FEZ

The land of the famous hat.

I arrived here last night with some new friends, two Argentines and a Guatemalan-Canadian. All three are girls, which has made certain walks quite interesting. An example of the type of conversation men enjoy having with these ladies:

"You come to my house, I give you a massage? Do you want some aphrodisiacs? One man from Morocco can handle at least three women."

I generally have the choice to laugh, ignore the whole thing, or act stern. The last choice usually seems the riskiest of all.

Still, the city is great, and in many ways the typical Moroccan city, comprised of thousands of winding, confusing, endless streets. The medina, or old city, is divided into hundreds of different sections, and one can easily get lost and see nothing but fish for ages, or leather, or meat....

The place is crazy.

One thing that is honestly beginning to drive me a bit crazy is the call to prayer. I have always enjoyed this sound, which emanates from every mosque in every town five times a day. The problem is that, as the hours of sunlight and heat change, so too do the times of the call to prayer.

Unfortunately, it would appear that the first call to prayer at this time of year is approximately three in the morning. And so my sleep, day after day, is destroyed by fifteen minutes of singing at three a.m. This was, at first, quite "interesting", but has very quickly become a part of the local color which I would much rather sleep through.

Needless to say, I am drinking a lot of coffee.

Besides this, things continue to go well, and I hope to begin looking for a place to take some Arabic classes soon. Also, on Friday begins a ten day festival of Sacred Music from around the world, so this should be a great city in which to spend some time.

Anyway, that is all for now. More soon.