Hallo-weenie!!

What a fun day at school! Another teacher and I dressed up as Crayons (below) and some clever 6th graders dressed as "nerd zombie" and "cereal killer". I love Halloween!

As middle school student council sponsor, I organized the "spooky games" component for our school-wide Halloween party. We created "spooky boxes" that contained Frankenstein's teeth, Vampire's blood, menacing maggots, eek! Eyeballs and Zombie fingers! Lot of work, but the kids screams and faces made it all worth it!!

9,500+ alleys: Which way do we turn?!

My first weekend getaway was a success! Great food, entertainment, lodging, shopping, atmosphere, and friends to enjoy it all with!

Fes (or Fez as the Americans would call it) is the medieval capital of Morocco and was just 3 1/2 hours northeast of Casablanca, by train that is. Way back when, Fes was once the most populated city in the world. While that may not be true anymore, it does however hold the title for having the largest car-free Medina/shopping center in the world.

All 9 of us paid 165 dirhams ($20) for a 1st class train ride to Fes. Spending a little extra was totally worth it as we relaxed in lounging and wide seats with air conditioning and a great view.

Fes is notorious for their riads (bed and breakfast lodging). We booked 2 large "suites" at Riad Fes Aicha: one for the guys and one for the gals. The riad has a large central and open room that houses as the lounge & common dining area. It was very well lit, spacious, and comfortable. Upon our arrival (they even picked us up from the train station!), they served us hot mint, green tea. Our tour guide began explaining about the history of Fes and our itinerary for the day. Needless did we know that it was going to be a very long day and night.

Our tour began with entering upon one of the thousands of streets within the Medina. Since motorized vehicles aren't allowed, transportation of goods must take other means...

Hundreds and hundreds of tiny shops selling their specialties. The picture below containing the yellow/greenish fruit on a wooden cart is prickly pear. Needless to say this is was NOT one of my favorite fruits!

 

The kiddos loved seeing tourists.



Making  blue jeans (a rarity over here). Elaborate wedding decorations.

After many shops and history lessons, our guide took us to a local's house for lunch. Here we all tried different traditional Moroccan food: Kefta Tagine (meatballs in poached eggs), Moroccan Couscous, Lamb Tagine, Pastille along with the standard hot mint green tea and fruit for dessert.

After lunch, we headed to a highly sought-after commodity that Fes is known for...LEATHER This leather tannery consists of many "vats" in which the leather is cleaned and dyed. The white "vats" (blocked-shaped barrels) are used to disinfect and clean the hides.

After they're clean and dry, the leather is stained.  You can see many colors within the vats (red, brown, black, blue).

I couldn't miss an opportunity to get an AUTHENTIC leather jacket, so I drove a hard bargain and got a jet blue leather jacket and leather house slippers for $150.

Our guide then took us to a large rug factory/shop called Dar Essaad. It used to be a large riad (house), but now they have transformed it into a large, open rug shop. A women's co-op of Fes makes the rugs and all of the proceeds go to them. They were absolutely beautiful and so colorful. Some of the rugs were thousand-strung knots made with fine wool and some were made of camel hair.

I got to watch the women tie the knots for the beautiful carpet that they were making. They even let me try it out!

There was a beautiful view on the roof of the rug shop...photo op for our group!

Next stop: a textiles shop. Here the man is pressing the strings together to make a scarf. All of us teachers played dress up in the traditional Moroccan djellabas (for women) and kaftans (for men).

 
After a long day of shopping and sight-seeing, our guide organized an dinner and entertainment for us. We were treated like royal guests by sitting on the stage to the right of the band. We listened to lovely music by a traditional Moroccan instrumental group.

 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The belly dancers were a hit! The ladies decided that we teachers needed a few lessons. Above is the belly dancer with two of my colleagues (Josh Winicki and Ryan Fletcher) and below are a group of teachers including me.

 
 The following day a few of us decided to roam about the old medina on our own. We were in search of the famous 14th century Water Clock and it's counterpart Café and it took us merely 2 1/2 hours to find it in the heart of the medina. We took one too many wrong turns, but after asking almost every local at every fork in the road, we eventually found it!

The water clock was designed by a clockmaker and part-time magician. The carved beams hold  brass bowls with water flowing between them to mark the hours. Unfortunately, it doesn't work today, but it was neat to see!

Such a great, fun weekend with friends. I highly recommend Fez to any tourist who comes to Morocco! However, I do suggest that you book your first class train ticket in advance. If left undone, then you could be stuck in an non-air conditioned, second class, and over-crowded cab for 3 1/2 hours.



Escargots alive!!

So now that I've seen them so alive, slimy and crawling/slithering/gliding among one another I may think twice before I take a bite (or slurp)! 

I love the old means of measurement!