trading rain.

For the most part I try not to daydream when I am riding my bike through the city (instead trying to stay focused on the traffic and other hazards) but two days ago when I was riding home in the sunshine I couldn't help but think about how I was going to miss this city. It was an absolutely beautiful day, and I was cruising through the tree-lined streets. I am going to miss doing that.

Here are some other things I am going to miss:

• Riding my bike through another rainy November
• Running to the beach and checking on the eagle's nest
• Spaghetti sauce at my mom's
• My mom constantly trying to send us home with half of her orange juice, or cheese, or Spring Mix greens, or sea salt
• My family
  
• The Burrard St. bridge
• Delicious Asian food of all kinds (mostly noodles and sushi)
• The sunshine in February
• The rain the rest of the year
• The fresh air
• Running errands on 4th Ave.
• Bard on the Beach
• Salad wraps at Granville Island

...just a few. The list is longer, but I have to get back to packing. Tomorrow we load the truck, and Saturday morning we hit the long road to PG.

a pig named ¨sugar.¨

Well, after 14 hours of travel including walking-taxi-train-taxi-ferry-bus-walking, we arrived in Benalmadena, Spain just (really, just). Today is our4th full day here, and yesterday was the first time I left the hotel property for fear of being caught too far away from a bathroom. Evidently my last plate of couscous gave me an extra special surprise. It´s probably a good thing that our apartment has two single beds! We do push them together each night, but that crack in the middle allows for a certain amount of privacy.

The first couple of days, I pretty much just laid around and watched television in variety of languages. My most entertaining time was a dream I had in which I got a little black pot-bellied pig named, ¨Sugar¨ for a pet. ¨Good name,¨ I thought - I am going to save it in case I ever actually get a little black pot-bellied pig for a pet.

Since then I have visited the pool a few times, and managed a whole 6 minutes of running this morning - things are looking up, thanks to my dear friend Loperamide. It is a relaxing change of pace to be in this vacation town. Now our entertainment comes from marvelling at the British people staying at our resort. Almost everyone else is British, and they are almost entirely unfortunately overweight, smoking, sun-worshippers. I say unfortunate, because only about 2 per hundred acheive a tan, and the other 98 are remain very white...until they turn very pink...sometimes red.

We spend three more nights here, and then we are back to the big city. We will spend three nights in Madrid before heading home.

1000 camels.

written June 3, 2009

We are on day #4 in Morocco. It is a very different part of Africa than Ghana. Think Aladdin. We spent 2 days in Tanger, which is a port city, and then took the train to Fes, where we are now. We are staying in the oldest and most confusing medival Arab city in the world - 9500 narrow winding alleys! Even the locals get lost, so we are hoping to find our way back ok tonight. This afternoon we hired a guide, so this is our first forray by ourselves. Options if we get REALLY lost: pay a local kid to take us back, find the picture we took of the host's phone number and ask him to come and get us.

This place is very interesting. I have never been anywhere predominantly Muslim before, and I am actually glad that it is Kyle I am with this time and not Leisha. Our last night in Tanger, we braved the cafe to have some Moroccan tea (most delicious) but I was the only female we had seen in the whole city sitting down for a drink. Since we have been in Fes I have had the following comments: I have a beautiful Arab face, my 'maman' must be from Morocco, Kyle could either trade me for 1000 camels, or he should buy me that many - we aren't sure. As long as I didn't talk, if I was wearing local garb I would pass for local - I think that this is actually helpful when we are walking through the market. Speaking of garb, you can't show your knees or shoulders here, and we are getting used to feeling really hot!

It is also my first trip somewhere where there is so little English. Fes is actually better than Tanger, because there are more tourists here - although most of them are European. I am busting more French than I have ever had to before, but it makes the travelling a little more intimidating and funny. People speak French to us, although they assume that we are native Spanish speakers, and their first language is Arabic. Kyle has a little Spanish, and French, but he keeps getting mixed up between the two - I actually remember an amazing amount of French when I need to, but get shy to use it, and the Arabic is very difficult - too many foreign sounds. The Europeans, especially the young ones put us to shame - we met these people on the train that spoke perfect English and French, and they were Italian!