Fez
Promenading in Tangier (Sam is Exiled from Hotel Batha)
With only one or two days left in Ramadan (depending on how bold the new moon is feeling), we decided to celebrate Eid in Tangier. Partway through our train ride I learned that the word cabina does not mean a 6-person compartment, but rather a 1-person toilet. After asking a young lady if there was room for me in her bathroom, I was kindly shoved into the lavatory at the end of the car by her livid husband. What I encountered might have once been a bathroom facility between the years 1975 and 1976, but its current state should only be assessed by the Center for Disease Control’s bio-terrorism unit.
FLASHBACK TO FEZ: Meanwhile, in a 5-star hotel bathroom 350 kilometers away, a Fulbrighter named Sam is being asked to leave the premises, permanently. Sam has avoided his host family’s Turkish toilet for over a week now. Instead, he strolls unceremoniously into Hotel Batha each morning as if he were meeting an old friend for coffee. A casual bystander would note that Sam even glances around the lobby with a slightly raised unibrow, in hopes of spotting said acquaintance. On this particular day Sam has no time for theatrics. His dinner has been plotting its escape all night.
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