a very wonderful day that made me feel all joyous and bubbly to the point that i was thisclose to buying a bubble gun to squirt bubbles everywhere. yeah. apparently that is a sure sign of a good day? the desire to buy bubbles? oh, i don’t know. (on a related note, bubbles are just so fun and i was discretely chasing the bubbles around the medina.)
the highlight would be going to cherif-mohammed’s house for a bag-making tutorial! woohoooo! yeah. story time, kids. i met cherif-mohammed and his coworker, arnaud, just outside the school i work at. they repair shoes. cherif-mohammed can even make shoes and bags! obviously, this got me a wee excited. “ahhh, c’est incroyable!” i cried. he agreed to teach me how to make shoes and i promised to teach him english. i am very proud of this deal as it feels very new european settlers meeting the native-americans and trading skills and i know i am probably not historically correct but you get the principle. it was a very lovely day. he has the most lovely family consisting of a very kind wife and the two most beautiful kids. they treated me to both breakfast and a massive couscous lunch. i can also (maybe) make a leather bag.
it’s amazing how warm and welcoming and wonderful people can be!
we went to fez! as a tourist mecca, we were expecting a crazy, exasperating day. instead, it was quite lovely! the sellers were not too aggressive and, despite how hard we tried (we tried!), we could not get lost. we defy typical experiences, apparently. how fun. we came home with lots of laughs and memories. that’s good.
a chilled afternoon at the beach, followed by a visit to the hammams! we came home all relaxed and clean and lovely. we love the hammams and vow to make it a weekly affair.
john and i have a to-do list. it consists have many ridiculous/ not even fun activities. one goes as follows: “support the line of pancake ladies systematically by purchasing a single item from each lady.” the story behind this one is that the entrance of medina rocks a line of “pancake ladies.” pretty much how it sounds: a whole line of ladies selling pancakes. the exact same pancakes. in one line. the exact SAME pancake. in ONE line. um. the logic behind this? pretty much nonexistent. it has left us baffled on many occasions. “why would they all be in a row? why would they all sell the same thing? why don’t they have one person selling them and they split the costs?” we scratch our heads in confusion and ponder these big questions of life. one day, when we were clearly in a bit of a hysterical fit, we decided it would be absolutely hilarious to buy a single pancake from each lady all in one time frame. and so, it was added to the list. and the rest is history… it was actually good fun and extremely satisfying and the pancake ladies are actually all very lovely. the pancakes were yummy too.
had the best day consisting of just so many wonderful, “that’s so moroccan” moments. i feel very fortunate - life is made up of so many beautiful moments and memories! amazing!
had my first awful sleep here. it involved continuous shivering and fetal positioning. backstory: moroccan homes are cold. very cold. heaters do not exist. this is generally okay because, hey, i’m from canada! yeah! (what i say to everyone, even though i still get very cold. shh.) anyways, i scoured the medina for about an hour and came home with some pretty snazzy, ill-fitting, fleece, “happy days” pajamas. i looked smoking, if i do say so myself. psh, sarcasm. (but i really do love them and they keep me warm and were very much worth the 30 dh ($4)).
skyping with the family after three weeks. everybody has their skype quirks. mimi makes faces and looks exasperated about every five seconds. mom poses questions about my safety and doesn’t understand that skype lags. dad… falls asleep. basically, i avoid skype calls for a reason. xoxoxo.
the assilah medina is so lovely. it is quiet and relaxed. very crisp and clean. but with surprises! oooh! paintings adorn some of the walls and it’s fun to imagine living in a place where all the walls are covered in art. it would just be the best. we had another relaxing day, with resting and sleeping in and jazz. only apparently i’m not good at that, so i wake up early and go on loner ganders and have fun by pretending i’m a spy kid and draw peoples’ homes. i’m a riot like that.
had a lovely, chilled out day. went on a hunt for “paradise beach.” ended up on a random highway, nowhere near the beach. any beach. shout out to youssef, the lovely stranger who dropped us off in the middle of nowhere that was somewhat near the beach! people can be so kind.
fun prancing around and relaxing. i tried to build a sandcastle and failed at remembering how to do that. this made me a little sad. having time to channel the inner-child is nice, nonetheless.
we also pretended to hitch hike back. (though we ended up taking a ridiculously cheap taxi ride, shh. we are still carefree explorers, etc.)
we went to assilah - a white washed village with clean air and beach that pretty much had us sold the second we arrived. amazing!
