updates from al-akhawayn:

i'm settling into a pretty wet pattern of cold feet, interesting enough classes (the professors themselves are very good), figuring out the best meals and when (eggs with cumin in the mornings, pizza in the afternoon, and moroccan food at night, and sandwiches if all else looks bad), waiting for the internet to work, and spending time with people. my roommate nor is very nice, and he's brought me tea from his house to share in our room during these blizzard nights (the only thing i could find to share in return were pictures of me cooking chinese food back in the states). on campus, i have four classes mon + wed, so not much time for anything else. but on tuesdays and thursdays i have two activities: the indian dance club at 7pm- where i'm the only guy- and varsity basketball team at 8pm- dont ask. plus, im still hopeful of that english - arabic speaking group, and playing intramural sports. somebody asked me to be in a play, but i don't think i'll have the time. tomorrow i really need to go to the marché to buy rubber boots, and extension cord (the outlet near my desk doesnt work), and a plastic bowl, fork, and spoon (nor brought a microwave, and we've both been stocking up on ramen).

rabat:

this weekend we were in rabat, which is much more modern than fes. it was pretty shaky weather, but we got some good sun in saturday afternoon (after getting soaked during the morning on the beach). we saw the atlantic, the fortress ouidaya, the kasbah, the andalusian gardens, and the tour hassan II and mausoleum. then the others went to lunch, but i had already eaten so i took an hour walk by myself through the sleepy streets of a simple residential neighborhood near the tour, which was nice and sunny and made me sleepy (i pretty much just looked at the modern building and construction sites and cats). then we met up with my moroccan friends souleimane and ismail, who took us to the chellah (old roman ruins on the other side of town, some dating from 200 BC). that was enough sightseeing for us, we had dinner and spent the night at ismail's house eating delicious home-made almost pastries and enjoying some shisha (that's just tobacco).

my favorite part about rabat was the food in the medina. the item of choice was sandwiches: a halved loaf of warm, round, seeded bread (thus a semicircle), hollowed out and filled with either beef, goat, or other parts of the body (head, feet). i was only able to try the basic beef, because they were out of the rest. but i had a lightly-fried sardine version with a little tomato-olive salsa mixed in, and a chopped-up heart version from an actual restaurant (that was the best). all the sandwiches tasted much better with sprinkled cumin on top, so i kept asking the sellers for some. these tasted much better, too, due to the fact that none cost more than $1.10 US, and about one-and-a-half of these would fill a fairly hungry person right up. hands down, the heart version was the best- tender, smooth, and with a faint smoky flavor.

i put up some pics on facebook again; i guess this will be my routine now when it comes to these blogs. i'm doing pretty good so far i think on keeping this updated :)

best,

sam.