Whirlwinds, Bo Bun and some jackets!

Othman and I have a sort-of tradition that the weekend before I go to the USA each summer we make a trip down to Marrakech. It's a nice little way to spend some time together before I leave, and Marrakech is of course the best place to get gifts for family and friends! I'm leaving on Monday (insert small squeal here), so this year we displaced the 'Kech trip to last weekend so it wasn't the day before I left.

Marrakech as seen from the one big hill
 it has within the city limits, which of course
 has a slum built onto it.

And again.

On our trip down we witnessed something I've never seen before—whirlwinds! It felt like we were in the wild west or something! We spotted at least 6 different ones in difference places; it was a bit surreal. I took a few pictures without much hope of getting a good shot, but this one turned out nicely:

In the midst of the whirlwind photography Othman nudged me to look straight ahead:

 Oh Morocco. =]

We only spent one night there, and went out to a Vietnamese restaurant we had discovered back in March. While there are plenty of generic "Asian" restaurants in Casablanca I've yet to find anything resembling authentic Bo Bun. Well lunch at Le Bol de Saigon (on Blvd Abdelkarim al Khattabi for those of you in Morocco) back in March satisfied my cravings for a while, but I was hankering for some more this time around. Othman and I had a nice dinner there, and we took these pictures on his phone as proof:

Allow me a tangent here: after our March trip to Marrakech there were a few blog posts I meant to make and never did! One was about how we met up with one of Othman's good friends from France and her man, after they got back from a trip to the Sahara. We only had a few hours with them, but they joined us for Vietnamese and it was great for the two of them to catch up and for she and I to get to know each other better, since we had only met a few times briefly:

Seeing all that lovely hair on Othman makes me rue the day I cut it!

OK back to business: in the dinner picture you may notice the lovely jacket I'm wearing. The story behind it goes back a ways.... When my older brother Patrick came to visit Morocco in October 2012 we took him on the obligatory tour of the old medina of Marrakech, making our obligatory stop at Othman's distantly-related-but-we-call-him-uncle's shop, where he sells beautiful leather jackets. He gets them made specially and they're very high quality, so I told my brother if he ever wanted a leather jacket, now was the time to get one. He did end up buying one for a very good price—the family price!

Patrick during his visit sporting his jacket!

About a year after that I decided the time had come for me to own a real leather jacket for the first time, so when we were in Marrakech last September I talked with Othman's uncle and explained to him some modifications I'd like on a model he had, and he said he'd get it made and get back to us. We didn't hear anything for months, but when we visited his shop last weekend he got out the same jacket I had wanted the modifications made on, and I tried it on. I realized I really loved it "as is", and after thinking a bit I decided to get it, and Othman told me to go for it. When we asked for the reduced-family price, Othman's uncle categorically refused any payment, saying it was a gift! I couldn't believe it, and we both kind of felt bad taking it, because it's so beautiful, so well made and would certainly sell for a lot. But he insisted, and I walked out with a new amazing piece of wardrobe. I know I'll keep it for years and years and will always remember the amazing generosity of Ami (uncle) Abderrahim. 

Happy me!

Merci beaucoup Ami!!