Happy New Year 1429 / Back to Morocco
Hey Folks! I'm back...
First things first, HAPPY NEW YEAR! You may think it's a bit late to say that, but what i mean of course is كل عام و انتم بخير, ie; Happy New Year to all Muslims
I have an MSN address now, so please add me to your address books so we can waste copious amounts of time online together...
arabi-baby@hotmail.com
you may be comforted to know that it is grey and extremely cold here as well as everywhere else. apparently it snowed in fes, but I was on the train back from marrakech with my flatmate at the time.
had gone there with very low expectations (lots of hassle, everything expensive, everyone trying to rip you off) but i was determined to make up my own mind based on my own experiences and i must say i really liked the place. packed with tourists, yes, even in january, but it was only an extra 80pence a night for the hotel as compared with chefchaouen and we managed to eat good cheap food and even buy some souvenirs for pretty reasonable prices. a little bit of hassle, some begging - a little boy came and begged me to give him my 'make poverty history' wristband and i thought it would be comically hypocritcal not to give it to him, but apart from that, a thoroughly interesting place. full of history and crazy people. very much a city, and fun to visit as long as you can avoid being run over by mopeds...
among the attractions i saw: a big medieval villa packed with japanese tourists (walked past and gave them the only three words i can still remember of japanese: hello, thankyou, goodnight, which amused them...), djema3 al fna, the only place in the world you have to pay to breathe, and the most heavily pregnant cat i have ever laid eyes upon. truly a city of strange sights and nutters.
so danny (flatmate) ran his marathon and came in only half an hour behind the winners, at 3hr 14m, which is an excellent time for a first marathon, and now he's exhausted and he's hurt his knee but he'll be ok and back on the road soon. i'm all inspired now and i want to start training a bit more. i have been running quite a lot anyway but short distances at speed rather than the more beneficial long, slower runs. did a good 18km or so today and that felt good.
back into normal classes now which are good but all a little bit too early in the morning... we have one particularly lively, charismatic teacher at 8:30 on both monday and tuesday mornings, which i think is an entirely unreasonable time to be learning arabic anyway, and especially with Mr I'm-a-morning-person-and-I'm-going-to-wake-you-up-whether-you-like-it-or-not himself...
never mind... better go and do his homework.
pabs
First things first, HAPPY NEW YEAR! You may think it's a bit late to say that, but what i mean of course is كل عام و انتم بخير, ie; Happy New Year to all Muslims
I have an MSN address now, so please add me to your address books so we can waste copious amounts of time online together...
arabi-baby@hotmail.com
you may be comforted to know that it is grey and extremely cold here as well as everywhere else. apparently it snowed in fes, but I was on the train back from marrakech with my flatmate at the time.
had gone there with very low expectations (lots of hassle, everything expensive, everyone trying to rip you off) but i was determined to make up my own mind based on my own experiences and i must say i really liked the place. packed with tourists, yes, even in january, but it was only an extra 80pence a night for the hotel as compared with chefchaouen and we managed to eat good cheap food and even buy some souvenirs for pretty reasonable prices. a little bit of hassle, some begging - a little boy came and begged me to give him my 'make poverty history' wristband and i thought it would be comically hypocritcal not to give it to him, but apart from that, a thoroughly interesting place. full of history and crazy people. very much a city, and fun to visit as long as you can avoid being run over by mopeds...
among the attractions i saw: a big medieval villa packed with japanese tourists (walked past and gave them the only three words i can still remember of japanese: hello, thankyou, goodnight, which amused them...), djema3 al fna, the only place in the world you have to pay to breathe, and the most heavily pregnant cat i have ever laid eyes upon. truly a city of strange sights and nutters.
so danny (flatmate) ran his marathon and came in only half an hour behind the winners, at 3hr 14m, which is an excellent time for a first marathon, and now he's exhausted and he's hurt his knee but he'll be ok and back on the road soon. i'm all inspired now and i want to start training a bit more. i have been running quite a lot anyway but short distances at speed rather than the more beneficial long, slower runs. did a good 18km or so today and that felt good.
back into normal classes now which are good but all a little bit too early in the morning... we have one particularly lively, charismatic teacher at 8:30 on both monday and tuesday mornings, which i think is an entirely unreasonable time to be learning arabic anyway, and especially with Mr I'm-a-morning-person-and-I'm-going-to-wake-you-up-whether-you-like-it-or-not himself...
never mind... better go and do his homework.
pabs
posted by Adil / Paul | 11:37 AM
2 Comments:
I thought my 9:30am Arabic class was painful...but I guess you all beat me. Happy New Year! Glad to hear you didn't fall victim to medina-rage in Marrakesh.
Aloush:)
I really enjoyed reading your very insightful blogs. I enjoyed the one in Arabic so much I read it out loud in the office for my co-workers to hear. Keep the blogs comming.
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