DAY 126

HAPPY HOLLOWEEN
Now I know that Halloween is not a Jewish holiday, but even though it started as a Pagan holiday, turning into a Christian holiday, it had become so commercialized that it really has no religiousness any more. Anyways, I did all my usual stuff, everything the same except for the crocodiles. This is where I felt like I was starring in an episode of the Crocodile Hunter. My actual task was cleaning their little pond that they have, but before doing so, had to put tAhem into their house. This was the part that I felt like I was on the show, trying to get them into the house, since it was a beautiful day they didn’t want to budge, so it was a little bit harder than just nudging them with a broom, like normally. After we got them into their house I first drained the pond after which I took a scratchy broom, you know the one where the bristles are made from plastic. There was this dark green slime that covered every inch of the pond. Since the bottom of this small pond was cement it was actually no that hard. I basically took the broom and scrubbed everywhere, this loosened up the slim. I then took the hose and sprayed over everywhere, so most of the slime went away and all that was left was the slime that was in the cracks. So I then went back with the broom and went to all the areas that still had slime and scrubbed away. I then rinsed the broom off and also the pond, which now looked so much better, being now grey and all. I left the hose running to fill up the pond and then let the crocodiles out, and who were very happy to do so.


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DAY 125

Today I had another big job, thankfully not as bad as the crates but still big. After feeding the tortoises I started on the project. My project today was converting this particular cage from Tea Garden type birds to baby owls. Now this doesn’t seem like it would be that big of a task but it was, more because of the little details and also getting things sometimes meant walking across the entire zoo. This is what I had to do; first I had to look for wire cutters, which took longer than it should of. When I finally found some I went around the whole cage, thankfully not that big of one, and cut the wires holding up the toys, sticks, and logs around the cage. Then I untied the bird feeder, which took a little time since the three knots were tight and they were just above my reach, on a chair. After clearing everything out of the cage I took the toys into the back and the wood to the organic recycling at the far end of the zoo. After which I then raked up the ground and went on a search for nice wooden stumps. I found 4 nice stumps and small logs. I then placed them around the cage with one corner with nothing in it for the carrier that was going to be there for their home. And then found this large red feeder and put some water in it. After lunch and playing with the Tea Garden birds I went to the Cold Room and washed the animals dishes, after which I helped cut up fruit and meat before distributing it throughout the zoo. I got to feed the Spotted Eagle Owls again which was fun. I went back to Guinea Fowl Lodge and did some laundry, and took a nap while my clothes were getting clean.


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DAY 124

Today was my day off, so I didn’t go to the zoo. Instead I met up with Marnie and this other volunteer, Jenny. Voluntours has a handful of projects around South Africa. Jenny was on the project that the volunteers work at this primary school in this rural town a couple hours outside Johannesburg. She had spent the night at Marnie and Jeremy’s house last night, since she was going back to the UK this evening. Well just because she was leaving tonight didn’t mean that she couldn’t do anything in the morning. She wanted to get a couple last minute souvenirs for some family before leaving, so since I didn’t have anything to do today and they were going to go to Sandton City to do this, I went with them. Sandton City is its own city, and actually quite large, but is still considered part of Jo’burg. After parking the car we went to meet Jeremy at work. Well not exactly, Jeremy’s main job is a real estate agent and they were having to some of showing in the Nelson Mandela Square. It was this big tent with pictures and info about every property that they were selling. Plus most of the real estate agents who were selling them were there. So basically it was a slight mad house. While waiting for Marnie to get what ever she needed to get from Jeremy I looked at some of the properties that were up. Since this was the best and one of the most prestigious real estate agents in the country they had some really nice houses, though they still had there fair share of the average houses there were some NIICCCEE… houses. Like there was this one property that was this large house with quite a bit of land, a 6 stall stable an outside ring and a small pasture, and some other small building, and all this for like 6.2 million Rands. But the even cooler thing about it is is because of the exchange rate that price is only a couple thousand above 8 hundred thousand, so basically not even a mil. We then left and went to Rosebank Local Market. Which is located in the 2 story covered garage of some mall. Every Sunday the parking garage becomes a place were local artists, etc… can come and sell their things. Before going to the market we had to stop in the mall and go to the pharmacy, I had gotten some fever blisters on my lips and they were getting bad enough to need real drugs, the ones that you have to go to the pharmacist for. We then headed out to the parking garage and walked around looking at all the different things that people are selling for a couple of hours. They range from beaded artwork, woodwork, jewelry; things made from jade, etc… all that come from indigenous South African tribes. By then it was time for lunch and I was getting kind of hungry. On our way over to the food area part of the market we passed this man who had made guitars out of used oilcans and were now selling them. They sounded exactly like a normal guitar and they were really cool looking. After listening to him for a couple minutes we continued on our way to the food were we stopped one more time before getting there. This was because this one particular stall was selling random memorabilia and they had some US license plates for sale. One of them was a Florida plate so of course I had to take a picture. For lunch I decided I wanted Thai, which was a good choice, one thing that I did really like from my lunch was these fried banana pieces with poppy seeds, that you dipped in a coconut syrup thing. It was sooooooo good. I then got a fresh fruit smoothie from this other stand before we continued on our adventure though the craft market. After spending the whole afternoon at Rosebank we went back to Marnie’s and had dinner there. Before it got to late, Jeremy drove me back to Guinea Fowl Lodge.


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DAY 123

Not much to say today… Did the normal feed the tortoises, clean this or that, feed this animal and that animal, and of course play with the Tea Garden birds during lunch. I also got to check my emails, etc… this afternoon when I got back to Guinea Fowl Lodge. I don’t even remember the last time I hadn’t checked my email like every day. There have been times were I didn’t heck it, but that was because I didn’t feel like checking it, but this was because I didn’t have access to a computer let alone the internet.

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DAY 122

READ BEFORE GOING ANY FURTHER: PLEASE NOTE THAT THE CONTEXT OF TODAYS BLOG IS SAD, EMOTIONAL, AND GRAPHIC. IF YOU HAVE AN EXTREMELY LARGE HEART FOR ANIMALS AND/OR HAVE A WEAK STOMACH PLEASE SCROLL DOWN AND READ THE STARRED SENTENCE AT THE BOTTOM OF TODAYS BLOG. THANKS, ALEXIS

Today was a sad day, it might not come out as if today had an impact on me but it did. Well it started out, as a good day, me finishing the crates, couldn’t put them in the shed till the afternoon, since it was still being built, but still finished the cleaning part of it. Well about an hour before lunch Eddie, he and his wife own the place, told me we were going to get the horsemeat for the animals, since we were running low. Now keep in mind that I realized that they cut up the horses there at the zoo so it could be the freshest possible. But what I was about to experience was something totally different. Eddie and I drive to the vet’s office and drive in the back entrance with the truck and flat bed trailer in tow. When we arrive the vet is still inside so I say hi to some of the horses and give them some love, the vet then comes out with a stable hand and a horse, I turned my back to them and gave my attention to the horse that I was presently petting, when all of a sudden I heard the most loudest and most rattling sound ever. I went momentarily deaf; it was only for a couple of seconds, but still. This was made, if you couldn’t already guess, from a gunshot. Now I know guns are loud and they’re still loud on TV or on the news, but in real life, OH MY G-D, is that fucker loud. After which the second, and thankfully last horse came out and the same thing happened. Now the vet reassured me that these horses needed to be put down and that they wouldn’t kill them if it didn’t absolutely need to be done. I didn’t want to go into detail with him with what was wrong with the horse, because then it would get to personal and I would then burst out crying. So I left it at that, so there would be as much emotional distance between the horses and me as possible. I have this thing that I can’t cry in public, not that I don’t want to, it just doesn’t happen, but as soon as I’m by my self, Niagara Falls comes out. There is though, once in a very rare blue moon that I will cry, but that something has to be something huge. This was one of those times that I cried. Well actually I didn’t, but because I made myself not cry in public, not because it wouldn’t happen naturally, like normally. I then had to help load them onto the flat bed. I would just like to say that a horse’s head is heavy in the first place, but when it’s dead, whew, well that’s just another story…… When we were loading the first horse the second horse’s leg was still flailing and the stomach still going up and down. Now I know for a fact that when any living thing is shot at close range in the brain that they die instantly, with little or no pain. I also know that after that living thing is shot it dies, but the muscles and organs, still work for a couple of moments. Even knowing this you still momentarily forget that and think that they’re still alive and suffering. Another thing that was more just plain gross than sad, was what happened after they died. Everything came out their noses. There was still a lot of blood that came out of the mouth, eyes, and the where the gunshot was, but let me just say the nose is where all the action is. Besides a couple buckets worth of blood, both liquid and more compact, there was also some white thing, well it was mostly red, but that was from all the blood, you could tell that its original color was a light grey/off white color and this was all coming out the nose. One thing that really got me going and that it took more then ever not to cry, was the look in the horse’s eyes. Just staring at you looking so innocent and desperate, so before going any further I had to go to both horses and close there eyes, even though I still knew that they were dead, it defiantly helped. Before loading the first horse the vet did something. The one thing that I did know about the first horse was that he had some injury on top of why he was being put down for. So before loading him onto the flat bed the vet did an autopsy, and since they didn’t need any aesthetics or clean cutting instruments, since the horse was already dead, he did the autopsy right there on the grass in the back of the building. This part I think I was more fascinated then anything else. Not in a morbid way, but in a vet student or something way. So apparently the injury was in the area of where the left shoulder meets beginning of the stomach area. See I don’t know where exactly but that’s where the vet was cutting. Anyways so he cuts through the skin and, what seems like endless, layers of fat and muscles. To where he starts looking at something, but in the process I see the different layers of the muscles and some kind of organ, well I think it was more than one, but still I was looking at the inside of a horse. I mean I’ve seen the inside of a horse before, but in like vet books and some of my riding books, and then maybe on Animal Planet or something, but never in real life, which besides the sad factor of the horse being dead, it was really fascinating and I was all into it, but of course not in a morbid way or anything like that. Anyways back to today, after loading the horses and washing off my arms and legs of blood, etc… Eddie and I headed back to the zoo were there was some of the zoo people waiting for us so that they could cut up the horses and put them into the walk-in fridge. Since I had missed my lunch hour, I spent the next hour on break, but as you might expect didn’t eat my lunch. I spent the time playing with my new friends Sam and Rex, who by the way are cockatoos and are Tea Garden birds. After my lunch break I put the now clean crates into the finished shed, with about 40min left in the day helped with the feeding. I feed some of the vultures the crocodiles and the Spotted Eagle Owls. Those were fun to feed, because they were at the stage in their life were they are learning to fly. So what Laurence and I did (oh before I forget he works here at the zoo) was we stood at the opposite side of the cage were I would hold out my arm and then Laurence would hold a baby chick (and yes, the chicks are dead) near my arm and then start calling the owls over. Then one by one the owls would fly onto my arm get the chick and then fly back to the perch that they were sitting on. After each of them, I think there were 6 or 7, had gotten one chick we scattered some more around the cage and then left. Before leaving for the day I put the crates into the finished shed. I went back to Guinea Fowl Lodge and spent the rest of the day watching TV all curled up in bed. I know this doesn’t sound very productive and not something you would do when visiting a foreign country, but if you read everything above you would know why. I then, with no dinner, went to bed after watching TV and everything was just mushing into one.

******SUMMARY FOR PEOPLE WHO HAD TO SKIP TODAYS BLOG: I FINSHED THE CRATES AND PUT THEM AWAY, 2 HORSES DIED, I HELPED HAND FEED SPOTTED EAGLE OWLS.


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DAY 121

Woke up a little tired today, but nothing a little caffeine couldn’t help. I arrive at the zoo and get put in charge of a lovely task -1 word- crates… Ok, so let me try and explain this. In the back they have a small snake room, a rat room, and a place where there is an area to wash the bird bowls. Then the rest of the area is cages of all different kinds of small birds (the tweet, tweet types), and then there are a couple of other types of animals back there that are only temporarily at the, because there normal cage is getting something done to it, or their mating and so their put in the back so there is no disturbances. The rest of the space it taken up with all the different crates that the animals come in just lying around in no particular order and some still have the straw in it from when the animal was in it. There was this one area that was not being used so they were in the process of putting up metal beams and then putting up metal sheets for the sides, roof, and doors. This was going to be the new home of all crates. So my task was to wash out all the crates and then when the new shed was completed to but them in an orderly fashion between plastic and wooden and large and small into the shed. I did this till leaving at 4pm and still hadn’t finished. This was because even though most of them didn’t really need anything more than a wash down, I would occasionally come across a bad one that would take a while to get clean. Plus on top of that there were an abundance of crates in the first place. At lunch today I met these two other ladies that volunteer at the zoo, but volunteer in another way. See both these ladies had donated one of their birds to the zoo, but still were attached to them and wanted to visit them. So they would both come every day or every other day take the Tea Garden birds out of their cages and onto the different perches in the Tea Garden and play with them. They started coming during the summer, both not knowing the other, but since coming to the zoo and volunteering with the birds had become friends and now came together to play with the birds and even sometimes would buy things like rope or plastic chains, etc… for the birds to play with. Oh by the way their names are Theresa and Cheryl, since I’ll probably be mentioning them many more times throughout my stay here. After lunch I continued with the crates till it was time to go home. I then spent the evening watching some TV, CSI: NY to name one :), and also took a little nap before dinner.

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DAY 120

Now I feel like I’m back at school again, I mean in the way that I’m having to get up at 6am and not only be up but be ready to work. At 7am Renee came to pick me and take me to the zoo. My first job this morning was the tortoises. Apparently I will be taking care of the tortoises for the rest of my time here. I will start with the tortoises then move onto whatever other takes that I need to do for that day. Ok, this is what I do as my tortoise job. I first go to both eating spots and any food that is still there I put in the bucket. I then empty the water bucket and take it over to the hose. I then throw away the food that’s in the bucket and go back to the water buckets and clean them. After filling them back up with water I then go to the cold room (this is, if you couldn’t guess from the name, where the walk-in fridge is) and get the scraps of fruit, left over from cutting up the fruit for other animals food, then distributing it around the two areas were the water dishes are. Then, of course, if I see a tortoise while walking to each area I will stop and give it a couple scraps. Now if your wondering why I would have to find the tortoises, that is because they don’t live in a cage they roam free throughout the zoo. See even though the zoo is still a big size it’s still a small local zoo in the end, which means that there are only so many people that come per day and that it is not as chaotic as a larger, mainstream zoo. Which in the end means that the tortoises can roam free around the zoo. I did some random odd and end jobs around the zoo, you know racking up this, fixing that. Then at 1pm we have our lunch hour. While eating lunch I played with the Tea Garden birds. The Tea Garden birds are the Cockatoos, African Greys, and other small birds that used to be owned by people and lived in homes. These birds where then donated by their owners because of many reasons, but all the reasons boiled down to they couldn’t keep them any more. Be it, the were moving out of the country, they now didn’t have the time to feed or play with them because of work, etc… either way all the Tea Garden birds all came from pet shops at one time or the other. After lunch there is only two more hours in the day before going home. I spent those two lovely hours doing a little weeding in one of the flowerbeds next to the lion’s cage and then cutting up some horsemeat for the carnivorous animals and then helping Renee feed some of the animals.

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DAY 119

I woke up, w/o an alarm clock I might add, and had a nice leisurely breakfast. It was so nice walking up at whatever time I wanted. While I ate breakfast Marnie goes over the orientation papers concerning everything and anything about the project. Afterwards I quickly pack up the couple of things that I had taken out of my bag and then Marnie and I head over to Guinea Fowl Lodge. Guinea Fowl Lodge is the name of the place that I will be staying at for the next month. Now I know the name makes it sound all grandeur and all, but it’s not all that. Ok, now I’m making it sound like it’s a piece of shit. Ok, here it is, there is the main house with sort of a mother-in-law apartment attached to it, (which is where I stayed). Then across the driveway there is one large room, separated into two smaller ones, which is the laundry room and storage. Then if you walk a little away there is another building, which is like two small houses attached to each other. The place runs like a small B&B and usually the guests that come through are business people who are attending a conference or something. You will get the occasional tourist like me, but that’s like once in a blue moon. Anyways, after dropping my stuff in my room Marnie and I head over to the zoo. We arrived at Lory Park Zoo around lunchtime. After meeting Renee, who she and Flea would be the two people looking in on me, I sort of shadowed her for the rest of the day (being all 3hrs of it). Helping do this and that, and feeding some of the animals, etc… At 4:30pm we were done for the day, at which point Renee took me back to Guinea Fowl Lodge. I then spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking and organizing everything till dinner. I ate dinner with the owners of the place Moira and Derek. After which I watched a little TV (cough, cough, CSI: Miami and Without a Trace, cough, cough) and then went to sleep, since I had to wake up at 6am the next morning.

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DAY 118

I had to wake up really early this morning to catch the shuttle bus back to the airport. I went down had some breakfast and then went to the front desk to check out. Another really cool thing that happened, at check out not only was dinner free but also breakfast. So I got to stay in a really nice hotel 100% free, can’t get any better than that :) I then took the shuttle back to the airport, took my bags up stairs to check-in and re-check-in my bags. It was nice; since it was so early in the morning I didn’t have to wait in any lines or anything, just walked right up. With the rest of my plane, I took the airport train to our terminal and then waited at the gate for like 1½ hr. The trip from Madrid to Johannesburg was 10hrs OH MY FUCKING G-D!!! See if it wasn’t for my day yesterday and everything that happened then the 10hrs would be fine. Ok, maybe not fine but still bearable. Unlike now, were all I wanted to do was get to South Africa with no more problems and no more waiting. I am thankful that the person sitting next to me was nice and pleasant to talk to and didn’t have any of those annoying habits that you hope your neighbor won’t have. They showed 3 movies on the fight down and then also had one of those pictures where you can see where the plane is at that moment. The movies that we watched were; The Devil Wears Prada, The Break Up, and some Spanish movie about this woman who becomes blind and how that affects her, her family, and her life, both positively and negatively. I thought 10hrs on a train was bad, it’s even worse on a plane. Because at least on a train the scenery changes. On a plane it’s like… look a cloud… another cloud… another cloud… and… oh look…… another cloud. At a little past 5pm we finally landed in Johannesburg. I get my bags, which are thankfully one of the first, so I don’t have to wait long. I go through customs with no problems and didn’t have to wait long since the only people in line were from my plane and they had 10+ lanes open. I get out into the main part of the arrivals hall and look for Marnie. Marnie is one of the people who own and run Voluntours. See it’s a very small business, nothing like Earthwatch. For example their office was once a spare bedroom in their house. I wait for Marnie for a couple of minutes and then decide to give her a call. They probably don’t know when my new arrival time is, since I had to leave it in the hands of my mother to call or email them the new information and apparently it didn’t get done (no offence Ima, love you still). Well I can’t find any payphones and I’m like how can an airport not have any payphones. I then realize that it is because they have a pay phone store, sort of like the one that I went to in Marrakech. I then was able to call Marnie and tell her that I was here. She told me she was at home and about 30min away. While waiting for Marnie I stay at the phone place and call some people to chat and say hi while I’m waiting. I find Marnie and we walk to her car, which is a lime green Renault. It sounds bad, bat actually it fits the car, it’s like how some colors that look really bad on other cars looks good on the VW Beetle, same idea. Since it’d be to late to bring me to the B&B that I will be staying at while at the zoo, I go home with her and sleep in there guest bedroom. We have a quick dinner and then hit the sacks……

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DAY 117

I got to sleep-in since my hotel that I stayed at was in the city and it was close to the airport and it wasn't till 2pm anyways. I wish I could say that my morning was smooth, but it wasn’t. So, I’m at the front desk trying to pay and my card won’t go through. I’m like shit… I have to be on a plane in a couple of hours and now my card won’t go through and it’s not like it’s something that I can just put back on the counter and leave, I sort of have to pay. I then have the ingenious thought that it’s not working because there is little or no money left on the card. See for security purposes I have most of my money in my savings and then only transfer a couple hundred over at a time. I remember that I hadn’t transferred money over in a while so I was probably just in need for another transfer. This is where the fun began….. I first had to find an internet café that was open this early on a Sunday morning, LOL, that’s a joke. I ended up just going to one of the bigger tourist hotels and using their internet that they have for guests. I then went onto the bank’s website and transferred some money over and headed back to the hotel. I get back to the hotel and give them the card to try again. No such luck. It still wouldn’t go through, ugh… SO ANNOYING!! They tell me that the card isn’t going through, and that it’s not saying that I have insufficient funds like the last time. So I then get the ingenious thought of just going to an ATM and getting money out, since sometimes I can still take out money from the ATM even when I can’t use it at a store. So I walk next door to the train station and tried at both the ATM’s. Well with no avail I went back to the hotel to think of something else. I then try and call both parentals, NEITHER OF WHOM ANSWERED!!!! I then called Raviv, SINCE HE ALL WAYS ANSWERS!!! to see if he could think of anything. To make a long story short, we ended up just having Raviv pay with his credit card. PHEW, SO GLAD THAT’S OVER WITH!! THANKS RAVIV FOR EVERYTHING!!!!! I get to the airport and find the ticket counter the TV is displaying my flight and wait in line, which was thankfully not that long, so I got up to the counter quickly. When I got to the counter everything went fine and I got my ticket from Madrid to Johannesburg, but not the one from Marrakech to Madrid. This was because for some reason I had to wait for like 20min then come back to get the ticket. Though when I came back I wouldn’t have to wait in the line, just go up to the ticket counter and pick it up. Which I thought was kind of weird, but whatever. Since I had all this free time I decided to walk down to the end of the terminal. The whole 5min it took me to walk down. There was this little café and I was a little hungry from this mornings events. After sitting at my table with my Fanta and Pain au Chocolat and looking at everybody checking their tickets or eating something or talking to their friend, etc… I got up and started on my journey down the corridor, remember, all 5 min of it. I passed this little souvenir shop and bought this little wooden camel and a salt & pepper tajine. I then continued down and went back to the counter, picked up my ticket and then walked to the other side of the room, filled out my customs forms, gave it to the customs man, and then went to wait in the boarding hall. While standing in line, looking at my ticket, I noticed that it said business class on it. YEA!!……THANK THE LORDS, at least one good thing has happened to me today. Even though the flight was only 2hrs long, I was still happy that I got to be in business class. I arrive in Madrid and go check the monitors to see which gate my flight to South Africa is leaving out of. When I find my flight on the screen it says new time leaving at 9:00. My first reaction was yippy; my flight’s leaving early….. then I remembered that outside the US they use the 24hr clock. Which means 9:00 is 9am, not 9pm. Which means instead of having only a couple of hours to wait now I have to spend the night. I walk over to the customer service counter and ask them if their putting people up at a hotel or something. They said yes they were and sorry for the inconvenience and then gave me this special piece of paper that I was supposed to give to the hotel at check-in. I then asked if I could get my bags since I had been in the same clothes for a couple days and I didn’t want to be in them any longer, let alone another day. They said to go down to Lost Luggage and that they would be able to help me out. I go down to Lost Luggage and explain my situation; the lady said that it was possible to get my bags but that I would have to wait an hour to get them. Well I didn’t care, it’s not like I had anywhere else to go. So I took the slip from Lost Luggage to give to the security so I could get through. While I was waiting next to the luggage carousel I called my folks just to say hi and see what’s up. When an hour had come around the carousel they said it would be coming onto starting moving. Then a couple minutes’ later people started arriving. Thankfully my bags were one of the first to come off, so I didn’t have to wait long. After getting my bags I quickly go to the restroom and use the wheelchair stall to change and freshen up a bit. I walk outside and look for the shuttle bus to take me to the hotel were I would be spending the night. I wait a couple minutes and then it appears. I arrive at the hotel with everybody else on the shuttle being from my plane. I check in and head up to my room. Iberia definitely knows how to hook you up……. This was a damn nice hotel; I read in one of its pamphlets that it was a 4½ star hotel, HELLS YEA!!!! I take a nice long nap and when I wake up I watch a little TV before going down stairs to dinner. I go back upstairs, and as soon as I hit the pillow, I’m out like a light.

DAY 112

Today we didn't have any cooking lessons because we went on a little excursion that took most of the day. Today was a gorgeous morning and the sun was out and gave us that right amount of heat while we sat by the pool and ate our breakfast. A little bit after lunch we got in the car and drove about 1 1/2 hours to the Atlas Mountains. At the base of the mountains there are all these little villages, we went to the village of Tahanoute, where they had a very rual Souk. Here we saw everything being sold from clothing, to things for the house, to toys, then there was also the food, there was a vegetable and fruit section, a section just for grains, then there was the meat section. I was OK with seeing all the meat and the hooves and the skins, even the heads, the only thing that kind of bothered me was this one head of this sheep its eyes hadn't glazed over or anything, and it was looking straight at me. KINDA CREEPY, if you ask me. There were even barbers, there was this one stall and this little boy was getting his hair cut and he had this look on his face like "I better be getting a REALLY big present for this torture" and then the other kid, I guess his brother, was sitting on the mom's lap crying. This one place that was trying to sell stuff completely did over Jeff and Sam so the both looked like they should have been extras for Lawrence of Arabia, it was a good laugh. One of the big transportations is the Mule, even in the city you see them everywere, even when your stopped at the stoplight they're right there next to you parked. Anyways since that's most peoples way of getting around especially this rually, is by mule at this Souk there is Mule Parking. It's really funny looking, and it looks like somthing out of a western movie, excpet mles instead of horses, but the same idea. Well after the Souk we kept on driving till we reached this Berber village, called Imil, that we had to park the car. This is because at this point the mountain does not have a road anymore, there is a worn in path, but not any bigger than a person and a half wide. Our final destination was this restaurant, that's also a small hotel, named Kasbah du Toubkal, that is at about 13,000 feet. This area were we were going is the setting for the 1996 Martin Scorzese movie "Kundun." To get to this place hpwever we had to ride mule up the mountain. This gave me an instant flashback to when I was younger and used to go on those donkey trips were we would go out for a week and trek though the Cascade Mountains. When we got to the place and we were greeted by the guy who had us do some ritual thing before going up onto the roof balcany for lunch. He took the silver, baster looking, thing, which was filled with orange blossom water, to "cleanse" our hands. He took the "baster" and sprinkled a couple of drops on our hands and we had to rub it in. Then we had to take a date, dip it in some kind of milk, and then eat it. After this we were led up to were we were eating lunch. The view alone was amazing, it was one of the most breathtaking views ever. I can only just imagine what it must look like in th winter when there is some snow in the peaks. After eating with the most amazing view we took the mules back down to the village and then starting driving back. About half we stop at this place that had some really cool looking fociles, that were found somewhere here in Morocco. We then had alot of free time when we got back to the house. This is mostly due to the fact that there is only 3 of us, so things just don't take that long like they would in a larger group. We then had dinner, all read a little bit afterwards, then headed of to sleep.

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DAY 111

I don't know why I was so famashed, but I ate so much at breakfast that you would have thought that I was fasting for Ramadan as well. Even thought I had a large dinner last night. Today we have to cooking lessons, the morning one we made Kebda M'shermla (Liver Salad), Briouate Bel Crevette (Prawns Briouate)but we made a special cheese one for me, Tangia (Marrakechi speciality), Qotbane bel Kefta (Mince Meat Brochettes), Baghrire (Moroccan-style pancakes). If it wasn't for the prawns the Briouates looked so good. In the Biouate's there was green and red peppers, Haritha (or hot sauce), paprika, cumin, lemon, garlic, parsley and coriander, and then sunflower oil. Since I couldn't have that we made a special cheese one for me, made with eggs,flour, milk, and Laughing Cow. The Tangia is a Marrakchi speciality, it is a speciality more for the way it is cooked than what being cooked, even though that's still very important. What happens is we have all the ingredients and we put it into this urn looking pot and then seal it. It then needs to sit inside the hot coal for 5 hours before it's done. So after our cooking lesson we got into the car and drove to the center of town where there is one of these special "ovens" that is for public use. The nice thing is that since it is now Ramadan, most people won't bring their Tangia's till later, so our was the only one. We had a little free time before we sat down to lunch. While eating lunch outside the trash man came around to pick up the trash. Except their trash man was this older man with a donkey and a flatbed cart. Though it really was the official, if you could call it that, trash man, since there was the some official looking symbol, then all this stuff in French and Arabic, saying that is who it was, painted on to this piece of wood that was hammered onto the side of the cart. Now i'm thinking that they must have a more modern trash removel service in the city and that this was ours since even though were only a couple minutes outside the city, were still in the middle of nowwheresurronded by palm trees and lots and lots of sand. After lunch however we spent the afternoon camel riding, WHICH WAS SOOOOOO MUCH FUN!!!!!!! Besides the actual ride the view was great, we either had the Atlas Mountain Range or an endless desert. There was actually at one point when we came across a skull, next to this cactus, that looked like a camels head. After out trek throught the palms and a little bit of desert we headed back to the house. At which point we had our second cooking lesson of the day. This lesson included Shlada Matecha (Tomato and Onion Salad), Khobz Maghrebi (Moroccan Bread), Smen (preserved butter), Laymün bel-Qerfa (Orange and Cinnamon Salad). We had dinner and then stayed up just chatting till sort of a late time, then a little bit after the staff had left we all were kind of tired so we decided to go to sleep.

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DAY 110

Sunday we woke up early, well 8am isn't early, but compared to the time that I had been normally been getting up, it was early. I went down to the outside terrace to find Jeff and Sam all ready there, but apparently just, because they were still waiting for the food to come. After breakfast we had a little time before we had to be in the kitchen for our morning cooking lesson. Today we made Shorba (Moroccan Soup), Tajine Berbère (Lamb Tajine with vegetables), M'ssillare (Preserved Lemons), Ghreybet Essmida (Semolina-based cookie). The Moroccan Soup is basically a vegetable soup and made also with lamb bones, but taken out before being puréed. Even though the Preserved Lemon is just lemons and salt, we learned the real way to do it, since preserved lemons are a big part of the Moroccan food culture. The cookies were really good because one of the ingredients is orange blossom water, which just gives it that extra something. A little after lunch We met the driver who would take us into town to meet our tour guied. While out and about in Marrakech, more specifically, Medina, we started with the Palais Bahia and then went onto all the different Souks. The Palais Bahia is 111 years old and was where the current Prime Ministers lived. The palace didn't have any furnishing and wasa little run down, but from what our tour guide was telling us about how the place was finished and all the other things, this was probably gorgeous and a real col place. I mean the place was still gorgeous and it had nothing in it and was run down, can you just think how it was when it was still a working palace. Anyways the tour guide also said some interesting things about the last Prime Minister. He had 4 wives and 24 harlems. The best part is that they each had there own mini suite. So you can just imagine the size of this place. There was also an abundance of cats and kittens. See in the muslim culture cats are thought of highly, the are considerd a "pure" animal. It's sort of the same (but not at the same time) like cows in India. In this palace in some of the doors they carved out a little hole at the bottom of the door for the cats. After the palace we went to the Souks. The Souks are another name for marketplace. We first went to the main Souk, which had this huge square in the middle. Then we went to the smaller, more specialized Souks. First we went through the animal one, and we saw everything from chickens, to rabbits, to turtles, to other simular animals, basically looked like a very big pet shop. Except these animals were for food not as pets. So instead of getting your chicken from the grocery store they would buy the live ones and then bring it home. Well you can't say it would be fresh :) We also passed by some clothing Souks, and then the spice Souk, which was really cool and smelled amazing. There were a couple of the Souks that I felt that I was back in the Old City in Jerusalem. One of the last places that we went was this rug dealer. The only sell REAL traditional Moroccan rugs. The reason why I have real in caps is because you can't get real traditional Moroccan rugs outside of Morocco, if you do they are probably fake or the person is crazy and cameall the way here to bring them back home. The man not only showed us around, but gave us a brief history of the traditiobal rugs, like where the styles came from, what was the reason or significance of a paticular design, etc... The last place we went to before getting picked up by our driver was this shop that was part of the spice Souk. The thing that I really liked about this place was not only did this guy sell the spice and the medicinal herbs, etc... But he had a special room, which we got to see. This room is were he kept the ingredients for Black and White Magic. I'm like this is so cool, all the times I would see place like this in movies and such and now I get to see it in real life and this guy is totally in to it. I say this because Sam asked him if he did any Black or White Magic and he said yes, but in the wierd "yes and I have a voodoo doll of you in the back, would you like to see it" kind of way. After getting picked up we head back to the house were we have some down time till cocktail hour. Tonights cocktail hour was really cool though. We were entertained by Morooccan musicians playing traditional G'naoua music. Something that was cool was that after playing for a while they had us get up and taught us how to do some of the dancing. They looked good, we looked like ADD chickens with thier heads cut off. This was due mostly because of the really fast and intricate foot work. After cocktail hour we moved down stairs to the dining room, where the musicians stayed and played through out dinner. Not only did they stay through out dinner, but long g after that, but it didn't really matter, because not only was it nice but we were staying up chatting anyways. After this I went up to bed and fell right to sleep, because even though I hadn't down much, I was still very tired.

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DAY 109

I woke up again late, but this time more aroung lunch time. It was wonderful to just wake up naturally and not by an alarm clock or something. I then went down stairs and through the kitchen to the patio were I had breakfast yesterday and sat down to Josef just 5sec behind, sort of like a lost puppy, with my orange juice. Something that I didn't realize till later was that until the two other people came that afternoon, that I had the whole place to my self (the previous people had either left last night or very early this morning), well by myself in the since that I was the only guests. There was still the staff, grounds keppers, and the gaurds, but still... Then around lunch time the second person came, Jeff. Something that I think is funny is while talking with him at lunch I had another small world episode. So he currently live in New Mexico, but before moving there a year or so ago, he lived in Seattle. But that is not even the best part. OK, so he is a doctor, more specifically an OB-GYN, who worked at Swedish hospital. Not only did he work at Swedish but with Dr. Thereasa Burdick. Dr. Burdick not only is one of my best friends mother, but she delivered 2 of Erin's kids. So when I had asked him if he knew her and he said yes, I silently freaked out. At around 5:30pm we had our first cooking lesson, it was only Jeff and I since the other person had had some problems with airplans and hadn't arrived yet. So here's the story. We usually have 2 classes a day, the first class we make our lunch, and the second we make out dinner. Tonights reciepes are; Khizü (Carrot Salad with Pepper and Cumin), Btata M'shermla (Potato Salad), L'ham bel'Kouk ou Jelbana (Lamb with Artichoke Hearts and French Beans), and Seffa (Sweet Couscous). The one thing that I love about Moroccan cooking is all the spices that they use... oh, and also 90% of the time there is cumin in the dish. Another thing that I learned is that the take the core out of the carrots. The reason for this is that in Moroccoan culture since the core is harder than the res of the carrot, if you serve it with the core it is a VERY big insult. That is unless your puréeing it or something where its going to be a orange thing anyway. Going back to the reciepes, the carrot and potato salad where mainly spiced with the cumin and the normal salt and pepper. The Lamb dish however was spiced with salt, pepper, cumin,ginger, and saffron. Now the Seet couscous is insteresting, but soooooo good. what it is is your make the couscous, but it had to be the very, very fine couscous, the one that lookes like fine grain sand. Then you serve it with the sauce, which is made from butter, finely ground almonds, honey, icing sugar, and Argon Oil (which is the most expensive oil in the world since it only grows in Morocco and no where else on the planet). After out cooking lesson we just hung out around the house till almost dinner time. A little bit before Jeff and I went onto the roof terrace for before dinner cocktails, our third and last person, Sam, arrived. Well, during cocktail hour Sam gave us the very interesting story of how he got here and why he had been so late. To make a long story short, he was supposed to fly direct from Boston to Casablanca, then Casablance to Marrakech. He ended up, because of some plane malfunction or something, flying from Boston to JFK, waiting forever at JFK, then JFK to Paris, Paris to Casablanca, where he had to wiat for a couple of hours, then Casablanca to Marrakech. This is on top of the fact that they had lost his luggage and when we finally tracked it down, it had apparently never left New York. We then headed down stairs to the dinning room were we got to eat the yummy thing that we had made. After dinner I hung out down stairs in the solarium type room, just off the dinning room until I couldn't stay awake anymore.

DAY 108

I wake up about 8:30am or so and lazily get up and head out on to my private balcony. While I am there I see this little kitten in the garen just to the right of the tennis courts. So I went down stairs to try and pet it. Well to make a short story long the kitten was a little shy and the closet it would get was like 2 ft away. Though the cutest thing about it was that when it meowed it eyes squinted up like an oriental person. It was very cute. Anyways on my way back inside Josef (he's not an official butler, but he does lots of butler-y things) asked me if I would like to sit down for breakfast. I thought sure why not, I mean what better place then at a table by the pool, with the sun shining and the birds singing. I had the Moroccan version of pancakes and some eggs, and something else, but I'm not quite sure. I then went up to my room and spent most of the day on my private balcony reading and resting in the chaise lounge and then being brought little nibbley food later on in the day by the servants. I hate to call anyone servants, but there is no other way to explain what they do. I mean the wait on you hand and foot and they won't even let you do anything, which is nice in the beginning when your tired and the last thing you want to do is get up. But after a while it kind of gets annoying, because they won't even let us throw anything away, we have to give it to them to put in the waste bin. I then had a light dinner listening to some local traditonal musicians play for us.

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DAY 107

Today was a big traveling day. I woke up about an hour or so before th train arrived in Madrid. I arrived in Madrid when it was still dark outside so it was a little hard to get around, but not that made. I carry all my things down a very long staircase, know normally this would not be a problem, but know that I have all my stuff it's not that much more annoying, just a lot heavier.I get all my stuff down the stairs and then for any signs for the main part of the station, and not just the tracks. Well since nobody is in this long hallway and I can see to the very end of both sides, I don't have a problem leaving my bags and walking down the hallway a little ways both directions to find any sort of inclination of the main station. A couple of minutes later I see a couple of guys heading up this one stair case, so I think maybe that's where I should go. I then go back to my stuff and roll it down the n-e-v-e-r ending hallway. Then I had to carry all my things back up this staircase, to were I found my self just on another platform. I'm like great I just had this insane work out carrying my bags up and down the staircases.Then when I about to give up, I see the most lovely sign ever created, "Main Termainal", though of course it was in Spanish. I then took the elevator, yes I know I said elevator, which I now beleive is the single most coolest thing ever created by man, it would only be beat if someone created a "Mary Poppins" bag were it wouldn't be any bigger then your normal weekend bag, but could fit, everything you wanted in it. Anyways I get to the main terminal and head outside, after quickly getting something to drink first. I cross the road, well no really a road it's more like 4 lanes, 2 for loading/unloading, the other 2 for driving vehicles. Anyways I cross it and go into the area where they have those lockers that you can put your stuff in for the day. Afterwards, I go and take the metro to the internet café that I went to last time that I was in Madrid, which actually happens to be only to be a week ago. Gosh such a jet setter,LOL. I get to the place and it say that it doesn't open till 11am, it's now a little bit before 9am.Well I'm certainly not just going to sit around for 2 hours, especially when I'm hungry. So I walk back towards the metro stop, there are lots of little shops and cafés around it. I find this café that was opened and appropriately named Café&Thé. I then had a long, enjoyable breakfast, while also updating and organizing some things on my BlackBerry that I have been meaning to do fo a while now. I then went back to the internet café at 11am and was there for a couple hours before heading back to the train station. Even though I was in no hurry, I quickly got my bags and took a taxi to the airport. Now when I go to another country I am always a little excited, but I am really excited because today I am not only going to a new country, but also a new CONTINENT. Since being on very long train rides the 2 hour flight from Madrid, Spain to Marrakech, Morocco felt like 20min. It felt like we went up into the air, got served our drinks, then got ready to land and then landed. I love time zones and what happens when you fly in the opposite direction. See I left Madrid at 7:10pm and then arrived at 7:10pm, and on the same day. See my flight was 2hours and so was the amount of time zones that I was going through. So on paper I was doing a little Harry Potter stunt. I get through customs with no problems and wait for my luggage. I had totally forgotten the whole wait for your luggage/airport thing. I have gotten so used to the train and also going to different countries and not doing customs or border control that I had forgotten what it was like. I get my things and head outside. I then have a sudden realization, that I have no idea what the name of my hotel is or anything about it, like the address, telephone number, etc... I mean I have all that information, yet it is, so not, conveniently tucked away in an email on the great World Wide Web. I ask this guy, nobody sketchy of course, he worked for some tour group and was waiting for some people, and asked if there was any payphone or something. To make a long story short, there are no payphones,internet, or even a phone book at the airport. So I asked him what he thought I should doI should take a taxi into the center of town where there are many payphones. So I went out to the taxi curb, well more like a road with lots of palm trees next to the fort door of the airport. I am so glad that my taxi driver spoke English, well I had to speak v-e-r-y slowly and always got a delayed moment, but if that's what it took to speak and to completely understand me, than so f**king be it. It's not like I had any pressing engagement that needed my immediate responce to. My taxi driver takes me to a shop of payphones and waites outside for me to call. Well since nobody was picking up, not to mention any names, (cough, cough) Ima, Daddy, Raviv, Erin (cough, cough)I ask the driver what we should do, the guy at the front of the shop said that I should look it up in the phonebook. He then out the phonebook and gave it to me, I then made this laugh/cough noise, becuse he had given me the phone book that is in Arabic and the only thing that I understood was the numbers, he then was like whoops... sorry and then gave me the French one. One nice thing about Morocco that I like more than Israel is that in Israel if it's not in Arabis it's most likely in Hebrew, where as in Morocco if it's not in Arabic it's in French. So then I can sort of get around. Well I still couldn't find the hotel in the phonebook, so then we were stook again. Then the guy at the front had another brilliant idea, go to an internet café. He then told the taxi driver were it was and then I was driven just down the street to this little internet café. Where I found all the information that I was looking for. I then gave it to the taxi driver and he then went on his way. There was a couple times where he had to ask where a certain road was. But we never got off track though. Then at some point we left the actual city limits of Marrakech and were on this dirt road, and of course since we are in the middle of the dessert it is very dark. That is except for the cluster of houses ever so often, that had this picturesque look that if the Torah was a picture book, this would certainly be in it. We then went on a little bit farther and past this little family walking on the side of the road, coming towards us, with some nap sacks, if I had taken a picture (wante to but to dark) you would have thought that it had came straight out of a National Geographic. We finally got to the entrance, it was this large, i'm talking 40-50 feet high dark green door with the hotel symbol on it in gold, and then then handles to gold lion heads. I'm thinking to myself, OMG what am I going to the Queen's summer palace or something. We then see this guy come out of the door (it was one of those doors that is on the bigger door but only the normal 7 or so feet door)after we told him who we were, etc... he then went back through the little door and then we had to wait a minute or two so he could open the main doors. This was like watching the doors to some great fortress be opened or the doors to troy when they let in the horse. We then drive down this little stone path that is lined with bamboo trees and every so many feet a little Moroccan lanterns. I arrive at the hotel, which I shouldn't call it since that gives a false idea in one's head. Think of a large mansion but Moroccan themed. The taxi stops and parks, where this man is staning reay to great. I then get ut of the car where the taxi driver says that he will have to charge me 200 Dirhams (the Moroccan curancy)but he said this in a way like he was saying I'm going to have to charge you $200 and that it would make a dent in my wallet. (Well first of all I had a couple thousand Dirhams in my wallet, well actually most in my bag and only some in my wallet, since I couldn't fit all the money in my wallet, besides trying to close my wallet, I couldn't even put it in the wallet to begin with.)I later found out that 200 Dirhams is $22.70, I later just had to laugh at that. I then was shown my room and my luggage was brought in shortly afterwards. I then walk down this little pathway with a trough looking water structure with eluminated fountains at either ends. I walk in to the "mansion" and walk through two doors and a little hallway into the main court yard inside the house. In this inside courtyard, there is a fountain in the middle, with chaise lounges and little tables, etc... all around. I then get lead up to my room, or should I say little suit.Let me just say that I feel like some sort of Arabian Princess in my room. Ok, let me just try and explain this. Well here goes my explaination of my room, though you will have to look at the pictures to really get it. You open the door and the first thing that you see is, of course, the main room. In the main room there is the bed, which I will get back to later, then next to the bed is the big closet and a couch. Across from the closet is a fire place with two chairs and a coffee table, and yes you read correctly, a fireplace. Where just next to is a little writting desk and a mirror. Then if your standing at the front door again and go to your right you will into the bath room, or more correctly bath suite. No joke, I actually got lost in the bathroom. When you open the door to the bathroom you come across the toilet, then you go straight and around the corner, yes corner, where on you left is this really big tub and then on you left is a couple sink, you know where there is two sinks one for the husband and the other for the wife. Oh, I forgot before you turn the corner, there is a little fireplace, yes again you read correctly, there is a fireplce in the bathroom (or as I like to call it, bath suite). Plus two big mirrors over them and some shevles underneath. Then if you go even further, down the sort of miny hallway, yes there is a sort of hallwat in the bath room, you will then come across the shower and this little area next to it were there is a little sitting area. Now going back to the bed, which I had mentioned earlier, the bed is in its own sort of room it's self. What it is is the California King size bed, with a Moroccan themed wood paneling going around the whole bed with about a foot and a half boarder between the bed and this barrier. Then there are these tissue paper thin drapes that swoop from ceiling to floor, going around the entire of this wooden frame. Then on both sides of the bed there is a little opening, where there are three stairs up to the bed, and yes you heard me right, stairs, this is beacuse the bed is on another level then the rest of the room. Then to complete it there are two night stands on eitehr side and then a little window right off the bed chamber that looks down into the little coutyard in the middle of the house, the one that I mentioned earlier. I then was brought some orange juice and a light snack before going to bed.

SOME PICS!!

DAY 106

Didn't do anything today. I slept in and had a late breakfast, which was really nice. Then had to check out of my room, but it was still to early to go to the train station. So for a little bit I was on the computer, just checking my mail, etc... Then I went on to the train station, where I waited for my train, thankfully my train was on track 1 so I didn't have to deal with going up and down all those stairs with my heavy luggage. Nothing else really to say. I spent the rest of the day on the train of in a train station waiting for my next train. I got a lot of reading down with all the time I had on my hands though. I then spent the rest of the day on the train, doing what you alwaysdoon trains? read, sleep, listen to music, etc...

DAY 105

I start my morning making sure that I have every thing packed and that the things that I'm leaving with Hélène in a neat little pile so she can have an easier time sending off. I then take a taxi to the train station to catch my lunch time train to Cahors. I arrive in Cahors in the early evening, don't remember the exact time. I then walk to my hotel ( the same one that I stayed at last time I was here). I then took all my stuff up to my room, went to the bathroom, then left. This is because I had dinner reservations at La Récréation. This restaurant is actually in Les Arques, but since it is such a small town the only places to stay there are houses, and I'm not going to rent a whole house for one night by myself. The area of Southwest France that Les arques is in is "the land of the Three Musketeers, of the prehistoric cave paintings at Lascaux, of Simon de Montfort, Richard the Lion-Hearted, and the Hundred Year's War." This restaurant is owned and runned by Jacques and Noëlle Ratier. Jaques is the chef of the restaurant and also a 3 Michelin Star Chef, which if you don't know is very hard to get and sort of rare, since the scale is only 1 to 3 in the first place. I take the taxi, to Les Arques, let me just tell you I am so, so very glad that wechad a navigation system in the car, because other wise we would have gotten very, very lost, especially since it was dark already. We eventually get to the town and find the restaurant, where I am dropped off. Now this restaurant is in an old school house, so there is a front entrance room, which is now the bar and a little table with some chairs, and then two room on either side one the dining room and the other the kitchen. I head inside and this women, who later I would find out to be Noëlle, wh should me to this table. I then sat down and was given the menu and the wine list, that's the best part since I'm leagal to drink in Europe. Anyways, after I order and am waiting for the first course, oh yea, this is a 6 course restaurant, the couple next to me start talking to me asking the usual questions, like where I'm from, why I'm here, etc... I later find out that they're from England and that they live about 10 min away fro about 5 months of the year. While talking to them my first course arrives, which is this cream of some sort of vegtable (it tastes like asparagus) with some sort of mushroom and a dash of paprika and something else (looks like paprika but green). Nomally I don't like muchroom in this way, but the soup was prepared so good that I started scarffing it down, and when I noticed myself doing this I had to slow down. My next course was my appitzer, with was salmon ( but the kind that you would be served with sushi) with some sort of vegetable mixture on top, with some gaucamole in the middle of the plate. Once again I hate this stuff normally, but it was prepared in a way that I not only eat it up, but wanted to order another one, if it wasn't for the fact that I hadn't even gotten to the éntree yet. At this point I know realized who Jauques had now attained the unattainable 3 Michelin Stars. My next course was the éntree, which I had the duck. It was served with this fried egg thing with onions or something, some sort of mushrooms or truffles and some asparagus with the duck and some sauce on top. After eatin all this down the next course was the cheese course. Where I was served a basket with sliced bagettes and then a plate with a small circle of locally made Cabécou cheese, with a cherry tomato and a quater size of of honey next to the cheese. Let me just tell you that I despise goat cheese, or anything from a goat for that matter. But once again, I scarffed it dawn. Next was coffee, even though this is not normally a course, it was apparently here. After my coffee I had dessert, which was just a regular Crème Brûlée. Now when I came to the restaurant at 9pm I was the last person seated, so when I was in the middle of my dessert course I was the only one in the restaurant. In the front room, the one where you first walk into, Noëlle and this German couple are talking and having a smoke. The lady of the couple comes into the dining room and invites me to come and sit with them all and finish my dessert there, instead of by myself in the dining room. I then bring the rest of my dessert into the first room and sit down. At this point I am a little light headed, having just finshed a whole bottle of a local Cahors red wine. I the start chatting away, if you think that i'm chatty normally you should see me when i'm getting tipsy to a certain point of drunkeness. At some point Jauques brought out a couple bottles of champagne and glasses and we start drinking away. At some point we toast to something, I have no idea to what because at this point i'm now a little drunk and can't focus at all. Then a little bit before midnight the taxi cameto pick me up and take me back on the 45min back to Cahors and the hotel. The one thing that I love about small towns like this is that I arrived by myself and just there to eat dinner. I left after eating and then smoozing with 4 complete strangers and laughing and acting as if we had known each other for years. When I arrive back at my hotel I, thank g-d for elevators, go up to, actually more like staggered, into my room were I peacefully fell asleep.

§§ PICTURES COMING §§

PS. If you want to read more, and I highly recomened it, about the area and the restaurant, read From Here, You Can't See Paris: seasons of a French village and its restaurant by Michael S. Sanders.

DAY 104

Today was a very straight forward day, go into Paris, again, and buy my train tickets, and go back to the Ritz to give my friend the note I needed to give her (and of course say hi to everyone). The Ritz was pretty straight forward, it was the train tickets that ruined the smoothness of the day, not that anything bad happened. I wait my turn in line and finally get up to the counter. Now getting my tickets to Cahors was no problem, the problem lay in getting tickets from Cahors to Madrid. The lady kept saying that it was impossible to go from Cahors to Madrid and that I had to pick another destination. Well I would love to pick another destination, except that is the city that my fight to Marrakesh, Morocco leaves out of so not only do I have to keep the original destination, but I have a strict time schedule. Well she then told me to go to this other person right next to her (because they spoke better English) and that they would help me. The funny thing is is that the other lady, it took her a little while, but...., she found me two train that would take me to Madrid from Cahors. It was going to be long, because the train path is sort of like a snake, but it waould eventually get to Madrid. After this debacle, I took the metro back to Enghien-les-Bains where I just hung out and played with the kids for a while.

DAY 103

Didn't do much today. I had to go into the city, Paris, and back to my old apartment to get this book that my dad had sent me, but had arrived the day after I had left the apartment. Well since I couldn't pick up the book till later in that evening, because Selma was at work till then, I went to the movies. Ok I read The Devil Wears Prada about a year or so ago and when I fiound out that they where making a movie I got all excited. Except I had to have left a little bit before it came out in the US and so then I had to wait even longer till it came out in Europe a couple of weeks ago. So when I saw that it was playing at my Parisian movie theater I got really excited and was like OK that's what i'm seeing. I then went picked up the book and then back to Enghien-les-Bains afterwards.

DAY 102

I didn't do anything today. Just hung out playing with the kids and helping out around the house with any random things that needed help with. Just a nice lazy afternoon.

DAY 101

I wake up and am still hours and hours away from Paris, so I go and get some breakfast from the food car and then go back to sleep. Around lunch time I wake up get some food and then occupy my self with the usual till I finally arrive in Paris. From here I get my stuff and head up to street level where I take a taxi back to Sabine's apartment in Enghien-les-Bains. Here Ispend the rest of the day starting the big packing process that I have to do.

DAY 100

100th day!!!
OMG, I've now been gone for 100 days. Wow, that's a little milestone :) I slept in since my feet still hurt and I was exhusted from yesterday. A little after lunch time I packed up all my things and walked over to the train station to catch my train back to Paris. I then was on the train for 1 whole day, well if you want to be specific I was on the train for 20hours with a 3hour stop over in this town on the Spanish/French boader, where I was switching trains. I then spent the rest of the day on the train, and then time mostly sleeping, because it was during the sleeping hours, aka night time.

DAY 99

I woke up today and looked at my VERY large list of places I wanted to go see. To explain this list would be difficult, but lets just say most normal people would have taken out 2 maybe 3 days to do all the things that I did. The first thing I did though was go to this nearby restaurant and have a hearty breakfast for my big day. I then got on the bus and went to my first stop. I would have normally just taken the metro, because it's faster, but today was some national holiday so the metro was not in service and the buses were fewer. As the day would go on I would eventually give up on the buses to since there would be so much time in between them, time I did not have. Well Lisboa I think can officially say that it would win any constest with San Francisco on it's streets. Not only were they steep, but in some places windy, and in all place made either from cobblestone, or a mosaic thing, or the one's that were paved, the pavement was long, long over due for repair. Throught the day I visited the churches, monuments, government buildings, other building, like museums and theatres, etc... By the time I came home it was late and very dark, I had to use my BlackBerry as a flashlight. When I had gotten back to the hostel I had walked for 12 hours straight with the only time I sat down was the few moments that I was on the bus. Me feet hurt so bad that I tried to massage them and just lightly touching them hurt like hell. I then had to soak them in the bath tub for a couple hours almost to the point of numbness so I could even touch them. Anyways, after I finished dealing with me feet I went to bed.

Visit the lovely Portugese country

DAY 98

Even though I didn't do really anything yesterday I didn't wake up until 11:30 today, well it did help that I didn't back to the hostel, from the movie, till 1-1:30 in the morning anyways. After getting some breakfast I go back at the internet cafe, you just don't realize how long it takes to do a couple hundred pictures and also write the blog to go along with them. I'm at the café till about 2 hours before my train leaves. I then go back to the hostel get my stuff and take a taxi to the train station. The train to Lisboa, Portugal is 5 or 6 hours I don't remember. Anyways, I arrive in Lisboa to late for lunch, but to early for dinner, so I get a light snack from this place at the station. I walk out of the station had a little deja vu moment. When I go up to the taxi driver and show him the address of the hostel, he doesn't know where the street is so he asks one of his taxi buddies, who points in a direction and says something in Portugese. I then put all my stuff in the car and we head out of the station. To get out of the station is kind of wierd since it is a wierd snake-like round-a-bout. But we get out and he then goes down this street that is on the side of the station, i'm in the car for like 2min, when he stops and says this is it. We both start to laugh and then I take my stuff up the stairs to the hostel. I then spend the rest of the day either in my room or in the near vicinity of the hostel/train station area.

DAY 97

I wok up today feeling a little bit more refreshed from all the sleep that I had gotten. After getting myself I went out to FNAC, which is the French version of Barnes & Noble, to get some books o read, that were of course in English. Afterwards going to get some breakfast, but of course right when I stepped into the cafe the little lightbulb in my head reminding me it was Yom Kippur. You know how hard it is to be in a cafe and be hungry and then have to leave, without eating anything, I'll tell you this much, IT'S VERY HARD. So since I had to finish catching up on my blog I spent the rest of the day at the internet cafe doing so. The only funny thing about today is that the guy at the front desk of the internet cafe kept coming back at lookng at me funny. At one point he asked if I was hungry or thirsty, to which in my head I was screaming YES, YES, I'M VERY HUNGRY AND THIRSTY. Though the thought of trying to explain, to someone who knew very little English, that I was fasting today, and why I was fasting. By the time I was finishing up for the day, after being on the computer 9 hrs straight, he came back and gave me a bottle of water, thankfully I could drink it, beacuse it had been dark for a little it now. Afterwards I got a quick bite to eat before catching a movie. I watched El Viento que agita la cebada, or in English The Wind That Shakes The Barley. It was some movie that one some awards at the Cannes Film Festival and had Cillian Murphy in it :)

MADRID

DAY 96

Today was lovely, nice and relaxing and not stressful. I wake up at some time, but I woke up naturally and not by alarm clock. Then I hung around my room watching TV and being on the internet until about 1 1/2 hours before check out were I packed and got dressed, I think I could have gotten an award for the amount of time it took me...... let's just say that I took my sweet old time. While waiting for my driver to pick my up I walked around the hotel and outside as well, of things that I had forgotten to take pics of before. I then take the car the 30 min it takes to get to the hotel in Madrid. I take my stuff to my room and plop down on my bed, even though I woke up about 9-10ish I was still very tired, well that's could be due in part to the late night Jeri and I had just talking and saying good bye to each other, so I took a nice long nap and woke up kind of hungry and also I needed to go to the train station to get me train ticket to Lisboa, Portugal. At the train station I go and get my number and sit down and wait for what seems like forever. Well since i'm hungry and i'm only seeing numbers for the internet sales ( the 300's) and domestic sales (the 700's) and no international sales (the 900's) I go to one of these little cafes in the main part of the train station. Well it took forever to get my food and pay, I won't get mad since there were soooooo many people, and it wasn't like they were short handed or anything. Bu even so it took forrrrrreeeevvvveeeeerrrrrrr, by the time I had gotten back to the ticket area they had already passed my number.......funny that...... so I go and get another ticket and thankfully this time there was only 2 numbers in front of me. So I wait for like 15 or so minutes and then get up to the counter. Well when its time to pay I realize that I had left my credit card back at the hotel, and I was like f*** I just spent all this time waiting to get my tickets and I can't pay for them now (if your wondering how I paid for my meal I had a little cash on me but not €30) thankfully, while looking through my wallet, I found some travelers cheques and since this a train station, with things like AMEX boths. I went and gave them my AMEX cheques and then got some € back, it was very exciting, excpet for the fact that the dollar sucks. When I gave the lady $150 she gave me €96.40 back and they didn't even charge me for anything since I was using American Express travlers cheques, that was just a straight exchange over. Anyways, I had to deal with it, so I went back to the ticket counter handed the guy my money, he gave me my ticket, and then I was on my merry little way out of there. Once on the street I decided that I wanted to go to the movie theater and watch a movie on the big screen since I hadn't done that in a while and I was in the mood for somthine like that. So I start walking down this major road thinking eventually I will get to a movie theater. Well after a couple of blocks I decided to just go into one of the many hotels and ask for directions. Well I picked the right hotel too, because not only did the guy at the front desk bring out a map and show me where the 3 closest movies theaters were but also brought out the movie listings from the paper and gave them to me to not only look at, but to keep :) I take the metro to were i'm supposed to go to and then walk to the movie theater were I decided on Click since Ive seen most of the movies already (they came out last month in France). Afterwards I went back to my hotel and fell asleep until about 11:30 and I woke up really hungry, so I put on my shoes and went on a treasure hunt for a fast, cheap place to eat that wasn't like McD's or something. I was hungry, but not that hungry.


See The Town!!