Heat Exhaustion

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I have heat exhaustion. Who could have guessed that the Haiku would predict so well? I am melting.
I am an idiot who runs around hundreds of the 9500 little streets in the chaos that is the Fassi medina, and fails to buy water because I am basically a cheap traveling hobo.

Two days ago, I arrived in Fes and quickly ran into some guy who showed me to my current abode- the house of this very cute Berber woman who can speak about 3 words of english and 4 of french. However, this guy then decides that he and I are bestest friends foreverest, and is stuck to my hip (figuratively, not literally; I'd never let him get away with that) for the next day and a half. I don't want to appear ungracious- he took me around, showed me the sights when i would have definitely gotten lost on my own. However, after a couple of weeks of constant bombardment of companionship (not a bad thing), all I wanted was a day or two entirely to myself- not to talk to anyone, not to do anything; to become the equivalent of a wise hermit on the mountain.

I finally had to yell at this guy to leave me be; I didn't want to be rude, especially since he'd been extremely kind, but I craved and needed the solitude... I actually felt like I was suffocating, drowning, claustrophic, having to hold a conversation with someone.

Anyway, it's kind of sad that Fez hasn't been the most pleasant of stopovers on my trip. I spend all my time sleeping, headache-y and unable to eat anything but olives (but mmmm are the olives here DELICIOUS) because I'm too nauseous and out of it for anything else. I also have bed bug bites all over my forearms and fingers- and two very unfortunately placed ones on my face. Cheek and EYELID. Anyway, when I do venture out, I am too tired to laugh at the cries of "Japan?" and "karate?" coming from all corners. I am sad to say that I did, at one point, entertain the thought of turning on my heels and round-kicking the harasser in the head before telling them that I'm Canadian, and I do Tae Kwon Do. Biotch.

Anyway, I'm afraid I'm painting Moroccans in a very harsh light, this being possibly the most in depth entry I've gone into. But it's because I'm sick, and bored of sleeping, so the only other activity I feel up to is my specialty: ranting.

So to counteract this, I am simply going to say that Moroccans, or perhaps Arab people in general (I have another month to see if this applies to Algeria and Tunisia), are some of the most generous, welcoming, and fantastic people I've ever met. I will elaborate later and hopefully more eloquently!

Anyway, enough of this. Tomorrow I head to Nador, to catch a ferry to Spain to catch a ferry to Algeria. I love love love Morocco, but I'm antsy to get a move on and continue the next leg of my trip.

Stacey

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