Snowflakes!

It is that time of the year again when you just feel like staying in the warmth of your room and drink some hot chocolate while listening to good music. Yes, it is winter in Ifrane and it is snowing. As I was sitting by my room’s window watching the snowflakes fall down graciously and then disappear gradually into the ground I thought to myself that each snowflake went individually through an amazing journey to finally become one snowflake among a million other insignificant snowflakes of which we quickly grow weary and wish for the sun to shine again to take them all away. Then it hit me! There are billions of people on this planet who went through amazing journeys during the course of their lives and maybe if we take them individually they will be equally interesting. However, when put in the middle of his/her peers, a person is just as meaningless as a snowflake. So what can a person do to stand out and not be a snowflake among others anymore? I honestly don’t have an answer to this question but I am sure that there are people who definitely found the answer throughout history. These people are the ones that we learn about in history books and that shaped our present and maybe even our future. Their influence leaped over the boundaries of time to shape our present day lives in all its aspects. It’s only when you stand out that you achieve eternity! Don’t be a snowflake because one day or another the sun will shine again and you will melt down and be forgotten!

El Morro

A keychain story

Everyone who knows me very well knows that I have had the same keychain (among other things) for over a decade now (the word decade makes me feel actually old). The keychain in question had the name of my brother Rabie inscribed on it as well as Ayat Al Korsi (verses from the Coran). That keychain traveled with me everywhere I went. It’s a sort of a lucky charm to me. I can’t imagine loosing it one day.

I lost my keychain last weekend in a nightclub in Ifrane. I was having fun until I realized that my keychain was not in my pocket. I started looking for it everywhere. I didn’t leave no stone (bottle) unturned. I didn’t find my keychain. That was definitely a party pooper for me. I sat down on the couch of our table looking brokenhearted. Everybody started asking what was wrong and I had to explain to each one what it was all about and that it’s not just a keychain. Few minutes later I regained hope of finding it since everybody in the nightclub was looking for the “damn thing” as Lamiaa put it. However it was not found. I returned to campus really upset despite the amounts of free alcohol that I was offered as a consolation “prize”.

As I was walking up the stairs of y building towards my room I realized that I also lost the keys to my room. My roommate was in the room however so I didn’t mind that. I walked in (the door was open) and I sat down on my bed looking down at the previously flooded floor of my room. I stared and stared at a shiny point on the floor without realizing what it was. I didn’t care at that point. I lost something very important to me that night and I just didn’t care if my room went up in flames for all that I care. But then it hit me that my roommate was sleeping when I left the room and that I usually lock the door behind me when I am leaving. The door was open. I didn’t lock it. What’s that bright thing on the floor? I took a step towards it and I removed the piece of cloth that was partially covering it. It was my keychain! I found my keychain!

…that was close!

El Morro

La Poisse

It all began last Friday at 4 AM in the morning. I woke up to the sound of security guys knocking at my door. At first I thought they were coming to inspect my room for drugs and alcohol but it turned out to be something else…totally different but just as equally upsetting. “Come in!” I yelled at whoever was knocking. One of the security guys let himself in and I couldn’t help it then but notice that his shoes were making some kind of a weird sound. I look on the floor but all I could see was the ceiling. Hein? How could that be? Maybe I was too sleepy. “Really am I this disoriented?” I thought to myself. It turned out that I was really looking at the reflection of the ceiling on the water that has flooded my room. First reaction was to reach underneath my bed and reach for the most precious thing I got…my laptop. Thank god it was still working despite the amounts of water it swallowed…those guys at IBM make good laptops. I will spare you the details of what happened next but in a nutshell I ended up spending the night as a refugee in some other building. The next day my room was all clean…very clean but also very smelly because of the wet carpet.

Then later on Friday I was trying to clean my glasses when all of a sudden they broke into two pieces. I stared at them thinking to myself that I was lucky to carry with my an extra pair.

Sunday I went to play some basketball, everything was going well until I tried to reach for that rebound when the ball slammed against my fingers making them look kind of funny. I didn’t think of it much then and continued playing. Another rebound and my second pair glasses, the last ones, fell and instantly broke into three pieces!!! That’s not good.

Monday I couldn’t see more than three feet ahead of me but I could really feel a pain in my right hand’s fingers. I tried to overlook it but it was just too much. By 2 PM I was in an ambulance going to Fes for some X-rays. The good thing is that I didn’t break anything the bad thing is that I sprained my fingers so bad that they would need at least three weeks to heal.

Today, as I was walking from downtown to campus, I sprained my ankle…Just as simple as that.

So in five days I found myself half-blind, handicapped (right hand and right foot), and with a smelly room from where I am writing these few lines.

And that’s the definition of la poisse if you are not a French speaker.