The Short Version

Seriously, don't tell the students, but vacation time is a pretty good perk of being a teacher.

We had our first 'spring break' this week, for the Eid El Mouloud, the prophet Mohamed's birthday. I thought they didn't celebrate birthdays, but whatever. Steve came to visit from New York, and I got the pleasure of touring him around my city. Whether strolling the medina, visiting friends, or just sitting in a cafe, everyone here was excited to meet him. We spent an amazing time at Amina's family's house, where they made a huge fuss over him. Everyone was completely unable to remember/pronounce his name, so he was dubbed "Teeth," because it sounded like "Steve," which quickly became the Arabic "Snaan."

After leaving Fes, we took a night bus to Riazani and discovered that they guy Steve was staying with, Dan, another American, was also riding the bus south for a separate desert tour. Steve and I arrived in Riasani and were picked up by a very tall land rover that drove us out on a deserted road. Just as I was contemplating how easy it would be to kidnap us in this situation, the land rover turned off the empty road and out into the more empty desert. We rode for another half hour through the dunes and brushy shrubs before arriving at a few street signs planted in the middle of the sand, one of which directed us in the front door of the Auberge of the Blue Men, where we stayed.

We explored the desert a little on foot before walking with the "camel-man" into the desert where he caught our camels for us. They weren't wild, but it was a dramatic feeling to walk into the desert to catch a camel. For those of you who have not rode camels, you should know this: they are TALL. The saddle on a camel wraps around the hump and has a metal crossbar at the front to hold on to, and you need to hold on to it. Getting up and down is like a roller coaster. The walking is easy enough, but still very high from the unforgiving sand. We had fun spying on the little tracks of the desert critters traced in the sand as we walked through what was apparently the tallest set of dunes in the Sahara.

We spent the night in a Berber encampment in the middle of the dunes, in tents that were made of blankets draped over logs. We walked around, enjoying the amazing stars and listening to some Berber drum circles, and woke up the next morning for the sunrise.

After riding back to the Auberge on our trusty stinky mounts, we hitched a ride with the Austrians to the Dades gorges. We met some cool people and sat at a cafe for about 5 hours before leaving for Marrakesh on the night bus. It was great to have Steve visiting for as long as he could, and I was very glad to travel with him on the crazy desert excursion. I'm going to ask him to post something on this blog as well.