Hammamming

I finally got around to visiting a hamman today. You probably all know what a hammam is, but just to let you know this one consisted of three rooms of varying temperature - lukewarm, warm, and steamy. You basically just strip down to your underwear and pay a woman to scrub you to within an inch of your life from head to toe. I find it interesting that Moroccan women, who find it riske to go with an uncovered head in public, have no problems with the whole semi-naked thing in a hammam, whilst the American volunteers here, who have no problem with bare arms, mini-skirts, low-cut tops etc totally freak out at the thought of being topless amongst other women. I fell somewhere in between - not too phased about being mostly naked, a little weirded out by having another mostly naked woman scrub me, but pretty comfy overall - except for the losing skin part I mean. The most awkward part for me probably was that I couldn't communicate with the lady scrubbing me, so i wasn't always sure what she wanted me to do; it pretty much worked best when she just treated me like a doll and moved me around how she liked. I have to say that I feel pretty good right now. It's a tough life here sometimes; finishing work at 11:30am, having lunch served for you, then going for a nice walk, visiting the hammam, and then getting home just in time for mint tea and crepes. No wonder I started to feel sad about leaving Morocco this week! I'm very glad that I have Damien to look forward to this weekend, because otherwise I would be feeling very sad to leave the home base where I've been living for the past 6 weeks. Only 5 more sleeps until he gets here :)