Day 25: Taxi Drama

Tuesday, July 16

Tuesday was decidedly busier than Monday.

There were classes in the morning, which were filled with debates about this horrible "love story" we had to read for homework. Suffice it to say most people thought it was charming, while I and one other fellow classmate did not. We defended our view diligently. 

Our Tuesday class in a nutshell. 

Then after class we had to meet with the Flagship Program directors who came all the way from Washington to check up on us. That was a long meeting in which all the students voiced their complaints and possible improvements for the next year. (There were a surprising number!) Everyone talked about how sick they've been, and how the classes are structured weird, and the how the book we were reading was just awful. Then, not wanting to be too negative, everyone started talking about how nice the teachers are, and how nice Moroccans are in general. Then the council warned us about more stuff like going out at night, yadda yadda. (Which, these ideas seem a little contradictory, but there you go.)

That ran pretty close to dinner, (I feel we were lucky to grab a taxi), then after I got home, we had our usual liquid-dinner (with the option of bread, of course, which I just don't want anymore).

Then at 9:30 I had to go out with my language partner because we're supposed to meet with them at least 4 hours a week in 2 hour shifts. We have to wait until it's that late because (a.) that's when all the stores open again, and (b.) the taxis don't resurface until then.

So we hung out and went to a terrible little fair with really sketchy looking rides (of which I did not partake in, but the locals seemed to enjoy). Then we went to a pizza place / cafe and I had soda. Then 11:30 rolled around, which is supposed to be when the meeting was over, but then my language partner wanted to find her uncle to take me home, because he lives close to where I do, so we took a taxi from the New City to the Old (moving further away from where I live) to find him, and in the end he wasn't even there. So, I had to take another taxi back to the New City, but unfortunately at this point in time, all the taxis already had people in them. So I had to get into one with another woman, who was dropped off first, but the taxi had to drive pretty far into a quiet, taxi-less neighborhood to get to her house, and then once we finally dropped her off, the driver decided to mention he had no idea where the place was that I had requested to be taken to.

Now, at this point I would just get out and find a new taxi, but as I have stated previously, we were in a sketchy, taxi-less neighborhood. So he drove around confusedly for a while, and I tried to describe to him where I lived. "It's close to the supermarket." So he took me to the supermarket, but the wrong one, after I stated previously that we were heading towards the wrong one. I don't think he was listening. So, anyway, we ended up going back to where we started, and I gave him a new address by saying it was close to the train station, and finally he knew where it was, and he took me there. I was in that taxi with him for at least half an hour, and 40 dirhams later we finally got to the apartments. (I normally pay 10 for the trip from the Old City to the New). He shouldn't have charged me for his own ignorance. I've never had any taxi driver not know where المحكمة الادارية was. But I wasn't going to argue. It was almost 1am, and I had a presentation the next day.

In the end, I didn't end up working on the presentation that night. I went straight to bed and slept for maybe 4 hours and  then woke up to work on it. So that was my day.

Also: Here's a couple pictures from my trip to Fez which I forgot to attach in my post from Saturday.

I look kind of terrifying, but I wasn't entirely ready for the picture either. 

Inside the Fez train station.