Peeking at Peaks in Py
The next stop on our European odyssey was Py, a tiny village1 in the Pyrenees. First, though, we had to get to France! After saying goodbye to our hosts in Girona, we hopped on the bus to Perpignan, on the French side of the mountains. The driver chatted away to me as he hauled our bags into the belly of the bus. (He quickly figured out that my command of Spanish is only slightly better than my command of North Baffin Inuktitut, and proceeded in French.)2 When I explained that I grew up in the US but currently live in Morocco, he immediately...
read more ->Weekend in Italy
Two months ago, I ended up in Italy for a conference. (You know, my glamorous librarian lifestyle.) In a misguided effort to save money, I flew a discount airline to Bergamo, rather than straight to Milan where the conference was. And you know what? That ended up being one of my best travel decisions ever. The trip was off to an excellent start with the continuation of my favorite Madrid airport tradition. (Favorite tradition, not favorite airport. Madrid-Barajas is a soulless warehouse of an airport, with vast, fluorescent-lit hallways and...
read more ->Morocco, Weeks Fifteen and Sixteen
I’m combining weeks fifteen and sixteen into one post because the former was action-packed and full of new experiences, while the latter was uneventful and full of work. Any week that begins with Halloween is destined to go well.1 Sadly, Halloween is not a widely celebrated holiday in Morocco. Luckily for me, I work at an international school, which means I can go to work in costume and receive admiration and smiles instead of funny looks. So at precisely 7:30am, I was sitting in the library in a reasonably convincing gypsy costume,...
read more ->Morocco, Week Fourteen
Week fourteen began with Austrians and ended with Germans. I had two delightful Austrian house guests, Sabine and Hans-Peter, who kept me entertained on Monday and Tuesday. Both of them had quit their jobs, bought motorcycles, and embarked on an around-the-world journey. (They took crash courses in motorcycle repair before leaving.) Next up: traveling down the western coast of Africa. Their trip ends, I suppose, when they get tired of traveling and move on to the next thing in their lives. We ate delectable Moroccan food, played with Loki, and...
read more ->Morocco, Week Twelve
“The only things they trust are the racing ships Posiedon gave, to sail the deep blue sea like white wings in the sky, or a flashing thought.” The Odyssey (Homer) One of the perks of working in a school1 is getting to hear children say all sorts of silly things. Students at AST (especially the kindergartners) are fond of exclaiming, “Oh my God!” at the drop of a hat, for instance.2 Talking about volcanoes? “Oh my God!” Finding out that a dinosaur in a book is too tall to fit on the page? “Oh my...
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