So I've clicked my heels and here I am! There's no place like home.

I'm back in the USA!!!!! I flew home Saturday and went straight to Westport MA with Tricia and Jason. But before I get into that, I need to back track a few weeks.

So Chandra and I left for Safi, a small surf town further down the coast Sunday the 28th of November. We stayed in this cheap hotel in the Rabat medina that reminded me sooooo much of Alice in Wonderland. Seriously, I could take a picture of both the ceiling and the floor in the same frame without being vertical. We had left wicked early to take the early train. It ended up being late because it just happened to be the day of a HUGE soccer game in Casablanca and a protest about the Western Sahara (a huge hot topic here). So we sat and had some apples, bread and peanut butter and creeped on the other people at the station.

My favorite target was this guy. Chandra had just mentioned how weird it is that we look like tourists again with our big bags but then I spotted this guy sitting with his backpack and baseball hat reading his guidebook intently with a plastic bag with Africa on it. It was hilarious just seeing him and everyone's obvious reaction to him.

Anyway, before our train got there, another train stopped. OH man it was awesome. The train was packed to capacity, as in there were young men hanging out of it as it was moving. When it stopped all of these young men got off the train temporarily and took their picture with a Moroccan flag, then ran to jump back on the train. I just couldn't stop laughing, which called more attention to us than usual. but it just reminded me so much of sports events and just college events in the US. There was just so much excitement and anticipation.

Finally, our train got there, then we switched trains in Benguerir. Chandra had a nice conversation with some people on the train while I slept. We got into Safi in the afternoon and our first order of business was to find a hotel. My first impression of Safi wasn't great. It was clear that poverty hit it hard and as it wasn't a touristy city, it seemed like we stood out quite a bit. We found a hotel and decided to stay. The first room the owner tried to give us was right by the road and we knew we had a TON of work to do for our papers so I asked him if we could have a quieter room. We went right across the hall where there were 3 beds and a sink... still trying to figure that part out. But it cost the same and we were happy. We went out and explored the city. It was a beautiful day, so we walked for quite a bit until we stopped at this really cute restaurant in the middle of all of the action. The people there were so nice! The owner came over and made sure our dinner was good. As usual, they got very excited when we used the little arabic we know. We said that the food was delicious so he went over and brought out the chef and had us repeat what we had said (in arabic). It was just adorable. So we tipped well, walked a little more, then went back to the hotel.

The next 2 days it rained harder and more than I had thought possible. Not that it mattered all that much because we didn't leave our room until about 11:30am each day, just to use the turkish toilet. The first day we procrastinated by waking up late, then talking on skype. We did some writing, went out for dinner at the same place, but ran back to the hotel because of the rain. We worked a little bit, then went to bed. The second day we spent the whole day writing and working on our papers. We went out to eat, but went to a different place this time. We went to a cafe and talked with a local guy who was intrigued by our decision to visit Safi of all places. Then we went to a small hole in the wall restaurant. Afterwards we went back to the hotel and did more work. As soon as it started getting late I started getting worked up about my topic (domestic violence is kinda rough to power through) so we watched Fern Gully.
The next morning we got ready to leave on the 11:30 bus for Essaouira. and started on our way. I wasn't feeling very well, but I wanted to leave so we started on our way to find the bus station. We decided to walk to find our way and had plenty of time when we left. I started to feel pretty sick about ten minutes into the walk and told chandra that we should proably find a bathroom. unfortunately there were no hotels and no restaurants... only cafes which may or may not have bathrooms. So all of a sudden I couldn't handle it or hold it in any more and I threw up onto a tree on the sidewalk, then again on the street. Did I mention it was pouring rain? we were drenched. but we kept walking until we found a cab which could take us the 2 seconds to the bus station. we had been wicked close but didn't know exactly where it was so the cab was a good idea anyway. So Chandra bought our tickets while I bought water and sat with our stuff She asked me if I still wanted to leave that day for essaouira, but I was hell bent... until I stood up to go to the bus and threw up again in a plastic bag So Chandra changed our bus tickets and we went looking for a hotel closer to the bus station. We ended up at this cute little place that was clean and nice where I crashed and slept for 5 or 6 hours. I was kind of a mess, but Chandra went out while I was sleeping and got bread, bananas and apple soda.
I showered and worked a little bit on my project, then we watched Stick It and went to bed. We got up the next morning, found the bus station again after trying a new way to get there, and got on the bus to Essaouira. Once we got there we were bombarded by people trying to promote their hotels. We shook them off, then walked in the direction a nice man had pointed us in to find the medina. We passed shops and I think a prison on our way, but we finally made it with all of our stuff into the medina. We were looking for a cheap hotel that wasn't too sketchy but this old kinda sketch man was following us trying to get us to go to his hotel that was supposedly very nice and cheap. But I got a weird vibe from him and chandra and I couldn't shake him no matter what we did so finally I just said "Shuma, we don't want to go with you, stop following us. Shuma." and then he went on to the next tourist. But not 2 seconds later another (younger) man gave us his card for another hotel and told us a good price. Chandra was ready to blow him off, but I stopped and said maybe we should check it out. I mean what's te harm in seeing it, we can always say no, right? So we went with him and he asked us if we'd been before and told us we had to check out the main square. He was pretty nice and led us to this street on the edge of the medina where there were several hotels. He took us in and had a conversation with the other man in the hotel who said that they didn't have any rooms for that low price for 2 of us. So he told us they had one at a higher price or we could go to another place for the price he originally gave us. So we asked for the cheaper one. I was expecting something kinda sketch, but he took us through a beautiful blue door up the stairs to this clean, bright white room with a queen sized bed a bathroom and a cute little window. We were sold. So we booked it for the 3 nights and let me tell you it was the best money ever spent. it was just the cutest place and the people there were so nice! We woke up one morning to Michael Jackson as they cleaned. It was super cute.

So once we had our hotel we kind of wandered, but then worked on our papers. The next few days are kind of a blur of shopping, beach, cafes and research. I finished my paper apart from the works cited by Friday. Thursday I was kind of a mess and couldn't stop typing until I was done. I stayed up until 3am writing furiously. We watched Some Like It Hot (an old Marilyn Monroe), Fern Gully, and Glee to stay sane, but we both went a little crazy that whole week. I pumped out 27 pages on domestic violence in morocco and chandra got over 40 pages on childhood stories and how they form a person's world view and perception of social norms. We kept flip flopping on who was a mess.It was kinda crazy. By the end of the trip, Chandra and I had spent every day together and pretty much knew each other's life story. We just told people we were sisters because that seemed to make more sense to them.

It seemed like the street harassment was actually worse in Essaouira, despite the fact that we were two of many tourists. We went running on the beach and luckily got less attention than usual, but when we were walking to dinner one night this reall sketchy kid followed us and put his arm around us until I pulled away and he grabbed my arm. I shot him my best "If you touch me again I can guarantee you will never have children" look and he backed off. right away. it was great. then we went for dinner where we saw the cutest kid ever. He really didn't want his older brother to leave so he kept running after him. Then his brother, who was about our age, would pick him up and carry him back, then hid behind the wall until this kid found him again. it was adorable. We were on this balcony over a square where kids were playing soccer and one older boy was showing off to his friends ( and I think he knew we were watching) by doing flips in the air. It was pretty awesome not gonna lie.

So finally by saturday I realized that I had left my wallet at the hotel in Safi. So we took the bus on saturday into safi, then took the train from safi to rabat where we were all meeting again for our independent study presentations. The people at the hotel were sooo nice! Then after a nice lunch at a side restaurant and after getting a little lost, we took a cab to the train station. We JUST caught the train and prepared for a nice long ride. We got into Rabat at around 9:30, and immediately checked into the hotel. Chandra and I roomed together again with our friend Puja. Chandra really wanted to find our group of friends but I was not feeling a social situation until I came back up to the room and found Denise, Raleigh and Puja in the room next door to mine. We started talking about the program and morocco in general. It was nice because it was a group of people I didn't usually talk to a lot and more and more people kept coming in and joining the conversation until we realized it was about 1am and we were exhausted.

We had monday off, we just had to drop off a hard copy of our papers to the main office. It was such a relief but also a frustration to hand it in. There's so much more work that should have gone into that paper but it was finally over. I realized that week that this is what I want to do with my life. I want to work on the campaign to end domestic violence and violence against women. If I really wanted to I could move to morocco, help out a woman's organization, work my way up to the ministry of health and work with them to promote a change in society's view of women and masculinity. And I could do that for the rest of my life. But I would have to move to morocco and I know quite a few people who would be upset with that. So I think instead I'm going to turn my attention to dv in the US. People really don't know very much about it and it's a huge issue. Anyway, Monday flew by between dropping off our papers, shopping, a library visit and picking up our big bags from our friend Pauline's apartment, Unfortunately the girls that had stayed with her left her a HUGE mess and a pile of clothes that they had no intention of taking with them and just left for her to figure out what to do with them. Then Tuesday they had the gall to ask her if she grabbed the clothes for them! But she donated them to charity so she told them no. But Chandra and I stayed Monday night and helped her clean up.

Tuesday went by pretty fast too although we sat through presentations from 8:30am to 4:30pm. I was going to go to the library to use the internet, but it was closed. I felt like such a mess because I was presenting Wednesday and really didn't feel prepared at all. So I went to the grocery store and bought cookies and candy to give out at my presentation because it was so frickin depressing. I went back to the hotel where I had been planning on jut sitting in my room and possibly crying. Instead I bumped into my friend Eli while I was trying to get my room key from the desk. He saw my face and told me that I had to listen to the moroccan music he had just bought and that he was looking for a book that I had already bought. So I dropped off the cookies and went to the bookstore, then to the souk to get more music. We went and got juice, walked around more, got ice cream and finally stopped at a holiday store that was right next store to the hotel. On the way I bumped into my host sister's boyfriend and friend. But Eli and I talked for about 2 hours while we walked around, and afterwards I felt so much more relaxed. I decided hanging out with only girls all the time really puts you on edge after a while!

There was some drama partly because Chandra and I got so close and we kind of isolated ourselves from the rest of the group, but I think it was just how some people responded to the stress of leaving soon and presentations. It was an intense and emotional time. Wednesday morning I went for a run alone and showered, then felt ready for presentations. Chandra Eli and I presented at the same time which may have been for the best because I knew both of their topics and they knew mine already. My powerpoint didn't work with their computer, so I did without it, but it didn;t matter. I did what I needed to do and left it at that. Thursday night we had a program dinner that was ultimately anti climatic and led into couscous Friday. Chandra and I went back to my host family's house for lunch and hung out with them for a while until we had to leave. I said good bye to Ahmed and Hemsa his best friend who had become like a brother. Then I said good bye to Chaimaa and started to cry a little bit. After saying good bye to her and promising that I'll come back next semester while I'm in France, I went down the stairs and said one of the hardest good byes... good bye to my host mom. We hugged and immediately started crying harder than I've cried in a long time. But the only way I got out was with the promise of my return in the spring. I felt my heart ripping out of my chest as I walked out of the house and onto the street.

We went to the library and said a few more good byes to people there, especially the guy who constantly had to kick us out all semester.

We knew we had to wake up early (4am) the next morning for our 6:50 flight but instead of going to bed early, we watched glee and Chandra put henna on Megan and I. Megan left at about 2:30 to get a few hours of sleep, but Chandra and I couldn't sleep so we just stayed up talking the next hour and a half or so until I needed to start getting ready. Chandra wasn't on the early flight but went to spain in the afternoon to meet up with a friend so we had to say good bye at the hotel. If I thought my host mom's good bye was painful, this was the worst good bye I have said aside from Jason, my sister and a few friends when I left the US just because I have no idea when I'm going to see her again, especially since I'm going to France next semester. We were both in hysterics. It took me something like ten minutes to say good bye and get up the courage to physically leave. But I left and got onto the bus with Eli, Mark and Megan along with many others.

Luckily my bag was not too heavy and my flight was all in order. 3 people missed the flight because one had left her passport at the hotel, another had overslept and one girl's flight was all messed up and needed to reschedule it for the next day. But I made it on the plane and slept for about 20 minutes before deciding it was useless... I was too excited to sleep. Those of us who had terminals nearby went through security again together and got lunch and coffee, then we split again. Puja and I were on the same flight into Boston and a couple others were at the next terminal so we sat and waited. While we waited we talked to a really nice woman from Boston living in Malaysia. She was so nice and wanted to hear all about morocco. As we boarded the plane Puja and I talked about the things that we would not miss about morocco like street harasssment and lack of crosswalks. We sat close but not close enough to talk so I made friends with the businessman who sat next to me. It continues to amaze me how curious people are about morocco. He wanted to know all about my semester! so we talked for a while until we both started watching our respective movies. I watched Robin hood, eat pray love and a TV show. I was so confused about how much time was left because of the time difference. I hadn't changed my watch from morocco but france was an hour ahead, then the US was 6 hours back from that. It was to much math for not a lot of sleep. lol. So when we finally landed I was so excited I couldn't sit anymore. I stood up asap and got all my stuff together. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face when I walked off the plane, sailed through customs and got my baggage with Puja. I couldn't find my sister when I first got out so I went to the bathroom. When I got out I spotted her and just sprinted and lept. Luckily she caught me! She met Puja, we said good bye, then I went on the hunt for Jason. I saw his car and just ran faster than i thought possible in heels with my cart of luggage, I launched myself onto him and started crying. The drive to Tricia's house was shocking. I was blown away by the signs in English and the familiarity of it all. And the snow!!!

I had my first drink at No Problemo while eating a burrito (sangria). I felt so bad though because before saying good night to anyone I passed out on the inflated mattress. The next morning Jason and I left for VT where I've been for the past week. Another huge shock to my system! This past week has been a rollercoaster ride of long awaited hellos and quick good byes as I get ready for my next adventure: France!

But as a very wise woman suggested, I should probably sum up my experience in Morocco before starting on the next voyage. All I can say is it was an incredible experience and one hell of a ride! I loved it, hated it, miss it, wish I could go back, resent it for my lack of hygiene now and inability to speak proper English. I love the places I've been and the lifelong friendships that were formed through the most intense experiences and emotions I've ever felt. It was a whirlwind semester that is indescribable, I have such complex feelings whenever I think about this past semester but ultimately I loved it. I love the feelings because it makes me think in a way I never even knew existed. I can't wait for the next one!

January 8th I embark with Tricia for a night in Dublin and the beginning of my experience in France. Until then, I'll be in Newton NJ seeing as much of my family and friends as possible. Merry Christmas (I missed Christmas season!) and Happy New Year!

Blame it on the ISP

So I'm actually just writing to say that I won't be writing a lot. Funny how that works, right? Everything's fine, I'm on my way to Safi (a small non-touristy fishing town on the coast) to start writing my ISP. This past week has been a little crazy with getting everything together for my independent study, changing my topic a little for the last time, going to 2 conferences (in Arabic), Thanksgiving and moving out of the apartment in Sale. while this whole semester has been such a whirlwind, I still can't believe that this past week is over and I'm actually here right now. By here I don't mean literally here in Morocco, but here at this point in the trip. I've gotten used to so much here and I can't believe I only have less than 2 weeks before returning to the US. IT just feels so surreal! 2 weeks, 30 pages, a presentation, a ton of heart-breaking good byes and a flight are the only things separating me from America.

Anyway, since I have this 30 page paper to write by next Sunday, which btw I haven't started it yet, I won't be posting for another week. But I promise when I'm finished with my paper and have my presentation under control I'll write again bien sur. In shallah (hopefully) i'll have the first draft done by Wednesday. Wish me luck! It's going to be a looonnnnggg week.

Let's hide the sfouf in the crack den!

Thursday
Sooooo it's definitely been an interesting couple of days. number 1) i'm on day 3 without a shower 2) i saw 4 freakin sheep slaughtered yesterday morning and 3)I ate more innards than i ever thought i could stomach (no pun intended but I did eat lung and was offered pancreas. politely declined by telling Chaima I didn't think I could handle it).
After I posted yesterday, everyone napped, then we all had tea and cookies. I met Hemsa's sister and hit the highlight of my day... she thought I was Moroccan! I was sitting there with the family still in my pjs (which btw is VERY moroccan... no one changes out of their pjs unless they are leaving the house and even then you can just throw on a djellaba to cover the fact that you haven't changed in 2 days) with the cat on my lap and i kissed her when she came in and said Salam alle cum (which is like saying hello). She started talking to everyone in Arabic and was telling what seemed to be a hilarious story about Hemsa, who is my host brother's best friend. Everyone was cracking up,, but I was just sitting there petting the cat. I guess she must have said something to Hemsa because I hear him say (in arabic) "no, she's from the US." His sister was like, really? and he said yeah, she's american. At that his sister turned to me and said "I am so sorry... I thought you were Moroccan! I thought that you were just sad or something because you weren't talking at all." She was so cute! After tea and cookies, Hemsa, his sister, Ahmed, Chaima and I went out for a walk. I have NEVER seen the streets so empty! Usually Suika, the main street and open market, is crazy busy with people walking and shouting prices and trying to sell you things but it was almost completely deserted because of the holiday! While we were walking Hemsa's sister walked with me and talked to me about her life. She works in marketing, but was told that she can only work in an office because she wears the head scarf. She used to work in Europe but she didn't wear a scarf then. On our way back, we saw this intense physical fight. A woman was beating this young man and then a fully grown man joined in. The young man fell to the ground and a man proceeded to kick him in the stomach. Then the young man managed to get away and ran, but then fell to the ground again. Fortunately a bunch of men intervened and stopped it. It was one of the only times i've truly felt powerless here. I realized I really wanted to do something, anything, to help this kid but I 1) don't speak the language 2) I'm a woman and it probably would not have been good in that regard and 3) if I had gotten involved I probably would have just gotten the kid in more trouble and gotten myself into a mess. So we stood there until it was broken up.
Today I woke up early and went with my family to the butcher. They carried the 4 sheep carcasses down the street to be chopped up. Apparently some families do it themselves and mine used to, but the past couple years they've been going to the butcher, so there we were. We carted the meat back to the house and watched as Ahmed and his cousin carried the last one off. On our way back to the butcher, we watched as the sheep fell from their arms onto the street! It was crazy watching these 2 boys try to carry this huge sheep. Luckily a nice man was coming the other way and took the sheep from them and carried it the rest of the way for them.

At this point I think I need to talk about what I must have looked like. This is day 4 of no shower, meshimushkil, I was still in my pjs as I have been for the past 24/48 hours and I was wearing Chaima's djellaba over them. I was still not wearing contacts because of my eye and I haven't washed my face or brushed my teeth because I had breakfast, then went straight to the butcher's. And I was actually in public like this! Clearly my sense of hygiene has been so skewed by this trip. I'm actually beginning to get a little concerned for when I get back to the US.

Anyway, I left in the afternoon and only was able to leave with the promise that I would be back Friday for couscous. I love my host family so much! So I came back to my very cute apartment with Megan because Chandra was going to get her friend Hannah from the Casablanca airport. I'm not sure if I've described the apartment yet. It's this really cute place on the 2nd floor of a little complex in the middle of a sleepy little part of Sale. Although we don't have a refrigerator, hot water or an oven we're cooking our own meals every day we're there. It's actually not that difficult because of our location right between the open veggie market and the grocery store. We just cook enough for us and use things like milk and cheese within 24 hours of opening them.

Friday I headed back to Rabat in the afternoon and had a great lunch with my host family. After lunch, my host mom carried a covered pot to the table. I was shocked when she opened it and there was one of the sheep heads! They had boiled it so that they could take off the skin and take out the tongue, brain and whatever other meat they wanted. They made fun of me while I sat and watched with my eyes popping out of my head and my mouth covered with my hand. I just couldn't believe that they could do it so non chalantly! It was pretty crazy. I left in the afternoon again and hung out with my friend Lauren. Apparently there's some drama with the group that is living in an apartment in the medina, but there are also a lot of very strong personalities.We (the girls who are living in Rabat, Megan, Chandra and her friend Hannah) went out to Pizza Hut for dinner, which was a welcome change to the sheep and moroccan food and also cooking. Afterwards we went to get ice cream and had an unfortunate encounter with a couple of drunk men who seemed to think it was ok to follow us.

Here is my theory: the attention that a group of girls gets on the streets here increases exponentially by the amount of blonde hair that is visible. Which is quite unfortunate because Chandra, Hannah and I all have blonde hair. But we headed towards the medina and the guys left us alone. Then we caught the bus and went back to the apartment.

Saturday we went back into Rabat after a late breakfast. Unfortunately it was raining, but that didn't stop us from walking around the beach and the medina and visiting the kasbah's beautiful garden. I went to the HUGE grocery store in Rabat that reminds me of Walmart and got marshmallows and oats. I got back just in time to hang out with Chandra, Hannah and Chandra's Moroccan friend Driss who is 30 and speaks pretty decent English. He kept us laughing with his stories about sneaking over to Spain and told us more about the Eid. We returned to Sale not at all hungry but ready to cook. So we made dinner with veggies, then made these amazing no bake cookies with the oats, bananas, peanut butter and milk. We ate like 1/2 of the cookies right out of the pan. Seriously, we're going to need a wheelbarrow to get me out of this country. None of us were even that hungry, but it was just so addictive! We were all on such a sugar high, then we felt pretty sick. Hannah was hilarious when she all of a sudden said "Erin there is something wrong with your prescription. It says to take it with an empty stomach, but that's not possible while you're in Morocco." It's so true! While we were trying to overcome our silliness, we explained to Hannah why we called the back room the crack den. When we had made sfouf (this awesome combination of peanuts, almonds, sesame seeds, browned flour, honey and oil) late one night we had to blend it. But we didn't want to keep up our neighbors so I suggested that we blend it in the back room. I stayed in the kitchen to clean up, but when I went back and tried to open the door, Chandra just looked up and said "close the door" while Megan was sorting through all of the nuts to make sure that the big ones went in first. I sat there and seriously felt like a drug dealer. So now we refer to the back bedroom as the crack den. So since there is a lock with a key, on Saturday night we decided to hide the sfouf, no bake cookies and the milk in the crack den with the window open and treat it somewhat like a fridge. with a lock. so we couldn't eat anymore.

Sunday we woke up late again and made a late breakfast/early lunch of oatmeal, cinnamon, milk, honey and membrillo which is the perfect combination between apple and pear. I stayed in and researched for my project while Chandra took Hannah around the souk, then to the airport. It was so sad saying good bye to Hannah, but luckily she'll be in Madrid all year so we might travel together next semester! When Chandra got back we went to the souk and got stuff for dinner, and had a nice quiet night. While it's been nice having other people stay with us, it's also nice to have some quiet and have it just be the 2 of us.

I saw four sheep slaughtered before 11am... how was your day?

So it's the Eid and let me tell you it's been a day. I came back to my family's house last night and had dinner with them. There were 2 sheep waiting upstairs when I got there and I was assured that there were 2 more coming. I wasn't sure how sleeping was going to go because my family's cousins are all here, but I shared the room with Leila and Chaima. Unfortunately Chaima's teeth are bothering her, so we both went to bed early, me because I knew today would be crazy, and Chaima hoping to get some sleep. I got up this morning and had this great breakfast of pancake-like things covered in butter and honey and of course tea. It was awesome! Then I went downstairs to change and brush my teeth, but I didn't get to do anything because the men came to slaughter the sheep. It was CRAZY!!!! I watched most of it and Chaima took pictures and a video for me. I still don't think it's registered for me, but it was pretty weird. I just kept saying "welli welli welli" which is like saying "ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh." I couldn't watch some of it, but I was seriously impressed with how much I was able to watch without seeing my amazing breakfast again. After they killed them, they would blow into the skin so that it inflated like a balloon because it makes it easier to shave off the skin. Once the legs, skin and heads are off, they hung them from the ceiling with plastic underneath. Never have I ever seen so much blood in one place in my entire life. It's truly amazing how these women cleaned after. They dumped water and soap all over the floor and the terrace floor and pushed it all into the drain in the corner. These women are so incredible! everything is clean and normal again other than the 4 sheep bodies just hangin out (no pun intended!) For lunch we had the liver and fat which btw is definitely an acquired texture. Then they all started cleaning again and although I keep offering to help, they told me no, but maybe tomorrow. Btw I'm still in my pjs... there just hasn't been any time to change and it's already quarter to 4! The day isn't even over, but I thought I should write now while I have the time... the way things are going, who knows what other crazy things will happen! My friend who is staying across the street told me that around the corner they are shaving off the horns and cooking the heads on a fire... Idk if I'm up for it now, but I might go and check it out later. I mean how many times am I going to be in a Muslim country for this?

Ok I know I need to stop writing novels, but it's been an interesting week!

Thursday
So we had our arabic final exam today and let me tell you I am soooooo happy to have it be done and overwith! It was rough being one eyed, but my eyes did really well! we'll see how well when i get my exam back though. lol. After the exam, we had a calligraphy class which i think was just unecessary. It seems like a lot of what happens with our program is well intentioned, but ill timed. Like for exam this calligraphy class. It was in English and he was teaching us how to write each letter in the arabic alphabet. after we just took our final exam. in arabic. seems kinda ridiculous, right? we thought so too. after the calligraphy class we had lunch, then i went to kenitra to the organization i've been visiting. The woman there is so cute! we talked in darija, french and a very little bit of english. she invited me to a conference on the 27th for victims of violence, which should be really interesting. By the time I got back from Kenitra it was a little late and i was so exhausted!
Friday
No classes! I woke up late (9am), had breakfast with my family, then went to watch a movie with some friends. We didn't actually finish the movie, but I left to have lunch with my family and pick up my money for ISP. They give us enough money to live off for the next 3 weeks. It'll be good to see how I budget my money and how I manage to restrain myself from shopping. it's gonna be rough fo sho! I hate having cash on me because i'm much more inclined to spend it, so i decided to hide ti on myself. hahaha i have money in the weirdest places now! Anyway, we were supposed to have a fun dance party-ish thing with our families today, but because my host dad passed away, it was shuma for them to go. Chaima looked so sad when she told me! But it's completely understandable. So instead we went shopping on suika (the main souk-road) for things for the Eid.

I don't think I've fully explained the Eid yet... So it's a Muslim holiday when Abraham sacrificed the sheep instead of his son. So on Eid, which is Wednesday, they sacrifice one sheep per family. Except that 3 other families are going to be celebrating at my family's house. meaning 4 dead sheep. It's going to be a mess. as in I'm going to be a mess. They keep showing me videos and pictures of last year's Eid and let me tell you, I am convinced they're going to find me downstairs curled up hiding under a blanket.

Anyway, I went out with Chaima, Ahmed and our neighbors, Mariam, who is 13, and her mom Rachida. We walked around for a while, but Chaima and I kept getting distracted with different shops so we were constantly trying to catch up until Rachida decided we would walk in front of her. But when I walked a little bit ahead, 2 guys catcalled at me in English. I guess Chaima didn't hear them and called me back to look at something. I guess that was all they needed for encouragement because they then followed us almost all the way home! By the time we got back we were all really tired. But it seems like no matter how tired I am, I seem to sign onto skype regardless. It's gotten a little bad. I was thinking about it and it's definitely a good thing that I didn't get the internet modem until now. Even though it's been rough not having internet, I've spend so much more time with my host family and gotten so much more sleep this semester that I think it's really been good. But it's good that I have it now.

Saturday
So tomorrow I'm moving out of my home stay and into my new apartment with chandra and megan is staying for a few days. I'm freaking out a little bit (ok a lot) because I really love my family. I don't want to move out. They're so much fun and I have fallen in love with all of them and my life here. I don't know what to do. They've just been so good to me and so wonderful, I'm so sad thinking i'm not going to live with them anymore. .
But today I went shopping with Chandra and Jena before Jena left for home. We got some pretty good deals, then Jena had to leave to get her stuff together. Chandra and I walked around Rabat looking for the English bookstore with no luck, but we did get to explore some random parts that I had never seen before. And I tried a prickly pear which btw are delicious! They're like a combination of watermelon and mango and pineapple. it was awesome. After wondering for a while, we went to meet the gang to take Jena to the airport. On the way to the airport, Jena told us that her host family may have taken her camera. She's had so many issues with this family! First they were using her stuff (make up, computer, clothes, jewelry, etc), then they were feeding her in her room, her clothes weren't coming back from the laundry and her host mom told her she owed them much more money than possible for the medical bills from when Jena was in the hospital. Then Jena told us that she still coudln't find 2 pairs of pants and that her camera is missing. I got really really fired up. So i told her we would get it for her and at the very least mail it to her when we get back.
I was in tears at the airport when we had to say good bye. It just broke my heart that she left and i won't see her for a very long time. I hate this part of the whole study abroad thing. that whole making friends then all going back to respective states/countries thing is completely not ok with me. I'm considering becoming a hermit. then at least there's no one to say good bye to! but i think i would go crazy. like legit crazy. and i think it would only last for like 2 days. then I would be bored and miss being around people. After I got back from the airport, i had a late lunch, hung out with Chaima and we put tea on our eyes which is supposed to help with bags (?), exposed my family to peanut butter on oreos (they loved it!) and gave them the gifts i got. They gave me a teapot, which is adorable and my host mom's friend gave me a purse. It was so sweet! I packed all my stuff and let me tell you it was r.o.u.g.h. rough. my bag is packed to the max and i even have an extra plastic bag with crap in it. this does not look promising for going home btw. i think i'm going to have to leave quite a few of my clothes. packing's going to be a problem fo sho.

Sunday and Monday
I woke up at like 8, but I couldn't handle going upstairs and having to say goodbye, so I watched bones for 40minutes. I had breakfast with my family, then got dressed, got my stuff together and said my good byes. It's funny because I'm coming back in a couple days for the Eid so my tears were kinda ridiculous, but I think we all recognized that it wouldn't be the same. Regardless of how often I come back, I'm not living with them anymore, so it's not the same. My host mom and I cried for a little bit, then I left with Ahmed and his best friend Hemsa who's over like every day and is practically adopted. They helped me carry my stuff, then we met up with Megan, and they took some of her stuff too. We went to Chandra's house, then to the woman who we're renting the apartment from's house. They were so cute! The 2 boys (remember, they're only 14) were so sweet and carried as much as they could, then waited with us at the bus stop. It was hilarious because they bumped into one of their friends and when he asked them where they were going, they said they were coming to New York with us. It was adorable because Hemsa was like "you have a place for me to stay, right?" and "you are my sister now, right?" Of course! They were just so sweet. So we got on the bus, went to the apartment and started making a list of what food to buy for lunch and dinner. I swear I've been in a food coma ever since we got here. We have cooked and shopped for food and cooked some more. That's it. And it's been wonderful!

Since we've moved into this adorable one bedroom 2 living room apartment with no hot water, shower head, oven or fridge, we've made peanut butter chocolate balls, grilled cheese with tomato soup, chicken marsala with rice and pasta, fruit smoothies, peanut butter and banana sandwiches, tea, nachos from scratch, bean burritos with guac and salsa, banana peanut butter and chocolate smoothies, avocado juice and moroccan stuff called sfouf which is ground nuts, flour, cinnamon, a tiny bit of anise, honey, sesame seeds and oil. Wow... looking at that list just about sums up how my stomach has been feeling lately. thrilled and freaked out all at the same time. We had an exciting time figuring out where to buy things. There's a grocery store around the corner, but that can be boring and is not nearly as fresh as buying all of our fruits and veggies at the open markets (souks) down the street. We've gotten some pretty funny looks here, especially when we decided to play in the rain on Sunday night. Actually, the next morning the neighbors were asking what we were doing. when I told them they were like "Oh that's so nice!" but i think they were a little skeptical of these 3 white girls running around at like 10pm in the rain. hahaha it's going to be a really interesting couple weeks!

Shwiya Homesick

Tuesday was kinda rough I think partly because the weather and partly because my eye has decided to fight me every step of the way towards recovery. Lately i've been a little more homesick than usual. I feel like I'm running out of time here, but then I realize that we still have another month. It's been kind of frustrating. A couple of my friends are going home this saturday because they have enough credits to go back early and for health reason. Jena was the one who was in the hospital with a blood infection and won't fully recover for another few months, Tulsi has a bacterial infection on her eye and no one really knows what the story is with Meg. Although they're leaving for legitimate reasons, it seems so tempting to go home early and spend some extra time with my family and friends, and avoid the huge project my ISP has turned into. But I know that I should do the research and it's really really interesting. It's something I really want to know more about, but it's just hard to think about trying to do it in 3 weeks. I'm not really sure how it's going to work out. Meanwhile, I'm so excited to move out and have my own schedule next week, but I hate thinking about leaving my host family. My host mom is so sweet, my sister and brother are just the most fun and my host grandma is so silly. I love them, but I think it'll be good to make my own meals and stuff. it's going to be the first time I've ever really lived on my own... and i'm in a developing country. Should be pretty interesting! I think it's a good thing it's only for 3 weeks.

on another note, I have 4 new photo albums on facebook so check them out! i took sooo many pictures!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=239089&id=500336784&l=ff303b5829
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=240083&id=500336784&l=f1dc49e549
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=240127&id=500336784&l=daddfe8911
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=239303&id=500336784&l=4bdef13f1c

I only came up to you because you have beautiful eyes...

Friday was a mess of a day. I had an arabic exam in the morning which was a mushkil kabeer (big problem) because I can only really see out of one eye when I write and it takes a lot of concentration so I end up with a headache. Not to mention I've missed 2 classes this week because of it. But I took it, w/e. It turns out that my teacher really hates giving us these stupid quizzes, so they don't actually count towards our grade, but are review for the final exam next week. I'm pretty sure i'm going to score an A in this class because I try. That's the only reason. Anyway, after the quiz my whole class went to a cafe and had the rest of class there. After class, I was supposed to volunteer, but i could barely see on my walk back to my house, so I decided not to go. Instead I hung out, then had a meeting with my advisor for my independent study. I'm so excited/nervous to get going with it. it's a little daunting, but i think it'll be good. I've changed my topic a little so it'll be interesting to see where it goes. After my meeting, i opted to walk on the beach and check it out because a bunch of my friends play soccer there on fridays. I put my feet in the water and chatted with some friends, then headed out before sunset. Unfortunately I was not alone. A random well dressed Moroccan boy (I say boy but he was probably around my age) approached me and tried to get me to talk to him. He spoke english and kept saying that he wanted to talk to me to practice. He said that he approached me because I have a beautiful face, a beautiful hair, a beautiful body, and beautiful eyes. Let me explain why this is hilarious. I haven't showered in 3 days (i was worried about getting shampoo in my eye), my hair is in a gross bun, my face broke out because i'm in freakin africa, i'm wearing a white t shirt that's on day 3 of wearing it without washing (not in a row) and my right eye is red, swollen and barely open because i scratched my frickin cornea! I started laughing just because i thought of all days I could get attention, this would be it. (don't worry i've showered since). So first I called Chandra, then realized she was playing soccer, so I called Chaimaa, my host sister, and explained what was going on. She agreed to meet me. Luckily he left me alone as soon as I entered the medina. While on one hand this is a little unnerving. it's also hilarious now that it's over. Why on Earth would he think that I would all of a sudden start talking to him after being silent during a five minute walk? I guess I'll just have to wash the american out of my hair next time i shower. The rest of my night was relatively uneventful. Family has been coming and going since my host dad passed away so it can be a little overwhelming. But my host grandma is hilarious. She's terrified of Lucky, the cat. It's the funniest thing I've ever seen. She screams when he comes in the room.

So Saturday was completely uneventful because I really didn't leave my house until it was dark. I woke up late, showered and tore apart my room. I dragged all of the stuff off my shelves and went through all of my papers. I think I started to panic a little because I realized I only have another week with my host family. Where did the time go? So I reorganized and everything will fit in my bag in shallah. Meanwhile I seriously got up to Episode 6 of grey's anatomy before calling it a day. My one outing was to a cafe to meet my friend Jena's friends who are visiting. After that I headed home while they split to go to a bar.

Sunday was much more exciting. After an early morning run (which didn't last very long as i keep getting these stupid headaches from trying to keep my eyes open in the light), I showered and went on an apartment adventure! There's a cheap apartment in Temara (just south of Rabat) so Chandra and I wanted to check it out. However. it's an adventure because we've never been to Temara, we were never given the precise address or road name, and were completely disoriented after getting off the bus after a 30 minute bus ride. In addition to that I realized I haven't been outside during the day for good reason. My eye was freakin out and Chandra kept forgetting that I couldn't see. So we walked around until we stopped and asked a man about directions to a cafe that we knew was on the corner. Unfortunately, no one could tell us where this cafe was. So the guy tried to give us general directions, and asked us if we wanted him to take us there. We looked at each other and said no thank you. But then we started walking and he drove by, saw and stopped us and told us we were going the wrong way. So he gave us more directions, but then asked again if he could help us by driving us. At this point, he seemed like a genuinely nice man trying to help out a couple girls who are not in the best neighborhood and are clearly lost. He told us about his children and about how he teaches art in Rabat. He was really interested in why we're taking arabic classes. So we got in the car and he drove around trying to find that stupid cafe. He stopped and asked a policeman, and then finally we spotted it. He gave us his card, said if we need anything or if we want to get coffee sometime to call him, then went on his way. from there we knew exactly where the apartment was. It was so cute! 3 women are renting out this first floor apartment that's so adorable, but so hard to get to. So we headed back to Rabat for lunch, then out again to Sale, a town just north of Rabat, to see another apartment. This one is closer to where I volunteer, and is dirt cheap because it's a friend of Chandra's host family. It's also really cute, but lacking hot water and an oven. But ultimately we don't think that matters because it's in a cute, safe part of the city, it's easy to get around, and did i mention how cheap it is? So we're thinking this is it. It's only 2 weeks, then we're going to essaouira for the rest of ISP. It was an experience fo sho because the woman who is renting us the apartment speaks only a little french and no english, so she's going to need to talk to Chandra's host family to get the details. Hopefully it'll work out!

Sooo I apologize for neglecting my blog... I guess I didn't realize how long it's been, but I've been a little overwhelmed ever since we left for the southern excursion. It was so awesome! I don't think I can go into too many details because I'll write a novel about how unbelievable it was, but I'll make a list of all the cool things we did, then go into more detail

Day 1
visited English-speaking university in Ifrane (a European-like town in the mountains where it's cold!) that I want to come back to and study at. Had lunch and talked with a Moroccan from the Sahara who gave us the scoop on university life

visited the cedar forests in Azrou where there are barbary apes (so cute!) and really really old trees and the town with this amazing view. Chandra and I went on an adventure up a pile of rocks.

Stopped at a kasbah-like hotel in Midelt, where there were huge huge suite-like rooms and dinner was fish. I had to cover the eyes because they were looking at me. =(

Day 2
After an awesome breakfast of every bread imaginable, we headed out at 8:30... on to the desert!
We drove on these windy, twisty, narrow roads through the mountains.. The bottom of the bus started to open, but luckily nothing fell out. When we got to Merzouga it was lunch time and we had this awesome stuffed pizza like thing.

We took landrovers into the desert. A woman from the program left papers on the bus, so our car was like 10 minutes behind everyone else. Does that mean we got to the oasis late? La (no). That just means that our driver had a lead foot, passed like 10 cars, including the other landrovers with our friends in them, to come into the front of the line. Throughout the whole thing my friend and I were having a dance party in the back.
We stopped at an oasis and heard a lecture on the issues the locals are having, then stopped at a woman's organization before driving through the desert to our hotel. in the middle of the dunes. NBD.

WE RODE CAMELS INTO THE SUNSET!!! It was honestly one of the coolest experiences of my life. My camel's name was Asou. Chandra Megan and I rolled down the sand dunes and jumped and landed knee deep in sand. It was incredible. We had dinner at the hotel and had this crazy dance party to live traditional Berber music. Crazy. Then some of my friends and I walked through the sand dunes at night and just rolled and talked and stared at more stars than I've ever seen.

Day 3
Before dawn, we went on a hike through the dunes (no easy feat) and watched the sun rise from the top of a really tall one. We had breakfast at the hotel, then headed off for a really really long bus ride

We finally got to Ourzzazate, where we stayed in the dorm-like place. It actually reminded me a little of the Round Hearth just because of the bunk beds and the way it was set up. I was so tired when we got there, so I didn't go exploring. Instead I finished my book and hung out with some friends before dinner. We had dinner with the other women (it was a women's dorm) who are university students. When I first sat down I was like, absolutely not. I couldn't think of anything to say to them and I had no energy to speak Arabic, french, or even English. Luckily my friend Hannah has enough energy for all of us and I would just explain to them what she was saying because she doesn't speak any French and her Arabic is worse than mine (not awesome). My friend made a good connection that she is a little like Dory from Finding Nemo. We had a long introduction and welcome speech before dinner that no one was in the mood for, but dinner itself was good. Afterwards people were dancing and singing, but I was so wiped out, that was not going to happen

Day 4
MARRAKECH!
We got to Marrakech early afternoon, and we had lunch and explored the city. There's one square that is insane! It's full of snake charmers and women who want to put henna on you (costing waayyy too much) and juice stands that are worse than the seagulls from Finding Nemo. We got back and I napped, then went out to a club with some friends to celebrate mine and my friend's 21st birthday. We had an awesome time, but crashed pretty late.

Day 5
Still in Marrakech
I went for a run with Chandra early in the morning, then went for a swim in the freezing, tiny hotel pool. It felt so nice! We sunbathed and chatted for a while, then showered, lunched and napped. Chandra, Denise and I went to the Majorelle Gardens where there is the Yves St Laurent memorial. It was beautiful. We got a little lost, then went kind of the wrong way through. Luckily we did though because we actually ran into Dillon Kelly and his girlfriend who were just leaving. Dillon and I went to school together for 9 years and haven't really talked since. It was so weird to see him! We talked for about half an hour, then continued our walk through the gardens. After our adventure we went back to the hotel, where I rested, ate and hung out with some friends.

Day 5
Essaouira
We had a long drive to Essaouira and on the way we stopped at an argan oil cooperative
When we got to Essaouira we were all super tired and dropped all of our stuff at the hotel before lunch. Lunch scared me. It was a full on fish and I had to peel off the skin and peel the meat off the bones. It was awful. My friend told me I was eating Nemo and that was it for me. Unfortunately the hotel didn't have enough rooms, so we went to another hotel, then Chandra Jena and I went to the beach. The water was cold, but no worse than the Cape and there were camels on the beach. We walked the beach and climbed the dunes where we watched the sunset.

After dinner, Nawal, our program director, pulled me aside. I couldn't believe what she was telling me. While I had been traveling, my host dad died. He wasn't sick when they went to bed Saturday night, but didn't wake up Sunday morning.

I walked the well lit beach with Chandra, then called it an early night.

Day 6
Back to Rabat
Before leaving, Chandra and I got up really early and walked the beach in the morning. We had a really long (8 hour) bus ride. We stopped for lunch in Al Jadida, then got to Rabat at around 5. I got back to the house and all of the lights were on on the stairs. On the way I had been hoping that it wasn't true, but by the time I got up the stairs and saw my host mom in white, surrounded by the women in the family, I knew it was true. My cousin, sister and mom came in to my room when I went in to drop off my stuff and asked how I was doing. All I could do was hug my mom as tightly as I could as she cried and cried. I had no idea what to say, but it didn't matter. I think she knew.

Now
ever since i got back things have been a little crazy. My host mom sits in the living room every evening to say greet the people who stop by to pay their condolences. Meanwhile I somehow managed to scratch my cornea..? so i've been dealing with that this week. Chandra and I are planning our independent study living situation and might have an apartment, which is really exciting.

Last week

Thursday 10/21
So this week hasn't been all that exciting. I was a little down yesterday, but otherwise, nothing big. It's mainly just frustration with not being able to communicate and with the internet being as sketchy as it is. Ok, so I'm still in frickin Africa which is a pretty big deal. and my host family is adorable. Not only did I get an awesome gift and ecard from my real mom (which btw made me cry when I opened it at 8am) but when I went upstairs for dinner my host brother whipped out a bag as Chaimaa said "I TOLD him that you're birthday is tomorrow!" They got me this really cute silver bracelet and a traditional sleeveless dress that is white with big pink and red flowers on it. It was so sweet!
Oh and this week I decided I'm going to live with my friends Megan and Chandra in Rabat during my independent study. I've gotten really close with them and I think they'll be fun to live with so we're giving it a test run next week when we're going to stay in the hotels together during our week long trip. I went for a run with Chandra today (btw I'm going to be sooo sore tomorrow) and we talked about our independent study projects and living together (which I changed my mind about mainly because I can't imagine not seeing Chandra and Megan every day. they're pretty awesome) and next week's trip which starts Saturday... I'M SO EXCITED!!! Tomorrow is my birthday and let me tell you, I'm pretty pumped. I'm not having the traditional go and drink night that most 21 year olds have (actually I could probably have gone out tonight but I have an Arabic presentation tomorrow morning and I really want to get up early so I can use the internet before class) but tomorrow I think I'm going to have a movie night with my friends which should be fun. After class I'm going to Kenitra again to get a tour of the facilities where I'm going to be volunteering then movie time! If I have enough time I'm going to try to catch up on Grey's Anatomy (my guilty pleasure), so I can watch the new episode but we'll see. I've got 2 to see before I'm caught up and I don't think I have that kind of time. As for next week, Sunday is the only day that I'll really be MIA. by MIA i mean completely unreachable because I'll be on a freakin camel in the middle of the freakin desert. no joke. But otherwise, I have my phone on me in case Trish or Jason or Mom need to reach me (and if you need my number just ask them for it). otherwise i'm spending a lot of quality bus time and visiting some pretty awesome places. I don't think I can tell you how excited I am for this. Tuesday's trip to Marrakech is going to be epic. We have the whole day and all of Wednesday free to do whatever. It's seriously like a week-long celebration of my birthday that ends with a bang on Halloween when my friends and I are renting that apartment.

10/22
Happy Birthday to me! So my day started really well when jason called me at midnight =) I woke up early this morning, saw a few of my friends and went to class. My teacher, Fatiha, is so cute. When she found out that it's my birthday she decided that we would have class discussion in a cafe around the corner. It was so much fun! Then we had our presentations in arabic and went home for lunch. Chandra came over for lunch and we had awesome couscous with squash, chick peas, onions, chicken and carrots. It was awesome. Once again I left and got my train ticket just in time to make it on my train. I didn't get a seat this time, but it's only a half hour train ride, so meshimushkil. I got a tour of Chaml from this really nice young woman whose name means "smile" (Btissa). She was so cute! She gave me like 5 books (in French) for my independent study project. She doesn't speak very much English, but her French is very good. It's awesome for my French too! Then she left me for like an hour to translate their brochure from French to English. It was pretty easy but i'm going to double check a few words then email it to her. she seemed really excited that I'll be coming back regularly. As soon as she found out it was my birthday she ran downstairs to the kitchen and brought up several cookies as she sang to me. I can't tell you how adorable it was. haha. So now i think a bunch of my friends are going to get Indian food for dinner and maybe see a movie. I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do. But before I forget, there were a few things that have been said the past few days that were hilarious. Like for example yesterday, when I went for a run with Chandra I was telling her about the harassment here and how it's only ok for men to harass non Moroccans. I was like
So wish me luck! I probably won't post again for a few days, but I'll try to post at least once while I'm gone. =)

Off to Southern Morocco soon!/ it's my birthday tomorrow!

Tuesday
Nothing too special about today other than learning our schedule for next week. Knowing how quickly schedules change here, i don't take the schedule very seriously. I mean I think we'll do everything on the list, but nothing is ever at the time they say and the order will probably change at least 3 times. Every day is like that here, so you kind of get used to it. But tentatively we're supposed to leave for Ifrane at 8 on Saturday morning where we're supposed to visit the university and have lunch there. Then we'll go to Azrou where we'll visit the Cedar forests which apparently are home to barbary apes. We're supposed to get to the hotel in Middelt by 6:30. Then Sunday morning we'll leave for Erfoud (i have no idea where or what that is). After lunch we'll take land rovers to Merzouga, then go on a camel ride through the dunes.I'm soooooooo excited for camels!! Then we'll spend the night. Monday morning we'll leave for Rissani then take the bus to N'kob (again, no idea where that is) to visit the Draa Valley, meet with a tribe and have lunch. Then we leave again for Ourzzazate, where we'll have a presentation of Association Tishka which i don't remember at all what it is. AThe next morning we'll leave for Marrakech, where we can wander and explore as we wish. We can do whatever we'd like both Tuesday and Wednesday, but we'll leave Marrakech on Thursday to go to Essaouira. We have all Thursday afternoon and night to explore Essaouira, then we'll leave the hotel early Friday morning, have lunch in Al Jadida then be back in Rabat by 4pm. It's going to be crazy! The whole week is going to be so insane and jam packed with adventures. I'm going to be sooo tired, I'll probably sleep the whole trip home next Friday! Funny enough, the day after we get back my friends and I rented an apartment in Agdal (a section of Rabat) to celebrate Halloween. We really wanted to dress up so we opted to just rent a place so we can without feeling weird about it. It should be fun! It's going to be an intense week. After we had our info session on next week, I talked to my professor about my independent study project and he seemed to give me the thumbs up. I'm so excited to start! I'm planning on visiting the center again on Friday, but I told them I can't really start until November. It should be pretty awesome I think. already I've met people who should be able to help me. I really just can't wait to get started. I really can't believe that we're that close to independent study time. I mean, this is already week 8. We're dead center of the semester. I remember thinking about this time in August and it seemed so far away, but my birthday is already coming up on Friday. Can someone tell me when that happened? Because I honestly don't have any idea. I think I'm planning on celebrating my birthday with a few friends on Friday, but I think i'll wait to truly celebrate until we get to Marrakech and of course Halloween will be an extension of my birthday. I love it!

Oh how retail therapy solves everything

It's been such a good weekend! Saturday morning I woke up and went running with Chandra by the coast. There's this really cool cave that when the tide is out is completely empty and we explored it while talking about stuff. It really hit me how old I feel. I mean I'm in frickin Africa. and making plans for a month by myself. with pretty much no guidance i've chosen a topic to explore and set up a volunteer opportunity that has given me more contacts that can help me get what I need to do my project well. After our run we went to our respective houses, showered then I met her at her house and watched glee (soooo good! "what's a duet?" "a blanket" hahahaha) I had lunch with my family, then went shopping with megan and met up with jena. i went on a little bit of a shopping spree but nothing too big. i was concerned i had an eye infection (it was a little red for a few days) so I threw out my contacts (they were old anyway) and eye make up and bought new make up, then bought some random stuff i've been meaning to get. I ended up shopping for like 4 hours! then I had tea with my family and started studying. Megan came over and we had a great heart to heart. I can't tell you enough how awesome all of my friends here are. i've been blessed with the best group! I had mentioned earlier that we should all watch a movie at my house, but there was some confusion as to when. my family eats dinner around 9:30,but chandra thought i said they should come over at 9:30 so everyone showed up at my house a little after 9. i had also mentioned that people could sleep over, but i hadn't talked to anyone about definite plans. so when 3 of my friends changed into pajamas i was a little confused, but it ended up working out. Eli, the guy in different classes but the same program who lives across the street, ended up coming over and we all watched random youtube videos and talked for a while. It was so much fun! some left at 11 and eli left at 12:30, but we stayed up until like 2:45 just talking. it was so awesome to have them over. Sunday I ate all day. we got up kinda early, had breakfast with my family, who I apologized to profusely for not warning about it, then I went to church with Lauren. it was awesome because I found out that they're going to be having masses in english starting in November and they're having a meet and greet for students next weekend. it should be pretty fun! I felt so good today! after i got back from mass i went to sale (the next town over) to visit Chaimaa's aunts and cousins. We got there and had this awesome couscous with peanuts, hard boiled eggs (which i never used to like, but i can eat with other things) and chicken. It was amazing!!! after the couscous they came out with icecream which oh man i could not get enough of. it had caramel on top and i think vanilla on the bottom. it was incredible. then chaimaa, leila (chaimaa's young aunt) and I started to fall asleep so we went into another room to rest. instead of sleeping though i ended up explaining halloween to leila and they started playing music so it turned into a big awesome dance party. after we got tired, we joined everyone else and had pastries with coffee (another thing i can drink only because it's 10% coffee 80% milk and 10% sugar in a small cup). The last thing I ate was this pastry that was this circular thing with white chocolate on the bottom, pastry around the sides, nuts on the top and a layer of caramel in the bottom. after the pastries we left and took the bus back to rabat. by the time we got back it was already 7:40. Time to study for tomorrow's arabic exam! I went to the bathroom after i got back, then came back t my room and sat down on my bed. after a while i realized... they had left my dinner sitting on the table in my room because they know i'm studying for my exam! my family is so sweet!

Monday
My exam wasn't nearly as hard as I expected. There were a couple of words that I couldn't for the life of me remember, but otherwise it really wasn't bad at all. After the exam I got to talk to Tricia again and had a nice lunch with my friends. We had a class on how Morocco is dealing with past human rights abuses, then watched a movie for my film class. It was about street children and it was soooooo sad. it was kind of like slumdog millionaire except without any of the happy ending. actually there was very little happiness at all. but the film class starts as soon as we get back from our week long southern excursion which I leave for on Saturday. Don't worry though, my friend is bringing his internet USB port thing so I'll be posting, but I'm not sure how well skype works on it so don't expect awesome communication. ok i'm going to spend a few sentences complaining and then i promise i'll stop because i know it's awesome that i'm in africa and I really love it here, but today I got off skype with jason and i just put my head down. i'm just so done with the frustration of trying to communicate. I'm doing my best with the blog, but it's so frustrating having skype be soo slow, so much so that the video doesn't work or the sound is wicked delayed and trying to get in touch with everyone is such a pain! when I was talking to megan I realized just how frustrated i am with it. i resent not being able to call people for their birthdays, or just call when i think of them. i'm usually so on top of it, but it's just not possible here and it's wearing on me. ok, I promise i'm done. anyway, I met my friend back at my house, where we talked for a long time. she just broke up with her boyfriend after a 3 year relationship and a summer of complicated-ness. It broke my heart to see her so upset. so we talked for a while and ate my chocolate cereal. I think by the time she left she felt shwiya (a little) better. after she left, my house actually lost power, so I went upstairs with Chaimaa, where we laid in bed and made shadow puppets on the wall by candle-light. we got the power back, ate dinner (pasta!) and called it an early night. It's a good thing I did because I'm so exhausted. i haven't caught up on sleep from the weekend, then the arabic test just sent me over the edge i think.

Volunteer opportunities

Friday
Oh man was today a good day. I woke up wicked early (about 6) and finished my paper and almost finished the last one. I gave myself just enough time to shower, eat breakfast, and get to school. Arabic wasn't so bad today, either. I mean it's a lot of information all in one sitting, but it didn't go so badly. After class I finally got to talk to Trish again and I finished my paper. I got home and had couscous with my host family, then made it to the train station just in time to catch the next train. it was awesome. I got on the train to Kenitra (where i'm going to be volunteering) and found one of the last seats next to a family (no sketchy guys!) then when I got to Kenitra, the first cab driver i saw was willing to take me (they can, and often do say no). He dropped me off in front of these deserted buildings and I started to panic, but kept walking and luckily found 2 women who I was able to communicate (in darija!) with and showed me where to go. I got to Chaml, the women's center, at exactly 2:55pm and the presentation supposedly started at 3. As usual, the presentation started an hour later. Meanwhile, I began talking (in French) with a professor at a local university and a girl who works there who speaks English. My professor got there later, but another woman had already sat down next to me. The 2 women who sat next to me are both English teachers in Kenitra who now have my phone number and I have their email addresses so that we can get lunch and meet up. They told me that if I need anything to just let them know! they were so nice. The presentation itself was soooo interesting. It was about the problem that they have here with racism and immigrants from SubSaharan Africa. They expressed their own feelings of detachment from an African identity and their own complex national identity. The first guy to speak was hard to understand because he would switch from darija to french and he had a very interesting accent. But the woman who spoke was very clear and stuck to French the majority of the time. when the presentations were over and it was time for questions they served us tea or coffee and pastries. they were awesome. At this point it was already 6 and my professor had already left. it seemed as though the woman next to me was going to leave so I asked her when the last train to Rabat was. She said that they were leaving right then and that I could go with them if I wanted to. So I left and one of them drove us to the train station. They were so nice! I think they are really curous about how the rest of the world views Morocco but they keep censoring themselves becaue I don't think they want to come off a certain way. It was funny. they kept correcting each other in how they phrased certain things. They were definitely concerned about being PC. I've totally given up on being PC since being here, so it was pretty hilarious. I got back to Rabat and walked towards the medina from the train station and bumped into some of my classmates. Then I saw my professor who actually lives in Kenitra, not far from Chaml, where I had been. He invited me to tea at his house the next time I'm there which I thought was very nice of him. He's getting married in December and is working on his PhD. Such a nice guy. So I made it back to the house in time to watch dirty dancing havana nights, censored of course. then Jason called me from skype! I was so excited! For dinner we had harrera (this awesome soup) and tajine. I'm exhausted now from this crazy week of insanity and i'm so excited to sleep in jist a little bit. I'm going for a run with Chandra again tomorrow morning and then shopping with Megan and Lauren. A nice relaxing stress free weekend will do me some good i think.

Midterms week!

Tuesday
So it's another rainy day and I still haven't gotten sick of it. Unfortunately I have gotten a little tired of the long days we've had. Yesterday we started at 8:30 and only had a break for lunch, then had class and went to the Human Rights Coucil, which sounds cool and looks very fancy; however they are definitely politicians because I walked out with barely any more knowledge about human rights in Morocco and what they are doing than when I walked in. Luckily I got more out of my health class. I actually loved it, which was a huge shock. We had a choice between religion, art and lit, and health and I surprisingly chose health. The religion class is pretty big and is centered around women's issues and I just took a course on that. Art and lit sounds cool, but didn't appeal to me too much. The health class is nice and small and has some really great people in it, in addition to having a really nice professor who always thanks us at the end of each lecture. I was kind of concerned about how interesting it would be, but I thought it was awesome. It was all about public health and global public health. Today's class was pretty good too. It was all about the argan trees and argan oil here. Arabic today was hilarious. I tried to explain to Fatiha (my prof) about skydiving. She couldn't believe that I've done it, so I drew a nice picture for her. And she poked a hole in my parachute and started laughing nervously as she said "but what if this happened??" It was so funny! Despite the fact that I didn't have very much time, I actually got a lot done today. I started to get kind of anxious during my class because I had a laundry list of things to do, and to be honest I still have a couple short papers to write for Friday, but I'm planning on writing one early tomorrow morning, another tomorrow after class and the third tomorrow night. It's my friend Jena's birthday on Thursday so I want to have everything done ahead of time so we can celebrate. Oh and I got an email from my professor about volunteering and I've been invited to a presentation on Friday at the women's center. She said that I can get a tour of the facilities and meet everyone there. Luckily she'll be there too so I think I'll feel a little more comfortable. She reminds me a lot of my high school French teacher, Mme Elvidge, which is awesome. I'm starting to get a little homesick and I think I'm getting a little bit of either cabin fever or just frustration with communication so I know I need to go running soon. It's been so rainy and chilly (not cold, I'll save that word for Vermont. lol) that I haven't been able to go, but I think I'm going to get some leggings and suck it up. I gotta exercise or I'm gonna go nuts.

Thursday
Today was much better. Yesterday I was still going a little crazy with the list of things I needed to do/did. I actually got off Skype and left the library fully intending on coming back to the house and just curling up in a ball and crying. But my friend Chandra didn't want to go home (again) so came over. We ended up talking for like 2 hours until we both realized we had papers and homework to take care of. It was the best though because I felt less crazy that other people are feeling the same way I do. It's getting really difficult because I feel like the less I talk to people, the less I know what to say when I get the chance and they ask me what I've been up to. I miss home and I miss doing all of the fun things that go along with fall, but I honestly love what I'm doing here. It's driving me crazy. Anyway, today was much better. I slept in a little bit, then got some of my arabic done. After class I went for a run, which was soooooo nice. I ran by the beach and just felt the feeling of the salty wind on my face. It was a gorgeous day, and it felt so good to just get out there. I got back and had lunch, then I went on another trip with my class (the 4th one this week! 1 to the human rights place, then to the amazigh-bereber language cultural center, the aids prevention center) to the poison control center. It was kind of interesting but ultimately too long. However it did have some severely hilarious lost-in-translation statements. For example: to prevent scorpion bites it is important to "Rearranging riddance" aka get rid of your trash. Also if you inhale carbon monoxide you will clearly "see your ancestors... very quickly" and "calming the victim and his entourage" is very important when someone has been stung by a scorpion. It was good that we found these things funny because otherwise it would have been pretty boring. After class I spent some time at the center, then I went out for pizza hut with like ten of my friends and caused quite the scene for Jena's birthday. It was so much fun! Then when I got back to the house I found out that there are 3 girls from the US who are studying in Madrid, but are visiting Rabat and staying with my family until Sunday. They seem pretty nice, but it made me realize how used to life here I am. I had a nice conversation with them, but I realized how close I've gotten with my host sister here and how weird everything seemed (like eating with your hands for everything) when you first get here. But I still have a paper to finish so I'm going to go do that. I'm nervous to meet the people at the association I'm going to volunteer at tomorrow. luckily I brought some business professional clothes with me, but i don't even know how nice it should be. I'm sure it'll be fine, but I'm just nervous. Luckily we don't have class tomorrow afternoon. I'm excited for the weekend just to take it easy, explore Rabat, do a little shopping and study like crazy for our arabic exam on monday.

Singin in the Rain: story of my weekend

Friday
Happy Birthday Chaimaa!
It was an early morning and I was able to get on the internet and get a lot done that needed doing. I had lunch with my family (couscous Friday!) and watched mean girls, which was so funny to watch with them. They show the weirdest movies here! Afterwards I went back to the library and I watched glee with Chandra so now I' all caught up and let me tell you we set up a fort in the libary so that we could watch it in there. it was so much fun! So we talked to Badrdine, one of our teachers, and he said that El Jadida would be the best weekend trip so I think we're going to head over there. After our library session, I got Chaimaa (I just found out I've been spelling her name wrong the whole time!) a birthday present (a really cute shirt) and went back to my house.
I realized that I actually left out a few details from my village stay blog. Like, for example, that our host grandma had a lazy eye. and no teeth. and her nickname was grandma Igor. and that Hadija, the younger sister and I bonded as 2nd children and listened to music together. It was so cute because she never got tired of playing with the volume and switching songs.

Saturday
Woke up at 5am to a text from Chandra that she's sick! So no travelling for us =( but nbd. I got to sleep in a little and went for a nice run by the beach. It's a little chilly today and it looks like it's going to rain. I ran by the beach again (I think it's my favorite run) and the waves were enormous! It was a nice run, getting out some of the frustration of not being able to communicate with home and be there for my family. My great uncle passed away while I was in the village and I would have loved to have been in Massachusetts to be with my family, but here I am in Africa. It was nice to get some of that frustration out in a nice intense run. It's so overcast and chilly (I mean it's probably in the high 60s... that's chilly here. hahaha) that I think today may be a movie and catch up on assignments day. We have 3 papers due on Friday so I think those should happen.
And of course procrastination took over. It started to seriously downpour and my whole host family, mw and Ahmed's friend ended up watching movies almost all day. In the middle of one of them, Chaimaa texted me and told me her boyfriend is in Rabat for the day. She had mentioned earlier that the shirt I got her for her birthday was too big, so I asked her if she wanted to go return it for another. She mentioned the rain, but I told her I don't mind. When we left it had actually stopped raining. So we went to the store in the souk where I bought it and luckily the guy was nice enough to let her pick out another shirt. We definitely ended up with the better deal because she picked out a more expensive shirt which looks awesome on her, Then I got a text from Chandra saying that she's going crazy with boredom, so I told Chaimaa to go hang out with her bf while I went with Chandra and text me when she was ready to go home. Is this what it feels like to be an older sister? In any case, the whole thing made me miss Tricia soooo much. So I hung out with Chandra for a while (she has a fever and threw up a few times) and we just chatted. I got a call from Chaimaa and we went back to the house. During dinner we watched the Matrix, which they had never seen before. By the time it was over we were exhausted and called it a night. It's so weird because in the US I wouldn't even be thinking about sleep until after 11, but here sometimes I'm exhausted by 10. Idk.

Village Stay Part II

Saturday
Another early morning! The girls had school today so I woke up as the last one got up at around 7:30. I started to wash my face and brush my teeth and I guess when I went to change my host grandma here woke up Jeanette. We had a nice breakfast of tea, bread and honey. Later, her host mom showed us how to make bread. We went to one of our neighbor's house to start weaving a rug, which ended up being really hard to set up. We went to the elementary school in the afternoon and had a meeting between our program and some of the men in the village. It was really cool because one of our professors, Lahcen, grew up here and went on to get his BA and Ph.D. He translated for us today and yesterday and he was talking to the men here about the new family code (which has given women more legal rights in terms of divorce and inheritance in addition to changing the laws about how many wives they can have, etc). The men here were saying that it's bad because the feel like women now have more rights than men, but I was impressed that my professor openly disagreed with them and gave them specific examples. I really have a new respect for him now (his lectures are pretty dry and somethings are definitely lost in translation) especially after he confronted families he grew up with. Afterwards I hung out with some friends then headed back to the house. Jeanette and I had a lesson with the kids before dinner, sharing French English and darija. The 15 year old speaks a little French so we were asking him words from French to Arabic. He's really smart, so it's sad thinking he stopped going to school. The high school is really really far and he'd have to live there, so he stays home and helps out with the animals. After dinner we read for a little bit, then we went to bed. Jeanette's reading the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which I read and loved this summer. It's such an intense book so I'm predicting a lot of reading in the next few days.

So the rest of the homestay I just did bullet points becasue I got a lot of funny looks when I wrote a lot and I ran out of paper. Some things I can remember, like Sunday we tried to meet up with our friends at the school, but we ended up being followed by our host grandma, the nthey didn't show up so we tried to go visit the program director, Nawal because the girl who had lived where we did the weaving ended up movig out because she had a similar experience when the mother and the grandmother were asking her for money and for things. But Nawal wasn't there, so we ended up hiking up and down a couple small mountains for no real reason with our grandmother behind us the whole time. We went to weaving and found out that our friend had moved, but we were going to continue weaving there regardless. So we did that, then read and hung out the rest of the day. It's so beautiful here, but it's tough because we can't communicate very well and there isn't very much to do.
So we've started Americanizing some darija phrases like Shnu (which means what) and saying Shnu T F? and "I'm yallahing!" (yallah means like "let's go") and there are a few key phrases like "zweena" (pretty/nice) and zweena bzef. Everything is zweena bzef or mzien (good).
On Monday we went to the elementary school with the 2 girls because our program is planning on helping out. It was so cute! I ended up holding hand with Hadija, who is adorable, on the way and we all (jeanette, me, hadija, nezha and her friend marriam) ended up walking hand in hand on the way to the school. I was talking to my friend about how cute the kids are and she said thatshe would marry her host brother so he could go the US with us. I was like "He's 13, I'm not sure that's legal..." But the kids are all super cute! After we lined up in front of the flag and sang the national anthem, we went into the classrooms with the kids and taught them "head, shoulders knees and toes" It was adorable! Then we went outside to help fix up their school. Before we started, we were warned not to put our hands under any rocks because scorpions are not out the question. I was terrified. At this point though, I was so tired from the early morning and oh yeah, did I mention we sleep on the floor? and they have dogs and sheep and chickens that are all pretty loud at night. So I actually made up a song to "I'm on a boat." It's called "We're helping trees" and the lyrics went something like "I got my rocks and no scorpions..." etc. Also I just kept saying "more rocks, no scorpions" hoping that if I said it enough, it would be true. Thank God there weren't any. So now I figure I should mention how low my hygiene standards have sunk. Not to be too gross, but we pee in the chicken coop. Sometimes next to the donkey. Except on Tuesday night I just couldn't do it. There were 2 donkeys and the chickens in the corner and the grandma standing there with the flashlight to ward off the dogs. It was awful. So she took us to the back of the house to pee. At first she forgot to bring the flashlight, so she went back in to get it, leaving me and Jeanette in the dark. The dogs started to bark at us so we started running back inside, but our host grandma got out there and could not stop laughing at us. Between Sunday and Monday night I hadn't touched my hair once because I hadn't washed it. By Wednesday it was pretty gross, let me tell you. Never again. I just started asking myself "does it even matter anymore?" for a lot of things. Like food. We were told not to eat fresh fruits and vegetables and steer away from the butter. I ate all of those things. The only thing I absolutely would not do was drink the water. Between the 2 of us, we had gone through something like 15 large bottles of water. On Tuesday we painted at the school. We whitewashed the walls and painted the alphabet and some really nice designs. Some played soccer or frisbee with the kids, then we had soda, cookies and cake with them. We took so many pictures! The kids were so cute and said that they would never forget what we did for them. That night we were so excited because we figured, it's the last night so maybe we'll have a nice dinner. Our stomachs sunk when our host mom brought in a plate of cold fish and bread. Have I mentioned how much bread we've eaten? because it was a TON. I mean I love bread more than anyone I've ever met and I thought we'd eaten too much. It was a crazy amount of bread. But anyway, I'm not a big fan of fish, so we ate a very small amount (which I felt bad because I could tell it was a special thing for us) and ended up eating granola bars that Jeanette had brought and whipping out the chocolate and dates I had brought. It was sad to leave on Wednesday, but all I could think about was how long I was going to spend in the shower. I missed my host family in Rabat sooo much. And I couldn't wait to use a toilet. So when I got back The first thing I did was tell my family how it went over lunch, then I took a half hour shower. To celebrate our return to civilization, my friends and I went out and got toblerone mcflurries. It was awesome. Later I went out with Chayma and Ahmed and our neighbor Amina. We got glasses for Chayma, shoes for Amina and I (I threw out my pair of black heels at home and they were $5 here...) and a shirt for Ahmed.
Thursday
This morning I found out that my host mom here has been working on her english while I've been in the village working on my darija. We're able to communicate much better now! It's so cute! So since we don't have classes today and tomorrow, Chandra and I are planning on spending Saturday and Sunday travelling to Meknes and Azrou and hiking. I'm so excited! We went for a 2 hour run/walk/staring at the beach and put our feet in, then watched glee and planned some of our adventure. After Diablo (that Spanish soap opera that they watch religiously), Chayma and I went to the hammam. Oh man I cannot tell you how nice it is to be completely clean. It's a $0.75 spa treatment. I've never had smoother legs or cleaner skin.

Village Stay: Meshi mushkil (NBD)

I'm back in Rabat (thank God) and I've showered, been fed and went for a nice loooonnngggg run with my friend in attempts to work off some of the bread we ate this past week. I wrote most of my experience down while I was there but really in all actuality there are not enough words in the frickin dictionary to explain what it was like. I just keep saying over and over that it was crazy. So here it is:

Thursday
The fact that we had arabic class was kind of a joke. We were all sooooo distracted with thoughts of our village stay that no one was really paying attention and our teacher could not hold our interest for more than a few minutes. Afterwards I ran back to my house, grabbed my bag, said good bye to my family, had lunch with my friends and then we were off! On to the next big adventure. And oh man was it an adventurous day. It took us about 3 hours (with one bathroom stop).... until the bus broke down for a little bit just outside of the village. We got off the bus while they figured it out and some played frisbee while others tried to befriend the village boys (they were like 10) who were shyly creepin on the weird Americans. Once they got the bus situation under controlwe drove a little farther until they told us it was time for the first group of students to go with their families. Then we dropped off the second group and finally we stopped and the rest of us got off. We huddled around a flashlight lit list of family names and student names, grabbed some toilet paper and bottled water and when my name was called it was go time. My first look at my host mom was shocking. She was young with a baby strapped to her back with a scarf and a 6 year old boy in hand. It was a pretty brief glance because she grabbed my hand and led me into the now pitch black night with no flashlight and no looking back to the well lit bus. Her son would run next to us and throw rocks at objects that later whimpered. I was beginning to regret bringing as much as I had because we headed straight up a small mountain. After almost eating it a few times on some rocks, we headed towards a faint light that turned out to be my house. We went in and immediately my host mom started running around, apparently getting together some food. Meanwhile, I met her mom who lives with her and sat down while they just stared at me. I just couldn't stop laughing at how ridiculous it was. I mean I don't know very much darija and they speak absolutely no english whatsoever. So I just laughed to myself. Then my host grandmother caught glance of my clauddagh ring. It was the only jewelry I brought and I just couldn't bring myself to part with it. But I really regretted it when my host grandmother looked at it and started saying something that I couldn't understand and then saying zweena (darija for pretty). Then she started to take it off my finger and continued to put it on her own. Then she made a motion towards herself like saying that it's hers. I could only respond with "la la la la la" (which means "no no no no no"). She gave it back (thank God), but then started saying "floos" which is money. I'm pretty sure she was asking me for money. I said "m'endeesh floos" (I don't have money) but it was super uncomfortable and the conversation ended when my host mom walked back into the room. While we had dinner (bread, cheese, tea, apple and grapes) they kept trying to talk to me but I think between the shock and my lack of language skills I had no idea what they were saying. I think they may have been getting frustrated but I just kept laughing awkwardly. After dinner we went to bed, me, my host mom, her 9 month old daughter and her 6 year old son on the floor on mats with blankets and pillows. The baby girl was still at the breast feeding stage and my host mom would just whip it out all the time. It was so strange to me! Then when I needed to change into my pajamas there's no other room or anything so I just changed in front of everyone. Whatever.

Friday
Everyone was up and going by 6:30 so so was I. I washed my face and brushed my teeth in the bathroom (luckily I had a bathroom, not that I know what that word means anymore because it was a turkish toilet aka hole in the ground with buckets of water)I realizes after walking around a little that the noises I had heard at night were not in fact a lot of small children crying, but my host family had goats, sheep and 2 donkeys! I think my host grandmother was trying to tell me the different words in darija for chicken and goats as she led me around a little. Idk though because after a little bit she asked for my ring again which then progressed to asking for money again. So when I needed to leave for the hike my group was going on I brought all of my valuables. We left at 8 for the hike (me and my host mom) but I didn't need to be there until 9. It was just down the hill though so when no one was there, I was a little nervous that I would be sitting there with her in silence for an hour. That is, until I fortunately saw 2 girls from the program walking on the road. I practically ran to them and we walked around a little. After meeting up with them and talking to my other friends who had had awesome family experiences, I decided I needed to talk to our program director about my family issues. The hike itself was absolutely mind blowing. The mountains are just so incredible and there is a volcano that we hiked onto. Oh man there are just not enough pictures in the world or words in our language to describe how I felt when looking around. The vastness of the sky combined with the enormous mountains and valleys was a sight I'm not sure I'll ever forget. Unfortunately while I was appreciating it's beauty and trying to capture it, I fell on the very narrow path we were standing on. I was able to catch myself and did very little damage.... with the exception of my camera. My camera was in the hand that caught myself. I was mourning the loss of my camera, when my friend Chandra said that she had had a similar falling experience (not down a mountain, but just falling) and was able to pop the lens back out and it worked for another 2 years. So she played with it and amazingly got it to work again! I almost kissed her. We climbed a volcano (nbd) and listened to a lecture on deforestation and attempts to plant and some local issues. Then we hiked up and down the mountains for about 2 1/2 hours. It was crazy! The whole time, these police guys followed s because I guess we are an international security risk. Apparently they were the equivalent to our SWAT team. Who knew? They were really nice and dressed like regular guys. Anyway, we hiked to this place where we had lunch (honey soaked pancakes and tea, the best honey I've ever had in my entire life) and women from the village came to talk to us and answer some questions we have. By the end of lunch I had made the decision that it would be best if I moved. So I talked to Nawal and she said that she could talk to them if I want but I can change families. I told her I wanted to switch. So after lunch I took the van (this blue van somehow maneuvered its way through the mountains and transported the people who lived really far) and went on the craziest car ride I think I've ever been on in my whole life. We could have toppled off the mountain and I would not have been surprised at all. We eventually made it, all in one piece, and I hung out with my friend Jena and her family for a few hours. Then I looked for Nawal to figure out my next move. It was starting to get dark, so I went with a friend to get my stuff from the house. We told them that I was going to her house, but they kept asking me questions that I didn't understand and I was so overwhelmed that we ended up just walking out saying good bye. I definitely caused a bit of a scene which is not at all what I wanted. So my host mom followed us down the little mountain until I could find Nawal to have her explain what was going on. So then Nawal sent me to my 2nd house which had a grandmother, her 3 sons who were 26, 24 and 15 and her 26 year old son's family of 4 kids, Doha (3), Soufian (5), Hadija (9) and Nezha (10). Luckily there was another student there, Jeanette. We hadn't really talked very much before this and we got to know each other REALLY well. You have no idea. We've had so much bonding time, and we've talked about just about everything physically possible. But the first night we had a little bit of a dance party. They have a TV which amazed me. They played music from a wedding on the TV and Nezha showed us how to dance a little bit. So back to the TV situation. They have lights and a TV, but apparently no bathroom. This gets really interesting let me tell you, because we actually peed in the chicken coop. Oh that's right, you read that correctly. With the chickens cowering in the corner. We peed in the chicken coop. DId I mention that sometimes that's where the donkey lives? Oh yeah. And the kids always follow us. I swear to you they made us go there because they thought it was funny. And to be honest with you, it kind of was hilarious. Anyway, that night we had a tajine and peeled apple for dinner, we hung out then went to bed. I had my own corner, but I slept in the room with all of the kids and their mom, and Jeanette shared a room with the grandma.