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 »
Posts Categorized: Blog
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 »
Ramblings
Things that always sound good that I later regret: Tripod headstand Almond croissants Hence I spent the other day with both a headache and a stomachache. If I had done regular headstand and had a plain croissant, everything would have been fine. But tripods and almonds are a higher level of difficulty. Speaking about croissants, more than once I’ve gotten the last croissant at my coffee place because I was walking so fast that I overtook the people who then… Read more »
Topstove
After several weeks of microwaving and ordering too much grubhub, I have a new stove. The man who delivered the stove was just–one of those people that you would rate five stars if he was on Yelp. He had a near magical level of resourcefulness, though maybe I’m just easily impressed. First the stove wouldn’t fit through the door, so he took it out of the box. Then he determined that, as one person, he would not be able to… Read more »
