tea and crumpets

i called the water company again today - i was told that a stand to dispense hot and cold water would cost between 375 and 400 dirhams. that's over $100. no thanks. the guy even told me to go to carrefour to get one because it's cheaper. we didn't get there today, so it's bottled water for us still.

we decided in the p.m. to go outside and see who was around the complex. julian ran right for the kids who live across the way from us. the boy is 6, girl is 3. mom is the same age as me and a doctor, only she's not working right now. they are from pakistan. we were chatting about this and that, and then she invited us in for some tea and cake. we had a nice time - talked to her for about 2 hours, julian played with the kids - it's nice to meet some more people.

here's the lowdown on some of my questions:

1.  she showed me her water dispenser which just gives the room temp water out. it was 25 dirhams at carrefour. the people selling it for 400 must be smoking some crack or something. that or they just make it so expensive so they don't have to delivery them (or don't carry them or whatever).

2.  her water is yellow or BROWN. ew. she told me that they replaced the water tanks on top of the houses (that's how it works here), so if you get the yucky water, it's your water heater. one of her bathrooms was so bad that they had to shut off the hot water. they were told that someone would replace their hot water heater 1 year ago. she says, "as you see, they don't take care of things around here. we are still waiting." so i'm guessing we find someone else to do it and replace it ourselves if there's a problem, but have someone check it out first just to be sure.

3.  when you buy a tv, you get a receiver (again, magic carrefour) and get a lot of free channels. but if you want others, you call the sattelite providers, of which there are a ton.

4.  she also told me that if i ever wanted to work here, i'd get a job teaching french or italian in about 3 seconds. there are schools all over the place and they would hire me b/c of my american credentials AND because they save all of the nonsense of getting me here. all they'd have to do would be to process a work visa. good to know.

and just an aside - some of the stuff i've been reporting may be obvious to some of you worldly people, but i'm trying to include details on everything so that everyone is up to speed! back tomorrow with more stories and some photos!