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.
No comments:
Post a Comment