Spain- Barcelona

 

Add a day and a few centuries and we're in Spain enjoying Barcelona. Whew! We can finally understand some of what is being spoken around us. Understanding even a little bit of the language has brought so much more depth and enjoyment to our travel. We even went and saw a movie in Spanish with no english subtitles and totally understood what was going on! Impressive, right? 

Bullfighting is now banned in Spain so this arena now houses a modern shopping center which is where we watched 'Buscando a Dory'. 

We have adopted Dory as our patron saint here in Spain. If you haven't seen the film, Dory has some memory problems and as the story unfolds we see how she connects the seashells to find her way home. Not unlike our Spanish, we are constantly trying to connect the dots between the words we understand and consequently make some sense of what is going on around us. It can be challenging and hysterically funny at times! 

Morocco - Moving On

We felt like this poor guy at 109 degree heat in Marrakech. Fortunately for us our luggage is much lighter and on wheels.

So we've headed out in search of cooler weather and another century.

Morocco- Beaches, Markets, and a Plan

There's nothing like a day at the beach with some friendly camels to bring smiles to our faces. 

Even the men aren't creepy anymore! Love the baseball cap under the turban, a new and practical fashion statement.

 We still need to be sleuth about our photos but we enjoy the challenge and are getting quite good at it.

Lately we have been venturing into the back alleys and discovered some wonderful opportunities for Janet's skills. We can't wait to pick up a few tools, rent a little workshop and go at it!

 

We just need to pick up a few things at the market, no problem that it is all men at the market, we're used to that. 

Plus we could probably find some willing and helpful subs who have there own vehicles and would like to come work for us.

We could also get our own company vehicle, we just need to get a donkey next.




We might need some caution tape for some areas and a good Moroccan electrician to help out with these electrical panels, hope he has thick rubber gloves. 

Of course, we will need new company uniforms and now that we will be settling down I think it is time to start choosing a pet.

Morocco- adjusting to the culture

Greetings from the land of beautiful colors and textures, veiled women and generally creepy men. 

If anyone saw Janet posing for this photo they might have stoned us both. We couldn’t help ourselves when we saw these heads on sticks, like stick horses. 

These little girls get a few years of freedom before they too must cloak themselves like their mothers. 

Can you tell that I am having a hard time with my prejudices against a culture that generally oppresses women? 

The women here clearly don’t mind it is their culture but it just feels like they will never experience the freedoms we have as women and that seems so sad and unnecessary in todays world. 

All the pictures we take are on the sly, no one, even the men, want their pictures taken. 

We just have a small camera and sometimes I try and drape a scarf over it, but we stand out so much there isn’t much we can do unnoticed.

 

We use each other as decoys and take the photo behind or just beside one of us whenever we can. Sometimes it works. So we have lots of color, texture, architecture and boat pictures, and a few of the people. There are so many great faces that we just can’t take, bummer. 

I think the hardest part is not understanding a word around us as the common language is French and we are clueless. I think if we could communicate just a little bit it would be much better and the ‘us-them’ barriers would be less. It is such a drag being so cut off from everyone around us because of our lack of language skills. Pointing and smiles work but are limiting when we want to understand what is going on around us. 

We had a couple of good experiences today with 2 different vendors that spoke broken English very well, we were happy to buy whatever product they sold. We now own a little box that will hold toothpicks, an 'antique' Bedouin vial that held mascara to darken above and below their eyes to protect against the desert sun, and some very special almond butter which we will eat tomorrow morning! I think we will adjust but it will take a little work on our part. We are not finding Morocco as welcoming of a culture as South America, India or Thailand but we will persist.