Happy birthday to me

This was to be posted on September 10. Due to internet/data issues, it’s just now being posted.

 I have been 28 for a day and what an adventure it has been. I flew last night from Detroit to Paris. I got three hours of sleep. After a two hour layover flew from there to Marrakech (Mare-uh-kesh). 1.5 hours of sleep. Landed and met up with 10 other travelers on my flight. We got through customs, met up with our tour director Ad (Adnane), and got to the hotel. We debriefed the schedule for the night, freshened up, and left the hotel.

Our poor first bus driver had a death in the family so we had to get a replacement. We didn’t get to dinner until 45 minutes after we were supposed to. We had a blood orange drink on the rooftop and looked at a market. We went downstairs in a courtyard and had our meal. The other Sarah and I got a bottle of wine. For someone who doesn’t like wine, I drank half the bottle. I was thirsty! We got 3L of water to split between 7 people. I sat with Sarah, Ken, Krystal, Amber, Kylie, and Shailja. We had salads for a first course: tomato (pico de gallo), aubergine, zucchini, cucumbers (nope), potatoes, and tomatoes with sweet peppers. We had a whole discussion how cucumbers are melons but aren’t considered fruits. How physically they look like zucchini, but aren’t in the same family (lagomorphs?) We had two big dishes of meat: tender beef with plums and almonds and chicken with olives and lemons. The lemons were so tart and mistaken for olives with the vinegary flavor. And of course bread. We had oranges and dates, pancakes with sweet syrup, and biscuits/cookies for dessert. One table gave me some white wine (which is what Sarah and I wanted in the first place). We left full and happy. 

We then wandered/followed our guide through the busy market. It was almost 11pm and so full of people and foods and things and music. It was overwhelming, but interesting. We’ll see the difference of night and day tomorrow. 

It’s time to sleep. I’m rooming with Ighwiyisi. I think she goes by Yisi. I’ll get the spelling tomorrow. We gratefully are starting later (10am) and are having a day to learn all about Marra