Mysterious Blog of Sin and Intrigue!: What I've Been Doing All This Time...

So I sort of started slacking on the blog front, here is my attempt at making amends to those of you who have been anxiously awaiting a new post! It includes lots of pictures, so keep reading :-)

March! In March a few significant things happened. I took a trip to Tangier with my friend Toure for the weekend, and it was beautiful! We left early on Saturday morning and came back on Sunday night. Tangier has a diverse history because of it's location. The museum inside the kasbah features artifacts and evidence of inhabitance dating back to prehistoric times. It was at different times settled by Berbers, Phoenicians, Romans, the Vandals, the Byzantines, the Visigoths, the Arabs, and the British. So as you can see, Tangier's strategic location on the Mediterranean made it highly sought after in various conquests. From the early 1900's until independence, it was an international zone governed by its own laws. It has a rich Spanish flair because of its proximity, but recently it also has attracted Sub-Saharan refugees and hopeful migrants, and before that Central European and Spanish refugees. On the opposite side of the spectrum, it was once a magnet for American and European writers, ex-pats, exiles, and also a pretty large gay community. Today Tangier belongs to Morocco, but relics of the past remain. St. Andrew's Church is one of those relics. It is the only Anglican Church in Morocco and draws architecturally on Islamic and Christian themes, making for a building like nothing I've ever seen. Toure and I stopped by on Sunday morning to check out the cool cemetary, but ended up meeting a new friend that took us to the places we hadn't seen and gave us a new perspective of Tangier. He was an old ex-pat named Lord Randall and he called us "colonials". He told us all about the history of the cemetary and all the famous people who are buried there. He also introduced us to a man he described as "the richest man in Tangier" and I believed him, because as we were standing there he was approached by several Sub-Saharan migrants and he was handing them very large amounts of cash like it was Monopoly money. These people were appealing to him for the funds needed to get to Spain, Italy, or wherever they were hoping to go to find work. So our new friend Lord Randall liked us so much that he decided to show us around his favorite places, such as the hotel where Leonardo DiCaprio or Russell Crowe stayed while filming in Morocco, or the old British houses that Moroccans just don't like to live in, opting of course for more modern buildings, and also buildings that don't remind them of colonial oppression (that's my guess anyway). He also showed us the place where the script for Casablanca was written, a cafe that really looks like Rick's Cafe because it inspired the set for the movie. After a couple of hours we had to part ways because we had already missed one train and were eager to start the four-hour ride back to Rabat, but we thanked our impromptu tour guide and he told us that if we were ever in Prague, we should look him up at his home there, which he travels to frequently. Ha. So as soon as we got onto the train and settled in for the ride, I realized after sifting through all my overfilled bags that I was missing a very important piece of technology- my Ipod! I called the hotel immediately, and because I was a little freaked out, it took me a few minutes to understand what the concierge was telling me, which was that he had seen us on the street and had tried to give it back! In Morocco, you sort of learn to tune out guys whistling or yelling at you on the street, so I of course didn't respond. After giving me a jokingly hard time, he agreed to hold the ipod for me until I figured out what to do. The next Friday I skipped part of Arabic in order to make the train ride up there and back before it got too late. 8 hours on a train, not ideal, but at least I got it back!

The very next day after I got the Ipod back, we left for the village! But first, pictures from Tangier, as promised....

Our awesome little hotel. Only 50 dh per person per night. I love Morocco.

The garden at the Kasbah museum.

Above the Kasbah

See that land mass, way off in the distance? Yeah, that's Spain.

So follow the slope of that land coming from the right side. Halfway between the tip of that and the end of the frame is the Rock of Gibraltar. Baaarely visible, but you might be able to spot it...