Fes Encore

Bonjour!

Just received another cool photo of our desert trek (camels!) from Amy. This really gives you a sense of what it looked like. It was amazing.

We just had a great time hanging out with Ellie, Eric and baby Inez, who stayed with us for a week. With E, E and I, we made our way back to Fes for the weekend, and it was just as magical as ever. This time, I did more shopping -- and can I just say that I love shopping! Well, to be more precise, I love buying! Particularly in exotic places that have totally distinctive objets d'art that are pas tres cher (at least by Western standards). Let's just say, my Christmas shopping has begun. (Some of you should be quite pleased).

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take my vegetarian Moroccan cooking class as planned. La prochaine fois! (Next time).

All's well here. I've started a new French class (much better. I'll have to write a post just about the old one). Anna begins working with my French tutor today (once a week to capitalize on her improvements at school). Tommy is working with Bob on his French. And Bob, well, Bob is doing the usual Bob things -- working on papers, studying Arabic, completing some sort of committee report for CU.

On the pet front, you'll be happy to hear that Hercules and Persephone continue to mate on a very regular basis. It's quite something to see. No eggs yet, at least that we can find. And no kittens yet for Fluffy, although she is certainly looking quite fluffy around the middle. But we have discovered a tiny gekko living in our kitchen, now named "Ellie", which brings our "pet" total to 8, pending some imminent(?) births.

I'll work on getting Anna to post her update. She's way overdue for that.

A bientot,

Kim

Camels!

Bonjour!

I'm sure you've all been eagerly anticipating photos of our Sahara visit.

Voila!
(Well, at least it's a start. We had some camera issues on this trip).

Anyway, we had a fabulous time traveling with Terry, Amy, Charlie and Camille to Fes, and then later, to the Sahara, Tinihir and Ouarzazate.

Fes is just as fascinating as when Bob and I first came here on our honeymoon nearly 17 years ago. We stayed in a riad with a great view of the medina and nearby hillside from the terrace, and had a lovely meal there. The next morning, the eight of us headed out on a tour with Ali, our guide, who explained the decorations and symbolism of the tile work and carving in the medersas (Islamic religious schools), took us to the various souks, and brought us to a little preschool where three year and four year olds stood promptly when asked and recited at length from the Koran. Bob called it the best tour ever.

After the tour, some of us brave folk had the "black powder treatment" at an herbal shop (to clear our sinuses and prevent snoring -- at least we hope that's what it did). Then we had lunch at a place that serves the best banana/date/almond milkshakes in the world, and, according to Charlie, also serves a tasty camel burger with fries.

On Saturday, after we met our surly driver for the next four days (the one unfortunate part of trip), we headed south to the desert, stopping along the way to see some monkeys that were quite used to tourists (see photo).


Once we arrived in the desert, we headed off into the sunset on camel (well, sort of, as the sun was sinking fast, but we were headed east).

Happily, riding a camel was a lot more fun than I anticipated, although 1 1/2 hours was plenty of time on a camel -- I don't think I could handle a multi-day trek or even one full day on a camel. When we arrived at our site, the candles were already lit, the tents (made of a hodgepodge of colorful carpets and blankets) were ready, and our dinner had been prepared. The tents even had mattresses with fresh sheets and blankets, although the pillows were far from soft. Early the next morning, most of us climbed a large dune -- hard work going up -- to watch the sun rise over the desert.

After the desert, we visited the Todra Gorge, spent a night in Tinihir, and ended up in Ouarzazate, staying in a magical dar (old guesthouse much like a riad but a closed house around an open courtyard), where we had one of the best meals yet in Morocco -- amazing olives in fresh herbs, delicious vegetarian pastilla, fresh apple cake/torte, and, for the meat-eaters, camel kefti -- or camel meatballs (Anna said they tasted like very well-prepared beef). After dinner, Amy and I had our first hammam, which included some pretty vigorous scrubbing -- or gommage -- by our attendants. I still have one bruise I blame on that gommage.

The last day was a long travel day home, via Marrakech. We'll try to post more photos later, with less text (Anna again says I wrote too much, but then she hasn't been writing much at all!).

Au revoir,

Kim

Our Menagerie

Bonjour,

This is Tommy.

We have seven animals here at our house in Rabat. We have three stray cats, two tortoises, a hamster and a bird.

Dad said we could get pets if we got 100 points for doing well at school. So, when we got 100 points, we went to the medina and looked at three pet shops. Anna got a bird at the first pet shop. I got a hamster at the last shop.

This is my hamster, Coco. She is not as fun as my cousin's hamster. My cousin's hamster does anything he wants. Coco doesn't.

These are the tortoises, Hercules and Persephone. At first, we thought Persephone was a boy and named her Perseus. But then Dad said when he bought her at the medina, they told him it was a girl. Hercules was already here when we bought Persephone. He and Persephone mated yesterday, and we think Persephone will lay eggs.

Here is Anna's bird. Anna's bird is a boy, and his name is Billy. Billy is at the stage of just getting on Anna's finger but not going out of the cage.

Finally, there are three cats we feed: Bub (the orange one), Fluffy (on my lap in the picture at the top), and Star (the white/tabby in the close-up).

Bub is very skinny but eats twice as much as the other two (and he's getting bigger fast).

Star is very timid. When the cats first started coming over to our house, Bub started scaring her away, but he has stopped now.

We think Fluffy is pregnant and that Bub is the proud father. We think that Fluffy used to be someone's house cat because she jumps on everybody's lap.

Au revoir,

Tommy

Morning Greetings

Bonjour!

It's another beautiful day in Rabat, Morocco, as Bob likes to say.

Actually it's a bit overcast, but still springtime-warm: Anna and Tommy went off to school today in shorts (Anna's were more like cropped pants).

We had a great time earlier this week with the Amy, Terry, Camille and Charlie when they came to stay with us in Rabat. They left for Fes yesterday, and we join them tomorrow for a couple of nights in a riad before we start our adventure to the Saharan desert. (Yes, Bob is going to get to ride his camel. Since I'm sure few of you will want to miss seeing this important event, we'll definitely post some pictures. BTW, my prediction is that riding camels will be fun for about 10-15 minutes, after which it will quickly become much less fun).

I'm hoping to have a special blog from a guest writer later today. We'll see what I can do! In the meantime, here are a few more photos for you.... The photos include a couple of pictures of the holy city of Moulay Idriss (one of the two photos shows the mausoleum of Moulay Idriss, with the green roof, an important site for Muslims), an example of the incredibly intact stone mosaics we saw in Volubilis, a couple of pictures of Anna and Tommy in Volubilis, and a picture of Camille from Sunday with one of our "pet" cats, Fluffy.

A bientot!

Hi!

It is Anna and Camille (one of our guests).
Camille and her family came here on Sunday and since then have visited the beach and the Kasbah, as well as spent some time in Paul's, a delicious cafe.

Camille says that her favorite place has been the beach. Though she also really liked the the Kasbah with all of its storks. h
Last Wednesday, Tommy and I got pets, a beautiful bird (Billy) for me, and a Hamster, (Cocoa) for Tommy. Since then, we have spent a lot of time working on getting our new pets to trust us.

Morocco is, as always, beautiful but the weather is becoming hotter, as Camille and her family have discovered. And school is getting easier. Our French is really improving and (hopefully) will continue to improve.

That is all for now, but I will make sure that either my Mom or I do another update soon.

Beautiful Green Morocco and Ms. W Has Arrived

Bonjour,

It's springtime in Morocco, which means the countryside has become even more beautiful. After all of the rain, the next couple of months are likely to be filled with flowers and lots of green. Here is a picture, taken from a moving car window, of the countryside. As Amy says, it looks like Ireland here.

Speaking of Ms. W., she's been here with us for a week now, searching with me (with mixed results) for good vegetarian food. Last weekend, we traveled to Moulay Idriss (a holy city atop two different hills, which had been largely closed to non-Muslims until recently) and Volubilis (extensive Roman ruins near Moulay Idriss and Meknes with intact stone mosaics). This gives you a taste of Volubilis.


Amy also got to meet our friends Khahil and Lamia (I'm sure I am misspelling Lamia's name) on Saturday, when we had coffee, tea and crepes at their home. Here is Amy, Lamia and me at Lamia's lovely apartment. The other picture is Lamia, Khahil and their boys, some of our good new friends in Morocco (Tarek is one of Tommy's buddies at school).

Finally, here are some pictures of us goofing off after dinner, as Anna, Tommy and me make Amy listen to our repeated renditions of our favorite scene from Austin Powers. Most inappropriate dinner conversation.















As Anna says, TTFN.

A Birthday in Paris

Bonjour!

So, it's been a while, and we're long overdue for a post. We're in Paris, and it's March 4th, the day after my birthday.

Needless to say, a birthday in Paris is a good thing -- especially when you divide up your "mini-tours" of the Louvre with stops at cafes, wonderful shops (with lots of shopping for me, the birthday girl), an English-book bookstore with a great selection of books, and a good restaurant. A Parisian woman even told me yesterday that "vous parlez francais tres bien" (not really true and part of her successful effort to sell me stuff, but nice to hear nonetheless). But maybe I didn't really need that second glass of wine last night.... March 4th is not as much fun as March 3rd.

We're staying in an apartment in a lively section of the city, which is great because it means that we can have a break from eating out (and a break from paying too much to eat out) and cook some meals in our apartment. We've done a lot of sightseeing -- and the kids have actually been getting into the museums. Thanks to the Percy Jackson books, Tommy was particularly interested in the Greek antiquities at the Louvre (at one point, he told us not to rush him because he "wasn't finished," as he walked around with the media guide, studying the sculptures). We've climbed to the second stage of the Eiffel Tower, spent a lot of time at the Pompidou Center, and did a very thorough tour of the outside of Notre Dame (which took nearly an hour before we bailed. I'm sure the tour of the inside of the church was just as good, but the kids had had enough, so a quick trip inside had to suffice).

Before Paris, we had an eventful trip to Brugge (another story for another day, but you can ask Bob about our run-in with the psychotic restaurant man), a quiet stay in Groningen, Holland (where it rained a lot, and Bob gave a talk), a lovely stay in Amsterdam (a close rival to Paris for my affections -- but maybe that's because I found a cool coat to buy there -- more shopping! -- and found the Anne Frank museum even more moving/affecting than I imagined), and a surprisingly enjoyable trip to Brussels (we didn't know it was such a pretty city -- if you go, be sure to visit the Music/Instruments Museum, where you can hear recordings of many of the 7000 instruments that they have collected from around the world -- instruments dating back many hundreds of years).

We're all well, and plan to see a bit more of Paris, including a trip to Versailles tomorrow, before we return to Rabat on Saturday.

A bientot,

Kim

The photos: Kim shopping in Amsterdam, and then Kim after shopping in Paris, by the Louvre. Bob and Tommy by the Arc de Triomphe. Anna goofing around in a cafe after drinking a full cup of Italian hot chocolate.