Spelunk!

Last (and best!) weekend in Fez:

On Saturday, some friends and I went to Taza for a brief day trip with the intention of visiting the Tazzeka National Park, walking in the cedar forest and maybe seeing some monkeys. Plans changed when we accidentally went spelunking in the deepest cave in North Africa, Gouffre du Friouato. In fact, this cave is so big, no one knows exactly how far down it goes because it hasn't been explored completely. Though we were slightly underdressed for this adventure, we didn't let it get in the way of finding our inner spelunkers. We didn't get to see the forest of cedars, or the monkeys, but I think after spending three days in Marrakech I've seen enough monkeys and snakes to last me a while.

Going in

View from the bottom

Walking planks across giants pools of water, then holding the guide's hand as he lead us across a 2-inch ledge that separated us from water on the right, and a giant hole on the left

Walking back up the 720 steps to exit the cave after 2 hours inside. We were filthy.

When we finally made it out, our driver had lined the inside of the taxi with big sheets of cardboard. We had intended to continue with our adventures, but instead asked to be taken directly back to Fez so we could shower, wash our clothes, and eat. Two hours of hairpin turns down the mountain, listening to the same ear-splitting song over and over, we made it back to the Villa and immediately showered and went to Sicilia's for pizza and spaghetti.

Time in Fez is running out quickly. I still can't believe I've been here almost three months.

B'salama,
Danielle

Marrakoosh

If you can believe it, I finished my last class at ALIF last Friday. Whoot!

About three hours after said-class, I boarded a train with some friends from school, and off we went to Marrakech. Eight sweaty, long hours later, we found ourselves in Djemaa el-Fna, which is the main square of the medina. In three nights we were in Marrakech, we were able to

• Get hassled relentlessly by vendors
• Eat a fresh donuts strung together by a blade of grass in the Mellah
  
• See nearly every cemetary in Marrakech
• Go to a Moroccan wedding
• Get hit by a car
• Visited the Jardin Majorelle and see the Islamic Art Museum
• Eat the best chwarama in Morocco for 20dh
• Walk some more
• See the snake charmers
• Eat chocolate and watch Flight of the Conchords from my ipod
• Eat at another restaurant where the service was so good we forgot we were in Morocco

In the Mellah

Funny sign for the hammam

After Kendell left us early Monday morning so she could make it to her afternoon class, Yan and I split up the eight-hour train ride be stopping in Casablanca for the night. There, we:

• Walked around some more, because apparently that's our favorite thing to do
• Saw the Hassan II Mosque, which is not only the second largest mosque in the world, but has the world's largest minaret, a laser that points to Mecca, AND a glass floor over the Atlantic ocean
• Passed by Rick's Café
• Walked through the medina
• Walked even more along the Atlantic
• Ate tapas and paella which tasted suspiciously like gumbo
• Ate more donuts
  

Hassan II Mosque at night

More pictures are here and here.

Now I'm back in Fez, sitting and enjoying my last week in Morocco before I go back to the States and face the real world. Tonight there are tentative plans of seeing an movie at the cinéma, and tomorrow the plan is to take a day trip to Taza, a Berber town about an hour and a half away by train or grand taxi. From there, we'll head over to the cedar forest, which is home to the Barbary ape. I haven't decided what else to do with the rest of last week in Morocco, but that will come later. Today, I had my last couscous Friday in Morocco. Tear.

B'salama,
Danielle

Family Schmamily

After three nights with the host family, I decided it wasn't for me, and swiftly made my way back to the Villa. Don't get me wrong; living with a family was a wonderful experience. The family was sweet and kind, the mother was a wonderful chef, and they were extremely respectful of my privacy (which, apparently, can be quite rare amongst Moroccan households), but I couldn't get used to having a new set of "parents" to check in with all the time. I've been living in this country for over two months on my own time, on my own schedule, and to be living on someone else's agenda was a bit too much for me. Now, I am living in the Villa for the rest of my stay in Fez--which is only two days from now--and then off I go to the South. Oh well, I guess it just wasn't meant to be.

After moving back into the Villa, I've had nothing but nonstop Moroccan magic falling in front of me. Friday consisted of couscous with one of my friend's host mother, Fatima. The couscous was by far the best I've had yet, which only got better when it was followed by tea, cookies, and a henna party, which was held in preparation for Kendell's birthday party, scheduled to take place the next day. Even though Kendell was turning twenty-four, her party was more similar to that of an eight-year-old's, but despite that, it was the best birthday party I've been to since I can remember. We sat around and danced with a live ganawa band, ate cookies, drank mint tea, ate more cookies, drank coffee, ate cake, and danced some more until our bodies could no longer take the abuse.

Kendell, the birthday girl, and me with our henna hands. After getting the paste on, Fatima wrapped our hands in toilet paper and then covered them with socks so as to keep the paste on longer, which yields a darker henna stain.

close-up of my henna

After eating our weight in confections, I went to Chefchaouen with a few friends from school. Chefchaouen is a little city about four hours north by bus, known for its blue walls and mountains. There, we managed to go hiking on the trails, tour the Kasbah, stay in a 50 dirham hostel where the sheets were constantly slightly damp, drinks lots of coffee, and eat lots of candied peanuts. My friend Yan and I met a man who called himself Rashid Couscous; he sold blankets of "a thousand colors", wanted to trade Yan "a thousand camels for [my] smile", and then ended our meeting with "a thousand thank-yous". He was possibly my favorite part of Chefchaouen, coming close to our hike to the ruined Spanish mosque.

Jimmy, beginning the ascend to the top of the mountain

View from the minaret

In other news, but still very important, Jordana made it to Nepal! I'm so excited that she and I have been lucky enough to undertake such adventures at the same time. The Grodek clan is currently touching three continents right now, yaa Allah! Pretty soon the world will be saved--or at least a little part of it--one Grodek at a time.

B'salama,
Danielle

Sorry for the Delay

I've been absent for the past couple weeks, and I feel bad for this because so many things have happened within the past two weeks that I don't even know how to begin describing them. Firstly, I had my trip to Rome and got reunited with Nick, my good friend from high school. It was wonderful. I spent the first three days walking around the Eternal City with Nick and a few of his other friends in the same program from Dartmouth, then spent the next three days exploring on my own. I saw all the standard things, like the Pantheon, the Roman Forum, the Colosseum, as well as Villa Adriana in Tivoli, and Pompei, which I've wanted to see since the third grade. I also ate more pork than I've eaten in the past two years combined. Let me tell you, if living in a Muslim country doesn't make you appreciate a good slab of bacon, nothing will. I wished I'd written more about my experiences in Rome while it was still fresh in my memory, but instead I'll provide some pictures. This sort of trip was so wonderful, I think it can only be described in photographs anyway. Click here and here and here and here and here and here but not here

Another important event in my life occurred yesterday. I moved out of the Villa and in with a Moroccan family, as I've been wanting to do since the first day I got to Fez. The family is lovely; there's a mom, a dad, a sister named Kenza who's studying at the university in Fez, Hamza, who's 19 and studying to be a hairdresser, Meriam, who's 17 and wants to go to college in America after she graduates this spring, Mohamed, who's 9, and Abdu, who's 4 and always wants me to draw farm animals for him. They live in an adorable apartment in the Ville Nouvelle, about a fifteen-minute walk from the school. I've only been there a day, but so far it's going very well. The mother is an excellent chef, and yesterday she made the best chicken tajine I've ever eaten. My plan is to stay with them until the end of the term, which is next Friday, then off I go to explore the rest of the country I haven't had the chance to see yet. I can't believe the end of my journey is coming so soon How did this happen? Where did the past two months go?

In the next few weeks while I'm abroad, I'm going to try my best to continue blogging regularly. It's not much longer until I'm reunited with the things I miss most like my family, my friends, the promise of a western-style toilet, and bacon, wonderful, delicious bacon.

B'salama,
Doonyaa

Food b'zef!

Another cooking class last night. Unfortunately, I had to miss it, but I got rave reviews from the other ALIFers that this recipe is a keeper. So here ya go!

Layla's Chicken and Prune Tagine:

2 1/2 kilos chicken
5 medium onions, chopped small
1 medium tomato, grated
1 bulb garlic, pressed
1/2 cup fresh coriander, minced
1/2 cup fresh parsley, minced
2 1/2 tablespoons ginger powder
1 tablespoon grounded black pepper
1/2 teaspoon Moroccan saffron
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 cups water

Add all ingredients to a large pot, chicken on the bottom, bring to a boil, then simmer for 25 minutes. Add 5 more cups of water, then bring to a boil again. Lower heat to medium and cook for 30 minutes.

Prunes:

3/4 kilo (5 cups) prunes, rinsed
8 cups water
heaping teaspoon cinnamon

Add all ingredients to a medium-sized pot. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 30 minutes. Prunes will expand (done when fully plumped). Drain water from pot, but do not rinse.

Put back over medium heat and add:

2 cups of Tagine broth
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Cook for 5 - 10 minutes.

Final Preparation:

Arrange chicken on a large platter and ladle broth mixture over the top, filling the bottom of the platter. Pour prunes over all and serve with plenty of bread.


Notes:

Beef or lamb may be substituted for the chicken.

Serves ~ 10

Thanks to Laura for taking notes!

In a couple hours, I'm off to Rome. Wish me luck!

B'salama, Ciao!
-Danielle

À la discothèque

It's been a little while since my last post, and the, "Where are you? How are you? Are you alive?" emails from relatives started pouring in the other day, so I figured that was my queue to make another blog entry. This weekend, a lot of the people on six-week programs are leaving Fès for bigger and brighter things in other parts of the world, so this past weekend we tried to have one last hoorah....at the discothèque....in Fès. The plan was that Julian and I would go eat dinner at a friend's house in the medina, while Tim, Hannah, and Krista went to another friend's house and then later we'd all meet up at the disco. Apparently, this was not inshah'Allah, and Julian and I never met up with our friends. Instead, we had the most random eight-hour long adventure that resulted in us: A.) eating the best food in Fès, prepared by a 50-year-old Moroccan man who talked about Cambodia b'zef (a lot, in Darija) B.) dancing to crazy Arabic music, also b'zef C.) listening to another Moroccan man talk about the Tuareg people D.) watching this same man balance a glass on his head, over and over E.) stuffing six people in a petit taxi (mind you, they're only supposed to passenger three) F.) speaking b'zef, b'zef Français G.) getting home at 6am.

After this night of crazy, random adventures, I've spent everyday since then hiding in my room, trying desperately to remember all the events that took place. I don't even know where to start though.

On a completely unrelated note, tomorrow evening I'll be leaving Fès for a week to travel to Rome. Nick, my friend since the fifth grade, is studying abroad there and I'll be visiting with him, eating massive amounts of pasta and gelato, meeting new people, and inshah'Allah, enjoying a nice break from Morocco.

Also unrelated, my lovely sister Jordana is leaving for Nepal in less than a month! This is Jordana

and this is her blog.

B'salama,
Danielle

Scooter Date in Review

By far the best date I've been on in Morocco. After class yesterday, Megan and I ate lunch at the Villa, then hopped on her scooter and headed the 30km to Sefrou, a little berber village up by the mountains. After loosing my sunglasses; getting directions from a police officer who refused to speak only in French with us, despite telling him we speak Arabic; and a few potholes, we made it to Sefrou. We found some cascades, walked around the medina, searched in vain for new sunglasses, drank coffee and tea in a café, watched the public baker make dread, and stumbled upon my new favorite flea market, where I bought boots for 10dh each. Then we scooted around the village some more, and headed back to Fès. On the way we saw a sign for Bahil, another berber village higher up the mountain. We made our way up to Bahil, which had a beautful lookout point, and scooted back down the mountain and back to the Villa.

Oh, and here are some more pictures from my date with Megan.

Tonight, Laura, Megan and I have plans to make a Greek dish I can't remember the name of. Greek food?! Hemdill Allah.

B'salama,
Danielle