wild and crazy travel .. the aftermath continues
A brief list of LA VIE MAROCAINE, AL HAIYAT MAGHREYBI these past few days…
Traveling in the south of Morocco with Anne, an American I met through the immigrant association, CEI. This weekend entailed a good amount of driving on questionably solid mountain roads, pitiful haggling for gifts and souvenirs galore (I finally gave in and shopped like a REAL tourist), and singing along to old southwestern non-politically correct songs on CD. Oh, and LOTS of American English, hamdullah!
Visiting Tanger again, mrra okhra, with one of my favorite Moroccan girls, Asmaa, and staying with her crazy liberal, simultaneous hijaab-wearing-while-shisha-smoking cousins who poked at the fat I gained since last time and nearly married me off to the one man in the house but, thank God, he’s gay. Like I said, crazy. But we went out to a club, had some nice Moroccan- (muslim country!!) made beer that is also telling of the extremes that exist in this country, and danced our asses off to arab hip hop. Fun.
Had my first taste of Europe and was shocked by the shoulders, thighs, and cleavage that I didn’t realize I hadn’t seen in months. Granted I arrived in winter, but still Moroccan women don’t dress to the extreme of the Spanish. I learned a few things:
- A few words here and there in Spanish (although Arabic always tumbles out when I try to actually communicate in Spanish)
- that spain is afraid the muslims will take them over again because there’s a church or enormous cross about every 5 steps
- the Spanish are hippies, write graffiti all over the walls and even anarchy signs, and just chill all day drinking and eating. What other kind of culture gives you cheap beer and free food all day long? And the next mind-boggling question is, what would happen if this tapas trend moved a couple hundred km south into morocco? They’d be even more confused…
- Had an incredible experience visiting this old abbey that had origins in all three monotheistic religions and an amazing story about an attempt by 3 islamic religious scholars to establish peace between muslims and Christians just before spain converted back to Christian rule and just before the inquisition. Unfortunately, they failed and the muslims were exiled and the inquisition proceeded, but it was a breathtaking, inspiring story for peace anyway. If only peace could have been secured centuries ago, then I wouldn’t be brought to tears every other day watching news from Iraq and Israel on al jazeera. If only.
Traveling in the south of Morocco with Anne, an American I met through the immigrant association, CEI. This weekend entailed a good amount of driving on questionably solid mountain roads, pitiful haggling for gifts and souvenirs galore (I finally gave in and shopped like a REAL tourist), and singing along to old southwestern non-politically correct songs on CD. Oh, and LOTS of American English, hamdullah!
Visiting Tanger again, mrra okhra, with one of my favorite Moroccan girls, Asmaa, and staying with her crazy liberal, simultaneous hijaab-wearing-while-shisha-smoking cousins who poked at the fat I gained since last time and nearly married me off to the one man in the house but, thank God, he’s gay. Like I said, crazy. But we went out to a club, had some nice Moroccan- (muslim country!!) made beer that is also telling of the extremes that exist in this country, and danced our asses off to arab hip hop. Fun.
Had my first taste of Europe and was shocked by the shoulders, thighs, and cleavage that I didn’t realize I hadn’t seen in months. Granted I arrived in winter, but still Moroccan women don’t dress to the extreme of the Spanish. I learned a few things:
- A few words here and there in Spanish (although Arabic always tumbles out when I try to actually communicate in Spanish)
- that spain is afraid the muslims will take them over again because there’s a church or enormous cross about every 5 steps
- the Spanish are hippies, write graffiti all over the walls and even anarchy signs, and just chill all day drinking and eating. What other kind of culture gives you cheap beer and free food all day long? And the next mind-boggling question is, what would happen if this tapas trend moved a couple hundred km south into morocco? They’d be even more confused…
- Had an incredible experience visiting this old abbey that had origins in all three monotheistic religions and an amazing story about an attempt by 3 islamic religious scholars to establish peace between muslims and Christians just before spain converted back to Christian rule and just before the inquisition. Unfortunately, they failed and the muslims were exiled and the inquisition proceeded, but it was a breathtaking, inspiring story for peace anyway. If only peace could have been secured centuries ago, then I wouldn’t be brought to tears every other day watching news from Iraq and Israel on al jazeera. If only.
posted by IJA at 6:40 AM
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