Getting lost in Marrakesh

I wandered Marrakesh alone all day, an experience in itself though I'm glad I did it.

I got lost plenty, made worse by the fact that most roads (even major ones) are often not marked with names, are not straight despite appearances on the map, and for the most part, those names are not on my map anyway! And made again worse by the fact that, with the streets always bending and changing, it's impossible not to get lost without holding a map, which only makes you be pounced on by 100 "unofficial guides" willing to nicely lead you (almost) to where you wanted to go, then charge a fee. Seriously -- everytime I pulled a map out. I would try to peek through my bag or find a quiet corner, but they always found me and were very difficult to shake. Anyway, didn't pull out maps often, no signs, and many times wandering in circles, which also makes it harder to shake the shopkeepers, madly clicking their tongues and screaming "hello, miss! Here, here!" in every language they can think of.

In Morocco!

A few months ago, I learned that a conference publication of mine had been accepted to LREC, the Language Resources and Evaluation Conference in my research field of natural language processing. Good news after months of hard work. And the even better news is... the conference would be held in Marrakesh, Morocco!


مراكش



So, here I am, Day 1 of a 10 day adventure in Northern Africa. While the conference itself is only three full days (Wed-Friday of this week), I have arrived mid-morning Monday, have all of Tuesday to explore, and then have Saturday through next Tuesday to leave Marrakesh and see what else Morocco has in store. Because I attended a wedding outside New York City this Saturday, it was convenient to fly from JFK to Marrakesh (through Casablanca) on Sunday. Convenient, but a lot of traveling, and less conveniently, my luggage didn't make it all the way there with me. The airline claims that they'll deliver the luggage to my hotel when it arrives, but we'll see....
(postscript: they definitely didn't. I had to make my way back to the airport and pick it up myself later; fortunately I was carrying around my passport or I couldn't have gotten into the baggage claim, which I hadn't thought of before)

I really wish I had brushed up on my two semesters of Arabic before I came. Despite the fact that I learned the formal dialect and parts of the Syrian dialect (far different from the North African dialects), it definitely could have come in handy. Instead, I'm left with a 1st grade reading level and a vocabulary which roughly allows me to exchange niceties and shoo away the shopkeepers but not much else. Definitely something to brush up on, but I'll have to do it by massaging my memory or asking around, since Arabic-English dictionaries at my level (vowels included) don't really exist, and definitely aren't sold in these parts in any case.

All in all though, I immediately loved the chaos and the newness of it all. I'm exhausted from the flights, but can't wait to explore. :-)

The coatless, wanna-be pentalinguist

More of the cold and wet today. Made better, of course, by the fact that this morning I realized I'd left my coat (the night before) in the restaurant connected to my hotel. Which of course doesn't open til 10:30. (doh!) Oh well -- I had time to buy some local stuff I needed, like a sim card for my phone, and all worked out. Note: avoid this in the future.

I've memorized a grand total of about five German phrases so far and carry my little phrase book everywhere, but hopefully that will progress over the next few weeks. It's funny - whenever I try to think of how to say something small in German, the answer comes to me in broken Czech, or Spanish, or Arabic (and more often of course, just English) instead. It's like I'm in a competition to see how many languages I can learn to not really speak. :-) As it turns out, it's been much more difficult to find English speakers here than in central Prague so far, likely because in Germany the skill is less necessary. And somehow, oddly, Saarbrücken doesn't rank as a top German tourist stop!

On the train: lovin' the leaves

Though when I passed through Pittsburgh and Ohio recently to attend my cousin Heather's bridal shower, I found that autumn had long passed, Baltimore has been going through a late and extended beautiful fall these past few weeks. I'm thrilled to report that this area of Germany looks to be about the same. The views from my train from Frankfurt to Saarbrucken (3hr, not nearly as eventful as my last pass through this area) have been quiet lovely.

I'm afraid to pull out my camera though for fear of looking like the ultimate tourist -- not that reading Rick Steves' classic "German Phrase Book and Dictionary" hasn't given me away! -- but I've got a good hour left on the train so I may change my mind yet, especially if my car empties out.

Even the rows of crops seem to change a variety of colors. I wasn't expecting that! I don't typically think of crops as deciduous, but I guess it depends on what types of crops they are.

Speaking of the Rick Steves' book (and yes, he does apostrophize that way), thanks much to Simil for letting me borrow it! It's concise and well-organized; definitely I'll be going into this Germany trip slightly more prepared than last March's trip, when I was too overwhelmed with trying to absorb Czech (alas, to no avail) to worry about the correct way to say "good morning" in German. I don't expect to need German much this trip either, but I'll at least give it a go.

Just as I admired the German scenary here in.... [glancing out the train window -- where am I? Fahrkarten? Whoops, no, that's the ticket counter I think. ;-) I don't see the sign...] anyway, small little German town en route to Saarbrucken. [Sobernheim.] But between all of the traditional little houses, etc, I just saw the "Chicago Sports Bar", which if I'm not mistaken also offers kareoke. Funny the things that pop up where you don't expect them. :-)

My train is running a good 20 minutes late.... I'm thrilled that I caught the one route from Frankfurt to Saarbrucken which didn't require transfers. :-) I definitely trust myself more than in my early travels, but this is just easier.

It's raining now, as weather.com warned me to expect for at least the next 10 days. So much for my nice out-the-window-colorful-crops photos. Oh well, hopefully there'll be nice scenary to record in Saarbrucken.

Beginning a new journey, and recalling the last

Today's flights were my third trip across the Atlantic this year, and those who know me probably know that a fourth trip awaits in December. My trip to Prague from January to May was pretty well documented in this blog (as were the subsequent intra-Europe trips to London, Saarbrucken, and Paris). I don't believe I mentioned my trip to Spain in August at all, so now is as good a time as any...

This August I spent 10 days with my boyfriend's family in the village he's from but never officially lived, and where his mother grew up. (details: Liendo is a small village on the northern Spanish coast west of Bilbao -- see related link). I'll include a few quick shots below -- why not? -- but too much to write up. Basically, the area was gorgeous,


I enjoyed meeting his father and Spanish side of the family, and had a lot of time going out (til at least 5am most nights, and often later) with his friends!

The biggest surprise: after 3 years in high school and a few semesters in college, it turns out that I really do know how to speak a little bit of Spanish! I had some serious doubts going into it, and was a little worried about feeling out of place and left out of conversations when I didn't understand. Once I relaxed and stopped worry about the inevitable mistakes though, I did pretty well! His friends were all impressed with me. And good thing too, because I definitely overestimated the English proficiency of everyone we'd meet there.

a real throat twister

A popular "tongue-twister" here is "strč prst skrz krk", which means roughly "stick a finger through your throat". While it might be a popular saying with violent bulemics, it's mainly popular because no foreigner is capable of pronouncing it. Where in the world did the vowels go?!?

I had someone pronounce it for me, and it seriously just sounds like a 5-second almost-cough. A real throat twister. :-P