Morocco!

Morocco was so beautiful that I'm not sure what to say about it, so for now, I'll just post a lot of pictures with commentaries.

We stayed in Rabat, the capital of Morocco for a week.  We stayed right outside of the medina, which is the "old town" and is surrounded by a wall.  The souk (market) is in the medina as was the school we took classes at. 

People buying cactus fruits in the souk.  I ate one on my birthday.  They cut off the outside part you can see, and inside it looks like a beet.  It tasted weird and afterwards I had a bright pink tongue and teeth! 

A picture from the second floor of SIT Morocco building.  It's in a very traditional old Moroccan house, and so beautiful. 

We took a day trip to the small village of Tiddas where one of our leaders was from.  We spent our morning in the market and then went to our leader's parents house for lunch.  His mother and grandmother cooked us the most food i've ever seen in my life.  

A lot of people ride donkeys to the market.  This one was "parked" and looking particularly friendly.

sheepies! and a lot of trash.

Root vegetables!

Little kids followed us around for about an hour at the market asking for us to take their photographs then show them.  This kido was playing with a little squirt-gun thing and thought I was very funny.

Man leaving the market with his things packed up on a donkey.

Robin and Brenner emerging from a forest of cactus.

A nice view of the village.

It's impossible to tell from this picture how large these plates of food are.  Soo huge.  The most delicious couscous I've ever had.  I got my own plate that was vegetarian, and was probably enough food for at least 10 people.  There were two gigantic plates of couscous with meat, too.  I've never eaten so much in my life.  It was soo good.  But afterwards it looked like we hadn't eaten anything.

Me with my couscous plate.  

The remaining photos are back in Rabat.

View of the Atlantic Ocean from the Casbah, the old fortress.

Me, looking goofy.  I was really sick the whole time we were in Morocco, so there are few good pictures of me.

A nice view of the beach.  The left is a cemetery.  I don't think I knew that when I took this picture.

Part of the Casbah.

This dog lived at the beach.  It really wanted to lick my camera.

There are very few stray dogs compared to other places in Africa.  There are, however, thousands of stray cats.  You can hear the at night, and it's pretty eerie.  This one was cute though.  

Rugs for sale in the souk.  

A covered part of the souk.

Morocco was really amazing.  Even though I was sick I managed to have a great time and a fabulous birthday.  On my birthday after class, the girls all went to the hamam, which is a kind of bathhouse.  It was an interesting experience.  We got scrubbed down with gooey black soap while all of the Moroccan women laughed at us because we looked so out of place.  Definitely interesting.  The experience was really awkward, but afterwards we went out for tea and were all very relaxed (and very clean!).  We then went to a cliff that overlooks the ocean and to dinner.  At dinner my friends sang happy birthday to me in English, Dutch, French, Spanish, American sign language, and about 4 other languages.  Then we went out for ice cream.  It was interesting to be in an Islamic country for my 21st, because Muslims don't drink.  But I couldn't have asked for anything better.  Ice cream, cactus fruit, and a beautiful sunset over the ocean?  Sounds nice to me.

Pretend I wrote this 4 weeks ago: Last day in Croatia

My favorite part about Croatia was leaving...

Okay, that's not entirely fair to say.  I liked the tiny old ladies in huge fur coats who worked at the outdoor market everyday, even in the snow.

And, on the last day, we found a modern art museum.  There was some really amazing bosnian and croatian art, which is something we don't often see in the US.  They had an exhibit of contemporary (as in working right now—not the art category) Croatian artists.

This piece was one of my favorites.  It's 12 feet by 13 feet, so clearly this picture doesn't do it justice.  Every bit of the map is covered in cool little cartoons.

Drugi svijet by Ana Sladetic

The piece also had an interactive section where you could put on gloves and open jars that had pieces of this huge piece on them, so you could see the drawings up close.  There were stickers you could take too.  I have a little pile of them on my desk at the moment.

Buuut, the best part was the 4 story slide.  I didn't read who the artist was or what it was called, cause I was too nervous about sliding down a 4 story tube.  hehe.  But it was really fun and a nice way to end the day at the museum!

from the top.

there are 2 slides, one from the 3rd floor and one from the 4th.

from the bottom.

my friend Brenner is in the slide.

the sun shines in amsterdam

today i woke up to the sun shining through my windows.  something we haven't seen yet here in this country.  and if the weather report is correct we should have more days of sun!

on monday i'm going to borrow a cord from a friend to upload my morocco pictures.  but today, i'm going to have a picnic with some friends and enjoy the sun and (relative) warmth!

hope the weather in the US is just as great!

lots of love,

kathleen

lost cord

I seem to have misplaced the cord that connects my camera to my computer.  Hopefully someone I was rooming with has it in their bag so I can make a post with photos tomorrow!

spring break croatia

we've been in croatia for almost a week now—and internet has been sketchy—so sorry for not being in communication.

 croatia is a strange place to visit.  it's winter, so it's cold (about 0 degrees C) and has been snowing.  the architecture is "soviet" inspired.  the walls of every building are made of stone and painted white or grey or beige.  you constantly see men outside re-paining the walls because there is graffiti everywhere.  i don't have too much to say about croatia right now, so i included some photos instead!

we've been learning a lot here about the war and society since then.  we were supposed to go to a city on the coast today, but it is so windy and snowy in the mountains that busses are not allowed on the roads.  we'll be in zagreb until saturday.  then we'll drive through slovenia to italy (sounds familiar!) to fly to morocco.  currently, morocco is stable and the protests are not violent, so we're still going.  should be an interesting experience!

stained glass and graffiti,

a normal combination in croatia.

the open air market, my favorite part of zagreb.

the stalls are staffed mainly by women over 80, 

who are very hearty in the snow in their winter coats.

things to do in zagreb...?

not too much.  lots of eating chocolate and goofing around

snow in zagreb.

walking to our hostel through the snow.

(the red building on the left is a chocolate factory, 

whenever you go outside the hostel it smells like chocolate chip cookies!)

more goofing around in the hostel.

(got my hair cut)

dog bundled up for the snow.  i cannot imagine corby putting up with having 4 legs through a snow suit.  none of the dogs in these snow suits looked very happy.  this one was pretty cute though.

lots of love,

kathleen