Alright... I honestly just haven't been bothered to write anything so... sorry?
Now, Morocco is pretty nice to live in. I really do like it here. Well, Marrakech anyways. As you know, I haven't really seen anything else of Morocco yet, besides the inside of the Casablanca airport and the main road to Marrakech. Though it was night time, so it was just a lot of shadows. Dad said we past loads of interesting stuff, but yeah, I missed it all. Yay for me.
So, I've been here for a bit over two weeks so far. I've spent most of the time inside, but I have been out.
One of the first things I learnt when going out in Marrakech, is that the traffic, is terrifying. This is a warning to anyone who lives in Canberra, or any place like it; Do NOT drive in Marrakech. Take a taxi. Or a bus. Or a jet! ANYTHING. Just don't drive here! You WILL die! It's insane!!!! Like, there will be three cars lined up next to each other on a one lane road. You have to constantly swerve to avoid being hit! IT'S SCARY! I pray that I don't have to go out in the rain here....
Another thing about the traffic here, is the number of bikes you see. Everyone rides bikes. Or motorbikes. Or normal bicycles with motors on them, powered by the peddling. When crossing the road (and I advise not to try), you have to worry about the bikes more than the cars. And it's scary how many people they can fit on the bikes. Whilst out with my Dad, I saw a motorbike with a man on it, a woman on it, a little boy standing on the front of the bike, and the woman was holding her new born baby in her arms as they rode. And none of them were wearing a helmet! NO ONE wears a helmet here! I even saw a little boy and his older sister around my age on one of those motorised bicycles riding on the side of the road without a helmet! I have no idea how any of them manage to survive!
Also, they don't have seat belts in cars! Well, they do in the front, and I'm pretty sure your required to wear those, but you don't have to in the back! I don't wanna know how many people die here from flying out the front of a windshield...
Anyways, on a morepositive note, my daddikins took me to Jaam Alafna. It was a massive market place, and it was awesome! There were people charming snakes, lots of men in traditional African clothing playing big drums, and there was a guy with a monkey! Me and my dad walked around and he told me a lot about the history of the place. I would write it down... but I can't be bothered. So yeah, we walked through the stalls and saw a lot of cool stuff. The problem was that we couldn't really stop and look too long, because if you do stop and look, the owner of the stall immediately thinks that your interested in buying something and starts trying to talk to you into it.
One thing about Morocco is the amount of olives there are. Everyone eats olives. Lots and lots of olives. Which really sucks for me, because I don't like olives. Except on pizza. Mmm... pizza. Anywho, so when we went to the market, they had this whole corner full of different types of olives. Green ones, black ones, brown ones, red ones... it was scary! They had massive barrels full of olives!
I've also been to our local souk. Like, another market, except loads smaller. They sell meat, and vegetables. It's smells funny though. And it's infested with loads, and loads of adorable cats. Now, there's a place at the souk we go to, where you can buy meat, but you can also go to this other guy there for your chicken meat. You stand there, pick a live chicken, go away for twenty minutes or so, come back, and they will have that chicken you picked killed, plucked, skinned, everything. I saw one of the guys doing it. It was depressing. Really, you ever heard that fraze "Just because you wanna eat the burger, it doesn't mean you wanna meet the cow"? Or like that episode of the simpsons, when Lisa looks at her lamb chop and sees the little lamp saying "why Lisa? What did I ever do to you?" Yeah, it was like that, except we didn't get that chicken, so it was all good....
So, just like back in Canberra, they also have the supermarkets. I had a horrible experience with the super market. Now, I'm sure all my friends and stuff who I told to read this, you'll agree with me that a normal trip to the supermarket is walking in there with a pair of shorts on with a singlet and some flip flops. You'll go in for ten minutes max, then leave. But no. Here, I came with my dad and step mum. I thought we were just gonna go in and then straight out. So, we go in. It's pretty big, about the size of a K Mart or something. And we walk through every isle, and look at EVERYTHING. They took forever! I was going insane with boredom! And really, the supermarket's here are insane! They have a whole row full of yogurt! And then another full of cheese! Like, do you REALLY need that many different types of yogurts or cheese? It's insane! Eventually, we got out. Thank god. After spending ages in every isle. And they took ages at the counter as well! When we finally got out of the building, I asked dad how long we had been in there. Yeah, an hour and forty five minutes! WHY?
Now, about the food. The food is good. Even the take out. Like, not Maccas or whatever. Anywho, my step mum has been making loads of yummiful food. When we go to Rabat, I'll be meeting her mother, and apparently she is an awesome cook. My dad also made me what he called a traditional Moroccan breakfast. We had mint tea, with eggs. The eggs were fried in butter, like normal, except he covered them in olive oil afterwards and sprinkled them in cumin. Then we got bread and dipped it in and ate it like that. You pretty much eat everything here with bread.
The last thing, is the TV. My dad has about three thousand something or rather channels and radio stations. Some of them don't work unfortunately, but oh well. I basically just watch the MBC channels, or BBC or CNN. But what's really funny, is that the MBC MAX channel is Saudi tv. Which means that they beep out all swear words, and cut scenes that involve kissing. But they keep the horribly violent scenes. It's weird! And quite annoying. I was watching some animated kids movie called "Happily 'N Ever After", and they skipped a big chunk at the end because the two characters kissed. Seriously, it was a kid's film. But what I thought was absolutely hilarious, was when I was skipping through the channels, and I found a TV show, obviously filmed in Arabic, but with crappy voice overs in English. I love it when movies or shows do that! I wanted to watch it, but dad made me change it =(
Anywho, Dad just reminded me that it's my sister's birthday in Australia right now.
So, ta ta!
And, HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHALINI!!!!
Oh, and before I forget;
Did You Know: Morocco was the world's largest exporter of sugar for 400 years?
Thanks for reading =)
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
I do not like French keyboards -_-
I would like to start by saying that I really don't like these keyboards. A third of the letters are in the wrong spots and it's making it really difficult to do this. Why didn't anyone warn me???
Now, to the point. I WAS RIGHT!!! I KNEW something was going to go wrong with my flights! I KNEW it!!!
I'll start from the beginning, shall I?
I woke up at about 6 30 Sunday morning. The plan was me and my mum were to catch a bus to Sydney. That bus would drop us off at the airport, where we would spend time together and hang out, until it was time to catch my plane. That plane would take me to Abu Dhabi. After waiting 2 hours in Abu Dhabi, I would catch another plane. That one would take me to Casablanca, Morocco. From there, my dad would pick me up and take me to Marrakech, where he lives.
It started off okay. Me and mumsies caught the bus and arrived at the airport okay. We went to McDonalds at the Sydney airport, though I didn't really eat much because I was hell nervous. After walking around together etc. I checked in. I got my boarding pass and they took my luggage (which was 5.7 kilos over weight, though they didn't really care) and attached a little tag thing to me which said "PRIORITY", so I felt super special. Because I was an "unaccompanied minor" I was going to be fully escorted and had 2 seats to myself on the plane because no one was allowed to sit next to me. I felt even more special!
I said bye byes to mumsikins and left with my escort chick. She took me straight to the gate and I got to board the plane first. I was going by Etihad airways and they were awesome. I was going in economy and everyone got their own screen with a remote. You could choose from like, 70 movies to watch, loads of TV shows, heaps of music and you could even turn the remote sideways and it would sorta turn into a Playstation remote and they had 30 games you could play. So I had a total moment of going "sweeeeeeet". I made myself all comfy and all the air hostess chicks introduced themselves to me. Then the rest of the passengers boarded and the plane started moving.
The plane went out onto the runway. Everyone was either scared or super excited about taking off when... we turn around and went back to the airport. Apparently there were technical difficulties and the plane had to be evacuated while they ran tests. Of course, I couldn't leave, because I'm super special and they couldn't leave me alone. So I was taken to the front of the plane where I got to hang with the plane crew. They were all complaining about some paranoid annoying passenger. Eventually, they decided that I could just sit in the first class seats while I was waiting. They were huge, comfy seats that vibrated and gave back massages.
So I ended up sitting there for about an hour. It got boring and they let me get off the plane and sent me to a room where I could call my mum and tell her what happened. Of course, mum wasn't answering her phone... The lady at the reception was really nice and told me how beautiful Morocco would be. So that got me all excited and I was extra happy when they let all the passengers re board the plane.
The plane trip was really relaxing and the Etihad plane food wasn't really that bad. That is a first for me people.
The plane arrived in Abu Dhabi at about 3 35 am. I had missed my plane by about an hour and a half. They took me to the transit section of the airport where they found another route I could take. The plan was that I would take a plane to Cairo, Egypt. From there I would take another plane that would take me to Casablanca. They called my Dad and asked whether that was okay and he agreed.
So I asked them, when's my next flight gonna be? And they told me; "4 this afternoon." So I of course just stared at them and was like "What am I supposed to do until then?" and they said I could have my own hotel room at the Etihad transit hotel. So they took me there and it was awesome. Super posh and fancy with an all night all you can eat buffet and a room with 5 massive TVs and PS3s and I got to stay in a room that was more like a penthouse. They had these awesome beds that stretched up the wall and across the ceiling. The chairs were really modern and comfy. The only thing I didn't like was the automatically flushing toilets that would always flush while I was still on it.
So after spending 12 hours of super happy fun time, I was taken to my next gate. Unfortunately, I had to change airlines. I had to go by EgyptAir, which epically sucked. The guys who were letting the passengers board had pretty much no idea what they were doing. They were supposed to take care of my passport and documents, because unaccompanied minors are... well, minors, and you don't let kids keep their passports because they'll probably drop them or lose them or rip them apart or something. So, the guys took my passport. And guess what? First they drop it. The one of them is like "oooh, Australian passport" and tries to bend, in which case I yell out to him "What the hell do you think you're doing, you're going to break the chip in it!" and then they lost it, along with my 2 boarding passes. Eventually they found it though and I was finally allowed to board the plane. After that, I insisted I keep my stuff because it was a hell of a lot safer in my hands.
The plane trip was boring. They didn't even have an in-flight movie, plus the plane was full of creepy guys who kept staring at me. I was not happy.
I eventually arrived in Cairo. I was taken to the transit area and put in the room where they keep the unaccompanied minors and people who need assistance. All the employees in there were smoking. I was going to complain, but barely any of them could speak English.
So I had to wait an hour there. I ended up watching the cleaner guy. He sucked. First he was sweeping the floor he was pretty much leaving more dirt on it then he was cleaning. Then he had to mop the floor. He gets the mop and walks across the hall once, purposefully missing the really dirty bits as if he was worried it might make the mop dirty. This is why women clean. Because men suck at it.
So, after the most boring hour of my life sitting with people filled with respiratory diseases, I got on my next plane. I slept through the whole thing.
I finally arrived in Casablanca. I was escorted through the airport by some guy who looked like he was 12, then swapped over to some other guy.It took him half an hour to fill ou my immigration form. I was going to tell him that I had already filled one out on the plane, but it was kinda funny watching him try and fill out himself, when he obviously had no idea what he was doing.
I eventually got out of immigration and there was daddikins waiting for me. We collected my luggage and then started the trip to Marrakech.
Like I said before, I hadn't seen my dad in 6 years. He's pretty much the same, except his hair is grey and his accent has changed. We had a very big hug and shockingly, neither of us cried. We spent the car trip discussing movies and all the things we're gonna do while I'm here.
When we reached my Dad's house, I met my stepmum. She is very nice and I like her. After that, I went to bed.
The next morning, I sort of met my little half brother. He was scared of me, so he hid in his little Winnie the Pooh tent. I eventually managed to get in the same room as him without him running away. I gave him a present; a little Kangaroo toy, with an Aussie hat with the corks hanging off it, playing the didgeridoo, and when you squeeze it, it plays Waltzing Matilda. Pretty Aussie, eh?
Since then, I have kind of made friends with him. He's asked me to play with him, which is pretty fun. We make things out of leggo, or draw etc.
I have also gone to work with my dad. That was fun. He's like a walking guide book. He has told me a bit about the city's history and random facts. I tried my first glass of Moroccan Mint Tea with him, and it was yummiful. I can see it becoming my second addiction, after coffee.
Well, that's it for now. I have decided that at the end of every post, I will do a "did you know" thing.
So here goes;
Did you know: In Marrakech, it is ILLEGAL to have a building that isn't ocher. The entire city is the same colour. It is really beautiful.
I won't be uploading photos for at least a week. My mum will be sending me photos that she took at the airport, and my Dad's camera is in Rabat. We will be going there in a few weeks, and then I will take photos to show everyone.
Thanks for reading : D
Now, to the point. I WAS RIGHT!!! I KNEW something was going to go wrong with my flights! I KNEW it!!!
I'll start from the beginning, shall I?
I woke up at about 6 30 Sunday morning. The plan was me and my mum were to catch a bus to Sydney. That bus would drop us off at the airport, where we would spend time together and hang out, until it was time to catch my plane. That plane would take me to Abu Dhabi. After waiting 2 hours in Abu Dhabi, I would catch another plane. That one would take me to Casablanca, Morocco. From there, my dad would pick me up and take me to Marrakech, where he lives.
It started off okay. Me and mumsies caught the bus and arrived at the airport okay. We went to McDonalds at the Sydney airport, though I didn't really eat much because I was hell nervous. After walking around together etc. I checked in. I got my boarding pass and they took my luggage (which was 5.7 kilos over weight, though they didn't really care) and attached a little tag thing to me which said "PRIORITY", so I felt super special. Because I was an "unaccompanied minor" I was going to be fully escorted and had 2 seats to myself on the plane because no one was allowed to sit next to me. I felt even more special!
I said bye byes to mumsikins and left with my escort chick. She took me straight to the gate and I got to board the plane first. I was going by Etihad airways and they were awesome. I was going in economy and everyone got their own screen with a remote. You could choose from like, 70 movies to watch, loads of TV shows, heaps of music and you could even turn the remote sideways and it would sorta turn into a Playstation remote and they had 30 games you could play. So I had a total moment of going "sweeeeeeet". I made myself all comfy and all the air hostess chicks introduced themselves to me. Then the rest of the passengers boarded and the plane started moving.
The plane went out onto the runway. Everyone was either scared or super excited about taking off when... we turn around and went back to the airport. Apparently there were technical difficulties and the plane had to be evacuated while they ran tests. Of course, I couldn't leave, because I'm super special and they couldn't leave me alone. So I was taken to the front of the plane where I got to hang with the plane crew. They were all complaining about some paranoid annoying passenger. Eventually, they decided that I could just sit in the first class seats while I was waiting. They were huge, comfy seats that vibrated and gave back massages.
So I ended up sitting there for about an hour. It got boring and they let me get off the plane and sent me to a room where I could call my mum and tell her what happened. Of course, mum wasn't answering her phone... The lady at the reception was really nice and told me how beautiful Morocco would be. So that got me all excited and I was extra happy when they let all the passengers re board the plane.
The plane trip was really relaxing and the Etihad plane food wasn't really that bad. That is a first for me people.
The plane arrived in Abu Dhabi at about 3 35 am. I had missed my plane by about an hour and a half. They took me to the transit section of the airport where they found another route I could take. The plan was that I would take a plane to Cairo, Egypt. From there I would take another plane that would take me to Casablanca. They called my Dad and asked whether that was okay and he agreed.
So I asked them, when's my next flight gonna be? And they told me; "4 this afternoon." So I of course just stared at them and was like "What am I supposed to do until then?" and they said I could have my own hotel room at the Etihad transit hotel. So they took me there and it was awesome. Super posh and fancy with an all night all you can eat buffet and a room with 5 massive TVs and PS3s and I got to stay in a room that was more like a penthouse. They had these awesome beds that stretched up the wall and across the ceiling. The chairs were really modern and comfy. The only thing I didn't like was the automatically flushing toilets that would always flush while I was still on it.
So after spending 12 hours of super happy fun time, I was taken to my next gate. Unfortunately, I had to change airlines. I had to go by EgyptAir, which epically sucked. The guys who were letting the passengers board had pretty much no idea what they were doing. They were supposed to take care of my passport and documents, because unaccompanied minors are... well, minors, and you don't let kids keep their passports because they'll probably drop them or lose them or rip them apart or something. So, the guys took my passport. And guess what? First they drop it. The one of them is like "oooh, Australian passport" and tries to bend, in which case I yell out to him "What the hell do you think you're doing, you're going to break the chip in it!" and then they lost it, along with my 2 boarding passes. Eventually they found it though and I was finally allowed to board the plane. After that, I insisted I keep my stuff because it was a hell of a lot safer in my hands.
The plane trip was boring. They didn't even have an in-flight movie, plus the plane was full of creepy guys who kept staring at me. I was not happy.
I eventually arrived in Cairo. I was taken to the transit area and put in the room where they keep the unaccompanied minors and people who need assistance. All the employees in there were smoking. I was going to complain, but barely any of them could speak English.
So I had to wait an hour there. I ended up watching the cleaner guy. He sucked. First he was sweeping the floor he was pretty much leaving more dirt on it then he was cleaning. Then he had to mop the floor. He gets the mop and walks across the hall once, purposefully missing the really dirty bits as if he was worried it might make the mop dirty. This is why women clean. Because men suck at it.
So, after the most boring hour of my life sitting with people filled with respiratory diseases, I got on my next plane. I slept through the whole thing.
I finally arrived in Casablanca. I was escorted through the airport by some guy who looked like he was 12, then swapped over to some other guy.It took him half an hour to fill ou my immigration form. I was going to tell him that I had already filled one out on the plane, but it was kinda funny watching him try and fill out himself, when he obviously had no idea what he was doing.
I eventually got out of immigration and there was daddikins waiting for me. We collected my luggage and then started the trip to Marrakech.
Like I said before, I hadn't seen my dad in 6 years. He's pretty much the same, except his hair is grey and his accent has changed. We had a very big hug and shockingly, neither of us cried. We spent the car trip discussing movies and all the things we're gonna do while I'm here.
When we reached my Dad's house, I met my stepmum. She is very nice and I like her. After that, I went to bed.
The next morning, I sort of met my little half brother. He was scared of me, so he hid in his little Winnie the Pooh tent. I eventually managed to get in the same room as him without him running away. I gave him a present; a little Kangaroo toy, with an Aussie hat with the corks hanging off it, playing the didgeridoo, and when you squeeze it, it plays Waltzing Matilda. Pretty Aussie, eh?
Since then, I have kind of made friends with him. He's asked me to play with him, which is pretty fun. We make things out of leggo, or draw etc.
I have also gone to work with my dad. That was fun. He's like a walking guide book. He has told me a bit about the city's history and random facts. I tried my first glass of Moroccan Mint Tea with him, and it was yummiful. I can see it becoming my second addiction, after coffee.
Well, that's it for now. I have decided that at the end of every post, I will do a "did you know" thing.
So here goes;
Did you know: In Marrakech, it is ILLEGAL to have a building that isn't ocher. The entire city is the same colour. It is really beautiful.
I won't be uploading photos for at least a week. My mum will be sending me photos that she took at the airport, and my Dad's camera is in Rabat. We will be going there in a few weeks, and then I will take photos to show everyone.
Thanks for reading : D
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Welcome
Hi!
Welcome to my blog thing. It was suggested to me that I start a blog to keep a record of my trip. It's also an easy way to let everyone know what I'm doing and save me the trouble of e-mailing people (don't worry friends and family, I'll e-mail you anyway...).
So, to any random people who come across this, I'll give a bit of a background story. My name is Ayesha. I live in the ACT. In about 2 days, I will be going to Morocco for 3 months, to visit my Dad who I haven't seen in 6 years. Exciting, no? I will be leaving this Sunday. It is currently 7:44 am Friday morning and I still haven't started packing or done anything in preparation. I'm thinking about starting tonight... if I'm bothered. I'll probably do a post a week, just to let everyone know what I'm doing and maybe show a bit of what I learn in Morocco. About the customs, the culture and you know, that kind of stuff.
If I don't sound that enthusiastic, don't worry, I am. I'm just kinda tired at the moment. Normally I'd be all "YEEAAAAAH! I'M GOING TO MOROCCO! I GET OUT OF A TERM OF SCHOOOL!!!". But I woke up at 6 this morning and I'm not really up to it. Plus I'm hell nervous. I'm going on this trip all by myself, and I have this awful premonition I'm going to get lost at the airport. And because of that, I've actually started cleaning the house. I cleaned all the windows and did vacuuming yesterday o.O
Well then... bye byes for now. Like I said, I'll do posts and put up photos and stuff about once a week. You can look forward to lots of long and boring posts about stuff I do. Lucky you ;)
Welcome to my blog thing. It was suggested to me that I start a blog to keep a record of my trip. It's also an easy way to let everyone know what I'm doing and save me the trouble of e-mailing people (don't worry friends and family, I'll e-mail you anyway...).
So, to any random people who come across this, I'll give a bit of a background story. My name is Ayesha. I live in the ACT. In about 2 days, I will be going to Morocco for 3 months, to visit my Dad who I haven't seen in 6 years. Exciting, no? I will be leaving this Sunday. It is currently 7:44 am Friday morning and I still haven't started packing or done anything in preparation. I'm thinking about starting tonight... if I'm bothered. I'll probably do a post a week, just to let everyone know what I'm doing and maybe show a bit of what I learn in Morocco. About the customs, the culture and you know, that kind of stuff.
If I don't sound that enthusiastic, don't worry, I am. I'm just kinda tired at the moment. Normally I'd be all "YEEAAAAAH! I'M GOING TO MOROCCO! I GET OUT OF A TERM OF SCHOOOL!!!". But I woke up at 6 this morning and I'm not really up to it. Plus I'm hell nervous. I'm going on this trip all by myself, and I have this awful premonition I'm going to get lost at the airport. And because of that, I've actually started cleaning the house. I cleaned all the windows and did vacuuming yesterday o.O
Well then... bye byes for now. Like I said, I'll do posts and put up photos and stuff about once a week. You can look forward to lots of long and boring posts about stuff I do. Lucky you ;)
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