Two weeks ago, I received a message from my friend Lesley. It read, "How do you feel about extending your trip and coming to Morocco with me?" I went through the motions of weighing pros and cons, but I knew before I logged off my e-mail account that I would somehow be going to Marrakesh. Never mind that it's the hottest time of year to be in Morocco and I don't care for heat. Disregard the fact that I'd already been out of Canada for two months and want to see my family and friends so much (really). Forget that I'm supposed to be moving to Montreal and starting grad school in less than a month. Clearly, if someone asks you to go to Morocco and it's feasible, you don't have a choice. In Paris, it seemed like it wouldn't happen. I called Air Canada Reservations in France to change my return flight and it was a massive hassle that made me think Morocco would be impossible. The next day, however, a long distance call to the Air Canada line in Canada took care of the ticket change and the trip was a go.

And now, about two hours into the flight that should have been returning me to Canada (Alyssa's on it), I'm sitting next to Lesley in an internet cafe in Marrakesh. It's very hot (although not as blazing as Cordoba), we're exhausted because our flight left London at 6 a.m. and we got very little sleep, and we're disoriented because we're unaccustomed to this place and to one another. Our hotel has a tiled courtyard terrace. In the main square, freshly squeezed orange juice costs about 50 cents (Canadian), there are dried fruit and nuts for sale, snake charmers actually exist (!) and there's a heady mix of smells that I can't completely identify. You can buy anything and everything. It's terrifying and overwhelming and probably the perfect introduction to Morocco. We took a little time this afternoon to set a tentative itinerary. Our next stops will be Casablanca and Fez. Afterwards, we'll head to a town in the north called Chefchaouen and hopefully do some hiking. From there, we'll go to Tangier and make our way through Gilbraltar to Malaga, where we'll catch a flight back to London.