The World That We Live In

 I bet you are starting to think that all I do here is eat....    well, I do other stuff too.  In addition to the eating :)  On that note Max and I shared an out-of-this world paella two nights ago with shrimp, clams, lobster: all manner of fruits of the sea.  mmm-mmmm.  These lovely cookies are Moroccan Macaroons.  They come in multiple colors and flavors and are my new favorite little treat.  Delicious.

But on to the other activities of the week.

This past week Max and I attended a bluegrass / Moroccan folk music concert called "Bluegrass Maghrebi".  It was just what it sounds like - two singin', dancin', strumin', hollarin' bluegrass musicians from the American South collaborated with some local Moroccan musicians (famous ones as I understand) and the result was terrific.  One Moroccan musician played a three stringed rectangular lute type instrument called a Gimbri or Ginbri.  This instrument is very common in North African music.  It is associated with the more mystical Gnawa style of music having to do, in part, with the Sufi tradition of North Africa.

On Saturday we drove a borrowed car all over kate's kingdom, or should I say Mohammed VI's kingdom, to pick up some necessary house things.  There is an Ikea knock-off here called Kitea and a pretty great hardware store.  My ambition for this apartment is to have more personalized painted walls in some of the rooms.  When I grew up the appropriate colors for walls were white, beige, light beige, and perhaps a darker beige in small spaces.  I have since seen a multitude of painted walls that I have liked, but I'm pretty wimpy when it comes to painting in my own home still.  In fact I've never done it.  

When we got to the paint section of the hardware store Max asked me if I knew what I needed.

"Sure.  Paint stuff."

"...like what kind of paint stuff?"

"You know, stuff to paint our room with."

Did I mention I've never actually painted before?

"Do you know if we need primer? Or how big our room is? Or what kinds of brushes we need?"

Sheepishly "....My plan was just to ask someone who works here.  You know, like at Home Depot?"

Believe it or not, that plan actually worked.  A very knowledgeable, English speaking employee named Hassna took good care of us and we came home with 5 liters of RAL Pigeon Blue paint.  Terrible name, very nice color.

Dinner with friends, lunch breaks together, and unseasonably warm weather kind of sums the week up for us.