Daniel Ferrante

While on holiday to the Grand Canyon with Green Tortoise, one of the drivers woke us up early one morning screaming, “Wake Up Lazy Europeans! Get out of bed!” (incidentally, he also jokingly complained that the Grand Canyon sucked because he thought it would be “grander”).

The Europeans on the trip laughed it off, but I think he was quite accurate. In addition to a strike per week (”That’s all we ask.”), the schools have holiday for a week or so every six weeks, PLUS summer holiday. Now, I’m not complaining, because hey, I teach here. But the thing that REALLY confuses me is the frequency of bus stops.

I live in the dorms at the University. There’s a small street used ONLY by buses. This street is maybe 600 feet long (excuse me, .909 furlongs). This street has THREE bus stops. WTF? And beyond that - some people board the bus at one stop and then get off at the very next stop - as though the 200 ft (excuse me, 133.3 cubits) was too far. I actually saw someone wait ten minutes at one of these bus stops only to get off at the next… because it takes longer than 2 minutes to walk 12.12 rods. (That one was for you, Jeff).

Of course, if I get the job with JET, I’ll be working Japanese hours, which means I get to crash in a tube sized bed at the metro station three nights a week to sleep off the Sake.

I wonder what the work ethic is like in Marrakech?