Thursday 10/21
So this week hasn't been all that exciting. I was a little down yesterday, but otherwise, nothing big. It's mainly just frustration with not being able to communicate and with the internet being as sketchy as it is. Ok, so I'm still in frickin Africa which is a pretty big deal. and my host family is adorable. Not only did I get an awesome gift and ecard from my real mom (which btw made me cry when I opened it at 8am) but when I went upstairs for dinner my host brother whipped out a bag as Chaimaa said "I TOLD him that you're birthday is tomorrow!" They got me this really cute silver bracelet and a traditional sleeveless dress that is white with big pink and red flowers on it. It was so sweet!
Oh and this week I decided I'm going to live with my friends Megan and Chandra in Rabat during my independent study. I've gotten really close with them and I think they'll be fun to live with so we're giving it a test run next week when we're going to stay in the hotels together during our week long trip. I went for a run with Chandra today (btw I'm going to be sooo sore tomorrow) and we talked about our independent study projects and living together (which I changed my mind about mainly because I can't imagine not seeing Chandra and Megan every day. they're pretty awesome) and next week's trip which starts Saturday... I'M SO EXCITED!!! Tomorrow is my birthday and let me tell you, I'm pretty pumped. I'm not having the traditional go and drink night that most 21 year olds have (actually I could probably have gone out tonight but I have an Arabic presentation tomorrow morning and I really want to get up early so I can use the internet before class) but tomorrow I think I'm going to have a movie night with my friends which should be fun. After class I'm going to Kenitra again to get a tour of the facilities where I'm going to be volunteering then movie time! If I have enough time I'm going to try to catch up on Grey's Anatomy (my guilty pleasure), so I can watch the new episode but we'll see. I've got 2 to see before I'm caught up and I don't think I have that kind of time. As for next week, Sunday is the only day that I'll really be MIA. by MIA i mean completely unreachable because I'll be on a freakin camel in the middle of the freakin desert. no joke. But otherwise, I have my phone on me in case Trish or Jason or Mom need to reach me (and if you need my number just ask them for it). otherwise i'm spending a lot of quality bus time and visiting some pretty awesome places. I don't think I can tell you how excited I am for this. Tuesday's trip to Marrakech is going to be epic. We have the whole day and all of Wednesday free to do whatever. It's seriously like a week-long celebration of my birthday that ends with a bang on Halloween when my friends and I are renting that apartment.
10/22
Happy Birthday to me! So my day started really well when jason called me at midnight =) I woke up early this morning, saw a few of my friends and went to class. My teacher, Fatiha, is so cute. When she found out that it's my birthday she decided that we would have class discussion in a cafe around the corner. It was so much fun! Then we had our presentations in arabic and went home for lunch. Chandra came over for lunch and we had awesome couscous with squash, chick peas, onions, chicken and carrots. It was awesome. Once again I left and got my train ticket just in time to make it on my train. I didn't get a seat this time, but it's only a half hour train ride, so meshimushkil. I got a tour of Chaml from this really nice young woman whose name means "smile" (Btissa). She was so cute! She gave me like 5 books (in French) for my independent study project. She doesn't speak very much English, but her French is very good. It's awesome for my French too! Then she left me for like an hour to translate their brochure from French to English. It was pretty easy but i'm going to double check a few words then email it to her. she seemed really excited that I'll be coming back regularly. As soon as she found out it was my birthday she ran downstairs to the kitchen and brought up several cookies as she sang to me. I can't tell you how adorable it was. haha. So now i think a bunch of my friends are going to get Indian food for dinner and maybe see a movie. I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do. But before I forget, there were a few things that have been said the past few days that were hilarious. Like for example yesterday, when I went for a run with Chandra I was telling her about the harassment here and how it's only ok for men to harass non Moroccans. I was like
So wish me luck! I probably won't post again for a few days, but I'll try to post at least once while I'm gone. =)
Monday, October 25, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Off to Southern Morocco soon!/ it's my birthday tomorrow!
Tuesday
Nothing too special about today other than learning our schedule for next week. Knowing how quickly schedules change here, i don't take the schedule very seriously. I mean I think we'll do everything on the list, but nothing is ever at the time they say and the order will probably change at least 3 times. Every day is like that here, so you kind of get used to it. But tentatively we're supposed to leave for Ifrane at 8 on Saturday morning where we're supposed to visit the university and have lunch there. Then we'll go to Azrou where we'll visit the Cedar forests which apparently are home to barbary apes. We're supposed to get to the hotel in Middelt by 6:30. Then Sunday morning we'll leave for Erfoud (i have no idea where or what that is). After lunch we'll take land rovers to Merzouga, then go on a camel ride through the dunes.I'm soooooooo excited for camels!! Then we'll spend the night. Monday morning we'll leave for Rissani then take the bus to N'kob (again, no idea where that is) to visit the Draa Valley, meet with a tribe and have lunch. Then we leave again for Ourzzazate, where we'll have a presentation of Association Tishka which i don't remember at all what it is. AThe next morning we'll leave for Marrakech, where we can wander and explore as we wish. We can do whatever we'd like both Tuesday and Wednesday, but we'll leave Marrakech on Thursday to go to Essaouira. We have all Thursday afternoon and night to explore Essaouira, then we'll leave the hotel early Friday morning, have lunch in Al Jadida then be back in Rabat by 4pm. It's going to be crazy! The whole week is going to be so insane and jam packed with adventures. I'm going to be sooo tired, I'll probably sleep the whole trip home next Friday! Funny enough, the day after we get back my friends and I rented an apartment in Agdal (a section of Rabat) to celebrate Halloween. We really wanted to dress up so we opted to just rent a place so we can without feeling weird about it. It should be fun! It's going to be an intense week. After we had our info session on next week, I talked to my professor about my independent study project and he seemed to give me the thumbs up. I'm so excited to start! I'm planning on visiting the center again on Friday, but I told them I can't really start until November. It should be pretty awesome I think. already I've met people who should be able to help me. I really just can't wait to get started. I really can't believe that we're that close to independent study time. I mean, this is already week 8. We're dead center of the semester. I remember thinking about this time in August and it seemed so far away, but my birthday is already coming up on Friday. Can someone tell me when that happened? Because I honestly don't have any idea. I think I'm planning on celebrating my birthday with a few friends on Friday, but I think i'll wait to truly celebrate until we get to Marrakech and of course Halloween will be an extension of my birthday. I love it!
Nothing too special about today other than learning our schedule for next week. Knowing how quickly schedules change here, i don't take the schedule very seriously. I mean I think we'll do everything on the list, but nothing is ever at the time they say and the order will probably change at least 3 times. Every day is like that here, so you kind of get used to it. But tentatively we're supposed to leave for Ifrane at 8 on Saturday morning where we're supposed to visit the university and have lunch there. Then we'll go to Azrou where we'll visit the Cedar forests which apparently are home to barbary apes. We're supposed to get to the hotel in Middelt by 6:30. Then Sunday morning we'll leave for Erfoud (i have no idea where or what that is). After lunch we'll take land rovers to Merzouga, then go on a camel ride through the dunes.I'm soooooooo excited for camels!! Then we'll spend the night. Monday morning we'll leave for Rissani then take the bus to N'kob (again, no idea where that is) to visit the Draa Valley, meet with a tribe and have lunch. Then we leave again for Ourzzazate, where we'll have a presentation of Association Tishka which i don't remember at all what it is. AThe next morning we'll leave for Marrakech, where we can wander and explore as we wish. We can do whatever we'd like both Tuesday and Wednesday, but we'll leave Marrakech on Thursday to go to Essaouira. We have all Thursday afternoon and night to explore Essaouira, then we'll leave the hotel early Friday morning, have lunch in Al Jadida then be back in Rabat by 4pm. It's going to be crazy! The whole week is going to be so insane and jam packed with adventures. I'm going to be sooo tired, I'll probably sleep the whole trip home next Friday! Funny enough, the day after we get back my friends and I rented an apartment in Agdal (a section of Rabat) to celebrate Halloween. We really wanted to dress up so we opted to just rent a place so we can without feeling weird about it. It should be fun! It's going to be an intense week. After we had our info session on next week, I talked to my professor about my independent study project and he seemed to give me the thumbs up. I'm so excited to start! I'm planning on visiting the center again on Friday, but I told them I can't really start until November. It should be pretty awesome I think. already I've met people who should be able to help me. I really just can't wait to get started. I really can't believe that we're that close to independent study time. I mean, this is already week 8. We're dead center of the semester. I remember thinking about this time in August and it seemed so far away, but my birthday is already coming up on Friday. Can someone tell me when that happened? Because I honestly don't have any idea. I think I'm planning on celebrating my birthday with a few friends on Friday, but I think i'll wait to truly celebrate until we get to Marrakech and of course Halloween will be an extension of my birthday. I love it!
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Oh how retail therapy solves everything
It's been such a good weekend! Saturday morning I woke up and went running with Chandra by the coast. There's this really cool cave that when the tide is out is completely empty and we explored it while talking about stuff. It really hit me how old I feel. I mean I'm in frickin Africa. and making plans for a month by myself. with pretty much no guidance i've chosen a topic to explore and set up a volunteer opportunity that has given me more contacts that can help me get what I need to do my project well. After our run we went to our respective houses, showered then I met her at her house and watched glee (soooo good! "what's a duet?" "a blanket" hahahaha) I had lunch with my family, then went shopping with megan and met up with jena. i went on a little bit of a shopping spree but nothing too big. i was concerned i had an eye infection (it was a little red for a few days) so I threw out my contacts (they were old anyway) and eye make up and bought new make up, then bought some random stuff i've been meaning to get. I ended up shopping for like 4 hours! then I had tea with my family and started studying. Megan came over and we had a great heart to heart. I can't tell you enough how awesome all of my friends here are. i've been blessed with the best group! I had mentioned earlier that we should all watch a movie at my house, but there was some confusion as to when. my family eats dinner around 9:30,but chandra thought i said they should come over at 9:30 so everyone showed up at my house a little after 9. i had also mentioned that people could sleep over, but i hadn't talked to anyone about definite plans. so when 3 of my friends changed into pajamas i was a little confused, but it ended up working out. Eli, the guy in different classes but the same program who lives across the street, ended up coming over and we all watched random youtube videos and talked for a while. It was so much fun! some left at 11 and eli left at 12:30, but we stayed up until like 2:45 just talking. it was so awesome to have them over. Sunday I ate all day. we got up kinda early, had breakfast with my family, who I apologized to profusely for not warning about it, then I went to church with Lauren. it was awesome because I found out that they're going to be having masses in english starting in November and they're having a meet and greet for students next weekend. it should be pretty fun! I felt so good today! after i got back from mass i went to sale (the next town over) to visit Chaimaa's aunts and cousins. We got there and had this awesome couscous with peanuts, hard boiled eggs (which i never used to like, but i can eat with other things) and chicken. It was amazing!!! after the couscous they came out with icecream which oh man i could not get enough of. it had caramel on top and i think vanilla on the bottom. it was incredible. then chaimaa, leila (chaimaa's young aunt) and I started to fall asleep so we went into another room to rest. instead of sleeping though i ended up explaining halloween to leila and they started playing music so it turned into a big awesome dance party. after we got tired, we joined everyone else and had pastries with coffee (another thing i can drink only because it's 10% coffee 80% milk and 10% sugar in a small cup). The last thing I ate was this pastry that was this circular thing with white chocolate on the bottom, pastry around the sides, nuts on the top and a layer of caramel in the bottom. after the pastries we left and took the bus back to rabat. by the time we got back it was already 7:40. Time to study for tomorrow's arabic exam! I went to the bathroom after i got back, then came back t my room and sat down on my bed. after a while i realized... they had left my dinner sitting on the table in my room because they know i'm studying for my exam! my family is so sweet!
Monday
My exam wasn't nearly as hard as I expected. There were a couple of words that I couldn't for the life of me remember, but otherwise it really wasn't bad at all. After the exam I got to talk to Tricia again and had a nice lunch with my friends. We had a class on how Morocco is dealing with past human rights abuses, then watched a movie for my film class. It was about street children and it was soooooo sad. it was kind of like slumdog millionaire except without any of the happy ending. actually there was very little happiness at all. but the film class starts as soon as we get back from our week long southern excursion which I leave for on Saturday. Don't worry though, my friend is bringing his internet USB port thing so I'll be posting, but I'm not sure how well skype works on it so don't expect awesome communication. ok i'm going to spend a few sentences complaining and then i promise i'll stop because i know it's awesome that i'm in africa and I really love it here, but today I got off skype with jason and i just put my head down. i'm just so done with the frustration of trying to communicate. I'm doing my best with the blog, but it's so frustrating having skype be soo slow, so much so that the video doesn't work or the sound is wicked delayed and trying to get in touch with everyone is such a pain! when I was talking to megan I realized just how frustrated i am with it. i resent not being able to call people for their birthdays, or just call when i think of them. i'm usually so on top of it, but it's just not possible here and it's wearing on me. ok, I promise i'm done. anyway, I met my friend back at my house, where we talked for a long time. she just broke up with her boyfriend after a 3 year relationship and a summer of complicated-ness. It broke my heart to see her so upset. so we talked for a while and ate my chocolate cereal. I think by the time she left she felt shwiya (a little) better. after she left, my house actually lost power, so I went upstairs with Chaimaa, where we laid in bed and made shadow puppets on the wall by candle-light. we got the power back, ate dinner (pasta!) and called it an early night. It's a good thing I did because I'm so exhausted. i haven't caught up on sleep from the weekend, then the arabic test just sent me over the edge i think.
Monday
My exam wasn't nearly as hard as I expected. There were a couple of words that I couldn't for the life of me remember, but otherwise it really wasn't bad at all. After the exam I got to talk to Tricia again and had a nice lunch with my friends. We had a class on how Morocco is dealing with past human rights abuses, then watched a movie for my film class. It was about street children and it was soooooo sad. it was kind of like slumdog millionaire except without any of the happy ending. actually there was very little happiness at all. but the film class starts as soon as we get back from our week long southern excursion which I leave for on Saturday. Don't worry though, my friend is bringing his internet USB port thing so I'll be posting, but I'm not sure how well skype works on it so don't expect awesome communication. ok i'm going to spend a few sentences complaining and then i promise i'll stop because i know it's awesome that i'm in africa and I really love it here, but today I got off skype with jason and i just put my head down. i'm just so done with the frustration of trying to communicate. I'm doing my best with the blog, but it's so frustrating having skype be soo slow, so much so that the video doesn't work or the sound is wicked delayed and trying to get in touch with everyone is such a pain! when I was talking to megan I realized just how frustrated i am with it. i resent not being able to call people for their birthdays, or just call when i think of them. i'm usually so on top of it, but it's just not possible here and it's wearing on me. ok, I promise i'm done. anyway, I met my friend back at my house, where we talked for a long time. she just broke up with her boyfriend after a 3 year relationship and a summer of complicated-ness. It broke my heart to see her so upset. so we talked for a while and ate my chocolate cereal. I think by the time she left she felt shwiya (a little) better. after she left, my house actually lost power, so I went upstairs with Chaimaa, where we laid in bed and made shadow puppets on the wall by candle-light. we got the power back, ate dinner (pasta!) and called it an early night. It's a good thing I did because I'm so exhausted. i haven't caught up on sleep from the weekend, then the arabic test just sent me over the edge i think.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Volunteer opportunities
Friday
Oh man was today a good day. I woke up wicked early (about 6) and finished my paper and almost finished the last one. I gave myself just enough time to shower, eat breakfast, and get to school. Arabic wasn't so bad today, either. I mean it's a lot of information all in one sitting, but it didn't go so badly. After class I finally got to talk to Trish again and I finished my paper. I got home and had couscous with my host family, then made it to the train station just in time to catch the next train. it was awesome. I got on the train to Kenitra (where i'm going to be volunteering) and found one of the last seats next to a family (no sketchy guys!) then when I got to Kenitra, the first cab driver i saw was willing to take me (they can, and often do say no). He dropped me off in front of these deserted buildings and I started to panic, but kept walking and luckily found 2 women who I was able to communicate (in darija!) with and showed me where to go. I got to Chaml, the women's center, at exactly 2:55pm and the presentation supposedly started at 3. As usual, the presentation started an hour later. Meanwhile, I began talking (in French) with a professor at a local university and a girl who works there who speaks English. My professor got there later, but another woman had already sat down next to me. The 2 women who sat next to me are both English teachers in Kenitra who now have my phone number and I have their email addresses so that we can get lunch and meet up. They told me that if I need anything to just let them know! they were so nice. The presentation itself was soooo interesting. It was about the problem that they have here with racism and immigrants from SubSaharan Africa. They expressed their own feelings of detachment from an African identity and their own complex national identity. The first guy to speak was hard to understand because he would switch from darija to french and he had a very interesting accent. But the woman who spoke was very clear and stuck to French the majority of the time. when the presentations were over and it was time for questions they served us tea or coffee and pastries. they were awesome. At this point it was already 6 and my professor had already left. it seemed as though the woman next to me was going to leave so I asked her when the last train to Rabat was. She said that they were leaving right then and that I could go with them if I wanted to. So I left and one of them drove us to the train station. They were so nice! I think they are really curous about how the rest of the world views Morocco but they keep censoring themselves becaue I don't think they want to come off a certain way. It was funny. they kept correcting each other in how they phrased certain things. They were definitely concerned about being PC. I've totally given up on being PC since being here, so it was pretty hilarious. I got back to Rabat and walked towards the medina from the train station and bumped into some of my classmates. Then I saw my professor who actually lives in Kenitra, not far from Chaml, where I had been. He invited me to tea at his house the next time I'm there which I thought was very nice of him. He's getting married in December and is working on his PhD. Such a nice guy. So I made it back to the house in time to watch dirty dancing havana nights, censored of course. then Jason called me from skype! I was so excited! For dinner we had harrera (this awesome soup) and tajine. I'm exhausted now from this crazy week of insanity and i'm so excited to sleep in jist a little bit. I'm going for a run with Chandra again tomorrow morning and then shopping with Megan and Lauren. A nice relaxing stress free weekend will do me some good i think.
Oh man was today a good day. I woke up wicked early (about 6) and finished my paper and almost finished the last one. I gave myself just enough time to shower, eat breakfast, and get to school. Arabic wasn't so bad today, either. I mean it's a lot of information all in one sitting, but it didn't go so badly. After class I finally got to talk to Trish again and I finished my paper. I got home and had couscous with my host family, then made it to the train station just in time to catch the next train. it was awesome. I got on the train to Kenitra (where i'm going to be volunteering) and found one of the last seats next to a family (no sketchy guys!) then when I got to Kenitra, the first cab driver i saw was willing to take me (they can, and often do say no). He dropped me off in front of these deserted buildings and I started to panic, but kept walking and luckily found 2 women who I was able to communicate (in darija!) with and showed me where to go. I got to Chaml, the women's center, at exactly 2:55pm and the presentation supposedly started at 3. As usual, the presentation started an hour later. Meanwhile, I began talking (in French) with a professor at a local university and a girl who works there who speaks English. My professor got there later, but another woman had already sat down next to me. The 2 women who sat next to me are both English teachers in Kenitra who now have my phone number and I have their email addresses so that we can get lunch and meet up. They told me that if I need anything to just let them know! they were so nice. The presentation itself was soooo interesting. It was about the problem that they have here with racism and immigrants from SubSaharan Africa. They expressed their own feelings of detachment from an African identity and their own complex national identity. The first guy to speak was hard to understand because he would switch from darija to french and he had a very interesting accent. But the woman who spoke was very clear and stuck to French the majority of the time. when the presentations were over and it was time for questions they served us tea or coffee and pastries. they were awesome. At this point it was already 6 and my professor had already left. it seemed as though the woman next to me was going to leave so I asked her when the last train to Rabat was. She said that they were leaving right then and that I could go with them if I wanted to. So I left and one of them drove us to the train station. They were so nice! I think they are really curous about how the rest of the world views Morocco but they keep censoring themselves becaue I don't think they want to come off a certain way. It was funny. they kept correcting each other in how they phrased certain things. They were definitely concerned about being PC. I've totally given up on being PC since being here, so it was pretty hilarious. I got back to Rabat and walked towards the medina from the train station and bumped into some of my classmates. Then I saw my professor who actually lives in Kenitra, not far from Chaml, where I had been. He invited me to tea at his house the next time I'm there which I thought was very nice of him. He's getting married in December and is working on his PhD. Such a nice guy. So I made it back to the house in time to watch dirty dancing havana nights, censored of course. then Jason called me from skype! I was so excited! For dinner we had harrera (this awesome soup) and tajine. I'm exhausted now from this crazy week of insanity and i'm so excited to sleep in jist a little bit. I'm going for a run with Chandra again tomorrow morning and then shopping with Megan and Lauren. A nice relaxing stress free weekend will do me some good i think.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Midterms week!
Tuesday
So it's another rainy day and I still haven't gotten sick of it. Unfortunately I have gotten a little tired of the long days we've had. Yesterday we started at 8:30 and only had a break for lunch, then had class and went to the Human Rights Coucil, which sounds cool and looks very fancy; however they are definitely politicians because I walked out with barely any more knowledge about human rights in Morocco and what they are doing than when I walked in. Luckily I got more out of my health class. I actually loved it, which was a huge shock. We had a choice between religion, art and lit, and health and I surprisingly chose health. The religion class is pretty big and is centered around women's issues and I just took a course on that. Art and lit sounds cool, but didn't appeal to me too much. The health class is nice and small and has some really great people in it, in addition to having a really nice professor who always thanks us at the end of each lecture. I was kind of concerned about how interesting it would be, but I thought it was awesome. It was all about public health and global public health. Today's class was pretty good too. It was all about the argan trees and argan oil here. Arabic today was hilarious. I tried to explain to Fatiha (my prof) about skydiving. She couldn't believe that I've done it, so I drew a nice picture for her. And she poked a hole in my parachute and started laughing nervously as she said "but what if this happened??" It was so funny! Despite the fact that I didn't have very much time, I actually got a lot done today. I started to get kind of anxious during my class because I had a laundry list of things to do, and to be honest I still have a couple short papers to write for Friday, but I'm planning on writing one early tomorrow morning, another tomorrow after class and the third tomorrow night. It's my friend Jena's birthday on Thursday so I want to have everything done ahead of time so we can celebrate. Oh and I got an email from my professor about volunteering and I've been invited to a presentation on Friday at the women's center. She said that I can get a tour of the facilities and meet everyone there. Luckily she'll be there too so I think I'll feel a little more comfortable. She reminds me a lot of my high school French teacher, Mme Elvidge, which is awesome. I'm starting to get a little homesick and I think I'm getting a little bit of either cabin fever or just frustration with communication so I know I need to go running soon. It's been so rainy and chilly (not cold, I'll save that word for Vermont. lol) that I haven't been able to go, but I think I'm going to get some leggings and suck it up. I gotta exercise or I'm gonna go nuts.
Thursday
Today was much better. Yesterday I was still going a little crazy with the list of things I needed to do/did. I actually got off Skype and left the library fully intending on coming back to the house and just curling up in a ball and crying. But my friend Chandra didn't want to go home (again) so came over. We ended up talking for like 2 hours until we both realized we had papers and homework to take care of. It was the best though because I felt less crazy that other people are feeling the same way I do. It's getting really difficult because I feel like the less I talk to people, the less I know what to say when I get the chance and they ask me what I've been up to. I miss home and I miss doing all of the fun things that go along with fall, but I honestly love what I'm doing here. It's driving me crazy. Anyway, today was much better. I slept in a little bit, then got some of my arabic done. After class I went for a run, which was soooooo nice. I ran by the beach and just felt the feeling of the salty wind on my face. It was a gorgeous day, and it felt so good to just get out there. I got back and had lunch, then I went on another trip with my class (the 4th one this week! 1 to the human rights place, then to the amazigh-bereber language cultural center, the aids prevention center) to the poison control center. It was kind of interesting but ultimately too long. However it did have some severely hilarious lost-in-translation statements. For example: to prevent scorpion bites it is important to "Rearranging riddance" aka get rid of your trash. Also if you inhale carbon monoxide you will clearly "see your ancestors... very quickly" and "calming the victim and his entourage" is very important when someone has been stung by a scorpion. It was good that we found these things funny because otherwise it would have been pretty boring. After class I spent some time at the center, then I went out for pizza hut with like ten of my friends and caused quite the scene for Jena's birthday. It was so much fun! Then when I got back to the house I found out that there are 3 girls from the US who are studying in Madrid, but are visiting Rabat and staying with my family until Sunday. They seem pretty nice, but it made me realize how used to life here I am. I had a nice conversation with them, but I realized how close I've gotten with my host sister here and how weird everything seemed (like eating with your hands for everything) when you first get here. But I still have a paper to finish so I'm going to go do that. I'm nervous to meet the people at the association I'm going to volunteer at tomorrow. luckily I brought some business professional clothes with me, but i don't even know how nice it should be. I'm sure it'll be fine, but I'm just nervous. Luckily we don't have class tomorrow afternoon. I'm excited for the weekend just to take it easy, explore Rabat, do a little shopping and study like crazy for our arabic exam on monday.
So it's another rainy day and I still haven't gotten sick of it. Unfortunately I have gotten a little tired of the long days we've had. Yesterday we started at 8:30 and only had a break for lunch, then had class and went to the Human Rights Coucil, which sounds cool and looks very fancy; however they are definitely politicians because I walked out with barely any more knowledge about human rights in Morocco and what they are doing than when I walked in. Luckily I got more out of my health class. I actually loved it, which was a huge shock. We had a choice between religion, art and lit, and health and I surprisingly chose health. The religion class is pretty big and is centered around women's issues and I just took a course on that. Art and lit sounds cool, but didn't appeal to me too much. The health class is nice and small and has some really great people in it, in addition to having a really nice professor who always thanks us at the end of each lecture. I was kind of concerned about how interesting it would be, but I thought it was awesome. It was all about public health and global public health. Today's class was pretty good too. It was all about the argan trees and argan oil here. Arabic today was hilarious. I tried to explain to Fatiha (my prof) about skydiving. She couldn't believe that I've done it, so I drew a nice picture for her. And she poked a hole in my parachute and started laughing nervously as she said "but what if this happened??" It was so funny! Despite the fact that I didn't have very much time, I actually got a lot done today. I started to get kind of anxious during my class because I had a laundry list of things to do, and to be honest I still have a couple short papers to write for Friday, but I'm planning on writing one early tomorrow morning, another tomorrow after class and the third tomorrow night. It's my friend Jena's birthday on Thursday so I want to have everything done ahead of time so we can celebrate. Oh and I got an email from my professor about volunteering and I've been invited to a presentation on Friday at the women's center. She said that I can get a tour of the facilities and meet everyone there. Luckily she'll be there too so I think I'll feel a little more comfortable. She reminds me a lot of my high school French teacher, Mme Elvidge, which is awesome. I'm starting to get a little homesick and I think I'm getting a little bit of either cabin fever or just frustration with communication so I know I need to go running soon. It's been so rainy and chilly (not cold, I'll save that word for Vermont. lol) that I haven't been able to go, but I think I'm going to get some leggings and suck it up. I gotta exercise or I'm gonna go nuts.
Thursday
Today was much better. Yesterday I was still going a little crazy with the list of things I needed to do/did. I actually got off Skype and left the library fully intending on coming back to the house and just curling up in a ball and crying. But my friend Chandra didn't want to go home (again) so came over. We ended up talking for like 2 hours until we both realized we had papers and homework to take care of. It was the best though because I felt less crazy that other people are feeling the same way I do. It's getting really difficult because I feel like the less I talk to people, the less I know what to say when I get the chance and they ask me what I've been up to. I miss home and I miss doing all of the fun things that go along with fall, but I honestly love what I'm doing here. It's driving me crazy. Anyway, today was much better. I slept in a little bit, then got some of my arabic done. After class I went for a run, which was soooooo nice. I ran by the beach and just felt the feeling of the salty wind on my face. It was a gorgeous day, and it felt so good to just get out there. I got back and had lunch, then I went on another trip with my class (the 4th one this week! 1 to the human rights place, then to the amazigh-bereber language cultural center, the aids prevention center) to the poison control center. It was kind of interesting but ultimately too long. However it did have some severely hilarious lost-in-translation statements. For example: to prevent scorpion bites it is important to "Rearranging riddance" aka get rid of your trash. Also if you inhale carbon monoxide you will clearly "see your ancestors... very quickly" and "calming the victim and his entourage" is very important when someone has been stung by a scorpion. It was good that we found these things funny because otherwise it would have been pretty boring. After class I spent some time at the center, then I went out for pizza hut with like ten of my friends and caused quite the scene for Jena's birthday. It was so much fun! Then when I got back to the house I found out that there are 3 girls from the US who are studying in Madrid, but are visiting Rabat and staying with my family until Sunday. They seem pretty nice, but it made me realize how used to life here I am. I had a nice conversation with them, but I realized how close I've gotten with my host sister here and how weird everything seemed (like eating with your hands for everything) when you first get here. But I still have a paper to finish so I'm going to go do that. I'm nervous to meet the people at the association I'm going to volunteer at tomorrow. luckily I brought some business professional clothes with me, but i don't even know how nice it should be. I'm sure it'll be fine, but I'm just nervous. Luckily we don't have class tomorrow afternoon. I'm excited for the weekend just to take it easy, explore Rabat, do a little shopping and study like crazy for our arabic exam on monday.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Singin in the Rain: story of my weekend
Friday
Happy Birthday Chaimaa!
It was an early morning and I was able to get on the internet and get a lot done that needed doing. I had lunch with my family (couscous Friday!) and watched mean girls, which was so funny to watch with them. They show the weirdest movies here! Afterwards I went back to the library and I watched glee with Chandra so now I' all caught up and let me tell you we set up a fort in the libary so that we could watch it in there. it was so much fun! So we talked to Badrdine, one of our teachers, and he said that El Jadida would be the best weekend trip so I think we're going to head over there. After our library session, I got Chaimaa (I just found out I've been spelling her name wrong the whole time!) a birthday present (a really cute shirt) and went back to my house.
I realized that I actually left out a few details from my village stay blog. Like, for example, that our host grandma had a lazy eye. and no teeth. and her nickname was grandma Igor. and that Hadija, the younger sister and I bonded as 2nd children and listened to music together. It was so cute because she never got tired of playing with the volume and switching songs.
Saturday
Woke up at 5am to a text from Chandra that she's sick! So no travelling for us =( but nbd. I got to sleep in a little and went for a nice run by the beach. It's a little chilly today and it looks like it's going to rain. I ran by the beach again (I think it's my favorite run) and the waves were enormous! It was a nice run, getting out some of the frustration of not being able to communicate with home and be there for my family. My great uncle passed away while I was in the village and I would have loved to have been in Massachusetts to be with my family, but here I am in Africa. It was nice to get some of that frustration out in a nice intense run. It's so overcast and chilly (I mean it's probably in the high 60s... that's chilly here. hahaha) that I think today may be a movie and catch up on assignments day. We have 3 papers due on Friday so I think those should happen.
And of course procrastination took over. It started to seriously downpour and my whole host family, mw and Ahmed's friend ended up watching movies almost all day. In the middle of one of them, Chaimaa texted me and told me her boyfriend is in Rabat for the day. She had mentioned earlier that the shirt I got her for her birthday was too big, so I asked her if she wanted to go return it for another. She mentioned the rain, but I told her I don't mind. When we left it had actually stopped raining. So we went to the store in the souk where I bought it and luckily the guy was nice enough to let her pick out another shirt. We definitely ended up with the better deal because she picked out a more expensive shirt which looks awesome on her, Then I got a text from Chandra saying that she's going crazy with boredom, so I told Chaimaa to go hang out with her bf while I went with Chandra and text me when she was ready to go home. Is this what it feels like to be an older sister? In any case, the whole thing made me miss Tricia soooo much. So I hung out with Chandra for a while (she has a fever and threw up a few times) and we just chatted. I got a call from Chaimaa and we went back to the house. During dinner we watched the Matrix, which they had never seen before. By the time it was over we were exhausted and called it a night. It's so weird because in the US I wouldn't even be thinking about sleep until after 11, but here sometimes I'm exhausted by 10. Idk.
Happy Birthday Chaimaa!
It was an early morning and I was able to get on the internet and get a lot done that needed doing. I had lunch with my family (couscous Friday!) and watched mean girls, which was so funny to watch with them. They show the weirdest movies here! Afterwards I went back to the library and I watched glee with Chandra so now I' all caught up and let me tell you we set up a fort in the libary so that we could watch it in there. it was so much fun! So we talked to Badrdine, one of our teachers, and he said that El Jadida would be the best weekend trip so I think we're going to head over there. After our library session, I got Chaimaa (I just found out I've been spelling her name wrong the whole time!) a birthday present (a really cute shirt) and went back to my house.
I realized that I actually left out a few details from my village stay blog. Like, for example, that our host grandma had a lazy eye. and no teeth. and her nickname was grandma Igor. and that Hadija, the younger sister and I bonded as 2nd children and listened to music together. It was so cute because she never got tired of playing with the volume and switching songs.
Saturday
Woke up at 5am to a text from Chandra that she's sick! So no travelling for us =( but nbd. I got to sleep in a little and went for a nice run by the beach. It's a little chilly today and it looks like it's going to rain. I ran by the beach again (I think it's my favorite run) and the waves were enormous! It was a nice run, getting out some of the frustration of not being able to communicate with home and be there for my family. My great uncle passed away while I was in the village and I would have loved to have been in Massachusetts to be with my family, but here I am in Africa. It was nice to get some of that frustration out in a nice intense run. It's so overcast and chilly (I mean it's probably in the high 60s... that's chilly here. hahaha) that I think today may be a movie and catch up on assignments day. We have 3 papers due on Friday so I think those should happen.
And of course procrastination took over. It started to seriously downpour and my whole host family, mw and Ahmed's friend ended up watching movies almost all day. In the middle of one of them, Chaimaa texted me and told me her boyfriend is in Rabat for the day. She had mentioned earlier that the shirt I got her for her birthday was too big, so I asked her if she wanted to go return it for another. She mentioned the rain, but I told her I don't mind. When we left it had actually stopped raining. So we went to the store in the souk where I bought it and luckily the guy was nice enough to let her pick out another shirt. We definitely ended up with the better deal because she picked out a more expensive shirt which looks awesome on her, Then I got a text from Chandra saying that she's going crazy with boredom, so I told Chaimaa to go hang out with her bf while I went with Chandra and text me when she was ready to go home. Is this what it feels like to be an older sister? In any case, the whole thing made me miss Tricia soooo much. So I hung out with Chandra for a while (she has a fever and threw up a few times) and we just chatted. I got a call from Chaimaa and we went back to the house. During dinner we watched the Matrix, which they had never seen before. By the time it was over we were exhausted and called it a night. It's so weird because in the US I wouldn't even be thinking about sleep until after 11, but here sometimes I'm exhausted by 10. Idk.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Village Stay Part II
Saturday
Another early morning! The girls had school today so I woke up as the last one got up at around 7:30. I started to wash my face and brush my teeth and I guess when I went to change my host grandma here woke up Jeanette. We had a nice breakfast of tea, bread and honey. Later, her host mom showed us how to make bread. We went to one of our neighbor's house to start weaving a rug, which ended up being really hard to set up. We went to the elementary school in the afternoon and had a meeting between our program and some of the men in the village. It was really cool because one of our professors, Lahcen, grew up here and went on to get his BA and Ph.D. He translated for us today and yesterday and he was talking to the men here about the new family code (which has given women more legal rights in terms of divorce and inheritance in addition to changing the laws about how many wives they can have, etc). The men here were saying that it's bad because the feel like women now have more rights than men, but I was impressed that my professor openly disagreed with them and gave them specific examples. I really have a new respect for him now (his lectures are pretty dry and somethings are definitely lost in translation) especially after he confronted families he grew up with. Afterwards I hung out with some friends then headed back to the house. Jeanette and I had a lesson with the kids before dinner, sharing French English and darija. The 15 year old speaks a little French so we were asking him words from French to Arabic. He's really smart, so it's sad thinking he stopped going to school. The high school is really really far and he'd have to live there, so he stays home and helps out with the animals. After dinner we read for a little bit, then we went to bed. Jeanette's reading the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which I read and loved this summer. It's such an intense book so I'm predicting a lot of reading in the next few days.
So the rest of the homestay I just did bullet points becasue I got a lot of funny looks when I wrote a lot and I ran out of paper. Some things I can remember, like Sunday we tried to meet up with our friends at the school, but we ended up being followed by our host grandma, the nthey didn't show up so we tried to go visit the program director, Nawal because the girl who had lived where we did the weaving ended up movig out because she had a similar experience when the mother and the grandmother were asking her for money and for things. But Nawal wasn't there, so we ended up hiking up and down a couple small mountains for no real reason with our grandmother behind us the whole time. We went to weaving and found out that our friend had moved, but we were going to continue weaving there regardless. So we did that, then read and hung out the rest of the day. It's so beautiful here, but it's tough because we can't communicate very well and there isn't very much to do.
So we've started Americanizing some darija phrases like Shnu (which means what) and saying Shnu T F? and "I'm yallahing!" (yallah means like "let's go") and there are a few key phrases like "zweena" (pretty/nice) and zweena bzef. Everything is zweena bzef or mzien (good).
On Monday we went to the elementary school with the 2 girls because our program is planning on helping out. It was so cute! I ended up holding hand with Hadija, who is adorable, on the way and we all (jeanette, me, hadija, nezha and her friend marriam) ended up walking hand in hand on the way to the school. I was talking to my friend about how cute the kids are and she said thatshe would marry her host brother so he could go the US with us. I was like "He's 13, I'm not sure that's legal..." But the kids are all super cute! After we lined up in front of the flag and sang the national anthem, we went into the classrooms with the kids and taught them "head, shoulders knees and toes" It was adorable! Then we went outside to help fix up their school. Before we started, we were warned not to put our hands under any rocks because scorpions are not out the question. I was terrified. At this point though, I was so tired from the early morning and oh yeah, did I mention we sleep on the floor? and they have dogs and sheep and chickens that are all pretty loud at night. So I actually made up a song to "I'm on a boat." It's called "We're helping trees" and the lyrics went something like "I got my rocks and no scorpions..." etc. Also I just kept saying "more rocks, no scorpions" hoping that if I said it enough, it would be true. Thank God there weren't any. So now I figure I should mention how low my hygiene standards have sunk. Not to be too gross, but we pee in the chicken coop. Sometimes next to the donkey. Except on Tuesday night I just couldn't do it. There were 2 donkeys and the chickens in the corner and the grandma standing there with the flashlight to ward off the dogs. It was awful. So she took us to the back of the house to pee. At first she forgot to bring the flashlight, so she went back in to get it, leaving me and Jeanette in the dark. The dogs started to bark at us so we started running back inside, but our host grandma got out there and could not stop laughing at us. Between Sunday and Monday night I hadn't touched my hair once because I hadn't washed it. By Wednesday it was pretty gross, let me tell you. Never again. I just started asking myself "does it even matter anymore?" for a lot of things. Like food. We were told not to eat fresh fruits and vegetables and steer away from the butter. I ate all of those things. The only thing I absolutely would not do was drink the water. Between the 2 of us, we had gone through something like 15 large bottles of water. On Tuesday we painted at the school. We whitewashed the walls and painted the alphabet and some really nice designs. Some played soccer or frisbee with the kids, then we had soda, cookies and cake with them. We took so many pictures! The kids were so cute and said that they would never forget what we did for them. That night we were so excited because we figured, it's the last night so maybe we'll have a nice dinner. Our stomachs sunk when our host mom brought in a plate of cold fish and bread. Have I mentioned how much bread we've eaten? because it was a TON. I mean I love bread more than anyone I've ever met and I thought we'd eaten too much. It was a crazy amount of bread. But anyway, I'm not a big fan of fish, so we ate a very small amount (which I felt bad because I could tell it was a special thing for us) and ended up eating granola bars that Jeanette had brought and whipping out the chocolate and dates I had brought. It was sad to leave on Wednesday, but all I could think about was how long I was going to spend in the shower. I missed my host family in Rabat sooo much. And I couldn't wait to use a toilet. So when I got back The first thing I did was tell my family how it went over lunch, then I took a half hour shower. To celebrate our return to civilization, my friends and I went out and got toblerone mcflurries. It was awesome. Later I went out with Chayma and Ahmed and our neighbor Amina. We got glasses for Chayma, shoes for Amina and I (I threw out my pair of black heels at home and they were $5 here...) and a shirt for Ahmed.
Thursday
This morning I found out that my host mom here has been working on her english while I've been in the village working on my darija. We're able to communicate much better now! It's so cute! So since we don't have classes today and tomorrow, Chandra and I are planning on spending Saturday and Sunday travelling to Meknes and Azrou and hiking. I'm so excited! We went for a 2 hour run/walk/staring at the beach and put our feet in, then watched glee and planned some of our adventure. After Diablo (that Spanish soap opera that they watch religiously), Chayma and I went to the hammam. Oh man I cannot tell you how nice it is to be completely clean. It's a $0.75 spa treatment. I've never had smoother legs or cleaner skin.
Another early morning! The girls had school today so I woke up as the last one got up at around 7:30. I started to wash my face and brush my teeth and I guess when I went to change my host grandma here woke up Jeanette. We had a nice breakfast of tea, bread and honey. Later, her host mom showed us how to make bread. We went to one of our neighbor's house to start weaving a rug, which ended up being really hard to set up. We went to the elementary school in the afternoon and had a meeting between our program and some of the men in the village. It was really cool because one of our professors, Lahcen, grew up here and went on to get his BA and Ph.D. He translated for us today and yesterday and he was talking to the men here about the new family code (which has given women more legal rights in terms of divorce and inheritance in addition to changing the laws about how many wives they can have, etc). The men here were saying that it's bad because the feel like women now have more rights than men, but I was impressed that my professor openly disagreed with them and gave them specific examples. I really have a new respect for him now (his lectures are pretty dry and somethings are definitely lost in translation) especially after he confronted families he grew up with. Afterwards I hung out with some friends then headed back to the house. Jeanette and I had a lesson with the kids before dinner, sharing French English and darija. The 15 year old speaks a little French so we were asking him words from French to Arabic. He's really smart, so it's sad thinking he stopped going to school. The high school is really really far and he'd have to live there, so he stays home and helps out with the animals. After dinner we read for a little bit, then we went to bed. Jeanette's reading the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which I read and loved this summer. It's such an intense book so I'm predicting a lot of reading in the next few days.
So the rest of the homestay I just did bullet points becasue I got a lot of funny looks when I wrote a lot and I ran out of paper. Some things I can remember, like Sunday we tried to meet up with our friends at the school, but we ended up being followed by our host grandma, the nthey didn't show up so we tried to go visit the program director, Nawal because the girl who had lived where we did the weaving ended up movig out because she had a similar experience when the mother and the grandmother were asking her for money and for things. But Nawal wasn't there, so we ended up hiking up and down a couple small mountains for no real reason with our grandmother behind us the whole time. We went to weaving and found out that our friend had moved, but we were going to continue weaving there regardless. So we did that, then read and hung out the rest of the day. It's so beautiful here, but it's tough because we can't communicate very well and there isn't very much to do.
So we've started Americanizing some darija phrases like Shnu (which means what) and saying Shnu T F? and "I'm yallahing!" (yallah means like "let's go") and there are a few key phrases like "zweena" (pretty/nice) and zweena bzef. Everything is zweena bzef or mzien (good).
On Monday we went to the elementary school with the 2 girls because our program is planning on helping out. It was so cute! I ended up holding hand with Hadija, who is adorable, on the way and we all (jeanette, me, hadija, nezha and her friend marriam) ended up walking hand in hand on the way to the school. I was talking to my friend about how cute the kids are and she said thatshe would marry her host brother so he could go the US with us. I was like "He's 13, I'm not sure that's legal..." But the kids are all super cute! After we lined up in front of the flag and sang the national anthem, we went into the classrooms with the kids and taught them "head, shoulders knees and toes" It was adorable! Then we went outside to help fix up their school. Before we started, we were warned not to put our hands under any rocks because scorpions are not out the question. I was terrified. At this point though, I was so tired from the early morning and oh yeah, did I mention we sleep on the floor? and they have dogs and sheep and chickens that are all pretty loud at night. So I actually made up a song to "I'm on a boat." It's called "We're helping trees" and the lyrics went something like "I got my rocks and no scorpions..." etc. Also I just kept saying "more rocks, no scorpions" hoping that if I said it enough, it would be true. Thank God there weren't any. So now I figure I should mention how low my hygiene standards have sunk. Not to be too gross, but we pee in the chicken coop. Sometimes next to the donkey. Except on Tuesday night I just couldn't do it. There were 2 donkeys and the chickens in the corner and the grandma standing there with the flashlight to ward off the dogs. It was awful. So she took us to the back of the house to pee. At first she forgot to bring the flashlight, so she went back in to get it, leaving me and Jeanette in the dark. The dogs started to bark at us so we started running back inside, but our host grandma got out there and could not stop laughing at us. Between Sunday and Monday night I hadn't touched my hair once because I hadn't washed it. By Wednesday it was pretty gross, let me tell you. Never again. I just started asking myself "does it even matter anymore?" for a lot of things. Like food. We were told not to eat fresh fruits and vegetables and steer away from the butter. I ate all of those things. The only thing I absolutely would not do was drink the water. Between the 2 of us, we had gone through something like 15 large bottles of water. On Tuesday we painted at the school. We whitewashed the walls and painted the alphabet and some really nice designs. Some played soccer or frisbee with the kids, then we had soda, cookies and cake with them. We took so many pictures! The kids were so cute and said that they would never forget what we did for them. That night we were so excited because we figured, it's the last night so maybe we'll have a nice dinner. Our stomachs sunk when our host mom brought in a plate of cold fish and bread. Have I mentioned how much bread we've eaten? because it was a TON. I mean I love bread more than anyone I've ever met and I thought we'd eaten too much. It was a crazy amount of bread. But anyway, I'm not a big fan of fish, so we ate a very small amount (which I felt bad because I could tell it was a special thing for us) and ended up eating granola bars that Jeanette had brought and whipping out the chocolate and dates I had brought. It was sad to leave on Wednesday, but all I could think about was how long I was going to spend in the shower. I missed my host family in Rabat sooo much. And I couldn't wait to use a toilet. So when I got back The first thing I did was tell my family how it went over lunch, then I took a half hour shower. To celebrate our return to civilization, my friends and I went out and got toblerone mcflurries. It was awesome. Later I went out with Chayma and Ahmed and our neighbor Amina. We got glasses for Chayma, shoes for Amina and I (I threw out my pair of black heels at home and they were $5 here...) and a shirt for Ahmed.
Thursday
This morning I found out that my host mom here has been working on her english while I've been in the village working on my darija. We're able to communicate much better now! It's so cute! So since we don't have classes today and tomorrow, Chandra and I are planning on spending Saturday and Sunday travelling to Meknes and Azrou and hiking. I'm so excited! We went for a 2 hour run/walk/staring at the beach and put our feet in, then watched glee and planned some of our adventure. After Diablo (that Spanish soap opera that they watch religiously), Chayma and I went to the hammam. Oh man I cannot tell you how nice it is to be completely clean. It's a $0.75 spa treatment. I've never had smoother legs or cleaner skin.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Village Stay: Meshi mushkil (NBD)
I'm back in Rabat (thank God) and I've showered, been fed and went for a nice loooonnngggg run with my friend in attempts to work off some of the bread we ate this past week. I wrote most of my experience down while I was there but really in all actuality there are not enough words in the frickin dictionary to explain what it was like. I just keep saying over and over that it was crazy. So here it is:
Thursday
The fact that we had arabic class was kind of a joke. We were all sooooo distracted with thoughts of our village stay that no one was really paying attention and our teacher could not hold our interest for more than a few minutes. Afterwards I ran back to my house, grabbed my bag, said good bye to my family, had lunch with my friends and then we were off! On to the next big adventure. And oh man was it an adventurous day. It took us about 3 hours (with one bathroom stop).... until the bus broke down for a little bit just outside of the village. We got off the bus while they figured it out and some played frisbee while others tried to befriend the village boys (they were like 10) who were shyly creepin on the weird Americans. Once they got the bus situation under controlwe drove a little farther until they told us it was time for the first group of students to go with their families. Then we dropped off the second group and finally we stopped and the rest of us got off. We huddled around a flashlight lit list of family names and student names, grabbed some toilet paper and bottled water and when my name was called it was go time. My first look at my host mom was shocking. She was young with a baby strapped to her back with a scarf and a 6 year old boy in hand. It was a pretty brief glance because she grabbed my hand and led me into the now pitch black night with no flashlight and no looking back to the well lit bus. Her son would run next to us and throw rocks at objects that later whimpered. I was beginning to regret bringing as much as I had because we headed straight up a small mountain. After almost eating it a few times on some rocks, we headed towards a faint light that turned out to be my house. We went in and immediately my host mom started running around, apparently getting together some food. Meanwhile, I met her mom who lives with her and sat down while they just stared at me. I just couldn't stop laughing at how ridiculous it was. I mean I don't know very much darija and they speak absolutely no english whatsoever. So I just laughed to myself. Then my host grandmother caught glance of my clauddagh ring. It was the only jewelry I brought and I just couldn't bring myself to part with it. But I really regretted it when my host grandmother looked at it and started saying something that I couldn't understand and then saying zweena (darija for pretty). Then she started to take it off my finger and continued to put it on her own. Then she made a motion towards herself like saying that it's hers. I could only respond with "la la la la la" (which means "no no no no no"). She gave it back (thank God), but then started saying "floos" which is money. I'm pretty sure she was asking me for money. I said "m'endeesh floos" (I don't have money) but it was super uncomfortable and the conversation ended when my host mom walked back into the room. While we had dinner (bread, cheese, tea, apple and grapes) they kept trying to talk to me but I think between the shock and my lack of language skills I had no idea what they were saying. I think they may have been getting frustrated but I just kept laughing awkwardly. After dinner we went to bed, me, my host mom, her 9 month old daughter and her 6 year old son on the floor on mats with blankets and pillows. The baby girl was still at the breast feeding stage and my host mom would just whip it out all the time. It was so strange to me! Then when I needed to change into my pajamas there's no other room or anything so I just changed in front of everyone. Whatever.
Friday
Everyone was up and going by 6:30 so so was I. I washed my face and brushed my teeth in the bathroom (luckily I had a bathroom, not that I know what that word means anymore because it was a turkish toilet aka hole in the ground with buckets of water)I realizes after walking around a little that the noises I had heard at night were not in fact a lot of small children crying, but my host family had goats, sheep and 2 donkeys! I think my host grandmother was trying to tell me the different words in darija for chicken and goats as she led me around a little. Idk though because after a little bit she asked for my ring again which then progressed to asking for money again. So when I needed to leave for the hike my group was going on I brought all of my valuables. We left at 8 for the hike (me and my host mom) but I didn't need to be there until 9. It was just down the hill though so when no one was there, I was a little nervous that I would be sitting there with her in silence for an hour. That is, until I fortunately saw 2 girls from the program walking on the road. I practically ran to them and we walked around a little. After meeting up with them and talking to my other friends who had had awesome family experiences, I decided I needed to talk to our program director about my family issues. The hike itself was absolutely mind blowing. The mountains are just so incredible and there is a volcano that we hiked onto. Oh man there are just not enough pictures in the world or words in our language to describe how I felt when looking around. The vastness of the sky combined with the enormous mountains and valleys was a sight I'm not sure I'll ever forget. Unfortunately while I was appreciating it's beauty and trying to capture it, I fell on the very narrow path we were standing on. I was able to catch myself and did very little damage.... with the exception of my camera. My camera was in the hand that caught myself. I was mourning the loss of my camera, when my friend Chandra said that she had had a similar falling experience (not down a mountain, but just falling) and was able to pop the lens back out and it worked for another 2 years. So she played with it and amazingly got it to work again! I almost kissed her. We climbed a volcano (nbd) and listened to a lecture on deforestation and attempts to plant and some local issues. Then we hiked up and down the mountains for about 2 1/2 hours. It was crazy! The whole time, these police guys followed s because I guess we are an international security risk. Apparently they were the equivalent to our SWAT team. Who knew? They were really nice and dressed like regular guys. Anyway, we hiked to this place where we had lunch (honey soaked pancakes and tea, the best honey I've ever had in my entire life) and women from the village came to talk to us and answer some questions we have. By the end of lunch I had made the decision that it would be best if I moved. So I talked to Nawal and she said that she could talk to them if I want but I can change families. I told her I wanted to switch. So after lunch I took the van (this blue van somehow maneuvered its way through the mountains and transported the people who lived really far) and went on the craziest car ride I think I've ever been on in my whole life. We could have toppled off the mountain and I would not have been surprised at all. We eventually made it, all in one piece, and I hung out with my friend Jena and her family for a few hours. Then I looked for Nawal to figure out my next move. It was starting to get dark, so I went with a friend to get my stuff from the house. We told them that I was going to her house, but they kept asking me questions that I didn't understand and I was so overwhelmed that we ended up just walking out saying good bye. I definitely caused a bit of a scene which is not at all what I wanted. So my host mom followed us down the little mountain until I could find Nawal to have her explain what was going on. So then Nawal sent me to my 2nd house which had a grandmother, her 3 sons who were 26, 24 and 15 and her 26 year old son's family of 4 kids, Doha (3), Soufian (5), Hadija (9) and Nezha (10). Luckily there was another student there, Jeanette. We hadn't really talked very much before this and we got to know each other REALLY well. You have no idea. We've had so much bonding time, and we've talked about just about everything physically possible. But the first night we had a little bit of a dance party. They have a TV which amazed me. They played music from a wedding on the TV and Nezha showed us how to dance a little bit. So back to the TV situation. They have lights and a TV, but apparently no bathroom. This gets really interesting let me tell you, because we actually peed in the chicken coop. Oh that's right, you read that correctly. With the chickens cowering in the corner. We peed in the chicken coop. DId I mention that sometimes that's where the donkey lives? Oh yeah. And the kids always follow us. I swear to you they made us go there because they thought it was funny. And to be honest with you, it kind of was hilarious. Anyway, that night we had a tajine and peeled apple for dinner, we hung out then went to bed. I had my own corner, but I slept in the room with all of the kids and their mom, and Jeanette shared a room with the grandma.
Thursday
The fact that we had arabic class was kind of a joke. We were all sooooo distracted with thoughts of our village stay that no one was really paying attention and our teacher could not hold our interest for more than a few minutes. Afterwards I ran back to my house, grabbed my bag, said good bye to my family, had lunch with my friends and then we were off! On to the next big adventure. And oh man was it an adventurous day. It took us about 3 hours (with one bathroom stop).... until the bus broke down for a little bit just outside of the village. We got off the bus while they figured it out and some played frisbee while others tried to befriend the village boys (they were like 10) who were shyly creepin on the weird Americans. Once they got the bus situation under controlwe drove a little farther until they told us it was time for the first group of students to go with their families. Then we dropped off the second group and finally we stopped and the rest of us got off. We huddled around a flashlight lit list of family names and student names, grabbed some toilet paper and bottled water and when my name was called it was go time. My first look at my host mom was shocking. She was young with a baby strapped to her back with a scarf and a 6 year old boy in hand. It was a pretty brief glance because she grabbed my hand and led me into the now pitch black night with no flashlight and no looking back to the well lit bus. Her son would run next to us and throw rocks at objects that later whimpered. I was beginning to regret bringing as much as I had because we headed straight up a small mountain. After almost eating it a few times on some rocks, we headed towards a faint light that turned out to be my house. We went in and immediately my host mom started running around, apparently getting together some food. Meanwhile, I met her mom who lives with her and sat down while they just stared at me. I just couldn't stop laughing at how ridiculous it was. I mean I don't know very much darija and they speak absolutely no english whatsoever. So I just laughed to myself. Then my host grandmother caught glance of my clauddagh ring. It was the only jewelry I brought and I just couldn't bring myself to part with it. But I really regretted it when my host grandmother looked at it and started saying something that I couldn't understand and then saying zweena (darija for pretty). Then she started to take it off my finger and continued to put it on her own. Then she made a motion towards herself like saying that it's hers. I could only respond with "la la la la la" (which means "no no no no no"). She gave it back (thank God), but then started saying "floos" which is money. I'm pretty sure she was asking me for money. I said "m'endeesh floos" (I don't have money) but it was super uncomfortable and the conversation ended when my host mom walked back into the room. While we had dinner (bread, cheese, tea, apple and grapes) they kept trying to talk to me but I think between the shock and my lack of language skills I had no idea what they were saying. I think they may have been getting frustrated but I just kept laughing awkwardly. After dinner we went to bed, me, my host mom, her 9 month old daughter and her 6 year old son on the floor on mats with blankets and pillows. The baby girl was still at the breast feeding stage and my host mom would just whip it out all the time. It was so strange to me! Then when I needed to change into my pajamas there's no other room or anything so I just changed in front of everyone. Whatever.
Friday
Everyone was up and going by 6:30 so so was I. I washed my face and brushed my teeth in the bathroom (luckily I had a bathroom, not that I know what that word means anymore because it was a turkish toilet aka hole in the ground with buckets of water)I realizes after walking around a little that the noises I had heard at night were not in fact a lot of small children crying, but my host family had goats, sheep and 2 donkeys! I think my host grandmother was trying to tell me the different words in darija for chicken and goats as she led me around a little. Idk though because after a little bit she asked for my ring again which then progressed to asking for money again. So when I needed to leave for the hike my group was going on I brought all of my valuables. We left at 8 for the hike (me and my host mom) but I didn't need to be there until 9. It was just down the hill though so when no one was there, I was a little nervous that I would be sitting there with her in silence for an hour. That is, until I fortunately saw 2 girls from the program walking on the road. I practically ran to them and we walked around a little. After meeting up with them and talking to my other friends who had had awesome family experiences, I decided I needed to talk to our program director about my family issues. The hike itself was absolutely mind blowing. The mountains are just so incredible and there is a volcano that we hiked onto. Oh man there are just not enough pictures in the world or words in our language to describe how I felt when looking around. The vastness of the sky combined with the enormous mountains and valleys was a sight I'm not sure I'll ever forget. Unfortunately while I was appreciating it's beauty and trying to capture it, I fell on the very narrow path we were standing on. I was able to catch myself and did very little damage.... with the exception of my camera. My camera was in the hand that caught myself. I was mourning the loss of my camera, when my friend Chandra said that she had had a similar falling experience (not down a mountain, but just falling) and was able to pop the lens back out and it worked for another 2 years. So she played with it and amazingly got it to work again! I almost kissed her. We climbed a volcano (nbd) and listened to a lecture on deforestation and attempts to plant and some local issues. Then we hiked up and down the mountains for about 2 1/2 hours. It was crazy! The whole time, these police guys followed s because I guess we are an international security risk. Apparently they were the equivalent to our SWAT team. Who knew? They were really nice and dressed like regular guys. Anyway, we hiked to this place where we had lunch (honey soaked pancakes and tea, the best honey I've ever had in my entire life) and women from the village came to talk to us and answer some questions we have. By the end of lunch I had made the decision that it would be best if I moved. So I talked to Nawal and she said that she could talk to them if I want but I can change families. I told her I wanted to switch. So after lunch I took the van (this blue van somehow maneuvered its way through the mountains and transported the people who lived really far) and went on the craziest car ride I think I've ever been on in my whole life. We could have toppled off the mountain and I would not have been surprised at all. We eventually made it, all in one piece, and I hung out with my friend Jena and her family for a few hours. Then I looked for Nawal to figure out my next move. It was starting to get dark, so I went with a friend to get my stuff from the house. We told them that I was going to her house, but they kept asking me questions that I didn't understand and I was so overwhelmed that we ended up just walking out saying good bye. I definitely caused a bit of a scene which is not at all what I wanted. So my host mom followed us down the little mountain until I could find Nawal to have her explain what was going on. So then Nawal sent me to my 2nd house which had a grandmother, her 3 sons who were 26, 24 and 15 and her 26 year old son's family of 4 kids, Doha (3), Soufian (5), Hadija (9) and Nezha (10). Luckily there was another student there, Jeanette. We hadn't really talked very much before this and we got to know each other REALLY well. You have no idea. We've had so much bonding time, and we've talked about just about everything physically possible. But the first night we had a little bit of a dance party. They have a TV which amazed me. They played music from a wedding on the TV and Nezha showed us how to dance a little bit. So back to the TV situation. They have lights and a TV, but apparently no bathroom. This gets really interesting let me tell you, because we actually peed in the chicken coop. Oh that's right, you read that correctly. With the chickens cowering in the corner. We peed in the chicken coop. DId I mention that sometimes that's where the donkey lives? Oh yeah. And the kids always follow us. I swear to you they made us go there because they thought it was funny. And to be honest with you, it kind of was hilarious. Anyway, that night we had a tajine and peeled apple for dinner, we hung out then went to bed. I had my own corner, but I slept in the room with all of the kids and their mom, and Jeanette shared a room with the grandma.
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