Ugh. I had a hell of a night last night. Still fighting this damn cold (I think it might be time to pull out my antibiotics), so I was keeping myself up coughing all night and got to coughing so hard I threw up. Then, in the middle of the night, something I ate decided it would declare war on my GI tract so I spent the rest of the night running to the bathroom and feeling naseaus. On top of that, the bed I was sleeping on was terrible. I kept feeling something hard poking into my ribs and realized it was the springs of the mattress so my back was killing me in the end, too.
Alas, traveling is all about taking the bad with the good. I really am looking forward to being over this cold so I can have energy again and not feel like a slug.
But somehow, I scraped up the energy this morning to move hotels to a nicer room: same price, better bed, high ceilings, and not like a stuffy closet as the other place was. Then I had the bright idea today to take a taxi to a ritzy, 5-star hotel and use their WIFI so I can upload a bunch of recordings. I dressed up in my nicest clothes (which is a stretch considering what I packed) so that I don't look like such a free-loading backpacker. :) I've pasted a smile on my face and converse with the staff in Arabic and they don't seem to mind me being here. I think the patrons here are paying upwards of $400 buckaroos a night so I'll enjoy soaking up the palm trees and people-watching (especially the sun-bathers by the pool).
I'm a little unsure about my studies with this Gnawa master here in Marrakech. There are a few things that make me question whether it's worth my time and his. Even though we're doing pretty well communicating in Arabic with bits of French when I don't know the Arabic word, there's still a lot I can't convey or ask. In any case, I just feel tired and cranky and hope that chilling out here at a ritzy place, far away from the totally hectic and harsh energy of Marrakech will help.
I'm on the fence about Marrakech. I really didn't like it at first. It's growing on me a little but I'm still pretty unimpressed so far. I think you have to be in a pretty good mood to appreciate the city, its constant hounders and hecklers and shop-owners grabbing you to come see their store, blah blah blah. In any case, I'm going to enjoy today kicking back in a posh hotel lobby.
