hola amigos!

hey everyone! after that boring and abysmal last post, here is some fresh, new adventures for you all to peruse!
i´m in spain now, have been since monday. its an amazing country. madrid is a breath of fresh air and is so beautiful. its vibrancy, life, and splendor make me perfectly happy sitting and watching it all go by. the city is full of old architecture and parks, it is so easy for me to sit and read a book, without being bored! the museums are great, the prado especially has been fun to stroll through. i´ve gone twice now during their free hours to just look at my favorites. i´ve fallen in love (again) with goya. his exhibit there is amazing!
other than that, i have been spending a lot of time walking through the city, getting lost, finding myself again. europe has a great culture, one that i really enjoy. its been interesting, i´ve experienced culture shock upon returning to a city i´ve never been too, to a culture unlike my own. its not the shock of something new, in that i´ve never seen it before, but the shock of having things i haven´t had in morocco, like the ability to drink a cup of coffee while i walk. moroccans don´t believe in take out coffee. i hadn´t realized how much i enjoyed that in the US, and to have it again has been wonderful.
madrid, on the whole, is good for me. i´ve slept a lot, walked, spent time by myself, cooked, met new people, gone out with new people, listened to stories. its made me realize that i really do love travelling, meeting new people, and that i especially love europe. its a great, more liberal culture than even the US. i am really happy here.
but, rabat will be great to go back to. its not an amazing city as far as cities go, but it is a good home and i miss it. morocco is fantastic and rabat is as good a place as any to live in within it.
thats it for now. more to come, like pictures! yay pictures!

laziness, the answer to everything

hello world! i write to you from an amazing little moroccan cafe, one that has discovered the internet. its awesome, cause for 2 dollars a drink i can use their internet for as long as i like. sweet. be prepared for a nice long update, cause it has been a WHILE!
well, i switched families. that is probably the biggest news in my moroccan life. my old family, as much as i enjoyed them as people, were just really big downers. they had had too many students and so were not interested in me in any way, shape or form. they had a ridiculous curfew (10?!) and i was always left out of their lives. i would live in my room, not their house. i don't know if that makes sense, but its the best i can describe. so i decided to move out after the week long excursion. a week ago, i moved in with my new family, the el-Ouazzani family. they are amazing. literally. i have three older sisters (think 30s), two who are married and have kids, one who still lives at home. i also have a mom, who is elderly (think grandma) and a housekeeper who helps with the housework. my sister works all the time and my mom has been at 2 funerals so far, so people are rarely home, but i like it that way. they gave me a key, which lets me come and go as i want. they don't care when i'm home, as long as its before 11, because then the gate to the place i live will close up. now, 11 isn't much later than 10, but its nicer, as its more like everyone else's curfews.



note- the above was written a week ago. i´m posting it now. laziness, the answer to everything..