Notes on the Trip

We didn't need the diarrhea medicine. There.
But I think I need it now. Or maybe it's just stress.

Traveling is stressful. Good stress is just as stressful as bad stress.

Breakfast is such a different concept in other countries/cultures.
As a child, we had a "balanced" meal: fruit, cereal, meat, eggs of some form--every single day.
As a mother, I was boring: cereal and bananas, or pancakes and bananas, or eggs and bananas.
As an adult: 1 banana, 1 glass of chocolate milk, 1 toasted English muffin--usually in the car as I drive to the school.
In Morocco--heavily influenced by France--split baguettes with butter and jam on the side, mint tea or coffee (hot cocoa for me). Then you sit and eat it for about an hour as you enjoy the lovely morning air by the sea. You can also toast the baguettes on the grill.

Driving in Morocco seemed random in that the traffic rules were quite free-form. On the highway, to pass, you would go up very close to the big truck in front of you, slightly straddling the lines and then when an opportunity presented itself, you would roar around the truck and pull back in front of it quickly, because likely there was another vehicle approaching, maybe passing their own big truck. This did not result in angry honking, or finger-gestures. It was the routine.

Cool Guy and I discussed this, and we think that many of the driving techniques result from the personal space differences there in the crowded cities, and in their culture. It wasn't a problem to drive really close and share the same lane, or crowd past someone so close it made me gasp, or the pedestrians would frequently touch your car as they passed (not a slap or rebuke). And--often you saw two men walking together shoulders touching, even arm in arm--women were usually arm in arm or holding hands, a group of young boys would be a unit--they were so close together as they walked. It is just normal to be closer physically there than in the U.S. So evidently that also transfers to driving.

Interestingly--the personal closeness in public does not apply to man/woman couples. There is NO PDA or even touching or proximity. Very hashuma. Also the only people who would be together as man/woman would be a married couple. But--keep your distance. (of course, tourists don't count in these rules.)

Chwarma is delicious. Someone in the U.S. needs to start a chwarma craze and franchise it all over the country.

I don't know how they get milk from those skinny cows.

What are the sheep eating in that seemingly rock and dirt "pasture"?

Goats can climb trees.

I prefer toilet paper from the United States--so spoiled here with our septic systems.

I prefer toilet paper.

Ice is nice, but very American.

Now, I'm an International Grammar Cop. (they spent a lot of money and design effort in the new parts of the Madrid airport and it is very classy--I was surprised by the occasional English grammar-flubs in the official signage--you'd think they'd have really checked that.)

Best thing I took: several packets of travel-sized wet wipes and "personal cleansing cloths".

What I didn't need: so many changes of clothes. And I really packed light. You can wear the same clothes for more than 24 hours, no problem. Just washing your hands and face can sometimes feel like a whole bath.

Outside the city, I didn't look at men directly. I got a very hostile vibe if I did. Hmm.

I'll never complain about the rocks on my father's farm again---they were nothing compared to most of the farm land I saw in Morocco.

Parts of Morocco near the city of Marrakesh look amazingly like Iowa--large cultivated fields with properous looking farm sites: a grouping of buildings with hay stacks, and barns. But if you looked closely you'd see donkey carts alongside the combines and tractors. And every village has a mosque tower.

School girls walking along in groups, chattering back and forth, wearing backpacks--but also wearing head scarfs and long jalabbas.

Pink houses---like it's a rule.

Except in Essouira where the official colors are blue and white. It's very soothing to see all the buildings that aren't just stone painted white with blue trim.

Morocco is a very geometric place: the buildings are quadrilaterals--mostly squares, and the doorways are curves. Windows: rectangles or squares. Bread: circles. People: rectangles.

An American passport is a fine thing to possess.