Casablanca!!!

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Casablanca!!!

well hello there sexy co-adventurers on the journey del ian. First note...did you know that many parts of the world do not use a qwert keyboard.... boo hiss!

anywho... i left of at a wonderful juncture in my life, namely, seven hours into a 14 hour stopover in beautiful abu dhabi airport, mother of all that is bwonderful and holy. i spent a good seven hours talking to a charming young man from the punjab region, recently arrived to accept a job in the slave trade...I MEAN the Emrati Overseas Work Program. When i say talk i do of cause mean smile and nod as he literally new no more than a few words of english. But bless his cotton socks he still talked at me, reguardless of if i was reading, sleeping, or pretending i was a pot-plant. The conversation picked up remarkably when we both realiwed we loved american wrestling! With no more than the poorly announced names of the wrestlers and some perhaps slightly overzelous body movements we spent several hours recreating our favorite matches. Alas, our frendship was cut short when he admitted to being a big fan or John Cena....tsk tsk tsk.

The flight into casablanca was totally empty by comparison with the flight into abu dhabi. lots of time to look out the window and see the afican continent gradual moving into view. Arriving at casablanca was an excersize in understated security. should i give you my passport.... no ill just walk through. should i open my bags for customs...no the security guard is asleep, i best not wake him.

On the plane i was tossing up how brave i would be... just get a taxi for the 35 minute into the centre of town or try my first hand at subpar arabic on the train at one tenth of the cost. I took the train, making sure i stressed :ttaniya: (second class).

i magically got to my stop without dying; got out and was immediqtely qpproched to ask if i wanted a taxi. at this point it was 9pm at night and i hadn.t slept for 45 hours, and as such i experienced my first scam de la scam. well more advantage taking then a scam. suffice to say my first 5 minute trip cost me 5€, around 15 times the price i should have paid, but as i was at my hotel and only 10 metres from a bed i was prepared to not care. And i slept like a dead man for 13 hours.

I spent a good part of the morning crying. I miss a lot of people and i realized for the first time that i was totally alone. Earlier this year my mother told me that it might be a good idea to take a small overseas trip before i left to get my travel legs going. i didnt and i should have. There is absolutly no culture shock. i think i am pretty accepting of culture and never assumed that i would find this place normal. the language barrier is terrifying. although some people do speak arabic and a very very little English it is, suprisingly, mostly french that is spoken here. All the signs are multi lingual and it is expected that foreigners speak french not arabic neither of which i know I spent a good while mulling over my phrasebooks and now realize i dont hqve enough french in them to get me by.

I left the hotel at about midday and now find myself in the middle of casablanca city. It is diry, wild, chaotic and amazing! Alreqdy been approached by locals to talk, not looking to scam me. I will spend the afternoon looking for a french to english dictionary and trying to learn a few key phrases. i hope to go to the backpackers tommorrow and look round the city some more.

check you all
Lots of love

Ian

p.s ANZ Travel Card...I will say no more.

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Comments

[Rou]

culture shock
ahhh yes, the culture shock. what an unfun part of the first few days of travelling. also i identify with the crying. sometimes when u realize you are in a city where u know no one and you are so far away, the crying come naturally. of course in my case what tipped me over the border was not just being away and all, it was also finding out that the imbeciles of the US had re-elected bush only three days after Howard was re-elected as well. anyway have fun in casablanca and say Hi to Humphrey Bogart. lots of love rou