Spring Break

Today I am leaving for spring break!  There are students traveling to Spain, Italy, England, Egypt, and of course a few of us staying right here in Morocco.  There is so much to see and so little time.  My travels with Anna, Macarena, and Abesha, will take me to Essouira, Agadir, Ourzazate, and Merzouga.  The first two cities are beach towns on the southern coast and the second two are desert towns toward the eastern boarder.  I look forward to eating a lot of fish and trekking on a camel for three days in the desert.  I have no idea what to expect from that last part except a lot of photos.

For now, I will leave you with a few things I have learned this week:

1) People here are insanely into pool.  That is right, billiards is the name of the game for the majority of the youth.  That is when they aren't playing soccer.  There are pool halls up and down the streets and I guess I never really noticed before.  What brought it to my attention was my host brother, who is 14 and really interested in pool.  We each had to eat dinner late last night so he ended up showing me a whole lot of videos on his smartphone of famous billiards players.  Neat, huh?

2) Bringing me to point 2, no one here can afford Apple computers or software.  There are all kinds of smartphone and electronic variations of Mac, but no one can afford an iPhone, which is about $600.  How crazy is that?  Why Mac?  Why you gotta be so expensive?

3) Speaking of money, I found out that the men in blue coats who sit on the sidewalks all day are actually "parking guards".  Now, I have known for a long time that they were in charge of the parking situation and that they will run up and down their block helping people find a way to park onto the sidewalk.  I should explain.  The streets are really narrow, so except for the main avenues, people park with half of the car on the sidewalk, or in some cases, completely on the sidewalk.  There is a man to help you do that.  What i found out is that they just show up.  No one pays them.  Except for the tips from drivers.  The inherit the block and the coat from someone else.  Sometimes the city will get involved if there is a dispute between areas, but otherwise these are lone rangers.  Also, they watch your car all day or even overnight and often give car washes as well.  Finally, I understand!!

That is enough for now.  Have a great week and I will talk to you again after riding a camel!