Finally!!

Well, I am finally at a computer. The only problem now is remembering what all I've done for the past week. I finally got out and did some exploring on my own, and that has been going much better I have to admit. Ramadan is also officially over and I donned traditional Moroccan garb and visited all of Redouane's family. We went to Essaouira for a day, we had some guests at the apartment...and I think that's the just of it. Of course I'll go into more detail and I have tons of pictures, so here we go. Also, sorry if it's a bit jumbled, things are probably going to be a bit random.

So I wish I could remember where we were going here to make this picture more interesting, but unfortunately I don't. I do know that this is taken in the hallway, where we tend to take most of our pictures and that I really like it, but probably we were just heading out to grab something to eat. I think it may have been the night we ran a bunch of errands for his mom in preparation to end Ramadan.




Here's another random, this is the street of the apartment...just thought it might help give you an idea when I say I went to the little market, its here.

I went to the Museum of Marrakesh the other day. I must say it was pretty interesting. I got there early, and so there weren't hardly any other people in there yet, so that is always more enjoyable.

I love the museums here because they're all in restored palaces so not only are the things inside the museum interesting, but the museums themselves are really pretty, too. Lots of tiles and carvings and basins all over the place and make sure you watch your step or you'll walk right into one. I really liked this artist......is it just a blob of color??or is it a bunch of horsemen riding through the desert searching for their lost loves?

And these were quite lovely too, bronze with bright colors and pretty writing...The museum opens up into this enormous courtyard which used to be open, but obviously to protect the art, is now enclosed...complete with three basins and the biggest lantern I have ever seen in my life. Unfortunately, the lighting was pretty horrible.

Looking out through some stained glass, you can see the lantern in the tiny blue smidgen there in the center...

So I've come to realise that things are not ever clearly marked and you kind of just wander around until you see an Interdit (i.e. don't go in there) sign. So, when I ended up inside what seemed like the underbelly of this musem with bare concrete walls and doors that I had to duck through and no apparant direction whatsover, I was about to turn back when I saw this lone little picture here tucked away in the farthest reaches of the museum... I felt a little sorry for it.

Of course no post is complete without a picture of a door, so here's one. And it's a lovely red, too.
A little bit of iron...

A cosy little cushined hideaway...

And a doorknob...
I finished the whole museum in about a half an hour, but I'd spent¨$4 so I parked it right here and watched the tourists for a while. Believe me, they're generally as entertaining as the art is. Shortly after I sat down this place was bursting with people, but I luckily was able to grab a quick photo before they all got there.

I finally headed out of there and made my way through the souks back to Jamade. I passed this place on my way...I forgot the name now, it's in my book, but I paused to take a picture and have a friendly local point be back towards the souks. What exactly are the souks, you say? Well, I finally have some pictures to go with what I've been trying to explain. Redouane and I did some shopping later that day to get some stuff for the holiday, and I spent the day playing tourist with a camara. A blurry but interesting photo of a jewelry shop. Beads everywhere, covering every surface. You can see how tiny it is.
I have never seen so many people in the medina. I'm not kidding, you couldn't move...people were pushing and shoving and basically fighting their way through, everyone trying to buy all there last minute stuff because Ramadan was going to finish the next day, and the big celebration was going to take place. Basically imagine Wal-Mart on Christmas Eve. Yeah, a bit like that.

We stopped to buy some babouches for his family and I took a bunch of pictures...they come in colors.... And neutrals... and with pretty swirly designs... Any kind you could possibly want, they have...

So we got everything we needed, ran a few errands, and the next day was the end of Ramadan. The feeling in the city was a bit like Christmas morning...I hope I don't offend anyone comparing a Muslim holiday to a Christian holiday, but I simply want to express the ambiance. We woke to the smell of food cooking, which was new for this trip, and we watched to morning service at a mosque on t.v., then we got all dressed up and in town everyone was wearing their new clothes and no one was fighting and we stopped to buy some safety pins for my scarf and the lady was kind enough to even put it on for me...Please, no one freak out...
...it was my decision to wear the traditional djelleba and scarf for the occassion. We started at his mom's house where his mom started crying when she saw me. We did the customary kiss kiss both cheek thing and I didn't think she was ever going to let go...I swear she kissed me at least 20 times, which I didn't mind at all, it was really sweet. She had to go in the other room to wipe her face off she was crying so hard. It was really touching to see how much this simple thing meant to her and I was glad to see her so happy. His little brother Hafid looked surprised too and everyone just kind of stared at me for a while until I got out the gifts. I brought more poprocks for Hafid...he loved them last time and immediately tore into them. We all had fun writing on a crayola wonder pad I brought that writes on black paper with clear ink but the writing shows up in swirls of color. Here's Red in his get up...you'll see a better picture later when we go to Essaouira.

So after that, we all went to his uncle's house where his dad and his uncle, aunt, and cousins were hanging out...drank some more tea and ate some more pastries and then went to his sister's house. I was so glad to finally see her, she's the sweetest thing ever, she bounded down the steps and hugged me and I really do feel a bit like she's a sister to me. She's very protective and always sits nexts to me and makes sure I feel included. Funny thing, we're exactly the same age minus 1 day. We had some more tea (the third glass already and it was only noon) and some more pastries....one downside of being a guest is that the plate of food is always, always pushed in front of you, and every single person in the room is like, eat, eat, please eat, please, go on, eat. So of course, you have to eat to not be rude, and don't get me wrong, I love tea and pastries, but back to back at each house was like sugar overload. After his sisters we went to his grandma's where we had lunch and Redouane sat in one room with the guys and I sat in another room with the girls and was left to fend for myself. Luckily I have enough basic Arabic now to understand at least a tiny bit of what was going on and so I was finally comfortable being on my own. So we tucked in to our tagine, as usual with just one community plate and you just eat out of it, and I kept eating my portion and then noticing that there it never seemed to get any smaller. Then I noticed that everyone else kept pushing all the big pieces of meat and potatoes over to me! I kept trying to push them back into the center, but there they'd end up. And someone would nudge me and give me another eat! and so I left his grandma's stuffed. After that we headed back to the house, grabbed a change of clothes, I took off my scarf, and we headed for Essaouira....aaahhhh Essaouira, how I love it. I don't know if it was the city that I fell in love with or if it's the fact that it was there that I met Redouane, but either way, when I saw the first glimpse of it from the top of this hill, I melted.

My man in aviators and at Essaouira...I'm smitten.

We got out of the car to take a few quick pics...

Redouane in his caftan and yellow babouches...very traditional. In fact, it was really nice because it was his first time wearing all this stuff, too, so we got to experience that together. We both were like, are you sure this looks ok?? But judging by the reaction of all his family, I think we got it.

So we got to Redouane's friend Mahdi's house around 6 and hung out for a bit, went into the medina to get stuff for dinner, had another great tagine and just hung around the house. We left early the next morning and made it back into Marrakesh in time for Redouane to go back to work. I have been trying to get a picture of the camels next to the Menara for a while now, and I finally got one!

We passed a couple of normal days in Marrakesh...made a wonderful pizza one night...

played in the boutique one day...

and last night, one of Redouane's friends, his wife, and his two sisters came to visit, so we met them in the medina and went for a stroll. One of his friend's sisters started talking to me and we really hit it off, she spoke great french, and I can't even explain how nice it was to have a girl to talk to!! I mean, if you think about it, I havn't really had anyone but Redouane to talk to all month, and who am I supposed to talk about him too?? lol, so it was nice. We headed to the Djema el Fna for dinner and all of a sudden, these kids on bikes came out of nowhere....my gallant Romeo took a bike to the face for me. Ok, so he actually took a bike to the knee, and the kids head to his face, but either way his lip started bleeding. We hurried to a booth and got him some ice, and soon enough everything was all better. Poor guy.

So then we headed back to the house, the girls came in with me and Redouane and the other guy went to run some errands. I think I talked the poor girls' ears off! My girls back home, prepare yourselves, I have a whole month's worth of gossip to tell and to be caught up on!!!!

Anyways, today I finally got the guts to come down to the cyber cafe and got this post up, and I'm getting ready to go to the market and gets some things for dinner. Redouane wants to eat American, so I'm thinking some sort of baked chicken with cheese and mushrooms and maybe a baked potato? It's hard to cook something American here when we had hotdogs yesterday and fries today...I'm sure I'll think of something. After that, I think we're going to Casablanca. Redouane has tomorrow off, and we want to go somewhere, so that's what we're thinking right now...but it's a 3 hour drive, so we're going to see how tired he is before we make a decision. Either way, I'll fill everyone in Tuesday, and if you're still following my blog, thanks for being patient!!