Internet Ahoy

I am sitting at a nice cafe called The Green Center just around the corner from school. There is an aggressively affectionate cat curling around my legs and putting holes in my pants. I just polished off a delicious chicken tajine and am having a "nus nus", or half coffee, half milk. I hadn't had any coffee in Morocco until last weekend, when we were invited to Nazha's sister's house in Temara for a "snack". As I suspected, this meant mountains of cookies, sweets, and cakes, but then to my surprise, this was followed by another round of savory pastries, soup, and breads. They served us some tasty coffee and since then I have been making a habit of it.

Anyway, back to the cafe...the reason this is exciting is that I am typing this on my own computer which is online for the first time since moving here! They have free wifi at this cafe, and you don't know what a treat it is to have my cherished U.S. keyboard, as well as some privacy.

We had Nazha and her family over to our place in Oudaya for the first time yesterday. They were summarily unimpressed - they thought it was too cold and damp and we would certainly become sick or develop allergies. Basically, they like modern things, and this old neighborhood is just not their cup of tea. Luckily, my mom had sent me some Christmas stuff so at least I was able to offer them some snowman cookies, which they eagerly gobbled up, along with nearly every other cookie in the house. I also sent them home with a gingerbread house kit, an advent calendar, and a mummy puzzle (a leftover from Halloween, which will surely confuse them) for their little niece and nephew.

Alas, my battery is about to run out. As they say in French, "les bonnes choses ne durent jamais".