-Morocco Update-
December 8, 1999 - December 12, 1999

	The day after we left Italy we went through a huge Force 9 Gale storm with with 41 ­ 47 knot winds, rolling seas with short wave lengths and 7 ­ 10 meter waves. This was the worst water we ever hit because the waves were hitting us on the side instead of head on. Right after I took this picture they closed off all the outside decks so no one would fall overboard. During dinner we hit one huge wave that knocked all the food and several tables over in the dining room and broke Kelly's porthole among a lot of other damage to classrooms.
	We had our final lifeboat drill and I got all decked out for cold weather (it wasn't as cold as I thought). Shane and Kelly are both in my muster station, I took this picture through the crowd of people, men in the back, women in the front.
	One of our favorite past times (ever since India) is to play chess. As of December 22, Kelly and Shane have an 11-9 record with 2 draws, and Kelly and I have a 3-2 record. The day before Morocco we passed through the Straights of Gibraltar. This is the Rock of Gibraltar.
	The Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca is the largest mosque in Morocco. It was built in the past few years and is very large and ornate. It can fit up to 30,000 people.
	Our first night in Casablanca I went to a welcome reception where we met University students and they performed some popular Moroccan music for us with drums, long trumpets and dancing.
	The second day I went to Marakech for a couple of days with my friend Susanne Thiel from Germany and my roommate Amy. Here Susanne and I are at the Casablanca train station.
	These men sell water around the medina (old city) in Marakech and hope to take pictures with the tourists - for a price of course. We got a fairly nice hotel for $4/person a night in a prime location right off of the medina. This is a view from our hotel roof.
	The first day we spent shopping at the medina, and the second day we went to this garden, La Menara, where we met these two Moroccan students who showed us around. Hardly anyone in Morocco speaks English because French is their colonial language, so I was at a disadvantage. These guys spoke Arabic, French, Spanish, and a very little bit of English, and we communicated through a jumbled mess of mostly Spanish with some English, French and even a few German words. I realize that I have forgotten almost all of my Spanish, and I got really tired trying to speak in a foreign language. Now I can really appreciate how others feel trying to speak to us.
	Almost everyone in Morocco wears a Jelaba over their clothes which looks like a monk's cloak. This is a fancy type of Jelaba which women wear when they dress up. The other outfit I didn't purchase, but when I was shopping around I found myself all dressed up before I knew it.
	Amy and Susanne are getting ready to eat their lunch of cous cous and vegetables. We wanted to get a picture of the three of us, so we propped up our cameras on our hotel room and took some crazy group shots.
	I was back in Casablanca the last night and went to a Moroccan Musical dinner with Amy. We were in Morocco during the holy month of Ramadan where they fast from sunrise to sunset. This was their breakfast at 6:00 at night.