On Morocco and Merlin
I am back from Morocco. Well, have been back since Monday, but as it was the first week of term I was thrown a bit off the deep end into classes and seminars and trying to see lots of people and having last minute driving lessons and doing copious amounts of laundry. Am now reading for my first essay for the year (On ethics in foreign policy, this whole choosing your own essay topic thing used to annoy me, but I do love it now) and of course now have found the time to update!
Things are good right now and I am sure that by half way through next week, it will be less good, so I want to record this...
I had driving test number two on Friday and it was raining and dark and horrible and nonetheless...I PASSED! :D Yay, I can now drive and soon there will be insurance and hopefully one day I will learn the way to my house.
In other news Morocco was absolutely fabulous. It started very badly, as it was meant to be 4 of us going, but ended up being only 2, but apart from the minor glitch it was fantastic. Met some awesome people, had a bit of a crazy itinerary (Marrakesh - Ouarzazate - Desert (near Merzouga) - Rissani - Fez - Rabat - Casablanca - Marrakesh) but impossibly it all worked out, spend one night in a bus, one in a Berber tend in the Sahara, two at a friends' girlfriend's flat, one in a room with a stranger I'd met hours earlier and one (innocently) sharing a bed. Saw snow in the mountains, rain in the desert, the sunrise over dunes, the sunset from a camel's back, the markets in Fes and Marrakesh, the mosque in Casablanca, the apartment of a friend of the boyfriend of a friend of the girlfriend of a friend (that was insane). The people were on the whole very nice especially when they don't want to sell you anything but they are not too bad even when they do (esp if you very firmly say no or la in Arabic) speak a million languages and (probably because I was travelling with at least one guy and was never by myself) almost no one did/say anything inappropriate to me.
Best week ever. Highly recommend it as it was really very cheap too, well it can be, as you can fine basic accomodation for under £10 and fantastic food for £1-£2, yeah the food was another high point. They were very nice about making me vegetarian things and even in the desert made me my own tagine (the others had to share) and everything was very delicious, cous cous and tagines are the main things, with lots of root vegetables, fried aubergines, fantastic pitta bread, eggs and lots of herbs. Mmm, getting hungry just thinking about it! And though I didn't buy very much they had lots of beautiful things for sale and I personally enjoy the game that is haggling, especially since I wasn't too bothered about buying specific things, though we did meet a number of people who'd been ripped off (felt very smug when comparing how much we'd spend for the same thing)
Now just need to sort out the 1000s of photos I have taken.
Oh and I am so pleased to see how almost my whole flist has been converted to Merlin! I started watching as soon as ep 1 came out and there was tiny bit of fic, (used to go on to merlinbbc and merlinxarthur after each ep aired to read ALL the reviews/comments and fics, guess that would be no longer possible...) though nothing great and I have looked away for a bit and now suddenly there is lots of fic and it is really good and as a result have been reading Arthur/Merlin AUs till very late at night. Though still not sure where people are posting, as the comms memberships have not grown all that much.
Hope you've all had a great weekend! Have tried but failed to catch up on what I have missed, so please tell me stuff! And Merlin recs wouldn't go unappreciated...
Things are good right now and I am sure that by half way through next week, it will be less good, so I want to record this...
I had driving test number two on Friday and it was raining and dark and horrible and nonetheless...I PASSED! :D Yay, I can now drive and soon there will be insurance and hopefully one day I will learn the way to my house.
In other news Morocco was absolutely fabulous. It started very badly, as it was meant to be 4 of us going, but ended up being only 2, but apart from the minor glitch it was fantastic. Met some awesome people, had a bit of a crazy itinerary (Marrakesh - Ouarzazate - Desert (near Merzouga) - Rissani - Fez - Rabat - Casablanca - Marrakesh) but impossibly it all worked out, spend one night in a bus, one in a Berber tend in the Sahara, two at a friends' girlfriend's flat, one in a room with a stranger I'd met hours earlier and one (innocently) sharing a bed. Saw snow in the mountains, rain in the desert, the sunrise over dunes, the sunset from a camel's back, the markets in Fes and Marrakesh, the mosque in Casablanca, the apartment of a friend of the boyfriend of a friend of the girlfriend of a friend (that was insane). The people were on the whole very nice especially when they don't want to sell you anything but they are not too bad even when they do (esp if you very firmly say no or la in Arabic) speak a million languages and (probably because I was travelling with at least one guy and was never by myself) almost no one did/say anything inappropriate to me.
Best week ever. Highly recommend it as it was really very cheap too, well it can be, as you can fine basic accomodation for under £10 and fantastic food for £1-£2, yeah the food was another high point. They were very nice about making me vegetarian things and even in the desert made me my own tagine (the others had to share) and everything was very delicious, cous cous and tagines are the main things, with lots of root vegetables, fried aubergines, fantastic pitta bread, eggs and lots of herbs. Mmm, getting hungry just thinking about it! And though I didn't buy very much they had lots of beautiful things for sale and I personally enjoy the game that is haggling, especially since I wasn't too bothered about buying specific things, though we did meet a number of people who'd been ripped off (felt very smug when comparing how much we'd spend for the same thing)
Now just need to sort out the 1000s of photos I have taken.
Oh and I am so pleased to see how almost my whole flist has been converted to Merlin! I started watching as soon as ep 1 came out and there was tiny bit of fic, (used to go on to merlinbbc and merlinxarthur after each ep aired to read ALL the reviews/comments and fics, guess that would be no longer possible...) though nothing great and I have looked away for a bit and now suddenly there is lots of fic and it is really good and as a result have been reading Arthur/Merlin AUs till very late at night. Though still not sure where people are posting, as the comms memberships have not grown all that much.
Hope you've all had a great weekend! Have tried but failed to catch up on what I have missed, so please tell me stuff! And Merlin recs wouldn't go unappreciated...