Thanksgiven

     If I weren't laying in my bed right now, with the lights out and getting ready to go to bed, I would be able to see my breath.  As you might not be aware (as I was not), almost no homes in Fez have central heating.  As you might not be aware (although I was), it does actually get cold here in the winter, and my computer claims it's a tropical 48 degrees Fahrenheit.  Yeah, right.

     But in the spirit of Thankgiving, I'm taking comfort in knowing that I have two of the thickest blankets man has ever made, that my host family actually has a house to speak of, and that my house in the States has heating.  Those three things alone are more than some people in this world can say.

     That's not all there is to be thankful for.  

     For the past two months I've been trying to fulfill all of the requirements for getting a carte de sejour (residency card), so that I can stay here in Morocco past my 90-day visitor visa.  Among the things necessary are $2000 in a Moroccan bank, bank statements that attest to that amount, statements from my school declaring how long I will be studying here, notarized and non-notarized copies of my passport and the page with my date-of-entry stamp, notarized copies of a sheet providing my address of residence, 9 smaller-than-passport-sized photos (which are conveniently sold in sets of 8), and three copies of a basic personal information form.  

     No one gets their carte de sejour in fewer than three trips to the local police station, which is where you have to submit this stuff.  And when I say that there is a visa bureau in this police station, please don't assume it's actually a bureau of any sort.  It's a guy behind a desk (who is quite grumpy), and behind him is an 8'' x 11'' sign that looks like it was laminated back in the 1970s, and the last time it was cleaned was before Windex was invented.  So this is where I'm supposed to become official here.

     Two-month-long story short, I made 5 trips, needed more copies of more things ALIF didn't tell me about, and was told I could pick up the receipt for it on none other than November 27, otherwise known as my birthday and Thanksgiving.  I'm not superstitious, but when you go through as much as I did to get this residency card, you don't want to test your luck by writing a blog and saying you're getting your residency card until you do. 

     I did get it, and as they say here:  al-hamdu lil'lah (praise be to God).