Pant Shopping

     So a couple weeks ago I decided that I didn't have enough pants here in Morocco.  After a couple good wearings you feel like they should probably be washed, but you know that laundry can take so long that you decide to wear them twice as many times as that. 

     So yesterday rolled around and, to my extreme surprise, Ahmed actually followed through with doing something on schedule.  We went shopping for jeans, and he took me to some neighborhood in Fez I've never been to before, and he found a shop that sold "medium quality" jeans, and he told me they'd be 250 dh tops ($30), which was pretty okay because I knew they'd be Levis and I'd probably be happy with them.

     So we get there and this place is tiny, like all shops in Fez.  So tiny, in fact, that when I went to try on jeans, I found there was no dressing room.  Instead, the store owner hauls out this bi-fold wooden curtain behind which you undress and try things on.  They fit, and life was good.

     So then Ahmed starts bargaining with the guy, and and the store owner starts off with a price of 210 dh--better than I'd expected.  But Ahmed has a little surprise in store, because a few days ago he'd bought jeans from this guy, but this guy didn't remember who he was.  So Ahmed busts out with the info that these jeans actually sell for 160 dh ($20).  The guy realizes who he is, and all of a sudden, I've just paid $40 for two pairs of jeans.  Sweet deal.

     So this morning when I go to put a pair of them on, I have trouble buttoning them up.  That's because in Morocco, somehow, we sell Levi jeans whose button holes haven't been cut through yet.  They've got the stitches in so you know where the holes are supposed to be, but you have to cut them through yourself.

     Just more of the typical services offered by Morocco's House of Random, Unexpectable Surprises.