Welcome to Morocco!

My Morocco adventure started the day before I left with  a farewell picnic with my two favorite people.  Through the years we have celebrated my birthday many times with cheese, wine, chocolate, meat, bread, and fruit in the hills of Hood River where there is a great view of Mt. Hood and another of the Columbia.  The three of us had a lovely time and then went down to the waterfront to sit and enjoy nightfall at the water.









Friday morning Rory and I were up and ready to go before 9 am.  Here I am with almost all of my worldly possessions.  I checked my 3 suitcases at the airport, so that I could run more quickly through the terminals.  I finally arrived in Rabat, the capital of Morocco, on Saturday afternoon with the other Fellows.

We drove to our hotel and dropped off our luggage, but all 6 of us wanted to get on Moroccan time as quickly as possible, so we headed out to a cafe nearby for Moroccan mint tea and a crepe.  There is some cool street art here.  Saturday afternoon and Sunday were for exploring and acclimating.  Although there isn't a lot of green, Morocco is very colorful.  Here are some of the things we saw our first few days here:

carpet anyone?

 
Monday through Wednesday we have meetings all day at the US embassy.  Thursday we head to Casablanca where I will move into my apartment.  Right now I am trying to get over what I think must be food poisoning-- that is one of the prices for going some place more exotic I guess.