October 28th - Thursday - Another day in Casa

Well, another week in Casa and again....new things happening!

So far this week, Marcia has been sick and missed the last two days of school. Fever, chills, achy, head and tummy stuff.....NOT fun. She is feeling a bit better and hoping to go to school tomorrow. I woke up this morning with 27 emails and thought....Wow! All my friends back home are emailing me!!....well, a lot of you were, but not for the right reason. My computer was hacked into and someone sent an obscene message to all of you......so sorry for that! The good news is my son, the wonderful young man that he is, emailed and told me what was happening right away and he took care of it for me. Thank you Jim!!

Eric, Jenny and Jim at Josh and Diana's wedding the first weekend in August.

No plans for the upcoming weekend, so I guess I will spend some time starting up a new blog site and a new email. Be on the lookout and I will email all of you my info. Well, all of you family and friends anyway! :)

Last weekend was a lot of fun, except that I caught a cold Thursday of last week and was pretty miserable on Friday night and most of Saturday with not being able to breath and all! :) We gals went to a city nearby called Fez. We left Friday night and traveled by train for four hours. We stayed in a lovely B & B in the oldest medina in Morocco.

The owner was  a wonderful man and the young gal behind the desk was equally as sweet. The place was clean and beautiful. 

Notice the door within a door? It is so cool! The smaller door was used for friends and family. The larger door was used for more formal company.

This was the sign outside the B&B.

On Saturday we hired a guide to take us around the city and show us the sights. Fez is known for all the artists and their many wares. We went to see a pottery place and saw beginning to end from the clay to the finished dishes. The people were all very kind and even let Marcia and I sit on the wheel and try our hand on the clay!

The guide took us to the King's Palace. It was very beautiful with ornate doors, arches and mosaic work on the entry way. The King has many homes in Morocco. One of the many is just across the street from our school right along the ocean.

Saturday it was a bit rainy every now and then so I bought my first umbrella. I have a feeling it won't be my last! They tell me the rain and wind can be very strong at times in the winter and it seems everything here really takes a beating. I think the moisture from the ocean is hard on most things.

Next we went to see a military fortress and had a panoramic view of the city. It was amazing! The city has 9,990 streets! The streets are often walled and very narrow. In the old medina area it is literally like a maze....without a guide it would have been very scary and very likely that we would have gotten lost.

We went through the old Jewish Quarter that began in 500B.C. There were tons of little hunoots there that sold everything from birthday decorations to gold chains to dates and olives.

Every now and then the guide would take us in a religious area and explain a lot of details about the Islamic faith to us. She showed us a lot of details on the art and explained how each one had a religious meaning. We saw where men could go and worship and a separate place that the women would go. Also walls with holes in them where the women could sit behind the wall and listen if there was a speaker.

The window that the women could sit BEHIND to watch and listen to a person speaking at the Mosque.

My favorite parts of the day were all the artists!!
We saw women making rugs...

They were lovely, cheerful women and they let me put on a few of the wool strands of yarn!

women sewing beautiful embroidery..........

This guy was quite the joker! Said things like,  "Oh, I sell you one and give you another one for free....the back! It is reversable!" or "I sell you 6 napkins and give you two more in case my wife and I stop over we can have tea with you too!"

men with tannery goods and colorful leather goods..........

wool makers..........

dye for fabrics...........

nugget candy that had been made.................

men that were weaving fabric......

I thought of you, Elizabeth! Wish you could have been here for this one. The loom was incredible....the work was gorgeous!

The weekend was just full of beautiful sights and colors and interesting people. I knew when I was teaching on Friday and the cold was coming on that I should probably just stay home and rest....but....it was Fez!!! I knew I didn't want to miss out on any of it and I'm glad I went with my new friends. 

Oh, one more photo I thought you might enjoy.....this guy (and many others) was in the middle of the medina.....so you know what it smelled like and what we were trying to avoid stepping in! :)

Seriously....have you ever seen such an overbite!?? :) We got a big chuckle out of this old guy!

That's it from Casa tonight. Have a wonderful rest of your week! 

Blessings, Jill