Pre Village Homestay

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!