assalaam alaykum! marhaba bikum!

it is 4am in my beloved Fès and I am listening to the morning call to prayer which is the last chance for Muslims to eat until sunset during the holy month of Ramadan. Yesterday, i left Essaouira (the windy city, as the t-shirts proclaim and the forbidding beach affirmed) and was only a little tired after a full day of travel, but unfazed as both the bus and the train left on time and reached their destinations in a timely, safe manner - this is an improvement on my recent modes of transportation. Today, i managed to fall into the nocturnal Ramadaan schedule of my hosts, which is to sleep most of the day and then spend the night socializing and eating to prepare for the day of fasting ahead.

this evening, we drove around Fès a bit and i must say that it has grown in the last few years. the main boulevard was always the most flashy and impressive part of the New City, but this glitz has grown exponentially with new hotels, complete with uniformed bellhops, and sidewalk cafés every few meters. i revisited my favorite part of Fès as i walked through the old medina, down the streets i knew and even past the little alley that leads to the house i used to live in. at the risk of recycling old metaphors about returning to a cherished place, i will say that it was as though time had compressed itself and i felt no difference between the steps i took today and those of several years ago in these same streets. Fès really is as lovely as i remember.

Ok, well, i'd really like to write more but i am tired, so any more details on Maroc will have to wait.