Story of Home -- 1 of 2

Picture it... Agadir... October 2006.

8ish months after my arrival into the country, I finally get my own place. This was expected from the beginning, but that plan fell prey to "Moroccan time." On any given day I could inquire with my old boss, Moulay, and I could always expect to hear that he had spoken to the lawyers recently, and that the contracts or escrow or whatever would be finished in about two weeks. Thus, we two-weeked ourselves through 8 months. It is important to note that within that 8 months, Moulay had graciously provided us with a washing mashine. Read Denise's account of that fabulous marvel HERE.

And in October 2006, that beautiful washer moved with us into the new apartments. It was a three story building with an open roof on the 4th. The bottom apartment was accessed by a door on the front of the building. Then if you walked around to a small side alcove, there was a stairwell door which took you up to Shannon and Hassan on the 2nd floor, Denise and Lahcen on the 3rd, and on up to guinea pig Nigel on the roof (Nigel was formerly Jermaine, but when Tito died... how can you have Jermaine without Tito?).

There were many pros to the new apartments, and a few cons... but it was a good life. Our two apartments had the only access to the stairwell and roof, so it was a nice space we shared, while not sharing too much.

HERE are more photos of the place. It should be noted that I picked out little to none of the fabrics, decor, or furnishings. Some were wedding gifts. Some were provided by my boss. It makes for an interesting mixture. Hassan picked out the covers on the sofas. Not too shabby, but he was working with pillows to match. His credibility gets taken away when you see the very mod curtain hanging in the extra bedroom. He didn't see much difference in those patterns. He didn't really understand why I refused to cover the sofas in that orange print. Those curtains were originally provided by the boss as a bolt of fabric to use for exactly that, covers for the sofas. Instead, Hassan had one of his genius days and installed a closet rod across the entire length of the guest room. The free orange fabric magically became bearable enough for a curtain if it would hide my huge new not-quite-a-closet.

And one other interesting note... The blue thing you see on top of the house in the exterior photos is the tent being erected for the wedding party we had up there.

Concurrent

Is that the word I was looking for? I dunno. Seems too simple.

My new office smells distinctly of bug spray.

Where else to begin after months of not blogging?

Well, it does. Strongly, at that. All I can assume is that it has something to do with chemicals used to treat the pressboard desks that were recently assembled therein.

I have a lot of catching up to do. It's a long history, and I'm not known for my ability to tell a linear, tangentless story.... perhaps I should break it up a bit. I'll focus on smaller subject-related stories that take place along the same timeline. What's that called? I can't come up with that word. I hate it when I lose words. Separate stories that are happening at the same time... I'll remember it as soon as I hit "publish post" I'm sure.

For now, I'll tell you I'm well. I'm a little overwhelmed by the new school/new job that I will eventually tell you about. My husband (still seems strange to say that) just started a new job. I'm making new English speaking freinds, and I can't fully express how great that is... but I'm really missing my old standbys. It's almost the first of October. Three more months to turn good on my New Year's prediction of staying in better contact this year.

Oh, and I just finished reading the last Harry Potter.