Geography lesson courtesy of the US State Department

Another world map and another chance to guess what group Morocco is placed in. This time the map is courtesy of the U.S. State Department's U.S. Embassy locator.)

Africa? That would be most logical since Morocco is on the continent of Africa.

Europe? That would be a little less logical but Europe is just 9 miles away, a hop, skip and a jump across the Straits of Gibraltar.

No, Morocco is part of the Near East, which Mr. Wiki says is a geographic term for Western Asia. Hmmm. 

 The Encyclopaedia Britannica, the UN, and the National Geographic all place Morocco outside of the "Near East".

My vote would be the Western Hemisphere. Why not? The U.S. is only 3381 miles away while Oman is 3909 miles away.

Up and away

What the summer looks like in an ex-pat community:

 Theme song for the month? 

"Leaving on a jet plane" of course.

Guarana Antarctica!

It's always fun to try new things, and last night I had my first Brazilian soda at the  Restaurant Les Epices on Avenue Atlas.

It turns out that guarana is a climbing plant and its seed extract is used in drinks.  From there I learned (thanks to Ms. Wiki):

•Brazil is the third largest consumer of soft drinks in the world,

•this particular brand of guarana soda, Guarana Antarctica, is the second best-selling soft drink in Brazil (behind Coca-Cola), 

•and that only three countries produce it. 

I wasn't surprised that along with Brazil, Portugal is one of those three countries. But Japan as the third did surprise me until Ms. Wiki reminded me that Brazil is home to the largest Japanese population outside Japan. Considering USA's melting pot status, I think that would be a Quiz Night-worthy question. 

Another Quiz Night-worthy question is why this restaurant serves a Brazilian soft drink--it specializes in Central and West African, Indian, and Mexican cuisine, and Ms. Wiki says Guarana Antarctica is only available in 20 countries and none are in Africa (nor India or Mexico). 

Oh, and yes, I liked it--an apple-esque flavor I'd say, with hints of grape notes.  

Time to sing "Does anybody really know what time it is?"

I got up early this morning, probably woken up by the call to prayer coming in over the loudspeaker (it's not called loud for nothing). I checked the time on my itouch and groaned. Way too early.

I got my laptop to check email and do a little surfing. Suddenly I thought I had entered a time warp. 

It seemed like an hour had vanished. (I took this picture seconds before I took the itouch screen shot.)

Well, I did what anyone would do. I googled the time. 

(Don't let the minutes fool you. I took this one first.)

Whew. Trusty Google comes through again. Or did it???

I decided to check the top six search results just to be sure. 

(Time to sing the chorus to the Chicago song "Does anybody really know what time it is?)

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Yes, it's a tie. And then our clock chimed. 

Someone must have gotten mixed up. Because tomorrow at 2 AM Daylight savings time ends here. (Ramadan is coming and for a month the clocks will be in regular time before turning back to Daylight savings time. Anyone confused yet?)

So now you may think that settles it. Except I haven't forgotten what happened here two years ago when the government postponed the fall time change 15 hours before it was scheduled to take place.    

Let's just say I'm glad I don't have a plane to catch this morning. 

And one thing I do know: it's time for some coffee.

Definition of chergui

Chergui: a hot dry wind from the Sahara which turns a normally mild oceanfront city into a desert. 

  Also, the annual reminder that I have yet to master temperatures in Celsius.  37 didn't sound bad until I realized that is 98 Fahrenheit. And the 42 degrees Celsius a little further inland? A whopping 107. 
              

Geography lesson courtesy of Ibis Hotels

Here's the world according to Ibis Hotels:

That's right,Morocco is part of Europe. So is Israel.

Hmmm. Is that because it didn't want to be grouped with its friendly neighbors?