Gonna put the world away for a minute
Pretend I don't live in it
Sunshine gonna wash my blues away...
Now I'm lost in the world tryin to find me a better way...
The Zac Brown Band makes a return appearance, with a little help from Jimmy Buffett. Close my eyes. This could be Margaritaville, couldn't it? Warmth of the sun? Check. Crashing ocean waves? Check. Adhan? Adhan?! The Islamic call to prayer tells Toto and me we aren't in Kansas anymore. Would you believe that sometimes I forget completely I live in a city of 4 million people, in a North African nation with a population that is 99% Muslim? Well, while I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, you have to cut me some slack. Let me explain...
Thanks to this aerial photo, you can see that I live j-u-s-t outside the city limits, surrounded by fields. Between work and home, I spend upwards of 95% of my time within the campus walls. The school is just like any other, really, except for the trilingual thing. During the school day, when it's typically crazy, I get lost in what I'm doing and forget where I'm doing it. It is when I hop in the kangaroo, er, the Kangoo that things get interesting. What is a Kangoo? It's a popular vehicle here that Renault makes. It looks like this:
I can sign it out and pay 3 dirhams per kilometer (approx. 40 cents per mile) to do my business. I usually use it only to do a big grocery shopping trip. Thankfully, that's only about 3 miles straight down the road to the mall. I say that because the people here drive like maniacs. What they're driving could be not only be cars, but scooters scooting all about. Pedestrians - either they are absolutely fearless or stone cold crazy - add to the difficulty factor. I rarely drive downtown; I do the taxi thing instead. I walk to pick up an ancient, beat-up, white Mercedes "grand taxi" built for 4 but stuffed with 7. It runs prescribed routes within cities and between cities. I then connect to a POS red sub-compact "petit taxi" that only operates within a city and takes you anywhere you need to go. Sometimes they don't even cheat you. It's cheap, at least.
Casa is like any other big American city - crowded, filthy, noisy, filthy, full of thieves - did I tell you it's filthy? Sitting in a taxi, it's easy to imagine I'm in Philly - unless the radio is on, playing that infernal Arabic music! I'm getting to where I can often have a (primitive) conversation in French with people I encounter when I am out and about.
When I'm out and about at the mall, I usually make a trip to the Marjane, which is basically Morocco's version of a super Wal-Mart. It is half-department store and half-grocery store. At first glance, even second glance, you notice nothing unusual, until you look a little closer - at what is there, what isn't, and how much there is/not. People here tend to cook from scratch, and that is reflected in the lack of processed foods on the shelves and the small freezer case. Couscous has a big shelf. Yogurt has an even bigger one. My roomie is in luck - all the olives he could ever desire! But, on the whole, it looks like, I'd say, a Pathmark in the Delaware Valley.
Do you see a theme here? When I let myself get caught up in the "day-to-day", it's easy to lose sight of the big picture. Usually, it's when I get home and wind down that I then ponder life. For every thing I think I've got figured out several questions appear. I wish to God I had some answers. It's frustrating. Students have asked me if I'm returning next fall. I say I hope so. I don't wan't to make a promise and be made a liar by unforeseen circumstances. I wish I knew what the future held for me. When I have idle time and my mind wanders to what might be, short or long term, I get terribly angry and wish I had someone or something to hit. I used to have it all figured out, I thought. Now? I snorted a laugh typing that.
One day recently, something happened in school that was positive. For the life of me I can't remember what it was, but I remember what a kid asked me: Why aren't you excited? I replied that I try not to get to "up" or too "down" - I just try to keep an even keel. I felt bad saying that.
Come on in
the waters nice...
When you lose yourself
you find a key to paradise
Pretend I don't live in it
Sunshine gonna wash my blues away...
Now I'm lost in the world tryin to find me a better way...
The Zac Brown Band makes a return appearance, with a little help from Jimmy Buffett. Close my eyes. This could be Margaritaville, couldn't it? Warmth of the sun? Check. Crashing ocean waves? Check. Adhan? Adhan?! The Islamic call to prayer tells Toto and me we aren't in Kansas anymore. Would you believe that sometimes I forget completely I live in a city of 4 million people, in a North African nation with a population that is 99% Muslim? Well, while I may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, you have to cut me some slack. Let me explain...
Thanks to this aerial photo, you can see that I live j-u-s-t outside the city limits, surrounded by fields. Between work and home, I spend upwards of 95% of my time within the campus walls. The school is just like any other, really, except for the trilingual thing. During the school day, when it's typically crazy, I get lost in what I'm doing and forget where I'm doing it. It is when I hop in the kangaroo, er, the Kangoo that things get interesting. What is a Kangoo? It's a popular vehicle here that Renault makes. It looks like this:
I can sign it out and pay 3 dirhams per kilometer (approx. 40 cents per mile) to do my business. I usually use it only to do a big grocery shopping trip. Thankfully, that's only about 3 miles straight down the road to the mall. I say that because the people here drive like maniacs. What they're driving could be not only be cars, but scooters scooting all about. Pedestrians - either they are absolutely fearless or stone cold crazy - add to the difficulty factor. I rarely drive downtown; I do the taxi thing instead. I walk to pick up an ancient, beat-up, white Mercedes "grand taxi" built for 4 but stuffed with 7. It runs prescribed routes within cities and between cities. I then connect to a POS red sub-compact "petit taxi" that only operates within a city and takes you anywhere you need to go. Sometimes they don't even cheat you. It's cheap, at least.
Casa is like any other big American city - crowded, filthy, noisy, filthy, full of thieves - did I tell you it's filthy? Sitting in a taxi, it's easy to imagine I'm in Philly - unless the radio is on, playing that infernal Arabic music! I'm getting to where I can often have a (primitive) conversation in French with people I encounter when I am out and about.
Do you see a theme here? When I let myself get caught up in the "day-to-day", it's easy to lose sight of the big picture. Usually, it's when I get home and wind down that I then ponder life. For every thing I think I've got figured out several questions appear. I wish to God I had some answers. It's frustrating. Students have asked me if I'm returning next fall. I say I hope so. I don't wan't to make a promise and be made a liar by unforeseen circumstances. I wish I knew what the future held for me. When I have idle time and my mind wanders to what might be, short or long term, I get terribly angry and wish I had someone or something to hit. I used to have it all figured out, I thought. Now? I snorted a laugh typing that.
One day recently, something happened in school that was positive. For the life of me I can't remember what it was, but I remember what a kid asked me: Why aren't you excited? I replied that I try not to get to "up" or too "down" - I just try to keep an even keel. I felt bad saying that.
Come on in
the waters nice...
When you lose yourself
you find a key to paradise
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