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…