my journey with phones,trash and shopping

So today did not start out very well. I assumed my Moroccan phone was written in Arabic although it did look a little strange to me. Guess I figured that it was block Arabic or Berber (which is written like hieroglyphs) but it definitely wasn't English or French. Even though my instructions for the phone were in French (and hence mildly understandable), I couldn't figure out how actually to use it and it was sending texts in what looked like gobblety gook. So, I thought, no problem, if it is Arabic or Berber I will give it to my friend to translate and easily change the language to one that I could understand. Not so simple however. He said....oh just change the "parameters" (pronounce para-meterrrrrs) in the phone. What the hell is a "parameter"? Well in French it means the system utility. OK. So, I said to him, just change the language from Arabic to French. To which he replied "what crazy language is this phone written in?" Well guess it wasn't Arabic after all. After many hours of work with the nice man in the store, the two of us figured out it was Greek and he marched to the medina to find someone who could speak Greek and change the system on the phone to French and then I could take a lazy "cop out" and change it to English. So much for the morning. So now I have a cute fully functioning Moroccan Samsung pink phone where in order to text I have to figure out the letters and numbers (I'm spoiled by my Blackberry) and hence another visit to a friendly Moroccan to explain to me how to do that.

Well it isn't India, but considering that it is the country's capitol, it is surprising to find so much trash in the streets.

That being said, this one isn't a picture of trash, just a Moroccan version of a really basic flea market as opposed to the markets in the souks (outdoor markets) in the medina (old city) which are a little classier than this but not much...still has lots of old used junk.

Shopping: Bought myself a jelaba (robe with the pointy hood) in the medina. Pictures tomorrow if I can get someone to take my picture. Not super flattering but warm and comfortable and covers a multitude of sins. It is definitely the rage here in Morocco.