Retrospective...

Now that we have been in Morocco for almost six months, we feel it is time to start a blog.

On January 15 we arrived in Casablanca to begin our Peace Corps odyssey with about one hundred  other trainees.  

The photo above is a view from our hotel.  It is always odd to arrive in a foreign land and timidly look out the hotel window... wondering, with a mixture of apprehension and excitement, what it will be like when we go out into the bustle on the street.  Our first foray was to a coffee bar across the street from the hotel, where we conducted our first transaction by ordering (using pantomime and pointing to another customer's table) two glasses of hot "noos-noos" (which literally means "half-half"... equal parts milk and strong dark-roast coffee). Each came with three large cubes of sugar on the side (Moroccans like their tea and coffee sweet!). To our taste, the coffee was excellent without any sugar.