Mary and Co

My great Aunt Mary and her two friends ventured to Morocco and then on to Spain for a while.  I realized I have quite a bit of anxiety when people come to visit. I want whoever it is to enjoy and love Morocco but it truly is a diamond in the rough. Coming here without an open mind is probably not wise and knowing that my loved ones disapproved of my new home would be heartbreaking for me. Thankfully, Mary and her friends (Robbie and Mike), were awesome! They were no strangers to overseas travel and totally proved that by hitting most of the major Moroccan cities in three days!

They arrived early enough on Monday to meet my students. I gave them the tour of campus and my classroom and then the kids returned from gym class. Visitors alone are enough to excite my students...add candy to the mix and it is a circus! My Aunt brought each student a little Easter egg filled with American(!) candy. The kids kept saying 'Miss, your family is the best!' I heard that for the rest of the week! I felt awful getting them all hyped up right before French class, but she didn't seem to mind and was able to get them under control(ish).

Tuesday they went to Marrakesh. It's a three hour train ride (one way). I thought they would be home around 10:30 or 11 so when I woke up at 11:35 and found Mary's couch/bed empty, I was a little concerned. Like some overprotective parent I immediately began thinking of the worst case scenarios and the hope of falling back to sleep was Gone. I had no way to know where they were, no clue when/if they would be back, and worst of all no way to contact them! I tried telling myself they were perfectly capable of surviving Morocco and all would be fine, but still couldn't fall back to sleep. If that was any indication of what parenthood is like….ugh.  Finally, at 1:15 am, they bounded into our apartment not even looking tired! They had been fine all along, they just brought a later train home. All that worry for nothing! And within minutes I was OUT! :)

Wednesday they headed inland to Fez and I knew not to wait up for them. Although, they got home earlier that evening.

I was only able to get Thursday off (due to a shortage of subs) but it actually worked out well. They were slowing down a little bit from the first two adventures and I had to teach the next day so we took it easy and stayed (relatively) local. We went to Hassan II, the third largest Mosque in the world.  It is an amazingly beautiful and intricate Mosque. Since, that's really the biggest tourist thing in Casa we were headed to Rabat after that. Rabat is Morocco's capital city about an hour north of Casa.  I have only been there once- a very rainy day at the zoo! So I was excited to see more of Rabat. In an attempt to get directions to the train station we met a tour guide who offered to take us around for the day and return us home that night. Since I really didn't know where we were going and traveling with 4 is tough (small cabs only allow 3 people) we went with it! Probably the best choice of the day!

Ahmed, the guide, was great! He told all about Morocco, Rabat, and himself :)  He kept us laughing and busy for the day! We ate lunch right on the ocean, ventured through a blue-walled kasbah and some nice gardens, saw the mausoleum of Mohammad V and the unfinished minaret, cruised past the Embassy, stalked storks at Chellah (amazing ruins set on a hillside), a did a little souvenir shopping at a place in Casa before returning to the apartment. We did way more than I had expected to do and I have to thank God for a fun guide like Ahmed. He really did take great care of us. He even made the shop owner take me to an apartment next door to use a real bathroom instead of the squatty potty in the shop! He told me I have a family in Casa now ;)

I was nervous about leaving my students (this was the first time I had been gone for a whole day!) and showing Mary and Co. a good time. But in the end, I am so glad I got to spend the day with them. Other tidbits from the day: I got henna, involuntary, from a woman outside the gardens; A guard at the mausoleum decided it was okay to have a feelskie of my leg, which my Aunt and Robbie found to be Hilarious; Ahmed equated my challenging name to the word for Queen in Arabic, then called me 'the queen' for the rest of the day, he even introduced me as the queen to the shop people; One of the gift shop guys gave me a little jewelry box while we were in the store, it was awkward but I accepted it anyways...and then broke it in the van. There were so many other wonderful moments!  My stomach hurt from laughing and  my eyes were red from crying with laughter!  It was so comforting to have a piece of home here and to play tourist for a day! My kids were so right...I do have the best family!!!