Mint Tea

Wednesday of last week was Eid, the holiday celebrating the end of Ramadan. So, we had this huge break. We only went to school on Monday and Tuesday and then had a five day weekend. For me, this has had both positives and negatives. I've found that I'm really bad at getting back into the swing of school after such sparing school attendance. I tend to get antsy in class now, and a little crazy. But, I think I provide some entertainment- for my teachers and classmates both. So, I don't think I'm too much of a disturbance. What's really unfortunate is that our class schedule has changed as well, and most days we have class for four hours in a row with no break, and we're at school and in a classroom until dark. Yikes.

But, there were good tidings of this vacation as well. My roommate, Liz, and my other friend George went to Chefchouen for the weekend. For those of you not familiar with Moroccan geography (and assuming that's quite a few because I don't really know it either) it's about four hours away from me on a bus, generally north of where I am in Fes. The bus ride there took as through curvy roads and into the Rif mountains. It's a beautiful trip. But even more beautiful is this quaint town of 40,000. Nestled amidst the valleys of the mountains, Chefchouen is full of white washed houses- and for some reason they paint the pathways between the houses a pale, cauliflower blue. It gives off the feel of an ocean town, but there is no water in sight.

Our first day there, we settled into our hotel (which cost a total of $20 a night for three people in a perfect 3 person room), we took a "pleasant walk" up to the ruins of an old spanish mosque. There, we met two guys from England, Harry and Tom (and for those of you who know my style back in the states, you know that us meeting them was totally thanks to me considering I'm willing to embarrass myself and talk to strangers- when appropriate of course). We ended up spending the rest of the weekend with them, and they showed us a truly pleasent way of walking back from the mosque as our first route was actually somewhat grueling.

We spent our days there drinking mint tea, eating wonderful hot meals, and talking. But the highlight of the trip- for me at least- was our Saturday hike up into the mountains surrounding the city. We hiked about 2 hours out and then returned. For me, this is a big deal because my fear of heights used to be something that completely inhibited me from participating in anything that involved a general upwards direction. But, I was able to conquer my fears partially when I was tricked into climbing a mountain in Argentina, and I couldn't be more grateful that I have maintained a determination to resist that fear. The views from the top were spectacular. If you ever find yourself in Morocco, this would honestly my number one recommendation as of October 10, 2008.

On Monday, we were back to school. I've been hanging out a lot with people at school, and sharing meals with them often. It's nice to be constantly eating with other people here- I tended towards loner meals back in the states. I just found that everyone was running on their own busy schedule, and here, everything is quite leisurely. I can't lie, most of our food comes in the form of a tagine, which I thought I would get sick of. But now that the weather is getting colder, I think I'll continue to be very appreciative of the warmth of a tagine and a good bowl of harira (traditional Moroccan soup). I've had this relationship with most of the food here- when I first got here, I thought I would die eating tagines and harira and drinking mint tea for a year. But, I've found that all these things have grown on me- I even crave a cup of mint tea occasionally. Watch out, I may just become more Moroccan that I bargained for.

B'Salama