Monday
Alright mondays are not allowed to happen anymore. Not that anything awful happened, just no one is on their game on a Monday morning. My professor came in 20 minutes late to class because of traffic. Then I opened my email (once the internet actually worked) to find out about how sick my grandma's brother is. And of course it's 6 in the morning there so naturally I can't call anyone to figure out what's going on. So we stayed an extra 15 minutes to make up for the time when my prof was late, but we still had plenty of time for lunch and some chatting time. Then we had this AWESOME lecture on women's organizations. This woman really knows what she's talking about. After the class I wa sasking her about an organization I might be able to volunteer at and it came down to her offering to set me up at the organization for women that she works at in Kenitra (less than an hour away). I guess it helps women in all kinds of bad situations including domestic violence, in the middle of divorce, etc. I might be translating text using my French. Honestly just being able to help out at an organization like that and meeting people would be awesome. She said that my French will be really useful and this way I'll get to speak it all the time! I'm so excited! After that awesome news, we had an interesting orientation conversation about our rural homestay. It should be... very different. But I think it'll be really good. Then we had another lecture about a documentary we saw called Divorce Iranian Style. I had no idea that the woman who put the whole thing together is Iranian and has also been divorced twice! The movie included a long list of sassy women who demanded divorce and did not hesitate to lie in order to get what they wanted.
By the time I got back to my house, I was so tired! I watched Diablo (the spanish soap opera), did some homework and went to bed. It's been quite the exciting day.
Tuesday
So much for not getting sick! I woke up this morning at about 6:30 feeling pretty nauceous. I tried to find my pepto, but I had started packing for the village stay so it was hidden. I tried to get to the bathroom, but the lock for my room wouldn't open so I luckily made it to the trash can. I opted not to go to Arabic this morning despite how much I really wanted to. It was definitely one of the best decisions I've made here because I was feeling pretty gross. I probably would have come home anyway. But I decided to go to the afternoon lecture despite my stummy issues. I had tried to sleep for the whole morning and I had some tea and bread, and I hadn't vommed again so I figured I should. Especially because it was a double session so it was something like 4 1/2 hours with a 20 minute break. At least it was interesting! After that we had a health class that was supposed to prep us for our village homestay. However, it only made me feel worse because all the doctor did was talk about food poisoning and the symptoms. It made me more than a little nervous fo sho. But I have my pepto and I bought some cereal just in case my stomach decides to go on strike. My friends and I are planning on renting an apartment or house in Casablanca for Halloween so I distracted myself during the health talk by making plans for that. After that I came back to my house and had some more tea and bread which my stomach took very well. I watched Diablo, then did some homework. At dinner I decided to eat some of the tajine (the main dinner stuff) which my host mom and sister made or only veggies so I could eat it and my host mom made me apple sauce! She kept rubbing her stomach and telling me in darija that it would be good for it. It was so sweet of her! We watched National Treasure during dinner and I had to explain how important the Declaration of Independence is to US history. It was so weird realizing that not everyone knows what that is.
Anyway, I opted not to see the end and call it an early night. It'll be an early morning tomorrow so I can wish Tricia a very happy birthday early in the morning! I already warned her to keep her phone on alarm only. =) I sent her flowers, which I figure is the best I can do from half a world away. I would send myself if I could!
Wednesday
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TRICIA!
ok after getting that shout-out out of my system... I would say that today was a success. I got up early, got to wish Tricia a happy birthday at 4am her time (it was the earliest I could get online), I talked to my mama and most importantly I got to watch the season premier of Glee. JK!!! but I did get to see it. Now that I think about it, I've talked to more people from home today than I have all week! We had our first Arabic quiz today and I did pretty well! I got all of the sentences right, but I struggled with possesives. I was so happy to hear from both of Jason's parents in between my arabic class and a lecture on clothing which was all in Arabic and was soooo interesting. It was like the history of clothing in Morocco summarized into an hour. We got to lunch a little early so I got to talk to Jason AND Casey! After lunch we had the last 2 sessions of the Women, Society and Change class. Then I finally got to talk to my mom again! I was so excited. Next goal is to get Jeremy. After that my friends and I went to the grocery store again and I got batteries for my camera while they stocked up for the village stay. We have an arabic presentation tomorrow so my friend and I worked on that until it got dark (which is around 6:30 in case you were wondering, and off that tangent could someone please tell me when daylight savings is and when it gets dark there?) so I had my tea and bread with my family, packed, then went to Chandra's house to watch Glee! and oh man was it awesome. oh rachel berry how I hate and love you all at the same time. I need to find time to see the next episode and of course grey's anatomy... after my next epic adventure! So we peace out of Rabat at around 12:30 tomorrow after our arabic classes. Should be a great trip and don't worry, I'll be sure to record only the best moments with both my camera and my recorder. but no watch or phone so don't bother trying to call. Be back to civilization on Wednesday!
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
Oh how I love weekends
Friday
This morning most people were back from the hospital and mostly feeling better. We found out that close to half the program had gone to either the hospital or a clinic sometime this week. Some people threw up about 20 times, one lost her vision for a while and another collapsed and lost consciousness. It's crazy! But they're still trying to figure out what it was that did it to us. Luckily the worst I felt was a little dizzy and really tired. I could tell my body was beating whatever it was off with a stick and I was just tired. So after class I came right home and napped for about an hour then had lunch with my family while we watched Camp Rock, which btw is awesome. They couldn't believe I'd never seen it before.
I realized today that I'm comfortable here. But more than that, I'm happy here. I was telling Chayma and her friend Maria (who every time i see her asks me how I like Rabat) that although I liked Casa and Fes, I'm so happy that we're in Rabat because it's so unique. Fes is nice because it's more what people expected from Morocco. Its winding roads, contrasting bright and dark colors and donkeys in the streets are exciting and exotic. On the other hand, Casa's ville nouvelle is such a combination of all major cities I felt comfortable there instantly. The poor part of the city was not hard to recognize and stay out of. However, Rabat is an interesting combination of being the capital with politicians and business people in the ville nouvelle and the excitement of the souks, like suika (one of the main roads just inside the medina) like that of Fes. But Fes is overwhelming while most of us feel like we've mastered a lot of the old Medina here. Casa would be too comfortable for us, but luckily it's close enough for short visits, like for Halloween weekend.
Saturday
Although the weather wasn't ideal today, we went to the beach in the afternoon. It wasn't bad weather, it's just begun to cool down (like the 70s vs 90s and overcast). But oh man was the beach the best idea ever. We went to the same one we had gone to last time, but then walked to another one just a little ways down. Oh my goodness the waves were HUGE. Like completely ate us huge. It was incredible! The water was pretty chilly... i think comparable to Cape Cod chilly. But it didn't matter because once you fully went into the water you went numb and the waves were so much fun it didn't even matter. At first only Danny Chandra and I were brave enough, but we coerced Chayma to come in with us. It was awesome. Then I started getting really cold and we realized it was already 6pm, so we left. On the way back we stopped at the grocery store and oh man is it weird to go to the grocery store after seeing everything bought in the street. I stocked up on cereal and some packaged food for the village homestay (which btw is already thursday!) so that maybe I won't get sick. The rest of the night was pretty uneventful and led to another early night. I love these early nights because I think my body's figuring itself out still.
Sunday
visit time! Today Chayma and I had a nice breakfast together, then we got ready and left to visit her aunts in Sale. It was hilarious. We had this amazing lunch of literally 4 full chickens and 2 different kinds of salad and of course planty of bread. And of course now there were 5 women saying "cooli, cooli!" which means "eat eat!" Every once in a while I would be trying to digest and Chayma would whisper "cooli" and I would say "shbaet" which means I'm full, then she would say "liar" and we would start laughing. Then after lunch we went into another room where they started singing what I guess are traditional celebration songs. Then Leila whips out the CDs that play in the DVD player and I guess have videos of dances. And Chayma takes out these scarves and a belt with little things on the end that you tie around your hips. It seems like Moroccan dance is a step down from belly dancing which is sooo interesting to me. So they start dancing until Chayma pulls me up. At first it was really intimidating because let me tell you these ladies know how to dance. Their favorite music artist is Shakira and they can dance like her too. It's nuts! but once I started it was really fun! Chayma and I had a really great time and her cousins thought it was great. They have the most beautiful hair that is dark and curly and soooooo long! But they always wear it up so today was the first day I'd ever seen it. They're adorable. the older one must be about eleven and the younger one might be 8. After we were all tired, a couple of Chayma's aunts' friends came over. Apparently this woman is really self centered because the first thing Chayma said was that she didn't like her because all she does is talk about herself. Then I mentioned to her that I liked the woman's djellaba and Chayma was like "yeah, but if you tell her she'll say she knows it's beautiful and that she bought it from one of the stores where she knows the owner and she spent a lot of money on it. Hahahaha 2 minutes later someone complimented this woman on her djellaba and she pretty much said that word for word. Chayma and I tried really hard not to laugh but it didn't work very well. We went out for a while to get her cousins some school supplies and while we were out we bumped into a guy that Chayma knows from school. Apparently he started asking for my facebook name and email address. She told him to find me on her facebook. I guess what he didn't realize was that they're not friends on facebook! It was really funny. Then Chayma and I left to go back to Rabat because I met up with my friends to get pizza. It was so good!
We walked around a little afterwards then came back. It was nice but kind of strange to eat pizza. On one hand it reminds me that there is more food than the tajines and food that my host mom cooks (which in all fairness is absolutely amazing and I have never complaimed about any meals I've had) and on the other hand it made me a little homesick. I love the food here and I'm loving every day that I'm here, but it's so strange not being there. I don't know how to describe it. My friend and I were talking about what it's going to be like when we come home. We know already we're going to make references to things that no one at home will know about, things we joke about every day. And we've gotten so close so fast here that it's hard to imagine not seeing these people. But we're pretty sure that it's not going to be reverse culture shock but more readjusting to how to live at home. I mean we've got a while before we have to think about it, but it seems like it's going by so fast already. We leave Thursday for our village homestay the day after which lasts a week. Then we have 2 weeks and it's my birthday and our trip to Marrakech which lasts another week. Then it's Halloween the weekend we get back (possibly in Casablanca). 2 weeks later our independent study starts, when we can travel and research and get roughly 20 pages done in 3 weeks. Then we present and go home! When I think about it like that it actually scares me because I'm afraid I'm not going to get to do everything I want to.
This morning most people were back from the hospital and mostly feeling better. We found out that close to half the program had gone to either the hospital or a clinic sometime this week. Some people threw up about 20 times, one lost her vision for a while and another collapsed and lost consciousness. It's crazy! But they're still trying to figure out what it was that did it to us. Luckily the worst I felt was a little dizzy and really tired. I could tell my body was beating whatever it was off with a stick and I was just tired. So after class I came right home and napped for about an hour then had lunch with my family while we watched Camp Rock, which btw is awesome. They couldn't believe I'd never seen it before.
I realized today that I'm comfortable here. But more than that, I'm happy here. I was telling Chayma and her friend Maria (who every time i see her asks me how I like Rabat) that although I liked Casa and Fes, I'm so happy that we're in Rabat because it's so unique. Fes is nice because it's more what people expected from Morocco. Its winding roads, contrasting bright and dark colors and donkeys in the streets are exciting and exotic. On the other hand, Casa's ville nouvelle is such a combination of all major cities I felt comfortable there instantly. The poor part of the city was not hard to recognize and stay out of. However, Rabat is an interesting combination of being the capital with politicians and business people in the ville nouvelle and the excitement of the souks, like suika (one of the main roads just inside the medina) like that of Fes. But Fes is overwhelming while most of us feel like we've mastered a lot of the old Medina here. Casa would be too comfortable for us, but luckily it's close enough for short visits, like for Halloween weekend.
Saturday
Although the weather wasn't ideal today, we went to the beach in the afternoon. It wasn't bad weather, it's just begun to cool down (like the 70s vs 90s and overcast). But oh man was the beach the best idea ever. We went to the same one we had gone to last time, but then walked to another one just a little ways down. Oh my goodness the waves were HUGE. Like completely ate us huge. It was incredible! The water was pretty chilly... i think comparable to Cape Cod chilly. But it didn't matter because once you fully went into the water you went numb and the waves were so much fun it didn't even matter. At first only Danny Chandra and I were brave enough, but we coerced Chayma to come in with us. It was awesome. Then I started getting really cold and we realized it was already 6pm, so we left. On the way back we stopped at the grocery store and oh man is it weird to go to the grocery store after seeing everything bought in the street. I stocked up on cereal and some packaged food for the village homestay (which btw is already thursday!) so that maybe I won't get sick. The rest of the night was pretty uneventful and led to another early night. I love these early nights because I think my body's figuring itself out still.
Sunday
visit time! Today Chayma and I had a nice breakfast together, then we got ready and left to visit her aunts in Sale. It was hilarious. We had this amazing lunch of literally 4 full chickens and 2 different kinds of salad and of course planty of bread. And of course now there were 5 women saying "cooli, cooli!" which means "eat eat!" Every once in a while I would be trying to digest and Chayma would whisper "cooli" and I would say "shbaet" which means I'm full, then she would say "liar" and we would start laughing. Then after lunch we went into another room where they started singing what I guess are traditional celebration songs. Then Leila whips out the CDs that play in the DVD player and I guess have videos of dances. And Chayma takes out these scarves and a belt with little things on the end that you tie around your hips. It seems like Moroccan dance is a step down from belly dancing which is sooo interesting to me. So they start dancing until Chayma pulls me up. At first it was really intimidating because let me tell you these ladies know how to dance. Their favorite music artist is Shakira and they can dance like her too. It's nuts! but once I started it was really fun! Chayma and I had a really great time and her cousins thought it was great. They have the most beautiful hair that is dark and curly and soooooo long! But they always wear it up so today was the first day I'd ever seen it. They're adorable. the older one must be about eleven and the younger one might be 8. After we were all tired, a couple of Chayma's aunts' friends came over. Apparently this woman is really self centered because the first thing Chayma said was that she didn't like her because all she does is talk about herself. Then I mentioned to her that I liked the woman's djellaba and Chayma was like "yeah, but if you tell her she'll say she knows it's beautiful and that she bought it from one of the stores where she knows the owner and she spent a lot of money on it. Hahahaha 2 minutes later someone complimented this woman on her djellaba and she pretty much said that word for word. Chayma and I tried really hard not to laugh but it didn't work very well. We went out for a while to get her cousins some school supplies and while we were out we bumped into a guy that Chayma knows from school. Apparently he started asking for my facebook name and email address. She told him to find me on her facebook. I guess what he didn't realize was that they're not friends on facebook! It was really funny. Then Chayma and I left to go back to Rabat because I met up with my friends to get pizza. It was so good!
We walked around a little afterwards then came back. It was nice but kind of strange to eat pizza. On one hand it reminds me that there is more food than the tajines and food that my host mom cooks (which in all fairness is absolutely amazing and I have never complaimed about any meals I've had) and on the other hand it made me a little homesick. I love the food here and I'm loving every day that I'm here, but it's so strange not being there. I don't know how to describe it. My friend and I were talking about what it's going to be like when we come home. We know already we're going to make references to things that no one at home will know about, things we joke about every day. And we've gotten so close so fast here that it's hard to imagine not seeing these people. But we're pretty sure that it's not going to be reverse culture shock but more readjusting to how to live at home. I mean we've got a while before we have to think about it, but it seems like it's going by so fast already. We leave Thursday for our village homestay the day after which lasts a week. Then we have 2 weeks and it's my birthday and our trip to Marrakech which lasts another week. Then it's Halloween the weekend we get back (possibly in Casablanca). 2 weeks later our independent study starts, when we can travel and research and get roughly 20 pages done in 3 weeks. Then we present and go home! When I think about it like that it actually scares me because I'm afraid I'm not going to get to do everything I want to.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Recovery Week
Monday
yay for another boring-ish day! We had breakfast early then got right on the road back to Rabat. It's such a relief to know where I am! I went to the library for a while, then went to bible study with some friends here (it was so nice to have a bible study group!), and came home where I showed my family the things that I got from Fes and my pictures. Chayma showed me her pictures because last summer she went with the program to do the rural homestay and to Fes. It was so cool! We had dinner, hung out for a little bit, then went to our rooms. Now tomorrow and wednesday, they should be the interesting days. Tomorrow we have class, not that extraordinary, along with another class-ish thing in another part of the city. We're scheduled to go to Casablanca for a day trip on Wednesday but I'm going to leave tomorrow in the afternoon with some friends and stay the night in a hotel there. That way we get an early start on Wednesday to go to the places that the program directors and Chayma suggested. It should be pretty cool to go to the organizations because they are expecting us, but even more interesting to explore the city on our own. I'll keep you posted!
Tuesday
So this morning I went to class and I was so shocked by the number of people who were absent! My class alone went from a class of 9 to a class of 4 because everyone was throwing up or felt really stomach sick. I have to say this morning my stomach was not feeling 100% but I kinda just plowed through because I knew if I missed class I'd miss so much practice! So I went and I was so glad I did. We played games and reviewed the alphabet and writing. And I felt much better about an hour into class. The second class was cancelled, which gave us a nice free afternoon. My friends and I decided after class not to go to Casa today because we're so tired and some are feeling sick. So instead I'm going with other friends bright and early tomorrow. The train leaves at 6:45 tomorrow morning so it should be a looonnnggg day. But we really wanted to head out early because we were given 5 different places to visit. Although we really only need to see one out of the 5, I really want to see at least 2, which means we have to go to the Hassan II mosque by 9am so that by 11:30 we can go to Solidarite Feminin, a place for single moms and divorced women to find jobs, etc. There's also a library, a Jewish Museum and an organization to help street children that we can visit and we have appointments with. Hopefully we'll have some time to explore, but if not we can always go back! It's not all that far and the train is wicked cheap.
Wednesday
Casablanca is crazy! I mean parts of it are really cool and parts I wasn't so excited about. This morning Lauren and I barely caught the 6:45 train and made it to Casa before 8. We decided that because we had so much extra time that we'd walk to the mosque, which is so huge that you can pretty much see it from anywhere in the city. When we got to the mosque we still had some time to kill before the tour, so we went to a cute little cafe and got some breakfast. We met up with some more friends who took the later train and found the tour just in time. The mosque was amazing! Apparently it's the 3rd largest mosque in the world only to Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. The roof, which is incredibly intricate detail carved into cedar wood, slides open in a matter of minutes. The men pray downstairs and the women pray upstairs or outside. After the tour, we went back to the cafe so that everyone else could have breakfast, then we headed to the second place, Solidarite Feminin. We took a cab to where we thought it was, but the cab driver didn't exactly know, so then we asked another guy who pulled in 3 other guys off the street to help us find it. He was so nice! We wondered around a little bit and asked several people but we finally found one location. They directed us to another location just around the corner, but we got confused about the directions and ended up asking 2 women, a guard and another 2 women who actually work there, to help us find it. We walked in a huge circle, but w/e. we found it eventually and we were only 20 minutes late. Not to mention that we gave ourselves an hour to find it. nbd. So we had a quick tour and the woman is going to email me to help me out with my independent study idea. I don't know if I mentioned it, but for my independent study I decided I want to see if I can volunteer at a center for battered women and since there has been a huge increase in female judges, I want to talk to the female judges and get their opinion the issue along with study their cases and see how they are ruling on domestic violence related cases. We'll see how it goes! But luckily the woman at Solidarite Feminin said she would email me some information about organizations I think in Casa but hopefully in Rabat too! After our visit we went for a nice long walk. The Ville Nouvelle is very much like a cross between Boston, NYC and parts of France. It was really fun! I didn't get any pictures because I need to get batteries, but my friends did! I'll try to steal theirs. lol. We stopped in a cafe and had this amazing ice cream, I bought a couple magazines, we tried to get to Rick's but it was closed, then we made our way to the train station. At this point it was already 5:15 and we estimated that we'd been walking for ~3hours. I was soooooo tired! We chatted on the train and I felt like I barely made it home. Unfortunately Chandra doesn't have a key to her house and no one was home, so she came to my house for a while and we talked for a very long time. After she left I had dinner while my host family and I watched My Super Ex-Girlfriend. Last night it was Transformers... I can't believe the movies that are on over here! It varies from Jeepers Creepers, National Treasure and Saw to Step Up, Honey and My Super Ex-Girlfriend! I guess it's not that strange and it varies in the US too but here it's all on one channel and you never know what kind of show will be on.
Thursday
So today we had 5/9 of the people in our class there. The majority of our program is sick, along with Nawal (our director) and my teacher, Fatiha. But Nawal walked into our classroom today and announced a schedule change. Here I was thinking she was going to cancel something when instead we find out we have a movie to watch and a reception for the speakers for our lectures. With 2 people just coming out of the hospital, one in the hospital until next week and another 2 going to clinics just today, we were a little surprised. But it turned out ok. The movie was really interesting... Divorce in Iran. It was a documentary in a court. Then Lauren and I visited our friend Jena who is in the hospital. She is the only one that we know definitely had food poisoning. Fun fact 1: You are supposed to have about 6 bacteria in 100mL of blood. Fun Fact 2: she had 100. Bad news bears. But she looks ok, just really tired and already it seems like her arms are thinner. Then Lauren and I were on time according to Moroccan standards (aka half an hour late) for the reception and got there just before they were actually talking anyway. It was pretty well timed not gonna lie. We have the option now of taking 3 different modules. The first options are Moroccan youth, Women, Society and Change, and multiculturalism. The second are Religion, art and lit and health and the third are Cinema, multilingualism and social issues. So needless to say, I'm signed up for the Women, Society and Change module along with the health and cinema modules. I'm really excited for the cinema one and of course the women module will be great for my ISP and sooooo interesting. After the reception, Chandra and Megan came over then Ahmed decided to help me study for my arabic quiz tomorrow. He would say the letters and I had to write them in first, second and third position. It was pretty hard! For dinner we had what was apparently Egyptian food (?) and this awesome soup my host mom makes. I still can't get past the fact that it's 10:30 right now and I'm so ready to go to sleep. I think I could have gotten sick. I've been really tired the past few days so I think my body is fighting whatever everyone else is getting sick from. Luckily I'm getting plenty of sleep!
yay for another boring-ish day! We had breakfast early then got right on the road back to Rabat. It's such a relief to know where I am! I went to the library for a while, then went to bible study with some friends here (it was so nice to have a bible study group!), and came home where I showed my family the things that I got from Fes and my pictures. Chayma showed me her pictures because last summer she went with the program to do the rural homestay and to Fes. It was so cool! We had dinner, hung out for a little bit, then went to our rooms. Now tomorrow and wednesday, they should be the interesting days. Tomorrow we have class, not that extraordinary, along with another class-ish thing in another part of the city. We're scheduled to go to Casablanca for a day trip on Wednesday but I'm going to leave tomorrow in the afternoon with some friends and stay the night in a hotel there. That way we get an early start on Wednesday to go to the places that the program directors and Chayma suggested. It should be pretty cool to go to the organizations because they are expecting us, but even more interesting to explore the city on our own. I'll keep you posted!
Tuesday
So this morning I went to class and I was so shocked by the number of people who were absent! My class alone went from a class of 9 to a class of 4 because everyone was throwing up or felt really stomach sick. I have to say this morning my stomach was not feeling 100% but I kinda just plowed through because I knew if I missed class I'd miss so much practice! So I went and I was so glad I did. We played games and reviewed the alphabet and writing. And I felt much better about an hour into class. The second class was cancelled, which gave us a nice free afternoon. My friends and I decided after class not to go to Casa today because we're so tired and some are feeling sick. So instead I'm going with other friends bright and early tomorrow. The train leaves at 6:45 tomorrow morning so it should be a looonnnggg day. But we really wanted to head out early because we were given 5 different places to visit. Although we really only need to see one out of the 5, I really want to see at least 2, which means we have to go to the Hassan II mosque by 9am so that by 11:30 we can go to Solidarite Feminin, a place for single moms and divorced women to find jobs, etc. There's also a library, a Jewish Museum and an organization to help street children that we can visit and we have appointments with. Hopefully we'll have some time to explore, but if not we can always go back! It's not all that far and the train is wicked cheap.
Wednesday
Casablanca is crazy! I mean parts of it are really cool and parts I wasn't so excited about. This morning Lauren and I barely caught the 6:45 train and made it to Casa before 8. We decided that because we had so much extra time that we'd walk to the mosque, which is so huge that you can pretty much see it from anywhere in the city. When we got to the mosque we still had some time to kill before the tour, so we went to a cute little cafe and got some breakfast. We met up with some more friends who took the later train and found the tour just in time. The mosque was amazing! Apparently it's the 3rd largest mosque in the world only to Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. The roof, which is incredibly intricate detail carved into cedar wood, slides open in a matter of minutes. The men pray downstairs and the women pray upstairs or outside. After the tour, we went back to the cafe so that everyone else could have breakfast, then we headed to the second place, Solidarite Feminin. We took a cab to where we thought it was, but the cab driver didn't exactly know, so then we asked another guy who pulled in 3 other guys off the street to help us find it. He was so nice! We wondered around a little bit and asked several people but we finally found one location. They directed us to another location just around the corner, but we got confused about the directions and ended up asking 2 women, a guard and another 2 women who actually work there, to help us find it. We walked in a huge circle, but w/e. we found it eventually and we were only 20 minutes late. Not to mention that we gave ourselves an hour to find it. nbd. So we had a quick tour and the woman is going to email me to help me out with my independent study idea. I don't know if I mentioned it, but for my independent study I decided I want to see if I can volunteer at a center for battered women and since there has been a huge increase in female judges, I want to talk to the female judges and get their opinion the issue along with study their cases and see how they are ruling on domestic violence related cases. We'll see how it goes! But luckily the woman at Solidarite Feminin said she would email me some information about organizations I think in Casa but hopefully in Rabat too! After our visit we went for a nice long walk. The Ville Nouvelle is very much like a cross between Boston, NYC and parts of France. It was really fun! I didn't get any pictures because I need to get batteries, but my friends did! I'll try to steal theirs. lol. We stopped in a cafe and had this amazing ice cream, I bought a couple magazines, we tried to get to Rick's but it was closed, then we made our way to the train station. At this point it was already 5:15 and we estimated that we'd been walking for ~3hours. I was soooooo tired! We chatted on the train and I felt like I barely made it home. Unfortunately Chandra doesn't have a key to her house and no one was home, so she came to my house for a while and we talked for a very long time. After she left I had dinner while my host family and I watched My Super Ex-Girlfriend. Last night it was Transformers... I can't believe the movies that are on over here! It varies from Jeepers Creepers, National Treasure and Saw to Step Up, Honey and My Super Ex-Girlfriend! I guess it's not that strange and it varies in the US too but here it's all on one channel and you never know what kind of show will be on.
Thursday
So today we had 5/9 of the people in our class there. The majority of our program is sick, along with Nawal (our director) and my teacher, Fatiha. But Nawal walked into our classroom today and announced a schedule change. Here I was thinking she was going to cancel something when instead we find out we have a movie to watch and a reception for the speakers for our lectures. With 2 people just coming out of the hospital, one in the hospital until next week and another 2 going to clinics just today, we were a little surprised. But it turned out ok. The movie was really interesting... Divorce in Iran. It was a documentary in a court. Then Lauren and I visited our friend Jena who is in the hospital. She is the only one that we know definitely had food poisoning. Fun fact 1: You are supposed to have about 6 bacteria in 100mL of blood. Fun Fact 2: she had 100. Bad news bears. But she looks ok, just really tired and already it seems like her arms are thinner. Then Lauren and I were on time according to Moroccan standards (aka half an hour late) for the reception and got there just before they were actually talking anyway. It was pretty well timed not gonna lie. We have the option now of taking 3 different modules. The first options are Moroccan youth, Women, Society and Change, and multiculturalism. The second are Religion, art and lit and health and the third are Cinema, multilingualism and social issues. So needless to say, I'm signed up for the Women, Society and Change module along with the health and cinema modules. I'm really excited for the cinema one and of course the women module will be great for my ISP and sooooo interesting. After the reception, Chandra and Megan came over then Ahmed decided to help me study for my arabic quiz tomorrow. He would say the letters and I had to write them in first, second and third position. It was pretty hard! For dinner we had what was apparently Egyptian food (?) and this awesome soup my host mom makes. I still can't get past the fact that it's 10:30 right now and I'm so ready to go to sleep. I think I could have gotten sick. I've been really tired the past few days so I think my body is fighting whatever everyone else is getting sick from. Luckily I'm getting plenty of sleep!
Monday, September 20, 2010
A full day in Fes!
Sunday
AAAHHhhhhh I'm in Fes!!!!! It was amazing. This morning we were up and at breakfast at 8 and out of the hotel by around 9. First we had a small bus tour and started at the king's palace. Btw I took waaaayyy too many pictures so I made another photo album on Facebook. Feel free to creep =) Then we went to the top of this big hill so we could see all of Fes. It's HUGE! oh man is it huge. The medina alone has 9,000 something roads and even the native Fessi get lost! It crazy. Then we went into the medina and oh man was it incredible. There were so many narrow roads! Cars couldn't possibly fit so they used mules for heavy lifting and carrying stuff long distances. It was c.r.a.z.y. It gets soooo crowded and you have to pay attention because people are constantly running around with these huge wheel barrow-like carts for their shops full of animal skins and books and whatever else you can think of! We first went to this place where they weave silk scarves, bags, sheets, and cushion covers. It was awesome!!! I guess they use vegetable silk, not like silk worm silk. They put scarves on us and we all got great pictures. But it took all of my self control not to go crazy and buy everything. So instead I didn't buy anything at all! My main goal was to buy shoes and I would not be distracted. But the next place.... oh man. I had just been saying to myself that I needed to get cheap shoes.... we went to a tannery where we watched the working men dye the leather in front of us. then they said they took credit card. Shoot. It was all over for me. They had shoes and bags and wallets but all I could see were the shoes. They had every color imaginable. Luckily I was sensible (kinda?) and only bought 2 pairs of shoes. In US dollars 2 pairs of authentic leather dyed-at-location shoes were only $35. I'm sorry but I was not going to pass that up. lol. Once we left the tanney, we went to a couple mosques, one we were allowed in. Both are schools and the architecture craftsmanship was incredible. So after that, we went to lunch at this really cool restaurant. Once lunch was finished, we went to a djellaba/kaftan store and once again I was doomed. They had us try on the dresses "For free!" they said as they found any color you could possibly want. If you didn't see the color you wanted they took you in the back room with stacks and stacks of dresses again in every color and several patterns. It was crazy. So first I tried on this red dress-like thing that looks like pants ish, but feels like a dress. Then I was in trouble. I asked to see a dress in a certain color and the man comes out with this GORGEOUS blue dress. I was done before I even put it on. It was just amazing. It's actually a kaftan which can be worn to weddings and fancy events. I think it's the cultural equivalent of a prom dress. And the cost? $45 US. I think that's how I justified buying it. At first he said it was around $70 and I said I couldn't do it so he asked me to say a price. I have absolutely no idea how much it should cost, but I told him I could do the $47 (which is actually 400 dirhams which is shocking to spend. I have to constantly do the exchange rate in my head so I don't pass out from sticker shock). He suggested closer to $52 and I said that I might be able to, but when we went to pick out a head piece he told me that I could have it for the $45 but not to tell anyone. I was so excited! after we left we went through where they make the wedding platforms and exited the medina. We had the option of staying in the medina or going back to the hotel and I opted to go back. I was so tired! I had planned to take a nice long nap (we had 5 hours to of free time) and walk around, but instead I ended up having an aweome conversation with my friend nicole and having the chance to (finally) talk to my mom for a long time. We had. The chocolate didn't happen, but we walked around the main road (Hassan II) which they call the Champs Elyssee of Fes. It actually really reminded me of France. So we fo dinner (couscous!) at 8 and after dinner a few of us (don't worry it wasn't only girls in the group) decided to wander around the city and maybe get some chocolate or ice creamund the least sketchy cafe and got some ice cream and talked about life for about an hour. On the way, or what we thought was the way, back to the hotel we saw a wedding party! the bride and groom were in cinderella-like horse drawn carriages (which btw I'm sooooo doing that for my wedding) and all of the cars were beeping with their emergency lights on. It was so cool! Finally we realized we had no idea where we were going and it was almost 1am, so we took 2 taxis back to the hotel. It was so much fun!
AAAHHhhhhh I'm in Fes!!!!! It was amazing. This morning we were up and at breakfast at 8 and out of the hotel by around 9. First we had a small bus tour and started at the king's palace. Btw I took waaaayyy too many pictures so I made another photo album on Facebook. Feel free to creep =) Then we went to the top of this big hill so we could see all of Fes. It's HUGE! oh man is it huge. The medina alone has 9,000 something roads and even the native Fessi get lost! It crazy. Then we went into the medina and oh man was it incredible. There were so many narrow roads! Cars couldn't possibly fit so they used mules for heavy lifting and carrying stuff long distances. It was c.r.a.z.y. It gets soooo crowded and you have to pay attention because people are constantly running around with these huge wheel barrow-like carts for their shops full of animal skins and books and whatever else you can think of! We first went to this place where they weave silk scarves, bags, sheets, and cushion covers. It was awesome!!! I guess they use vegetable silk, not like silk worm silk. They put scarves on us and we all got great pictures. But it took all of my self control not to go crazy and buy everything. So instead I didn't buy anything at all! My main goal was to buy shoes and I would not be distracted. But the next place.... oh man. I had just been saying to myself that I needed to get cheap shoes.... we went to a tannery where we watched the working men dye the leather in front of us. then they said they took credit card. Shoot. It was all over for me. They had shoes and bags and wallets but all I could see were the shoes. They had every color imaginable. Luckily I was sensible (kinda?) and only bought 2 pairs of shoes. In US dollars 2 pairs of authentic leather dyed-at-location shoes were only $35. I'm sorry but I was not going to pass that up. lol. Once we left the tanney, we went to a couple mosques, one we were allowed in. Both are schools and the architecture craftsmanship was incredible. So after that, we went to lunch at this really cool restaurant. Once lunch was finished, we went to a djellaba/kaftan store and once again I was doomed. They had us try on the dresses "For free!" they said as they found any color you could possibly want. If you didn't see the color you wanted they took you in the back room with stacks and stacks of dresses again in every color and several patterns. It was crazy. So first I tried on this red dress-like thing that looks like pants ish, but feels like a dress. Then I was in trouble. I asked to see a dress in a certain color and the man comes out with this GORGEOUS blue dress. I was done before I even put it on. It was just amazing. It's actually a kaftan which can be worn to weddings and fancy events. I think it's the cultural equivalent of a prom dress. And the cost? $45 US. I think that's how I justified buying it. At first he said it was around $70 and I said I couldn't do it so he asked me to say a price. I have absolutely no idea how much it should cost, but I told him I could do the $47 (which is actually 400 dirhams which is shocking to spend. I have to constantly do the exchange rate in my head so I don't pass out from sticker shock). He suggested closer to $52 and I said that I might be able to, but when we went to pick out a head piece he told me that I could have it for the $45 but not to tell anyone. I was so excited! after we left we went through where they make the wedding platforms and exited the medina. We had the option of staying in the medina or going back to the hotel and I opted to go back. I was so tired! I had planned to take a nice long nap (we had 5 hours to of free time) and walk around, but instead I ended up having an aweome conversation with my friend nicole and having the chance to (finally) talk to my mom for a long time. We had. The chocolate didn't happen, but we walked around the main road (Hassan II) which they call the Champs Elyssee of Fes. It actually really reminded me of France. So we fo dinner (couscous!) at 8 and after dinner a few of us (don't worry it wasn't only girls in the group) decided to wander around the city and maybe get some chocolate or ice creamund the least sketchy cafe and got some ice cream and talked about life for about an hour. On the way, or what we thought was the way, back to the hotel we saw a wedding party! the bride and groom were in cinderella-like horse drawn carriages (which btw I'm sooooo doing that for my wedding) and all of the cars were beeping with their emergency lights on. It was so cool! Finally we realized we had no idea where we were going and it was almost 1am, so we took 2 taxis back to the hotel. It was so much fun!
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Weekend part 1
Friday
So luckily I finally got my boring day. The only reason it was boring, in my opinion, is because I chose not to go out tonight to a Mexican restaurant with my friends because we have to be at the student center at 7:45 tomorrow morning. So the only excitement today was that I learned how to make the awesome peppermint tea and I guess Chayma and Ahmed's aunt is coming back from Saudi Arabia after spending 2 months there. So instead of writing about crazy things that have happened, here are some fun facts.
Muslims are expressly forbidden to eat pork but alcohol seems to be quietly debated.
A woman would rather admit to being a prostitute than be caught drinking in public.
Moroccans side with Palestine 99.9% of the time.
A Moroccan looked at my arabic and said it wasn't bad.
A guy here is also applying for an internship with the State Department so luckily I have someone to fill out the application with.
I got soooooooo lucky with my host family. My friend's family has been using her face cream, computer, and taking her jewelry and has her drink her tea in her room. Alone. My family is amazing and invites me everywhere, makes tea for me every time I get home and, most importantly, has toilet paper which is more than most people in the program have.
So tomorrow we depart for Meknes, Moulay Idriss, Volubilis and Fes. I'm so pumped!!
Saturday
OOOOHhhh man was it a long day! So I woke up at 6:45, and had breakfast with Ahmed at 7. We got on the bus and left for Mecknes!! It was awesome! The bus ride itself was great. I sat with one of my friends here and really got to know her a lot better. And the view was just amazing! there were mountains and 10 minutes of driving in between houses! We stopped in Mecknes at these beautiful gates that were just incredible! Then we went to the mausoleum of Moulay Ismail, which was in a mosque that we could actually go into! After, we went to a cool little store with a bunch of awesome plates, jewelry and sculptures with silver. It was probably for the best that I had left my money on the bus because I think I would have bought the whole store! We left the store and went to this golf course that I guess is supposed to be pretty cool. As we got back onto the bus, one of our arabic professors pointed out an underground prison!
After Mecknes we went to Moulay Idriss for lunch, then on to Volubilis, ancient Roman ruins. They were so cool! we took some pretty great pictures not gonna lie. From there we went on to Fes, where we got to our beautiful hotel. We showered and got a little dressed up for a nice dinner out. Me and some of my friends started watching Aladdin, then at 8 we went down to meet for dinner.
Dinner was hilarious. 2 of the arabic teachers and our program director sat with me and some of my friends and we just had an awesome time. One of them is engaged to be married this December, so we had a bunch of questions for him. The whole time they had Moroccan music, then these awesome traditional dances. I have no idea how to describe it but it was awesome. They had a few belly dancers perform (totally not what you think of when you think of belly dancing... fully clothed but with a belt around the hips that jingles when they dance) and a magician. it was so much fun! Then when we got back we were talking about going out dancing because one of my friends said she knows a good place but she couldn't remember the name. Then we were going to have a dance party in the room, but we were all so tired at this point (it was almost midnight) that we just hung out and chatted until it was late and we realized we have another early morning tomorrow.
So luckily I finally got my boring day. The only reason it was boring, in my opinion, is because I chose not to go out tonight to a Mexican restaurant with my friends because we have to be at the student center at 7:45 tomorrow morning. So the only excitement today was that I learned how to make the awesome peppermint tea and I guess Chayma and Ahmed's aunt is coming back from Saudi Arabia after spending 2 months there. So instead of writing about crazy things that have happened, here are some fun facts.
Muslims are expressly forbidden to eat pork but alcohol seems to be quietly debated.
A woman would rather admit to being a prostitute than be caught drinking in public.
Moroccans side with Palestine 99.9% of the time.
A Moroccan looked at my arabic and said it wasn't bad.
A guy here is also applying for an internship with the State Department so luckily I have someone to fill out the application with.
I got soooooooo lucky with my host family. My friend's family has been using her face cream, computer, and taking her jewelry and has her drink her tea in her room. Alone. My family is amazing and invites me everywhere, makes tea for me every time I get home and, most importantly, has toilet paper which is more than most people in the program have.
So tomorrow we depart for Meknes, Moulay Idriss, Volubilis and Fes. I'm so pumped!!
Saturday
OOOOHhhh man was it a long day! So I woke up at 6:45, and had breakfast with Ahmed at 7. We got on the bus and left for Mecknes!! It was awesome! The bus ride itself was great. I sat with one of my friends here and really got to know her a lot better. And the view was just amazing! there were mountains and 10 minutes of driving in between houses! We stopped in Mecknes at these beautiful gates that were just incredible! Then we went to the mausoleum of Moulay Ismail, which was in a mosque that we could actually go into! After, we went to a cool little store with a bunch of awesome plates, jewelry and sculptures with silver. It was probably for the best that I had left my money on the bus because I think I would have bought the whole store! We left the store and went to this golf course that I guess is supposed to be pretty cool. As we got back onto the bus, one of our arabic professors pointed out an underground prison!
After Mecknes we went to Moulay Idriss for lunch, then on to Volubilis, ancient Roman ruins. They were so cool! we took some pretty great pictures not gonna lie. From there we went on to Fes, where we got to our beautiful hotel. We showered and got a little dressed up for a nice dinner out. Me and some of my friends started watching Aladdin, then at 8 we went down to meet for dinner.
Dinner was hilarious. 2 of the arabic teachers and our program director sat with me and some of my friends and we just had an awesome time. One of them is engaged to be married this December, so we had a bunch of questions for him. The whole time they had Moroccan music, then these awesome traditional dances. I have no idea how to describe it but it was awesome. They had a few belly dancers perform (totally not what you think of when you think of belly dancing... fully clothed but with a belt around the hips that jingles when they dance) and a magician. it was so much fun! Then when we got back we were talking about going out dancing because one of my friends said she knows a good place but she couldn't remember the name. Then we were going to have a dance party in the room, but we were all so tired at this point (it was almost midnight) that we just hung out and chatted until it was late and we realized we have another early morning tomorrow.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Never a boring day...
Wednesday
I have never seen so many naked women in my entire life!
tonight I went to the hammam with Chayma and a couple neighbors and oh man. I loved it! At first it was a little overwhelming. I've never seen or been seen by so many people! But after like the first 10 minutes it was totally normal to be only wearing my underwear. First you strip and go into the first room where you find a seat (apparently the ideal spot is in front of a wall) and wash first with a traditional soap that feel a lot like honey. Then you go into the sauna-like room where you scrub. Amina, one of the neighbors we went with, scrubbed my back which felt awesome! We have these cloths that are almost like sandpaper. There was so much dead skin that just rolled right off! Then, after what felt like a lifetime of scrubbing, you go back to the first room and wash. By wash I mean everything. And we certainly took our time! I washed my hair like 5 times! We actually put henna on our skin because it's supposed to be good for it. I told Chayma though that if my skin turns orange I know where she lives. hahaha she just laughed and assured me that it wouldn't. Then we put something else on. Chayma didn't know what it was in english but even though it looked like mud it smelled good so we put that on and rinsed it off. Finally we used plain soap, rinsed off and left. It took about an hour and a half! My fingers were so prune-y but my skin feels absolutely amazing now. When we left, I wore Chayma's djellaba (the traditional dress). it is so much easier because I just wore my pjs underneath! and I wore my scarf around my hair. Apparently they do this so as not to get sick. Idk. All I know is that Chayma and I had a photo shoot afterwards of me in the djellaba. This is all after class and after I went running with my friend Chandra and we almost got rabies. Kinda kidding. There was a dog that wasn't on a leash or anything that started barking as we ran past. Luckily it didn't chase us but it was scary. But by the time we got back from the hammam it must have been like 10:30. Then we had dinner. We always seem to watch TV during meals. The TV is almost always on! Anyway I was really excited because Peter Pan, the one with real people not the animated one, was on so we watched it for a while.
All day I've been thinking about my independent study ideas. On the one hand the one with the judges could be really interesting and I could probably do more with it when I get back to the US. On the other, my idea is to dress one day with a veil, one day with the veil and djellaba, one day in a burka and the last day wearing something that would be considered shuma and write about how I feel each day, observe different attitudes towards me and talk to women and men about their opinions. Both could be really interesting and I might wear the different clothes for my own research and do the other one for my ISP. I think I need to talk to Abdelhay, my prof, again.
Tuesday
So I talked to Abdelhay and the final decision for me is the domestic violence/judges issue. But that is the last thing on my mind after today's crazyness. I was really hoping for a boring day, but I guess it's just never going to happen. I mean, who am I kidding, I'm in freakin Morocco! But anyway, today my friends and I got out of class early so we stayed at the center for a little while, then we went to a cafe place to get cool juices. they had date juice, avocado juice, peach juice, almond juice, mango juice, etc. it was awesome! except that it's not in the best part of town and we were sitting pretty much on the street. A woman who passed by was nice enough to remind me to pay attention to my bag because it was a little bit behond my chair. So i moved it in front of me, everyone checked their bags and we continued to look at the menu and order. A few minutes later my friend Megan looked down and realized her backpack was gone. She had just taken money out of the bank, so she had that with her along with her prescription medicine, laptop, camera, credit cards and cell phone. She called the program assistant, Nawal, and I went with her back to the center. We ended up going with Nabil, one of the arabic teachers who is awesome. He and I had a nice chat in the rain (it's the first time it's rained since I've been here!) while Megan got her passport, which luckily she had left at home. Then we went to the police station where we described what happened, and while we were there 2 guys came in in handcuffs. Nabil told us later that they had been caught drinking and smoking weed in the medina. apparently they can get up to 6 months in jail for that! Then I ran home to grab my phone and some money just in case, and when I got back to them we waited to go to the other police station. When we got to the other one, we saw this man and woman come in and Nabil told us that HE was caught drinking in public and she was with him so she was taken in too. Her response was incredible. She said that she was a prostitute and that she was working, not drinking and that he had offered her money. I couldn't make this crap up if I tried! Meanwhile, the nice policemen took Megan's information and got all of the facts about the theft, but because we didn't see anyone take it and there are no real identifiers on the stuff, she'll probably never see it again. =( After that ordeal, we took a cab back to the medina and I walked her almost all the way home. I was glad that I left her smiling about how badly we need to buy shoes. When I got home around 10pm, I told my family what happened and I guess they had waited to have dinner with me! It was so sweet.
I have never seen so many naked women in my entire life!
tonight I went to the hammam with Chayma and a couple neighbors and oh man. I loved it! At first it was a little overwhelming. I've never seen or been seen by so many people! But after like the first 10 minutes it was totally normal to be only wearing my underwear. First you strip and go into the first room where you find a seat (apparently the ideal spot is in front of a wall) and wash first with a traditional soap that feel a lot like honey. Then you go into the sauna-like room where you scrub. Amina, one of the neighbors we went with, scrubbed my back which felt awesome! We have these cloths that are almost like sandpaper. There was so much dead skin that just rolled right off! Then, after what felt like a lifetime of scrubbing, you go back to the first room and wash. By wash I mean everything. And we certainly took our time! I washed my hair like 5 times! We actually put henna on our skin because it's supposed to be good for it. I told Chayma though that if my skin turns orange I know where she lives. hahaha she just laughed and assured me that it wouldn't. Then we put something else on. Chayma didn't know what it was in english but even though it looked like mud it smelled good so we put that on and rinsed it off. Finally we used plain soap, rinsed off and left. It took about an hour and a half! My fingers were so prune-y but my skin feels absolutely amazing now. When we left, I wore Chayma's djellaba (the traditional dress). it is so much easier because I just wore my pjs underneath! and I wore my scarf around my hair. Apparently they do this so as not to get sick. Idk. All I know is that Chayma and I had a photo shoot afterwards of me in the djellaba. This is all after class and after I went running with my friend Chandra and we almost got rabies. Kinda kidding. There was a dog that wasn't on a leash or anything that started barking as we ran past. Luckily it didn't chase us but it was scary. But by the time we got back from the hammam it must have been like 10:30. Then we had dinner. We always seem to watch TV during meals. The TV is almost always on! Anyway I was really excited because Peter Pan, the one with real people not the animated one, was on so we watched it for a while.
All day I've been thinking about my independent study ideas. On the one hand the one with the judges could be really interesting and I could probably do more with it when I get back to the US. On the other, my idea is to dress one day with a veil, one day with the veil and djellaba, one day in a burka and the last day wearing something that would be considered shuma and write about how I feel each day, observe different attitudes towards me and talk to women and men about their opinions. Both could be really interesting and I might wear the different clothes for my own research and do the other one for my ISP. I think I need to talk to Abdelhay, my prof, again.
Tuesday
So I talked to Abdelhay and the final decision for me is the domestic violence/judges issue. But that is the last thing on my mind after today's crazyness. I was really hoping for a boring day, but I guess it's just never going to happen. I mean, who am I kidding, I'm in freakin Morocco! But anyway, today my friends and I got out of class early so we stayed at the center for a little while, then we went to a cafe place to get cool juices. they had date juice, avocado juice, peach juice, almond juice, mango juice, etc. it was awesome! except that it's not in the best part of town and we were sitting pretty much on the street. A woman who passed by was nice enough to remind me to pay attention to my bag because it was a little bit behond my chair. So i moved it in front of me, everyone checked their bags and we continued to look at the menu and order. A few minutes later my friend Megan looked down and realized her backpack was gone. She had just taken money out of the bank, so she had that with her along with her prescription medicine, laptop, camera, credit cards and cell phone. She called the program assistant, Nawal, and I went with her back to the center. We ended up going with Nabil, one of the arabic teachers who is awesome. He and I had a nice chat in the rain (it's the first time it's rained since I've been here!) while Megan got her passport, which luckily she had left at home. Then we went to the police station where we described what happened, and while we were there 2 guys came in in handcuffs. Nabil told us later that they had been caught drinking and smoking weed in the medina. apparently they can get up to 6 months in jail for that! Then I ran home to grab my phone and some money just in case, and when I got back to them we waited to go to the other police station. When we got to the other one, we saw this man and woman come in and Nabil told us that HE was caught drinking in public and she was with him so she was taken in too. Her response was incredible. She said that she was a prostitute and that she was working, not drinking and that he had offered her money. I couldn't make this crap up if I tried! Meanwhile, the nice policemen took Megan's information and got all of the facts about the theft, but because we didn't see anyone take it and there are no real identifiers on the stuff, she'll probably never see it again. =( After that ordeal, we took a cab back to the medina and I walked her almost all the way home. I was glad that I left her smiling about how badly we need to buy shoes. When I got home around 10pm, I told my family what happened and I guess they had waited to have dinner with me! It was so sweet.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
I finally caught up!
Monday
Oh man has it been a long day! This morning seems like so long ago! I got up and had breakfast with my host mom and Bushara, then went to Arabic. The skits were hilarious, then we had a cooking class where we learned how to make couscous (in Arabic of course). It was soooo awesome! Then we went to lunch and had our 2nd class of the day which was kinda boring. I got to go on skype though! I was so excited! Then when I got back from the library (where we had class) I had tea with my family. Afterwards we went to bring Bushara to the bus stop. I was so sad to see her go! She was so much fun and now whenever someone asks where I'm from they say Argentina and it was her idea from the first night we went out! Oh yeah, I forgot. On the way to the bus, a friend of one of Chayma's friends apparently got her phone number so that they could talk to me! She doesn't know him and she just gave me the phone saying "here he wants to talk to you." So when I said no, she took the phone and told him I was from Argentina! Then when he said he speaks Spanish she said I was born in Argentina, but I'm not from there. It was hilarious! Finally he stopped calling her back.
Then she got a call from her boyfriend. He was at the beach and he wanted to see her so he told her to go to the beach. She told him no, so he said he was coming so he could see her. Apparently he was pretty intoxicated. So we walked around a bunch of stores and sat in a park for a while until he and his friend got there. While we were walking, a young girl threw something at Chayma's friend Maria. They got into a fight and the young girl actually started to act like she was going to get physical! I couldn't believe it! We ended up walking to a park after a guy tried to talk to us and we pretended like I was deaf and Chayma started signing to me. While we waited Chayma and I had a really great conversation about where in Morocco to visit, snow, Jason and boyfriends in general and stuff like that. It was so interesting!
Then once the boys got there we started walking around. They thoughtfully started speaking french and VERY broken english for me which was sooo funny because they were really struggling. They were completely ridiculous.
So we were walking around and Chayma's boyfriend randomly came up behind me and touched my hair saying it's special beause it's blonde, which was just silly. I guess it was funny for him until I guess another random guy who was walking by said something about "the blonde." I thought Chayma's boyfriend was going to tear him a new one. He started yelling at him and then his friend joined in to help fight the guy. 3 other men had to split them up. I, meanwhile had no idea what had happened! I thought the guy had said something to Chayma or to her bf. But after we walked away her bf took me aside and tried to explain, and now looking back he was saying that I was with his gf so he needed to defend her and her family. But he talks soo fast and with such a different accent it was a little tricky at the time. Then his friend explained that that was his best friend and he needed to help and I'm a friend. They kept apologizing and her friend said that he really didn't want to meet with us because he didn't want us to see him like this. He just kept saying "I'm sooooo sorry!" And my incessent response was "C'est pas grave. It's ok."
Chayma told me at dinner that the whole thing was about me. All because of my stupid hair! I said to Chayma that I should just dye it, but she made an excellent point that then they would just say something about my eyes, etc. They'd find something. So you see I tried to keep my head down Trish! I didn't even notice that the guy said anything! But I don't know whether I should be impressed or upset that the guys decided to "defend" me. Either way, it was a very exciting night.
Tuesday
I finally got a schedule! Here's the finalized schedule of all of my travel for the semester.
Sat 9/18-20 Meknes, Moulay Idriss, Volubis, Fes
Wed 9/22 Casablanca
Thurs 9/30- 10/6 Village Homestay
Sat 10/23-29 Middelt, Merzouga, Ourzazzaat, Marrakech, Essaouira
Sun 11/14 Independent Study Project begins which means I can travel wherever
Sun 12/5 ISP ends -Back in Rabat at the hotel majestic
Mon 12/6-10 ISP presentations
Fri 12/10 Final Program evaluations
Sat 12/11 6:50am Flight to Paris
I'm so glad! Today we also had a conversation about our indpendent study projects. The shortest one I saw in the books (they keep all of them at the library) was 15 pages, which is totally do-able. I can handle it. lol. I think I may have even picked a topic! My professor actually suggested it. I have a few that I've been bouncing between and it really depends on how much information I can get, but I think it would be interesting to look at the increasing number of women in the judicial system here and their decisions, specifically in regards to domestic violence. I want to go to the clinics and talk to volunteers about the domestic violence problem here, then speak to as many female judges as possible. I think it would be so interesting! Of course I have to try to tie globalization in somewhere so it counts towards my major, but I don't think that it will be impossible. Also, to talk to a judge I would need someone to translate because my arabic will not be very good. So my professor, who I talked to today about all of my ideas, advised that I get a law student to help and in return I'll help correct a paper in English or something like that. I think that relationship itself would be interesting which is why I'm leaning towards this subject rather than the idea I had about clothing. Also a lot of people want to do or have done something about clothing but no one has ever done something about the judicial system, I guess because the increase in women is fairly recent. I really want to do something new so I think this is it! and that means I can travel to different places to see the different clinics, but I also will need to be in Rabat for the majority of it because that is where the new trend of women judges is. I really hope that this is not like a lot of my classes at home when I get really excited about a class or subject and then by the end kick myself for picking it. I guess we'll have to see! Otherwise today was not very eventful. Arabic is hard. The sounds and the alphabet is completely different and I feel like a 2 year old trying to figure it out. But it's always fun and I just laugh at my mistakes so nbd. I took a nap when I got back from class and had some tea with Chayma, Maria and Ahmed. I took out 3 books from the library but I think I'm going to bring 2 of them with me when we travel this weekend. I think the bus ride will be longer than anyone expects.
Oh man has it been a long day! This morning seems like so long ago! I got up and had breakfast with my host mom and Bushara, then went to Arabic. The skits were hilarious, then we had a cooking class where we learned how to make couscous (in Arabic of course). It was soooo awesome! Then we went to lunch and had our 2nd class of the day which was kinda boring. I got to go on skype though! I was so excited! Then when I got back from the library (where we had class) I had tea with my family. Afterwards we went to bring Bushara to the bus stop. I was so sad to see her go! She was so much fun and now whenever someone asks where I'm from they say Argentina and it was her idea from the first night we went out! Oh yeah, I forgot. On the way to the bus, a friend of one of Chayma's friends apparently got her phone number so that they could talk to me! She doesn't know him and she just gave me the phone saying "here he wants to talk to you." So when I said no, she took the phone and told him I was from Argentina! Then when he said he speaks Spanish she said I was born in Argentina, but I'm not from there. It was hilarious! Finally he stopped calling her back.
Then she got a call from her boyfriend. He was at the beach and he wanted to see her so he told her to go to the beach. She told him no, so he said he was coming so he could see her. Apparently he was pretty intoxicated. So we walked around a bunch of stores and sat in a park for a while until he and his friend got there. While we were walking, a young girl threw something at Chayma's friend Maria. They got into a fight and the young girl actually started to act like she was going to get physical! I couldn't believe it! We ended up walking to a park after a guy tried to talk to us and we pretended like I was deaf and Chayma started signing to me. While we waited Chayma and I had a really great conversation about where in Morocco to visit, snow, Jason and boyfriends in general and stuff like that. It was so interesting!
Then once the boys got there we started walking around. They thoughtfully started speaking french and VERY broken english for me which was sooo funny because they were really struggling. They were completely ridiculous.
So we were walking around and Chayma's boyfriend randomly came up behind me and touched my hair saying it's special beause it's blonde, which was just silly. I guess it was funny for him until I guess another random guy who was walking by said something about "the blonde." I thought Chayma's boyfriend was going to tear him a new one. He started yelling at him and then his friend joined in to help fight the guy. 3 other men had to split them up. I, meanwhile had no idea what had happened! I thought the guy had said something to Chayma or to her bf. But after we walked away her bf took me aside and tried to explain, and now looking back he was saying that I was with his gf so he needed to defend her and her family. But he talks soo fast and with such a different accent it was a little tricky at the time. Then his friend explained that that was his best friend and he needed to help and I'm a friend. They kept apologizing and her friend said that he really didn't want to meet with us because he didn't want us to see him like this. He just kept saying "I'm sooooo sorry!" And my incessent response was "C'est pas grave. It's ok."
Chayma told me at dinner that the whole thing was about me. All because of my stupid hair! I said to Chayma that I should just dye it, but she made an excellent point that then they would just say something about my eyes, etc. They'd find something. So you see I tried to keep my head down Trish! I didn't even notice that the guy said anything! But I don't know whether I should be impressed or upset that the guys decided to "defend" me. Either way, it was a very exciting night.
Tuesday
I finally got a schedule! Here's the finalized schedule of all of my travel for the semester.
Sat 9/18-20 Meknes, Moulay Idriss, Volubis, Fes
Wed 9/22 Casablanca
Thurs 9/30- 10/6 Village Homestay
Sat 10/23-29 Middelt, Merzouga, Ourzazzaat, Marrakech, Essaouira
Sun 11/14 Independent Study Project begins which means I can travel wherever
Sun 12/5 ISP ends -Back in Rabat at the hotel majestic
Mon 12/6-10 ISP presentations
Fri 12/10 Final Program evaluations
Sat 12/11 6:50am Flight to Paris
I'm so glad! Today we also had a conversation about our indpendent study projects. The shortest one I saw in the books (they keep all of them at the library) was 15 pages, which is totally do-able. I can handle it. lol. I think I may have even picked a topic! My professor actually suggested it. I have a few that I've been bouncing between and it really depends on how much information I can get, but I think it would be interesting to look at the increasing number of women in the judicial system here and their decisions, specifically in regards to domestic violence. I want to go to the clinics and talk to volunteers about the domestic violence problem here, then speak to as many female judges as possible. I think it would be so interesting! Of course I have to try to tie globalization in somewhere so it counts towards my major, but I don't think that it will be impossible. Also, to talk to a judge I would need someone to translate because my arabic will not be very good. So my professor, who I talked to today about all of my ideas, advised that I get a law student to help and in return I'll help correct a paper in English or something like that. I think that relationship itself would be interesting which is why I'm leaning towards this subject rather than the idea I had about clothing. Also a lot of people want to do or have done something about clothing but no one has ever done something about the judicial system, I guess because the increase in women is fairly recent. I really want to do something new so I think this is it! and that means I can travel to different places to see the different clinics, but I also will need to be in Rabat for the majority of it because that is where the new trend of women judges is. I really hope that this is not like a lot of my classes at home when I get really excited about a class or subject and then by the end kick myself for picking it. I guess we'll have to see! Otherwise today was not very eventful. Arabic is hard. The sounds and the alphabet is completely different and I feel like a 2 year old trying to figure it out. But it's always fun and I just laugh at my mistakes so nbd. I took a nap when I got back from class and had some tea with Chayma, Maria and Ahmed. I took out 3 books from the library but I think I'm going to bring 2 of them with me when we travel this weekend. I think the bus ride will be longer than anyone expects.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
This past weekend =)
Friday
I got pretty homesick today. I was working on my presentation and I showed Chayma the video "Can I get your number?" which she thought was hilarious, and I got to talk to Trish for a little bit. Lunch and breakfast were so good! I read outside until I thought I was going to melt worse than the wicked witch of the west but when all was said and done I started reading and listening to music in my room and I just got really sad that I can't see Trish or anyone for a while. It seems like every song I play reminds me of someone and I just got kinda sad. Don't get me wrong, the people here are amazing, it's beautiful every day, I get to eat with my hands (they use bread as silverware which is awesome) and my host family is sooo nice, but I miss my family and friends at home. It's only week 2 and I know this is the stupid study abroad emotional rollercoaster graph but it sucks. I know part of it is just that I don't have very much to do, but I'm not really interested in doing very much today. I think tomorrow my host mom is going to the hammam (public bath) and Ahmed was saying that tomorrow we're going to go on a rowboat. Sunday I think I'm going to the beach with Chayma and her friends so I'll be busy and once I'm busy I don't think about it as much.
I went out with Chayma and 2 of her cousins. Leila is engaged so I met her fiance. I have so many questions for Chayma because I have no idea how exactly it works. She said that they met on the bus and that he lives a few towns over but is looking for a house in Rabat for them. We actually went to McDonald's.. I've been there more in Morocco than I have in the past 5 years in the US! After, we came back and had these amazing pastries! Luckily I just bought a cookbook for moroccan pastries so I should be able to make them although they probably won't be as good. And one of her aunts just kept pouring tea for me while saying "cooli cooli" which means "eat eat!" We watched TV for a while, including their favorite drama, Diablo. By we I mean 2 of Chayma's aunts, 3 cousins, Ahmed, Chayma, her mom and dad and I. It was packed! Afterwards they left and we watched more TV. I think my host mom thinks she's doing me a favor by putting on MTV. It's really sweet, but the music makes me a little homesick. I don't have the heart to tell her though.
Saturday
So today I woke up pretty late, and we had this awesome breakfast of bread with cheese or jam and pastries. Then I read for a while... I really need to do more of that. After lunch (during which my host mom asked me if I was on a diet! I tried to explain that I eat really slowly, but when I said I was full even Chayma was surprised) Chayma showed me videos of moroccan weddings and oh man they are soooo awesome! I couldn't believe how long they are! there was a song that went on for 10 minutes... 10 minutes of dancing and the bride was on a little platform that 6 guys carried her on their shoulders and danced to the music! Oh my gosh it was incredible. Afterwards I went to work on my presentation with my friends at Jena's house and Chayma came with me. It was hilarious! We are in the midst of recreating "Can I have your number?" in darija. While we were there we had tea and this awesome flatbread. It really doesn't get much better. lol. There are only a few words that are tricky, but mostly it's vocab we've already had. We had a ton of fun doing ridiculous things. Chayma just can't get over how silly the phrase "the back of your head is ridiculous" sounds. I guess some things just don't translate! But honestly, is it that far off? I mean I was asked if I was frickin Chinese!
Anyway, when we got back there was more tea and more pastries! I really am convinced I'm going to develop diebetes and this is only speeding up the process. While we ate I realized... they were watching Legally Blonde 2! I was so excited!! Which reminds me, my friend Lauren and I have decided that we are movie and TV soulmates. We have every intention of staying up to date on our Grey's Anatomy fix (which btw starts Sept 23 in case anyone was wondering) and we're going to have random movie nights. After the movie, I came downstairs because I was actually cold! I changed and came out to find my sister dancing in the living room and oh man the women here are awesome dancers! My friends have said it too, it seems like women here are just incredible. But it's just at home.
This is why we should not go out anymore. We caused another scene tonight when we went down by the river near the carnival. It started with a guy stepping on Chayma's neighbor's shoe, then 3 of them appeared and started talking to us. They asked where I was from, whether I was french or german or american (i like how that's always their last guess). Bushara, Chayma's cousin, once again tells the guys that I'm from Argentina. It was hilarious! After a while we walked away, until we saw that there was a wedding party walking by. Bushara dragged me to the end and their next door neighbor starts yelling "SLAAA SLEEEEEM" which I guess is part of a wedding song that they sing while they walk. Idk. So I tried to get a picture, discreetly, while they were walking by, but our neighbor takes my arm saying in arabic "no we should get closer so you can take a good picture!" At least I think that's what she said. All I could say was "LA LA LA LA LA!" which is "no no no no no." So she's pulling me but I really didn't want to make a scene. So all I could say was no no no! I couldn't stop laughing! I think it may have been a you had to be there moment.
On our way back Amina, one of their neighbors, was asking me about going to the beach. A bunch of my friends and Chayma and her friends all made plans to go tomorrow, but Chayma had told me earlier that she really didn't want Amina to come with us because one of her friends really doesn't like her and she didn't want drama. So I told her that we'd have to go another time together. I felt bad but I really don't want drama.
We didn't have dinner until we got back which was like 10. It was this HUGE plate of pasta. I really think that my family thinks I have an eating disorder or something because they're always so surprised when I say I'm full. Meanwhile I'm convinced that I'm eating way more than I did at home!
Sunday
BEEEAAAACHHHH Beach beach beach. beach beach beach. beach beach beach!!!
Ok first we went to church which was really interesting. The mass was a little different and they definitely said tha apostle's creed ( in French) which I was completely unprepared for! Most people there weren't Catholic, which I figured out when no one was going up for communion. It was really cool! one song was in darija, while the rest were French. After church we went and took the bus to the beach! It was amazing! the sand felt so nice under our feet and we climbed on the rocks and jumped off! there were tons of seashells and the water was perfect. It got so deep after like 10 steps! We hung out in the water and on the beach just chatting and having a great time. One guy came up to us and asked if we were american and my friend Chandra started talking to him in Croatian! Oh man it was hilarious. He looked so confused! But otherwise, the beach was a lot like beaches in the US. No real harassment or anything. It was really nice! On the way back my friend Lauren, who we decided is my movie and TV soulmate, and I were listening to music and dancing. All the way to the bus. and on the bus. We sat next to these little girls who thought it was hilarious that we were dancing and the mom even said good bye when they left! Of course we were only listening to the classiest music like Justin Bieber, Glee and Katy Perry. It was awesome.
After we got back we ate a little, then we went to the river to see the jet ski race. We went on a rowboat and I was sooo mad that I forgot my camera!! It was absolutely beautiful out. There was a crescent moon and the lights on the kasbah were just breath taking. We each tried to steer the row boat but we were ridiculously bad at it. One of our neighbors, a little girl named Zahaira, kept standing up and dancing or trying to put her hands in the water. I was convinced that she was going to fall off! Everyone on the boat kept telling her to sit, but she just kept standing back up! When we got back to shore (luckily with no casualties) we walked down to see the end of the race. I found out that one of the guys from the other SIT group lives in the house across the street from me! We've been living across the street for over a week and didn't even know. Meanwhile, I felt so bad because Chayma wasn't feeling well. We're both soooo tired from swimming so much! I didn't realize how long a day it was until I almost fell asleep walking back. It's only 10pm and I'm already in my pjs ready for bed! Bushara is leaving early tomorrow morning. She's been here for 2 months! I can't imagine living with my cousins for 2 months, but I guess it's pretty normal for them. So she returns to Agadir tomorrow.
I got pretty homesick today. I was working on my presentation and I showed Chayma the video "Can I get your number?" which she thought was hilarious, and I got to talk to Trish for a little bit. Lunch and breakfast were so good! I read outside until I thought I was going to melt worse than the wicked witch of the west but when all was said and done I started reading and listening to music in my room and I just got really sad that I can't see Trish or anyone for a while. It seems like every song I play reminds me of someone and I just got kinda sad. Don't get me wrong, the people here are amazing, it's beautiful every day, I get to eat with my hands (they use bread as silverware which is awesome) and my host family is sooo nice, but I miss my family and friends at home. It's only week 2 and I know this is the stupid study abroad emotional rollercoaster graph but it sucks. I know part of it is just that I don't have very much to do, but I'm not really interested in doing very much today. I think tomorrow my host mom is going to the hammam (public bath) and Ahmed was saying that tomorrow we're going to go on a rowboat. Sunday I think I'm going to the beach with Chayma and her friends so I'll be busy and once I'm busy I don't think about it as much.
I went out with Chayma and 2 of her cousins. Leila is engaged so I met her fiance. I have so many questions for Chayma because I have no idea how exactly it works. She said that they met on the bus and that he lives a few towns over but is looking for a house in Rabat for them. We actually went to McDonald's.. I've been there more in Morocco than I have in the past 5 years in the US! After, we came back and had these amazing pastries! Luckily I just bought a cookbook for moroccan pastries so I should be able to make them although they probably won't be as good. And one of her aunts just kept pouring tea for me while saying "cooli cooli" which means "eat eat!" We watched TV for a while, including their favorite drama, Diablo. By we I mean 2 of Chayma's aunts, 3 cousins, Ahmed, Chayma, her mom and dad and I. It was packed! Afterwards they left and we watched more TV. I think my host mom thinks she's doing me a favor by putting on MTV. It's really sweet, but the music makes me a little homesick. I don't have the heart to tell her though.
Saturday
So today I woke up pretty late, and we had this awesome breakfast of bread with cheese or jam and pastries. Then I read for a while... I really need to do more of that. After lunch (during which my host mom asked me if I was on a diet! I tried to explain that I eat really slowly, but when I said I was full even Chayma was surprised) Chayma showed me videos of moroccan weddings and oh man they are soooo awesome! I couldn't believe how long they are! there was a song that went on for 10 minutes... 10 minutes of dancing and the bride was on a little platform that 6 guys carried her on their shoulders and danced to the music! Oh my gosh it was incredible. Afterwards I went to work on my presentation with my friends at Jena's house and Chayma came with me. It was hilarious! We are in the midst of recreating "Can I have your number?" in darija. While we were there we had tea and this awesome flatbread. It really doesn't get much better. lol. There are only a few words that are tricky, but mostly it's vocab we've already had. We had a ton of fun doing ridiculous things. Chayma just can't get over how silly the phrase "the back of your head is ridiculous" sounds. I guess some things just don't translate! But honestly, is it that far off? I mean I was asked if I was frickin Chinese!
Anyway, when we got back there was more tea and more pastries! I really am convinced I'm going to develop diebetes and this is only speeding up the process. While we ate I realized... they were watching Legally Blonde 2! I was so excited!! Which reminds me, my friend Lauren and I have decided that we are movie and TV soulmates. We have every intention of staying up to date on our Grey's Anatomy fix (which btw starts Sept 23 in case anyone was wondering) and we're going to have random movie nights. After the movie, I came downstairs because I was actually cold! I changed and came out to find my sister dancing in the living room and oh man the women here are awesome dancers! My friends have said it too, it seems like women here are just incredible. But it's just at home.
This is why we should not go out anymore. We caused another scene tonight when we went down by the river near the carnival. It started with a guy stepping on Chayma's neighbor's shoe, then 3 of them appeared and started talking to us. They asked where I was from, whether I was french or german or american (i like how that's always their last guess). Bushara, Chayma's cousin, once again tells the guys that I'm from Argentina. It was hilarious! After a while we walked away, until we saw that there was a wedding party walking by. Bushara dragged me to the end and their next door neighbor starts yelling "SLAAA SLEEEEEM" which I guess is part of a wedding song that they sing while they walk. Idk. So I tried to get a picture, discreetly, while they were walking by, but our neighbor takes my arm saying in arabic "no we should get closer so you can take a good picture!" At least I think that's what she said. All I could say was "LA LA LA LA LA!" which is "no no no no no." So she's pulling me but I really didn't want to make a scene. So all I could say was no no no! I couldn't stop laughing! I think it may have been a you had to be there moment.
On our way back Amina, one of their neighbors, was asking me about going to the beach. A bunch of my friends and Chayma and her friends all made plans to go tomorrow, but Chayma had told me earlier that she really didn't want Amina to come with us because one of her friends really doesn't like her and she didn't want drama. So I told her that we'd have to go another time together. I felt bad but I really don't want drama.
We didn't have dinner until we got back which was like 10. It was this HUGE plate of pasta. I really think that my family thinks I have an eating disorder or something because they're always so surprised when I say I'm full. Meanwhile I'm convinced that I'm eating way more than I did at home!
Sunday
BEEEAAAACHHHH Beach beach beach. beach beach beach. beach beach beach!!!
Ok first we went to church which was really interesting. The mass was a little different and they definitely said tha apostle's creed ( in French) which I was completely unprepared for! Most people there weren't Catholic, which I figured out when no one was going up for communion. It was really cool! one song was in darija, while the rest were French. After church we went and took the bus to the beach! It was amazing! the sand felt so nice under our feet and we climbed on the rocks and jumped off! there were tons of seashells and the water was perfect. It got so deep after like 10 steps! We hung out in the water and on the beach just chatting and having a great time. One guy came up to us and asked if we were american and my friend Chandra started talking to him in Croatian! Oh man it was hilarious. He looked so confused! But otherwise, the beach was a lot like beaches in the US. No real harassment or anything. It was really nice! On the way back my friend Lauren, who we decided is my movie and TV soulmate, and I were listening to music and dancing. All the way to the bus. and on the bus. We sat next to these little girls who thought it was hilarious that we were dancing and the mom even said good bye when they left! Of course we were only listening to the classiest music like Justin Bieber, Glee and Katy Perry. It was awesome.
After we got back we ate a little, then we went to the river to see the jet ski race. We went on a rowboat and I was sooo mad that I forgot my camera!! It was absolutely beautiful out. There was a crescent moon and the lights on the kasbah were just breath taking. We each tried to steer the row boat but we were ridiculously bad at it. One of our neighbors, a little girl named Zahaira, kept standing up and dancing or trying to put her hands in the water. I was convinced that she was going to fall off! Everyone on the boat kept telling her to sit, but she just kept standing back up! When we got back to shore (luckily with no casualties) we walked down to see the end of the race. I found out that one of the guys from the other SIT group lives in the house across the street from me! We've been living across the street for over a week and didn't even know. Meanwhile, I felt so bad because Chayma wasn't feeling well. We're both soooo tired from swimming so much! I didn't realize how long a day it was until I almost fell asleep walking back. It's only 10pm and I'm already in my pjs ready for bed! Bushara is leaving early tomorrow morning. She's been here for 2 months! I can't imagine living with my cousins for 2 months, but I guess it's pretty normal for them. So she returns to Agadir tomorrow.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Some of the week... I wrote a lot so I'll post a little at a time
Monday
So I tried to get online today but for some reason the internet isn't fully functional yet at the CCCL, which is our student center. They're doing a ton of construction and cleaning so I guess it's interfering with the internet.
Tonight is the 26th night of Ramadan which apparently is a big deal. All of the little boys and girls get all dressed up and have their pictures taken on the marriage platform things. Chayma, her cousin and I got henna (which looks awesome!) then when we came back, her family started appearing! Her 2 younger girl cousins her 2 aunts and a boy who's about 15 came and had dinner with us. After dinner, Chayma put make up on them then after this wicked dance party and the passing around of the mirror, we went out. But going out here means we walked for over 2 hours just making a loop around the main street. You know how we can't go out without causing trouble? Still true. We were taking a picture and 3 guys wanted to get in it. at first we laughed and said whatever, but Chayma's cousin said no. So when we tried to get rid of them, they wouldn't go. Then her aunt came over and started yelling at them. It was great!
I've decided though that groups should not be allowed to excede 4 people. It's just sucha hassle to walk with more because people always get stuck behind slow walkers, or find someone else they know, or decide to go somewhere the rest of the group doesn't want to go. Especially when it's family because you don't want to split up, but you definitely don't want to go with them. There were just too many people! It took us 3 hours for a 40 minute walk! While it's great excercise, I went for a run before class today and I'm runnning again early tomorrow! We'll see how that goes...
Apparently we don't have class thursday and friday so a few of my friends are trying to figure out what to do. part of me wants to stay with my family for the last night of Ramadan, but the other part of me wants to travel a little, at least to casablanca. We're going later in the semester, but it would be nice to spend some extra time there.
Tuesday
This morning I went running at like 8am after eating until like 1/1:30ish. It was kinda rough getting up, but it was sooo nice to excercise! I walked to class by myself for the first time today which was exciting. I didn't get lost, which I thought was pretty impressive. Lol. I'll have to draw a map and take a picture of the medina so you can fully understand how impressive it was. Arabic today was hilarious. We're learning colors and clothes and stuff so she had us go on field trips to report on how other teachers are dressed. We even played guess who by describing someone in the room and one person had to guess who it was. Fatiha, our teacher, is hilarious! She started laughing sooo hard at our pronunciation... she started to tear up! I mean, we're pretty bad and she kept apologizing, but it's really hard for her to keep a straight face most of the time. Then at lunch I finally had internet... but it was also 8 in the morning there so no one was really on skype. I don't think internet is that fast though because I keep trying to post my pictures and for some reason it never works out. I think I'm going to try again tomorrow though.
I went to a cafe tonight with a bunch of friends and on the way back I had to just stop and soak it in. I keep having these moments of oh man I'm actually here. I'm in frickin Africa. When did that happen?! So many things look just like it's a picture. I can't believe how surreal it is! Like how my house has these awesome windows that go right out to the street or to the house next door. There are no screens, very few bugs and there's always a beautiful view. It hasn't rained once since we've been here. I feel like I'm in the middle of a movie or something. Today I got hit 3 times with this feeling. Once when I was running this morning (right next to the freakin ocean!) once when I was looking out the window that looks out onto the street on the 2 1/2 floor by the stairs and again on our way back into the medina (the walled part of the city) where there was smoke wafting from the food being cooked on the street and light from the street lights that just seemed to hit the wall. I just get a little overwhelmed sometimes by how amazing it is to be here with all of the colors and smells and feelings.
So I've decided to fast until the end of Ramadan. I think it was good when I fasted on Sunday but you don't get the full effect unless you do it a few days in a row. I think I'll appreciate the food and the end of Ramadan more once I'm doing it.
Speaking of Sunday, I was really excited today because a bunch of girls are doing a bible study here! While it won't be nearly as fun as my baking and awesome chatting time with Laura and Betta, I'm sure it'll be good.
So I don't think I'm going to travel for the long weekend. If anything I'll do a day trip to hike in the mountains but I'm not too sure of that. I would almost rather wait until we've travelled with the program before travelling independently and I REALLY want to spend the time checking out Rabat more.
I think I've decided to post things on Mondays and Fridays. I've been typing every night before I go to sleep then copying and pasting it. I'm trying so hard to survive without consistent internet access. Sometimes I think it's for the best that I don't have internet while other times I'm not so sure. But I guess it doesn't really matter because I'm not getting it.
Wednesday
Class today was hilarious. One by one we sat in a chair in the front of the room and had to answer the questions our classmates asked us in darija. It was so funny! Then at the end of class we found out we have an oral presentation with a group of students (we choose the groups) and use as much vocab as possible. Our group has decided to do a skit on... street harassment! To make it better, we're including, in darija, "excuse me can I talk to you for a minute? can i have your number? can i? " "where your boyfriend at?" and the best "The back of your head is ridiculous!" I'm so excited!!
So since I'm fasting (which is still a total shock to my host family... my brother keeps asking me and laughing) I couldn't have lunch. So while everyone ate I (finally!) got to talk to jason. Afterwards I had another class but while I was in class I (again, FINALLY) got my pictures to upload onto facebook. definitely let me know if you can't get to them using the link http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=201718&id=500336784&l=42e9305a43
After class I took a long awaited nap, watched some TV, then I went out with Chayma, her friend Maria, some of her cousins, Ahmed and my friends to the beach. We walked along a jetti and I was blown away by how beautiful it is. The waves are so strong and hit the rocks so the the water sprays. It really is the ocean! It was another of those "oh man i'm really here.. in morocco... oh man!" moments. hahaha. After, we walked down by a board walk area. on the way over, chayma was proposed to! She said no of course not, then her cousin walked up to him and said that he should marry her right now on the board walk. he said no and went his way! It was so funny. then we sat down off the boardwalk and started playing this card game. It was so much fun!! then a bunch of guys came and sat with us and played music. Some time after midnight we decided to head back. The whole night was amazing. It was such a great group of people, just big enough for it to be ok that it's rowdy. And we were quite rowdy. haha. It was awesome! Although I have to say I don't think I've ever been stared at so much when I was just wearing a plain white t shirt and jeans! I got more attention than Britney Spears when she shaved her head! I was shocked because I thought I was being really conservative.
So there is no school tomorrow and my final decision is not to go anywhere but to go to the beach with my sister and some friends and to explore Rabat as much as possible. I'm so pumped.
Thursday
Soooo I find it completely necessary to just talk about the ridiculous things that have been said in the past week. For example, when I said I wanted a turtle, my friend Megan asked me what I would do with it. My answer was quite simple; Love it forever. So here's a list.
"You got any ones in there?" as megan reaches into her wallet pack inside her jeans.
"What would Port Authority do? You can't just throw out a turtle."
"What am I going to do with a hamster in the medina??"
"I'm airbending AND waterbending"
"I can be your token ginger friend."
"Hello! are you chinese??" from a Moroccan man to my friends and I, one of whom is a redhead(?!)
Hahahahaha we walked all around today! And we already made the executive decision to spend thanksgiving going to see Harry Potter and eating Pizza Hut. we went to the garden and people watched for a while, went to the church and found times for daily and sunday masses (some in english!), went to McDonald's (one of the only places publicly open due to Ramadan so I sat through it even though I'm fasting), and wandered around this awesome bookstore where I got a couple cookbooks (I'm sure you're shocked). We spent 5 hours just walking around so now i'm pretty wiped out.
So I napped for about an hour then had dinner, during which we heard this booming noise which apparently means that it is a crescent moon, marking the end of Ramadan. No one is ever fully sure when Ramadan ends until they see the moon, then the palace shoots something off so that everyone knows that there's no more fasting! So tomorrow we'll have a normal breakfast at like 8am, lunch at around 1 and dinner around 9 according to Chayma. I'm so excited to be able to go to a cafe or a store during the day! Tomorrow is supposed to be a day of family and food so it should be interesting. After dinner, a bunch of friends came over and watched a movie. A few minutes after they got here, my host mom came down with a big tray of pastries and cookies and tea! It was so cute! My friend megan was so excited because apparently her family doesn't drink a lot of tea. That seems so weird to me because my family serves me tea with every single meal. It's really the ideal situation for me. lol. The tea they have is amazing! It just goes right into a teapot with mint leaves and they pour boiled water into it. One of Chayma's friends taught me how to pour it. You have to pour it really high up so that the leaves don't fall in and the top doesn't fall off. Even after my nap I'm finally getting hit with the effects of not eating until late, then staying up until wicked late and going to class early all day. I have no idea what is actually going to happen tomorrow. My sister said lots of family, but it sounds to me like we eat like all day, then go out with family at night but I know some of my friends want to get together to work on our prosentation for class. I'd also like to go to an internet cafe so I can post more pictures and see if I can talk to people. It's been kinda rough getting in touch with everyone, but I'm hoping it's just because of Ramadan. I know that the student center is going to be open later after the weekend so my hours online will change.
We had the 2nd meal and I ended up getting sucked into watching a soccer game, Rabat vs Fez. It came down to a shoot out and Fez won. By the time it was over it was already 1:30!
So I tried to get online today but for some reason the internet isn't fully functional yet at the CCCL, which is our student center. They're doing a ton of construction and cleaning so I guess it's interfering with the internet.
Tonight is the 26th night of Ramadan which apparently is a big deal. All of the little boys and girls get all dressed up and have their pictures taken on the marriage platform things. Chayma, her cousin and I got henna (which looks awesome!) then when we came back, her family started appearing! Her 2 younger girl cousins her 2 aunts and a boy who's about 15 came and had dinner with us. After dinner, Chayma put make up on them then after this wicked dance party and the passing around of the mirror, we went out. But going out here means we walked for over 2 hours just making a loop around the main street. You know how we can't go out without causing trouble? Still true. We were taking a picture and 3 guys wanted to get in it. at first we laughed and said whatever, but Chayma's cousin said no. So when we tried to get rid of them, they wouldn't go. Then her aunt came over and started yelling at them. It was great!
I've decided though that groups should not be allowed to excede 4 people. It's just sucha hassle to walk with more because people always get stuck behind slow walkers, or find someone else they know, or decide to go somewhere the rest of the group doesn't want to go. Especially when it's family because you don't want to split up, but you definitely don't want to go with them. There were just too many people! It took us 3 hours for a 40 minute walk! While it's great excercise, I went for a run before class today and I'm runnning again early tomorrow! We'll see how that goes...
Apparently we don't have class thursday and friday so a few of my friends are trying to figure out what to do. part of me wants to stay with my family for the last night of Ramadan, but the other part of me wants to travel a little, at least to casablanca. We're going later in the semester, but it would be nice to spend some extra time there.
Tuesday
This morning I went running at like 8am after eating until like 1/1:30ish. It was kinda rough getting up, but it was sooo nice to excercise! I walked to class by myself for the first time today which was exciting. I didn't get lost, which I thought was pretty impressive. Lol. I'll have to draw a map and take a picture of the medina so you can fully understand how impressive it was. Arabic today was hilarious. We're learning colors and clothes and stuff so she had us go on field trips to report on how other teachers are dressed. We even played guess who by describing someone in the room and one person had to guess who it was. Fatiha, our teacher, is hilarious! She started laughing sooo hard at our pronunciation... she started to tear up! I mean, we're pretty bad and she kept apologizing, but it's really hard for her to keep a straight face most of the time. Then at lunch I finally had internet... but it was also 8 in the morning there so no one was really on skype. I don't think internet is that fast though because I keep trying to post my pictures and for some reason it never works out. I think I'm going to try again tomorrow though.
I went to a cafe tonight with a bunch of friends and on the way back I had to just stop and soak it in. I keep having these moments of oh man I'm actually here. I'm in frickin Africa. When did that happen?! So many things look just like it's a picture. I can't believe how surreal it is! Like how my house has these awesome windows that go right out to the street or to the house next door. There are no screens, very few bugs and there's always a beautiful view. It hasn't rained once since we've been here. I feel like I'm in the middle of a movie or something. Today I got hit 3 times with this feeling. Once when I was running this morning (right next to the freakin ocean!) once when I was looking out the window that looks out onto the street on the 2 1/2 floor by the stairs and again on our way back into the medina (the walled part of the city) where there was smoke wafting from the food being cooked on the street and light from the street lights that just seemed to hit the wall. I just get a little overwhelmed sometimes by how amazing it is to be here with all of the colors and smells and feelings.
So I've decided to fast until the end of Ramadan. I think it was good when I fasted on Sunday but you don't get the full effect unless you do it a few days in a row. I think I'll appreciate the food and the end of Ramadan more once I'm doing it.
Speaking of Sunday, I was really excited today because a bunch of girls are doing a bible study here! While it won't be nearly as fun as my baking and awesome chatting time with Laura and Betta, I'm sure it'll be good.
So I don't think I'm going to travel for the long weekend. If anything I'll do a day trip to hike in the mountains but I'm not too sure of that. I would almost rather wait until we've travelled with the program before travelling independently and I REALLY want to spend the time checking out Rabat more.
I think I've decided to post things on Mondays and Fridays. I've been typing every night before I go to sleep then copying and pasting it. I'm trying so hard to survive without consistent internet access. Sometimes I think it's for the best that I don't have internet while other times I'm not so sure. But I guess it doesn't really matter because I'm not getting it.
Wednesday
Class today was hilarious. One by one we sat in a chair in the front of the room and had to answer the questions our classmates asked us in darija. It was so funny! Then at the end of class we found out we have an oral presentation with a group of students (we choose the groups) and use as much vocab as possible. Our group has decided to do a skit on... street harassment! To make it better, we're including, in darija, "excuse me can I talk to you for a minute? can i have your number? can i? " "where your boyfriend at?" and the best "The back of your head is ridiculous!" I'm so excited!!
So since I'm fasting (which is still a total shock to my host family... my brother keeps asking me and laughing) I couldn't have lunch. So while everyone ate I (finally!) got to talk to jason. Afterwards I had another class but while I was in class I (again, FINALLY) got my pictures to upload onto facebook. definitely let me know if you can't get to them using the link http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=201718&id=500336784&l=42e9305a43
After class I took a long awaited nap, watched some TV, then I went out with Chayma, her friend Maria, some of her cousins, Ahmed and my friends to the beach. We walked along a jetti and I was blown away by how beautiful it is. The waves are so strong and hit the rocks so the the water sprays. It really is the ocean! It was another of those "oh man i'm really here.. in morocco... oh man!" moments. hahaha. After, we walked down by a board walk area. on the way over, chayma was proposed to! She said no of course not, then her cousin walked up to him and said that he should marry her right now on the board walk. he said no and went his way! It was so funny. then we sat down off the boardwalk and started playing this card game. It was so much fun!! then a bunch of guys came and sat with us and played music. Some time after midnight we decided to head back. The whole night was amazing. It was such a great group of people, just big enough for it to be ok that it's rowdy. And we were quite rowdy. haha. It was awesome! Although I have to say I don't think I've ever been stared at so much when I was just wearing a plain white t shirt and jeans! I got more attention than Britney Spears when she shaved her head! I was shocked because I thought I was being really conservative.
So there is no school tomorrow and my final decision is not to go anywhere but to go to the beach with my sister and some friends and to explore Rabat as much as possible. I'm so pumped.
Thursday
Soooo I find it completely necessary to just talk about the ridiculous things that have been said in the past week. For example, when I said I wanted a turtle, my friend Megan asked me what I would do with it. My answer was quite simple; Love it forever. So here's a list.
"You got any ones in there?" as megan reaches into her wallet pack inside her jeans.
"What would Port Authority do? You can't just throw out a turtle."
"What am I going to do with a hamster in the medina??"
"I'm airbending AND waterbending"
"I can be your token ginger friend."
"Hello! are you chinese??" from a Moroccan man to my friends and I, one of whom is a redhead(?!)
Hahahahaha we walked all around today! And we already made the executive decision to spend thanksgiving going to see Harry Potter and eating Pizza Hut. we went to the garden and people watched for a while, went to the church and found times for daily and sunday masses (some in english!), went to McDonald's (one of the only places publicly open due to Ramadan so I sat through it even though I'm fasting), and wandered around this awesome bookstore where I got a couple cookbooks (I'm sure you're shocked). We spent 5 hours just walking around so now i'm pretty wiped out.
So I napped for about an hour then had dinner, during which we heard this booming noise which apparently means that it is a crescent moon, marking the end of Ramadan. No one is ever fully sure when Ramadan ends until they see the moon, then the palace shoots something off so that everyone knows that there's no more fasting! So tomorrow we'll have a normal breakfast at like 8am, lunch at around 1 and dinner around 9 according to Chayma. I'm so excited to be able to go to a cafe or a store during the day! Tomorrow is supposed to be a day of family and food so it should be interesting. After dinner, a bunch of friends came over and watched a movie. A few minutes after they got here, my host mom came down with a big tray of pastries and cookies and tea! It was so cute! My friend megan was so excited because apparently her family doesn't drink a lot of tea. That seems so weird to me because my family serves me tea with every single meal. It's really the ideal situation for me. lol. The tea they have is amazing! It just goes right into a teapot with mint leaves and they pour boiled water into it. One of Chayma's friends taught me how to pour it. You have to pour it really high up so that the leaves don't fall in and the top doesn't fall off. Even after my nap I'm finally getting hit with the effects of not eating until late, then staying up until wicked late and going to class early all day. I have no idea what is actually going to happen tomorrow. My sister said lots of family, but it sounds to me like we eat like all day, then go out with family at night but I know some of my friends want to get together to work on our prosentation for class. I'd also like to go to an internet cafe so I can post more pictures and see if I can talk to people. It's been kinda rough getting in touch with everyone, but I'm hoping it's just because of Ramadan. I know that the student center is going to be open later after the weekend so my hours online will change.
We had the 2nd meal and I ended up getting sucked into watching a soccer game, Rabat vs Fez. It came down to a shoot out and Fez won. By the time it was over it was already 1:30!
Monday, September 6, 2010
The weekend (finally)
Friday
So while they do have a shower and hot water (which is so nice), it is a part of the bathroom. the shower head is like a european one and there is a curtain that separates the sink from the shower and the toilet. My host mom showed me how to use it, and when I got out I came back to my room to find breakfast on a small table already! She walked me to my arabic class once I was ready to go. after class my host sister came to get me to remind me where the house is. I finally got a cell phone and now I realize how nice it was not to have one! I was so content not having a cell phone to distract and bother meand now I'm really glad I don't have internet at my house. Anyway, I'm definitely going for a run tomorrow (not alone mom don't worry!) but otherwise nothing is planned. I have my first real break fromt his crazy week. The excitement from the first few days is definitely still there but now that I'm a little settled in I'm a little homesick. It can be tricky communicating with my family and they do things a certain way and I feel like i throw their lives a little off balance. Maybe I just need a nap. lol.
After I felt like this, my host sister, Chayma, asked me if I wanted to go out with the family. We went down by the river where there is a carnival during Ramadan. It was so much fun! I played bumper cars with Amhed (my host brother), which was hilarious and we walked along the river and ate cotton candy and peanuts. They were huge!
Saturday
I slept in (finally!) I went for a long run with my friend Mark on a long path by the beach. It was really fun, but sooo hot! After, I spent some time watching TV with my family and reading in my room.
Later my host mom whipped out a bunch of photo albums of her wedding! Oh man guys, she wore 6 different dresses!!!! Six! They were each traditional dresses from different regions which i guess is normal for a Moroccan wedding. I thought that that was the coolest thing. One of them was this HUGE silver gown that started up by a tiara on her head and was like a giant triangle tent thing. It. was. AWESOME! And they were both carried individually on this little platform. Apparently on monday there is a big party where the boys and girls dress up and sit in these platforms and there is henna. It's a celebration of their first Ramadan fasting.
After dinner, my family helped me with my pronunciation. Did you know that moose means knife? I'm sure that it's not spelled the same, but when they said moose I couldn't help but laugh! The whole thing was funny. I can't pronounce the word for 9 so every time it came up when I was studying I'd pause and laugh and they would pronounce it for me and wait for me to repeat it. Then I ended up going to the beach with a couple friends and their host sisters which was really nice.
So I've decided to fast tomorrow just to see what it'll be like. I've fasted before for Lent, but always drinking tons of water. It should be pretty interesting to see how cranky I get by the end of the day! Tomorrow also begins my church search! I really want to get to church. Even if I miss the mass, I want to make sure that I at least get to pray a little. I brought a rosary so maybe I'll do that. I found a church on the bus tour so I just need to remember how to get there. it's about a 20-25 minute walk because it's outside of the medina. Well I'll let you know how it goes!
Sunday
I've decided to do as my family does today. I was planning on finding that church, but I realized that I shouldn't be walking by myself to find it and I can't exactly ask my host family to take me. So in class on Monday I'm going to ask if anyone wants to explore it with me. I know a few people who wanted to, but we didn't have too much time this week. Instead I said the rosary this morning. I decided not to shower until after Ftour (the breaking of the fast at night). My family hangs out in their pajamas all day so so will I. It'll truly be a day of rest.
I read and watched soap operas in darijha all day today until I went upstairs and Chayma her cousin and her mom showed me how to make the flat crepe-like bread. It's no wonder it tastes so good! There are like 3 pounds of butter in each one! I wasn't hungry until everything started to be cooked. By the time dinner came around I was worried I was going to pass out from dehydration! It was so funny because my host mom kept telling me to eat and putting food in front of me. I kept hearing "cooli cooli cooli!" which means eat eat eat! The food was amazing, as usual. Chayma introduced me to this paste which is a bunch of spices with tomato paste I think. I don't know what exactly it is, she just said it's spices. Whatever it is, it's awesome! She made these pizza like things with bread mixed with spice and the spice paste and some cheese and olives. I hate olives usually but they were AMAZING on this pizza! Oh man I really think I'm going to gain like 20 pounds on this trip. Luckily I'm going running again tomorrow.
Unfortunately, my body hasn't quite caught up to the different foods. I'm hoping it adjusts soon because I'm not going to stop eating them. lol. Although I might go out and get yogurt to help out my system. Meanwhile I just keep taking sips of pepto bismol.
So apparently I'm from Argentina. I mean it's pretty clear right?
It seems like every time I go out with Chayma and her cousin, something ridiculous happens. One night it was the guy who only spoke arabic and was convinced he just needed to talk to me so we could have a relationship. They told him I was engaged and my fiance would beat him up. Saturday it was the guy who said "You are beautiful. Welcome." And now tonight we were walking around and these guys try to call me over while Chayma was on a pay phone. Her cousin starts talking to the guy who is calling me over asking him why he wants to talk to me. Why not her? So we walk away and I guess after they used the phone they followed us up the road and tried to talk to us. They asked where I was from and whether I spoke english or french. Meanwhile I can't stop laughing. All I heard was "tres jolie" which means very pretty, and I just lost it. I was laughing so hard! So to make it better, Chayma's cousin says that I'm from Argentina! Chayma told them that I'm married and that both of them are in relationships. Oh man it was hilarious.
Here's the link to more pictures! It takes soooo long for pictures to upload so it might not happen again for a couple weeks.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=201718&id=500336784&l=42e9305a43
So while they do have a shower and hot water (which is so nice), it is a part of the bathroom. the shower head is like a european one and there is a curtain that separates the sink from the shower and the toilet. My host mom showed me how to use it, and when I got out I came back to my room to find breakfast on a small table already! She walked me to my arabic class once I was ready to go. after class my host sister came to get me to remind me where the house is. I finally got a cell phone and now I realize how nice it was not to have one! I was so content not having a cell phone to distract and bother meand now I'm really glad I don't have internet at my house. Anyway, I'm definitely going for a run tomorrow (not alone mom don't worry!) but otherwise nothing is planned. I have my first real break fromt his crazy week. The excitement from the first few days is definitely still there but now that I'm a little settled in I'm a little homesick. It can be tricky communicating with my family and they do things a certain way and I feel like i throw their lives a little off balance. Maybe I just need a nap. lol.
After I felt like this, my host sister, Chayma, asked me if I wanted to go out with the family. We went down by the river where there is a carnival during Ramadan. It was so much fun! I played bumper cars with Amhed (my host brother), which was hilarious and we walked along the river and ate cotton candy and peanuts. They were huge!
Saturday
I slept in (finally!) I went for a long run with my friend Mark on a long path by the beach. It was really fun, but sooo hot! After, I spent some time watching TV with my family and reading in my room.
Later my host mom whipped out a bunch of photo albums of her wedding! Oh man guys, she wore 6 different dresses!!!! Six! They were each traditional dresses from different regions which i guess is normal for a Moroccan wedding. I thought that that was the coolest thing. One of them was this HUGE silver gown that started up by a tiara on her head and was like a giant triangle tent thing. It. was. AWESOME! And they were both carried individually on this little platform. Apparently on monday there is a big party where the boys and girls dress up and sit in these platforms and there is henna. It's a celebration of their first Ramadan fasting.
After dinner, my family helped me with my pronunciation. Did you know that moose means knife? I'm sure that it's not spelled the same, but when they said moose I couldn't help but laugh! The whole thing was funny. I can't pronounce the word for 9 so every time it came up when I was studying I'd pause and laugh and they would pronounce it for me and wait for me to repeat it. Then I ended up going to the beach with a couple friends and their host sisters which was really nice.
So I've decided to fast tomorrow just to see what it'll be like. I've fasted before for Lent, but always drinking tons of water. It should be pretty interesting to see how cranky I get by the end of the day! Tomorrow also begins my church search! I really want to get to church. Even if I miss the mass, I want to make sure that I at least get to pray a little. I brought a rosary so maybe I'll do that. I found a church on the bus tour so I just need to remember how to get there. it's about a 20-25 minute walk because it's outside of the medina. Well I'll let you know how it goes!
Sunday
I've decided to do as my family does today. I was planning on finding that church, but I realized that I shouldn't be walking by myself to find it and I can't exactly ask my host family to take me. So in class on Monday I'm going to ask if anyone wants to explore it with me. I know a few people who wanted to, but we didn't have too much time this week. Instead I said the rosary this morning. I decided not to shower until after Ftour (the breaking of the fast at night). My family hangs out in their pajamas all day so so will I. It'll truly be a day of rest.
I read and watched soap operas in darijha all day today until I went upstairs and Chayma her cousin and her mom showed me how to make the flat crepe-like bread. It's no wonder it tastes so good! There are like 3 pounds of butter in each one! I wasn't hungry until everything started to be cooked. By the time dinner came around I was worried I was going to pass out from dehydration! It was so funny because my host mom kept telling me to eat and putting food in front of me. I kept hearing "cooli cooli cooli!" which means eat eat eat! The food was amazing, as usual. Chayma introduced me to this paste which is a bunch of spices with tomato paste I think. I don't know what exactly it is, she just said it's spices. Whatever it is, it's awesome! She made these pizza like things with bread mixed with spice and the spice paste and some cheese and olives. I hate olives usually but they were AMAZING on this pizza! Oh man I really think I'm going to gain like 20 pounds on this trip. Luckily I'm going running again tomorrow.
Unfortunately, my body hasn't quite caught up to the different foods. I'm hoping it adjusts soon because I'm not going to stop eating them. lol. Although I might go out and get yogurt to help out my system. Meanwhile I just keep taking sips of pepto bismol.
So apparently I'm from Argentina. I mean it's pretty clear right?
It seems like every time I go out with Chayma and her cousin, something ridiculous happens. One night it was the guy who only spoke arabic and was convinced he just needed to talk to me so we could have a relationship. They told him I was engaged and my fiance would beat him up. Saturday it was the guy who said "You are beautiful. Welcome." And now tonight we were walking around and these guys try to call me over while Chayma was on a pay phone. Her cousin starts talking to the guy who is calling me over asking him why he wants to talk to me. Why not her? So we walk away and I guess after they used the phone they followed us up the road and tried to talk to us. They asked where I was from and whether I spoke english or french. Meanwhile I can't stop laughing. All I heard was "tres jolie" which means very pretty, and I just lost it. I was laughing so hard! So to make it better, Chayma's cousin says that I'm from Argentina! Chayma told them that I'm married and that both of them are in relationships. Oh man it was hilarious.
Here's the link to more pictures! It takes soooo long for pictures to upload so it might not happen again for a couple weeks.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=201718&id=500336784&l=42e9305a43
Friday, September 3, 2010
They're going to need to roll me out of Rabat!!
So in case anyone was wondering, there IS in fact ice cream! And tons of fruit and veggies sauteed in interestingly delicious spices, fried dough dipped in honey, this AMAZING soup, and like 10 different kinds of bread. Last night we had bisteeya and let me tell you it was awesome! I have to say when I made it it was pretty awesome, but the one last night one was 100% perfection! And there were dates and figs and plums and tea... Ok enough about the food.
So Monday was exciting, but Tuesday was just as fun. We've been sitting through seminars on safety, health and sexual harassment, then we had our drop off and I was the first to go. I was dropped off just outside the medina (the city center). But instead of making my way back to the Student Center I opted to wander.... to the beach! there's this really long path that goes along the water so I followed that until I met up with one of the girls from the program. SO we walked back together, then realized that we were 2 of the last 3 to make it back! After lunch we were given time and some money to use the bargaining tools that we learned in one of the lectures. We were let loose on the market and had almost 2 hours to figure something out. Along with that we were split into groups and sent out to learn more about a certain topic regarding the medina. Some people had internet cafes, others had hotels and hostels. I ended up in the last group (aka the subject that totally stretched the limits of thoughtfulness) to observe and record the smells and colors of Rabat. It was so easy!
Wednesday we had our first arabic class, survival arabic. It was hilarious. There are 6 girls and 1 guy (btw i can count on fingers and toes how may guys are in our program of ~65). The girls are so nice and the language is so interesting that it's just really fun. After that we had a session about home stays and what to expect, or in this case, not expect. We were told not to expect showers, internet, my own set of keys, western toilets ( turkish toilets, i.e. holes in the floor, are more common in the area we're living in), or our own room. But by the end of the seminar I was so excited I just wanted to know everything about my family! But we had to wait until just before our families came to get us.
Each night I kept saying to myself, ok tonight I'm going to go to bed early. It hasn't happened yet. Ramadan is just so awesome! "going out" does not imply parties or alcohol or anything even remotwly close, but I keep just finding people who want to walk or go to a cafe or walk through the souk (market). Which btw, I don't think I've done a good job of describing souks. The souk in the medina is nuts at night and some times during the day. In between calls to prayer, the souk is frickin crazy. We dodge and weave through a souk like most people dodge and weave through the craziest parts of NYC, except no one in the souks moves very quickly, so if you are in a rush you're going to be late. Crossing the street is like frogger unless you follow someone else. There are a million things to look at and smell in souks, but to a certain degree I keep my head down because I know I look different. I haven't had any serious problems, just your average cat calls. NBD. Anyway, I keep going out late, then we have breafast at 8ish. I haven't been too tired yet, but this weekend it will be nice to catch up on some sleep.
So Thursday we got all of our stuff out of the hotel and had a bus tour of Rabat and Sale, the sister city. It was nice because all we've seen so far has been the medina and just outside the medina. It's so beautiful! So when we got back from the bus tour we found out our host families and... mine's
AWESOMELY AMAZING!
Seriously, my host brother is about 13, my host sister is 17 and they're both so much fun! my host mom is great! she's a great cook and has been so friendly and kind! My host dad is very religious and was reading the Koran or praying the majority of the time I've been here. I'm not sure if it will change after Ramadan, but we'll see! He seems very nice though. I have my own room here, a shower, a western toilet, my own keys and they have a cat! Today before dinner we sat and watched TV, which was a nice break from all of the walking we've been doing. We watched a Mexican soap opera in Arabic, Room Raiders and the fashion channel. I wish we had the fashion channel at home! It was really fun. One of the first things my host brother asked me was what I want to do after school. It was really hard to explain, but when I told him I was thinking about law school he whipped out like 5 LSAT books. Apparently a girl who has stayed with them before was studying for the LSATs and left them here! It's so perfect! Then, after dinner, I unpacked all of my stuff and we went out. We really didn't have anything in mind, but my sister's bf called asking her if she wanted to get together and she said no and gave the phone to her cousin to tell him no, except she told him yes and that we'd meet him! So we made our way to the cafe that he and his friends were at. On the way, a guy said something to my host sister who just continued walking than started laughing. Apparently he went up to her and said "Hello, good morning! lol. Then, a guy came up next to me and started talking to me in Arabic. I moved so that I was on the other side of my host sister and her cousin, who talked to him. Apparently he was insistent that he needed to talk to me so that we could have a relationship. She just kept saying "La la la" which means no no no. Finally she told him that we were going to meet my fiance and that if this guy was with us, my fiance would beat him up. After that he couldn't get away faster! I, of course, had no idea what was going on (I'm getting used to that feeling. lol) until my host sister told me what she said. Her cousin doesn't speak french or english so other than body language, we just laugh. I wish we could communicate because I feel like we would get along really well!
So anyway, we finally made it to the cafe and I met a few of my host sister's friends. They were so much fun! I sat next to this one guy who is a sous chef and wants to cook in Italy, France or the US. We listened to music for a while and he taught me how to write my first and middle names. I think in 2 weeks we're going to talk, my in English so he has to try to understand me and him in arabic and I have to understand him. It should be really interesting! He asked my host sister already whether I have a boyfriend and she told him how long we've been dating so he knows it's only a friendship, which is good.
I really can't wait for tomorrow, to see everyone and find out how their homestays are! We have another survival arabic class tomorrow morning, then a debriefing on our homestays, so it should be good. Alright well now I'm all caught up! It's been a whirlwind of excitement and emotions I hardly know which way is up! But once I settle in, I'm sure I'll just be leaving again. lol. I'm loving every moment of this so so far so good! Oh and I put up new pictures on the same link... I'll post it again with the next one. If you're having any trouble seeing them let me know please! I miss the States, I miss school and I miss home but this is where I need to be for now and I'm so glad I'm doing this. It's so different than anywhere I've ever been and it's breathtaking.
So Monday was exciting, but Tuesday was just as fun. We've been sitting through seminars on safety, health and sexual harassment, then we had our drop off and I was the first to go. I was dropped off just outside the medina (the city center). But instead of making my way back to the Student Center I opted to wander.... to the beach! there's this really long path that goes along the water so I followed that until I met up with one of the girls from the program. SO we walked back together, then realized that we were 2 of the last 3 to make it back! After lunch we were given time and some money to use the bargaining tools that we learned in one of the lectures. We were let loose on the market and had almost 2 hours to figure something out. Along with that we were split into groups and sent out to learn more about a certain topic regarding the medina. Some people had internet cafes, others had hotels and hostels. I ended up in the last group (aka the subject that totally stretched the limits of thoughtfulness) to observe and record the smells and colors of Rabat. It was so easy!
Wednesday we had our first arabic class, survival arabic. It was hilarious. There are 6 girls and 1 guy (btw i can count on fingers and toes how may guys are in our program of ~65). The girls are so nice and the language is so interesting that it's just really fun. After that we had a session about home stays and what to expect, or in this case, not expect. We were told not to expect showers, internet, my own set of keys, western toilets ( turkish toilets, i.e. holes in the floor, are more common in the area we're living in), or our own room. But by the end of the seminar I was so excited I just wanted to know everything about my family! But we had to wait until just before our families came to get us.
Each night I kept saying to myself, ok tonight I'm going to go to bed early. It hasn't happened yet. Ramadan is just so awesome! "going out" does not imply parties or alcohol or anything even remotwly close, but I keep just finding people who want to walk or go to a cafe or walk through the souk (market). Which btw, I don't think I've done a good job of describing souks. The souk in the medina is nuts at night and some times during the day. In between calls to prayer, the souk is frickin crazy. We dodge and weave through a souk like most people dodge and weave through the craziest parts of NYC, except no one in the souks moves very quickly, so if you are in a rush you're going to be late. Crossing the street is like frogger unless you follow someone else. There are a million things to look at and smell in souks, but to a certain degree I keep my head down because I know I look different. I haven't had any serious problems, just your average cat calls. NBD. Anyway, I keep going out late, then we have breafast at 8ish. I haven't been too tired yet, but this weekend it will be nice to catch up on some sleep.
So Thursday we got all of our stuff out of the hotel and had a bus tour of Rabat and Sale, the sister city. It was nice because all we've seen so far has been the medina and just outside the medina. It's so beautiful! So when we got back from the bus tour we found out our host families and... mine's
AWESOMELY AMAZING!
Seriously, my host brother is about 13, my host sister is 17 and they're both so much fun! my host mom is great! she's a great cook and has been so friendly and kind! My host dad is very religious and was reading the Koran or praying the majority of the time I've been here. I'm not sure if it will change after Ramadan, but we'll see! He seems very nice though. I have my own room here, a shower, a western toilet, my own keys and they have a cat! Today before dinner we sat and watched TV, which was a nice break from all of the walking we've been doing. We watched a Mexican soap opera in Arabic, Room Raiders and the fashion channel. I wish we had the fashion channel at home! It was really fun. One of the first things my host brother asked me was what I want to do after school. It was really hard to explain, but when I told him I was thinking about law school he whipped out like 5 LSAT books. Apparently a girl who has stayed with them before was studying for the LSATs and left them here! It's so perfect! Then, after dinner, I unpacked all of my stuff and we went out. We really didn't have anything in mind, but my sister's bf called asking her if she wanted to get together and she said no and gave the phone to her cousin to tell him no, except she told him yes and that we'd meet him! So we made our way to the cafe that he and his friends were at. On the way, a guy said something to my host sister who just continued walking than started laughing. Apparently he went up to her and said "Hello, good morning! lol. Then, a guy came up next to me and started talking to me in Arabic. I moved so that I was on the other side of my host sister and her cousin, who talked to him. Apparently he was insistent that he needed to talk to me so that we could have a relationship. She just kept saying "La la la" which means no no no. Finally she told him that we were going to meet my fiance and that if this guy was with us, my fiance would beat him up. After that he couldn't get away faster! I, of course, had no idea what was going on (I'm getting used to that feeling. lol) until my host sister told me what she said. Her cousin doesn't speak french or english so other than body language, we just laugh. I wish we could communicate because I feel like we would get along really well!
So anyway, we finally made it to the cafe and I met a few of my host sister's friends. They were so much fun! I sat next to this one guy who is a sous chef and wants to cook in Italy, France or the US. We listened to music for a while and he taught me how to write my first and middle names. I think in 2 weeks we're going to talk, my in English so he has to try to understand me and him in arabic and I have to understand him. It should be really interesting! He asked my host sister already whether I have a boyfriend and she told him how long we've been dating so he knows it's only a friendship, which is good.
I really can't wait for tomorrow, to see everyone and find out how their homestays are! We have another survival arabic class tomorrow morning, then a debriefing on our homestays, so it should be good. Alright well now I'm all caught up! It's been a whirlwind of excitement and emotions I hardly know which way is up! But once I settle in, I'm sure I'll just be leaving again. lol. I'm loving every moment of this so so far so good! Oh and I put up new pictures on the same link... I'll post it again with the next one. If you're having any trouble seeing them let me know please! I miss the States, I miss school and I miss home but this is where I need to be for now and I'm so glad I'm doing this. It's so different than anywhere I've ever been and it's breathtaking.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Soooo the past 2 days have been crazy! I got here on Monday and oh man has it been nuts since. So I flew into Rabat at about 1:30, got through customs and spent waaayy too much on the taxi to the hotel. It was a near death experience too. Driving here is like bumper cars in reverse. I'm not sure if it's just fasting during Ramadan or what but something makes all of the drivers here frickin insane! I literally grabbed the side of the car and said Oh my gosh I'm going to die. It was crazy! this guy drove up on the median and almost got his car stuck! but once I got to the hotel i was able to dump all of my stuff and had to find the student center. the woman at the front desk said that they would tell the cab driver where to go, but it turns out the center isn't on the road, but down a ways. I didn't have the exact address and I had no idea what to look for. Luckily, I saw a few girls who looked american, but I wasn't sure so I jumped out of the cab and started speaking to them in French, then english... They were part of my program! I made it ok and everything and it worked out... I have to go to dinner but i'll finish the story tomorrow! in the meantime, here's the link to my pictures on facebook!http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=201718&id=500336784&l=42e9305a43
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