Hey guys! I miss the Caedes fam, I've been pretty out of touch the last few months (although I did manage to share my Chicago pics, and thanks to everyone who said nice things about those).

I've been in Morocco the past 2 and half weeks and I'll be here to July... I just wanted to come tell you all that I'm really, really excited about the photos I'm getting here... it's and IDEAL place for a photographer!!!

Here's one of the mass emails I've sent out if you're interested in hearing some about my trip:

Hello yet again! Sorry this is gonna be long, but I promise it's interesting. But if you're bored just skip to the end or something.

Last Thursday marked the 1/3 point of the trip, and also the end of the second week of classes (quick side note: some of you are just getting added to the list because there was a problem with my address book, sorry for that... also some of you haven't written back at all yet :'-( ) and on Friday we got up bright and early to take our trip to the east.

Check out this map of Morocco here: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/africa/morocco.gif
We are staying in Rabat, this trip was to Meknès and Fès (I think Fez is the English spelling)
These were both Imperial cities, meaning at one point or another they were the capital of Morocco.

Meknès was awesome, even though it's one of the poorest cities in Morocco and has the highest crime rate. We started off touring Moulay Ismail, the palace of the king of the same name from I believe the 18th century. It was extensively damaged by the devastating "Earthquake of Lisbon" in 1755 which destroyed monuments throughout Morocco, Portugal, and Spain. But I got some amazing pictures. It's not a fancy place and it's in a real poor state (although Morocco is increasingly paying attention to its patrimony and moving to preserve it, so there are restorations taking place at sites throughout the country)... it basically looked like a huuuuge fort, orange of course like the structures you see in movies. It was hot in Meknès but inside the palace it was very cool, because of the thickness of the walls and because there is an entire reservoir underneath the floors. Here is a site: http://lexicorient.com/morocco/meknes.htm

After that we went a bit into the medina, where we were (spontaneously) treated to the experience of a sales pitch for rugs. Rugs are of course a huge commodity here and a top export into Western countries--- a real relic of Orientalism. The sales pitch was like a North African version of a going to a car lot and having the salespeople pressure you into buying. Except it was more charming. The salesguy spoke to us in English, which he's picked up from Peace Corps visits... He referred to each of the girls as "Sisterhood" as if it were a singular noun, and told us we would be given the "honey price" because we are students and students are poor. Well it was true, and I think 12 out of 15 people bought a rug, including myself. A small one, for 350 dirhams, not a big one which was bargained down to 1300 dirhams (exchange rate is at 8.7/dollar).

We had lunch in a realllllllly nice restaurant in the medina. You see the way things are built in the medina, there are few or no windows on the outsides of buildings and they often look really ugly (the reason for this is because traditionally in Islam the women are not to be seen, so they have no business hanging out windows over public streets) but once inside the buildings are nice, always decorated with stucco and mosaics, and they have inner courtyards with gardens. That's how this restaurant was, and because it was Friday they served us couscous.... it's so good but I'm getting tired of eating it so much! I figured out the ingredients more specifically: couscous (a very fine pasta that you might mistake for rice), meat (usually chicken), carrots, potatoes, cabbage, squash (a thick-skinned orange variety sort of like pumpkin) and spices, plus sauce from the vegetables. The main spices are saffron and coriander (cilantro)...

Then we went to Volubilis, an ancient Roman site. Same as with Meknès, it was in bad shape and extensively pillaged, but it was more exciting than any of the Roman sites I saw in France or Spain because it was LARGER... previously I've only seen individual buildings, but this was an entire city, the capital for the entire region at the time (Morocco was the breadbasket for the Empire). Just over the last couple years archaeologists and such have moved in to take better care of the site and restore it, and hopefully to excavate the rest of it (only 40 percent is uncovered, and it's already half a square kilometer). Here's a good site about it: http://lexicorient.com/morocco/volubilis.htm

Then we went on to Fès for dinner before going into the (very nice 4 star) hotel, and the restaurant included entertainment: a belly dancer, a fire eater, traditional musicians (they're everywhere in the country; they remind me of Mariacha bands), and a contortionist that balanced a tea set on his head... then they forced me and another girl, who has Arab heritage, to dress in traditional garb and do a mock wedding. Mme. Bargach has that happen every year on the trip, so I shouldn't've been surprised by it. The women that dressed us thought I was Moroccan (as does EVERYONE else, more and more, maybe because I'm getting more at ease and fitting in more) so I spoke to them in stilted Arabic, but it was cool. You'll all get to see photos, don't worry...

On Saturday we went into Fès, third largest city in Morocco and the oldest, perhaps one of the oldest cities in the world--- it does lay claim to the first university in the world every, Qarawiyine. Fès is famous for it's medina, which was constructed in the 9th and then again in the 13th century (talk about old buildings) and is truly, truly a labyrnth. I found it oppressive, it was really cool to go through but the streets can be so narrow and windy and PACKED with people, after a while it's just really tiring. We went into a lot of shops, the leather shops, the FAMOUS tanneries, the weavers, etc... they all give explanations and demonstrations (again they offered student prices).

On Sunday we took a tour of the city of Fès in general (some more amazing photos) and the surrounding countryside. Then we got to go to a pottery factory (the Fassi pottery is very elaborate and famous for it's blue color) where the also make the tiles for mosaics and the mosaics themselves. Fascinating process, ask me about it if you're curious. I bought a couple of bowls, my goal is to have something from each place we visit). And then I took a walk around the OUTSIDE of the medina and got to look at more of the impressive Babs (literally doors, but here, gates) that give entrance to the city. Here is a site about Fès: http://lexicorient.com/morocco/fez.htm

Overall the trip was amazing, although I missed Rabat. My favorite things were the old palace in Meknès, Moulay Ismail; the Roman ruins at Volubilis, and the pottery factory we went to. Now I've got an easy week of classes, just 4 days, beore we take our long 5-day trip to the South (which is going to be a combined 30 hours or so of driving) to see Marrakech home of the famous Place Jama'a El F'na (think huge open square with snake charmers, story tellers, monkeys, camels, straight out of the movies), palm oases, and the REAL desert (we get to watch a sunrise of the sand dunes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Everyone please write back, especially if you haven't written back before!

Bob

Sounds amazing! Have fun and good luck taking many wonderful pictures! I will wait for some awesome photos!