before coming to fez, our "teacher" Sharon Nagy told us that if we were ever getting too harassed, we could turn to the person and say "Shuma". it basically means "shame on you", but is supposedly way more harsh, so we've all been timid to use Shuma, even with the extra annoying harassment. anyways, earlier this week sarah and i were almost to our house and a pack of 8 and 9 year old boys came up and wanted to say hi and shake our hands. we smiled and sarah kept walking, but this one boy wouldn't let go of my hand, so i turned around to sarah to say something and out of the corner of my eye i saw him behind me grab my hip and do very naughty gestures to my bum. i threw his hand back at him and yelled no, and then we quickly walked away.
on thursday we were on the same lane and a group of girls came by and started talking to us. they were super cute so we chatted for a bit, except i'm not sure how because this one girl Rita only spoke french and i somehow translated most of it and responded in a mixture of horrible french/arabic. anyways, they walked away and then a group of boys came by. we shook their hands, but one pulled sarah in to try and to the traditional moroccan hello, where you kiss both cheeks. sarah just shook her head at him, and then he tried to do the same with me, but i told him no. he passed by my other side, jumped up, and kissed my cheek, but i responded while he was mid air and went into defensive soccer mode, put out my arm, and he rebounded a foot back into the stone wall. at the same time, 3 of the other boys leaped onto my back, so i swung around and flung one off and the others all stumbled back while i yelled "NO!!! SHUMAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!"
sarah was trying to shuma them to, but ended up stuttering into a laughing fit as they quickly ran and we turned and walked away. we were home 30 seconds later and told our housemother, who proceeded to crack up with us and then tell us she'd let her husband know about the boys. now when we pass them they look at me, i glare, and they don't move and let us pass. i think i shuma'd the crap out of those little punks.
there's a boy in our class named Remington who is clearly from a crazy wealthy family, but is also really nice. Remy had the idea to rent a big villa for a bunch of us for the night, so this friday he put everything together. The total came to about $10 a person, and it was one of the nicest villas i've seen. about 15 of us slept over, but a bunch of people came and hung out all night on the roof with us. it was so much fun, and i think we're going to do it again.
the next morning we woke up and headed out of the Medina and to the Ville Nouvelle, where we grabbed some coffee, and then 11 of us headed to Ifrane, which is a small town a little over an hour away from Fez. We took 2 grand taxis, which are vintage mercedes benzs, with 6 in one and 5 in the other. the cost each was 25 Dirhem, which is a little less than $3 a person. we didn't have any plans for Ifrane, so first we walked through the town, which doesn't look Moroccan AT ALL. it's mainly a tourist retreat, super small, with nothing to do, and it felt exactly like the random suburb towns i stayed in Germany and Switzerland, and it looked like it too. The group was me, Aaron, Adam, Akbar, Toufik (their house brother), other Toufik (1st Toufik's friend), Mohammed (a new friend i met in class) Kait, Elisabeth, and then Jess and Goska but they only stayed until around 6. We found a 3 bedroom/2 bath air conditioned apartment to rent for the night, and for 9 people it was $12 a person. we got a late lunch, walked around some more, and then some people took naps and showers while Aaron and Adam went and bought snacks and alcohol. they came back with 20 beers (the cheap kind here is called Speciale, and is usually about $1 a beer and is actually drinkable), a bottle of lemon vodka, and bags of chips and cookies. it wasn't until they were back that we realized the 2 Toufiks and Akbar and Mohammed wouldn't be drinking (muslim), and kait and elizabeth had a leftover bottle of absolut from the night before.
everyone else was still sleeping except me, aaron, adam, and Toufik 2, so we decided to start without them. we played flip cup with dinky plastic cups, Toufik with coke instead of beer, until everyone woke up about and hour later. then we all just kind of sat and talked and hung out until about 1. it was a looootttt of fun.
we woke up at 8, were out by 9, and then got breakfast and took grand taxis to some place about 20 minutes from Ifrane where there are a bunch of monkeys and we could horse back ride. i was expecting monkeys like in a zoo, but they were just right there. monkeys. just the way dogs would be walking around. we fed them peanuts (one jumped up on my thigh and snatched the bag out of my hand) and watched them for a little bit, then elisabeth and i went horseback riding. it was pretty lame. basically we got up on the horses and walked through the woods with the trainer guys walking next to us going "zeet zeet zeet" for 15 minutes. the most exciting part was when i was crossing a stream downhill and my horse decided to trot for 1 minute. oh and Toufik 1 was being a punk and started picking up these massive black beetles, then pretended to put them on kait and elisabeth. they screamed. he tried with me but i saw it coming and asked to hold the beetles instead. it was creepy.
we left that place around 1 and headed back to fez, but stopped near a lake where we all paddle boated around beneath the mountains for about an hour. i wanted to nap on the way home, but the countryside was too beautiful to pass up, so i listened to my ipod and stared out the window and took in the view. needless to say, this was one of the most amazing weekends of my life. i hope all of you had a great 4th of july weekend too!
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