Time flies

Hello again and another apology for the lack of activity in my blog as of late. In the past two weeks I have had over ten pages of spanish papers to write, a test, and two quizzes not to mention I have to figure out about another ten page paper and prepare for final exams. Its no excuse, i'm two entries behind and I know its my duty, since I am more or less impossible to contact, to at least send you guys a few messages to let you know I haven't fallen seriously ill, or joined a rebel army or any of the other things that young people abroad seem to fall victim too. Right now I am quite well, I am sitting by the pool on the island of Santorini in Greece, trying not to get too terrible of a sun burn, I have already watched two of the more lovely sunsets i can remember and everywhere I look are cliffs defiantly rising out of the water challenging its vastness and size with pure determination. Its really very beautiful. But this post is not about greece as I am far too behind to jump forward. First morocco!

I would describe morocco as two different places coexisting simultaneously. the two first cities that we visited were the old imperial cities, Fez and Marakash, and these cities are both quite famous for their medinas, a labyrinth of winding streets, many times without an exit, filled with shops and the general din of commerce. Of course this is not the United States so prices in Morocco mean virtually nothing, you are forced to play a repetitive and often exhausting game where they treat you like a king to create a feeling of obligation in you so you are forced to buy something then the give you a price that is outrageous, even in a western store, and you are transformed from a king to a warrior, battling your sense of obligation to get a price that is at least fair, if not a bargain. Certainly you can get bargains by this method of battle-buying, but it is tiring and the constant transformation of people from friends into fierce hustlers is emotionally effective and leaves you feeling a bit like the commodity the sellers are peddling. Still it is a sight to see, which is most likely the reason that hundreds of thousands of tourist flood these places to see this culture, which seems so foreign, in its natural habitat.
And here is where we find a duality; just outside of these medinas, these hearts of ancient arabic culture are skyscrapers and sky rise hotels, a modern city as western as any here in the united states and nicer and newer than many that I have seen in Europe. Even as you walk down the street you see two women walk past and one is dressed in a traditional burka and the other is wearing guess jeans, gucci sunglasses, and high heels. Its as if there are two cultures one must choose from, one antique, poor, traditional, one modern, flashy, and totally foreign, with no connection to their antique cultures. In marrakash there is a square, I posted some pictures of it in my last entry, which is filled with snake charmers, story tellers, food, almost out of a movie depicting medieval arabia, but when you look closely the mouths of the snakes are sewn shut, only tourist gather at the hundreds of food stalls. The food, which seems so exotic, is all the same, all just a show for tourists. And you begin to wonder how much of these peoples way of life is a show for us? How much of this antiquity, this culture, is just being preserved to bring in more money and build the real cities, the cities that are just like every other city in the world.
Besides these musings the country is very interesting, again you find duality with the people because half of them are as I described above, interested in only making a few bucks at your expense, the other half is genuinely warm, loving welcoming, and happy to show kindness to any stranger. The trick is you don't really know which one is which, who wants your money and who wants to help, and you end up treating every one with suspicion, even those who are genuinely kind. Bad people ruin the world for the good people, such a simple realization but true, and good people make the world livable, create a possibility for trust to be broken. A shame.
I don't necessarily trust myself to describe adequately the sights and sounds and smells, the smoke rising from the fires cooking food in the square in marrakash, the smell of the man sitting next to me for four hours as six people were jammed into a taxi to take us from Meknes to Chefchauen. Chefchauen, the blue city, halfway between a fairy tale and a water park, a city of cement painted blue to make it aesthetically pleasing at the base of a mountain you can hike up and see the electric blue starkly against the green countryside. Its honestly too much to describe, but I will try to post more pictures and keep people up to date this way.
I will be sending an email to you soon Grandma, I'm sorry again for not keeping up with this thing. To all the rest of you I love you and will see you in about a month, not much time. Isaac finally sent me an email and we have made amends. I hope all are well and will write again soon. My next entry will be about semana santa (holy week), then greece.