Henna and Horses

Ifrane has very interesting weather patterns. In the span of a day, I have seen rain, sleet, hail and snow. The Al Akhawayn campus is beautiful when it snows, but also quite treacherous. The tiles that cover the ground are incredibly slick and don't mix well with ice. Surprisingly, I've only fallen once. Anyone who knows me well is aware that I pretty much embody clumsiness. Last week, I made it to the building of my Monday class safely, only to slip on the icy stairs leading up to its entrance.

The picture below is the view from the window of my room.

Last week, I went bowling with a few of the other exchange students. I was the first one to make a strike, which was followed by three consecutive zeros. Impressive, right? At least the shoes looked good...

Last Friday, I headed to the Marjane with some other exchange students. We managed to make it there without a Moroccan, with the help of Kim's French skills. The Majane is similar to Walmart in the states and has a lot of the items we can't find in Ifrane. I finally had the opportunity to buy a towel. The towels that I bought in Ifrane are literally water repellent and I often actually see puddles sitting on top of the towels. My friends here are well aware of my towel related frustrations. Needless to say, I was pretty excited about my purchase.

Then we got to the check out counter. The cashier couldn't find the bar code on my towel and quickly started muttering in Arabic. As minutes passed, the muttering got much louder and much angrier. The line behind us grew quickly. If there was trouble with any other item, I would've simply put it back. But it had to be the towel. Rebecca ran back and grabbed a pile of towels, which only furthered the cashier's rage. Finally, a man came and pointed out the code (which was on the original towel). Then Brooke's coffee cup didn't have a sticker, so I ran back and got another one. We were able to buy all of our things, even if the process was slightly traumatizing.

This past weekend, I rode horses in a park in Ifrane. I'm pretty sure I got the slowest and least obedient horse of the pack. He (or she?) was also very attracted to Joel's horse and had his (or her) head turned sideways for most of the ride. Supposedly, the horses sped up when we kicked their sides or clicked our tongues. My horse didn't react to these instructions very well. The picture below pretty much captures my horse's personality...

After riding, we spent some time relaxing in a field nearby. A girl approached us and asked if we wanted to get henna. One of the other exchange students, Jill, and I agreed. The girl who did our henna, which cost 20 dirhams, uses the money to put herself through school. We looked through a few photo albums of designs and chose the ones we liked. She used a syringe-like tube to apply the henna, which came out of a small container. According to some other exchange students, some artists use black henna, which can contain ethanol and often leaves scars and burns the skin. The whole process was pretty interesting and I was amazed at how quickly she finished. For some reason, our hands were absolutely freezing while we waited for the henna to dry. My hands were a nice shade somewhere between red and purple.

After the henna dried, I cracked it off to reveal the design underneath. This picture was taken right after I removed the henna and the design is darker now. It should last around two weeks!

Garrett, pictured below, is our official photographer. From the rock he's standing on, he took one of my favorite pictures from the trip to the park.

On Friday, our group is heading south to the desert and Marrakesh. We are off from school until Thursday, but many of us will be taking Thursday and Friday off to travel. We are finally going to ride camels! Right now, our group has seventeen people, so we will have to break up.  I'm sure I will have tons of pictures and stories to share!