honeysuckle

a year and a half ago, i planted honeysuckle on my terrace. the flowers give such a sweet smell in the summer. unfortunately, i didn't get a single flower last year. i'd kind of given up on it until this morning, when i noticed small white and yellow flowers coming out. and smelling good. victory!

the musketeers

it had been a while, but the 4 of us finally manage to see each other all together today. the last time was back in February... it was great. we had lunch outside, luckily with a roof over our heads as it poured all the way through our time there, stopping only when we were leaving. it was really great to be together again. really.

bad dreams

i don't know what's wrong these days, but i'm having one bad dream after another. it started with the scariest one. the dream had been really pleasant, until i found myself in an underground parking lot, where some guy started following me, then running after me and basically trying to kill me. when i made myself wake up, i was locked up in a toilet with the guy banging on the metal door with something really heavy. the only thing waking up did, though, was stopping the action, but the feelings were still there and very scary. i had to get up, listen to some music and walk around for a bit before i could fall asleep again.

the following night, i dreamt that my sister and i had a huge argument over practically nothing, but that it degenerated to real ugliness. i didn't wake up from that, but when i eventually did, i obviously felt like shit.

then last night, the dream again started well with me spending time with my best friend. she then suggested going to a concert she'd heard about, but when we got to the place, it was above a run-down supermarket. we had to physically fight for tickets, then we had to queue with various drug-users who were quite violent. she managed to get in to the very packed concert hall (packed as in a train in Tokyo at rush hour), but i didn't. i was left to wonder the very dirty, needle-strewn corridors in search of another way in, walking past people with needles in their arms, etc. when the concert was finished (i saw none of it), she had left without me.

i really, really, hope i have sweet dreams tonight, cos this is getting quite unpleasant.

a in M - the wedding 2

so the wedding was great, but it was also high-tech: there was a film crew with 4 cameras, one of which was on a crane, like on a movie-set. the crew were filming the whole thing (the ceremonies, the guests, the dancing, the food...) and somewhere, a director was choosing the images to be shown on the 5-6 big flat-screens that were hanging around the tent. that way, everyone could follow the action, no matter where they were seated. and we're assuming a 15-hour DVD will be sent to us at some point...

it could all have gone horribly wrong, though. when the main orchestra started playing, something obviously short-circuited, and the tent, as well as the house, was left in darkness. luckily for the guests, there were candles on every table, so it was actually quite nice. a bit more difficult for the people preparing themselves inside the house, i imagine. when they got the power back on, the band started again, but withing 10 seconds, the whole thing blew again. it took over an hour to fix the problem. imagine the disaster if the orchestra couldn't have played, the Moroccan Pavarotti couldn't have sung (although he could have, just not as loudly!), and the whole thing hadn't been filmed...

a in M - the wedding

the whole reason for our trip to Morocco was a friend's wedding. and what a wedding! here's a very general account.

it was taking place at the bride's parents' home, in the suburbs of Marrakech. from the entrance, rugs led us to a massive Bedouin-like tent with seating for 400 people, a dais for an orchestra, a dais for the wedding sofa which the newlyweds would sit on later, during the picture-taking phase.

the guests were welcomed at the entrance by a small musical group playing on very basic instruments (see picture, courtesy of T!). once in the tent, people could sit freely where they wanted. once everyone was there, the bridal couple were 'carried' in individually from the garden on wooden 'seats'. but it wasn't all smooth going from A to B. the carriers were bouncing them up and down and around, so that they looked slightly seasick. while pictures were being taken, the orchestra was playing and all the women, wearing incredibly beautiful kaftans, were dancing in front of it.

dinner was then finally served (we'd been there since 9pm and it was after half past 12), during which the couple came back in, wearing a new set of clothes. all the way through the various courses, music was being played (very loudly) and the Moroccan Pavarotti was singing traditional songs. among many other things (and a complete lack of any kind of alcohol), we were served mechoui lamb. in between courses and events, the women and quite a few of the non-Moroccan guests were dancing around. at around 4am, the bridal couple were carried back in, both wearing more traditional clothes (she looked like a tent - very weird but quite cool). a fourth change of clothes was supposed to take place, but we were long gone by then...

it really was an amazing night, with men in fez serving us, other men in traditional costumes sitting on rugs and serving mind tea, the moon beautiful in the sky. a great wedding!

first 'official' observations

there's nothing official, of course (that would be too much to ask for at my workplace), but i've started the main new part of my job, which is observing the teachers at the school to check they're doing ok. so i had two observations tonight. observing in itself is not so hard, it's writing the report afterwards that's more difficult. first, you have to make sense of your notes! luckily, i already knew that, so they were quite detailed. nevertheless, there were still things that i couldn't remember what meant... but the hardest thing was when i had to make a choice out of 6 possibilities for each point observed: e.g. teacher talking time: exellent, very good, good, satisfactory, needs improvement, not satisfactory. sometimes, the right answer lies right in between two options and it feels like choosing above is being too nice while choosing below is being too strict. not easy...

weekend in London

my sister turned 30 so i went to London to celebrate with her (she lives there). i'm not a big fan of London, but i had a great time! i got to see an old friend from uni, who gave us a walking tour of the area of London we were in, which was great. and he recommended we see the Museum of London, which we did the next day. i could have spent hours in there...

the latest P. Diddy

i couldn't place a single P. Diddy song if you asked me. until today. i just heard his latest song, Come with Me, and i love it. although to be honest, it sounds like Eminem singing on Rage Against the Machine music. then again, as i have no idea what he usually sounds like...

black hole 2

i was talking to one of my CERN friends the other day, and he killed the little theory that i was talking about a few weeks back.

first, if the LHC did create a black hole, it would be tiny. really tiny. and these things grow very slowly when they're small, apparently. so slowly that everyone on Earth would not, in fact, die at the same time. it would take weeks, maybe months.

and then, it turns out that dying in a black hole is not so painless after all. what apparently happens is that your body gets stretched, really stretched. so quite painful, in fact. although admittedly, this would be relatively quick. relatively. the really painful part, my friend said, would be for the people seeing your body being stretched so much, knowing that in some time, it'd be their turn. great.

so maybe this isn't the solution to all our problems after all... typical.

first BBQ of the year

last night - beautiful weather, great spot, BBQs included. what more could you ask for? well, some coal, for starters. my friend had said she had a small grill and stuff to light it, etc., which i took to mean she was bringing the whole thing, which, considering the public BBQs were first come, first served, sounded great. except what she meant was that she had a grilltop, and firestarters. certainly no coal. when her sister and i looked expectantly at her, she said that they made fires when they were out camping in the forest. ah... yes... this was not going to work in the park...

we were lucky, though, in that one of the grills was free and some lovely people gave us some of their coal. feeling terrible about this, we took very little, so it took a while for our meat to cook, but other than that it was just perfect.

dinner for 2 on the balcony

my friend M. was staying with me for a few days while on break from her crazy ICRC work in Sri Lanka. for her last night, we were incredibly lucky with the weather, so we ate on the balcony. we had sushi for starters followed by a vegetable quiche. it was lovely. i love having dinner on my balcony, but it really is that much more enjoyable when i have company!

a in M - food

i didn't really expect to like the food in Morocco. but then, the only times i'd eaten couscous was at the high school cafeteria, and it was really bad, as is all food prepared for 3,000 students. as it turned out, though, i loved it. LOVED it!

i started by sampling tajines, and that's what i had most while i was there. tajines are really more a way of cooking: whatever food you've chosen is cooked in this closed and very funnily-shaped dish that is set over a grill, and sometimes the top of it, which is open, is covered with a tomato (to stop the air from going out or to check how the cooking's coming along??). then we of course had grilled meat on the Jemaa el Fna square, most of which was fine, but the best grilled meat we had was in a small diner and a cafe (grilled lamb chops and merguez sandwich respectively). it was really good. on my last day i also, finally, tried couscous, and yep, it was just as delicious as everything else i'd eaten.

funnily enough, i didn't have a single stomach problem while i was there, but upon coming back, i did: maybe there's something wrong with the food i eat here??

a in M - hammam

i discovered hammams in November last year - well, the version you find in Swiss 'hotsprings', i mean: a steamroom. and i loved it. but now i was in Morocco and a hammam there is quite an experience. my friend and i went for the 'classic' version, which included a scrub, a massage and a shampoo. and it was great!

first, we walked into the steamroom, where i didn't feel it was that hot (i had trouble coping with the sudden drop in temperature from Marrakech to Essaouira), but everyone else did. we were then asked to lie down to be scrubbed clean. this was no gentle scrub, but it was more effective than most, i discovered, when i was made to touch how much dead skin had been taken off. i was then given a simple but all-body massage with Moroccan black soap, followed by a rough shampooing. after that, we were left to 'simmer' in the room, feeling cleaner that we probably had in a long time and enjoying the heat.

to be honest, i have nothing against the simple steamroom version, but i understand why they say it's not really a hammam.

a in M - driving

when i was in Hanoi, a few years ago, i thought the traffic was a bit chaotic: there were people on motorcycles everywhere, driving like madmen around the town, with little regard for pedestrians. well, Marrakech was just a little crazier!

there are very few traffic lights in Marrakech, but even that doesn't really mean much to the drivers. mostly, they just keep going at relatively high speeds for the manoeuvres they're attempting. can they just squeeze in between those two cars there? probably. most of them try and succeed. one, unfortunately, did not, as we saw: he tried, but basically damaged both his vehicle and the two on either side of him, on top of driving straight into a poor moped. it made quite a noise.

taking the bus to Essaouira was also quite an adventure. on the way back, the driver seemed to have some kind of deathwish, overtaking at the strangest places with barely enough space between the bus and the relevant car/bus/truck/carriage/bike. my friend and i were seated right at the front, so we had to close our eyes once or twice, hoping against hope to come out of it alive. our driver also overtook about 6 or 7 cars/trucks/buses in one go. not for the fainthearted!

adventures in Morocco - temperatures

i went to Morocco for the first time, last week. prior to going, i'd checked what temperatures to expect. all the books and websites clearly stated that normal temps for end of April were at around 25-28°C. nonetheless, real time temps were expected to reach the high 30s. well, ok, that was doable. except that when we got there, it was 47°C! i kid you not. it only took us a day to get used to it, though. what really killed us (well, me) was when temps came back to 'normal'. with 30°C yesterday, i wasn't feeling all that warm...