Micmax

So I flew back to the U.S. today, marking the end of my 43 day journey abroad. As such, I won’t bore you with the boring stories of my travels. However, a guy working at my hotel did, as I was packing my clothes up, come into my room and say, “Max… Could you please give me a T-shirt?” He was always kind of an interesting guy, but I did think we were friends despite the arguments me, Robin, and he had had over the bill (he charged us something different than the initial agreed upon price). Nonetheless, I was momentarily startled into silence before I reached into my bag and gave him a long-sleeve, collared blue shirt. He had been wearing the same shirt since I got to the hotel Sunday, so this story is actually kind of sad. But he picked up the shirt, put it in the light, and said, “This is a great shirt!”

Oh, and I include the following photos from breakfast (honey crepes and the angle!) so there is some sort of proof that Robin and I were together in Morocco.

Today was remarkably similar to yesterday, the main difference being that I knew all the other people at Robin’s school by now, and that we ate at different places. We also encountered our second giant cockroach, which made trying to sleep our last night in our hotel (alhamdulila) more interesting than I’d hoped.

Here’s a picture from Robin’s school. It doesn’t really do it justice, but I felt weird walking around taking pictures of a school I didn’t go to, especially one that is so nice. Check out Robin’s blog (http://robinzhood.tumblr.com) for better pictures if you’re interested.

Robin has class everyday until 1:30 at the American School in Tangier, so today during that time, I just slept in and went to a café for a delicious croque. Once she got out of class, though, my activities didn’t really change, as she had a speaking partner and a ridiculous amount of homework. Luckily though, the school is beautiful, has a pool, A/C, WiFi, and acres of grass and shade, so it wasn’t all bad :D. I’ll try and remember to take some pictures tomorrow.

The main beach area along Shariah Mohammed VI.

The Kesbah Museum’s garden.

Main room (basically only room) of the Kesbah Museum.

Entrance to the Kesbah Museum.

Doorway to the first mosque in Tangier, built in 1282 (obvz). Some 15-year old told me to turn around to go to the Kasbah Museum, which I’d just seen, so I started talking to him in Arabic. He ended up telling me I was really good at Arabic (definitely a first, and I don’t mean just in Morocco), and inviting me to the beach with his friends.

Another picture of my beloved reading park.

I started today off by heading to Café Rain Sky, a small café recommended to me by Robin near her school, the American School of Tangier. As anyone who has traveled with me extensively knows, I don’t respond well under pressure when dealing with misunderstandings in another language, so when I tried to order a crepe and was told they didn’t have them but that I should order a bghira, I just said okay. It was actually amazing. It was Ethiopian foam bread, with a bunch of little holes, and Arabic goat cheese. Sometimes my inability to communicate works out.

Robin didn’t get back from her trip until about 6:30, so I had most of the rest of the day to myself. I went to the Kasbah Museum, which was a pretty building with a pretty garden and pretty boring archaeological stuff (I’ve seen way too much on this trip for a small museum in Tangier to be of much interest), went to my trusty Internet café, and toured the beach.  Addendum: I forgot to tell this story initially, but when I left the Kasbah Museum, I ran into a bunch of kids — like 15 year olds, One of them just waved at me and said, “The Kasbah Museum is behind you,” something I was well-aware of. So I just told him I’d been there, and was looking for the first mosque built in Tangier, all in Arabic. He then broke off from the group and took me to the mosque, which was about 20 steps from where we’d been standing. He listed a few facts before telling me my Arabic was excellent (first person to ever tell me that!) and saying, “We’re all going to the beach if you wanna come.” Just another awesome person I should show around CT or Providence one day.

After walking around for a bit, I sat down to do some reading on my Kindle,* when a Moroccan dude speaking French came up to me (I was huddled in the shade of a 6-foot palm tree along the beach) and started talking in French, Arabic, and English and drawing in the sand. At first I thought he was just being abnormally curious, but soon he was writing “visa” and “passport” in the sand, as well as numbers and saying euros over and over again. He then changed the subject as municipal worker walked by. While he was making small talk with the municipal worker, I deduced that he was trying to buy my passport (I see no other explanation, if someone else can tell me why he would ask me for my passport and say 2000 euros, I’d love to know), so before he finished talking, I packed up and peaced, waving to him over my shoulder.

Once Robin finally got back, we got some dinner, toured around the medina and her school, and headed to bed (she has to be up at 7:45 everyday to go to class :\), listening to the familiar sounds of thumping bass one gets to know so well staying in cheap hostels in the heart of tourist cities around the world.

*Just for the record, Kim, what do random French people want to talk about the most with me? My Kindle (in French: “Oh, what is that? What kind of tablet? Internet? Games?”). What do random Italian people want to talk about the most with me? My Kindle. What do random Turks want to do around me? Read over my shoulder. Especially children under the age of 10. Of course, they probably can’t read English, but that’s how awesome it is. They just wanna stare at it. Just saying, the Kindle is amazing, revolutionary, and everyone knows it. Get onboard or get left behind. (Note: right after I wrote this, two girls in Robin’s program stared in wonder at the Kindle, one asking “is it attached to the Internet?”)