Fez!


It’s official, I am Peace Corps Volunteer. I spent the last week in Fez to swear in as a Volunteer which of course was great. It was great to be in a big city for a few days. The medina there is amazing, the oldest and largest in the world I believe. We somehow found our way to the tanneries in the medina and of coursed managed to get lost for a while afterwards. It was all very good though, we tried to go out and enjoy the city. It was great to just roam around and feel the pace of the environment. It was also good to have McDonanald’s… yeah, I went there and it was damn good. I also went to Marjan (a chain of stores only in very large towns in Morocco). I experienced just a little culture shock when I walked in there… it’s huge, and you can get everything there, it’s a giant supermarket meets Walmart. I suppose Fez was really a good break from everything, for a second I almost felt like I had left Morocco, you know minus the constant catcalls and all.
The bad thing about swearing in was simply saying good bye to everyone. We were a group of 67 in Fez, no I’m down to a group of 1, me. Well, not exactly since I do have two site mates who are really cool. I am currently in Rich, I’ll travel to my town tomorrow morning. Finally, I can unpack my bags and call a place home. I’m very happy to be done with hauling it all around but it comes with the sadness of no longer being in training with my friends. So it goes.
Thanksgiving was great the other trainees made us a fabulous meal. We were all very impressed; everything from turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and green beans to apple crisp and pumpkin pie. It was cold and rainy in Fez the whole time we were there which just made it feel all the more like it was really Thanksgiving… or fall or winter or whatever.
So I stayed in Errachidia last night, when we arrived there it was a complete downpour. People say it hasn’t rained there like that in years. It was crazy; just imagine 10 or 15 volunteers getting off this bus right as it’s getting dark, being absolutely soaked from the rain which is just beating down, and then trying to carry all their baggage to the hotel 2 blocks away. I dragged my bags through huge puddles of mud and managed to get soaking wet. I was freezing all night long, this of course didn’t help my efforts to get over my current cold… yup it’s the second one since I’ve been here. It’s definitely pretty cold here and apparently it has already begun to snow at my site. Brrrrr.
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!