Win a Three Night Stay in a Riad in Marrakech

Here's a link to win a 3 night stay in a gorgeous riad in Marrakech.  Unfortunately, I don't think it includes planefare, which is the most expensive part for those of us who live in the US.
http://africageographic.com/safari/blog/competitions/win-a-3-night-stay-in-a-luxury-marrakech-riad/
The answer to the question about the BBC program is "Eating in the Sun"

The Alif Villa

I had planned to go to the desert this weekend.  It looked like a fantastic trip.  You get to eat delicious food, sleep in a Berber tent, watch the sunset over the sand dunes and ride a camel.  Unfortunately, you have to cross the mountains to get there and the road is currently impassable because of snow.  So, I'm going to write about the residence where I am living.
Alif (my school) has a villa around the corner where students can rent rooms.  Currently, there are about 12 of us living here.  In front of the house is a lovely garden - with irises growing in January - and a sunny porch where we can do work in the afternoon (nice and warm)

We have a shared kitchen where we often cook together.  There is a small room off the kitchen with a table where about 3 - 4 people can sit and eat.  It has a microwave and toaster oven.  There is another room off the kitchen with computers and a table.  In front of that is the living room (I have already posted pictures of that) and in the other directions is my room and Stephan's room.
kitchen:

Upstairs, there are more bedrooms and the showers.  Down in the basement, there are more bedrooms and the washing machine.  (I didn't take any pictures in the basement.)
shower:

This last picture is the roof.  We hang our clothes to dry in the sun and sometimes we study up there in the afternoon.  And for all this, I pay $10 per night.

Chefchaouen

We left yesterday (Saturday) morning for Chefchaouen.  It's a four hour bus ride.  The bus was very nice (heated!) and it stopped at a restaurant at the half-way point.  There was a woman selling Moroccan pancakes with honey  Valeria and I split one.  We got to Chefchaouen around noon.  We found a cheap and fairly nice hotel.  Valeria and I shared a room.  There were two bathrooms on that floor, but the shower was icy cold along with the room (2 blankets helped).  We did quite a bit of climbing.  Chefchaouen is in the Rif mountains.  Its name means horns in Berber because of the shape of the mountains behind it.  It was founded by Jews in 1471 when they were fleeing Spain.  Now all the Jews have gone to New York and Israel (according to a Moroccan carpet merchant).  The buildings are all painted blue.  Apparently, they were originally painted blue by the Jews because of something in the bible, but Nathan's explanation (one of my traveling companions) was that perhaps one day they were all sitting around stoned on hashish and said, "Hey, let's paint the whole town blue."  Anyway, it is very interesting to look at.  It's a maze of little streets.  They are all paved with cobblestones and painted blue.  None of the streets in the center of town are wide enough for even a mini-cooper.  They are also quite steep.  Kids run up and down them and I kept wondering how many skinned knees they end up with.  We did lots of climbing.  Everywhere you go, you can climb up and see a beautiful view.  Also, it's very close to Tangier and Spain, so lots of Spanish tourists come there during the summer.  We would ask questions in French and people would answer us in Spanish. 
 I bought two berber carpets!  They are being shipped.

1: our bus   2: our hotel  3: a street with kids playing   4: man in bus station (LOTS of Berbers wearing jelabas with hoods up here)   5: a little shop

Cheeseburgers!

We had our first quiz this morning - pretty hard.  I wouldn't call it a quiz.  I'd call it a unit test.  Anyway, it's good - keeps me studying.
This evening, we grilled burgers.  Peter thought he would need to buy a hibachi, but Leila (the woman who works in the house - cleaning, etc) said we had a barbecue.  It turned out there was a big one in the side garden.  None of us had ever gone there.  Leila cleaned it out for us and showed Stephan where to buy charcoal.  There's no lighter fluid and people were worried that we wouldn't be able to light the charcoal.  It's real charcoal - bits of wood in variable sizes.  Fortunately, I remembered that Ganam used to start charcoal on the gas stove in the kitchen because he didn't like the chemicals in the lighter fluid.  So, we placed small piles on the stove, started them and then transferred them to the barbecue.  It was very successful.  We even had buns, ketchup and Vache Qui Rit cheddar cheese (surprisingly good!)

Some of the others left at 10:00 to go to a bar.  I declined.  I need to get ready to leave tomorrow.  We need to get a taxi at 6:30 and get to the bus station at 7:00.  I won't be taking my computer with me, so the next time I'll be in touch is Sunday night.  I will take the Moroccan cell phone and my ipod touch in case they have wireless internet (which seems to be more common in Morocco than in the US!)

Barbecue pics:

Thursday - remember I'm 5 hours ahead of you

So, Lemore said enjoy the Italian dinner because you guys are at happy hour, but we had our Italian dinner tonight - Thursday.  Danny and Peter made pasta with merguez (little sausages) and vegetables.  They also had some very tasty croutons in it.  Tomorrow night - still ahead of my happy hour buddies - Danny and Peter are planning to grill on the roof.  They are going to Marjane tomorrow to attempt to buy a hibachi.  They want to grill burgers! (Probably not cheeseburgers because Danny and Peter are Jewish, but I haven't asked them how kosher they are since there's no pork here.)  We'll see if it happens.  (MacDonalds is walking distance if we need it.)
Four (maybe 6?) of us are going to Chefchaouen this weekend.  It's supposed to be very beautiful.  We've gone through lots of debates on how and when to go.  There are no classes on Friday afternoons, but there are also no buses at that time.  It's possible to hire a grand taxi to take you there anytime you want (four hour drive), but it's expensive.  I think our final decision is to take the bus on Saturday morning.  I like that plan because then I could do all my weekend homework on Friday afternoon and leave town knowing all my work is done for Monday.  Chefchaouen is supposed to be very beautiful.  I'll try to post pictures.  So, if I leave Saturday morning, I probably won't bring my computer with me.  I'll post pictures when I get back to Fez.

Independence Day?

I didn't see any signs of celebration today.  It seemed equivalent to Columbus Day or Veterans Day.  The banks and schools were closed.  Lots of kids in the stores and on the street (a nice sight).  I washed clothes in the morning and hung them on the roof.  Then I went to Marjane with Elizabeth.  We were much more successful with taxis.  First of all, we got in the taxi before we told them where we were going.  Then we asked for old Marjane.  Apparently, there are two.  The old one (which looks the same as the new one to me) is closer.  Also, Elizabeth asked the driver if he would be willing to come back for us at 12:15 (We left at 11)  At first, he said he couldn't because he gets off at 11:30.  Then, later, he said he could ask his replacement to come for us, but we would need to pay the round trip fare in that case.  We said fine.  I wondered how we would know which driver is his replacement, but he said to look at the number on the top of the taxi.  That worked out great.  Also, the driver came up to me in the parking lot and said Salaam walekum.  Moroccans never approach you and talk to you when they don't know you.  This is a good and a bad thing.  You don't get harassed, but also if you want a taxi or something else, no one is going to offer help.  You have to ask for it.  Then they are happy to help you.
I had tons of homework, so I worked on that this afternoon.  Then, Pierce and I cooked dinner for the four of us.  I bought 6 bottles of wine at Marjane so we are well-stocked now.  Jeremy is uncomfortable in the liquor store and I don't think Pierce or I should go there without a guy.  At Marjane, it's really easy to buy wine - just like buying it with your groceries in the Giant.  Other people in the house asked me if the clerk in Marjane looked at me like I was crazy buying 6 bottles of wine, but she didn't blink an eye.  I thought I wouldn't be drinking any wine here, but it seems like I'm drinking more than home because there are always people to eat dinner with here.  It's almost like a party every night.  Tomorrow night Danny and Peter are cooking.  They say they're making Italian.  Tonight Danny and Peter went to the MacDonalds and came back saying it was fabulous!  I still need to get more details.  They had some kind of cheese balls (croquettes de fromage) and their food came in a Happy Meal without the toy.  That's all I know so far.

A holiday

Tomorrow is a Independence Day in Morocco.  Apparently, the treaty was signed in Fez, so the king is coming to Fez.  There are lots of security people on the streets.  I asked our teacher what the king will do.  He said he will probably make a speech on TV.  Fez is one of four imperial cities in Morocco.  The others are Casablanca, Marrakech, and Meknes.  The king has 2 palaces in Fez.  He doesn't use the big one.  His father used to live in that one, but the current king uses a smaller palace which is in Ville Nouvelle.  (That's the part of the city that the French built and it's where I live.)  People say that he will make the big palace into a museum.  Most of what I told you above (except the part about the imperial cities) I learned from my teacher today.  He is very good at saying things in Arabic in a way that we can understand, but it is very possible that I completely misunderstood some things.
So, we have no classes tomorrow.  I do have a lot of homework, though.  And I need to go to Marjane again.  I'm not looking forward to it.  The store is fun, but finding a taxi to take you each way is difficult.  I tried to use my hairdryer and it broke, so I need to buy a new one.  And, of course, I'll think of lots of other things to get there.  I'm also hoping to wash clothes tomorrow.  We have a very fancy washing machine in the basement, but no dryer.  So, I'd like to wash early and hang my clothes on the roof where there's lots of sun.
I don't know whether I mentioned how nice it is to live in the Alif Residence.  There are five students in my class and four of us live here.  We work on homework together or consult each other about assignments.  In the time I studied Arabic in DC, I never really had anyone to talk to about it.  It's fun to have people to laugh at expressions with you and to be able to say, "What in the world does that mean?"