before realizing that it wasn't Modern Standard Arabic at all, but some kind of local dialect. The problem is that it didn't indicate anywhere on the packaging that it belonged to a particular region. I can only assume it is Egyptian, since the company also makes an Egyptian Arabic course; plus, some of the colloqialisms are close enough to Moroccan Arabic that it could conceivably be North African. In any case I emailed the manufacturer and asked them if there was a way ot exchange it. They were so nice about it that they're sending me a free copy of the Modern Standard discs, so now I will have both should I ever need to learn Egyptian. They say it was sent out yesterday (I think from England? I can't tell) so it should be here in a few weeks at the latest...I just hope it arrives before I leave the country.
Profile spiffing
In honor of the official commencement of this blog as a primary means of posting, I have updated my profile, complete with new photo. Read and enjoy!
Thanks, Henry :-)
Q: How many Bush Administration officials does it take
to change a light bulb?
A: None. There is nothing wrong with the light bulb.
Its conditions are
improving every day. Any reports of its lack of
incandescence are a delusional
spin from the liberal media. That light bulb has
served honorably, and
anything you say undermines the lighting effect. Why
do you hate freedom?
