Swarthmore Engineering Apparel makes a stop in Morocco

Swarthmore Engineering T-Shirt seen adorned on Moroccan roof top.

Riad courtyard

From the shade...
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Souqs in Marrakech

I woke up this morning an hour after I planned, not surprising since I didn't sleep since Wednesday morning. Then I found out the clocks weren't matching with my wrist watch any more. I think there was some kind of time change, my phone pushed itself forward an hour, unfortunately the language barrier has made it complicated to figure it out.

After a small breakfast at my Riad, I set off for the main square, Djemaa El Fna.


The Medina is not for the faint of heart or easily frustrated. I tried to use shadows to maintain my direction, but often upon inquiring about the direction towards the square, I found I was walking in the complete opposite direction.

The souk market was filled with stuff for sale. Of course my sample size is small, but there seems to be a few trends I have noticed.

First, is that everyone has a satellite dish.


Second, there are toothless grinning men at everyone corner

Third, no one speaks english, but the children can greet you in at least 5 or 6 different languages and ask for a present in as many as well. Money seems to be the only acceptable present. I am trying to navigate without help. First, I prefer to learn my way. Second, the kids are in a rush and I want to enjoy my walk while seeing new things. I am not in a rush to get anywhere. I am waiting for the hottest part of the day to pass before going back out again, then I will go to the Palaces and back to the markets. The square in the evening is supposed to be amazing. I have arranged for dinner here at the Riad tonight as well, which will also be fun.

I spoke with Susannah using Skype and they are already in Essouyira. I am not sure I will make it out there. I think I might stay in the area, explore today and tomorrow and then take a train with them to Rabat, then Fez. Using skype to call her turned out to be much more expensive than I anticipated. I will have to get additional credit to my account.

traveling update

I will go in order.

I arrived in NY a few minutes late, and went to meet up with Brandon. It has been more than a year since we have seen each other, and the conversation was wonderful. I am hoping to see a lot more of Brandon when I return from this trip. After lunch, I heading across town to run some pre departure errands. Then, down to the Katz apartment to drop off my stuff from DC. I headed back up to midtown where I met up with Justin for coffee and Ross for an early dinner.

I wasn't particularly impressed with the food for dinner, it was supposed to be dutch indonesian fusion. I didn't really follow the fusion part. It seemed like bitterballen on rice was their idea.

I hopped in a cab downtown to meet with Nabil. I had a safe driver, maybe the most considerate driver I have ever had in a cab... to everyone else. Finally I arrived, in time to chat with him, and run for a train. I ended up catching a train an hour later than I anticipated, and arrived at the airport only minutes before they closed out the flight, and got on my plane.

Awful seat - not only was it a bad location, my headphone jack was broken and to top it off, they forgot to load a Kosher meal for me.

Arrive in Netherlands and Air Maroc is nowhere to be found. Where they are supposed to be is a sign that says be back at 11:30. It was 12:00. I really wanted to change my seat, and make sure there was something edible to eat.

Information sent me on a wild goose chase around the airport, but eventually, I arrived to get on the plane. No available seats.

It worked out well, I met a violinist who plays electric violin - which is very cool. She has actually played in the hamptons at the talkhouse with nancy atlas, one of our local renowned musicians.

She was invited over to play for a benefit and invited my friends and I to come. I just have to find a way to call or email her. Could be interesting, though perhaps not that moroccan.

When I arrived in Casablanca, I got my luggage, found a taxi, and headed to the station. It was like being back in Peru. More on that later.

Then I spent 3 hours in a car with a group of young people who spoke arabic almost exclusively.

Finally, I arrived, and found another taxi. He of course wanted to take me to a better riad, his uncle runs it. I said take me to this one. He pulled in, and then had a kid lead me from there. suddenly I was surrounded by kids, and they all wanted money.

We arrived at an empty riad. not good. Amex screwed up and put the reservation in for the day after. luckily, a neighbor let me stay in their house for a while until they could find the "innkeeper." And thus ends my saga. I have lots more to share, but my battery is dying and I need to charge my phone.

I welcome comments, thoughts, and ideas... so please respond.

Left DC on amtrak this morning headed for nyc. Lunch and dinner with friends and then to the airport around 7pm.

I set up my booking for the Riad Davia in Marrakech, as of this morning. Also planned the trip from morocco to spain, so all that remains are the details - and the fun lies in the details!

Researching my trip

There are a few things that remain before my departure across the ocean. For instance, I still need my first night of lodging set up for when I reach Morocco, and my plans in general for the trip. I am considering skipping out from Casablanca and heading immediately to Marrakech and then possibly to the music festival.

I arrived in DC after a long day of travel and now have the day to spend by myself - my attempts to arrange a white house tour were unsuccessful. I decided to do some research at the Library of Congress for my trip. Luckily, they were able to replace my readers card since I left my old one in New York.

I emailed AMEX concierge a request to look into riads in Morocco. So far, no response has come back to me, which is disappointing.

I think I will request some books and then go get lunch (it takes a good hour for stuff to come up from the archives) at Tortilla Coast. It's a very nostalgic place for me, having a home in all my DC adventures as far back as I can remember.

Pre Departure Trip, Shul and Local Benefit volunteer experience

I may not be leaving the country quite yet, but my trip begins in the morning, this Sunday, as I make my way south to D.C. for a visit, before coming back to fly out. I layed everything out on the bed to make sure I haven't missed anything important, or am including anything that will be a nuisance to carry along during my trip.

This morning, I went to Shul. I sat in an empty row and a family joined me. After a while, my father showed up for services and our row is contently praying. There is a Bat Mitzvah going on. The Rabbi talked about how our synogogue is different because it is not a performance, it is an act. Meanwhile, tons of kids are streaming in from a bus. It's chaos. Then, in the middle of the service, the woman next to me turns to her daughter, my father and I and says, "you two know that you used to play together when you were about 2 years old." My playmate looked so familiar, but I couldn't place her. I am wondering if the familiarity is from those early play dates, or maybe she was one of the kids I couldn't ID in my younger photos / videos, which I was recently transferring to DVD. We chatted a bit during the reception and that was all. Iwould like to try and figure out the connection, or at least the familiarity. Perhaps I remember her from Hebrew School from when I was younger. Anyway, it was the comment that threw me off. Afterwards we stopped at the beach. Nick and Yanika saw us drive by, and came to join us. After we went out for some food in Sag Harbor, and saw some amazing yachts.

I went to volunteer this evening at a local benefit for the preservation of nature on the east end. Not the most exciting ending to my summer in the Hamptons, but the live music was entertaining, as was Alec Baldwin doing the live auction. He made references to controlled substances in almost every item, actually it got a little strange after a while and one does wonder. After the event ended, I had the chance to chat with the volunteer coordinator about what I liked, and what I thought could be changed or tweaked to reinvent the volunteer experience and make it more fulfilling and satisfying.

I also ran into a high school classmate who spent four months in Madrid, and promised to fill me in on the details of all the cool places to go. I am excited to get a jump into the local areas and skip the touristy ones as I find my own niche in the city. To top it off I received an awesome email from RL who sent some suggestions for Turkey - so lots of incoming advice! Thanks everyone.

The goody bags from the benefit were awful, I was surprised, given that it is an environmental group, how much trash and paper they included. I remember going to the James Beard Foundation and one year they gave a few bottles of wine in each bag. Another year, there was this strange looking knife that everyone got. Turns out it is a tomato slicer and server. It's a great party tool - "guess what this is for" and the like. This year, I liked the T-Shirt from the benefit (there is german writing on the tag about changing the world through buying T-shirts), although I don't think anyone in that room was an XXL, the size given to everyone.

My excitement with regard to my pending travels is only growing - not sure how I am going to get to sleep tonight! Or even anytime through wednesday...