As you can tell...

We certainly didn't starve this Thanksgiving!

We stayed in a great Villa in Ifrane, which had three crazy living rooms, three kitchens, I'm still not sure how many bathrooms and lot's of places to sleep. My favorite room was definitely the zebra print green room! It was hilarious! We rolled into Ifrane on Thursday morning, and I was so happy to see real trees that were actually turning color. As opposed to Casa where it's just palm trees and bushes. I felt like I needed to celebrate Halloween there too, to get all my fall festivities in. Ifrane is a little town that is up in the mountains, the French built it to be just like a little alpine village and so all the homes have pointed roofs, which is very different than the traditional flat roofs that you see everywhere else. It's known for it's skiing and for the American University that is there. It has a much different feel than anywhere else I've visited here. It's very easy to forget your in Morocco, while your there! And then random things happen, like a stray cat get's into the house in the middle of the night and you have to bait it out with leftover turkey and you remember..."Ah yes, I am in Africa!" :)

We had a great time together with everyone from training, it was wonderful to see everyone again, and just laugh! At one point my friend Mike was telling a story, and I looked around and the whole living room was laughing and just enjoying one another. It was a GREAT way to spend Thanksgiving, relaxing with friends. I have to admit that I was a little homesick, it was okay, but nothing is the same as being with family. Especially when everything that your eating is the Moroccan version of stuff!

Anyway, I hope everyone had a great holiday!

How did I spend my Independence Weekend?

Stuck in my apartment with Strep Throat! Not exactly the most fun way, but I certainly got the rest that I needed. And since I had a fever, I was plenty warm even though my apartment is freezing! :) It's definitely a different experience being sick overseas. First, you don't really have to go to the doctor. If you know what you have you can just go to the pharmacie and get medicine. It's so crazy to me that you don't need a doctor's prescription for stuff like penicillin. Second, I don't have a TV or DVD player yet so I just have to be sick the old fashioned way and either sleep or read, which is not near as fun as zoning out in front of the TV. Anyway, I just wanted to send a little update on how I'm doing and wish everyone a great Thanksgiving. God has blessed me with so many things to be thankful for this year, an amazingly supportive, thoughtful, and caring boyfriend; two great roommates that make living overseas a little more bearable; the ability to laugh at the crazy situations I get into over here; and of course friends who care enough about me to read my blog! I hope you have a wonderful day!

Warning: This post contains sensitive material!

So today I had a great cultural experience, and I thought I would write and tell you about it. First, I should say that I, in no way, condone pirating movies, but here in Morocco it's pretty common and so you kind of just look the other way! Anyway, today I stayed after to watch Charlie and the Chocolate factory! I was so excited because I wanted to see it before I left, but no one would go with me! So we get in there and start watching the movie, and right away I noticed that the color and music seemed a little off, but I thought "It's a Tim Burton movie, so that explains it." Then I realized that a lot of the time something that I thought was supposed to be the visual focus of the shot was off the screen. This made me wonder, but again, it's a Tim Burton film and they usually ignore most cinematic rules. What finally sealed the deal was when something funny happened and you could hear adults laughing and then someone coughed! The part I thought was really funny, is that no one seemed to notice, or if they did, they certainly didn't care. Anyway, I just thought that the cultural difference was really funny and I thought I'd share it with you!
Here's a little update on my housing. We got an e-mail update saying that we won't be moving on campus until sometime during Christmas, so... It looks like my sarcastic prediction of January is really coming true! I'm not complaining though because I really like my little apartment and my little neighborhood! :) I'm really starting to know the neighborhood and some people in it. I really love it when I can walk down the street and say "Bon Jour" not just to be polite but because I actually know the people. Anyway, if for some reason you would want to send me something, the safest bet is to send it to the new school address which is:

George Washington Academy

ATTN: Sarah Markley

KM 5.6 Route De'Azemmour

Dar Bouazza, Morocco

Hassan II Mosque

Today we went to 3rd largest mosque in the world, the only ones that are bigger are Mecca and The Medina, both in Saudi Arabia. It dominates Casa's skyline and we have been waiting for the opportunity to go. Some friends came in from Ifrane and that seemed as good of an opportunity as we could get so we went. Plus we have finally gotten our recipicee for our Carte de Sejour (the Moroccan equivalent of a greencard) which enabled us to get in for almost half- price so that was nice! It was amazingly huge. I was really reminded of the Vatican and St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. It was beautiful and huge inside. The number of people that can be their praying at one time is amazing! After going through all the parts and just being in awe at the size, we were amazed when our guide told us that it was built in only 6 years. They had workers who were working 24 hours a day 7 days a week on the project. We all wished that we could hire those workers to complete construction on our school! :) Check out my picture site to see more pics. I love you guys. Thanks for taking the time to read my blog! Unless your a random person and then thanks for reading my blog, but I don't love you! No offense, I'm sure if I met you I'd probably like you.

Moroccan Dress Day

Friday was Moroccan Dress Day at school. I'm very proud to report that it was my kids who remembered that it should be that day and so essentially we were the ones to get it started. I guess my legacy of liking to have fun days at school is just continuing! :)
Everyone looked so cute all day in their jelabas and keftans. The only problem was it was really hot that day due to the fact that we were getting winds off of the Sahara so it made it a little warm wearing several layers of clothes. There is a certain amount of freedom in wearing a jelaba, because no one can see what you are wearing underneath. I felt like such a rebel wearing a tank top to school, but no one could tell because I had my Jelaba on!