Seeing one film entirely in Arabic with no subtitles, then seeing another film in Arabic, German, French, and a little bit of English with no subtitles. (Both were rumored to have french subtitles but I got most of the movies anyway.
Attention former PCVs from Ecuador: Shwarma Pizza. Literally shwarma on a pizza. I am not that into shwarma but couldn't resist trying a piece of my friend's just to have the experience.
Speaking a lot of Spanish. I know I am supposed to be speaking more french but there are just sooo many espanoles here that I can't help myself!
On that note, realizing that I can actually hold down a short conversation in french that involves more than ordering a coffee or asking for directions. Thus....
I've decided to stay here for an additional month! All lodging and tutoring is confirmed so I am here til mid-April!
And that is the week's wrap up. Have a good weekend and get on skype if you want to catch up during the week! (ksciarini) Here is a favorite picture of the town of Assilah taken 2 weeks ago.
I think this video is especially relevant given that my perspective of Morocco, of Thailand, of anyone that I meet is only a single story. Please take 20 minutes to listen to this incredible discussion. (Thanks to Erica for sending this!)
I’m back. Getting sucked into life here, moving to a new apartment, and doing a bit of travel are keeping me quite busy. So much so that I was a bit concerned that this blog might go the way of many a travel journal…but fear not! I have returned and have several interesting posts coming up! It is amazing how many great ideas I store in my head each day that fail to come to digital life, but I am hoping to change that. Also, I am desperately fighting with browsers, servers, and wifi to get some real pictures uploaded to this blog to prove how alive and well I actually am! While I continue to fight the good fight with my laptop I wanted to share one of my more interesting stories with you…
Broth and Brothels
Don’t worry, they don’t have anything to do with each other (at least in my world). This is the first of many posts to come that will be dealing with food, and hopefully the last concerning brothels. Food first. I’ve been pretty good about trying Moroccan cuisine, especially for a former long-time vegetarian. First we have olives (check back soon as I hope to link each food to a picture!). I never knew there were so many colors and types of them! At the market they are literally piled high in buckets in stands. And these stands can hold roughly 12 buckets, but that also includes other pickled items like lemons and pickles. I am told the lemons are used to flavor meats and tangines. Then there is bread. One would not want to start an Atkins diet in Morocco. First there is the thin flatbread, which I like to eat for breakfast with cheese and honey. Recently I gathered the courage to try a yellowish spongy bread that resembles angera (sp?), only less spongy and more crepe like. Fortunately my valiance paid off because this bread is so tasty and moist, it can stand alone on a plate! Served with virtually every meal is a hearty bread that is crispy on the outside and light and fluffy on the inside. Finally, I can’t discuss bread without mentioning the ‘Moroccan crepe’ which is a crepe the size of a tortilla and three times as thick as a French crepe. Moroccans are quite proud of this and rightly so. This brings me to another food they seem to be quite proud of, soup (aka the ‘broth’). An interesting tidbit I’ve noticed is that in a restaurant soup might be labeled as ‘Moroccan soup’ or if you ask what kind of soup they have they reply the same. This seems funny to me because there is more than one kind of Moroccan soup, so until I find a better answer I am going to just assume that Moroccans take as much pride in their soup as their crepes. The soup I’ve had has been delicious. ‘Harisa’ is a tomato-based soup with garbanzo beans and teeny tiny pasta and the ‘vegetable soup’ is usually a puree or cream of green vegetables. Getting hungry just thinking about it…
On Monday the UK volunteer who I’ve been paling around with for the past two weeks finished his 2 weeks of service and went down south to travel with his wife so the other folks and I decided to give him a proper send off on Friday evening. We went to a recommended restaurant in the old part of the city with live music and real table cloths. Almost all ate soup and I discovered my new favorite treat, the pastilla. The pastille is like a giant samosa but not spicy. It can contain meat or veggies and sometimes has both. We all wanted to go somewhere for a drink afterwards, so I texted a Moroccan musician I had met for some ideas. Two of the three places he suggested were vetoed so we chose the ‘Moroccan Palace’. It was described as an ‘epic Moroccan music place, you will like the décor’. So off we went, 5 unsuspecting folks looking for good music and décor.
It was already 11pm so we found it a little strange that the place was so empty, and figured it must be a pretty popular and wealthy place to afford the metal detector. It did say ‘cabaret’ outside but we ventured in…and no one even questioned it. My friend was right, the music was epic and the décor amazing. The clientele was mostly male except for the couple sitting across from us in the ‘reserved’ section but considering that everywhere you go there is an overwhelmingly male presence, this didn’t seem amiss. The belly dancers showed nair a belly but that is to be expected in Morocco. We all ordered drinks, mostly non-alcoholic. Once the belly dancing was over the dancers disappeared and the music recommenced. After an hour we were ready to go so we asked for the check. Paying for our ten dollar orange juices (in a place where they should have cost 2 dollars max) confirmed our previous musings. We had been sent to a brothel. Oops. All signs pointed that way but I just couldn’t believe my new ‘friend’ would send us there! Strangely he did not appear for the regular open mic night on Monday but I will be investigating this situation further and will avoid any signs that say ‘cabaret’ from now on…
