New friends!

If you ask me, making a new friend as an adult is a feat worth celebrating. Long gone are the days when making friends was as easy as asking someone to play or showing up to hang out in a dorm room. Instead, it takes work and often a fair amount of awkwardness at first. On top of that, it's been hard for me to find like-minded people while living abroad. So though I may sound juvenile or cheesy, I'm really quite happy to have made a new friend, who happens to live in my neighborhood and also happens to have a gorgeous little baby! We met through a random chain of events, and soon I invited Brooke to stroll on over for tea. She brought along her little bundle of joy, much to my delight!

If you know me, you know I adore babies. So between bites of cookies and sips of tea and lots of great conversation, finding connections and sharing experiences, of course I couldn't help but snap some shots of little Jude!

I love this photo of mother and son! 

Thankful for friends, thankful for smiles, and thankful for the ability to record them! Stay tuned for an upcming family photoshoot!

A Maria of all trades (and master of all!)

To the sister who has written two entire novels just for fun, who has competed in the national Scripps spelling bee, who plays both organ and piano magnificently, who sings in multiple honor choirs, who draws, who letters, who paints, who is learning her third foreign language, and who is just all around amazing:

Happy 17th birthday!! 

With all those accomplishments one would think you'd be twice your age... or perhaps straight out of a Jane Austen novel!

You're a fabulous little sister, and I love bragging about you, maybe even almost as much as mom does! I got that opportunity today—in your honor this sister of yours (who can never even remember how to spell receive let alone "pfeffernuss") volunteered to judge the spelling bee at school! Seeing how stressful it was for the students I was even more proud of you than before. 

I love you and am so thankful you were born 17 years ago!!

Six years with Othman!

Six years is a long time! I just did the math (O had to help me of course, haha) and realized we've been together for 23% of my life! But he's only been with me for 20% of his life... does that mean I love him more?

This picture was taken only a couple weeks after March 25th, 2010. So much has happened since then; it's crazy to look at our young and hopeful faces and know what was in store for them. Miles of smiles, lots of tears, gajillions of cuddles more than a few adventures...

and six years of love! 

So thankful for you lovey!

Happy 1st!

Today is the first birthday of the sweetest little boy I know!

Exactly a year ago Othman and I visited Jessica, Ahmed and hours-old Noor in the hospital.

A lot changes in a year!! Even those little hand and nails have grown a lot!

 

Happy first birthday Noor, I feel so privileged to be your surrogate auntie. And happy first full year of motherhood to your mommy, who is such a wonderful friend!! 

International Women's Day

Yesterday was International Women's Day, which is a pretty big deal outside of the US. Here in Casa women were offered free movie tickets, deals at stores, prizes, flowers and so on all around the city. Of course the commercial aspect isn't the important part of the day, but rather celebrating all that women do and recognizing their contribution to society. However, I work at an American school, so it was just a routine day for us one way or another, which I found a bit disappointing since there is so much to be said for this day.

But then I got home later that evening to this display from my lovely husband:

After explaining that all the chocolate was because he forgot to get flowers (oh he knows me well!), he proceeded to bake me a French-style strawberry pie! Given the ingredients, it's basically a cheesecake with a pie crust underneath and strawberries on top, and wow is it delicious! I especially love the artistry he displayed in its assembly:

Thank you Othman, for being a lovely, thoughtful husband, and taking the time to make me feel special!

On the water

Valentine's weekend part 4.

Part 1 here.

Part 2 here.

Part 3 here.

After asking the owners of the hotel about how to best spend the last 5 hours of our stay, we realized how tiny Oualidia really was, and that this was about all there was to do (other than flying off of ATVs and such):

But as sandy grilled fish didn't sound particularly appealing at 10am, we wanted to find another way to spend a few hours before heading back the the metropolis. We could have headed back to the rocks we hung out on the day earlier, but once in two days seemed enough to me.

We remembered that while dumping sand out of our shoes the day before—post-ATV session, naturally—a guy had asked us is we wanted a boat ride. No boats being evident and Othman's hands needing some minor first aid, we didn't think much of it. But driving down the road to the beach Sunday morning I photographed this view and realized these boats in the lagoon were too pretty to be fishing boats.

We drove down close to the lagoon and while I took some unsuccessful pictures of seagulls in flight, a local struck up a conversation with O, and long story short, we were gonna get our boat ride. We parked the Sandero where it could enjoy the scenery, 

and walked down to the water to find our boat, the Flamingo,

and got in.

On the trip up and back down the lagoon the guy, Ahmed, and Othman talked in Darija while I took pictures and tried to avoid raindrops and the biting wind. O translated for me that the area was a big player in bird habitat conservation in Morocco due to the amount of species that thrive there. I remembered the bird from the day before, and more were certainly in evidence:

As my attention wandered from the birds and the chatter behind, I noticed cool layers inside and outside of the boat,

and a LOT of other cute tourist boats hanging around. We saw quite a few filled with people, including one that quite randomly seemed to be filled with English schoolboys, but unwilling to risk provoking anyone I just photographed the empty ones.

The ride was fun and we really enjoyed it, despite the gloomy weather. Plus O made a friend who can hook us up with places to eat and things to do if we return in the future.

Though it was rife with bad luck and mishaps, as our mini-vacation came to a close we were relaxed, smiling and very happy to have gone on it. We were determined to enjoy our time away, and the fact that we did indeed have a wonderful time just goes to show that life really is what you make of it!

Textures and colors at Dar Beldi

Valentine's weekend part 3. 

Part 1 here.
Part 2 here.
Part 4 here.

We woke up the next morning, refreshed by good sleep and quiet, to serenity and beauty.

After going up to the roof terrace, but before our a lovely breakfast spread was served, I explored a bit, camera in hand.

The breakfast was the best I've had at any hotel in Morocco. Varied, fresh, copious and homemade. They even served us gluten-free crepes!

Plus Othman made a friend who was also sitting at our table:

While on the terrace I was intrigued by all the patterns and textures. My 50mm lens was still broken and all I had was my telephoto, so I wandered about in search of photogenic vignettes.

Breakfast over, we headed back downstairs, and I started photographing the exotic and inviting garden that reminded me so much of Brazil with its smells, colors, layout, and vitality.

I can say without hesitation that Dar Beldi is my favorite hotel in Morocco. There I truly felt transported to another place, and the oasis effect was immediate and breathtaking. I hope to head back soon. But at this point in our journey, we packed up, settled our accounts, and went down to the beach for a few more hours before Casa beckoned...