Nearly over...

You may think the absence on my blog indicates I have been so busy living life that I don’t have time to write. The truth is basically the opposite of this. I have been doing absolutely nothing! My excuse of course is Ramadan – unlike the locals, I am not able to live a normal life and still fast. So I sit at home in air-conditioned comfort! Hence the lack of blog entries.

That’s not to say nothing exciting has happened in my life. In fact the most exciting thing possible happened a few days ago – Karim came home with a mystery bag and told me to shut my eyes. When I was allowed to open them again there were pomegranates on the table! Real pomegranates! Pomegranate season isn’t really until October, so no idea where these ones came from, and we haven’t seen them since in the market place. They are not the greatest, still a little bitter but it’s very promising of things to come!

Ramadan is still going ok, though I am looking forward to when it’s all over in a few days! It will certainly be an adjustment going back to normal eating and sleeping patterns. Recently we have been going to sleep at around 4am, and I don’t wake up until around 2pm. This leaves me only about 5 hours to fast, which I think might be cheating a little! These last few days we have been breaking the fast with various members of Karim’s family and friends – all Ramadan we have promised to have breakfast with them so now with only a few days to go we have been trying to make sure we get around to everyone’s house!

But soon it will be Eid and I’m really looking forward to it, this will be the first one for me here in Morocco. I already have my new jellaba made, and I’m just waiting for the matching slippers! We had a taste of Eid yesterday – the 27th day of Ramadan when all the little girls and boys have new dresses and clothes. The girls especially go all out with makeup, jewellery, henna and getting their hair done. Even babies! The night before is called the holy night or night of power, where the mosques are open all night for people to pray. They believe this night is when Allah first started revealing the Qur’an to Mohammed.

So with the end of Ramadan in sight, I am looking forward to resuming normal life. Drinking orange juice in my cafe, eating my cornflakes at normal breakfast time, drinking water when I’m thirsty, going to bed at a reasonable hour. All things I have missed – but I wouldn’t take away my Ramadan experience for any of that.

The first pomegranates of the season!

Spain = Sangria and Siestas!

Last time I wrote about Ramadan, so now it’s time to write about my trip to Spain which was basically the opposite of Ramadan! You can only get a 3 month tourist visa for Morocco, so if you want to stay longer like me, you have to leave the country and then re-enter to get a new stamp in your passport. And seeing as Spain is only 14km away, it seemed like the obvious choice!

My friend Katie (who I met last year in Madagascar) had come to visit me in Morocco and decided she wanted to come with me to Spain, so off we went – first to Tangier and then the quick ferry ride to Tarifa, Spain! Such a short distance, but a world of difference- I was definitely not in Africa anymore! Pavements without potholes or rubbish, transport that ran on time, wide, clean streets with road rules adhered to, zebra crossings that cars actually stopped for, recycling bins, manicured parks and gardens and no cats! Although I did kind of miss being told I was beautiful every second by boys on the street. You have to hand it to Moroccan boys – they go for every opportunity! 

Tarifa was a really cool little town, a relaxed beach vibe, cool shops, tasty restaurants and tonnes of Spanish tourists enjoying their own country. We didn’t really encounter one other English speaking tourist! And the food! And I could eat it during the day! And ham and bacon! And eating that during the day! We became locals at the ice-creamery where we discovered the joys of dulce de leche, one time having ice cream before dinner in case we couldn’t fit it in after our meal! And to top it all off, jugs of sangria in the balmy evenings. 

We had decided to go diving in Tarifa as we had heard it was some of the best diving in mainland Europe. We hadn’t heard however that the water temperature was 16 degrees – quite a lot colder than the 24 degrees we were diving in in Madagascar. I’m not sure if there were even fish down there, I was too busy trying not to die of hypothermia. We both bailed on the second dive in favour of going to the beach where we were able to thaw out in the beautiful Spanish sunshine.

Lazy days in Tarifa were followed by action packed days in Seville, although not too action packed that we didn’t find time for our siestas! So did I do a walking tour, bike tour, explore the cathedral and Giralda or go to the Alcazar palace? None of the above – I went to Zara and H&M! Normal clothes! On sale! I went back a good three times, just in case I had missed any bargains in the first 2 visits! And then a trip to the supermarket – heaven! I bought a bottle of champagne to take back with me to Morocco – patiently waiting for the end of Ramadan so that Karim and I can finally toast our engagement! 

Our last night in Spain we were joined by Ness and Haylee (Ness had come to visit me in Fes too, but her sister Haylee arrived the day after I had left) so it was nice to catch up again over a jug or 2 of sangria. But all too soon our time in Spain had come to an end. I had an amazing time – Spain was great, but I was ready to go home to my fiancé. Hopefully one day we will be able to go together! And finally, coming home one of our connecting trains was 2 hours delayed – so we were stranded on a platform in the middle of the night, less than 2 hours away from Fes. Morocco’s way of welcoming me back!

My first meal in Spain - caesar salad with bacon!

Hams hanging in a local shop

Paella

Is that a rhetorical question?

Our nightly sangria ritual

Diving

The beach in Tarifa

Pretty beach bags

The cathedral in Seville

Drinking sangria on our last night

 

Fasting and famished

My last blog entry seems like forever ago – since then I have starved myself, travelled to a different continent, stuffed myself full of food in said continent and now I have returned for some more fasting. And I’ve been accompanied by some friends along the way! I don’t think I will be able to write about it all in the one entry, so I will start from the start – with Ramadan. 

Fasting has been an interesting experience. The first few days were definitely the hardest. Waking up on that first morning, I didn’t know what to do with myself – usually I would walk to the kitchen and check what was in the fridge for breakfast. But now I have no reason to open the fridge at all, or even go to the kitchen for that matter! I never realised how much of the day is spent around food, kitchens, eating. But it’s the thirst which is definitely the worst part. And seeing as I spend all day in my air-conditioned house not doing anything, it shouldn’t even be that bad for me. I can’t even imagine how it would be like for Karim – walking around the medina in the heat. It’s amazing how people just continue with their daily lives almost as normal. I guess it becomes natural doing it year after year, but I’m not sure if I will ever get used to it!

And there are things about Ramadan that I never knew before. The no eating, no drinking, no smoking and no intimacy I already knew – but there’s also no brushing your teeth, no wearing perfumes, no mascara or makeup. No taking medicine – even when Karim was bitten by a bee and his wrist swelled up excessively he couldn’t take an antihistamine until night-time. He was fine about it though because its apparently good luck and all his friends were jealous! 

But then, at around 7:15pm (and getting one minute earlier every day!) we get to break the fast! Dates, shbakeeya, harira soup, hardboiled eggs, croissants, pastries, pancakes, bread, fruit, juices, smoothies, the list goes on. So much food! Karim explained that during the day and especially leading up to breakfast time people ‘eat with their eyes’, their hunger leads them to buy all this food that they crave in order to have it later. Except you never really do have it later – your eyes can definitely eat more than your stomach because after a small amount of food you immediately become full.  

But no matter, there is plenty of time for eating during the night. We usually have dinner around 11pm or so (which is the usual time for dinner anyway when it’s not Ramadan) and then sometimes I wake up at 3am or so to eat some yoghurt or a croissant and have a big drink of water before the fasting day starts at around 4am. And that is Ramadan! And even though the fasting can be difficult, I’m really glad I’m doing it. 

I will write about my adventures in Spain another time – so stay tuned!

The shbakeeya stalls that have popped up everywhere

A typical breakfast table for 4

shbakeeya - honey/sugar/butter goodness!

School’s out for.... Ramadan!

So I have officially graduated from Colloquial Moroccan Arabic 100. Well actually I haven’t got my results back from the final test but I know I passed, and whats more, I came top of the class! Its handy being the only student sometimes! So this is the first Monday in 6 weeks that I don’t have to go to school – and as much as I loved the class, it’s nice to have a break! 

So after class on Friday we celebrated with couscous, this time at Karim's sister Fatima’s house. She made a really nice one – with roasted nuts and sultanas and chicken, maybe one day I will get her to give me a lesson, although I’m not sure I have the patience for the 3 hours it takes to cook. It’s a far cry from the instant couscous I used to cook at home!

The weekend was spent swimming as usual. On Saturday Karim took me to one of his favourite places in Morocco; a river about 30mins outside of Fes. Despite the gum trees along the side, this definitely was not the Murray river – the water was a beautiful shade of turquoise and it was freezing! The boys had bought a bunch of ingredients with them and proceeded to make a small fire on which they cooked 2 delicious tagines, followed of course by the obligatory watermelon! Then yesterday Karim and I went to a five-star hotel where for a price we got to laze about by the pool all afternoon! The hotel (les merinides) is perched on a hill and has an amazing view of the old medina. And no matter how many times I see a view like this, it still takes my breath away. What can I say, I love my adopted city!

After a quick rest at home (spending all day in the sun really takes it out on you), we then had to prepare for the supermarket. Normally this is a very easy task, but not in the lead up to Ramadan. I had never seen it so packed! The medina as well has been bustling this last week. Lots of stalls have sprung up selling sweet things called shebbakeeya – I’m not exactly sure how they are made but I’m pretty sure sugar and honey are the 2 main ingredients! These, as well as harira (soup), dates and juices are just some of the main things you break the fast with. So after returning from the supermarket we anxiously watched the news to see whether the new moon had been sighted thus signalling the start of Ramadan. You would think being a pretty major event that it would be the first news story either way but no, about 15mins into the bulletin we got the news – the new moon had not been sighted in Morocco, so Ramadan would be starting on Tuesday. 

Though I’m still confused, most other muslim countries have started their fast today and surely it is the same moon all around the world? But Karim explained that Moroccans want the moon sighted in Morocco before they start. It’s fine with me, I’m quite nervous about Ramadan, so delaying it by one day gives me one extra day to prepare! I have decided to try and fast, and I’m not really sure how I will go. Last time my friends and I tried to do the 40hr famine, we lasted all of about 8 hours before proceeding to stuff our faces with both McDonalds and KFC! Hopefully I will do better this time. I’m not so worried about the food aspect – but its so hot, I’m not sure how I will survive without water! I guess I will see tomorrow – the first day of Ramadan!

The river

Doing what I do best

Relaxing by the pool

Posing by the pool

The view over Fes

Fes

Fes

The merinides tombs above Fes