Welcome to 2021!

I wish that I could say that I haven't posted for a month because I have been so busy, but that would be a lie. My contract finished the 3rd week of December, but the last two weeks were for presentations by the participants. Since then, I have been trying to do yoga or exercise on a regular basis, write in my journal, and play violin. My success rate varies. I did celebrate the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn on Dec.21, the winter solstice, with a walk on the beach to view it away from the lights of town. I was with a group of expats whom I hike with and spent Christmas Day with. Then I went home to do a ritual and go to bed. Christmas Eve I invited my landlord to have a traditional Mexican dinner on the terrace. It was a challenge to find the necessary ingredients and I would not brag about this dinner to anyone. He had gotten some friends coming from France to bring me cranberries, so I was able to make cranberry sauce for Christmas Day since I missed Thanksgiving.

Christmas Day I opened my Christmas stocking - Wow, just what I wanted!!-- and then went to have brunch on a terrace overlooking the ocean. The food was not great, but the company was. The expats in Essaouira are from all over the world and this group of women included 2 Brits, 1 Aussie, 1 Hungarian, and 1 Norwegian. We spent 5 hours eating, drinking, chatting, and just relaxing. It was lovely.

That evening I got to Zoom with the kids. Rory was in California and Jasper was in Hood River with his dad.

The New Year really was a fitting end to 2020. Nothing happened. I was around no one (all of Morocco had a curfew from 8 pm Dec. 31 until 8 am Jan. 1.) On New Year's Eve I went to a cafe on the beach to have a glass of wine and toast the final sunset of the year. I was alone and spent the time reflecting on what 2020 had changed, destroyed and created. New Year's Day I went back to the beach to watch the first sunset of 2021.

In the couple of weeks since then I have decided to move up to Rabat (the capitol) for a bit. I got my 3rd contract, less lucrative than the first two, but I can live on it in Morocco. However, I want to find some work that really brings me joy and I don't see that happening here in Essaouira. It's a wonderful place, relaxing, and I have met some great people, but I'm not part of the local community and that feels so odd to me. I need to renew my carte de sejour which I had heard would be easier the 2nd time--WRONG. If I can't renew it, I will have to leave the country and reenter as a tourist (not super easy right now with COVID.) That's the update. I'll let you know in February if I was successful in renewing my residency or if I am in a different country. Who knows what will have happened in the US in the meantime? I hope everyone is staying healthy and sane. Enjoy the things we take for granted: heat, a home, food, friends, etc.