Friday, July 5, 2013

delicious couscous followed by sketchy pedicures

After all my classes, which included my first test, I met my friends from the gallery (Mansour and Jamila) at Cinema Camera in the new city. My roommate and I walked with them to their beautiful apartment and they served us the traditional Friday couscous with leben (yogurt drink) followed by watermelon, tea, and cookies.


Afterwards, we went downstairs and right next door to their apartment complex is Jamila's art gallery, which consists mostly of her own work but also some other pieces by local artists. She gives drawing and painting lessons there as well.



When we left the gallery it was unbearably hot outside. There was a strong breeze that only blew hot air into our faces. All of the students are supposed to travel to Volubilis and Moulay Idriss tomorrow, but with this heat it seems unimaginable.

We headed home only to leave again a few minutes later back to the new city to look for a salon to get a cheap mani/pedi. Natalie and I went with our host sister and she took us to a very upscale, and somewhat expensive salon. It was all booked up so we went down the block to a cheaper one. The sanitary conditions were questionable but we went with it anyway and for 150 dirhams for everything, we weren't over paying. Halfway through my pedicure, a woman came in who said she had an appointment for a facial. Since all the employees were with a client, the woman doing my pedicure asked me if she could do both of us at the same time. ما كاينش مشكلة...

Since she really was alternating between a rubbing this woman's face and scraping dead skin off my feet, with no handwashing in between, I feel like I got the better end of the deal. This is the room I was in... it looks more like a run down hospital than a salon. I'll keep everyone updated if I end up with a rash worthy of a fear-inducing Cosmopolitan article.



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