Rockin it

This past weekend was the first time I've been out of my site and hung out with other Americans in more than a month which was amazing. It took me 12 hours to travel to my buddy's place in the lovely mountain city of Midelt which is way up in the North somewhat near Fez. Public transportation in Morocco can sometimes be a little strenuous-- what should have been a relatively easy trip turned into 12hrs of grueling travel on the bus. I must say though, you always meet the most interesting people while you're traveling here and the beautiful scenery helps-- as one PCV that I went back with said, "it's better than TV". I got into Midelt just as the sun was setting and right on time for dinner which was an amazing macaroni pie that some of the other volunteers whipped up. Ah good food and great company! Since it was his birthday his Mom sent some snacks from back home that we can't find here like Reeses Peanut Butter cups and Skittles. I never thought I would be so excited for Skittles!!! We had a great time listening to music and doing regular American things although it was very evident that we were all lacking our social skills. Umm what else can we talk about besides Peace Corps? It was also evident that our language skills have progressed to the point that we spoke a mixture of English and Arabic throwing in whichever words were quicker to use/easier to converse with (also because we've forgotten how to form simple sentences in English). Weird feeling. Does that mean I'm becoming fluent? I brought along Juno (best movie I've seen in a while) and it was awesome to have that feeling of normalcy, like going to the movies and eating Skittles and being with friends. It was also good to hear that everybody has been having pretty much the same experience as me and we've all gone through our ups and downs. I currently hold the record for the amount of photos given to the gendarmes at 34, so basically there's a picture of me in every police station in every city in Morocco. Sweet! It got to the point that I called Peace Corps to see if I could get reimbursed for the 4 different times I've had to go to the photo lab to get my picture taken-- which didn't happen. We ended up having a dance party Saturday night and played flippy cup since my friend's Mom also sent him some red Solo plastic party cups :) I felt like I was back in college for a little while with the music playing, the crappy college-like house, and friends hanging out.

I ended up leaving early Sunday morning in an attempt to get back to my site before sundown, but ended up getting stuck in Marrakesh since it took me longer than the first trip. Oh well, I got to stay in Kesh for an extra night out of site which was nice. I like going to Kesh because it's such a tourist town that when I speak Arabic and tell Moroccans I live here they're the coolest people in the world since most tourists just ignore them. My favorite thing to do there is just to go talk with shop keepers and hang out in their stores. They love it when I speak with them and treat me like I'm the coolest foreigner in the world for knowing their language. Who wouldn't like that?! Since I'm usually always there alone I have nothing better to do! Today I was in a store when some English tourists came in and I took over as the seller using the typical Moroccan selling strategy and even though they didn't buy the stuff the Moroccans got a kick out of it and sold me a sweet candle holder for 1/4 the 'regular' price. Who knows what the regular price is but I think I got a pretty good deal.

I got back to my place to find it looking like a hurricane came through here. My mirror outside fell off the the nail and shattered and my courtyard is full of dirt that was probably picked up during the storm and dumped on my apartment. My satellite dish even got moved around from the wind and I had to climb up on the roof and readjust it to get the signal back. The only good thing that came from it is that my dying plants now look like they have some life to them from the rain. I've also been holding on to my trash as I'm having a moral dilemma of what to do with it. There's an abandoned house next to me that is crumbling apart and everybody around me just throws their trash in there and once a week somebody lights it all on fire to burn it. This is the typical way to get rid of trash here, but I just can't seem to give in yet. There has to be a better way to do it! My landlord just told me to open up the door and throw it in the street--- somebody will come by and pick it up. I think tonight I have to finally make up my mind because I left my bucket full over the weekend and that can't be good.

It is good to be back in my site after taking some time off and being with friends. I also got some good ideas on how to better work with my cooperative and different things I can do with them so all in all it was a great trip to take. I only wish it would have lasted just a little bit longer...