Home, for Now

I made a short video tour of my homestay family's house. I've got to say, I got a pretty awesome house as well as an awesome family. To give credit, I got this video idea from Faye. Thanks!

Trips to Azrou and the Sahara Desert

This past week I made two separate trips to towns south of Fez. First, I made a trip to Azrou with the rest of the Fulbrighters and the two Fulbright coordinators. We did A LOT of talking. We rode the bus there for two hours, and talked. We ate lunch, and talked. We took a four hour hike through a forest outside Azrou (with a monkey sighting!), and talked all through that. Can you guess what we did all through dinner, breakfast , and our one-hour planned discussion? We mostly just got to know our coordinators better and listened to their wisdom about Morocco and Fulbright research. I was pretty tired after this trip, and it was not all due to the fresh mountain air we enjoyed that day. Our walk in the woods (above)

If you look really hard, there's a monkey in that tree (below)

Then the next day, we had a marathon of language classes. Since all the Fulbrighters had been pulled out of class the day before for the Azrou trip, we had to make up the hours. So Friday morning we had class from 8-1. Then we immediately jumped on another bus to begin our weekend trip to the Sahara.

Our fancy hotel on Friday night, by the pool (above) and from the roof (below)

On Saturday afternoon we arrived in Marzouga which is located right on the edge of the Sahara desert. Just before sunset, we mounted camels (all 30 of us) and rode off into the desert towards our “hotel” for the night. Two hours later, with a very sore bum (camels are NOT comfortable), we arrived at an area of tents. It was very dark by then, so we stumbled off our camels and to the tables where dinner would be served. By candle light, we ate Moroccan salad (corn, potatoes, beets, rice, carrots, tomatoes, tuna, and cucumber) and a beef omelet with bread. After some drumming and dancing from our Bedouin guides, some of us decided to venture out from the tent area to see the night sky.

A few of the guides decided to come with us (I think they are super paranoid about losing people in the desert), and they suggested we climb up the tall sand dune right next to our tent area. It’s really dark out there, so I had absolutely no idea just how tall this dune was. We began to climb and it quickly became apparent that climbing dunes is HARD. For every step you take, you slide back down the sand about ¾ of a step. I climbed for quite awhile and was pretty exhausted (but so glad, I think my aerobics classes are paying off!). I looked up and I couldn’t really tell how much further it was, but it couldn't be that far, right? I kept going. Slowly, slowly, slowly, I started to made out bodies sitting at the top. Slowly, resting, slowly, resting. By the end, I had resorted to basically crawling up on all fours—I was too tired to balance upright in the sand. Finally, I inched to the top! I immediately swore I was not coming down off the top until it was time to leave the next morning—I had worked too hard to just head down now.

Unfortunately, a hour or two later the guides disagreed with this plan and they told us to make our way back down. Going down a sand dune is SO MUCH easier and SO MUCH fun! You do what is called “Berber skiing,” where you sit on your butt with your feet in the air, then someone grabs your feet and runs down the dune. You get sand EVERYWHERE but its completely worth it.

In the morning, the guides woke us up to watch the sunrise—my absolute favorite part of my first trip to the Sahara back in 2007. The sunrise was gorgeous, but I think conquering the sand dune tops my list this time around.

Aerobics, Taxis, and More

As of now, I thinking and planning of staying in Fez (the city I am currently in) for the entire length of my stay in Morocco—14 months. As this is the case, I have a very different outlook than if I was staying here for only 3 or 6 months. I have lots of time.

Thus, I do not feel an urge to travel every weekend or visit all the tourist attractions in the next month. I am more interested right now in setting up my life and trying to figure out, to some extent, what it will look like for the next year.

Last week I signed up for aerobics classes at a gym near my homestay family’s house. I go three days a week to an all-women’s class (no men are allowed even near the place during this time) and so far, I really love it. It feels good to have a schedule (other than the grueling four hours of language class every morning), and it feels good to have a consistent workout. Also, it is fun to see a side of Moroccan women I have never seen before. These women wear spandex from head to toe, and they thrust their hips, and after the class they shower together.

Something else I have spent a lot of time doing these past few weeks is learning how to hail a taxi in Fez. It has taken practice and patience and lots of observation to understand how the “system” works here. To back up and explain a little bit—I live near the old city and it is a short cab ride (around 2 miles) to my school in the new city. Now there are special taxi stands in both areas that will take you from one to the other for only 3 dirhams (30 cents) instead of paying for the full fare of nearly 9 dirhams. However, the taxi stand in the new city is almost always full of people all going to the old city and, as Moroccans are not fond of lines or waiting their turn, it takes some finesse to get in a cab.

First, you walk up and just stand around the taxi stand for the first few cabs that show up. Don’t even try to get in the cabs because people will just push you out of the way. But after awhile, people take note that you have been there awhile (one advantage of sticking out like a sore thumb here), that maybe it’s almost your turn. So the next few cabs that show up, you attempt to get in the cabs. Most likely, you still won’t be successful—but have patience and don’t show any frustration—everyone else at the stand is taking note of your behavior. If you show any frustration, they will not respect you. If you remain calm, you look like an expert. Insha’allah (God willing) you will have a cab soon. Before you know it, a cab stops right in front of you. You grab the door handle, and somehow nobody fights you for it—you have earned it! Then you’ve got yourself a cab!

But of course, Fridays is a different story. Everyone wants to get home for special Friday lunch, so all the rules above no longer apply. I take the bus on Fridays :)

Mailing Address

Here is my mailing address from now until probably February. I will most likely have an apartment by then and will post that address when I get it.

Stacy Pancratz
The Arabic Language Institute in Fez
P.O. Box 2136
Ville Nouvelle, Fez 30000
Morocco

Apparently it takes 1 to 2 weeks to mail something from Europe, so I imagine mailing something from the U.S. is comparable or even longer.