High Maintenance

I understand that on a day-to-day basis I could be called a relatively high-mainentance kind of gal. I mean, I'm into wearing cute clothes, doing my makeup every day and having my hair done as regularly as my pocketbook allows. But I also tend to pride myself in being one of those people who doesn't have to be fancy to exist happily in the world. In India I went for an entire month without a stitch of makeup and questionable levels of cleanliness (let's just say in India, after you shower in that water, you don't feel clean for very long). As such, I don't generally have that difficult of a time with the notion of packing light (22 pounds is the suggested weight) for the third world country scenario. But this time is proving exceedingly difficult because I'm going to Ireland at the end of trip. Not only would I like to look cute (and generally not like a dirty hippy), but it's going to be winter. That means sweaters. And toiletries. Have you ever gathered all of your toileteries and general mainenance products in one pile together? If you have, you may know what I'm talking about. I'm finding it exceedingly disturbing at the level of my current personal maintenance requirements. Who knew it takes that many products to beautify one person? But my main concern is that everything is NOT going to fit in my bag. Eek, whatever shall I do? No matter what, I'm getting on the plane, so I'll have to figure it out. Wish me luck!

Morocco

Now that we're barreling towards October, it's easy to say that it's about time for summer vacation. In fact, there may be a generall consensus amongst various Rose family members that the best iem for summer vacation is, in fact, during the summer. I mean, they don't call them the dog days of summer for nothing. But I digress...

Morocco is the main destination this time 'round and while I can't say that it was at the top of my list (though certainly on my list), I can say that I'm pretty darn excited to visit. This will be my first time spending a significant period of time in an Islamic country. So I think it's a good time to play a rousing round of "Name that Preconceived Notion!" *cue cheesy music*

Here's what I'm expected from Morocco:
Lots of headscarves and covered women.
Heavy, spicey, cinnamony (but delicious) food
Getting woken up by morning call to prayer
lots of colorful fabrics
cool street markets
being harassed/stared at a lot
general dirtiness
People speaking French

All in all I think it's going to be pretty darn cool. It will be nice to be traveling again and back in the groove. There must be some deeply-rooted psychology reason for my love of the road and my distaste for a life with anything too "normal" happening for too long. Alls I know is that if there's a 6 am flight to somewhere new, I'd have a hard time saying no to a ticket with my name on it. There's nothing quite like a long flight to make an excessively early morning worth it. Maybe it's a survival instinct kicking in.

I guess we'll see how my preconceived notions hold up against the reality. Should be interesting to see. Anywho, keep checking back for some posts in Morocco, any. time. soon. :)