On day 1 of the desert part of our tour, I had finally started to feel–not normal, again, yet, but like I could remember what normal felt like. When we left the mountains I figured I was on the mend, especially as we descended, but the overall nausea and lack of appetite continued as we made our way to Ouarzazate. And then in the middle of the night that night, I came down with a 24-hour stomach thing. Honestly, I… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Blog
The Mountains, Day 4
Last mountains, I promise. New topographies coming next post. The final day of hiking was also eight hours, and while eight-hour Day 3 was my favorite, Day 4 almost ended me. I’m not totally sure what happened–I want to say that I had altitude sickness, but we were only ever as high as 2500 meters, which isn’t really enough to do it. I already had a head cold when we got to the mountains, though, and that + the higher… Read more »
More Subway Stories
I sat next to a very charming child and her…babysitter? family friend? as they played twenty questions. The best questions were the child’s asides: “Do you know what stop is ours so that we aren’t on the train for THE REST OF OUR LIVES?” and “If you looked in them mirror would you be like, “ahh! I’m a monster!”?” Older woman, reassuringly, to her older husband, who had just been offered a seat on the train by a young… Read more »
The Mountains, Day 3
I’ve been trying to cobble together the route that we took through the mountains based on google maps, pictures, and my iPhone’s “Steps” app, which miraculously tracked how many steps I took even though my phone was on airplane mode, out of range of any wifi, and across an ocean from Sprint. We didn’t follow the planned route (which I have information about/names of towns) due to snow conditions and also lack of poncho conditions, so I’m guessing somewhat. Also,… Read more »
The Mountains, Days 1-2
When we left Essaouira we drove to the Atlas Mountains with our guides Hassan and Jamal, who told us upon meeting, “We’ve been awake for 24 hours!” Hassan began the getting-to-know-you process by asking where we were from, and then saying, “American, American. Yes. Lovely-jubbly.” Then he got a phone call from his boss and, after hanging up, said, “So, kidding. It turns out I am not your guide, actually,” because his boss had told them to go home and take… Read more »
Essaouira
We landed in Marrakech but left immediately for Essaouira, and spent most of the drive taking pictures out of the windows and trying to nail down the pronunciation of Essaouira. It’s hard to avoid metathesis leading to pronouncing it “Ess-OW-ree-uh.” It’s actually Ess-uh-WEER-uh. I narrowly avoided titling this post “It’s-a-where-a?” so that’s about all of the restraint I have to spare today. Pictures: (click through for more/commentary).
Lis-bon-temps
I…can’t turn my back on a pun. We spent about 22 hours in Lisbon. Topographically, it’s my favorite kind of city: full of hills and near water. Cobblestones, red-tiled roofs, ancient trees. Here are some pictures (click through for more/commentary).
In My Head
Every time it rains I get Garbage’s “I’m Only Happy When it Rains” stuck in my head–not a bad thing–but usually with my friend Mikey-Mike’s (I think it was Mikey-Mike, but if not, it was Lincoln) alternate plumber-jingle lyrics, “We’re only happy when it drains,” to which I add “We’re only happy when you’re constipated” (don’t think about that too long…it doesn’t actually make sense as a business model; it just rhymes with “I’m only happy when it’s complicated”). It’s… Read more »
The Dept. of Sanitation
Sanitation SVU. That’s the web series I should star in. At one point last week I had live typhoid vaccine in my fridge and other people’s garbage downstairs inside my door. These are perversely related in the sense that when I touched the anonymous garbage bags (don’t judge; I regret my actions and I undertook them only because I’ve been primed–by trash citations/random assorted trash bags appearing in front of our apartment on days that are decidedly NOT trash day–to… Read more »
Rabies from a Camel
I’m probably just looking for excuses, but I feel like I’m having a hard time writing because I’m spending too much time worrying about getting rabies from a camel. (Don’t worry. I promise I’m taking this concern with the appropriate level of humor. Or trying to, anyway). Hear me out, though! The thing about this particular fear is: if I were to be bitten by a dog in Morocco, common sense would dictate that I get rabies shots. Even if it’s… Read more »
