Merry Christmas!

Here in Morocco, for some unknown reason, they sell inflatable Santa Claus dolls at the toy stores. Last year, when I was here right after Christmas, Kim (the Fulbrighter who very nicely let me stay at her place in Rabat for a couple of days) had been given one. And then when I was in Casablanca, there was a very skinny Santa (wearing a frightening clear mask) that children posed to take pictures with.

Anyhow, yesterday I went to a little pre-Christmas gathering in the casbah, and there were s'mores (with imported marshmallows), and Christmas shaped ginger snaps, and whatnot. Neither of those is a food that I particularly like, but it felt nice and American and Christmas-y. There was also a Christmas tree that was more tree-shaped than conical-tree shaped.

Today I'm not doing much of anything; I bought some tacky Christmas socks for the familyt hat I was staying with, as the son in the family had asked about stockings, as a concept. As in, the son asked, "so, on Christmas you hang socks up? ... old socks?"

It's been rainy here. Other than that, not much going on. I think that I'm going to Marrakech for New Year's with my future housemate.