Sunday in Marrakech!

I arrived Saturday night around 8/30 pm. (Excuse any punctuation errors I'm doing my best with a very different keyboard.) Easyjet was fine, very cattlecar, absolutely no frills (not even a free glass of water, which helps them keep fares so ridiculously cheap.). Delayed an hour, but otherwise fine.
I didn't sleep much to 2nd day jetlag. Looking forward to the customary afternoon nap!
I just had a VERY interesting Moroccain experience, visiting a hammam. A hammam is basically like a turkish bath house. Men on their own side, women & girls & little kids on the other and never the twain shall meet. You go in, strip down to underware, leave your stuff with an attendant, then take your bucket of washing stuff into the steam rooms. Find a spare bench, set up mats, load huge buckets with very hot water. Then you scrub, and I don,t mean lightly. The woman who is hosting me lit into my back and I swear I'm 2 pounds lighter. There are 3 different rooms, depending on how hot you like it. Not surprisingly, not many westerners go there, certainly not many Americans. But I liked it, and do I ever feel CLEAN! I'm sure I'll go again, which I'm sure won't come as a surprise to many who know me. I can imagine some of my students being weirded out, but frankly it's not a lot different than the Y locker room after swim practice.
Well, I'm starving and something smells good.
Hopefully I'll find wifi tomorrow & can add some pix. Bye for now.

Wow, what a difference 10 hrs sleep makes!

I had a wonderful french meal last night, a wonderful salade au chevre chaud (mixed spring greens with hot goat cheese and yummy balsamic vinaigrette), crusty bread, followed by maigret de canard aux sauces de fruits rouges, a grilled duck dish with red fruited sauce, the thinnest possible green beans and roasted new potatoes, followed by a creme brulee and cafe.  A real treat, a pre-birthday splurge! The sun is shining, been to the market, still very chilly.   Now I'm off to the airport again, on to Marrekech!

Made it to Lyon, France

I made it to France! Uneventful flights, not much sleep. I'm VERY jetlagged and need to really pay attention to walking on cobblestone streets. There's a 6 hr time difference. I landed in Lyon (one of France's larger cities, in the Rhone- Alpes area) around 9am, (it was dark til nearly 8am). I thought of all you Maine folk because it was snowing like crazy! Not exactly what I had in mind. The snow let up, but chilly. My room wasn't to be ready til at least 1:00, so off I went walking. Found a nice little open air market (nice cheese) and walked along the Saone & Rhone rivers. Found very cool roman ruins and wandered the narrow, steep streets of Vieux Lyon. This theatre is the view I have out my hotel window. I hope I'll be able to stay awake til it gets dark. Off to Marrekech tomorrow.

Well, I've always been known for packing light.  This is it for 3 months away.  About to head for the airport, I'm very excited, starting to feel a few little butterflies.  Bangor-NY-Paris-Lyon. Overnight in Lyon then off to Marrakech.

 Keep in touch, either here or on my yahoo mail or school email.  Bye for now.

Last couple days before I head off from snowy, cold winter to hopefully much warmer climes in Morocco.  Haven't finished packing yet, plenty of time for that.  3 days to go .

First time blogging!

Well, this is new.  Never blogged before, but it seems a sensible way to keep in touch, to let people know where I am and what I'm up to.  I'm experimenting with adding photos, etc.  It's snowing like crazy here now, but soon I'll be in the desert!

Just over one week to go!