you haven't really lived in a place until...

... You are horribly sick in it.  I have now lived in Morocco.  Actually, by horribly sick, I don't mean malaria or anything; I just feel nauseous and my muscles ache.  Basically, I have a cold.  That said, it has given me some perspective on the limits to my sense of wanderlust, i.e. once I feel sick, I really just want to be sitting on the couch in Denver.  Nevertheless, I do have some updated information on Morocco and what I've been up to, now that I'm done ranting about feeling ill.

1) On Friday, went out to dinner with the program's Moroccan coordinator, who is a fascinating anthropology PhD candidate from Utah, who has been working in Morocco for ages now.  It's not too often that during dinner someone can reply to someone's concern about where their Arabic studies will take them, "Please, I'm a Mormon girl from Utah who married a Muslim."  Yeah, Becky's pretty great.

2) As a result of this dinner, we got back too late for the gate to be open.  After surveying the compound, unable to find a guard, we tried to jump the fence.  Naturally, right when I reached the top of the gate (I went first), a guard found us.  I was politely informed to get down while he opened the gate.  Luckily, I have abandoned my embarrassment in America.  It's on a vacation of its own.

3) In Tetouan on Saturday, we met one of the 14 remaining Jews of the city accidently in a bazaar.  After being told how small and marginal the Jewish population had become, it seems rather ironic that three of us should stumbled into one of the 14.

4) Reading at a sea-side café at sunset while sitting fresh orange juice is exactly as great as it sounds.