Safely landed in Morocco

Greeting to the folks at home....i cant find the appropriate punctuation on this arabic keyboard with instructions in french, so you are just going to have to bear with me and my horrible typing.

I have just spent the last hour trying to get the photos to upload, but it seems they are currently unhappy with me and the staff of the hotel keeps shutting off lights so I decided I just better get on with it.

I cant say that I particularly enjoyed the trip over. With the stresses of packing, cleaning, subletting, trying to get a new camera, and driving to DC I was worn out by the time that I reached Dulles airport. I assumed that I would instantly crash when I got on the plane, but it was quite the opposite...I was finally EXCITED. Going through security standing next to Pakistani citizens, French, Swedes, Malinese....I finally got the jitters of excitement. About 5 hours into the journey the jitters of excitement became jitters of trepidation - what the heck did I think I was going to do with ,yself for two months in foreign countries?

Mom and I met in the Paris airport - she guarding the door so they wouldnt close it and me running ragged from a tight connection. On the plane I realized again what an qdventure I was in store for. Announcements were in three languages and most people refused the meal service...which I later realized was probably attributable to Ramadan. We took a taxi from the airport to our hotel in downtown Casablanca -Dar el Beida- to those in the know. There we ,et our guide Aziz and two other couples who are on the pre-trip with us. It is going to take q little bit of time getting used to them, since none seem to be in as good a shape as they should be for this particular trip and it seems would rather stay in the bus and talk about how this market in Casablanca reminds them of that market in Guadalahara/Chiang Mai / Bhutan / India. Collectively they apparently have seen the globe and cant quite enjoy this trip without comparing it to the others.

On this day 1 we all piled into the van and visited the for,er seat of the French government, Place Mohammed V, then a Catholic Cathedral, a drive-by of the Hassan II Mosque, cookies by the coastline, and dinner at a lovely restaurant in the hotel. I have more to say and show on all of it. but I think I am going to let Rashid here go home and try again in the morning.