a number of things

It's been a little while since my last post, and I must say, I've done a number of blog-worthy things since then, so here goes:

Last weekend, Gilli, Ken, I took a break from Fès and headed north to Tangier. After a 6-hour train ride that was supposed to be 4.5, we finally made it to the sandy shores of Tangier, which is a really interesting city. Since it's so close to Spain, there is an abundance of Europeans who come in for day trips, or students like us who just need to get away for a little while. We ordered fish sandwiches from this man who impressed us with his French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, and Portuguese, and then went on our way to Hotel Family (which I suspect is a poor translation of what was supposed to be "Family Hotel"). We pitched camp in our 40dh/bed room (about $4.50 USD) and then found accidentally ourselves in the Petit Soco, where some of the most famous artists and writers from the beats generation hung out back in the day. Then, after consulting Lonely Planet, we discovered that we had also accidentally had coffee in William S. Burroughs' favorite café as well! Momtaaz (excellent)!
The night progressed, and we found ourselves in a Spanish/Arabic pop inspired dance club, where women looked like they'd dipped their faces in vats of clown makeup, and consumed entire bottles of AquaNet to get their hair ready to get out. Gilli and I looked shweeya out of place in our traveling clothing (sweats for her, and a Mr. Rogers sweater for me). Nonetheless, it was nice to be in a place where the city doesn't close at 9pm every night, and where not every guy around is a total creeper.
The ride home was less than perfect, thanks to a rowdy group of pre-teen and teenage boys who coincidentally decided to train hop in our car, but hemdiallah, we made it back home to Fès in one piece. It's funny that one year ago, I never would have though Fès, Morocco would be my "home", but I felt like this was indeed my home. It's funny how it changes so quickly after being here for just three and a half weeks.

(XOXO from طنجة, Tangier)

Among the other blog-worthy things I've done is move into my new room. No, that's not nearly as exciting as I made it out to be, but it's a big move for me because it means my time here is already a third of the way over. Tentatively, my plans are to live in my newer, bigger room with Megan for the next three weeks, take a week off to travel in between the semesters, and then possibly move into a homestay. I've been flirting with the idea of living with a host family for a while now, so hopefully by the time these next three weeks are over I'll have it all figured out....in'shah Allah.

Also, I've been taking quite a few cooking classes from the Villa's cleaning lady, Layla. So far, I've become a seasoned chef in the art of chicken tajine, couscous, besara (fava bean soup which has become a staple in my diet), and harach. Laura, a fellow student wrote down the recipes and took pictures so you can all be looking forward to that in the future. As for now, I'm about to pass out from the typical Moroccan Friday lunch of couscous and khoobz (bread).

B'salama,
دنيا