Tomorrow we get to wake up really, really early (what fun) to fly to Paris. So, while we’ll still be in the land of French and escargot, at least we’ll be away from couscous and tagine. You may be interested to know that we didn’t have couscous or tagine today: instead, for supper we went to Café Clock for the ninth and final time. Ethan had falafel (what else?), as did Dad, while Mom enjoyed her plate of tapas and I had a chickpea burger. For dessert, Mom and I split a chocolate soufflé while Ethan devoured his orange-almond cake ...
Food includes couscous, and, in the extreme, Everybody’s favorite—the good old tagine Zis is the life,” say foreigners here It is the truth—if you don’t drink beer Now muezzin is singing—it’s seven o’clock My brother is thinking ‘Now I wanna rock’ Our dinnertime has come, so we go outside Ready for some food—more vegetables fried On time comes our meal. Guess what it is? Couscous for three—the tagine is his Chef comes over to break up a fight Of waitron and waitron… oh, well, good night Ciao! ...
In a couple days we’ll be in France, which is a good thing since I don’t think I can stand couscous and vegetable tagine (vegetables cooked in a funny-looking pot)all day, every day, much longer. In other news, we decided to go to Borj Nord today after pancakes and scrambled eggs at Café Clock. Mom decided we would take the shortcut up the hill, so we did. The hill was actually a lot steeper than it looked like from the medina, and Mom was worried we would fall down the cliff into the bus terminal’s trash. We didn’t. Instead, we ...
After Mom and Ethan returned from their appointment with physical torture and the supermarket Marjane, we worked on schoolwork, pictures, and the like—sound familiar? (See yesterday’s post.) Eventually we went outside, hoping for donuts, but all the donut shops were close because it’s Friday and Morocco is a Muslim country. So back up the hill we trudged. We bought sweets near Thami’s, as well as eggs, oranges, and spicy bread, and returned home. For supper, we went to Le 44. Mom and I shared salad, carrot soup, and spicy spaghetti. My dessert consisted of seven bites of chocolate cake stolen ...
Well, it may be a good thing that we’re not doing much these last few Fassi days since it means that (a) Dad doesn’t take more pictures and (b) he can work on deleting, editing, and uploading the pictures we already have. On the other hand, Ethan and I have more time to do schoolwork—yay. I did leave the house today: once to buy breakfast food with Mom and once to eat at Thami’s for the fourth time. Mom and I shared the vegetable couscous and vegetable tagine. Now we’re eating dark chocolate and listening to John Denver. Ciao! ...
I escorted Mom to the clinic this morning, where she received her typical round of torture (this time sans crying). We rode a red taxi back to the house, where Mom started laundry because it was sunny. The cleaning lady arrived at 14:00, and we left to buy a scarf and a lamp. Mom used her newfound bargaining skills to negotiate the scarf’s price down to 100 dirham (still US$10), and we set off down the hill to the lamp shop. The parental units finally decided on a lamp and a price, and Dad, the shop helper, and I set ...
We’re back in Fez! We arrived after ten hours of driving across Morocco (ugh) in Majid’s van. All eighteen of us at the camp woke up at 5:50 a.m. to watch the sunrise from the top of the dune. By 7, we were back at the hotel. It felt wonderful to have a warm shower. Ethan and I had breakfast (banana, egg, cheese, bread, orange juice) and then went out to lounge by the pool. We left after Mom and Dad had breakfast. During the ride, I alternated between sleeping, snacking, staring out the window, and reading Long Walk to ...
Today we rode for forty minutes (advertised as two hours) to a camp in the desert. We rode on camels—I was on Bob Marley, Mom topped Jimi Hendrix, Dad rode Ali Baba, and Ethan sat upon Shakira. We’d gotten scarves at a shop in town earlier before going to a lake, where eight men set up shop right in front of our car, selling stone camels, wannabe fossils, and other trinkets and baubles. The man who walked with our camels said that there would be nine guests in the camp, but in the end there were eighteen: four Moroccans, two ...
We’re in the Sahara Desert now, after ten hours of driving. We left Fez with Majid in his van at 6:30 this morning. That meant that the parental units got up at 4:45, while I was aroused an hour later. Breakfast was a quick meal of oranges, boiled eggs, bread, and milk, and afterwards Ethan washed the dishes. After two stops, we stopped to see what Majid called the “crazy monkeys.” It was freezing cold—literally—and after about ten minutes Majid decided that the monkeys weren’t going to come out because it was too cold. Of course, shortly after he said ...
Tonight we’re celebrating Mom’s birthday. (I won’t tell you how old she will be tomorrow.) We get to eat cake and ice cream! This is after a supper of couscous and tagine at Thami’s. We planned on going to Scorpion du Desert, but it was too loud. We’d forgotten that Saturday nights are music nights. We would have gone to Café Clock, but we went there for breakfast. For a while, there was a leak coming from the floor above us. After our Cusco Catastrophe, we were immediately on edge, but it turns out it was “just water”—not cleaning solution ...
A djellaba is a Yoda-like robe worn by both men and women while outside in Morocco. Here in Fez, it is not uncommon to see a woman walking down the street in a fuzzy felt djellaba that is black with pink polka dots. Dad and I went out shopping this morning while Mom and Ethan were at P.T. Dad has been mentioning getting a djellaba, and Mom is against the idea (“Where would you wear it? And when?”), so it seemed like the perfect time. We walked down the street a ways, looking for a good-looking shop where we could ...
Mom and I took a cooking class at Café Clock today. Our group of seven had Americans and only Americans: two older women traveling together from California whose names were Mary and Katherine, Linda from Tucson, Arizona, whose husband had declined to attend the class (although he came to eat), a man named Mike from Minneapolis, and the two of us. Our leader was Souad, who ran us through the menu. We chose a soup, a salad, and a main course before coming to the desserts. “Where’s the chocolate?” I asked. Souad, who was sitting next to me, eagerly suggested ...
After Mom and Dad returned from P.T., we eventually we decided we were going to go to a garden. I grabbed my rain and down jackets, umbrella, and shoes and was ready to leave when the rain started pounding on our roof. So much for that. Instead, we went to Café Clock where we had lattes and hot chocolate, and Mom and I shared a chocolate pudding soufflé. All of us had the soufflé, actually—Dad, rightfully so, since he paid for it, but Ethan stole his delicious bites away after he’d eaten his slices of orange-almond cake. The soufflé was ...
For supper, we ate at Thami’s again. We were enjoying the meal of couscous, tagine, and Moroccan salad (cucumber, tomato, parsley). After a hard day of shopping, we were beat. Dad only paid for two leather jackets and four table runners, but the bargaining process at the tannery was long. We’d returned to the tannery with the “cute” man and were planning on buying a belt or slippers or something—we were totally against buying a jacket. When we finally did pay for the jackets, Mom’s red jacket’s sleeves had been altered (which took twice as long as planned) so they ...
80 days to go! I went with Mom to her Physical Torture today. She cried at several times and at one point begged for me to read to her to take her mind off the pain. I’m not sure she would have been interested in what I was reading—reading about the US’s economy in the 1920s for school isn’t all that interesting. On our way home, we stopped by Marjane (the local super-sized grocery store) building for haircuts. My hair is now blessedly straight, but as soon as I get under the water of the shower tomorrow, my joy will ...
Wow Eryn! you really are going all around the world!!!! LUCKY!!!! I’ll miss you @ school though 🙁
Eryn! Have a safe trip! I miss you already. And post a lot of things, cause I’ll be checking;) Love you TONS!
Good Morning Miss Eryn, Did you like bowling? Did you put the ball down the lane or were they gutter balls like I manage? I’m glad y’ll made it safely to the country of Siam. I’m assuming you have gotten warm, thaughed out or otherwise melted? You’ll get used to it as the days go by. Enjoy everything to the fullest. Laters, Love Grandma
Bowling was okay. Not my favorite … “sport”. (Honestly, I prefer minigolf.) Umm… it seems like half-and-half, but I think it was 1/3 gutter balls and 2/3 “good” balls. Oh, yes, we’re very thawed, and we’re melting through the back of our shirts. 🙂 I love you! Tell Grandpa and Zoie “hi” for me, and tell Grandpa I send my love!
Good Morning Sweetie, Well guess what…its raining. should be in the mid 60’s today. Did u get my reply from yesterday? when I pushed the Post Comment button it said the server was down or some such nonsence!
I’m getting ready to go to Curves. Today is the Garage Sale and its raining. Should have it on a different weekend.
Have fun today. Love you
Good Morning, Ethan!
The things and places you have already seen and enjoyed are very interesting and will be remembered for your life. But even more interesting to me is what you see when compared to the other scribes’ reports on this ADVENTURE. Keep up the good work!
Your discription of the Buddhist shrine/Temple leave me wondering how odd Christians must look to Buddhists.
I am really enjoying your notes.
Love, Gramps
Hi Eryn,
Wow! Is what I have to say! You have a great writing style, informative and entertaining 🙂 I look forward to your continuing sagas.
Happy trails!
Eryn.. it most certainly seems like you and your family are having a wonderful time
(so Jealous!) Love your stories, especially about your mom ! Thanks for keeping us posted.
Yes… but I tone down the stories of my mom a lot. 🙂 And, yes, we’re having a good time here in South Africa.