light adventuring

yesterday felt like summer, like Saturday. i spent the majority of the day in the neighboring city of Mohamedia, keeping company with three other lady-teachers and their children (all students at my school as well) as we explored the medina and the coastline. this city is like the retirement home version of Casablanca: very manicured, calm, free from the clutter, litter and randomness of its big bully older brother. the usual dissonances are just as visible, the mange of stray animals and the eerie desperation of beggars and misfits, the bright shiny schoolhouses and universities intermingled with shanty swellings, squalor and exotic plantlife for sale. but more than less the streets feel like this image above, palm shadows quietly gracing a mosque in the afternoon. i walked throughout the medina with a very loud and obviously north american entourage and found myself some penny candy - fava beans, clementines, walnuts. we walked barefoot along the coastline toward the home of one CAS family, tracing an island with a few poles and cloths as makeshift dwellings, for fisherman perhaps. we stopped to watch the gynmastics of a group of young men, and then again with alarm to protest a group of small boys swimming in briefs who were maniacally dragging a dog around in the water by his front paws. they reflected that indeed they would not appreciate being handled this way themselves, and promptly abandoned their sport (or at least while we were in view). back at the Skadsen's home, i had promised a vegetarian feast - there is almost no support or community for me here, so i insisted that we few vegheads at school reaffirm over a table together. i confected a meal for eight people, which was deemed a success and a delight by all (including two very fussy junkfood-itarian nine-year-olds) despite the three hours prep delayed by blown fuses and ruined food processor. children and homemaking are totally exhausting! but of course it was sweet and satisfying. and because being in Mohamedia was so easy, i was able to be pretty camera-happy. here's the update for your perusal.

today is a big day in the city. soccer is the most impassioned national sport in Morocco, and apparently Casablanca's two rival soccer teams, Widad and Raja, have been barred from competition for years because of the intensity of their animosity and violence toward each other. today they are renewing their play, and the effect on the city of 6+ million people is so significant that the Warden from the U.S. Consulate sent out a warning email. stay indoors!...

Soccer season is well under way in Morocco, and with it, many local fans
wishing to attend the games.
The U.S. Consulate General has learned that a soccer match is scheduled
between rival Casablanca clubs Widad and Raja this coming Sunday,
November 16th. The game is scheduled to begin around 14:30 and will be
played at the Mohamed V Stadium in the Maarif area. Officials expect as
many as 80,000 fans from both teams to attend. A large traffic jam of
fans and supporters is expected to head toward the stadium beginning
Sunday morning, and away from the stadium late Sunday evening. Because
of the large number of fans expected to be in the area, and their
potential for rowdy and exuberant behavior, especially after the game,
U. S. citizens are cautioned to avoid the Maarif area on Sunday,
November 16th.

lucky for me, the Maarif is where i reside, and so i woke to the revelry of chanting drums and tubas this morning. curious, i went to visit a newly-discovered coffeeshop (that sells real coffee, ground me some Ethiopian beans earlier today) located in the direction of the stadium. i walked parallel to flocks of young men singing and shouting with a militant energy, all funneling into one major road with their eyes ahead on their stage. fortunately i went ignored, and there were uniformed men everywhere as well. we'll see what the post-game emotions of this evening turn out. meanwhile i am tackling a to-do list, and most importantly planning a lesson on the sonnet tomorrow to be observed by the director of CAS. it's international school job fair application time and i need a good recommendation. much to do, lots of important content to present to bored adolescents! lately i've been guiltily absent from email life and from writing in general, but i promise more soon, or sometime, avec plaisir.

a daily dose of

this week I am standing in for the Drama teacher while she tours the theatre scene in London with her IB kids, and boy is it a hyperactive time. good for me to bounce around a little bit more, right? it's almost over, of course, and today is International Day, when each member of the CAS community will participate in a parade around grounds to celebrate their national costume. I am going to wear jeans + this white tshirt to feature America's special blend of self-importance and image obsession. teacherly, no? :) it's pretty cute to see the flocks of pointy shoes and fancy djellabas, so maybe I'll try to take a few pictures.
I should get back to the morning's preparations, but meanwhile, here's what accompanied my evening preparations of fennel bulb sauteed with some precious cardamom I bought from a Fesi herbalist in October:

echo's answer

I recently bit the expense bullet and joined a gym in the neighborhood. Casa is full of spas and fancy fitness centers, healthfulness being a la mode, new and trendy to Moroccan lifestyle. this one is a relatively simple establishment but still more self-possessed than what the independent North American is accustomed to (e.g. during my first visit, I was applying my puny arms to the biceps bar machine[?] and a woman came over to grill me about my status here in Morocco and as a member of the gym. only living here three months, and mon premier fois en Cap Forme! she proceeded to guide me through several different sets and repetitions, presuming with some fairness that I had no idea what exactly to do, and insisted that I return on mercodi. it was sort of sweet to be so cared for, actually).
it has been a challenge to find time in the workweek to exercise, especially with the sunset now at around 5:30pm, and so now I've been trying to restore my modicum of muscle tone after it's total depletion during my amoeba infection this past month. in keeping with the modernized private v. public conventions of Islam, it is only on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays that the facilities are open to women, and on Saturday to a mixed gender crowd (though only the men can use the locker room). while the gendered access can seriously diminish the value of a membership, it does have its own sort of easy rhythm. tonight at the gym I left the cardio room and escaped the pounding disco of the aerobics dance class to the weight room upstairs. it was empty. I found a mat and let my eyes glaze as my breath fogged my glasses and I moved into pavanamuktasana, a yoga pose that I like to use to equalize myself pretty much anytime. soon the music downstairs subsided, and I noticed a purple blur come into my right periphery a few feet away. looking closer, I saw that it was a woman covered completely in one floral cloth, kneeling on a small rug by the wall to pray towards Mecca. surrounded by barbells and mirrors, there we each were in a distinct and natural brand of private routine meditation. we stayed together this way for several minutes.