finally... photos from Fes

We arrived on a Sunday evening to find Jennifer and her principal, Ginger, waiting for us at the Fes Airport. Ginger has a car and drives quite well around Fes! Naveen had started dinner for us andwe sat down to eat a traditional Fasi meal called zaalouk - it was wonderful!

We were briefed on the situation - there had been demonstrations that day in various cities in Morocco. In Fes, they had been relatively small, however, there were rumors of more unrest to follow.

This is the view from Jennifer's balcony - great view of the mountains in the distance. Murilo and I ventured out into the neighborhood and walked around quite a bit.

This long avenue has several fountains (inside roundabouts) with a park running down the middle and ends up at the King's Palace. This fountain is a mere 5-10 minute walk from Jennifer's apartment. The ball on the top moves due to water pushing from underneath. (It was very beautiful at night, too)

On the way back to Jennifer's apartment: maybe the Wasems' Moroccan cousins?? I'll have to have Larry and Vaughn get on this!

Before heading back to the apartment, we went into a food market to buy some groceries. As we shopped, everyone started acting strangely with guys walking up to vendors and pointing at their watches. They began to close up the shops so we finished our purchases and headed back out to the street. We stopped at a little juice cafe and ordered a smoothie (just blended fruits). That guy also started closing up shop around us so we rushed to finish and get out. As soon as we finished, he locked up. Geez, it was nearly noon so we just assumed this was normal. We made our way back up to Jennifer's apartment where the phone started ringing about 5 minutes after we arrived. Jennifer was so relieved to finally get a hold of us! Apparently, parents were all in an uproar and picking up their kids due to rumors of more demonstrations. The school was closing and Jennifer was coming home. She told us that shops closing at noon was definitely NOT normal.

The school remained closed the following day but we were a little nervous about going out. Jennifer's Moroccan contacts called their relatives and finally gave the thumbs up - IF anything was going to happen, it would be later in the afternoon/evening. So, we took off to check out the Medina. It was a nice treat having Jennifer all day :)