don’t call me a backpacker…

not fair! they don’t take into account country size!

What i’ve been up to this summer…

Working a lot. My new job has been crazy busy with enormous staff growth, updating a lot of outdated gear, a nasty power outage, and my helpdesk guy out on vacation. I’m enjoying it right now though.

I had a busy amount of gigs in June, but now they’ve tapered off… which is good for the day job right now. One of the bands I was playing with, Hiss Golden Messenger, is now on a long hiatus so I guess I’m looking for a new gig. Here’s me playing with Tom Heyman, it got put up on YouTube -

Baseball! Went to a handful of games (SF and Oakland) with a variety of friends lately. Unfortunately my Oakland A’s are having an off year.

Spanish Class!!! My 6 week class is over, I learned a lot and just the explanations of how it works helped me understand it a lot better. I didn’t have much time to practice during the week but I’m going to try to keep it up. My teacher, Francisco, was awesome. Ironically he is from Portugal so that’s his first language. Spanish was his second, but he speaks perfect English without an accent. Also speaks German and Italian, and next he’s learning Arabic! makes me sick!

Gifts! I sent my friends in Portugal their favorite American export… Clif Bars!!! haha. And I even remembered their favorite flavor, Chocolate Mint. There might be one missing out of the box though

One thing I haven’t been doing much this summer… blogging! heh. I’ve just been lazy.

(this seems ridiculous wrapping a place where I was essentially for a few days)

Despite my bad mood I had when I was there, I would like to go back if the opportunity presents itself.  Mostly to be able to experience some music and culture.  Although with some more research, some of the other countries in North Africa may have a similar experience with more positives, and less tourist trampled, than Morocco.  My stay was so short I don’t have much commentary to offer.

Costs: seem very reasonable, but be prepared to bargain hard, as everyone is prepared and well practiced at price gauging white people. There’s no shortage of rooms, transport, or places to buy crap, so don’t get taken advantage of.

Travel: be prepared for craziness, don’t be in a hurry

People: this was up and down.  I’d say more than any other country i visited, you’d have to get WAY WAY away from tourist areas to try to meet or interact with genuine people.  i didn’t and i didn’t.

If you’re in a hurry, I’d say don’t even bother with Tangier and just head out to other parts of the country right away. I gathered that kind of after the fact from others’ consensus.  It’s just not as interesting as it was back in the heyday.