So another term has flown by. Absolutely no memory of what happened in it..my long term memory appears to be diminishing at an alarming rate! Both my TA's have caught be talking to myself at work quite animatedly and I can only assume that this along with memory loss means I am slowly turning into my mum...oh dear!! (Love you mum!)
But it ended with my brother and two of his mates coming out to Moscow for a long weekend...a worrying amount of vodka was consumed unsuprisingly and I have hideous memories of being dragged around the cosmonaught museum with a nasty hangover on a very hot day. I do think space is amazing but after the 50th model of a satellite with a hangover you just want to end it all. Luckily they had these lovely big red armchairs through the museum so all i had to do was walk extra fast until the next one then have a wee sit until Giles was ready.
So yes the sun has finally come to Moscow and it is amazing amazing. I really love this city in the sun. I love it in the snow too, it's just the grey bits in between that are not so nice! i have even planted my own window box although the soil in it has been there with no plants growing in it for at least 3 years so i'm not 100% sure anything will grow..not sure if soil has a sell by date!! There is a gnome too though so if notihng grows I will just buy some more gnomes!
Anyhoo holidays finally came and Hannah my TA and I jetted off ( well as much as you can jet when you are on BMI..( pizza wraps for a meal.. the cheek of it!) to Morocco to visit my friend Sophia who is working at a guesthouse right on the beach down from Agadir. (With a quick nights stopover in The London to say hello to the little Lovegroves and the ancient Matriarch Lovegrove ( love you mum! ))
We were met at the airport by our pre arranged 'grand taxi' as they call them in Morocco. Obviously grand in morocco has a total different meaning as half the bumper was falling off, Hannah's side of the seat was full of mud and when we got in the driver handed us our window handles to attach! Anyway 2 and a half hours later after some scary scary overtaking on dogdy 1 track road type scenarios (plus forced listening to the driver's chris de burg CD) we arrived at lovely Mirleft a tiny seaside town.
4 nights spent on the Beach at the wonderful Aftas Beach house with a gorgeous sandy beach right on our doorstep was just what i needed and we passed the time sunbathing, swimming, reading, sightseeing and eating lobster, lattes and tagines! Oh and we also went to the local hamman ( only tourists there) and got scrubbed to within an inch of our lives and then covered in mud in a giant steam room whilst only wearing our pants by an equally naked little moroccan woman. It was alarming but very nice and I think the local women had a right old laugh watching us!
We then got same grand taxi ( as he was a scary but safe driver for morocco apparently) 4 hours to Marrakech. He was kind enough to play the same CD mix for us although to my delight it also had cat Stevens on (I'm not being sarcastic now) who to my horror Hannah had never heard of and alarmingly on listening to did not like. Poor girl... i think the driver appreciated my rendition of 'Ooh baby it's a wild world!' although by the 4th time the CD played even I had felt perhaps it was not such a wild world!
We then spent two nights in a bit of a luxury Riyad type resort with not just a pool but a 'slate'pool.... ooh it was so fancy. Due to it being change over week or something we were virtually the only guests there and had the sole attention of one crazy waiter who kept smuggling us extra chocolate croissants and fresh orange juice at brekkie whilst the slightly power hungry French manager was around the corner. We spent an afternoon in Marrakech in the medina..did a nice bit of batering and made it out with only one slightly alarming incident when a shop keeper under the pretence of tying some blue scarf around my head in a long winded and lengthy fashion used this as an opportunity to rub himself up against my back with his little friend!! It took a little while for me to realise exactly what was happening , as well you really don't expect that in a shop do you! Anyway you can be sure I did not buy his scarf and promptly ran away, whilst he grinned away! Honestly!!
So back in Russia now ...7 more weeks then 1 year In Moscow will be done! I am coming back next year for 1 more...eeek! Hopefully see you all in the summer as I will be home at start of July and then in August!
(Tash i know you are probably hyperventilating about the typos and lack of commas but i have been at school for 11 hours and just cannot do it!!! feel free to fix it i know it makes you happy! :)
x
