Catchup

a Couple Emails from Recent Times to Update on My Status:


December 6th.
i left fes two days ago. strange because i closed the intensive arabic and family-life chapter of my moroccan journey and have begun my slow, weaving trip back home-- up through the rif mountains along the mediterranean coast, next week to see the arab influence in spain, and finally, in 10 days, back over the pond to ill go. [I no longer feel like i am in morocco, at least not the morocco as morocco has come to mean to me (family, arabic, etc)]

but what does it all mean, and what is life, thought, complexity, or simplicity. why do i think in dualities and why cant i control my mind or my typing or anything for that matter? time rolls, time chills, and i let it ebb and flow. while the moon pulls the oceans, something pulls my clock. probably the mechanical insides, some would say, but isnt that just a human scientific explanantion for the much greater existence of one of the most baffling ideas that dominate our existence: time.

i am in chefchaouen right now. the city of blue. check it out. online or something maybe. it literally is all blue. painted that way by jews in the mid 1900s although before that it had always been green (islam). but this place was where jews and muslims together fleed from spain in the 1400s, and yet, christians were not allowed, ever, until very very recently. why? what is religion? what am i doing in this place?

life is beautiful.

thats what it all really comes down to.

sunsets here are simply incredible. i cannot get over it. cannot snap out of it.


December 10th
brief check in from algerciras in spain. arrived an hour or two ago after sailing (or rathering motoring) swiftly (or not) across the straits of gibralter, in a mere few hours. and yes, its only about 20 km from tangier to here but our ferry was massive, completely empty (probably about 4, perhaps 5 passengers other than us), and departed from the maghreb no less that 2 hours late. exited the ferry station here and were not harassed to jump into greatly overpriced taxis(coughmoroccocough). but our ferry ran so late we missed the train and all other transport to cordoba for the day, and will therefore stay in Hotel Marrakesh, run by an arabic speaking joker from tangier, for the night. departing early morning for cordoba, and will pack in what we can over the next two days, Mezquita and all.

there is so much to say and simply no time, and clearly thats nothing new... but i am picking up a few useful spanish phrases and finding the romance languages (french, too) fascinating despite all prior neglect of them as such... monsieur cody´s few additions to my scattered brain left years ago upon arrival in xian and i focused so much on darija in morocco that only today did i come to my senses and begin memorizing a few phrases in all sorts of languages. i was nervous about leaving morocco and still have not processed that i have indeed left, as i am still speaking arabic in this portside neighborhood on the mediterranean. soon enough, it will hit me im sure, and then i will revert back to memory and film, esp that of tangier fading away as we pulled out of port. meanwhile the excitement of the andalus has taken light and i am anxiously awaiting or journey northwards into the history of millenial (? by this i mean the time around the turn of the first century ad) morocco!

though tania aebi (sailed round the world a few years back) warned me about the threats of steamer channels across these straits, the death bowl of wind that is the atlantic, and some good old mediterranean pollution, i have my mind set on sailing back through these straits someday, hopefully in a 26 footer (or something of the likes), sail flying high.


Now.
Someone really did not want us to get to Cordoba. Yesterday´s early morning train ride was delightful and comfortable and beautiful, and then we missed the stop at Cordoba so went all the way to Madrid. And then all the way back. After missing a whole day of precious time, we are finally here. Spain is incredible, excuse the bad adjective.

The mezquita mosque was built at the height of Muslim rule in the Andalus in the 900s ad and is indescribable. In 1600 a church was built plop in the middle of the thing, so Mass was going on as I explored this most fabled and exotic Islamic masterwork. Cannot move on without mentioning the hundreds of red and white striped arches, though I have not yet been able to quite understand the likeness of them to date palms (Lonely Planet told me that hallucinogens would to the trick, but I think I'm alright, thanks). Eventually rose from sickness this morning (when i pondered some bedsprings), and caught a marvelous sunset from across the river tonight after checking out a statue of Maimonides--who is from Cordoba and then lived in Fes-- and the best preserved synagogue in all of Spain this afternoon.

I am thriving on my last few days on this side of the Atlantic. What else will I catch, see, think, do? Who knows. How wonderful!