Morocco!

So my youngest sister Tracy is living in Morocco for a year teaching english to french speakers (yes she's fluent in french) and invited my other sister Teresa and I out for a visit.

Just moments off the airplane and into our taxi in Rabat, Morocco! Don't stop signs look so much cooler in Arabic? Oh, and they're optional here!

From inside our taxi, yes, we are driving down the center of BOTH lanes! Quite common :)

Our taxi driver dropping us off at Tracy's school...

Then we went straight to Amal's apartment, she works in administration at Tracy's school where she cooked us couscous!

They do not use ovens here, so everything is cooked in a pressure cooker, so VERY tender.

Inside Trace's apartment!

Outside her front door... I love documentation, sorry Trace!

Then the next day was Tracy's day off so we hit the train and went to a city called Fez. It's a touristy place and it was awesome!

The butcher shop in the Fez medina (aka old city)

Our hotel in Fez. Not even close to 2 star! But it was fun. Three beds! And of course the bathroom is a communal down the hall:)

They have orange trees in Morocco...

This is some traditional men attire. It's also very common to see men holding hands as they talk and walk down the street. They are a lot more touchy feely there with eachother.

On the rooftop of our hotel in Fez...

This gentelman let us in the Jewish cemetary and museum...

These are called Tagines... they cook with these alot, like crock pots!

Inside the Jewish museum, it was just filled with a ton of amazing things... no pictures will do justice!

Something like this in the Jewish musuem just made me laugh... I guess if it was ever owned by a Jewish person, it made it into the museum!

This guy went up and down the tiny Medina streets all day long makeing deliveries...

Kids playing in the street... On either side are apartments...

Some fancy place the King of Morocco stays in when he visits Fez...

The rooftop of Tracy's school...

The Medina market place in Rabat. This is where Tracy lives, right outside her door basically and where she does most her grocery shopping.

Fresh Produce...

Olives and dates and figs are numerous...

And you can't get fresher meat! You pick the chicken you want and they chop off it's head and pluck out the feathers for you right infront of your face in just a few minutes!

Fresh sea food, Eels for example...

Or stingrays....

Or a bit of shark if that's what you'd like?!?!?!:)

I tried to get pictures of women who wore the full burka as unnoticeable as possible... Not many women wear it, but there were some, especially older women.

'Tour of Tracy's apartment, Her sleeping quarters...

Her itsy bitsy bathroom with no hot water... So we showered at the humases or public showers. Hot water, but let's not talk about sanitation!

Her kitchen...

These were the appetizers at about every restaurant, pickled olives with pits!

Outside the Mosoleum...

HENNA! Some dye you pay street women to draw on you and it lasts about a week.

The Great Mosque in Casablanca. The 3rd largest in the world...

This guys was in the Oudeya of Rabat and of course wanted some money after I snapped his pic!

The Chellah (shellah). Ancient Roman ruins near Rabat. About a 45 minute walk from Tracy's apartment. Since neither Teresa or I speak French of Arabic and not many people there speak English, we got to walk most places we were going with out Tracy, even taxi drivers couldn't understand us!

One of the teachers Tracy works with invited us to dinner at her house and these were her children and niece. So, a typical dinner invite in Morocco: 5:30pm, show up and eat some appetizers of nuts, cookies, chips and tea. Then, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, until about 9pm, then you sit down and eat dinner. Then, you talk, talk, talk, some more and head home around midnight! Very friendly people...

The trick to getting your kids to bed? Starve them till 9pm, then fill them up till they about burst, then make them listen as all the adults talk in a strange language, they'll be out instantly!

Boder (also a teacher at the school), Brandi (Tracy's American Roomie who ROX!) and Tracy planning their next adventure into the desert once the term ends...

I have never been so happy to see the USA, even just from the plane window! We're about to land in JFK after being stranded in Morocco 3 extra days due to the terrible snow storms in Europe. It was an amazing trip. I love that I got to go. Thank u to all my friends who watched kids for me while I was gone and mostly to Matt for encouraging me to go. It was a trip I will not soon forget!!