Did I really see/hear/read that correctly?!?!?

Two posts in one week? It just might happen. This one is more a random compilation of  random stuff. There are so many things that happen here on a daily basis where you just have to smile and think "You know you are NOT in the U.S. anymore when...".  These are just SOME of those moments off the top of my head.

*There is a beauty salon here called "Le Clap". Where one wonders if they can get a haircut and an STD all at the same time?

*Several weeks ago, I was walking to the gym to work out. I came around the corner and saw an older woman, two younger children, and a pile of papers, old notebooks, binders, etc. I also saw that she saw stuffing said papers into an opening in the side of a concrete building. Inside this opening of the building was a raging fire. Black smoke billowed out from this 'burn hole'? (kind of like the 'burn barrels' back home I guess?), as she continued to shove papers in and the kids continued to dance around and watch her. When I came out of the gym some 45 min. to an hour later, this was still going on. And it was not a pleasant smell either.

*Driving around Casablanca, you see many, many strange things. So many of which I wished I had a camera for...but they happen so fast, pictures are nearly impossible. And, we are usually so shocked about what we are seeing, that we don't react quickly enough to take pictures. Many of these 'shocking' events are accomplished at the hands of mopeds/scooters/motor bikes. A family of 5 riding on a moped with only the driver wearing any kind of helmet? Absolutely. 2 men on a motorbike carrying a lawnmower? Sure!  And a few weeks ago, I saw 2 guys on a moped driving away from me, and off to the right I could see 4 legs. They both had a right arm wrapped around the body of a sheep or some sort of 4-legged animal, driving down the Casablanca streets.

*Speaking of sheep... There is a major muslim holiday coming up, which is the Eid al-Adha. It is a time when families sacrifice a sheep and then feast on it. It is a big family tradition thing. Anyway, as the Eid approaches, you start to see billboards pop up. Most of which show 'happy sheep', as if they are feeling good about their upcoming role in this bloodbath. I guess when they first slit the throat and kill the sheep, they also then 'blow up' the sheep to loosen the skin? Or something like that. Well, there's a billboard out right now showing a guy blowing on a sheep's leg, inflating the sheep so it looks like a sheep balloon. It's pretty funny. I'll try my best to snap a picture, but no guarantees.

*Head lice has been running a bit rampant in the Lower School this year so far. Yes, gross. I have had one case, but it was caught over a weekend and treated, and we've had no other issues. But today, they brought in an outside nurse to help do head checks. And this is what I saw... A nurse.  With NO GLOVES and no 'stick' to prod through the kids' hair. She just got in there with her fingertips. Head after head, with no hand-washing in-between. I had to stop looking. All I could think about is how shocked my teacher friends in the states would have been as well.

*I had recess duty today for 3-5th grade. A little boy (3rd grade)came up to me and said "Miss! I need help!" I looked down at him and he was pointing to his shoe. A perfectly good shoe, with its shoelace untied. I asked him what he needed help with and he said "I can't tie." To which I said "Aren't you in 3rd grade? And you can't tie your shoe?" (Yes, I was THAT teacher taking a stab at his self esteem. But seriously...don't you learn to tie shoes in Kindergarten?) He said "No, my Mom ties for me." To which I replied, "Well, then you need to learn!" So I kneeled down and showed him my method that my parents taught me. (NOT the double bunny ears...because I hate that method. Those are the kids whose shoes are always untied, I swear.) I did one for him, walking him through the steps. Then I had him practice one time, and he did pretty well. So, he ran off to play. A little bit later during recess, he came running up to me - "MISS! I tied my other shoe!!" I gave him a high-five as he grinned from ear to ear and ran off to play again.

*They are putting up some type of  structure for people to park bikes under at our school. Yesterday, during dismissal time when there are hundreds of kids running around, there was a man welding. Just sitting on top of this structure, with no mask or goggles, with sparks flying down below where kids are crossing, within a couple of feet. No one even blinked an eye (other than us, of course).

There are so many more cultural stories to tell. I love being a part of it all. I've gotten so acclimated, that I just kind of take everything in stride. But, I realize that most of you probably enjoy reading about these types of things. I'll do my best to keep feeding you culture, a little bit at a time.

Here is a random photo, taken this summer as we came back to Casablanca from Europe. You know you're back in Morocco when....

Little bit of Europe, part UNE (that's French for one)

**author's note** Remember, the blogger loves feedback. Even if it is simply checking on of the silly boxes at the bottom to indicate that someone is reading this stuff. Please and Thanks.

Yes, this is a post about the summer and I realize it is now fall. Or, at least it's fall for those of you in the states. Sadly, we don't really get much of that season here. I think last year I realized that I miss fall and early spring (more specifically, Royals baseball games in the spring) as far as seasons go. But definitely miss fall the most. However, that's not what this post is about, so I'll leave that little tangent right here.

As most everyone knows, I spent 2 months of my summer back stateside. Which was amazing. I was able to get my heart filled up with love from family and friends and everything inbetween. Life is good, and I'm one lucky gal to have the people in my life that I do. Without question.

That also includes new friends I have made over here...two of which I was lucky enough to spend about nine days with traveling down through part of Europe. Jim and LuAnn make every day here fun. I say that with complete honesty and sincerity (and because they often invite me down to their place for meals...so it never hurts to butter 'em up just a bit). With that said, when I had the opportunity to fly into Frankfurt and travel down to Morocco with them, I pounced on it! Jim and LuAnn are veteran travelers, as they spent most of last summer traveling through Europe, and again this summer doing the same thing. I was just happy to be with them, and their trusty Honda CRV named "Sterling", venturing from city to city and campground to campground. After we somehow found each other at the Frankfurt airport (my communication on flight arrival was admittedly not very clear), the adventure began as we made our way for a stop to see Casablanca teacher friends who are now living in Frankfurt. It was great to catch up with Brian, Marlo, and Auggie over some German food (schnitzel and goulash) and beers.

We then started our journey south, with a destination of Cordes, France and our wonderful hosts Randy and Anne. After a hotel stay in northern France that evening, we spent the next day driving south (and by 'we', I really mean Jim....as he did all of the driving and would give me a hard time for trying to take credit for it). As evening approached, and we were almost to Cordes, we drove through a brief rainstorm that produced an amazing sky and landscape.



This is a little 'grainy', but the fields of sunflowers under this sky were just beautiful!



We spent three days in Cordes, France with "The G's". It was fabulous. Their town is just a beautiful little place up on a hill in southern France. We ate, drank, laughed, and toured around the area. I'm not sure it's possible to have better hosts than Randy and Anne. They even had a postcard and jars of homemade jam to welcome me to their home. We miss them at CAS, but are happy for them and their life of retirement...  The following are pics from time spent in the surrounding area of France.



I was allowed to hang out with the men while they worked the bbq.



We visited a winery outside of Guillac.





Cool city square with a typical French cafe.

Jim walking down a street in Cordes, and this is LuAnn and I amidst a crowded market in France. I didn't write down the names of any of the little towns around them that we went to, so I can't tell you where we actually were.  :-) 



Jugs of table wine for sale, and as we were walking, we saw an actual flower bed. :-)

The Sunday market was fun to stroll through. Crazy crowded, but still a fun little adventure. Lots of colors with all of the different flowers, vegetables, anddifferent sausages too!

This is Cordes. High on a hill. Picturesque.

France...with friends...was fantastic! Thanks to the G's for being
such wonderful hosts!!



Better late than never...right!?!?

Hello friends! My blogging hiatus is over. Hopefully. I'm trying to get caught up with some pictures and added a few to the right sidebar on here. I realized I never blogged about my April spring break trip to Barcelona last year. So, I'll roll out a condensed version of that now. And then, I promise, I'll get to blogging more about random things from here in Morocco. You can yell at me if I don't.

If you have never been to Barcelona, Spain...I recommend a visit. I spent 5 or 6 days there (can't remember for sure), and you wouldn't need that many to really 'see' Barca. Although I was definitely not bored during my time there. Apparenty before they got the bid for the '92 Olympics, Barcelona wasn't much of a tourist attraction. The Olympics basically revitalized the city and increased their tourism as a result. The city has a good vibe, and definitely seems geared more towards entertaining the 20-something generation. So, I fit right in. :)

Highlights included the following, in no particular order...
1) Antoni Gaudi. Architecht/artist. This man, was a genius....ahead of his time in design and creativity. His style is something you won't see anywhere else. They say his work  was marked by the four passions of his life: architecture, nature, religion and his love for Catalonia (a nationality recognized within Spain). He worked with everything from wrought ironwork, to stained glass, to ceramics. He introduced new ways to treat some of these materials as well. All I can say is that I have never seen anything like the stuff he created. Magical. He also didn't believe in really 'sketching' his designs. Instead, he would actually build miniature three dimensional models of everything. Seven of his works have been declared World Heritage sites. His masterpiece is the Sagrada Familia, a jaw-dropping cathedral like nothing you've ever seen. He designed it, starting in 1883. And it is still not complete. Rick Steves (travel guid extraordinaire) says that if there's one building he wants to see in his liftime, it's a FINISHED version of the Sagrada Familia. It is an ongoing project, being funded partially by money from tourists. I paid the money to climb go to the top where you could see men in ropes and harnesses 'flying' all over the place in construction hats. Crazy.


One view, from the outside



One design outside...depicting the scene of Jesus' birth

Looking up inside the Sagrada. Pillar design is amazing. Like trees...

You get the idea. It is amazing. Period.

Gaudi has some other really amazing architecture in the city. He designed a park, and some other buildings as well. See the pics below.

Park bench that is ergonomically designed for comfort. And individually tiled for beauty.

Casa Mila

Not a lot of normal 'edges or corners' in his designs

(I have decided I'm not going to actually number things or drone on with this post. Partly because I've forgotten the names of some of the places. And partly because I'm bored with this post that I started a week ago and want to get it done. So, I'm just going to give a bit of information and then put pictures on. Cool? I thought so.)

Montjuic Park  is where the main venues for the '92 Olympics were located. And there was a castle up here too. Castles are always cool. We don't see many of them in the Midwest.

Montjuic castle

Lance was here. :)

Some fast people ran on this track.

Some of the streets and buildings were just picturesque. 

Just a little street cafe

We even managed to find a pub crawl one evening. Flaming shots!

I think it was called a "Boy Scout" shot. Yes, those are marshmallows
on the ends of the long sticks. Yum!

love the colors

There was a cool open market with pork hanging everywhere (exciting to see pork when you live in a Muslim country and don't get to eat it very often).




There always seem to be funny signs. I guess people who come to the states probably laugh at our signs too. Which is OK. Turnabout is fair play...  



Careful! You might get a shot of lightning to your mid-
section. And, no swimming.



Don't climb on this wall
or you might fall awkwardly
on your head and shoulder



So, that was my trip to Barcelona in a nutshell. Met some great people along the way from Scotland, Australia, the States, and elsewhere. And, had a great time exploring a great city with Danni and Jenny. :)

My Golf 'Date'

Earlier this year, one of the boys in my class was asking about me playing golf. We talked about this briefly, and he informed me that he golfs as well. He even plays in tournaments. A few weeks ago, he asked if I would maybe want to golf with him sometime here in Casablanca or the surrounding area. I told him that I didn't have clubs here or anything, but if I could rent some, I would love to golf with him.  This led to him asking for my height in centimeters so that he could find me proper fitting clubs to rent. (He later told me they were one cm too short, but hopefully they would work ok. He does not know that A) I have never been 'fitted' for clubs before in my life, and B) that the clubs I play with at home were given to me by an ex-boyfriend 14 some years ago. Let's just say the clubs I played with last Saturday were a bit of an upgrade...) We had sort of decided that we were going to make this 'golf date' happen on a Saturday. I was home sick from school on that Friday, and we hadn't had a chance to work out all of the details yet. So, I typed up a note for my assistant to give to him with my phone number on it. A bit of a sidenote here, but I must also tell you (if him getting my club measurements wasn't enough of a clue) that RZ is a very organized, rule-following kid. Details do not go unnoticed with him. He is just that kind of kid. With that said...  On that Friday, I went to workout at the gym and returned home to find that he had called me 10 times already. Every 1-2 minutes. I got the impression he was excited about this golf outing! I called him back and he had an answer to every one of the questions I had listed on the paper. I asked how much this was going to cost, and he said 'Nothing. It is already taken care of. I have clubs ready for you and a caddy.'  After I giggled a bit at the thought of having a caddy, I asked where we were playing and what time so that I could try to figure out my taxi situation. And he then informed me that he and his driver would pick me up. We decided to meet at the Twin Center at 8:00am, and they would pick me up there. All set.

Saturday morning, I'm walking up to the Twin at about 7:55 (those of you who know me, know that I'm a very punctual person), and RZ (his initials) calls. Mind you, I'm not late. He just wanted to assure me that he and his driver were there waiting for me. They were actually out of the car walking around to make sure they hadn't missed me, even though I told him on the phone that I would be there in 3 minutes. :)  Too funny.

It was a nice, 9-hole course in Casablanca. Royal Anfa something-or-other. The King has a villa that overlooks the course. And there's a horse track around it as well where he runs his Arabian horses I guess. RZ filled me in on all of this. We did see some of the horses going for light training runs while we were playing. They also had a John Deere tractor out there grooming the track. (Which almost felt like I was back at Tara Hills Country Club watching the tractors drive by out on the stretch of blacktop that runs by the first three holes. Almost. But not really.) RZ had also arranged for us to hit driving range balls first, as I had told him I would probably need to warm up since I hadn't golfed in a year. My caddy (seriously...how cool is that? I had a caddy. Who handed me clubs. And chased down errant shots. And teed up my ball. And high-fived me and gave me thumbs up on nice shots. And didn't laugh at me on my bad shots. Granted, he was Moroccan and spoke no English, so it's not like he was going to chastise my golf game a whole lot during these 18 holes. He did very well communicating non verbally, especially on the crazy-lucky shot I had on one hole where he went over to the other caddy to express excitedly about the shot I had somehow pulled off that landed me within 5 feet of the hole. It was hilarious.) handed me clubs and set balls down for me to hit off the artificial grass mat. I actually felt bad not bending over and getting my own balls out of the little bucket. Yet, I let him do it for me anyway.

Apparently the grandstand where people sit to watch the horses.

Looking down the first fareway

Eventually, RZ and I made our way to the first tee with our caddies. We were also going to be playing with an older Moroccan gentleman. He turned out to be very nice, but a horrible golfer. I heard this gentleman talking to RZ and then heard 'professor' in the conversation and realized he was telling the man that I was his teacher (they were speaking in French). I then got to thinking about how odd it probably looked to have me out there golfing with an 11-year old kid on this course that is predominantly male. And mostly Moroccan males. Not that I cared...but I bet a lot of the guys out there playing were a bit curious about our 'pairing'.

We played. Not always well, but sometimes. We jawed back and forth a bit. I got RZ to smile and laugh and not take everything so seriously, which is something we've been working on all year in class as well. By the end of our 18 holes he was able to laugh about his bad shots just like I did, and he was giving me a hard time while keeping track of who won each hole. I think he also must have told me at least five times how much fun he was having or asking me if I was having fun. And then suggesting that we do it again next year when we are back in school. He is such a great kid. I loved spending the morning out on the course with him. We ended our golf day with his driver taking us to Pizza Hut. I insisted on at least paying for half of our pizza, even though his mom had said she wanted to pay for us to go to lunch as well. I figured it was the least I could do. :) And, hopefully we WILL do this again next year. My first golf outing in Morocco was most definitely a success, even if my scorecard did not show it!

Walking across the horsetrack to leave.

Aaah, Pizza Hut. :)