All of last week, we noticed a subtle change around Bab Chellah, which is on the way some of us go to/from school -- there seemed to be more police, and there was also some construction going on. It turns out the king was planning on coming to celebrate a holiday, the birth of the prophet Muhammad (not commonly celebrated in the Islamic world because you don't want to worship Muhammad too much or it makes him out to be a Jesus-like God figure, which he explicitly is not). On the day of the holiday, we learned that the king was coming at 7:00 to Bab Chellah, but unfortunately we already had plans.
Some people in our group, however, did see him and said it was amazing (they were about 10ft from the king! Pretty cool). According to them, the whole thing was oddly emotional given that they have no actual connection to the king; but just being around all of these people who are in love with him and who were screaming for him caused them to get caught up in the emotional fervor. Or something.
Anyway; the whole thing got me thinking. They paved an entire street for the king's coming. Does this always happen? Anytime he goes anywhere, they pave the streets for him? Aside from being hilarious (instead of a red carpet wherever you go, they literally pave the streets for you) I also wonder if the king has serious problems seeing what Morocco is actually like. I doubt it, but it's possible that he thinks that Morocco is in better infrastructural shape than it actually is.
By the way, what I was doing instead was watching Carnage, which was in English. I had wanted to see what Moroccan theaters were like for a long time but didn't want to sit through a movie in French or Arabic, which I would be unable to understand. I was worried this would be dubbed over in French and so still be a waste of money, but it was subtitled in French instead, so that was awesome. Also, the movie is hilarious. As for Moroccan theaters, they're like American but smaller (there was one screen/room), they don't sell popcorn/candy etc, and tickets cost about a dollar.
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