pictures from casablanca and the cascades d'ozould

King Hassan II mosque

this place was massive!

yes we went here... the ULTIMATE action of tourism in this city

it was so busy and ugly... i can't wait to go back and actaully enjoy the city

we finally made it! good thing i found the timer on my camera! :)

:)

such a beautiful view at every angle

we littterally slept outside

but this is why it was only 5$

the monkeys come down at sunset to drink the water... they were not shy but not agressive either! I was worried haha

the waterfalls turned brown the next day! apprently there was a bad rain somehwere way up stream? it looked like chocolate

the hotel "lobby"

The end of Ramadan is oh so near!! Hurray!

I’m so excited to be able to eat and drink water in public and to eat real meals for dinner(hopefully) … I’m also excited for the CCCL (where we have class) to stay open until 6 pm everyday—meaning my time online will increase drastically and hopefully I’ll actually have the real opportunity to upload pictures! But in all honesty, experiencing Ramadan was not totally awful and I’m so happy I was in Morocco for the holiday. I’m very anxious to see post-Ramadan life and how different it becomes. In a sense, Ramadan is supposed to represent a month of purity, being extra pious and simply beholding the essence of “a good Muslim”, so I’m very anxious to see how much this month really affects people’s actions and way of life. Even within the month of Ramadan itself I’ve been able to see a slight decline in “piousness” (If I’m really one to judge…) as the holiday has begun to whine down. For example, now you can see one or two people smoking during the day when a few weeks ago you never would have seen that. Even our Ramadan “breaking the fast” meals have gotten less stringent and less shbekkia is being served. Also, none of the clubs or bars have been open during Ramadan because duh, Muslims are “never supposed to consume alcohol” but especially during Ramadan. So the clubs do their renovations during this time because they’d hardly get any business anyway. I’m very excited to see them open though! J
My family has also, thus far, seemed to be very religious, meaning they definitely do all their prayers everyday and both of my parents visit the mosque at least once that I know of every evening. Not everyone’s families pray at home from what I’ve heard and I’m interested to see if the dynamic in my family will change at all. I don’t even know if we all will continue to have dinner all together.
TV is also a big thing in Morocco and there is hardly a house without a TV set. My family watches while we eat, just like everyone else, but it’s not really where the family congregates besides when we’re eating. And I know some students in my program who spend hours every night with their family watching silly soap operas in Arabic. (I’m very grateful I’m not forced to do that more that during dinner! Haha) Yes, in a lot of ways, I’m very lucky. My family is very good about giving me my personal space to write, read or just lay down. I’m very grateful they give that to me because I am definitely the type of person who needs a certain amount of time dedicated to myself. But this concept of “personal space” is one of the many American traits that do not transfer in any way to Moroccan culture. My siblings don’t even have any personal space besides a few shelves in a communal closet. (My things are all hidden under a small table with a long table cloth. I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned this aspect of life yet but I’m literally living out of suitcases and I have to climb in the floor and rummage through everything to get what I want everyday… its really awful and makes me want to cry everyday… but it’s still more personal space than anyone else in this household has! One of the more unbelievable aspects to Moroccan life…)
But of course, as I’ve found through talking with my classmates, every Moroccan family is very different and has their own style of doing Ramadan or anything—just like there’s no American family that eats dinner in the exact same fashion. Some families are more rigorous and strict, some are more casual. But I don’t know how much Ramadan is affecting that. Hmmm I don’t know! I’m very anxious to see what changes.
But as I was saying, Ramadan ends either this Tuesday or Wednesday (you never know until the very last day because it depends on the moon which is apparently unpredictable in advance). And, the end of the holiday is as much of a celebration as the beginning. We have Wed-Fri off school because the center will be closed. It’s called something like Aid Liftar. And I have no idea what that is translated, probably something simple and I could just ask but I’m to the point of not wanting more Arabic in my life than necessary after 3 painful hours each morning.
Anyway, for the 5 day break I think a small group of us are going to Agadir which is Morocco’s most happenin beach spot. I’m aiming for relaxing and stress-free after roughing it last weekend… I can’t wait to shower for 5 days in a row (that has not happened yet)! Granted I will probably spend more money than will make me happy but not every vacation can be dirt cheap I suppose… And it still will only cost $20 to go half way across the country. Not complaining.
Also, I decided I had to figure out this Skype business even though it stresses me out because it’s just such a cheap way to communicate. My user name is jacey.totta and you all can download it for free and call me for free if you have a microphone OR we can instant message through it. So add me and talk to me if I’m ever on at the same time you are… I’m becoming desperate to talk with my family and friends!!!!

Sunday 9/28 7:18 pm—I’ve never needed a shower so desperately: deet+ sweat+ sunscreen=shower time

This weekend was QUITE an adventure. Let me start by saying I really stepped out of my comfort zone this weekend—which I was very proud of—but I learned why it is I have that comfort zone in the first place. There were many lessons learned and amazing memories made; but after the longest weekend of my life, I am surprisingly so grateful to be back to my couch at home in Rabat. (forgive me if this post seems not to flow or if it’s hard to follow… so much happened this weekend that it would take 10 pages to explain everything in full detail)
As it begins…on Friday, everyone in the program went on a small day excursion to Casablanca. Since that was only on Friday, most people chose to stay in Casa (that’s what we Moroccans call it for short) for the whole weekend. But I learned from last weekend in Tangier that traveling in large groups is not good and it stresses me out so I ended up tagging along with a few other girls who made the trek to the Cascades D’Ouzoud which are the best, most beautiful waterfalls in all of Morocco—probably in “all of North Africa” at that haha. But anyway, our day in Casablanca was… interesting I suppose. This city is one of the largest in the country with about 3 million in population. It’s also on the coast so it’s a port city and I pretty genuinely did not like it—and I am almost always a fan of the hustle and bustle of big cities. So the assignment for the day was split about 6 ways. Each of the 6 groups was assigned a spot to check out. I was in the mosque group which was great because we got a tour of one of the only mosques in the country that is ever open to non-Muslims (normally if you are not a devout Muslim you are never allowed inside a mosque which is a shame because it was absolutely beautiful!) Anyway, we had to take the 7 am train to get there in time for the 9 o’clock tour which was very very early considering it takes 20 minutes to walk there, etc. But whatever that really wasn’t too bad. The tour of the mosque was pretty spectacular. It was by far the most touristy thing I’ve done since I’ve been here, but overall it was worth it. The Hassan II mosque was built in the early 1990s by the then king and it fits up to 25,000 people to pray at once. The ceiling even opens up and it’s just a massive open space covered in carpets and there are like 35 Italian imported chandeliers throughout the entire thing. The intricacy and detail of every inch on every ceiling and wall was amazing. The pictures I took were just frustrating because it was impossible to capture the amazing vastness and beauty of this place. But like I said, it was such a tourist attraction I kind of felt like I was in Disneyland or something—like it somehow wasn’t real. We were in the “English speaking” tour group which consisted of about 75 people, all of which were either our group of 15 students or all retired senior citizens from the Netherlands or Florida. Hahaha they were so obnoxious and demanding. It was kind of nice to see them and then get to leave them and not have to return to that for a few more months at least!
We spent the rest of the day being lost and getting ripped off in Casablanca—neither of which I enjoyed. (One example of getting ripped off was the 30 Durham cab ride that took us two blocks compared to the 100 Durham cab ride that we were in for an hour and a half getting to the waterfalls the next day) End of that story was pretty much that Casablanca was dirty and unfriendly. Granted, I hardly saw a fraction of the city and I will go back again I’m sure, but for now ew.
So I went on the rest of my adventure with 3 girls who I didn’t really know that well but were really great and I had a very good time with them. I did learn that traveling in smaller packs is well worth it. We took a 4 pm train out of Casablanca and got to Beni Milal around 8:30. We stayed overnight in that city because we had to take a taxi to get to the small village to see the waterfalls and it was just better to wait until morning. So that was pretty uneventful but fun. We had dinner that night and breakfast the next day at the café underneath the hotel and the hotel manager was very nice and helpful.
So beings Saturday which will eventually become THE LONGEST DAY OF MY LIFEEEEE. Christie read in her guide book about this village close by that has a big flee market type thing every Saturday and we thought it would be really cool to stop by and check it out. Maybe there would be lots of cool things and fun cheap little tents with cool stuff. Well, that wishful thinking led us to a local bus that was supposed to leave at 9:30 but didn’t leave until 10:40, but did eventually get us to the “market.” Then begins me wanting to fall to the ground and just weep with tears I was so frustrated and uncomfortable. I don’t even know how to begin describing this place besides saying it was soooo crowded there were times I couldn’t move an inch. Normally this isn’t really a big deal but we had our big backpacks and we so obviously weren’t locals so we were that much more vulnerable and targeted. I’m used to being stared at a little in Rabat because I’m obviously not Morocco considering I wear t-shirts and you can see my hair; but, I’ve never been a spectacle the way I was in this city (which I couldn’t even tell you the name of). We planned ahead and new that we would probably be obvious targets for beggars and pick-pocketers so everything of importance was in my purse in front of me or buried deep into the bottom of my back pack so if someone did try to undo the nearest zipper on my back the best they’d find was a sweater or a towel. BUT that didn’t really matter when we were crammed in like freaking sardines! Everyone was instantly gawking at us and following us because I’m sure this tiny little town hardly ever sees tourists… why would they? We thought we were being cool and cultural going to see a place that most Westerns don’t get to see… well yeah freakin’ right I’m sticking to my guide book for ever and always. I’m just so sickened by thinking back on that! SO may carts and chickens and produce and smelly people!!!! Even a local came up to us and was like be careful and look out because they will definitely try to rob you. GREAT! I’ll just say I’ve never felt that uncomfortable and truly in danger before and as I’m sure you can guess I hated it.
So by this time it’s probably 1 pm and I finally put my foot down and as I was on the verge of tears I just demanded that we get a taxi and get to the cascades. I would have been willing to pay them hundreds of dollars to leave. But everyone else was on the same page at least so we managed to escape that absurdity without anyone being trampled or robbed so that’s one good thing? I mean I just wish I could somehow really describe this place! I easily could have been pushed down and everything taken from me and I’m sure no one would have blinked an eye! They were too busy buying live chickens and damn dates! Ughhhh I’m just so bitter.
So after lots more drama of finding a taxi we finally found one who would take us the hour and a half up the mountains to the cascades. He charged us 100 Durhams each—400 total which is like 53 dollars. Not bad at all. We finally get to this little village and instantly someone tries to “help” us find our way but we’re too bitter to trust him—turns out he was just being nice and did help us…woops. We found the hotel we wanted and stayed on the terrace for 35 Durham a night (4 dollars). There were some beat up mattresses and big stinky wool blankets. We ended up setting up our beds under a big wool covering/tent thing and it actually worked out. I mean I didn’t really know this was our plan so I didn’t bring a sheet or lots of warm clothes, but luckily another girl let me share a sheet with her and she let me borrow her wool socks. I’m such a wimp in cold weather and it got veeeerrry cold at night—but I survived.
Anyway, once we got settled into the hotel we wondered down to the falls and they were spectacular. Sooo beautiful and very worth it! I was so glad we finally made it. That afternoon was great; we spent a few hours hiking up and down the waterfalls taking picture at every angle. It was really nice and relaxing… After a little resting period we wondered down to find a little restaurant where we all got small salads, some lamb and some couscous with veggies, orange juices and hot tea all for a total of 80 Durham (10 bucks!!) The guys working there were all nomads from all over and at night they slept on the couches we sat on to eat and they were very friendly, without being pushy which is not always the case. I was having such a good time! We were even about to hang out with them and have dessert but then I got violently ill….of course!! It was so random and it just snuck up on me so quickly! No need for the gross details but I was in bed at 8:30 and I couldn’t even move I felt so sick! I was paralyzed to these aches in my stomach and throughout my entire torso. My joy turned right back to misery and to top it off I was sleeping outside on a gross mattress and I was freezing cold. L It doesn’t even make sense!! I didn’t eat anything that they didn’t and I was the only one stuck in my bed all night… it was awful. BUT I very thankfully woke up the next day perfectly fine. We had a 2 hour taxi ride followed by a 4 ½ hour bus ride then a 1 hour train ride to finally make it back to Rabat by 7 pm and if I had felt the way I did Saturday night the entire day I don’t think I would have made it… I felt sooo gross by the time we got back. I hadn’t showered in god knows how long and I literally did not change one article of clothing from Saturday morning until Sunday night (considering I couldn’t move enough to even remove my shoes Saturday night)
So moral of the story: the waterfalls rocked and I was so glad we went but the weekend was just very very long! But, I only spent a total of about 85 dollars! Uuughghghghg I’m going to bed…

Pictures from Tangier

Camels on the beach and the port in the background... juxtapostion at its finest

that poor woman...hahah... Moroccans are VERY persistant!

yay tourism! where would we be without our guidebooks!

Food: I even crack myself up

I realize I’ve hardly talked about the food yet and I’m as surprised as you are. Amazing, delicious and exotic food was one of the most exciting things I thought Morocco was going to give me. But once again, I think Ramadan is really deterring that. This Muslim holiday is obviously a totally bizarre and new experience for me but worst of all is that I have nothing to compare it against. We arrived on the first day of Ramadan and the holiday lasts an entire lunar month—which exact dates are never totally predictable. So it ends sometime next week I believe, and I think life will change in a lot of ways once it’s over. Anyway, meal time is obviously skewed considering there’s no eating when the sun is up, and even though my family has told me very directly not to fast I’m still affected. I do get breakfast every morning (usually consisting of 3-4 choices of fried bread/pastry etc.—I only choose one that strikes my fancy for the day—pared with choices of spreadable cheese, honey or jam to go on it. I also always get fresh mint tea—the Moroccan mint tea is a delicious phenomenon that will receive its own entire post one day).
And I am also served lunch at school which is definitely the closest I’ve gotten to legitimate Moroccan cuisine. Although I can’t help but assume that Braheim, the cook, is not only somewhat effected by having to make food in quantities to feed 35 people but also that he wants to make all us Americans very happy and not go too overbroad with lamb brains or such (side note—Braheim totally rocks). Don’t get me wrong, his food is very, very delicious but already after 3 weeks, I’m bored. I also am not at all a picky eater so I can only imagine how those less-adventurous ones are feeling.
BUT speaking of boredom… f’tour (the breaking of the fast meal) is increeeeeaaadibly repetitive. Most of the food we are eating for this meal—which is not actually “dinner” although it’s my dinner b/c I just can’t bear to eat the 12 AM meal, or real dinner, and top my day off with 4 full meals—is all traditional Ramadan food. For example we almost always have harrera which is the traditional soup (we’re talking pretty standard beef or chicken stock and lots of meat, beans and a few veggies in it), various types of bread (sometimes regular hhobes {bread in Arabic—don’t forget to really use the back of your throat when pronouncing that H}, but usually the bread product is soaked in butter and honey or stuffed with a mayonnaise-base meat and hard-boiled egg combo), there are also always a plateful of dates—the traditional first bite when “breaking the fast.” I have, by the way, learned to loooove dates… I had no idea! I’ve also learned I do NOT like figs. Then there’s shbekkia. Now, there is simply no way of ever really describing this stuff and I’m not sure if it’s unique to Morocco or all Muslims cultures, but this stuff is EVERYWHERE. Poorly summed, it’s a very dense fried dough soaked in a sweet, honey-like glaze and then sprinkled with sesame seeds. (Day old skbekkia is soggy and bad news.) There is also a version (not sure if “shbekkia” is still the right terminology but I’m almost positive it’s in the same family as what I just described) that is like a smaller denser version of a funnel cake except the hollow part inside the dough is filled with oozing honey...? And yes, I’m sure you’re all thinking I’m in heaven and the first time I bit into one of those suckers I thought I was as well. But no, I can’t wait for shbekkia to be no more… too much too much too much. I’ve ODed on shbekkia. We also get banana milk every night, and even our own glasses to drink it out of! But again, the first time I was like ymmmm but got over it very quickly. First of all the idea of cold milk is as gross to them as the room temperature milk they give me is to us. And they use powdered milk, and at this point in the day all I want is water and the hot banana milk just does not hit the spot.
There also tends to be a majority sweet over salty at f’tour and that’s beginning to drive me crazy because my body wants dinner and I’m more literally getting breakfast every night and I just can’t wait to have couscous! (I’ve literally had couscous once since I’ve been here! If you wanna talk blasphemy…)
BUT in the last week f’tour has kind of been spiced up—maybe my family can sense my frustration although I doubt it; or, they’re getting bored themselves—one night last week we had mussels which were deliiiiiicous. It was a whole bowl of them we just scooped out (using our hands of course and all eating out of the same pot—no plates, duh) with our hhobes. Then last night we had fish and potatoes, served in the same manner as the mussels, but the fish head was still in the pot and was glaring at me so I kind of decided against really going at it and considering my current carbohydrate intake due to the shbekkia and fried bread, and the very serious fiber deficiency, I decided against the potatoes as well. (Do potatoes have fiber? They just don’t seem to do justice to the vegetables I’m very seriously lacking) Also, these dishes are just being served along with everything else I’ve already mentioned. The table is also ways very very full. Tonight we had chicken and eggs. And by the way, although both poultry, we never eat those two things together! Anyway, it was good until I scooped up a piece that sooo was not chicken. I asked and my sister said something along the lines of “yeah, that’s the inside of the chicken.” I got the neck and another btw, all bones—I advise against going for the neck. But at least the eyes weren’t still there like the fish from yesterday.
Either way, this experience has at least given me a whole new meaning to the word I so commonly know as “breakfast.”
Another fun fact about Ramadan: There’s some religious chief/important person who technically “declares” sunset everyday and when it’s officially ok to “Break the fast” and eat f’tour. This is obviously signaled more broadly by the sun setting and also by the “call to prayer” that is played over some loud speaker system throughout the entire city. This prayer is literally played to the entire city I think 5 times a day—including the 3 AM round, my personal favorite—and it’s either a man on a microphone, although I doubt it, or a recording. But either way, it’s just one more fascinating aspect to Muslim life and something we never see in our religiously- varied and genuinely free country. If you’re not Muslim, it’s still very much going to be thrown in your face every day in Morocco—5 times a day at that. And we thought saying “Merry Christmas” for a few weeks of the year was insensitive.
So when Ramadan ends, I’m sure dinner time will change a lot and honestly… thank God when it does end (pun intended…)

Mondays...

Jaye and Quinn are going to France?! Ugh I’m soo jealous! Can I commmmme?!?! PS why can’t you go for Christmas when I’ll be there too?!?! At least you’ll get to see Hanne... that will be so great you two are just the most adorable twosome. I miss you both very much!

So the general story of my life in Morocco always revolves around cloudiness. Everything is so unclear! The lecture series of this program (which is pretty much every afternoon) is usually led by our two “professors” who both are brilliant and their English is actually perfect. Their wording is excellent and even Americanized given they both studied in the US for years. I never catch incorrect grammar; BUT, their accents are nonetheless distracting. Especially day after day. And we also have guest lecturers that come in quite often as well. Twice we’ve had this man who is obviously a genius and renowned political scientist and has even worked in the US congress… but I can’t understand so much of what he says! I mean he too speaks impeccable English, but that has turned out to be not nearly as important as clarity when it comes to lectures. If he awkwardly said “the governments has control total” it would not make grammatical sense but I would still comprehend the concept behind the sentence, but instead it comes out more like “da guvnment haad tootil contrl” and that takes more than a second to sink into my mind and at that point he’s already said two more incomprehensible sentences. Today it literally took me 20 minutes and probably 25 times to understand “mutool” was “mutual.” I mean I’m sure I’ll eventually get much more used to it but I admit today when we had two American men from the American embassy come lecture it was incredibly refreshing.

Annnnnd… then there’s Arabic class (uggggghhhhhh) Well let me start by saying I’ve learned the alphabet enough so that I can read Arabic which 2 weeks ago I would have thought totally impossible. But then we get into this whole concept of vocabulary which I have practically none. Today, after two weeks I just figured out that what I thought we were learning as verbs and their conjugations were more accurately just pronouns connected to nouns (and yes that took 2 weeks to get to just to clarify the difficulty and difference in this language). I just feel so defeated and overwhelmed after each 3 hour class every day. Yeessss 3 hours every day all in Arabic because my teacher doesn’t speak English at all, (which if she did could have explained 2 weeks ago what we were actually learning…) and although she and most people in my class speak French, it’s really unfair for me and the other few who don’t speak French when she explains in that language so she tries hard to use French as little as possible. The one upside I suppose I could kind of legitimize at this point is that the language and the letters are really pretty and fun to write! And I can write my name! But forget actually speaking the language…hopefully that comes in a few months—at least after 90 hours I sure hope I’ll have some communication skills! (To be put into perspective, at Oxy you usually take 3-4 hours a week for each class, and I take 3 hours a day of Arabic) BLEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHHAKFAKNFDNKCIpewiojfddnkfeiuvsdnk.

Weekend update…

This weekend we had no planned excursion or class trip so a group of us decided to travel on our own a bit. We went to Tangier, at the northern tip of Morocco and the weekend was kind of a blur. It was bizarre and made me homesick in many weird, unexplainable ways and the trip itself, while very nice at the time, seems like years ago. On the 5 hour train ride back, one of my friends I was with got a phone call from her family telling her her brother had died yesterday. Obviously my heart stopped and she was a mess—to say the least. I’ve never seen anyone so distraught—understandably. I’ve also never experienced such strong conflicting feelings the way I did with both incredible grief and sorrow for my friend, while at the same time feeling so lucky it wasn’t me who got that phone call. It just as easily could have been any of our brothers… She was expecting it as much as any of us.

Count your blessings

Tangier was very nice and I loved being able to speak Spanish! It was truly amazing how much more comfortable and confident I felt in that city over Rabat. Plus that city just rocked and made Rabat look like a pile of poop. I liked Tangier a lot and definitely want to go back…but after Ramadan for sure. This holiday is simply not FUN.

pictures from excursion #1

More pics to come soon...but you should start at the bottom and work your way up... the captions make more sense that way probably...



cultural sesnsitivism is something we are lectured on daily here in Morocco... :) hahah the men in the fabric making place all wrapped our heads "traditionally" and we took a group pic... we obviously then bought lots of scarves so needless to say their tactics work like a charm

this is one of many rooms FULL of all the leather goods at the tannery..

floor to ceiling jammed pack!

the coolest thing i have possibly ever seen. These are the vats at the tanneries that are used to make and dye the leather. The hydes are soaked in different vats for days/weeks before the final products apear (stinky.. but really cool)

the bronze district (this is exactly what all the streets look like in the medina.. tiny little shops all lined up along the edges of the streets)

a blacksmith and his pet chicken..? (the chicken is tied by his foot to that table) but at least he wasn't being carried upsdie down in a pack of 10 liek many of his cousins in the streets of Fez.

yes that's a camel head... this little median kiosk was selling camel meat and needed to prove the legitimacy of there goods... ew

Even when the streets weren't increadibly narrow, they were still jammed pack

the streets were seriously maze-like and increadibly narrow at times

Fez was such an awseom huge city.. this is really jsut a view of the medina.

This is the gate to the King's largest place in Fez. He has 3 in the city though and 30 throughout the entire country... necessary? no, but beautiful nonetheless...

We went to the graineries in Meknes and they were really cool but empty...

Morocco loves gates/doors. I've seen a million--each one of course being "the most beautiful/largest" in allll of North Africa. But in all seriousness, they are absolutely beautiful! I wish i could get a picture that would really show the intricacy and detail (all hand made of course) of alll these huge gates!

Corruption..?

When we were in Fez, we stopped the bus after dinner one night and got out to see this concert that was going on. It was very small but there was a stage set up and when we went to check it out there ended up being something like a freestyle rap concert going on. They were rapping in Dar’ja so we obviously didn’t understand, but it was very obviously “f*** the man” kind of message. It was also full of a style of person that is very common in the US, but I hadn’t really seen at all here—very gansta-esk. When we got back onto the bus our program coordinators were kind of in shock. They had never seen anything like that in Morocco before—such blatant, public opposition against the government. Nowel who is a very conservative Muslim woman who still wears a head scarf all the time and fully participates in Ramadan, was surprised to have seen that but she still referred to them as crazy kids or hooligans and she really didn’t think what they were doing was very meaningful. It was just a game they were playing. But Yellin, who is very Americanized and went to school and taught at Harvard and has traveled throughout the US saw it differently. He too was amazed to have seen such a performance in Morocco but thought it had a much bigger meaning—a revolution if you will. The times they are a changin’.
We’ve been told under a few circumstances that the way the Moroccan government/the king deals with opposition or difference is by “accepting” opposing parties just to bring them closer and in reality keep a closer eye on them. For instance, when the Berber population became kind of fed up with the country neglecting their language and heritage, the king created a Berber institute of sorts that kind of made everyone happy without really changing much. The Berbers felt they were being represented, but really the government was giving them an institution or a simple body of association as to really just keep an eye on them. I’m not really sure of the kind can create the same type of institution for young men rappers—especially since that’s exactly what they are fighting against… but who knows!
So today when I was walking in the medina with my sister, a man started yelling and kind of causing a scene. I sometimes confuse regular dialog as confrontation because Arabic tends to be a very harsh language all on its own, and also because I never really understand any of the words themselves so I make assessments purely by body language etc. But today this man really was upset and I asked my sister what was going on and she got this really angry look in her eyes and said that the government comes and takes a lot of the vendors merchandise when they just use the floor space to sell things and don’t actually have a physical shop. Apparently it’s totally illegal to sell items just lying on the street—sensibly so—and so when government officials drop by they take some of the vendors merchandise instead of kicking them out completely or even arresting them. Today, this mad was very mad and definitely upset that this was happening to him and my sister also thought it was just awful that the “government” would do that. Later this evening when the medina is at FULL capacity and it’s hardly possible to move at all, I saw more uniformed men just grabbing handfuls and handfuls of jackets, shoes what-have-you; yet, these vendors were just kind of dealing with it. I was totally outraged at how nonchalantly this negotiation was happening but another American girl I was with at the time was totally unfazed and was just like it’s an agreement. The vendors give the officers (they looked more like militants than police men but I really couldn’t tell) whatever they want/can carry in exchange for not arresting them or shutting them down all together. I’m going to be bold here and just say… that is definitely corruption one way or another. I wish I could have heard what the rappers were really saying in detail—I’m sure this is the type of situation they were referring to.

my first experience at the hammem

The hammem
When we got back from our trip on Sunday afternoon, my sister asked if I wanted to go the hammem with her (the Turkish bathhouse). I was really excited to go and it’s really been something I’ve been looking forward to. A few girls from the program have already gone and had mixed feelings about it because it was just so much naked time with lots of women at the same time. BUT, I was still looking forward to it. When we got there I didn’t totally know what to do and my sister is so used to taking American girls I thought she’s be filling me in on when to strip down and what to do, but she didn’t. To her it’s just so normal—it’d be like someone asking us how to take a shower. But nonetheless, I was so lost hahaha and everyone was looking at me, but good thing I’m apparently not at all upset about being naked so it didn’t bother me. And although I supposedly could pass for Moroccan, I didn’t even trick anyone in the bathhouse—I think the bellybutton ring, tan lines, and tattoo definitely did not help my case either. Ew, I just hate how obviously western I am hahahha.
So anyway, I’ll try to give a play by play. I think it cost only 10 dirham (a little over one dollar) to enter the bath and the woman and men obviously have separate quarters. We went upstairs and that’s when I got lost because I didn’t know if I should take my clothes right off or to be more modest… it seemed like a thin line. But I kinda just watched everyone else around me and figured things out (although the whole “watching” thing may have been a nuisance to some and they might have been annoyed at me for staring but I was genuinely being curious not creepy) anyway, we brought 2 big buckets of water and some little plastic stools full of all our bathroom products and walked from the “dressing room” in to the bath. We stripped down except for our underwear (my sister made sure I wasn’t wearing the “string kind” before we left) and shower shoes. The bath was kind of H shaped and at the cross there were 4 or 5 faucets where you filled up your buckets. Then we brought our buckets full of warm and hot water over to the side and we sat on the little stools. We also had some medium sized scoops that we used to dip out water one scoop at a time to wash ourselves with. It was reeeaaally hot and steamy inside so you never got cold and actually I didn’t mind not having water running on top of me the entire time like a normal shower. It was a perfectly efficient method. But here comes the amazing part, my sister decided it was very important that I pay the young woman who works there to “massage me” for only 20 dirham which is like less than 3 dollars. Oh.my.god. When she said massage what she meant was SCRUBBBBBB. This woman was, for one, very strong, and for two, not gentle hahaha She laid down a mat and had me lie first on my stomach so she could get my back. AH! I thought she was ripping off my skin!! Hahahaha she used a wash cloth that was more similarly related to sand paper than my personal definition of a wash cloth and she was SCRUBBBING without any hesitation! And she wasn’t even using soap which I really thought may have helped ease the pain. But with just water, she scrubbed every inch of my ENTIRE body (I won’t go into detail about the most painful areas, but the armpit was defiantly one of them… that skin is so sensitive, I had no idea!!) She was scrubbing so so so hard I wish I could describe it! I thought she was going to scrub my tattoos off! The pain was very similar to getting a tattoo actually… So after I turned on my right side, onto my back and then finally my left side I opened my eyes to see how bright red I was sure my skin would be and it looked like she washcloth had disintegrated all over my body.. NOPE that was just my dead skin. A LOT OF IT…. She laughed at me when I was like “UGH!!! I’m so disgusting!” she smiled and said “ooh-la-la” insinuating that dumb American’s shower all the time but never actually get clean. I just couldn’t believe it, it was so gross to see all that dead skin she rolled off of me. But really, it felt GREAT! I’m all about exfoliation and I will simply never go back to a freaking pansy-ass lufa! I can’t wait to by my own sandpaper covered wash cloth! I can’t believe Arabs haven’t made millions off this idea in the western world! Because this actually works—instantly! I could feel a dramatic difference in the texture and glow of my skin. And I already was an avid exfoliator! I bet woman pay hundreds of dollars for exfoliation treatments and I paid 3! Anyway.. as you can imagine, I can’t wait to go back and feel clean for only the second time of my life…

4 dynasty excursion

We left Friday morning to go to 4 different cities to see either the four most important dynasties or the only four dynasties that exist in Morocco—still not quite sure of all the historical references/stats. But either was it was really cool. It was really nice to see more of Morocco outside of Rabat because it kind of hit me even harder that I’m actually in Africa right now. The first city was Meknes which was alright although we hardly got to see any of it. We fit the first three in on Friday and spent all day Saturday in Fez. But Meknes was really neat, and it’s a pretty big city so I’d defiantly like to go back one free weekend sometime during the semester. We had a different tour guide for each city and they were all really funny in their own ways hahaha. One ones in Meknes and Fez did not only a good job guiding us, but also taking us to “their friend’s shops where we would get good prices on the very unique things they were selling” hahaha. They probably got some commission for bringing us and although a lot of us got really ripped off, we got some good stuff too!
So we didn’t see too much of Meknes except beautiful gates—which are becoming some of my favorite things about Morocco. The DETAIL on these medina walls and huge doors/gates are amazing! The pictures I’ll put up won’t do them any justice to how beautiful and amazing they really are, BUT at least you can see what I mean. (It was also a running joke that every guide we had showed us “the most beautiful; the oldest; the biggest; the most intricate blank in allll of North Africa.” hahahaha They were good at their job at least!) We were supposed to go into a mosque there, one of the only that allows non-Muslims inside, but it was closed. So we ventured onto a golf course instead? We were all pretty confused about why but the tour guide was proud to show us “the only gold course in allll of Morocco that is inside medina walls… you never lose your ball!)
It is also important to note that we went into this excursion purposefully being tourists. And to be quite honest it was nice to see the touristy things because we haven’t even really done that in Rabat yet. So after Meknes, we went to the town of Mouley Idriss which is I think one of the oldest dynasties—besides for the Roman empire which was city #3—but anyway all we actually did there was eat lunch at a woman’s house/inn. She had a gorgeous and large house and we walked through the very crowded market to get there but we were defiantly gawked at because this is actually not really a normal tourist stop for the regular tour of Morocco or North Africa. But the food was incredibly delicious and her house was very warm and had an amaaazing view from the top terrace. SO I think the point was only that we simply be there in Mouley Idriss because there’s really no old kingdom to see.
So then we were off to Volubilis which was literally 5 minutes away. Volubilis was the old Roman Empire from over 2000 years ago. We of course just saw the ruins but I’ve never really seen ruins before and it was so coolllll!!!!! It was amazing what was still intact even after being uncovered. I took lots of great pictures but my memory card for some reason wasn’t pushed in so the pictures are saved on the camera, not the memory card so I can’t upload them onto my computer until I get homeL I was very disappointed but in theory some really cool pictures to exist, I just can’t show you yet… We saw the main streets, into very large houses with different rooms for guests, the bathroom, the hot tubs and even a brothel (proof that it was a brothel came by an inappropriate carving of a man’s genitals… it was pretty hilarious to us 20/21 year olds when the tour guide surprised us with that one hahaha). Even some very detailed archways and pillars somehow have survived 200 years. It was so neat to think an ancient Roman city once stood BC.
After the Volubilis, we drove to Fez where we just had time to check in our hotel and go to dinner. The touring if Fez didn’t happen until Saturday, but we did go to a pretty elaborate dinner that was very much aimed at tourists. First of all, the hotel we stayed in was just sooo nice it was kind of mean to tease us like that. It was luxurious to have my own comfy bed, lots of space, a balcony, air conditioning, closet room/the ability to unpack, a bathtub and plenty of hot water and water pressure. I know it’s only been two weeks but still, those things are all very sorely missed in my life already. So after we had just enough time to shower and wash away the immense amount of dirt a day of sightseeing seems to acquire, we all met in the lobby to get back on the bus to go to dinner. We even got to kind of dress nicely. The place we went to was very delicious—and we got to order a few bottles of wine which seemed to be very much in order—and it was totally made for tourists to get to experience a home style Ramadan dinner. There was also an entire show put on a lots of different acts hahaha. There was a band, a belly dancer, a magician and even a fire eater! We finally drew the line when they took people from the audience and dressed them up like “Moroccan princesses” and carried them on their shoulders in a metal sitting casket—while we all clapped and laughed along no less. We had officially become too much a tourist and wanted our reality back. We were also just so exhausted from the day, we didn’t leave dinner until after 11 and easily just passed out when we got back.
So Saturday was an all day Fez excursion and I loooved that city. For one, although we did have a tour guide and did the classic tourist route through the incredibly confusing maze like medina of Fez, we still got to see so much more than we even would have survived through had we just wondered on our own. The median of Fez, like that of Rabat, Meknes, and I assume all big cities in Morocco, are almost totally surrounded by tall walls that separate it from the rest of the city. But Fez is bigger than Rabat, especially the medina. It was genuinely a maze with no rhyme or reason and defiantly no street names—not to mention incredibly narrow streets at times (yet no matter how narrow, still the same amount of people but more donkeys/mules carrying loads as well). Even locals who have lived there their entire lives don’t all know how to get everywhere in that place. There were something like 9000 streets within just a few square miles. We made a few stops throughout the medina, but I was mostly amazed at the people-watching and culture-sighting as we walked through the streets. I wish I could really do an accurate job describing it through words, but I think the pictures do better it justice. My personal favorite part of the day was stopping at the tanneries where all the leather is made, soaked, dyed and constructed into bags/wallets/shoes/belts etc. The building was FULL of merchandise. Every inch of space on every wall and ceiling was covered! We were given mint leaves to smell as we went in because the smell can be kind of overwhelming and disgusting, but we were there on a good day so it wasn’t too bad. On one of the balconies you could look over and see all the big vats of dye or water or whatever it was and lots of men working to dye the hides. It was reeeaally cool. It was also very colorful—they use all natural color to stain the leather, poppies for red, henna for orange, saffron for yellow, mint for green etc. It was incredibly cool. I bought a medium sized bag for too much, but I got him down from 400 to 350… (I’m still not sued to this bartering process yet) I mean I KNOW I paid way too much for it but the fact that I could see the entire process before my eyes, It not only made me feel less guilty for buying a purse made out of goat hide that I would usually not do, but I really felt obligated to myself to purchase something there because it was such a cool cool cool thing to see. Besides, I really do like the bag too! There were lots of cool things I would have happily purchased but I knew we were being ripped off (again our tour guide was getting commission so even he was pushing us to buy—but I’m not resentful, in the end it was only like 40-50 dollars for a medium sized genuine leather bag).
We also went into a cloth making factory where they were selling scarves and tapestry-type things. Again, very touristy and over priced but it I gave in again. We saw the big machines they make the fabric on and men were hard at work. The workers all wrapped our heads in a tradition hijab fashion and we took a group pic. So culturally sensitive! But I mean it was kiiiind of of fun I admit haha. Then I bought two scarves for 100 durhams/20 bucks-ish. And again I sooo could have bought scarves for way cheaper but when in Rome… I liked them and saw them being made… I’ll get over it. Plus Ill make all that money back when I buy my bootleg DVDs for less than 1 dollar each (kidding…kind of).
By the time we got back I had time for a quick nap and a shower before dinner and drinks at the hotel bar all night. Ramadan is kiiiind of cramping out western style with this whole no alcohol anywhere thing. At least we did have this bar at the hotel, although it wasn’t fun or interesting because we were just with each other… either way we had a good time!
One more funny story… my roommate went running yesterday and she decided to be bold and wear running shorts. I know she’s such a rebel. She had regular running shorts that were not at all risqué to my standards, and a long sleeve t shirt on and she said she got sooo much attention. One man even jumped out into the middle of the road and took a picture of her with his cell phone—she had to run around him. Just because they could see her legs… LEGS! It’s just one more thing men and women in our country just take for granted I guess!

(pictures on a seperate post soon!)

9.11

9.10/9.11
My teachers keep telling me I look Moroccan which I think is great except I apparently still shed an American vibe because I nonetheless get spoken too in catcalled English… only a good sign of looking Western. But if I can maybe one day trick someone I’d feel pretty happy… good thing I accidently got so tan this summer.
We started really getting into the school part of this study abroad thing this week. Besides the 90 hours of Arabic, the Culture and Society aspect is really split into 3 categories. One being lectures and presentations (speakers and performances from people from all over the country from all aspects of cultural life—i.e. music, dance, politics, development, woman’s rights etc.) The other third is the field studies seminar where, in groups, we take a topic and spend a few weeks at a time researching it and gathering information. Each week we present for 15 minutes on where we are on our research and at the end of each month-ish we give the final big thing apparently. The first presentation has to revolve around Ramadan and we can choose where we go from there. My group decided to do the economic implications of cafes and restaurants during Ramadan considering no one eats during the day and when they do eat, it almost always tends to be at home because the holiday so centers around coming together to break the fast each evening. It seems like cafes would lose a lot of business—night clubs, for example, are totally closed because “no one drinks during Ramadan.” Who knows where it will take us but I’m sure we will uncover some very interesting stuff… the third part of the program is the ISP which is the individual study program. The hope being we take our practice with the group research and independently do our own big project. This part of the program is the last 4 weeks—kind of like the “final.” We met individually today with our professors to talk about our idea for our ISP—because we pretty much have a broad range to choose whatever topic we’d like—and I’m still flirting with a few ideas. They are very supportive and will probably be able to give me lots of good references and connections once research really begins in a few weeks. Ugh.. I guess I really am in school huh…
I’m leaving tomorrow morning for our weekend excursion to the 4 dynasites of Morocco… hope to bring back fun stories and lots of pictures!!
Also, I forgot to mention a fun story from before. Last week, during out bus tour, we saw the king.. yes the KING of Morocco… and when I say we was him, I mean he drove past our bus in his convertible and lots of “secret service” vehicles, but still! I was like 20 yards away from one of the last powerful monarchs in the entire world… woah

more more more

the best food of my life...

9.9
My host sister likes high school musical!!!!!!! AND because of pirating, almost all the movie theaters in the entire country are closed because you can buy pirated movies on the street right when they come out for less than 1dollar. SO in reality, I’ll get to own HSM3 and Twilight before you can in the states! Hahaha hurray hahaha
Also, my family has gotten a little bit better/more comfortable. My sister and I went to a cousins house where another student form the states in staying. That family speaks Spanish so I got to use that (I wish I had been placed in that house instead!!! Everyone was so nice, and the mother was hilarious helping us with the alphabet which is soo hard by the way. Such unnatural sounds from the back of your throat.. they sound kind of gross and make me laugh a lot, but its also very hard to figure out the perfect tones and pitches… whew) But it was nice talking with my sister she is very very nice! My mom also talked to me (through translating with my sister) and told me about their first student they ever had and how GREAT she was and how she came back and they love her so muuuuch hahaha (but she spoke French which is unfair because if this family spoke Spanish, I’m sure I’d be the new “best student they ever had”J )
We leave on our first excursion on Friday… we are visiting the 4 dynasties which includes Fez and 3 other cities I don’t quite remember the names of. But it should be very fun and exciting to see some other cities and how they compare to Rabat! I hope to have pictures soon!
Also, considering the only internet connection is oh so slow I feel so out of touch with what’s going on at home! How’s Sarah Paulin’s grandbaby doing these days?

also i believe the address to send me things (haha) is:

CCCL

attn: Jacey Totta
PO box 6291 Rabat institutes
Rabat, 10101

9.8
I moved in with my host family yesterday evening. Only my oldest sister, Fatimazhara speaks English, but the 14 year old, Zainab likes to try with me, too. Other than that, no one really talks to me hahaha. Like I said, I’m the 20th student living with them in 4 years so my appearance in their home isn’t off-putting or surprising I guess. I’m nothing new to their household which at first kind of freaked me out because I was in a sense ignored. But from what I heard from everyone else, that’s just kind of how it is for everyone. We ate the break the fast meal all together and it was much more casual than I thought considering the seriousness of the holiday. (Everyone eats with fingers and shares the same water glass…not totally used to that although eating with my fingers—only first three and never with your left hand—has been fun!) Then I went out with my sister and some of her friends who are also hosting students so at least I knew and could talk to someone too. We went out and sat at a café—a very trendy thing to do apparently during Ramadan. Then we walked around a bit. My friend Andrew’s host brother, Saad was there and he was the only one to talk to us English-speaking folk. He studied at a small college in the US last year so knows English and the American culture really well. He was so nice and teaching us words to use. Other than him though, the other 3 local “young Moroccans”—including my sister—who we were with were totally unaware we were there the entire time. Hahaha it really just ended up being a laughable situation although I still don’t quite understand why she invited me if she didn’t want to talk ONE word to me the entire time hahahaha. She’s very very nice but I think that going out to a café at night for young woman is a very new thing to do, and I believe it only happens this often during Ramadan so I think she was mostly excited to get to hang out with her boyfriend and friends… can’t blame her if it was a special occasion I suppose.
My mother hasn’t really tried to communicate with me other than feeding me nonstop. Coolie Coolie! That means eat eat! Never stop eating when you’re sitting at the table because they never believe you if you say you’re full. Pace yourself and tell them you’re done before you actually are so you can continue to eat when they force food in front of you hahahaha. I also wanted to try fasting but my mother just said oh no oh no you don’t need to do that. So I didn’t get woken up for the 3-4 am meal, and she made me breakfast this morning. We have an entire month of the holiday so I’ll try to fast a few days just so see what it’s like… except I do have a slight tendency to faint. And fainting in the middle of the medina would not only be disgusting and embaaaaarassing, I just don’t know what would happen to my limp body laying there in all that foot traffic… hahahahaha I’m going to try my hardest to avoiding a fainting spell this study abroad trip…
Arabic is the hardest language in the world. Although 3 hours of class went by in flash, I’m still too scarred from my first day to even begin to describe the trauma… awful. Also, why did I never take French? Spanish is sooo useless right now… so much for communication!! Who needs that anyway?

also... the internet is awful awful.. ive tried many many times to upload more pictures but its crazily slow so ill do my best!!!!

the first few picture of Rabat

We're of course right by the ocean which is sooo beautiful

yay me being a tourist (mom SUCH a good call of packing that skirt by the way)

We all like to hang out on the terrace of course hahha

The city was originally built facing away from the ocean, so along a lot of the coast line are where the cemetaries are built. The "ocean front property" is also part of the lowest income of housing

I don't know how to rotate! haha but this is the main frloor or "lobby" of the CCCL. The building is 4 stories and all open in the middle where you can look up through the ceiling to see outside.

oreintation week

9/3
AHHH… so I have officially arrived and begun the “orientation week.” I’m so overwhelmed yet excited! The program I’m in is called Morocco: Culture and Society, and there are about 25 of us from all over the US. There is also another group called Morocco: Migration Studies which I think I would have preferred if I had known it existed… but between the two groups there 38 of us (5 of which are male… apparently that’s very common in the study abroad world. I hear 75% of all study abroad participants are female… obviously because we are the more adventurous, open-minded gender. As I thought of this though, I realized that probably 90% of the people who will be reading my blog are female, too). So far I’m not quite sure how to really describe what I’m seeing. Rabat is huge and veryyyy busy. During the day there is so much hustle and bustle I can’t believe I haven’t been run over by an impatient driver, bicyclist or by someone pushing a trailer of goodies in the medina. We are staying in a hotel this week and we meet our host families on Sunday. So every day we walk the ½ mile trail inside the busy medina to get to the CCCL (center of cross cultural learning) where all of our classes and programs will take place. Everyone I’ve met is just so nice and everyone’s very similar to me and anxious to be on this adventure. I’m not nearly as far behind everyone as I thought, although I definitely am behind a few of those Middle Eastern culture majors. We start real classes on Monday, and I’m actually really ready to have a steady routine and begin to study Arabic.
It’s also Ramadan this month—it started on Monday the 2nd I believe—which also adds to the craziness in the street because everyone fasts from sun rise to sunset. This being very hungry, thirsty and sexually restricted apparently aggravates everyone, understandably. But it’s also a really cool thing that the first part of our experience here is an incredibly important religious celebration/holiday.
The food is obviously amazing… and GOOD FOR YOU! It’s all fresh and full of flavor after a few meals I finally noticed the best thing: no cheese! I thought cheese was the only thing that made food taste good, but apparently that’s a western thing. Hahaha ok ok I know what Sarah and Lauren are thinking about my “grudge” against cheese, but honestly, it makes me feel better J
9/4
Sooo I officially DO NOT speak Arabic… duh. We had our first taste of learning Arabic today in a “survival” seminar where we just began learning the basics so when we meet our host families on Sunday, so we can at least say something to them. Oh myyyyy is all I have to say about that! I was in a group where everyone was pretty much starting at scratch so that was nice. The teachers are also just sooo adorable and nice. It was a man and a woman who didn’t speak much English but that wasn’t necessary, they did such a good job anyway! When you have a good teacher teaching a language, it doesn’t take much explanation to get the point across. I’m just excited to keep going and learn more! It’s going to be A LOT of cramming considering starting Monday we have Arabic class for 3 hours every morning. But hopefully those intense hours added to living with a family will really make the difference and maybe teach me this language!
We started the day by getting on a bus and being dropped off one by one in random parts of the city and the challenge simply was to make it back to the Center. I was terrrrified at first but it ended up being such a great idea and experience for everyone. I am most definitely not the most adventurous person totally willing to try and bargain prices with these street vendors and ask for directions with absolutely NO communication skills up my sleeve, and I know I will probably never be that person. I accepted that long ago, bit it still amazed me that some of these people were just so willing to do that!!! I guess I wish I could say I tried to be adventurous, but in my book I still was! haha I was in a group with two other girls (we were supposed to split up but yeah right.. shh) and we knew we needed to go towards the water and ended up not having a problem at all getting back (that’s right my school is literally two blocks of the coast line). We even purposefully got more lost just to see more of the medina. Just walking through the medina (which I believe means “city” in Arabic but in Rabat simply describes the section of the city we were in) was unbelievable and amazing. The entire layout of the medina makes no grid-like sense and is simply filled with tall vertical buildings that all seem to be connected—literally like a maze—and narrow walkways between them. The walkways are filled with street vendors, beggars and just people. There were so much lush, beautiful fabrics and lots of fresh produce. The smells of mint and cilantro were so potent it was lovely! In the end we most definitely found out way back and I learned a lot about the city from this little trip!
Later, after Arabic lesson number 1, we took a bus tour of the entire city of Rabat. We had seen so little of the entire city even though I felt like I had seen so much! There’s an incredible dichotomy between the rich and poor—and I realllly love seeing that! Its sociology 101 right in your face. I can’t wait to see more of the city in more details up close.
9/5
I don’t speak Arabic… and I simply never will BUT I did have (seriously) the.best.meal.of.my.life. Ohhhh my god I couldn’t believe it. I’ve never ever experienced that kind of LOVE and OBSESSION for something I was eating. It was the traditional “breaking the fast” meal everyone eats during the month of Ramadan. It includes dates, soup and all other things I’d obviously never seen, aka they don’t even have names in English besides delicioussss. And I sooo don’t remember the names in Arabic. Nonetheless, I was in absolute heaven. Indescribably amazing.
All of our days have been pretty jam-packed this week for orientation. We’ve had sessions on street harassment, Islam, basic politics, the home-stay experience etc. (speaking of street harassment, most of which is harmless cat calling, and begging. I got barked at by a little boy on the busy street last night. He literally jumped up in my face and barked/growled in my face. It obviously scared me a lot and I jumped and gasped. Hahahah it was so funny and this of course entertained the entire street of several people... dumb tourists hahahaha) But even after long days in the classroom getting ready to really start the semester on Monday, we ended up finding the one bar for foreigners that sold alcohol (b/c its Ramadan, it’s hard to find liquor anywhere) and got to sit around a table and have a glass of wine which was incredibly necessary. It’s been so nice to meet all the other students—instant friends which I love haha.
9/6
I met my host family today. They’re coming to pick us up for real tomorrow when we get to move out of the hotel but we got to say a quick hello for a few minutes which was just nice preparation for move in day tomorrow. I think my family is going to be soooo great. Just my oldest sister came to meet me today. She’s 22, speaks English and just graduated from the university in Rabat. I also have a 19 year old brother, a 14 year old sister and parents who speak French and Arabic. So having an English connection will be really nice, but at the same time I’m going to be SURE to speak Arabic at home because that will be so so so so helpful. My parents are also Arabic teachers so that will be extra nice! I’m also their 20th student so they are professionals at this! Hahaha I couldn’t believe that! So I may not be any type of extra special to them since they’ve had so many students over the years, but in the end that will probably be what makes them very special to me. I really can’t wait to get settled in…