Morrocco details...

Roads: Beware of potholes. I've never driven under more stressful situations. The roads have potholes and sometimes speed bumps that are both intentional and unintentional. Either way, beware of both. On the right side of the road are people walking, bicycles, motorcycles with the entire family on them (it's amazing how many people you can fit on a motorcycle, mom, dad and a toddler), carts being drawn by horses or donkeys filled with people and produce, taxis pulling over to pick up or drop off people, cars pulling over for not sure what reason? Sometimes cars and motorcycles drive on the shoulder along the road against traffic (slightly nerve racking). There is also the issue of lanes. In most countries two lanes on the road means two cars side by side. In Casablanca, that could mean as much as four. People drive all over the place. I almost got squished today between a bus and a truck. I decided to brake, just in case there wasn't enough room and it was a good idea. I'm thinking most collisions happen here not front end, but rather side by side.

Driving: Driving into Casablanca this afternoon to get the kids, I saw a dog eating the carcass of a dead dog lying on the side of the road.

Things that annoy me: people can't pick a lane. They wander into my lane even though their lane is clear of cars, they just wander over so I can't get by them. I feel like pulling up next to them, honk, roll down my window, and yell "stay in your own lane!"

Honking: On the same road as the cannibal dog, there was a large bus behind, next to and sometimes in front of me. He is what I call a "happy honker". Traffic isn't moving, yet he continues to honk his horn, beep, beep, beep. Look, a parked cart on the side of the road; beep, beep, beep. Uh oh, I merged in front of him; beep, beep, beep (this time at me I presume.) Oh look, now he's crossed the two lane road and is partially driving into oncoming traffic all the while; beep, beep, beep at the caravan of cars in front of him to drive faster and forcing all of the on coming traffic to squeeze 2 rows of cars into 1 1/2 lanes. Still beep, beep, beep. I think he honked his horn all the way to his destination (wherever that is??)

I find that most often trucks are "happy honkers." Someone told me, well, welcome to Casa.

Lanes: What are those white stripes on the road supposed to mean?? Today as I was driving my husband to work since my new job has become the family chauffeur before the child drop off at school, I had to merge. There are two lanes presumebly drawn on the road. I counted the number of lanes that were created to merge onto the 2 lane overpass; 5. I was in lane 4, naughty me. I intentionally stayed in the left lane with the idea of cutting ahead of everyone else. Lane 5 had the same idea, but more brazen. Lane 5 was blocking everyone who wanted to stay on the main road and NOT merge onto the overpass. Mentally I had to give them kudos for their ballsiness (though I still didn't let any of them cut in front of me.) I figured they should wait until the very last moment before they could merge. No one merges early.

Turning: Sometimes there is no break in the traffic in order to make a left hand turn, therefore you have to get a little nuts and a little creative. Besides if you don't, the people behind you will start honking their horns. You have to pull out into fiercly oncoming traffic, say a little prayer that they will slow down and not cream you, then once you've fully cut everyone else off, hope for an open space and then jump right in.

At the kids school, I have to make a left hand turn to get to the light. Unfortunately both two lanes of the treet were already backed up to the next block. The car in front of me was both creative and brazen and just created a third lane by driving on the wrong side of the road and cutting everyone else off who was in line and got right up to the front. So, like any nice, kind, road polite person; I followed. I felt a little guilty, but made it out by the first light. Surprisingly, no one honked at me.

Crossing the road in Casa on foot: SUICIDE. Yep, made that mistake today. No, I didn't get hit by a car, but was very scared. I just wanted to check out the tennis club near the kids school to see if I can sign them up. There are no pedestrian cross walk lights in Casa and there are NO breaks between traffic. I crossed not when the traffic was coming, but when people were turning. I had to run and dodge four cars and two mopeds all of whom didn't seem keen on slowing down. I got honked at. At the other half of the road, I waited for the red light, but just because the light turns red, doesn't necessarily mean drivers are going to stop. Often, people burn red lights.

Morroccan mint tea: delicious

Avacado Juice: that's right, freshly squeezed avacado juice. Didn't know one could juice an avocado. It is delicious! It's like a liquid meal in itself.

Yesterday at the last minute X. invited a new arrival family to the house. I asked N. if she could prepare a meal for 4 adults and 6 kids. She went all out and prepared some hors d'oeurves. She then created a beautifully layered salad on a giant plate she borrowed from a friend (since we have a skeleton kitchen here). Then she made a French tajine of mutton and mushrooms and crème fraîche with a side of rice. Mmmm...delicious. I was very proud.

Pet Shelters: As far as I know, do not exist here. All animals roam free together. Then, if there is a rabies outbreak, the army comes and shoots all the wild dogs. Afterwards, the dogs slowly repopulate. If you want a puppy? Just go out and grab one. They're all over the place. If you think about it, it's not a bad life. At least here, dogs are free to be dogs. They run, find a mate, have some puppies. All in all, I think they are able to live a full life. In the US, we murder animals on a regular basis to keep the population down. It's just done in a clean, systematic way in the shelters, not necessarily better. Most animals are spayed and neutered so they never have a chance to live a full animal life, of course then they don't have to die young or experience other terrible things.

Horsebackriding: X and I decided to go for a tour of the Sahara in March for 1 week on horseback through the local horseback riding club. Of course I've never had 1 class before and have limited horse riding experience to nose to tail trail walking in a large group. This would be interesting. So I've had 3 lessons so far.

Lesson 1: we had to learn to post, ,that is bounce up and down in the saddle while the horse trots. The instructor yelled at me to lift my bum off the saddle, but I swear for the life of me I couldn't. He said, "stand up!" I'm thinking if I do that, I'm going straight off the front of the horse. Still after lots of painful bouncing and a very sore bum, I was finally able to sort of post by the end of the hour.

Lesson 2: The trainer and I went out on the trail. It was great! More trotting, more posting and he said now we're going to gallop. I said we're going to whatop? He said, "do you have confidence in me?" I said, "Yes, I have confidence in you, but the question is do I have confidence in myself?" I'm looking down at the rocks and boulders lining the trail and thinking if I fall off, I'm going to break something. So, he promised we'd do a slow gallop. He said you do not post in gallop, you remain in the saddle. I said, how? He said you squeeze your legs together very tightly. I'm thinking, I have no inner thigh muscles, this is going to be interesting. So, I galloped. I got partly bounced all over the place, then for a brief moment I was able to ride with the horse and remain in the saddle. It was pretty cool, really hard, but cool. Everyone said horseback riding is a sport. I always thought you just kind of sit there, I mean how hard can it be? Well, I assure you, from always too overconfident me, it IS hard.

Lesson 3: more trotting and galloping. Good time. I'm still sore. Legs are quite sore, but hopefully that will go away with some time.