It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man, possessing fortune or no, must be in need of a wife. 

Those literary people among you will notice I have slightly altered the above quote, mostly because I think mine is better and I never liked Jane Austen anyway. Sorry.

I try to keep my posts related to things which happen in my day to day life here in Fes. Today for the first time I decided to walk home. The sun was out and the birds were singing and it’s only about half an hour’s walk, so I thought ‘why not’. And really it was lovely, except it came to me that I am both proud and prejudiced. Tell me ladies and gentlemen. Is this a good thing or not? Let me explain.

When you are English, small and female, you get a lot of attention in these parts, even in the more modern Ville Nouvelle, where I live. Consequently though I wasn’t actually bothered on the way home, I got curb crawled several times, and had a lot of shouting and wolf whistling. Incidentally, there is something just a little pathetic about curb crawling while on a scooter. Don’t ask me why, but somehow, it just seems so much sadder than the others.

I realised I’m proud because I refused to look at any of these guys. And really, though I’m probably right, and anyway I don’t want a Moroccan boyfriend (not while I have the Boy hanging around in the UK) maybe it is a little pretentious of me to automatically assume I won’t like, or have anything in common with these people. Secondly I’m prejudiced because since they’re Moroccan, I automatically decide they are creeps – although in fairness if you curb crawl or whistle a girl down in the street, you probably are a creep – does that make me a bad person? Or just acceptably selective?

Equally, I’ve banished the idea of meeting someone at school. At ALIF there are a mix of Americans, Canadians, Brits, and a whole variety of other nationalities. I’m prejudiced against them because I assume they will go their ways and I’ll never see them again after this year. But as I said before, Men are in want of Wives. That’s why we get attention, sometimes from the least expected sources, sometimes from the most.

This post has now gone on too long. Later, once I’ve done my work, I might discuss different ways I have been propositioned out here. It might be interesting, so you should definitely come back and have a read.

…Procrastinate?

I’d say it’s fairly obvious how I procrastinate. The worst thing I did for my studies was to get a blog. I write to procrastinate. I write poetry (because I am that cool), I have several short stories and one novel on the go. I love going back and re-drafting them when I should be doing other things. I think it’s because it feels like I’m doing something productive, which is what I know I should be doing, so I feel like I can let myself off for not revising.

Besides, I enjoy writing more than I enjoy languages. Silly isn’t it! But never mind, because I still love languages, and I find they have more practical application than the ability to write a page of gunge about nothing in particular. I think that might be what I’m doing now, so I’m going to stop and get back to revising.

Maybe.

I wish I was that good at haggling. I’m not. Or at least I don’t know, since Aziz has a lovely friend who has now taken me to the Medina twice. Today he helped me buy pretty things for not very much money.

I’d love to show you pictures of what I bought, but some of the people who read this blog are receiving them as gifts fairly shortly, so I don’t want to give the game away. Because they are very cool, and it took me (ahem) much haggling to get them to a price I could afford.

I’ve just noticed that so far my only ‘spelling errors’ according to Google Chrome have been the word blog and the word Google. Bit of a design flaw with the spell checking program I think, to not include your own company name as a real word. And if makaynsh the word blog (yes it has a problem with my transliterated Arabic as well, unsurprisingly – it means ‘there does not exist’) well then what exactly am I writing? Interesting things to ponder while I get back to my homework.

I am ridiculously tired and so I’ll leave it there before I say something daft.

Well, to be fair, I actually doubt it’s pomegranate. Remember a few days ago when I was really ill? Well, I’m ill again. Exact same symptoms only a little bit less severe.

So, my conclusion. I have an allergy. Or at least there is something which my body really doesn’t like, and I’ve had it twice in the last 3 days. The factor which makes me think this rather than food poisoning or a bug, is that with those things the symptoms don’t completely vanish for a day in the middle, and yesterday I was fit as a fiddle.

The only thing I can think is either pomegranate, cucumber, or that something has had pesticide on it (or somesuch). So, I shall be cautious for a few days.

I’m really hoping it’s not the pomegranate because pomegranate is lush. In fact, here is a pomegranate.

Lets talk about relationships. I find them fascinating.

For example: Friendship. Isn’t it a funny one. Because some people have millions of friends, some people have a few, and some people have none. And that’s just the way the world works. I should stop beginning sentences with ‘And’ because it is bad grammar, but never mind for now. It can be a new year’s resolution.

I am a person who has lots of friends I think. Though I have never really had a best friend, a fact which always makes me a bit sad. I don’t think anyone in the world right now would call me their best friend. But then in a way, that’s a good thing, because I doubt I’d be a very good best friend. I am too self-involved. The fact that I write these things proves that I feel.

Also, I feel quite lucky because it means that no-one depends on me. One of the stresses of any relationship is the fact that people depend on one-another. I always depend on boyfriends, which surprises those people who assume me to be an ‘Empowered Woman’ type. But I don’t think I’m ever really depended on, which suits me fine because at the end of the day, I’d probably be a bit useless.

That’s my thoughts on that then. Taa Daa. A demain.