A new, fantastic point of view

Hey guys!!
I'm sorry I'm such a horrible blogger...I said I would post about the first part of my spring break and here we are, how much later??? with no new posts!! Ahhh! Well, I'm going to fix that now. 
We, here in France, had a two week long spring break between April 7th and April 21st.  I spent the first nine or so days of that in Casablanca, Morocco with Kirk and Sarah and their three boys (my uncle/aunt/cousins)! It was absolutely amazing! My trip started off well with a very interesting flight in haha.  My flight left from Orly, which I had never been to, so it was a little adventure just getting there.  I ended up helping a couple of German girls, who didn't speak French well, navigate the metro and RER towards the airport.  Once I was there, I people watched for a couple hours while I waited for boarding to start.  I had a layover in Lisbon, Portugal and the flight there was fairly uneventful, except for when the lady next to me spilled her meal everywhere and they gave me a meat-filled meal instead of the vegetarian one that I had requested... Oh! I did think I was going to die on the decent... The turbulence was awful!!! Once I was in Lisbon, I started people watching again and realized that Portuguese is The weirdest language Ever!!! It sounds like Spanish, Russian, and German had a baby!! A woman tried to say something to me and I think the look of shock and utter confusion on my face surprised her haha.  Thankfully, they repeated all the announcements in both French and English as well (though, with their accents, I had just as difficult a time understanding the English as I did the Portuguese haha).  I got really excited when I saw them refilling a Pepsi vending machine nearby, hoping that I could finally have a Mountain Dew after three months, but when I went to check, it was stocked with Fanta and bottled water...I was very disappointed.  I also found a very interesting guy to watch at the gate (people watching is a national sport in France; it's not considered rude at all to stare at the people around you. This is a habit I have definitely picked up and definitely had to break once I got to Morocco haha).  He was fairly attractive and I wasted a lot of time trying to figure out what language he spoke, because he was reading a magazine that had some sort of Cyrillic script on it. 
When we were finally allowed to board, we had to take a shuttle from the gate to a back part of the airport.  When the driver stopped we all gave a little bemused chuckle -- The plane had propellers and barely looked big enough to hold all 17 of us, much less lift us into the air... There were twenty seats on the plane including those for the pilot and co-pilot.  My seat was in the very back and, as it turns out, I was seated right next to the guy I had been watching for the past two hours! We joked a little in English about how small the plane was and wondered if we would make it to Casa alive.  After the plane started we could barely hear ourselves think much less talk anymore but we did catch eyes every once in a while and smile. 
We did make it to Morocco alive and well.  Actually, the flight on that little puddle jumper was more comfortable (excluding the noise levels) than the airbus I took into Lisbon... Who'dda thunk? After we landed, we all went and waited in line for about half an hour to get our passports stamped and then another twenty minutes for our luggage to come out.  While we were waiting for our luggage, I got to talk with that guy some more. I found out his name was Miro and he was from Bulgaria.  He was in Casablanca for a tennis tournament because he was a manager for a few of the players and he came out every year.  He was very interesting and nice and it was a great way to start off my visit!!
When I finally saw Kirk in the lobby, I had the biggest grin on my face! It was so wonderful to see him after so long and to see family after so long!! I was introduced, right away, to the Moroccan way of driving.... And I used to be scared of driving in the States.... Oy... There are almost no rules on those roads and it's completely expected for everyone to be horribly rude to one another... When turning left, you sit in the middle of the road and wait, expecting everyone else to go around you.  It was terrifying.  Kirkie and I talked lots though and caught up.  He told me a little about Casablanca and what I could expect during the next week or so.  I learned the next day from Sarah that if I looked at a man for more than a second or two it would be considered a sexual advance, especially since I'm a white, westerner.... My people watching habit was a hard one to break haha. It was really nice to see Sarah and the boys that first night and I got to meet Asher-John for the first time!! He's such a cutie =] It was a relief to be among family again.  That's the hardest thing about being here in France - being so far away from all of my family...

One thing that was really great about spending time in Casablanca was that I could still communicate because most of the people there speak French! I had some "French nights" with Kirk and Sarah where we attempted to speak only French for a couple of hours before bed and we watched a couple of French films like Amelie and Le Petit Nicolas, which I hadn't gotten around to seeing yet and they were amazing!  I also got to hear Oli speaking French!! He's getting so good and it's so cute to hear his little voice switch back and forth from English to French.  He understands it really well and he's picking up all the little nuances. I wish I had started that early - everything would be so much easier!! 
It was also really cheap there compared to France.  The exchange rate was almost 11 Dirhams to one Euro!! Of course, everything looked like it was more expensive because it was 35DH or something like that but that meant that it was only about 3€, so after I got used to doing the conversion, it was really nice.
While I was there, we ate lots of yummy foods that didn't involve pasta (hallelujah!!!) like taco salad with black beans instead of hamburger (I'd never thought of this, even while I was in the states! New recipe!! haha) and felafels (mmmmmmmnumnum X] I still need to get this recipe) and homemade onion rings (I need this recipe, too haha), yummy pizza, Moroccan breads and Edam cheese, buckwheat crepes, tomato soup and - the piece de resistance - Moroccan mint tea.  I became so addicted to this that I brought 3 boxes home haha! It's so delicious!!! It was hard to come back to France and a steady diet of pasta after all that...
We went to a restaurant called Sqala for brunch one day. It's a very Moroccan restaurant - the decor, the food, everything.  It was a beautiful day and the restaurant was beautiful with a fountain and lots of foliage on the patio and the sun shining through everything.  The food there was delicious and it was a lovely time out =] We also went to a small place by the beach called Natty Natty a couple of times.  The first time, the boys and I played on the beach while we waited for buckwheat crepes.  The second time, we went back after a day out and we all got delicious, homemade ice cream!!
We went to a couple of different beaches while I was there, because it was almost always sunny and warm.  One was the beach by Natty Natty, which was very sandy and fun -- great for building sand castles and writing in the sand. The other we spend the day at- I got sunburnt, of course- and had a great time.  The tide was fairly low and there were lots of rock formations to climb all over and small, warm pools to play in.  We found and collected tons of seashells and had a yummy picnic.  The only bad part of that day was that I accidentally dropped my camera into one of the little pools, which is why you haven't seen any photos from Morocco yet... When I get home, I'll be able to use Mum's computer, which has an SD card slot that fits mine and I'll upload lots of beautiful pictures!!
We also had lots of games that went on throughout the week. One was the "arrow game" with Oli mostly but Nico joined in occasionally as well.  We would each make something - a drawing, a fortune teller - for the other to find, hide it, then lay colored pencils out like arrows leading to a treasure.  I lost count of how many times we played, but it was fun to spend time with Oli, getting to know him.  I also had a marathon Sudoku battle going with Kirk.  It started when I bought a little Sudoku booklet at the corner store so I would have something to do with my travel/down time.  It ended up turning into a nightly (and sometimes morning...ly) ritual and even Oli got in on it! The level 4 Sudoku's were a little too hard for him, though, so I bought him a level 1 booklet and he picked it up really quickly!! I was very impressed.
I was there over Easter, which was really nice, because I haven't ever had to spend a major holiday away from family and I don't want to start now!! I met lots of Kirk and Sarah's friends and one family came over the day before to dye Easter eggs, which was really fun, if a little messy.  On Easter, we went to "church" at a friend's house, which was a little awkward for me, not really knowing anyone and not being religious, but it was still cool to see how they deal with forming a Christian community there in such a solidly Muslim culture.  Plus, Kirkie made it a little easier with some well placed jokes haha.  Everyone there was very friendly, though, and it was a nice way to spend Easter.
I also got to meet another of their friends named Hasna! She was very kind and invited us all over for tea at her house! The tea and food was all delicious -- she even made a vegetarian pizza for me and Oli! We spoke in French and all talked and laughed for a couple of hours and it was really great. =] She seems like the type of person that I could become good friends with, if I had more time to get to know her.
While I was there, I got to see both Kirk and Sarah's work places! The American school where Kirk works is big and beautiful.  It looks nothing like the schools that I'm used to. All of the hallways are open to the sky and it's all white-washed stone and green plants.  Sarah works at an organisation called INSAF, which helps unwed mothers gain skills to support themselves and their babies and also gives them a place to live while they're pregnant and just after the baby is born.  Sarah teaches English to the women who work there so that they can explain their mission to English speakers who come through and would like to know more.  I went with her one day and we were hoping that I could be a test dummy and see how they deal with English questions, but we ended up barely even speaking English because the women had lots of things on their minds that they really wanted to talk about.  It was really fun, though, to get to meet the women that Sarah works with and see how strong they are in a male dominated culture.  They were very cool women.
I got to see lots of different types of shopping centers while I was there.  We started with the new mall that was just recently built not far from where Kirk and Sarah live.  I also found out, after I got back to Caen, that my friend Karima has a house not very far from there! It was very big and very shiny...(they have a thing with clean floors there) there was a large aquarium in the middle and apparently a fountain that goes off every hour outside, but we were never there at the right time to see that.  After that, we went to the tourist market and shopped around for souvenirs.  Every time I entered a little shop, the shop keeper would come over to me and whisper conspiratorially, saying that it was the "salon d'Ali Baba." It made me laugh really hard but apparently that works with the tourists! Then, we went to the more local market and looked around. It was very different, much more closed with lots of tight corners and little alleys.  Oli and I ended up buying jalabas, which are the traditional dress/cover/robe thing and they are very beautiful.  The one I bought is a purple satin and I like wearing it around the house as a robe. Oli's is pale yellow and stripped. It looks awesome on him with his pale pale yellow hair.
Kirk and Sarah also took me to see the biggest mosque in Casablanca! It was breathtaking... The blue tile designs and the huge pillars and the giant wooden doors... We weren't allowed to go inside, but we got a peek in and saw the beautiful chandeliers and wide open spaces.  When we were leaving, the call to prayer went out from the tower and it sent chills down my spine, it was so cool!! I'm pretty sure I stood there, transfixed, for a full minute.
All in all, it was a truely amazing trip! I'm so glad I went and got to see everyone and meet new people and discover a totally different culture for myself. 
I know I'm probably forgetting a few things, but I'll come back and edit a little bit later.  For right now, I just want to leave this here for you all to have something to read, so you know I'm not dead haha.

À bientôt mes amis!

Gros bisous!! 

Morgan