A Few Days in Granada

So, Granada is wonderful. I have spent quite a bit of my time enjoying (cheap!) drinks and tapas, window shopping, and exploring local sights like the Alhambra and the cathedral.

One of the interesting things at the cathedral was the amount of northern European art. And I was thrilled to hear a couple there talking with their 10-ish year old son about problems with anatomical dimensions and general anachronisms in paintings of that period. That´s the kind of parent I might like to be one day!

Santa Pimp

Yay – Spain!

Uneventful travel (for once). Even if it took three days.

Nice man on ferry gave me coffee for free when I didn’t have small change in Euros.

Beautiful scenery on train ride to Granada.

Pork.

Chocolate-dipped churros (fritters).

Christmas decorations.

Wow, I really don´t know any Spanish. And for some unknown reason, I keep trying to speak to people in Arabic!

CITY!

Holiday Spirit

After being worked over by the PC docs (and an unbelievably awesome dentist) in Rabat last week, I returned south via Errachidia (a necessary detour, as it is one of the few places I get any real work done).

The night I returned to Assoul, it began snowing. And snowing. And snowing. The first day was great, as I’d been trying to work myself into a bit of a holiday mood. But then I began to worry. See, I’d planned at first to ride out the holiday in Assoul. The Muslim holiday of Eid al-Kbir hits around New Years this year, and some related Peace Corps travel restrictions had made it pretty much impossible to return to the States for a proper Christmas without using up all of my vacation days and then some (score one for volunteer morale). But then my common sense got the better of me. Last year, I managed Christmas in Morocco (my first ever away from home, at the age of 30!) because I was still so caught up in the newness of everything. Now, I just needed a vacation anyway! So I’d made very last minute plans to go visit my old sitemate, Zach, who now lives in southern Spain. Problem is, what if I got snowed into my site, and missed my own vacation? (This has already happened on a smaller scale, but here we are talking about a serious vacation!). Three days later, the snow was still falling! Now, I’ve seen this in NYC (where most of it quickly disappears and the rest of it just turns black) and Boston, but there they have infrastructure! And now even my host father was telling me that in his whole life he’d never seen anything like this in Assoul. Oh no, barely December…

Here’s our local landmark, the mountain Baddou. I took this photo from my roof a couple of days into the blizzard. Once it was finally clear enough to differentiate between earth and sky.

I’d diligently written Christmas cards, but since no vehicles were coming or going for several days, the post office was closed (sorry folks – you’ll have to celebrate all over again a couple of weeks after the fact, the same way we Americans have to do it over here as our mail trickles in, although there’s nothing like holidays and birthdays dragging on for months!).

But when the post office finally did open, I got what may have been the best care package ever (and, in general, my mom sends some pretty awesome care packages!). Back before I’d made plans to travel over the holiday, I’d asked for a little cheap, lightweight Christmas décor to help brighten my holiday a little. I’d expected paper crap, but couldn’t believe what I got… THANK YOU!!!

[Yes, those pathetic looking “curtains,” are, in fact, chopped up, mosquito netting (the tinted window panes are not, however, my doing). I hope PC doesn’t expect me to return it intact, as – as cheap as I am capable of being – they do actually serve a functional as well as aesthetic (hah!) purpose.]

Oh, and the fact that you’re reading this means that I did manage to make my escape from Assoul… And when I first got my hands on that essence of civilization – the Internet – do you know what I did? I happily watched holiday commercials on ABC.com (which, BTW, is a horrible, horrible entity for not allowing people overseas to view episodes of “Lost” online even though they have no qualms about constantly foisting all their non-holiday advertisers upon us when all I want to do is read a couple of sentences about what happened on “General Hospital” the previous week).

Anniversary Reward

I have officially lived in Assoul for a year now. In celebration, I am on my way up to Rabat because it is time for our "Mid-Service Medicals." I.e. I get to defecate in a cup. (Luckily, none of my occasional intestinal distress has been severe enough to merit this before now).

Favorite mystery meat of the week: sheep face. (Because it was only a piece of face, I wasn't sure exactly what I was looking at -- only that I didn't think I wanted to eat it -- until my hostess popped an eyeball out). I politely declined.