Posting on iPhone

Finally figured how to post on the blog from my phone. I needed to download the Blogger app. Now I need to find about using this phone in India.
I'm starting to feel like I'm making progress toward getting ready for my trip to India. I dropped off my visa application on Thursday. They will email me when it is ready. I have an appointment to talk to the travel nurse on Thursday morning and one at the optometrist Thur afternoon (need contacts for whitewater rafting).
I haven't told anyone that I've started blogging again so I'm just posting for myself-to keep track of trip preparations.

Getting ready for India

I feel like I worked all day on things to get ready for the trip and accomplished nothing. I did find my old visa photos from last year, so I don't need to get new photos taken. I called the travel clinic to make an appointment. They said they will check my records and tell me tomorrow whether I need any additional shots.

Casa! الدار البيضاء

This is my last full day in Morocco.  Yesterday, five friends and I took a train from Fez to Casablanca.  It was really nice.  We filled a whole first class cabine for ourselves.  Jeremie (my first friend in Fez) and his girlfriend, Mandy (She came from Boston to visit), were going to Marrakech, but had to pass through Casa to get there.  Liv was going to Casa and then on a tour with a group.  Pierce and David decided to come with us to spend the day in Casa.  We love Casa!  It's warm and sunny and much more cosmopolitan.  We walked on the beach and ate cotton candy.
I think Fez is more exotic and a more authentic Moroccan experience, but Casa is much more comfortable to live in.  The climate is more temperate and the people tend to mix French and Arabic together much more than in Fez.  The people in Fez are also definitely poorer.
Today, I'm on my own.  I went to see the Hassan II Mosque.  It's very beautiful.  It's the third largest mosque in the world.  (The two largest are in Saudi.)  I walked around Casablanca for a while, but then decided that I've just had enough and have been hanging around my hotel for the most part today.  Tomorrow I fly home.  See you soon!

Henna Party حفلة الحناء

I've been wanting to get my hands done with henna before I leave.  When Chris O. and I were in Marrakech in 2008, we got our hands and feet done by a lady in the Jmaa el Fnaa, but I haven't seen anything like that in Fes.  Usually, people have henna done at home before a wedding or a holiday.  Finally, it occurred to me to ask Leyla (the woman who works in the villa.  She's a wonderful friend.)  So, I asked if she knew anyone who would come to the villa if we had a few women who wanted it done.  She said that her cousin does henna and she would ask her.  The cousin said she would do it on Friday for 25 dirham ( a little over $3) per hand.  So, Saida came and we all went up on the roof for our henna party.  Saida had a tray with all her utensils:  a bowl of henna that looks like mud, a couple syringes, a cup of tea with sugar and black pepper.  They dab the tea on the henna drawings as they dry to help it to darken.

This is a lot of work and it took Saida at least 30 minutes for each hand.  She draws the different designs on the hand (or foot) and then you have to sit and wait for your hands to dry.  This is very frustrating.

We stayed on the roof through Liv's hands and feet, my hands and Pierce's hands and one foot.  Then it was getting cold and we went down to the salon for Saida to do Andi's feet, Nicole's hands and Brittany's hands.  She didn't finish until about 8:00.  We paid her quite a bit more than she had asked for since that was a ridiculous price for all that work.

Here's a video of Saida working on Nicole's hand.

I give up.  I've tried several times to upload the video.  I think the internet is too slow here or it keeps cutting out.  I disabled pop-up blockers for FB and Blogger, but still no success.  I'll try again to upload video when I get home.  In the meantime, there are lots of henna pics on my FB page.  Unfortunately, Facebook also posted the video as photos

The henna doesn't stay as dark as it is in the pictures.  After it dries, you brush it off.  I washed my hands in the morning.  It's a light brown, but you can still definitely see it.  You can see my hands in person when I get home!
Also, for our last dinner in the villa (Jeremie was also leaving.), Leyla cooked tajine chicken with prunes - really delicious.  Every time Leyla cooks something, I never want to eat it other places again because hers is so good, nothing can compare.

And my hands two days later (every time I wash them, I think - Oh no.  Henna is coming off:

The roof السقف

I LOVE the roof.  This morning, I did my laundry before going to class.  I went up on the roof (about 9 a.m.) to hang the clothes and was struck by the thought of how wonderful it is to be up there - and that I wouldn't be going up there much longer.  Today we had class in the morning and then our final exam at 4:00.  We went up on the roof to study at midday.  Everyone agreed that we love the roof.  David said, "This roof is the best place in all of Morocco."  I think I might agree.  When you're up there in the afternoon, it's really warm and sunny almost every day.  A couple weeks ago, Jeremie and Pierce brought a table and chairs up there.  Now, it's really perfect.  At night, you can see the stars very clearly, but it's too cold to sit up there.  I suppose in the summer everyone goes at night and it's too hot during the day.  Here's a picture of Jeremie and Nicole studying for their exam on the roof this afternoon.  (By the way, the exam turned out to be long, but not too hard.)

Les Merinides

Now that it's getting close to time to leave, I'm trying to cram in everything that needs to be done.  My final exam is Thursday.  I was planning on leaving Fez on Friday, but have now decided to leave on Saturday.  My flight leaves from Casablanca on Monday morning, so I definitely need to sleep in Casa Sunday night, but several friends are taking the train to Casa on Saturday and I'd rather go with friends than take the train by myself.  And this way I can do any last minute things on Friday.
Yesterday, several of us went to the medina.  Unfortunately, my camera battery was dead, but I've already posted lots of medina pics on previous posts.  We didn't see any camel heads hanging at the butcher's this time.  I bought belts for Oumar and Ish and some other stuff.  Then we went to Cafe Clock for lunch.  It's a restaurant in the medina that's owned by a British couple.  I'm sorry I wasn't able to take any photos there because it is a really nice place.  And they serve camelburgers!  Pierce ordered the camelburger and I ordered a lambburger and we each ate half of each.  We both agreed that we liked the lamb better (more flavor), but the camel was fine, too.
Today, five us went to the Tombeaux des Merinides.  It's a hill with tombs on it.  When Nicole went, there were shepherds and she got to hold a baby lamb.  Unfortunately, we only saw tombs and people.  Some of the tombs are quite recent.  It's hard to tell with others.  The dates, etc seem to come off very quickly.  Some of the tombs had a drain - I guess so that they won't fill with water.

Then, we went to the Hotel des Merinides for a coffee.  It is a beautiful.  (Chris O.: If you are reading this, it reminded me of when we went to the Mande Hotel in Bamako.  No river with pirogues, but a great hillside view of the city instead.  A place where you think you'd love to stay there and then realize you'd run out of money after the first night.)  Even the bathrooms were nice.  I thought about taking photos in the ladies room, but then some other women came in and I thought they'd think I was strange.

Here are some pics of the view.  The first one is a man with his donkey.  I should have tried to get it closer.

Shopping

Buying things is definitely more difficult here, although that is partly because I don't have a car.  There are several big stores.  Marjane is the largest.  It's like a Walmart superstore.  It has food (meat, dairy, canned, produce, liquor, everything), clothing, appliances, school supplies - just about anything you might need.  There are 2 Marjanes, but both are quite far.  You need to take a taxi and sometimes it's hard to find one.   I have gone there three times and I don't expect to need to go again before I leave.  I didn't take any photos, but it really looks quite similar to stores in the US or in France.

The place where we buy most of our food is the Marché Central.  It's a little area that has a wall around it and you go up some steps to enter.  Below is a picture of the main entrance.

Inside, there are small shops selling different things.
Produce:  When you are interested in something, you start choosing some and the man will give you either a plastic bag or a basket.  After you have chosen what you want, he weighs it on a scale that uses weights for a counterbalance.  Sometimes they will put a smaller weight in with what you bought in order to determine the weight (subtract).  Or, sometimes, they take some out.  One time I had counted out 15 tangerines.  He weighed it, then took one tangerine out and told me it was 2 kilos.

Olives, olive oil and other things in cans.  (These things are more expensive than the produce.)


Fish:  (I haven't tried buying any)

Birds for sale as pets.  They even have African greys.  I haven't asked what the prices are for them.

The cheese man is my favorite.  He has all sorts of cheese:  Moroccan goat cheese, gouda with cumin (delish!), camembert, swiss, etc.  He speaks excellent French.  I think he has a lot of European customers.  He also sells wine and other alcohol (not easy to find in Morocco.)