The Long Ride Home

Part 2
     After spending the night in Merzouga, we were ready to get on with our adventures. We were on the road by 5:30 a.m. the next morning in order to commence our long road trip back toward Casablanca. Once again, the driving alone allowed us to see some pretty spectacular views.

photo credit: CCR

photo credit: CCR

     We drove from Merzouga directly to the Dades Gorge. We maneuvered up some intense hairpin roads until we reached the top of the gorge, where we were able to enjoy the view while sipping mint tea and coffee.

     From the Dades Gorge, we drove through El Kelaa McGouna (Also known as the Valley of Roses). This area of Morocco is famous for its rose-growing industry. The town hosts an annual rose festival close to harvest time; and they specialize in manufacturing quality rose products such as rose water and perfumes. Unfortunately, we did not pass through this area in season. If we had, perhaps we could have seen something like this:

a picture that we wish we could have taken

We did, however, see this on our drive toward the Valley of Roses:

     After passing through the Valley of Roses we drove to Ouarzazate, Morocco. Just outside of Ouarzazate is a small Berber village famous in the world of movie productions. The Mummy, Gladiator, and Kingdom of Heaven are just three well-known movies which were filmed in this area. The sets are no longer in place; however, there are props and pictures of the film productions everywhere. David and Chris had fun pretending to be Gladiators in the precise area where the arena was built for the film.

photo credit: CCR

    Two straight hours of hairpin mountain roads, two police pullovers for speeding, zero tickets, and five squatty potty experiences later, we eventually made it back to Casablanca with our rental car intact. To conclude this incredible trip, Nicole went with the ladies to the Hammam for a truly refreshing and much needed scrub. Lastly, we cranked up the Christmas music and put up the Christmas tree and decorations!

-David & Nicole

Thanksgiving "Desert"

     This year, we celebrated Thanksgiving without family, football, turkey, green bean casserole, or pies.... and we had a blast! There are certain beauties in this world that cameras cannot quite capture; and this trip allowed us to see hundreds of those beautiful sights. While our pictures may seem amazing, they do not do justice in capturing the true magnificence of God's creation as we experienced it.
     Our Thanksgiving adventure began with a 2-day, 12-hour drive to the Sahara Desert. We left immediately after school ended on Wednesday (November 21). The drive alone, in spite of the windy mountain-side roads, was absolutely beautiful.

photo credit: CCR

photo credit: CCR

     Upon arrival in the Sahara on Thanksgiving day, we mounted camels and rode 1.5 hours into the dunes to a secluded camp site. Camels walk rather strangely, and we were all quite sore from the ride...but it was worth it. Tents were set up for us to sleep in that night. Surprisingly, we stayed relatively warm even though the temperature reached as low as 57 degrees Fahrenheit.

photo credit: CCR

photo credit: CCR

      After watching the sunset and gazing at the stars, we were served mint tea along with a meal of soup and mystery meat Tagine (we're still not sure exactly what we ate). To make the meal slightly more "Thanksgivingish", Nicole did bring cranberry sauce. Carolyn also contributed pumpkin bread to the meal.

photo credit: CCR

     We were crazy enough to wake up at 6:00 a.m. the next morning, in the frigid weather, to catch the sunrise. It was beautiful! Again, our pictures do little to capture the colors of this experience.

     Our Sahara camel trek concluded with a delicious breakfast and 1.5 more bumpy hours on the backs of the camels. After showering and resting at the hotel, we went on a brief exploration of Merzouga with our friends Carolyn and Chris. With Lonely Planet as our guide, we saw some ancient ruins and ate some highly recommended, yet not very tasty, Moroccan calzones.

    Of course, we had several other adventures between this conclusion of our Thanksgiving camel trek and the end of our vacation (Sunday night). However, for the sake of sparing you a post twice this long to recount all of our adventures, you will have to visit our blog again in a few days for part 2.

-David & Nicole

Lunar New Year

    Today marks the first day of Muharram (Islamic New Year). Unlike American holidays, Muharram is based on a lunar calendar. The specific date of the holiday is literally uncertain until the moment that the crescent moon appears in the sky, because the moon is the only sure means of affirming that the new month has begun.
     You would think that the scientific technology which is readily available would suffice as a means of verifying the official dates of lunar holidays such as Muharram; however, it is apparently preferred to use only traditional methods (moon gazing). Muslims will annually predict which date Muharram might fall on; however, nobody really knows what day the holiday will fall on until they see the moon.
     This year, Muharram was predicted to fall on Thursday, November 15th. The official GWA calendar sent out at the start of the school year marked November 15th as a day off school in observation of the Islamic New Year. Nevertheless.... by Tuesday (November 13th), it became suddenly unclear as to whether or not the prediction of Muharram would be correct or not. Everyone was taking bets on whether the holiday would fall on Thursday (as predicted) or Friday, November 16th.
    GWA responded to this uncertainty with an e-mail informing staff members that the school would only be closed for one day and one day only in observation of Muharram. If the New Year was on Thursday, there would be no school on Thursday. If the New Year was on Friday, there would be no school on Friday. The e-mail concluded by saying, "Please refer to your local news casts for information concerning the actual day of the New Year."

    FYI: the phrase "local news cast" in Morocco means something vastly different than it would in America. While there is maybe one local news station, the vast majority of the foreign hire staff (including us) do not own a television. Furthermore, those who do own a television are limited by the fact that the news broadcasts are in French/Arabic only. For this reason, our only source of "local news" was talking to the local Moroccans in cafes and "hanuts".
     On Wednesday, we continually checked our school e-mail in anticipation of finding out for certain whether we would have school the next day or not. Dave went to a local Cafe to watch a soccer game at 8:00PM, but when he left an hour later even the Moroccans could not affirm when the holiday would be since the moon had not yet been spotted. Ultimately, we did not get official notice of the holiday until 10:00PM on Wednesday night. We were told that the holiday would fall on Friday...so there would be school on Thursday after all.
     So... Nicole had to reschedule a 3rd grade parent event/celebration (concluding a writing project) which was planned for Friday, postpone a test, and wake up to teach on Thursday with absolutely no lesson plans prepared. There were also a lot of absences due to the fact that the official school calendar had originally marked Thursday as a day off school.

Lesson learned through this experience: Lunar holidays test your ability to be flexible. In the end, everything turned out just fine in spite of the initial frustration of not knowing what day we had to work. We decided to celebrate the start of Muharram (and the start of our unexpected 3-day weekend) by going to the new James Bond movie at the IMAX.

Any bets on what day Muharram will fall on next year? ;)

-David & Nicole

Cirque Amar

     We have recently been on back-to-back vacations due to the Eid Al Adha and the teacher MAIS conference in Portugal. We were financially unable to swing an extravagant vacation away from Casablanca for these vacations; however, we have recently started to experience a lot of stress and frustration (which can likely be attributed to year two culture shock)...so we knew that we needed to take the time to really relax and enjoy this vacation. 

     Our solution to managing our "culture shock" stress without being able to leave Casablanca was to plan an extraordinary date night to the circus! This endeavor turned out to be especially memorable because Nicole ended up being pulled onto the stage to preform in one of the circus acts! It was a really unique and fun experience.

    We must preface the remainder of this post by saying that photos were strictly "interdit" at the circus. Since Nicole doesn't speak French; however, we decided to take plenty of "interdit" photos in order to enjoy our night to the fullest. Just don't tell anyone. ;)

 

     We splurged on 1st class seats, not realizing that these seats would be literally touching the center ring where all the performers and animals were! We were so close that we could have easily touched every performer and animal that stepped onto the stage had we wanted to. We saw clowns, acrobats, a seal, horses, zebras, alligators, tigers, dancers, magicians, and so much more. We were thoroughly entertained by all of the acts.

 

     Of course, the most memorable act was the one where Nicole became the new circus star. Four members of the audience were called onto the stage with the clown, but Nicole was the only girl. They were each called up to play various instruments. Naturally, there were hilarious quirks throughout the act. One man had to play the drum...but the drum broke the first time he hit it. Another guy had to play with a rhythm stick...but the clown continuously mocked him for playing it so poorly. Eventually, the clown tied cymbals to his upper thighs and made him use the rhythm sticks and bang the cymbals together with his thighs simultaneously.
    Nicole's instrument was the drums; however, the clown also mocked Nicole for playing so poorly. At the very end, he gave Nicole a porcelain plate to bang on instead of the drums...and she was given a wrench with which to bang it. Obviously, when she was cued to start hitting it, the plate broke. At that point, the men from the audience were allowed to bow and leave the stage, but Nicole was forced to stay on stage while the clown looked at her sternly for breaking the plate. Instead of getting angry though....he pulled out a heart balloon and serenaded her with a hilarious love song. When it was finished, Nicole was gifted with the heart balloon and was applauded off the stage.

     Our extraordinary date night in Casablanca concluded with coffee and dessert at Rick's Cafe. It was delicious!

-Dave & Nicole