Finland....Frozen and Fun

A couple days after arriving in Geneva, I left again for a week to go and visit my friend Noora, who I met in Nepal. After an entire day of travelling (which was mostly spent waiting in Stansted airport) I arrived in Tempere to an announcement that it was minus 18 degrees celcius. Well I met with Noora and we spent the night at ther parents house. The next day we went to her summer cabin, it is on a lake, that is completly frozen...we walked across it. Then we went into the sauna, apparently most houses in Finland have a sauna in them, I guess that it is very important given the climate. Noora is working as a Subsitute teacher, so i got to go to school with her. I did a presentation on my trip. Since I dont speak Finnish, Noora had to translate for me. It was a special day for the elementary school kids, right before thier big exams, the high school kids dress up in costumes and come to the elementary school on the back of a big truk and give out candy. The students were really excited. In the afternoon we took the grade five class cross country sikking...I was by far the worst...surprise, surprise. On Friday we went ice swimming in one of the frozen lakes near in Tempere. It was insane, there is a spot where there is a staircase into the water anda they have cleared the ice. First you sit in the sauna and then you go in the lake and then back to the sauna, but it is colder than I ahve ever been. But it was awesome. We sepent the weekend on a farm where Noora used to work with the horses. WE went driving the horses in the snow, which is kind of like being on a chariot type thing. It was amazing. I met a bunch of Nooras friends and family aqnd they were really nice, so thinks to everyone there! We also went ice skating on the lake, but we only had one pair of skates so I went while Noora walked and then Noora went while I walked. Finlad was a really cool place to visit...I could not believe all the snow. On my way back to Geneva, I had to spend the night in a London airport. When I got there, there were these two German guy who had boght tons of yohuhrt and then found out that they could not take it past security. SO they were eating it like crazy, I thnk that in 5 mins they each must have had at least 20 things of yoghurt and then they started giving it out to random people...it was really fuuny.

The photos are of: Noora and I, Cross Country Skiing, The lake where we went ice swimming, me ice swimming, driving Dolly Temper and skating on a frozen lake.

Manning Park

While I was home in Vancouver I had my first attempt at cross country skiing (and Robyn at making a video). Check out Robyns film making debut, with ten minutes of countless scenecs of me falling down hills:

Alana learns to Cross Country ski

Check out these funny videos...

Fainting Goats

Breakfast Club

Back to Geneva

I am now back in Geneva staying with the Favres, the family who I au paired for two summers ago. I just arrived a couple of days ago, and I am having lots of fun catching up. We went cross country skiing on Saturday in France, adn I didnt even fall once...I was on skate skis, so I think maybe that helped, also Robin was an excellent teacher...Fun, fun. Yesterday we mad a pinata for Julies birthday. Now it is the school vacation for a week, so since everyone is busy with their different activities, I am heading to Finland for a week to visit my friend Noora who I met in Nepal...I cant wait to see Finland.

Home again, home again...back to Vancouver

I headed back to Vancovuer on a whim for a couple of weeks. I arrived just in time for my sisters birthday party. It waas great because I got to see man people who I had not seen for a while...and Tess and Ryan and Uncle Rona nd Linda even came and got me from the airport. About twelve hours after landing in Vancovuer I got really sick (later I found out that I had picked up some parasites in Morocco) and did nothing but sleep and feel like crap for the first week back. After I started to feel a bit better, I had a great time...catching up with everyone. Basically lots of time was spent eating out...which is not goign to happen when I come home in May because I ended up spending too much money and not feeling so great. Also I got a new bike for the trip that Robyn and I are planning...it was a great deal adn it is a georgous bike...if you live in Vancovuer and you are looking for a bike, go to Bikes on the Drive (http://www.bikesonthedrive.com/)...they are great. I wne t cross country skiing for the first time (my first time ever on skis) and had a wonderful time, although most of it was spent falling. I got sick again for my last couple of days,,,I guess my body needed that time to rest and recover from the travelling...now I am in Geneva, back on the road....yeah.

I cant seem to get my other photos so for now there are only a few. They are of Playing cards at the Licolns, Uncle Ron and his present from Tess and I, Grandma and my new bike.

London

I stopped in London for a couple of days to meet Abi, who I met in Mongolia. On my first night there we went otu for Indian food which was a nice change from Moroccan food (even though Moroccan food was delicious, its nice to have a variety). The next day Abi plotted a super walking tour of London for me on the map and I saw pretty much all the main attractions, inclusing the seriously anti-climatic and dissapointing Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, London Brdge, the Tate museum with its slide exhibit, -the British Museum, and The platform at Kings cross station from Harry Potter. That night we went to a Brizillian bar with some of Abis friends, it was too smokey and I could not stay for too long though. Sadly my camera was broken, so no photos...oh well. I think that London should be the pre-packeged sandwich capital of the world...its insane.

Mabrouk Eid

On her way to Mohammedia, Zhor met me in Oujda and then we took the train to Mohammedia to spend Eid (not the one after Ramadan) with her family. Eid is one of the biggest Muslim festivals and it is when every family sacrifices a sheep and then eats pretty much nothing but sheep for three days. It is to remember when someone from the koran was told to kill his son to prove his loyalty to God but then intead it was replaced by a sheep at the last minute, so his son did not really have to die. This year, the big Eid started on the 31 of December, so we celebrated it along with New Years. The day before we went to the souk and bought all the stuff that we needed for the festival. Then the sheep was delivered and tied to the couch for teh night before the festival (that is just where thy tied him, you can keep it anywhere though. Then on the day od Eid every ffamily kills and prepares their sheep in a special way. For the first lunch there were kebabs with the inside organs. Then for dinner it was a tagine with the stomach, The next day Kebabs with the actual meat of the sheep. For dinner it was a tagine with sheep and dates. The next day, more kebabs and I cant remember what else....SOOOO much sheep. On New years eve we had a cake and Zhor and her Mom and sisters danced. On New Years day Zhors Mom and I did a polarbear swim in the ocean. Zhors Mom also made a beautiful Giliba, the traditional Moroccan clothing, for me. After Eid Ali came and got me and we headed to Settat to visit his Aunt, Uncles, cousin and grandma before spending a couple days in Marakech...then I left Morocco and headed for London on January 11.

A week in Oujda

On Christmas Eve, Ali and I headed back to Oujda. We spent the evening with his family...and playing with Fatima (his turtle) and then stayed up really late talking to my family in Vancovuer on skype. They finally got a webcam so it was nice to see everyone as well as to talk to them. On Christmas day we headed into th medina and shopped at the souk. There as no Christmas celebrations there, but it was kinda nice not to have to worry about the commercial side of Christmas. In Oujda we hung out, wandering around the medina most day and we spent some time with Alis sister and watched his brothers rugby game. It was warmer than Figuig, but still pretty cold.

Living in a Fridge

It is not a good idea to leave my blog so long...it has been so long since Ali and I finished our tour and returned to Figuig, almost 2 months. Well after leaving Merouga, ali and I spent the next day travelling to Figuig, with a freezing night in Bourafa...bbbbrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, too cold. When we got back to Figuig I was excited to see Zhor and Amina and Ismail. I spent the next couple of weeks hanging around Figuig with Ali and Zhor, and Amina and Ismail. It was really fun and relaxing, we ate sooo much yummy food. The other things was that it was really cold, I have never been so cold in my life...not even snow camping. To make it worse there was nowhere to get warm, inside was usually colder than outside since most houses are large and concrete and not heated. I did not want to get out of bed in the morning since it was the only time that I felt warm. The two weeks that I spent in Figuig passed really fast, although we did not do too much...oh yeah we bought a small sheep and then they killed it and roasted it over a fire and ate it, it was interesting, but I ate mainly the salad.