You're taking this personal hygiene to a whole new level...

Famous last words?!?!...Joe told me that some point over the last few days and given our surroundings he's probably right. After our bus ride from hell we made it to fez which was really cool! (i'll do my best not to repeat things that Joe has said.) The people have been so nice and whenever I tell them I'm from America they get big eyes and say "a very big welcome." Its so sweet and genuine. We had a good time wandering through the alleys of fez that were jam packed with stalls of vendors selling everything from live chickens (though willing to ring their necks and skin them for you right there) to piles of womens bras. Quite a sight to see! We stayed at a riad which from my understanding, is a house that has been turned into a small hotel. It was really pretty and the people that ran it were so nice!

One night after a long day in the heat I talked joe into carrying a watermelon back with us unsure of how we would eat the thing that had been sweltering in the heat all day and she of course insisted on cutting it up and putting it in the fridge for us. She also hung some our clothes on the roof to dry and folded them. Which reminds me...Washing clothes in the bath tub is quite an endeavor! It takes forever to wash and really takes forever to dry. and then there is no warm, soft dryer fresh clothes to smell as a reward. Oh well...we are clean. sort of! (Hot water is a relative term, I have learned. Here it generally is accepted to mean any water not ice cold, which doesn't really exist anyhow.)

I hate not being able to speak the language and communicate with the people. Like with the sweet lady at our riad who didn't speak a lick of english, I - of course - continually try to communicate. I'm sure she wonders why I can't understand that she doesn't speak English or Spanish. (which even if she did I couldn't understand.) It really is a pitiful endeavor! But it makes me so sad to not be able to communicate with people.

Anyhow, we took a train out of Fez heading to Marrakesh. The ride started out well with just us and another business man in the booth, but took an unexpected turn for the worse when a young, well dressed and put together guy sat down next to me. After that, I got the most wretched wiff of body odor one could imagine with his every move. There is absolutely no way in the world that he could have not noticed the smell of himself! And it was so shocking because he looked so nicely dressed and was even reading a Time magazine in English. (after attempting conversation, I'm not sure how. Yes, I even attempted conversation with the smelly guy!) And I can't forget Don Juan with his hicky and girlfriend! Once his girlfriend got off he starting macking on another chick in our booth. It was quite entertaining!

After spending one night in sweat puddles, we are now at a nicer place and enjoying Marrakesh. It is quite touristy with snake charmers coming up and demanding payment for pictures while violin playing men try to insert themselves in your pictures in order to demand payment. But it still is a sight to see and an experience to be had and we are enjoying ourselves. We are of course, looking forward to a little r and r and breeze on the coast! =)

Thanks for all the comments, emails, etc. We love hearing from you and are currently uploading pictures so you can see some of the beautiful places we have been!

Kaitlyn