Hi, everyone! Here I am at the Marine Ball with Cpl Frank Calderon, one of our Marines guarding the embassy! The ball was in celebration of the Marine Corp birthday. Although Don didn't go, it was still fun hanging out with the other "single" gals!
Life here has become somewhat routine, with Don and me both working at the embassy now. We ride our bikes to work most mornings, even with the temperatures getting colder. So far the coldest it has been by the time we leave home is around 40 degrees, but it is getting down into the upper thirties at night. During the days, though, it gets up close to 60, with beautiful sunshine in a clear blue sky! I've been told that this good fortune is about to change with January bringing in substantial rain!
I have received requests for more pictures. Although we haven't really been out doing much, I will share with you some pictures of my favorite grocery/variety store. There are small family-owned and operated stores in every neighborhood, but they sell mostly just the essentials, things like milk, juice, cereal, eggs, bread. Some of the things are cheaper in these stores, some more expensive. But if we want to shop someplace where there is a greater variety, one-stop shopping like going to a super Walmart (not as big) or something, we have a couple of choices. One is the Marjan, which is the biggest store in town, or the Aswak Assalam, which is MUCH nicer. The Marjan has a lot of merchandise as well as clothes, food, hardware, toys. But the quality of the things is not that great, and it is ALWAYS really crowded there. Another store, the Acima, is very close, just a few blocks away. It is moderate in size, but I don't like it much because it smells weird. All of these stores are associated with some kind of big or little mall as well.
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| Tiled entrance |
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| Ceiling of the outside entrance-way |
Aswak Assalam is my favorite place to shop for groceries. The mall it
is associated with is not very big, just a little cafe and a couple of
specialty shops. It offers a good selection of fruits and veggies as
well as olives and spices.
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| fountain on the outside of the entrance |
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They seem to be celebrating 13 years of business.
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Although there is a small parking lot outside, we usually drive into the underground parking because there is always parking there. But that means we have to
use the escalator to go up to the store. Interestingly, most of the
escalators here in Rabat are "step-less", just a moving platform going
up and down. That's not so bad unless your shopping cart is really loaded down! Then, trying to hold on to it can be a challenge!
