Today’s a holiday for me, the first one I’ve had since something like September. There have been more holidays since then but they’ve all fallen on Sundays. We get the day before the off because we don’t publish on holiday and since we’re always off on Saturday, no bonus time.
But Happy New Year. The first day of the Chinese Year of the Dragon starts tomorrow, giving me a day off today.
I’ve been looking forward to it, especially since our next holiday, Mohammed’s birthday (or maybe death day, I’m not sure) is also on a Sunday.
So I opted to go all out and do something different today. I finally met up with the other Morocco RPCV! He’s probably been here for something like six months now, and when I found out I’d be off I dropped a note and amazingly, our schedules meshed this time. (He leaves shortly for three weeks or so, so good timing!)
The chosen place was the same place I’ve visited with a work colleague, where I got that amazing cupcake and other assorted sweets. It’s kind of a shopping center that’s really mostly food places.
It’s on a big main street, and last time I walked clear around to the Ambassador Mall and walked faster than the cars were going, but it still took something like 45 minutes.
On the map, it appears that it’s not too far from my apartment, but there’s no direct street. The little side streets aren’t straight and sometimes hard to maneuver and oftentimes lead to dead ends. But I thought I’d give it a shot. I mean, just the walk to the Ambassador Mall is sweat-inducing, and that’s not even the halfway point to this place.
So I sat on Google Maps for a bit and transferred a couple of alternate routes to paper, which I loaded (with my rain poncho) and carried with me. I figured it’d take 20 minutes, tops – assuming I did it right.
The first street, which had both an Indo Mart and a Circle K on it, is the main one I see from my back window, and I figured how hard could it be, really?
And for once, those weren’t famous last words.
My little map worked out late and my only error was the time estimate. The entire commute couldn’t have topped seven minutes. I was totally amazed that there is a whole new world under 10 minutes from my door. And a little miffed that it’d taken me 45 minutes or so to reach it earlier.
So I got there early, walked the little shopping center and had an A&W root beer while listening to “Red-Headed Stranger” as I waited. I’d emailed the RPCV to tell him exactly what I wearing so I wasn’t too concerned about being missed.
Turns out, he was a couple minutes late but he’d also invited some other folks, so that was cool. In all, we wound up being five – three RPCVs – and never bothered with a café or restaurant.
We just parked ourselves in front of the mini grocery store for five hours and talked. It was a fabulous passage of time, and we had spectacular weather, for once.
The food was marginal to non-existent: we each had a little round thing of cheese, some potato wafers and dried peas, then whatever we wanted to drink. The little store had it all, and when it was time for a refill, you just got up and got more of whatever.
I get bonus points for finding out the basement has a little post office in it. I know there must be a million near me, but this is the first one I’ve seen. This will come in handy, I know. It’s just a window, not a place to pick up packages, but it works.
As soon as I got back – and verifying the second monkey has now gone; this saddens me – I ran into both Grunter and a woman I’d met this morning in the fitness center. She and I had talked and she invited me to go golfing sometime. That morning, I hadn’t had my phone with me, so I gave her my number then but turned down an invite to a movie.
Then, some other guy – not Grunter, whose name is apparently James – asked me about the fitness center, too. I swear, this is how I am known in the building. Anyway, he wanted my number, too, so I went ahead and gave it to him. Since I’m on my third number already, I figure if everything goes bad, then it’s just a matter of months before he no longer has it. But he’s already texted me. Geez. Those CrackBerry addicts are a needy bunch.
So between the fitness woman and man, the four people I just met as well as four new Australian interns we have at the office, I’ve met a lot of people this week.
And I came home with sweet stuff from the bakery, too.
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