"There's a big toga party tonight down at Delta Chi
they've got Canadian bacon on their pizza pie
they've got a cooler for cold Coronas and Amstel Lights
It's like were all livin' in a big ol' cup
just fire up the blender, mix it all up"
It was actually a get-together at a joint downtown that put the NFL playoffs on big-screen TVs for us fans of American football. There was no Canadian bacon but there were Canadian colleagues (and a local friend). The beer was flowing, though it was bottles of San Miguel and Budweiser. Coca-Cola Light (Diet Coke) for yours truly. Mojitos for the Moroccan lass.
The location for all this is a place I've mentioned before called Jackrabbit Slims, modeled after the fictional one in the movie Pulp Fiction. They do some things to cater to us English-speaking ex-pats, bless their hearts. The burgers are good and I enjoyed Mia's $5 milkshake (at today's exchange rates it's really only about $4.18!) Pigskin! Burgers! Milkshakes! Nice company, and Baltimore and Denver put on an entertaining game for us. There was talk of the impending late start of the NHL season. Morocco has been a gracious host, but it was nice to escape to the U.S. for an evening. For 1 night I wasn't 5 hours ahead and 4500 miles away.
I've learned when you stand 1 m 90 cm and weigh 115 kg you can't go clothes shopping at the mall. If you have a problem with brown eggs, tough luck. If you don't, get used to the fact that they won't be sorted by size but will have feathers and other stuff still stuck to them. The USDA wouldn't approve, now would they how meat is handled. Sides of beef just hanging out there without a care in the world. I look at the chicken and just can't bear to buy it. At least I have my pasta, though the jarred sauce is barely tolerable. Plenty of cheap, fresh produce. Fresh-baked bread is delicious. People here cook from scratch, which is nice.
The people here are very friendly, even the taxi drivers, though they try to rip you off at every opportunity. People mostly are patient with me as I try to comminicate my wants and needs in fledgling French and barely there Darija (Moroccan Arabic). Getting better every week with my private French tutor. Not easy getting around the big city (almost 4M people) where upwards of 95% of the streets aren't marked. Try driving, especially with all the lunatics around you, when you're trying to get somewhere you've never been. Nevel dull. Work, neither, Every day, if you look and listen and ask questions, you can learn something really interesting from these children and staff with a radically different perspective and life experience, who have been everywhere, and have themselves been influenced by being from a region that has had countless different types of people come through here over the centuries.
Think I'm going to walk on down to the King's Market and get some odd-looking veggies before I play basketball later on the court with the international-standard trapezoid-shaped lane...
"It's a French kiss, Italian ice
Spanish moss in the moonlight
just another American Saturday night"
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