i'm still alive

woohoo, this is an amazing country. and unfortunately, the exclamation point on this keyboard doesn't work. grrr.

so yeah, just imagine that i am very very excited when writing this, and then you'll understand i wish i could put exclamation marks on just about every sentence.

i don't really know where to begin, and i will be home soon, so i don't even want to write that much. getting lazy, i suppose.

so i met my group here in marrakesh, and they are all great. quite a mix, really, except with names: dianne, diana, laura, laurie, linda, leigh, and leonie were the girls. the guys at least were alan, jeff, josh, ben, and craig was our leader. good times.

we headed off for the high atlas mountains the first day and stayed in a gite, a mountain home/inn. amazing food. we went on a walk of the village the first day and did a hike up to a mountain pass with amazing views into the next valley. i rode a mule, too. woohoo. after the hike, we girls headed for the traditional hammam, the bathhouse. 2 local girls scrubbed us down in a sauna of a bucket shower room and we all relaxed and enjoyed the experience. we slept out on the terrace with 3 thick, wool blankets each under teh stars. they were amazing. i saw several shooting stars and just enjoyed the quiet of the village.

next we went to another small berber village in a valley. there wasn't much to do there except eat an awesome traditional berber lunch with our hands and enjoy the end of ramadan with the locals. special cookies. woohoo. we went for a walk over to the next village and a guide showed us the school house and the jewish cemetary there. more awesome views of the rugged mountains and the green valleys. we also sat by the pool and enjoyed each other's company.

then we headed for the coast, essaouira. it was raining when we arrived but cleared up for some beautiful weather, even if the seas were still really rough. no fishing boats went out the 3 days/2 nights we were there. the town is all whitewashed, except for teh shutters and doors, which are painted bright blue, supposedly to keep the flies out. so beautiful. more great food and even better shopping. we went to a bar one night to hear a local band play a certain kind of music that i don't remember right now. it was amazing, i even bought their cd. it kind of reminds me of burlap to cashmere meets irish music meets african music, and add a flute. good times.

now i am back in marrakesh, where i started the tour. we headed for el-fna square teh first night and took in the craziness. snake charmers, millions of stands selling dates, other dried fruits, spices, fresh squeezed orange juice, boiled snails, goat's heads, women walking around doing henna art, a "fish for a coke bottle" game, tons of food stands with picnic tables, teeth pullers, herbalists, and who knows what else. craziness. we grabbed a picnic table and ordered tapas, basically, of shrip, calamari, salads, french fries, grilled eggplant, cokes, kebabs of mixed meat and beef, bread, chili sauce-more of tomato soup- and grilled bell peppers. all for 40 dirham, about 5 bucks each. not too shabby.

yesterday we hit the souqs, the markets. we wandered the touristy area as well as teh back streets where teh locals did their shopping. metal workers, spices, fish, tapestries, scarves, thuya wood, pottery, carpets, tons of shoes, linen clothes, and silver for blocks and blocks of covered winding alleys. so fun. then we had the afternoon to ourselves, and since it was raining, we just grabbed lunch and headed back for the hotel.

at the start of the trip, we all drew names out of a hat to buy a tacky gift for one another that couldn't be over 25 dirhams, about 3 dollars. the person who could find teh tackiest gift would win a prize. we exchanged them last night before heading out to dinner, and the gift i received was the winner: a pair of used, dirty women's shoes, purchased for 10DH. the guy who got them for me actually purchased a nicer gift in essaouira, but left it there, and felt so bad that he gave me such a bad gift that he gave me his prize: a bar of argon oil and olive oil soap. we had stopped at a coop on the road where women are given jobs to make teh argon oil products taht are supposedly some of the best in the world, in terms of skin care. it was pretty neat, but out of my price range. so i got a bar of soap for free. woohoo.

so now i will take the overnight train back to tangier, take a ferry back to spain in teh morning, pick up the stuff i left there, catch a train back to madrid, catch the overnight train from madrid to somewhere in southern france, the tgv to paris and arrive about 2pm tuesday before my 11am flight out of paris on wed. bring it on, baby.