A Birthday Abroad...

Most years my birthday gets washed over with the start of Autumn Quarter, so it is nice to start a new year of life in a new country and have some time to enjoy it. Here I'm pictured walking into my 32nd year...thanks everyone for the sweet messages and birthday VIDEO!! Feeling very loved even if far away from home.

Olives, Preserved Lemons, Happiness

The abundance of olives in this country still has us reeling...we keep discussing how much we pay for a small tray of olives from an olive bar in the US....compared to the affordable and glorious piles of olives and buckets of preserved lemons here.  To give you an idea of the contrast, in the grocery store they are running a promotion: buy 2 packages of spaghetti and get a free 15 oz bottle of olive oil! The pictures below are from the 'olives' section of the market in Casablanca.  Stalls and stalls of olives piled high. Again: happiness.

Tonik!

One of my favorite pass-times while abroad for any duration is trying out all the local snacks, crackers, chips/crisps, and chocolates.  When abroad for a longer stretch one can really approach this exploration more scientifically, with less random sampling, and more consistent comparison.  For example, Tonik as pictured above is a delicious wafer/chocolate combo cookie bar, while a close cousin, Tak! has a slightly waxy residue to it.  Another discovery is the 17 Dirham frozen pizza with a scary picture, whole greek olives, and scotch tape holding the box closed is far superior to the 26 Dirham frozen pizza with the picture that looks like real food and fully sealed box.  We played it safe and bought the nicer pizza first, but if we didn't have the time or bravery to try the seemingly lesser pizza, we never would have found this diamond in the rough.  As you can gather from this post, school hasn't started yet as they are still reviewing student applications for the teacher program.  In the meantime, I'm starting a new study on finding the best instant coffee option (sigh).  Nescafe crystals have a real competitor here in the form of Dubois Cafe. I'll report more from the field later.

On the Road...

A great cultural find on the highway is a chain of rest stops.  Now in the US, rest stops are quick in and out jobs: Restroom, gas up, bag of chips, MAYBE a taco break if you are passing through Ellensburg, but here you can really spend some time!  The new highway includes perfectly identical bright orange and green colored rest stops that include: gas, restrooms, a mosque, a full playground for children, a cafe with good coffee and pastries AND if it is lunch time or later, an elaborate grilling system where they prepare tagines, and a local favorite bread Tafarnout that is made by putting the flattened dough on hot stones.  I got to watch the ladies making it right there.  We enjoyed a leisurely hour and half lunch...the beef tagine was like the most flavorful, delicate, and delicious pot roast you have ever had in your entire life....take that Chevron!

All in a Day's Work...

More Casablanca

Mosque Hassan II Part II

The west side of the mosque overlooks the Atlantic ocean...

Ladies in all kinds of bright colors (taken on the sly)...

Casablanca

We haven't been sitting around staring at those storks this whole time.  A whirlwind tour of Casablanca with our new coordinator (and Casablanca native) Abdellatif, another day in Rabat, the long haul south and settling into our new digs have taken up much of our time lately....as well as waiting for pictures to upload, losing the signal and a whole series of internet annoyances have meant lean times in the blog update sector.  I'll add my backlog of pics as the internet and my patience have their usual face-off!

While I have them uploaded....here are some views of the biggest mosque in Casablanca and all of Morocco...

A Walk Through History

Stork nests all among the ruins...

Is that Belladonna?

Feral kitty among the ruins...just like in Rome. 

Artiste!

A system I can get behind is a street across from a park where artists have little rooms in which they create pieces and then display them on the covered porch outside their studios.  Passersby can browse and purchase their work, or watch them at work....or watch them enjoy a coffee or tea with some friends who stopped by!

 Above is a studio and porch that is unoccupied next to one that is all set up for the day...

A Few of My Favorite Things...

Morocco is already supplying me with some of my favorites: Amazing food, incredible linguistic diversity for a language nerd paradise, good strong coffee, kind people, and the obsession of my last few trips abroad: Doors and Signs.

Tools of the Trade

Planning, shopping, and packing for a trip abroad can be very involved. You think you find the supplies you will need as you imagine your needs in the future.  This can all be thrown off with a loss of a suitcase, or in a happier turn of events....your super crafty friend Susie makes you some 'travel bags' that convert nicely into a handy travel wrist clutch!

Look at the gathering on that seam....the skill-the precision- people just don't know what it takes! Well done scooze!

Thinking about you today Dad...

Contrasts

Our time in Rabat so far has been full of contrasts.  The pictures of our hotel are a very specific $200 a night version of the city, and there is also stepping through garbage on the streets occupied by many starving feral cats.  Today we had a juxtaposition of touring the Souk and then the Megamall (complete with Lebanese food court option of which I partook gladly).  We drove by a new development full of glass buildings which will house tech companies, and then toured Roman/Phonecian ruins.  In the afternoon we enjoyed my drink du jour Cafe 'noos noos' (half strong coffee-half steamed milk) among Moroccan women wearing full abayas and others who wore their hair uncovered, perfectly coifed, and publicly smoking cigarettes.  The call to prayer is often competing with 'ding ding' of the new tram system.  Observing the contrasts has been fascinating.

Marhaban/Bienvenue

Welcome to the long postponed blog Maghrib Sunrise.  Maghrib is the name for Morocco in Arabic, and also means 'Sunset'....which we hope to see a lot of from this side of the Atlantic. Sunrise...for our new adventure here.   I hope to show all our friends and family abroad our experience here and have some documentation of our cultural observations.

After a long journey from the U.S., we arrived safely in Rabat leaving only one precious suitcase behind...Air France promises to find it, and I hope they do because there is some much needed cargo in that one...i.e. my only other pairs of shoes.  Until they find it, I'm going to ride my healthy disdain for possessions that I perfected when we downsized and moved out of our house.  Let's start at the beginning, with the real reason we arrived here exhausted!

We went from THIS....

To this....

It was such a whirlwind that we found ourselves a little dazed when we got to Morocco...but then we were welcomed with this...

We are now getting a lay of the land as we wander the streets of Rabat and spend time with our contacts here. We are very much looking forward to seeing more of this beautiful country.