Pictures

I figured it has been a while since I posted some pictures, so here are some more.

Cats are everywhere!

On our 1 year anniversary date.

I had steak on our anniversary.   Yummy!

The flowers I got Nicole for our 1 year.

Pictures

That's the ocean behind those houses

At the medina in Fez they sell camel meat...this is the head, which they sell as well.  It looks tempting, but it could be a pain to get through customs.

Above and below is a leather tannery.  It has a pungent smell...

This is in Moulay Adris

Saturday Morning

I have always loved Saturdays because I never have to wake up to an alarm clock.  That's not always true, but 90% of the time it is.  Today is no exception.  I woke up and laid in bed for about 2 hours and it was the best way to start off a day.  The only things we really have planned are to go to the market to buy some food (maybe even some meat!)  Then we are celebrating our mentor's birthday at his house with enchiladas and cake.  Yummy!  Other than that, we have today to do what we want and it feels really good.  Anyways, thats really all for now.  Feel free to comment/e-mail me if you'd like.  Also, we just got skype...but we don't have phone numbers (except for the ones we have memorized) so if you'd like us to call, send me an email and I'll write your number down and give you a call when we have time.  It's usually around 7-8 PM here, which is 2-3 Central time.  I hope to hear from you!

Our Apartment

Hey, here's a video of our apartment.  Enjoy!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Qf33GYuriDa

Rabat

The king's humongous mansion in Rabat

This is how they pour tea for special guests.  Believe it or not, he did not spill one drop.

Us drinking the tea.  It's delicious-Mint tea.

This was the nicest bathroom I've ever been in.  I found excuses to use the bathroom because I felt like a king.

Rabat/Fez/Volubilis/Moulay Adris

The main street in Rabat (the capital of Morocco)

The medina in Fez.  This medina is humongous!  By the way medina literally means city, but what a medina really means is a marketplace.

Me with something the Saharan's wear.  I felt like Bear Grylls off Man vs. Wild minus the Wild.  This was in the medina in Fez

A Roman city from a long long time ago-Volubilis (sp?).  The pictures don't do a good service to what it really is...I promise I took this picture and didn't steal it from Wikipedia.  Weird!

This is Moulay Idris.  Moulay is the grandson of Mohammed (the prophed of Islam). He is the person who brought Islam to Morocco and this is city named after him.  Just for the record...we climbed the highest hill.  You can't really see it...but it was 2 hours of nothing but stairs and sun.  I'm such a lazy person...

Marrakech/Rabat

Jmaa el Fnaa.  aka Tourist Trap.  Snake charmers, pet monkeys and all around great place

A waterseller.  They flavor the water with roses...hence the name "Rosewater"

Delicious dried fruits.  The apricots are my favorite

These guys are hilarious.  This is still at Jmaa el Fnaa.  Good times.

At the old castle in Rabat (it's on the ocean.)  Doesn't Nicole have the best smile in the world?!

Casablanca/Marrakech

Our first meal.  It was noodles, chicken, peanuts, cinnamon, and sugar.  DELICIOUS!

Nicole in the mosque (outside is pictured below)

The 3rd largest mosque in the world is in Casablanca.  It has retractable ceilings and heated floors!)

A Moroccan friend I met outside the mosque.  He noticed I was American and the first thing he said to me is, "I love sloppy joes!"

At a garden in Marrakech 

We Have Arrived

Hello hello hello!  These last ten days have been incredible!!  Tonight I will find some time to sort through the millions of pictures we have and post them.  But I just wanted to let everyone know that we have arrived at our apartment and it is quite nice!  Maybe I can take a video of it and post it on here...we'll see how ambitious I am.  I'm going to go have dinner now.  Check back later for posts with some pictures!

We Made It

Hello. We made it safe and sound. We had no problems going through customs. It was very easy. Sorry about the lateness of this, but depending on our next hotel, it could be a little bit before our next update, but we will more than make up for it. We hqve TONS of pictures already, and most of them will be up in about a week when we settle into our apartment. I hope this helps!!

Ryan

-24 hours until departure.  It's weird having our whole life in a suitcase so we can pack up and live somewhere for months at a time.  Right now we're counting our "lasts" for a while.  Our last stuffed crust pizza, our last wal-mart, our last drive, etc.  The list goes on and on.  

On a separate note, mario kart for the wii rocks.