An magical night in the desert..

Leaving Fes and heading toward Merzouga to the desert we drove through snow in the Atlas Mountains. It was a beautiful sight and made me a little home-sick for my Colorado mountains.

Then we drove through rain....even over the road at times. The road got a little "sketchy" at times....one lane, half of a lane..... At one point we had to move off to the side of the road and let about 7 or 8 of these large semi-trailer trucks carrying army tanks pass by. They were coming from Algeria into Morocco.....we didn't ask any further questions. :( !!

The drive was LONG....8+ hours long. But the drive was so interesting and different all along the way.

When we got to the turn off for the Sahara Hotel the road almost disappeared! We kept driving forward and ... there, out of the dust, appeared the hotel!

And then came the time we had been looking forward to....meeting our camels that would take us into the desert! We had talked about names for our camels, because Moroccans don't usually have pets, let alone, name a pet.

This one was mine! I had named her "Lucy", but quickly found out I would change it to "Lucas"! ;)

Eric jumped on right away!

Jenny loved her camel right from the start!

Jim's camel was tied on right behind mine in the pack. Jim's camel was breathing really hard and snorting a lot. We were laughing and making fun of him until we realized he was really hurting and struggling with a cold! Poor guy.

EVERYTHING in the desert was amazing......including the shadows!

Happy travels! Just FYI.....sitting on a camel is REALLY high up and camels are very bumpy to ride on! :) But the stories I had heard ahead of time (camels are mean and dirty and smelly.....) didn't describe our camels at all. They were a very well-behaved, clean, nice bunch of camels!.....even kind of cute!

At sunset our guide took the camels around the dune of sand as we walked up to the top, sat and watched the sun set. 

My kids sitting in the Sahara Desert!

Christmas 2010! Merry Christmas family and friends and wishing you a wonderful New Year! Blessings from the Lindstroms!!

The sun setting over the desert.

Our camels were ready to take us on to camp after the sun set. We ended up riding the camels about 1 1/2 hr.  and then arriving at the "camp".

At "camp" there were tents set up like this one and we were invited into one for dinner and another for sleeping. There was another group of people in the next tent over, but we had a tent all to ourselves.

Unfortunately for Jenny, she made it through the meal, but then was very sick most of the night. She made quite a few trips in and out of the tent....not fun. She commented how bright the stars were all night and that she hardly needed a flash light at all. The night was cold, but we had plenty of thick blankets on us to keep us warm.

This was a quick shot of the tents in the morning as we are getting ready to leave.

Great morning shot....Jenny - thankful to just be alive! Jim - thankful Jenny made it through the night! Eric - just wanting more sleep! :)

And there are our camels waiting to take us back to the hotel for a hot shower and breakfast!

I loved watching their legs bend when they were getting up and down! Being on them when they are getting up and down....now that is a different story.....a little frightening actually! Hold on TIGHT!!

Jenny switched camels with Jim so the sick camel wouldn't have as heavy a load. Here she is giving him a pep-talk before the ride back. He was so sweet!

Lucy/Lucas and I had our special moment before taking off also. Don't you just love his long eye lashes!! :)

We bundled up for this part of the trip....it was pretty chilly!

Omar (our guide that lead the camels) timed it just right again and we saw the sun rise! It was beautiful!! Officially, Christmas Eve day in Morocco!

Some of the beautiful colors, textures and architecture we saw as we neared our hotel.

Our time in Fes

We had planned to tour the Old Medina in Fes, but because of some of us not feeling well and Eric not arriving in Casa until midnight, we had a late start to our drive to Fes. Eric drove the 3+ hours to Fes and was still exhausted from the long flight and lay-over in Paris, so he went to bed when we arrived. The rest of us went out for a delightful evening of Moroccan Tanjane (similar to American stew....meat with vegetables). We had a great meal and a lot of laughs in the conversation.

The Dar (similar to a B&B in the states) we stayed had an interesting breakfast (lots of carbs....) before we started off on our way to the desert.

The Dar was decorated with many beautiful antiques. This was the room where we had our breakfast.

Saying good bye the the lovely Dar in Fes.

Even the door to the Dar was an antique. It consists of two doors....years ago, they used the smaller, inside one for guests and the larger one for family and friends.

Sunny and 70 degrees!

Playing along the Cornish in Casa!

Touring the Grand Mosque.....3rd largest in the world!

Jim and Jenny in front of one of the many beautiful mosaic pieces at the Mosque. Notice the distance between the kids. They were in Israel in May for Jenny's brothers wedding and the "no touching" police yelled at Jenny so many times for touching Jim or wearing too short of a skirt, etc. that she was purposely trying to not break any rules today!! :)

More of the cute kids in front of the beautiful tiles!

Then off to "Sunny Beach" to play in the sand!

Playing in the water and enjoying the wonderful weather!

Jenny even found a pack of puppies along the beach to play with!

We ended the day having dinner at the beach! Received an email later in the evening from Eric.....stuck in San Fran for three more hours.....waiting for the weather in Paris to clear up. Hopefully he will arrive tomorrow and we can start driving to the desert as planned on Wed.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

The stockings are hung....

The cover of my first Christmas card.....

Candies are out for the family.....

Thanks to Marcia the Advent candle is on the table...

The inside of my Christmas card!

A photo of Yasmine! My very sweet student that gave me the beautiful card! And best of all.....two of my three kids arrived today from America to celebrate Christmas with me!! Eric will arrive on Tuesday. It's looking like it will be a wonderful family Christmas! Morocco is lacking Christmas lights and music, but we have plenty of sheep and shepherds in the fields to remind us of that first Christmas! As my colleges travel home and to other interesting countries this holiday break, I wish them all peace,  happiness and safe travels!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a CRAZY place I live!

We are all sitting around waiting on the moon and the King to tell us if we have tomorrow off or Wed. off for Muslim New Years!!!! It sounds crazy, I know, but it's the truth!! They told us to check your email at 9pm tonight to know if we have school tomorrow.

My co-worker and I were talking about whether or not we have tomorrow off and what a bizarre way it is to know which day the national holiday falls on. She said the kids in her class were asking her today if we have tomorrow off. She told them she didn't know for sure. The kids were surprised to think their teacher didn't know!! They said, "But Miss.....why don't YOU know??" (Because, of course, teachers know EVERYTHING.....right??)  :) So she and I are laughing that even a 2nd grader can see how silly it is that the date of the  holiday isn't known and announced to the country until the moon comes up and the King makes the decision......like 4 hours before the actual day!!!!!!!!!! How crazy is that ??!! ??

The next crazy thing we found out this weekend is that we are living "illegally....again"!! We told our landlady that we needed them to give the school a piece of paper saying that we are renting from them and indeed do live here. Her response was, "Oh no, we can not do that! We made an agreement with the family last year (that we are subletting from) to give them a low rent and in return they don't mention that they are actually renting."......!!!!!

Well, in order for us to get our carte de sejor (like a green card  - saying we are legal to work in Casa) we have to show our legal address. So.......not sure what will happen....probably, we will move AGAIN! So sad! :(

The last crazy thing of today I can't even mention to you today.....I will later this week......

Well.....the news is finally in....

NO SCHOOL TOMORROW! 

yippee

....off to bed I go! Big day of beaching and grading and baking tomorrow!! :)

It's official now...Happy New Year 1432!!!

December weekend in Casa ~

Lovely, relaxing weekend in Casa! The sun is shinning, the air is crisp and it feels like a spring day in Steamboat. Yesterday I went for a long walk on the beach in the morning. The beach is quiet these days. I guess people here don't come to the beach in the winter months. Personally, I thought it was lovely. It was high tide so I had fun walking along the edge of the water and having it splash up to my knees at times. It was a good workout physically and mentally!

In the afternoon Marcia and I picked up our buddies (Judy and Lynn) and headed into Casa to do some Christmas shopping. We had a lot of fun shopping, laughing and exploring new areas of Casa. As we were leaving the city we saw this amazing sunset. Marcia caught the photo as we all praised God for the beautiful sunsets here in Casa.

Then we were off to take Judy out for dinner to celebrate here birthday. We dropped off bags at the campus (where Judy and Lynn live) and picked up another co-teacher (Gail) and headed out to a new restaurant that Marcia and I had discovered. Here is one of the frustrating parts of Casa.....we LOVED this restaurant when we went two weeks ago. The waiter was kind and attentive, the ambiance was awesome (the place looks out over the ocean, had white table cloths and candles and very quaint), the food we had (pasta and salmon) was mouth watering.....all of it was perfect. But last night..... There were FOUR whole tables of customers (verses us being the only customers) for the waiter to handle and he was obviously overwhelmed.....we hardly saw him! When we ordered from the little chalk board that said (Pasta and salmon ~ in French, of course) he said, "Oh, what kind of fish would you like.....white fish, calamari and shrimp?" We asked again for the salmon and he said they were out... :( Anyway, long story-short.....the food wasn't great and the service wasn't great and we left feeling sorry we had taken Judy there for her birthday.

The thing is, in Casa, this happens quite often. Just the other night we had gone out to TGI Fridays (yes...one of the only American restaurant chains here in Africa). Everyone kept saying how delicious the Jack Daniels burger is, so that is what I ordered. Well two of our sandwiches come and don't have the bacon on that is suppose to be on it.... We ask if they forgot it and the waiter says, " No. We are out!)  :( !!!!! (In America....they would tell you that AHEAD of time, right?)

Anyway........back to the sun and weekend update. I am off to take another walk and then to school to work on plans for this week. I hope all of you are having a wonderful weekend! I'm counting down the days till my kids arrive....Jim and Jenny on the 18th and Eric on the 21st!!

Colors, Colors....EVERYWHERE!

Now if we had just had three of these guys yesterday instead of our small, white Jetta, we may have made it to school! :)

We drove to school today to do some school work and also check out the road for tomorrows' work day! Wow....good thing we didn't try to go through any more of those "lakes" on the road.....we found out they weren't just lakes of water, but tons of red dirt and rocks had also floated onto the highway. They had a bulldozer out today scrapping the red mud to one side of the highway. No wonder that grand taxi was stuck yesterday!!

What we also saw today was all the COLOR that the rains are adding to our little part of the world. The grass is getting soooo green and there are bright, little yellow flowers popping up everywhere. That made me think of all the colors we saw in Paris last weekend....the colors were everywhere I looked!

In the beautiful Mona Lisa....











In the artists' work along the sidewalks....

 In the sculptures way up high.......
                                 and the leaves on the street.........

 ...even in the locks and ribbons of "true love" on the bridges....

and the dozens and dozens of flowers for sale!

 The colors in these elegant desserts made your mouth water!

We saw colors on the outsides of buildings.....

and the insides of buildings........

and in the most unusual ways it was demonstrated so grandiose!!

 The fountains were colorful....

         and so was the homeless lady and her cute little dog.

This office building was soooo cool! I'm not sure who worked there, but I think if the building is half as earthy and interesting inside as it was outside I would LOVE to work there!! :)

Even the edge of the cemetary had beautiful natural colors abound!

LOOK around on your way to work today....colors are everywhere! 

Enjoy them!!