My trip back to NY has been round-about. Last week, I flew from Fes to Casablanca, from Casablanca to London, and from London to Keflavik, Iceland. I had 12 hours in iceland, from 10pm-10am. I expected to sleep in the airport most of this time, as it was nighttime and Keflavik is not known for its night life. Sure enough, the town was dark, everything was closed, and everyone was sleeping. But it was LIGHT! I had forgotten that Iceland is above the Tropic of Cancer, so in the summertime it never gets dark!
I wandered out of the airport, about 3km to the village. I stopped to sketch some of the bushes of Blue Lupine that grew in vast fields there; it was beautiful! The landscape stretched out a few kilometers of flat fields of lupine and lichen and little alpine flowers before disappearing into a ubiquitous sea-mist. I walked to the water, climbed over the boulders surrounding the harbor, and put my feet in the Icelandic sea. I was lucky to be dressed Moroccan-traveler style - wearing ALL the clothing I was bringing home at once - or it would have been cold.
The next morning, I flew from Keflavik to Boston, sitting next to a couple returning from an Icelandic honeymoon. Excited from their travels, they were eager to show me pictures of their adventures, so I got the highlights of the rest of Iceland: geysers, lava fields, volcano, waterfalls...
I spent the rest of the week in MA at my family reunion, on a little island with my extended family, hiking, swimming, horsebackriding, singing, and eating good American food. I went with my family and Steve to my cousin Jennifer's wedding at a casino on the beach of Atlantic City, and am now back in Schenectady with my cat, Tsen.
The night before I left Morocco, I was walking around Fes with Mel, another American teacher who will be switching to a different Moroccan school in the fall. We listed so many things that we would miss about Fes, and, looking for a happier note, she asked what I would be happy to have in America for the summer.
1. My family - my parents and sister, but also everyone that I got to see at the reunion and Jennifer's wedding.
2. Steve - as an adventure buddy and the ringleader of the pack of gamers, and someone with whom I can share anything, it's nice even to be in the same time zone as him, much less the same city.
3. Dancing. All kinds. Message me if you're in my area and you want to come. It's my favorite social activity.
4. The ability to take food and a book outside and sit on the grass in the sun.
5. Cake. Maybe because Morocco excels so well in desert department, they don't do so well with the desserts.
It is a bit funny to be back in a culture that shouldn't feel foreign, but does. I've lived almost my whole life here; this culture should be so ingrained in me that it's effortless. But it's not. Not entirely. At least, not yet.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Sunday, June 13, 2010
The Princess!
On Friday, I went to one of the expensive shows at the Sacred Music festival. There are many shows taking place all around Fes, every afternoon late into the night, and they are roughly classified by 'expensive' or 'free.' Every night, there are 3 free shows, by some local or smaller bands, out in open venues or Plazas around the city. I was at the beginning of one on Thursday (which, of course, started late) and it was really fun! The music was very energetic, and there were a lot of people. However, I was there by myself, and so I got hassled by Moroccan men more than it was worth, so I left. Suzanne and Candace went later (with some male friends) and had a more positive experience with the crowd, although they said it just continued to grow throughout the night, until it wasn't even comfortable to watch the show. It was really THE place to be, I guess! I'm reminded of the many times in myths and stories that some type of 'box of duplication' comes up, where anything you place inside (money, food, jewels) becomes twice as much. It sounds like this show, in it's walled-in plaza, was like that. Except that somebody KEPT opening and closing the door, making twice as much, four times as much, eight times as much...
Back to the Princess. On Friday night, I went to one of the 'expensive' shows. It was the performance of the Cambodian Royal Ballet, which I am deeming a misnomer, since the dance they performed was not in the slightest remenicient of a 'ballet.' I will now call it the Cambodian Royal Cambodian Dance Troup. They did traditional Cambodian dance.
Before they began, suddenly everyone in the audience stood up and pressed towards the isles! Like a good crowd member, I followed suit. Between the Moroccan women in front of me and the Spanish guy behind me, we all figured out the cause of the disruption - the Princess!! I suppose she's called the princess becasue 'Queen' implies too much political power, but she is the wife of the King Mohammed VI. She is his ONLY wife, and he is the first Moroccan King to take only one woman. Islamic law dictates something to the effect of "men should have no more than 3 wives" (someoen correct me if that's not quite right) so most kings have taken 3 to show their power and desirability. M-6, as the 'cool' king has been called, has been the face of revolutionary change in Morocco, even including his own wife and family. Princess Lala Selma takes great pride in attending the Sacred Music Festival, to show her support of the arts, and does so even in the absence of her husband! This year, she paraded down the red carpet - only a few feet from me!!!- with only the Cambodian Royal Lady at her side. Well, and a few dozen news cameras and reporters. I could see in an instant why all cameras would flock to her. Tall and slender, she keeps her hair uncovered, and it flowed sleek and straight past her waist. She was blindingly brilliant in a gold caftan (or taksheta?) with at least three layers, the top one being embroidered with thousands of tiny gold beads, and topped with a wide golden caftan belt. She paraded in, waving at everyone in the audience as she entered, and sat up front for the duration of the show.
Sitting for the show was rare. It reminded me of the typical 'really really important guy,' who comes to the charity walk-a-thon, talks on his business phone the whole time, and leaves early; at least he can say he's been there. At any one point in the show, about half the chairs were empty. People were arriving throughout the show, and leaving throughout the show. People talked on their phones during the entire performance. Others were continually standing up (like the lady in front of me) to take photos or film portions of the show. Conversation floated from most of the audience, in normal tones of voice. It was a different sort of audience.
The show itself was fantastic. I'm pretty sure I missed large bits of the storyline, but it wasn't so important. It seemed to me to be about two noble or royal people, a man and a woman, who were in love, but promised to be married to different people. The dance style was very western-asian, with slow Tai-chi style moves, elaborate beaded costumes and headdresses, and emphasis on movements of fingers, feet, and eyes.
The highlight was the slow-motion swordfight in the second scene! About 20 people duelled with Machetes in perfect formation. It was really artistic!!
The lowlight was in the fourth act, when my camera broke.
Back to the Princess. On Friday night, I went to one of the 'expensive' shows. It was the performance of the Cambodian Royal Ballet, which I am deeming a misnomer, since the dance they performed was not in the slightest remenicient of a 'ballet.' I will now call it the Cambodian Royal Cambodian Dance Troup. They did traditional Cambodian dance.
Before they began, suddenly everyone in the audience stood up and pressed towards the isles! Like a good crowd member, I followed suit. Between the Moroccan women in front of me and the Spanish guy behind me, we all figured out the cause of the disruption - the Princess!! I suppose she's called the princess becasue 'Queen' implies too much political power, but she is the wife of the King Mohammed VI. She is his ONLY wife, and he is the first Moroccan King to take only one woman. Islamic law dictates something to the effect of "men should have no more than 3 wives" (someoen correct me if that's not quite right) so most kings have taken 3 to show their power and desirability. M-6, as the 'cool' king has been called, has been the face of revolutionary change in Morocco, even including his own wife and family. Princess Lala Selma takes great pride in attending the Sacred Music Festival, to show her support of the arts, and does so even in the absence of her husband! This year, she paraded down the red carpet - only a few feet from me!!!- with only the Cambodian Royal Lady at her side. Well, and a few dozen news cameras and reporters. I could see in an instant why all cameras would flock to her. Tall and slender, she keeps her hair uncovered, and it flowed sleek and straight past her waist. She was blindingly brilliant in a gold caftan (or taksheta?) with at least three layers, the top one being embroidered with thousands of tiny gold beads, and topped with a wide golden caftan belt. She paraded in, waving at everyone in the audience as she entered, and sat up front for the duration of the show.
Sitting for the show was rare. It reminded me of the typical 'really really important guy,' who comes to the charity walk-a-thon, talks on his business phone the whole time, and leaves early; at least he can say he's been there. At any one point in the show, about half the chairs were empty. People were arriving throughout the show, and leaving throughout the show. People talked on their phones during the entire performance. Others were continually standing up (like the lady in front of me) to take photos or film portions of the show. Conversation floated from most of the audience, in normal tones of voice. It was a different sort of audience.
The show itself was fantastic. I'm pretty sure I missed large bits of the storyline, but it wasn't so important. It seemed to me to be about two noble or royal people, a man and a woman, who were in love, but promised to be married to different people. The dance style was very western-asian, with slow Tai-chi style moves, elaborate beaded costumes and headdresses, and emphasis on movements of fingers, feet, and eyes.
The highlight was the slow-motion swordfight in the second scene! About 20 people duelled with Machetes in perfect formation. It was really artistic!!
The lowlight was in the fourth act, when my camera broke.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Sacred Music
The theme of this year's Annual Festival of Sacred Music is the enlightenment that comes at the start of a journey, although it has been expressed that the theme was written in Arabic, and doesn't quite translate to French. They did the best they could with it, and what they ended up saying in French is something that doesn't quite translate into English. So we've done the best we can, and come up with "the enlightenment that comes at the start of a journey."
This theme resonated throughout the city Friday evening, with the opening ceremony of this 10 day festival being the start of an exotic journey for so many visitors to the city. As for me, for once I felt like a side-character in the book of the journey; a helpful guide the protagonist chats with by the side of the road. So many people from every Arab nation, and all over Europe have flooded into Fes. They find it all novel and exotic, and it was so recently that I saw it with the same eyes. Now, my strangeness is dwarfed by having SO MANY new people here, for their week or two weeks. For me, Fes stretches back throughout the last year, and forward through the next. Though still not much time, somehow it's no longer the novelty or the strangeness that jumps out at me, but the familiarity. Fes is comfortable. This week, it dawned on me that all the cultural and linguistic difficulties that I once encountered don't register as 'difficulties' anymore - they, too, are comfortable. Fes has taken me in.
This theme resonated throughout the city Friday evening, with the opening ceremony of this 10 day festival being the start of an exotic journey for so many visitors to the city. As for me, for once I felt like a side-character in the book of the journey; a helpful guide the protagonist chats with by the side of the road. So many people from every Arab nation, and all over Europe have flooded into Fes. They find it all novel and exotic, and it was so recently that I saw it with the same eyes. Now, my strangeness is dwarfed by having SO MANY new people here, for their week or two weeks. For me, Fes stretches back throughout the last year, and forward through the next. Though still not much time, somehow it's no longer the novelty or the strangeness that jumps out at me, but the familiarity. Fes is comfortable. This week, it dawned on me that all the cultural and linguistic difficulties that I once encountered don't register as 'difficulties' anymore - they, too, are comfortable. Fes has taken me in.
Monday, May 31, 2010
To The Graduates!
Congratulations to Malak, Krista, Jamilla, Wiam, and Ayoub, Amicitia class of 2010!
I am so proud of you all; the work that I have seen this year, and the special gifts and talents that each of you has. I have especially enjoyed watching you work together and support each other this year; you have become quite a team, and I am sure that many of your Amicita friendships will withstand whatever distance and time to which you subject them.
You take with you many good memories, and, I'm sure, some not-so-good ones. Hold fast to them all; they have made you the amazing people you are today. Keep those Amicitia joys and hard times, but also be aware that the next part of your journey will expose you to entirely new and unfamiliar joys and hard times. Never fear, you are well prepared for them! Be ready to change, to adapt, and to discover, for I am convinced that none of you could change that essential goodness that I have seen in you all.
You go out now to change the world, and you will! You will also experience many changes yourself, a prospect that should be just as exciting. Take solace in each other and your iron-strong friendships, and that you can always return to Amicitia and call this place a home.
With Best Wishes,
Miss Hutchinson
Monday, May 24, 2010
Alive
Hey everybody, sorry for the long pause in blog entries. I was unfortunately very ill after eating a terrible sandwich that I got from a street vendor.
It has been a busy week! The school had our first science fair on Thursday night, entered by every student grades 7-12, which was an amazing success. Hosted by Mr. Palosaari, the other science teacher, every student displayed some research that they conducted or research that they discovered. I was so impressed with them! Some of my students tested reactions such as the flammability of various aerosol cans, flammability of different strengths of alcohol and the way that ties to the amount of time it takes for a paper to catch fire, the effect of acid on various materials, and the effects of mixing incompatible blood types. The chemistry students in particular had some interesting results. The winner of the fair was a project testing the efficiency of incandescent vs. fluorescent light bulbs, tested using a homemade spectrometer and the light attenuation equations.
Friday night was the evening field trip stargazing on the roof with the telescope.
Saturday was the Elementary School carnival - a huge all-day event overtaking the entire middle, elementary school and the football field. It was warm and sunny and very well attended!
More later. I'm happy to be healthy again.
It has been a busy week! The school had our first science fair on Thursday night, entered by every student grades 7-12, which was an amazing success. Hosted by Mr. Palosaari, the other science teacher, every student displayed some research that they conducted or research that they discovered. I was so impressed with them! Some of my students tested reactions such as the flammability of various aerosol cans, flammability of different strengths of alcohol and the way that ties to the amount of time it takes for a paper to catch fire, the effect of acid on various materials, and the effects of mixing incompatible blood types. The chemistry students in particular had some interesting results. The winner of the fair was a project testing the efficiency of incandescent vs. fluorescent light bulbs, tested using a homemade spectrometer and the light attenuation equations.
Friday night was the evening field trip stargazing on the roof with the telescope.
Saturday was the Elementary School carnival - a huge all-day event overtaking the entire middle, elementary school and the football field. It was warm and sunny and very well attended!
More later. I'm happy to be healthy again.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Taming the Jungle... barely
The people here keep track of the King's movement around the country the way many Americans follow the relationships of actors - and it's just as erratic! Ihave seen the King twice now: once outside the Fes train station, for a public opening, and once with my parents in the blue mountain village of Chefchouen, disguised among several 'faux kings.' The King was in Fes last week, so Fes was beautified, and a circus arrived! (don't really know that the circus had anything to do with the king, but it seems a nice coincidence.)
The last circus I've been to was Cirque du Soliel, which is beyond comparison to most typical circuses. Circuses? Circi? Well, even the normal circus I have attended in the states (keep in mind it was looooong time ago) was very notably *polished.* The transitions were impeccably smooth, and even the death-defying stunts had the practiced feel of being done by one who could perform the same act in their sleep. It was more like being run by machine.
The circus in Fes is nothing if not human! The magic of it was that I could relate to each of the people on stage, could see their struggle, their smeared make-up, imperfect bodies, and shaky muscles. I found the contrast amazing!
Upon entering the big top, you were seated according to ticket price in one of about 5 rows of bleachers surrounding the straw ring, with only a low wall of red cloth separating circus from audience. An announcer yelled in Arabic, and the tightrope walker emerged, a burly Moroccan man in tall Fantasia boots. Two techs brought out stepladders that had a metal cord strung between them. They set up the stepladders and ratcheted them to the ground behind each, and the tightrope walker mounted, arms flailing the whole way. He was only ever 2 meters off the ground, but on a sagging tightrope propped up on ladders, with nothing beneath him but hard-packed earth and straw!
A man and woman climbed to the ceiling of the big top - a ladder tipped horizontally like a see-saw was their trapeze. He stood on one end as counterbalance while she swung and turned and posed.
Four black show horses pranced and pawed and ran in formation. Some clowns ran around speaking French for all the delivery to their jokes, but Arabic for all the punch lines. Four elephants squeezed into the ring and stood up, propping on the back of the elephant in front of them. The trapeze woman did an act with about 20 hula hoops. It was intermission, and all the techs emerged with tall columns about a meter wide of chickenwire with pipe around the rectangular perimeter. They set these pieces next to each other to form a kind of fence around the area, and three tigers paraded in! They pawed the sides of their little platforms, and jumped through fiery hoops. The trapeze artists did a number on big ropes. A very skilled magician did a few tricks.
I met a really sweet family with two daughters in University studying biology; they were sitting next to me and offered me a ride home. I was really grateful to them because it was hard to get a taxi otherwise! The human element that was so apparent throughout the circus persists, in the kindness of strangers.
The last circus I've been to was Cirque du Soliel, which is beyond comparison to most typical circuses. Circuses? Circi? Well, even the normal circus I have attended in the states (keep in mind it was looooong time ago) was very notably *polished.* The transitions were impeccably smooth, and even the death-defying stunts had the practiced feel of being done by one who could perform the same act in their sleep. It was more like being run by machine.
The circus in Fes is nothing if not human! The magic of it was that I could relate to each of the people on stage, could see their struggle, their smeared make-up, imperfect bodies, and shaky muscles. I found the contrast amazing!
Upon entering the big top, you were seated according to ticket price in one of about 5 rows of bleachers surrounding the straw ring, with only a low wall of red cloth separating circus from audience. An announcer yelled in Arabic, and the tightrope walker emerged, a burly Moroccan man in tall Fantasia boots. Two techs brought out stepladders that had a metal cord strung between them. They set up the stepladders and ratcheted them to the ground behind each, and the tightrope walker mounted, arms flailing the whole way. He was only ever 2 meters off the ground, but on a sagging tightrope propped up on ladders, with nothing beneath him but hard-packed earth and straw!
A man and woman climbed to the ceiling of the big top - a ladder tipped horizontally like a see-saw was their trapeze. He stood on one end as counterbalance while she swung and turned and posed.
Four black show horses pranced and pawed and ran in formation. Some clowns ran around speaking French for all the delivery to their jokes, but Arabic for all the punch lines. Four elephants squeezed into the ring and stood up, propping on the back of the elephant in front of them. The trapeze woman did an act with about 20 hula hoops. It was intermission, and all the techs emerged with tall columns about a meter wide of chickenwire with pipe around the rectangular perimeter. They set these pieces next to each other to form a kind of fence around the area, and three tigers paraded in! They pawed the sides of their little platforms, and jumped through fiery hoops. The trapeze artists did a number on big ropes. A very skilled magician did a few tricks.
I met a really sweet family with two daughters in University studying biology; they were sitting next to me and offered me a ride home. I was really grateful to them because it was hard to get a taxi otherwise! The human element that was so apparent throughout the circus persists, in the kindness of strangers.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Turkey Is Not Morocco
The Turkish people have fought hard for the freedoms and 'liberalisms' that they have. Steve made the mistake of once saying, "In Morocco..." and had his friend and co-worker sternly reprimanded, "Look. This isn't Morocco." They enjoy surprisingly modern codes of conduct, dress, driving, law enforcement, and cuisine.
This modernity is especially true in Istambul, where I met Steve this week. I think Istambul has more tourists than residents. We saw the Hadjia Sophia, the Park, the Museum of Islamic Contribution to Science, the Blue Mosque, the Cisterns, and the Grande Bazaar.
We had a great time in Istambul, but we both had travel difficulties on the way home. The fun part of my travel was an 11 hour layover in Madrid, which I spent in the Retiro Park doing Tai Chi with some Chinese swordspeople, after which I took the wrong flight home accidentally. The not so fun part was getting really sick in the midst of many layovers and being stranded without an operating train. It took 30 hours to get home, but I made it!
I look forward to the schedule consistancy resuming tomorrow. I'm excited to go back to school.
This modernity is especially true in Istambul, where I met Steve this week. I think Istambul has more tourists than residents. We saw the Hadjia Sophia, the Park, the Museum of Islamic Contribution to Science, the Blue Mosque, the Cisterns, and the Grande Bazaar.
We had a great time in Istambul, but we both had travel difficulties on the way home. The fun part of my travel was an 11 hour layover in Madrid, which I spent in the Retiro Park doing Tai Chi with some Chinese swordspeople, after which I took the wrong flight home accidentally. The not so fun part was getting really sick in the midst of many layovers and being stranded without an operating train. It took 30 hours to get home, but I made it!
I look forward to the schedule consistancy resuming tomorrow. I'm excited to go back to school.
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