It’s a stormy day in St Louis and so that brings to mind the tornado from last year, the day before we left for vacation. Oh, wait, that’s today too…here’s hoping no tornados and that our flight gets underway tomorrow morning with no problems.
Things have finally been settling down: I wrapped up teaching for the semester on Thursday, and had my last concert of the spring yesterday. I even had a full day off on Friday, it was GLORIOUS (I got a lot done, but also got out for a lot of nice walks and had time to read), and today is a day off too. Before that I hadn’t had a day off since March 8–there’s something about having nothing to do on the calendar, isn’t there? And it was a particularly busy spring, though perhaps a bit less busy than the fall had been.
I had a wedding in St Genevieve and saw this sign–we had eaten here in the past but I didn’t recall the sign so I had to get a selfie.
In any case, today is packing and errands, folding laundry, and getting ready for Japan! We are headed out to Japan, flying into Tokyo and visiting many other places including Kyoto, Nagoya, Takayama, and Matsumoto. And don’t worry, I’ll tell you about it when we return.
The concert the night before, a choir concert at Powell Hall.
Last night after my concert I met some friends at Sakatanoya Revolving Sushi & Ramen Bar on the Loop. There is a sushi train that goes around and you can choose things from that (different prices based on different plate colors) or you can order from the menu, which is a tablet, and then they bring your food via robot. It was a lot of fun, though a little distracting, haha!
Last weekend my parents visited for a few days and we had a nice brunch with Louie’s parents and then went to the Botanical Gardens. We also went to Noodle Story for dinner with them, and that was nice. Not my favorite noodle place on the Loop (sorry that’s Corner 17) but it was a nice time. You order from a tablet there too, and I recommend ordering dishes less spicy unless you really love spice. Or I’m just getting to be an old white lady who can’t handle spice?
I told them to look really interested in the plants.A delicious spinach and cheese strata from Smitten Kitchen.
Louie and I tried out Zhanglala Beef Noodles recently as well, and really enjoyed it. I had the pickled beef soup and it was great. We also went to Katie’s Pizza with a mutual college student who had just graduated, and enjoyed some morels there, though the morels portions were super skimpy!
Louie particularly enjoys taking pictures of me eating soup.
TV wise we’ve been watching together: Ted Lasso (finally started, way behind the curve), Our Friends and Neighbors, Widow’s Bay, and Big Mistakes. I didn’t love Big Mistakes, it was okay but there was a lot of characters just yelling at each other. The other three are recommended, though Widow’s Bay is not all out yet, which we wish we had realized before starting, so now we have to wait!
Reading wise: I got into the Jackson Brodie series by Kate Atkinson. I also recently read Kin by Tayari Jones, The Keeper by Tana French, and A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst. While none of these are must reads, I enjoyed all of them. Looking back more, since I don’t think I said, in March I read Buckeye by Patrick Ryan, Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto, and Butter by Asako Yuzuki, and then in February read Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa, Breast and Eggs by Mieko Kawakami, and The Black Wolf by Louise Penny.
I really enjoyed the Louise Penny (Inspector Gamache is a great series) and the rest: nothing super sticks out though Butter was probably the most unique of the books. I was trying to read books by Japanese authors and thoroughly enjoyed doing so. If you don’t read Tana French, start with In the Woods which is so good and then you’ll keep trying to get that magic back, but her other works are worth reading.
I have some books loaded onto my kindle for the plane as well as podcasts and such. It will be the longest flight I’ve ever taken! Follow me on Instagram for pictures along the way, or watch this space.
The power continued to flicker while I was getting ready in the morning–I had to take part of my shower in the dark. Breakfast was “on the rooftop”, but I had some trouble finding it, as the riad I was staying at had a variety of different areas which were all connected on the ground floor, but not on the higher floors, so I went up and down a few sets of stairs before finding the correct ones to the rooftop. It was a lovely view from the top!
They brought out jams, cheese, eggs and Moroccan crepes for me to eat. Plus lentils (!) and fresh squeezed orange juice. The coffee was frankly terrible, but the rest of was lovely.
Eggs and a crepe.
Can you see the stork nest on top of that tower?
More pictures from the rooftop. You can see the mountains in the background as well.
I love this selfie with the sunlight.
Going back downstairs into the Riad.
After breakfast we all met up for a walking tour in the morning. We visited the Bahia palace, which had a lot of beautiful ceilings of painted wood. The guide was good but he annoyed by asking us too many questions rather than just telling us. (Why don’t you just tell me the name of the movie you want to see?)
This was painted wood. Absolutely exquisite, and gave me lots of ideas for my own home.
We trailed the guide through the Medina and the souks after that, which was a bit unnecessary in my opinion as we had already seen then. We had an interesting visit to an apothecary where we learned about spices and creams and oils and then of course were encouraged to buy some things. I did, as they were cool and had good prices 😉
We all got some fresh squeezed juice then, not just oranges, but a mix. And then we were free! To do our own thing. I did feel like I was tired of being in the group and tired of walking tours by this point, and I needed some me time. I headed out completely on my own, and it was great!
I had been worried about being bothered by the shopkeepers and other people, but I was fine. I bought a striped scarf from a nice shop (where I tried to negotiate but I’m sure I overpaid). Then I got a vegetable triangle pastry which was okay, and then saw these mixed meat sandwiches that Travis from our tour had mentioned and I had also seen in the Lonely Planet guide, so that was my lunch.
You can see them grilling the meat.
Eating the sandwich, on the street in Marrakesh. All by myself.
I decided what I really wanted to do that afternoon, then, was visit a hamman. I went to Hamman Mouassine, also from the Lonely Planet guidebook. It was described as a very traditional hamman, and that sounded like a great experience.
You get there by walking down a sketchy feeling alley lined with wood, which is used for the furnace to heat the…water and floors? Whatever magic is happening then. It’s all very old. I found a few other blog posts you can read to learn more about the place from a different perspective than my own. Anyway, I walked into the place and there were a lot of women sitting around. Nobody spoke English very well or hardly at all, but between some English, some French, and pointing, I signed up for a hamman and a 30 minute massage. (A hamman is a bath).
They gave me a basket and slip on rubber sandals and said to get undressed except my underwear and put everything in the basket and then into a locker. At least I thought they did, and then I started worrying that would have done it wrong as I needed to put my stuff in the locker while being mostly nude right by the entrance! (Women only) This seemed correct though. Things I regretted, not bringing a ponytail holder for my hair and bringing a change of underwear with me.
I stepped into the hamman area and there were a few women bathing or being bathed. I think you could just pay a small fee to use the facilities on your own and scrub yourself, but I had signed up to have somebody else do it. I didn’t know what to do, but then one of the women working there motioned for me to come in. She used my key holder to put my hair up and started pouring water on me. We were on the floor, on a mat, right next to another woman being bathed.
Anyway, so she bathed me, scrubbed me all over with a glove, and who knows what else (scrubs, soaps, etc.) At the end I rested face down on the floor (which was hot) and then she washed my hair, rinsed me off, and gave me a towel. All throughout the experience the women were talking loudly to each other and of course I had no idea what they were saying, but it mostly seemed conversational.
Next was the massage. It was nice but I was again in the room with another woman. At the end the woman doing the massage left and I was alone there with the other woman who was snoring. After a bit I thought, I’m done here, and so I just got up and went back to the lobby and changing area (at least with a towel at this point). I don’t know if this was normal but they looked like it was and asked me if I wanted tea, but by this point I just wanted to get back out into the Medina.
They gave me a plastic bag with my underwear (soaked) and the glove they used on me. So there I am, dressed, hair wet and not combed, covered in oil, but clean underneath it all. My skin felt amazing! It was an experience and I’m glad I did it, but definitely bring extra underwear, a comb if you need one for your hair, and a ponytail holder if you have long hair.
I headed back towards the Riad then, but took my time and shopped a bit, where I picked up two of the prints that I now have framed in my bedroom. Back at the hotel I freshened up and also ordered a ride for the next morning to the airport. I hadn’t booked one through Intrepid so I just asked the hotel instead.
I still had time before dinner (we were all meeting for a farewell dinner) so I went to the museum right near the Riad, le MAP Marrakech – Mode des Arts de la Parure, and looked at exhibits with costumes, jewelry and other fashionable things from the past around Africa and Asia. It was probably a little overpriced for the size, but it was a very well done museum.
Those are shoes for women whose feet were bound. There was a rooftop restaurant at the museum, complete with of course, cats.
Then it was time to meet the group for dinner at Ait Bougumez restaurant.
I’m glad we went as a group because the restaurant would have been hard to find: it was up several flights of stairs near this pile of boxes, presumably stuff the vendors order from China and then pretend is handmade? Kidding not kidding.
We all sat on the rooftop terrace which was just warm enough with heaters. I wanted one last Moroccan meal even though they had other options, so I got moroccan soup and lamb couscous, and enjoyed both.
The view from the restaurant, better without all the cars, I suppose, though it was interesting to see how Moroccan people park. VERY CLOSE TOGETHER.The lamb couscous. It also had a lot of caramelized onions, yummy!
During the dinner, our guide Aman led the group in an overview of the entire trip where we weighed in on our thoughts and memories of the trip. It was a fun trip down memory lane, and it felt like we had been traveling together for such a long time! And I suppose we had. Two weeks is a long time.
We said our goodbyes then, tipped Aman (suggested by the Intrepid stuff, 800 mad), and then I went to bed. The power issue seemed to have settled down and the power was staying on.
Day 13: I woke up just before my 5 am alarm, finished packing (whew the suitcase was a lot fuller, and barely closed. I also had to deal with the fez and try to NOT squish it, so I had a lot going on, haha.
I went downstairs and the hotel attendant walked with me to where the car picked me up. It was still dark so I was glad to have a guide! It was as uneventful drive to the airport–hardly any traffic–and check in, immigration, security etc was very easy. I bought coffee and a mini quiche and used up most of the rest of my dirhams. We had to go through another extra security check at the gate and get rid of any liquids again, but I had realized this ahead of time so I was prepared. Then on the plane!
The way home was pretty easy, except my connection in Atlanta was significantly delayed. There was a later flight, and as we were getting on the flight, they asked for volunteers to get bumped for pay. I didn’t volunteer because I was so tired and just wanted to get home, and then…we sat on the plane for over two hours waiting on a mechanical issue to get resolved, and ended up getting home around the same time as the other flight! Louie picked me up, and that was the end of my trip.
I would highly recommend this trip through Intrepid. I absolutely loved it: any complaints were minor, or out of their control. Traveling with a group of strangers may seem weird to you, but not to me, and we were friends after a few days anyway. It was so much fun to see an entirely different culture and also experience it with other people from different countries–I learned about Australia as well as Morocco since most of the people on the trip were from Australia. And our guide Aman was fantastic, he went out of his way to make sure everybody was safe and happy and integrated into the group. I felt taken care of it at every step of the turn.
Some in the group took a hot air balloon ride the morning of the day I left–and shared pictures. Here’s one I loved.
I can’t believe this trip actually took place in January and it’s May now, because it still feels like it just happened.
I had my pictures framed and now they are up on a wall in my bedroom so I can enjoy them. The top two are from a shop on the street in Marrakesh–I also got some postcards there. The bottom one is from Ait Benhadou, where we met the artist.
I hope you enjoyed reading! Feel free to comment or ask any questions–
For those of you just picking up now, back in December/January I took a lovely trip with Intrepid Travel called Morocco Uncovered. I have almost finished writing about it here, and today I will do the next to last day!
Day 11: I woke up and had breakfast at the hotel. It was less cold than the night before, haha! There was a nice cold buffet, and some sludgy coffee.
I took some pictures around the hotel.
We would usually be asked to leave our bags in the front of the hotel so that the driver could load them into the back of the bus. You can see my purple bag with backpack on top: I had my purse and a small tote bag with me in the bus on a daily basis.
Aman, looking super cool here with his sunglasses
We packed up and headed out to Marrakesh. Aman had warned us that a road we needed to take through the mountains had been closed the day before (due to weather I believe) but that it should be open again.
But, after about an hour we came to a stop in traffic, a big stop, and the driver turned us around and we headed back to a cafe we had recently passed to wait. It turns out that the road was closed at this point due to a big accident, so better to wait at a cafe than in the traffic.
The cafe had a large amount of seating, but lots of people were waiting, so we went into the back area which was a restaurant, but not open. I got a coffee and a few snacks (we would often get snacks but share amongst people as well as eating them ourselves) and we all settled in to wait. There was wi-fi in the place, and bathrooms, though they were a little questionable, not bad.
A snack example. I couldn’t resist buying a chip called the Salty Sisters!
Anyway, after an hour and half or so, we were told the road was open again, so back on the bus we went!
The next part of the drive was simply gorgeous. I couldn’t resist taking pictures from the bus even though bus pictures aren’t the best. These were the highest mountains we saw during the trip.
Somebody was biking!
Once we got down from the mountains, Aman (the guide) decided we should stop for lunch rather than wait to eat in Marrakesh. We stopped at a roadside cafe with the worst bathrooms we had seen during the trip. I had a minced meat panini that was okay–the way the lunches often worked while we were on the road was that Aman would choose a place, we visitors would all sit together and order whatever we wanted from the place and pay separately. We rarely got to choose the place as there were only so many places to go! This was probably the worst stop, and that was mostly because it was spur of the moment because of the accident. But we got to eat, we got to use the bathroom, and then back on the bus.
This picture looks like we were crossing a busy road of rock where the speed limit was 60. I’m not actually sure what the deal with that sign is.
By this point, we were all itching to get to Marrakesh, our last stop of the trip. We were tired of traveling and wanted to GET there and walk around and see all the craziness for ourselves!
And we finally did! We got dropped off a short walk from the Riad, since a minibus couldn’t fit to drive there. We all said a heartfelt goodbye and thanks to our driver Ibrahim (and tipped him, I did 300 mad) Somebody took many of our suitcases into a pull cart and we walked along with them to the Riad Luzia, about a five minute walk.
Notice I am still wearing a coat. January in Morocco is not hot.
I loved the Riad, it was everything I wanted–I booked the comfort level tour with Intrepid specifically because I wanted to stay at a Riad, and this one was so great. We did stay at a Riad in Chefchaouen, but we were only there one night, and it was bigger and somehow less Moroccan feeling.
The room small but mine was decorated in purple (with purple tile in the bathroom!) and since I had my own room I didn’t care about the size: it was big enough for me. I used one bed (single beds) to sleep in and one for my things. I was on what they call the first floor, but as an American I would call it the second floor.
This is right outside of my room–that white door is the room.
After a little time to unpack and freshen up, we all met for an “orientation walk” which was Aman showing us the way to the main square and pointing out stuff and giving advice. And then we were free! We were on our own the rest of the day. Since it was later in the afternoon and going towards evening, Alicia, Steph, Sabine and I stuck together and walked through the souks (stores). So much for sale, so much you could buy!
Seeing a cat on a motorbike was a fairly common occurrence! I’m not sure they knew how to ride, but I imagine the seats were still warm.Steph got a juice drink and they invited her to come up and pose with a Fez.The nuts were so good!
It was amazing! A bit overwhelming, with people calling out to you all the time trying to get you to stop and buy stuff, but really amazing. After walking a bit, we stopped to get cash out of a yellow atm which has lower fees. We waited awhile for this–I guess everybody wanted lower fees. Depending on your budget it might not really be worth the wait…time in line/higher fee. But it was still fun to be there on the square, and we got to listen to a small child blow a vuvuzela for 10-15 minutes.
After getting more money we decided to get dinner overlooking the square (called Jemaa el-Fnaa) and went to a place called Zeitoun Cafe, which was highly recommended. We got a table on the third floor (they would call it the second) and enjoyed a nice meal. I had chicken tagine with olives and lemons: though I had been tired of chicken tagine I had also wanted to try it this way, so I was glad to do so!
The view from the restaurant was gorgeous.
The ceiling had a lot of lamps.The other ladies and me.My tagine.
After dinner we were exhausted and meandered back to the riad, stopping to look in various shops along the way.
Once I was back at my room, the electricity went out, but then back on. After the first time it happened, it happened again, over and over. Always back on again quickly, but very strange. Maybe something was making a breaker flip and then they would fix it? At one point I decided it was probably worth just going to sleep when the power didn’t matter anymore, haha!
I read some blogs and listen to podcasts about time and how to use your time and all of that stuff. There’s a trend on them towards time-tracking, and I’d been thinking about doing it, and decided this was the week.
A few caveats, this is not a “typical” week as it’s the end of the semester at Wash U, but one thing the podcasts and blogs say about time-tracking is that there is no “typical” week, all weeks have different things going on. You may or may not be interested in reading this, but I think it is interesting to share! I’m going to share how my days went on Monday and Tuesday of this week:
Monday:
5:15 AM Wake up, lie in bed. Scroll phone, reading news and various things. At one point there was a huge storm with hail and I got up to go look outside. I fell back asleep for a bit around 6:30-6:45 AM
8:00 AM Wake up for real, make coffee, feed cats, eat breakfast
8:30 AM Shower, do more emailing, drink more coffee, get ready to go to work.
9:20 AM Leave for Wash U, teach a lesson, watch juries.
11:45 AM Move car to garage at Wash U and meet Louie to walk home, we were worried about more hail coming with the upcoming predicted storms.
12:00 PM Start making lunch, texting with students, chat with Louie. At some point the tornado warning sirens went off so we went to the basement, loaded up the news to see what was going on. This took longer than it should have. Then we returned upstairs to eat lunch and continue watching the news.
1:00 PM Clean up lunch, wipe down bathroom surfaces
1:30 PM – 2:30 PM Teach
2:30 – 2:45 PM Do some bill paying and check deposits
2:45 to 3:15 PM Teach
3:15 to 4 PM Mess around on computer online: research Japan trip, text people
4 to 4:30 PM Read a book
4:30 to 6:45 PM Teach
6:45 to 7:30 PM sit with Louie and watch the news/weather
7:30 to 8:45 PM Make dinner, eat, chat, clean up
8:45 to 9:45 PM Watch an episode of Our Friends and Neighbors with Louie
9:45 PM Get ready for bed
10:00 – 11:00 PM Read in Bed
Tuesday:
7:30 AM Wake up, lie in bed for a bit
8:15 AM Breakfast, coffee, feed cats, etc.
8:30 to 9 AM Work on recital program on computer for weekend’s Studio recital
9:00 to 9:30 AM Research Japan Trip, buy some train tickets
9:30 to 10:00 AM Workout
10 to 10:45 AM Shower, drink more coffee, emailing, get ready
10:45 AM Walk to get car at garage at Wash U
11:00 AM to 1:30 PM Drive to meet a friend for lunch, eat lunch, chat, leave
1:30 PM Call my sister Leslie, pick up groceries, drive home
2:15 PM Unload car and put away groceries
2:30 PM Read
3:15 to 6:15 PM Teach
6:15 to 6:45 PM Read while Louie practices guitar
6:45 PM Leave for a jazz show at the Sheldon, meet friends there, chat
7:30 to 9:30 PM Show
9:30 PM Drive to Black Mountain (short drive), order food and drinks, chat with Louie and a friend
10:45 PM Home, get ready for bed
11:00 PM In bed, reading. Finish book (Kate Atkinson’s Case Histories) and lights out around 12:15 AM, probably too late!
Takeaways so far: I have had a lot of time to read, woo hoo! And I probably spend too much time lying in bed first thing in the morning, but I really enjoy not getting out of bed right away when I can. I’ll report back more in a few more days. And yes, Morocco trip, I know, I know. Soon I’ll need to write about Japan, so I’d better finish!
This has been a rough school year: I have been incredibly busy, with entirely too many students. This is a problem of my own making, because I always think, well, what if this new student ends up being my most favorite student, and I also think, if I don’t teach them, who will, what if they can’t find a teacher. I have to let go of these thoughts for a bit though, because my goal for the next school year is to NOT accept any new students and pare my schedule down a little bit by attrition. I don’t actually think this will cause me to make less money, but it will help me be a little less stressed out. TIME WILL TELL.
Truthfully, being too busy doesn’t really stress me out. It’s if the “busy” stuff is stressful, i.e. difficult performances or things like that. Otherwise, it’s easy to go from thing to thing, but it’s annoying to realize you ate all of your meals in the car or that you haven’t had a night off to relax or a morning to sleep in (not that I can sleep in anyways, but you know, to relax) in weeks. I’m beyond needing a day off, what would I do with a whole day off work anyway, but what about an evening off?
The good news is: summer is near! Unbelievably yesterday was the last day of classes at Wash U, so I just have a few more makeup lessons to teach as well as some juries to listen to, and I’ll be done until late August. That’s about 12 hours of my life that will be free again, which is going to be huge. You might even get the last installments of my Morocco trip on the blog in the next week, if you are lucky.
I love teaching at Wash U–it’s fun, the students are great–but it’ll be great to have some time off. The semester really flies by though: it’s just 14 weeks of lessons, and boom, done. So for the whole year that’s 28 lessons out of 52 weeks. Seems very part time, doesn’t it?
As far as my private students: we had Music Club Festival last weekend and next weekend is the recital, with about 20 students performing. We have another week of lessons after that, a makeup week (I do one makeup lesson for the whole year, though they can rearrange into empty spaces through the year if they want), and then it’s vacation for a bit before summer lessons.
Socially I haven’t been doing much, but Louie and I have gone to a few cultural performances: in the past two weeks we went to two plays (The End of the World Cabaret with Upstream Theater and The Half Life of Marie Curie with the St Louis Actors Studio), and a concert at the Sheldon with Edgar Meyer and Christian McBride. I did manage to get breakfast yesterday morning with a friend and have some lunch dates on the calendar for the next week. I also plan to get my first pedicure of the spring. Things really are tapering off and summer will be here, and then I’ll say to myself, how did I manage that schedule in the spring?
Louie and I are planning to get out for a hike today. We did a short bike ride last weekend on the Riverfront Trail: it was my first time out on the bike in several months, since late summer or early fall I think, and I felt it the next two days every time I sat down! I don’t know if I mentioned but I had hurt my foot somehow in March and have been letting it heal. It’s finally feeling a bit better–I’ve been always wearing supportive shoes and that has helped a bunch–so now I’m trying to get back into building up my walking so that we are ready for our Japan trip.
I know many people have jobs that don’t change seasonally. To me that must be so weird, because my job is SO seasonal and the ebb and flow of the year is such an integral part of it. How does your job work?
I’d been dreading/looking forward to yesterday for some time. I played concertmaster in a small orchestra for a performance of Swan Lake with a visiting ballet company, two rehearsals and a performance all in one day. Dreading: long day, big solos (stress!). Looking forward to: amazing music, big solos (fun!). Yes, I know I put big solos on there twice.
Anyway, today is weird, because it’s like, that’s over, it went really well, I was pleased with my performance and the level of preparation I was able to do with the time I have, and it was really fun. And then, now today is a normal day, and it’s kind of weird. My fingertips hurt though.
On other notes, I can’t believe next week is the last week of classes at my college job. WHAT. And then just over a month until we go to Japan. We have a terrific itinerary planned, and I am just really so excited about it. I am also excited that some of the busy gig time is finally winding down, yesterday pretty much capped off the insanity. And this weekend is the NFMC Festival for my students–only 5 are performing this year, 2 backed out due to not being or not feeling prepared. It’s been a tough year for my students, everybody is so busy and stressed out and I’m not sure I’m doing the best job helping them through it.
But summer is almost here, and with it, always, some regrouping. The summer is pretty low-key work wise, hardly anything outside of teaching right now, though I know more will pop up. We are always traveling more than in the past, and I’m THRILLED about it (obsessively researching as well) but it leaves less time for work. As I near my “late 40s” I am really thinking about what do I want to do the time I have left in my career, as well as simply, the time I have left, whatever that is. I’ve been wanting to travel more, so that’s one thing I’m doing, and I’m thrilled about it, beyond excited about our summer trips, and other plans. I’m also terrified, that fuel shortages will derail it, it wouldn’t be the first time the orange menace ruined our summer plans (COVID), and who knows what will happen.
How is April going for you? Did you survive Tax Day?
