I've got my back to this town

Well, here I am at my last blog entry... how has it come to this? I leave Fes tomorrow for Casablanca, where I'll crash for a night, then fly out of the Casa airport to the Netherlands, then take the longest flight of my life to Minnesota (9 hours!), THEN to the good ole Tarheel State, land of the Longleaf Pine; in other words, HOME! I am SO excited to go back, to see my family and friends, to eat (as I've mentioned -- I'm restraining myself from going into further detail), but at the same time I hate the thought of leaving.

For the past three days Fes has been in a high state of excitement. Yesterday was Throne Day, the anniversary of Mohammed the 6th's ascension, which he celebrated in this very city! His wife is from Fes, and this is a former capital of Morocco, but other than that I'm not sure why he came here and not Rabat. But anyway, this means that the city is spick and span clean, there have been frenzied groups of workers all over the city all week, and for the past three days there have been concerts, parades, and general merriment. It's impossible not to feel the excitement even if Moroccan royalty has very little to do with me - there are Moroccan flags lining all the main streets, enormous portraits of Mohammed the Sixth interspersed between them, fountains working like they've never worked before, lights, and all the restaurants prepare their best just in case the king steps in. 

Classes weren't let out, which made my professors angry (it's like working on the fourth of July), but in between classes I managed to just miss the king and his retinue's appearance on the big boulevard near ALIF, go to a concert and watch Moroccan men/boys dance a Berber-Tektonik-Arab mix of dances, and watch fireworks last night from the roof. The fireworks were kind of funny - we watched them from around our neighbor's laundry, hanging out to dry on their roof, smack in the middle of our view. Though the show was obstructed, we could still see some, and more fun was to hear the crowds of people from Place Bab Bou Jaloud (a huge concert/meeting space nearby) and the kids on the roofs all around us shouting and whistling after particularly great bursts of color.

I knew before I embarked on this journey that six weeks would pass quickly, but this is just ridiculous. I hate to leave and I'm ready to go back at the same time! My guess is I'm going to split in half at the airport terminal on Saturday morning.

For now, I sign off.