Cats, Cous Cous and Creepy Cloaks, PART II

So, there I was, in a nation so unlike my own, so unlike the one I came from, wandering the tiny narrow alley ways of Tetuon. Seeing a REAL Morrocan market.... So what was THAT like, you may ask...well, let me tell you...

Instead of small stores, the ancient walls had what seemed like closet sized cubby holes where merchants would set up shop, selling anything and everything they could. First we walked through the food emporium, a North African Dominick´s, with bowls of potatos, oranges, pomengranites, apples, and various other greens, often with many a fly relaxing on the goods, spread on the ground like a picnic. The produce section was arguably the cleaner portion. When it came to the butcher shop, well, it was quite the experience. If I was in the market for buying a lambs head, well, I had found my heaven. Mm...fresh lamb face. How about my favorite, Chickens? Well, I had two choices, live and fresh, or dead and semi-decapitated. I have cooked chicken many a time, dealt with the bird carcus gracefully, grown immune to the pale pink flesh, but somehow these bodys were unsettling. The head was partially attached, and the neck bone exposed to the world, often with some sort of insect crawling in and out of the spine. The two varieties were often sitting next to eachother. And although I know chickens are dumb, I still felt bad that the two versions were infront of the other, almost like a example of what the live ones would become, reminding them that they too will soon be eaten. Flys abound, and the odor was not of the poultry section in Jewel, but instead the rotting smells of old meat, urine and animal feces. Alternated with the clean scent of mint and parsley and the various spices sold in the market. Much like any grocery store, there was a kitchen accesories stores, selling plates, cups, tea pots, and TVs, in the similar, back alley way like set up.

Well, that was our tour of Tetoun, and we left shaken by the reality of Morocco, scared of the following day. We boarded our bus to the Dreams Hotel, an AMAZING modern hotel better than any place I had stayed at since I have come to Spain. .we watched David Letterman on a flat screen TV, we ate a dinner of kebabs and rice, and we slept on clean, new beds. Talk about contrast.

The next morning, I took a long, hot shower, something borderline impossible to do in Spain, and boarded another bus to CHef Cetohtsbntginstn...okay, I don´t exactly remember the name, but to a small, mountain town where I would see a cleaner, bluer Morocco....

Alas, I have to go to class...so I will continue later.

Love you ALL,
ME