Thanks to You I Get What I Want

So Ive been AWL from the blog for a while. Let me just say that things are fine. Life in Morocco is still greater than I ever imagined it would be and it gets better all the time.

I recently went to visit my brother and his wife in London. It was a nice opportunity to get away after adjusting to Moroccan culture since early September 2008.

Before I left town from Marrakech I spent some time at the famous suqare there - D'jema l'fnaa - and I enjoyed it. I got offered hashish (pot) more times than I could count and got heckled to buy shopkeepers' stuff even more. I met a nice guy from Belgium that had been traveling in Morocco alone for about 15 days.

D'jema l'finaa after dark is full of food vendor stalls. A nice Moroccan by the name of Mohamed was tring to get me to eat at his stall and asked me where I was from (in English). "Im from the US - from Utah." Much to my surprise he said "Oh, Utah.... thats in the west, right? Salt Lake City?." I was impressed - I dont remember another Moroccan telling me so much about Utah.

What he said next has NEVER happend to me before in Morocco "In Utah are too many Mormons, are you Mormon?" "Yeah, Im Mormon. I dont know anyone in Morocco that knows a lot of Mormons live in Utah." He went on to tell me he likes to learn about the US and that he knows there are "Too many Mormons in Utah." I told him its "many Mormons" not "too many Mormons." He told me what he knew about the Chruch and its beliefs in the Savior. I corrected one thing he had wrong, told him the real name of the Chruch, and ordered some Moroccan soup at his food stall. What can I say, I was very very impressed. Im looking forward to seeing him again the next time Im back in Marrakech.

While in London I did many of the usual things: heard Big Ben (which was my nickname while I worked at the bank) chime on the hour, saw a cool building facade DECKED OUT in LEDs, went to so many museums and historical sites they lost all meaning, ate Chineese and Thai food. The best meal I had was dinner the last night in London. I was in a cheap hotel in Luton, where one of Londons airports is, and went to a small Italian place. I had pasta and it was FANTASTIC. I really enjoyed it, in fact, I almost ordered another plate of it.

I went with my brother to Stonehenge (smaller than I thought it would be), Bath (bigger than I expected), Saulsbury Cathedral and Warwick Castle. With my brother and his wife we went to see Wicked in London (I new very little about it going into it and enjoyed it very much), ate pizza, had Hall style tacos and went to church together. It was my first time going to chruch in about 6 months. It felt good to be back in such a familiar religious environment again.

My brothers wife washed my clothes for me (the first time my clothes have been dryed in an electric dryer since early September 2008). They smelled like dryer sheets afterward. I love that smell.

London was good, it was a great vacation, but I was very anxious to get back. As the plane touched down in Marrakech my eyes welled up with tears and I knew I was home (not really, but it sounds good). No, really though, I missed Morocco a lot and was very excited to get back home.

Shortly before I left my boss came to visit from Rabat. She helped me work through some snags Ive encountered here and she also brought me a mountain bike. Its great. Ive been riding nearly every day since I got the bike.

I try to lay as low as possible and blend in as much as I can, but when Im on the bike it seems nearly impossible. Peace Corps requires me to wear a helmet (Id still wear it even if it werent required) which is something very very very few people do here, I have some biking gloves, and a pretty decent mountain bike.

Its like Im wearing a sequin dress and ruby red slippers while I ride - EVERYONE stares at me. People call for me to come over to them, people yell out 'give me a ride!'... the list goes on and on. Oh well. I like biking and Ill keep riding around town until people get sick of noticing me (until, that is, I actually wear ruby red slippers and a sequin dress - then they'll all stare again, but at least they'll have something new to stare at).