“Well this is frustrating” –Most commonly used phrase in my life these days:)

Monday
So as the plan is now, I’m staying in Rabat for the rest of ISP. I’m in a hotel in the medina with my friend Sarah for 60 dirhams a night/ 7 more for a hot shower. About $8.50 a day if that can even be possible!! So cheap! We are still planning on going to Chefchouen this weekend for a last trip, but at least now I’ll be here for Thanksgiving and I think we’re going to have a really fun, pot-luck, Morocco-style party on Thursday—I think the goal is rotisserie chicken instead of baking an entire turkey, but I think that’s our smartest, safest bet. Between all the houses, we only have one working oven, but it just has an on and off switch—no temp gauge. So that should all be very interesting!
Like I mentioned before, most people stayed in Rabat for ISP in the first place so many of them rented houses for super cheap—something I really wish I had went in on had I known I was going to be here anyway! But, last night we went to one of the houses and it’s so cute. I’m so jealous they have a kitchen and bedrooms! That sounds like a dream to me! But I’m sure I’ll be spending plenty of time there to get my fix.
I also leave Morocco exactly three weeks from today. That’s sooo soon! It’s like I can finally see the finish line! Woo-hoo. I guess now I just need to write this huge paper…?
Also, I must note that for some strange reason, the Moroccan food that I’ve complained about oh so much has been absolutely LOVELY since ISP started and it’s not even because I’ve gotten to make my own!! We have just had good luck I guess! Or maybe my host family just sucked—actually that is probably what it is. I’ve eaten so much CHEAP authentic Moroccan street food and it has been soo sooo good!! Today Sarah Elliot and I had a FULL meal and it ended up costing us less than 8 dollars total hahaha. Unveliavable… and sooo yummy.
I also signed up for stuffing on the Thanksgiving pot luck… I’m in charge of one of the most important additions to a thanksgiving feast? This will probably not go well…

Tuesday
At this point I have a total of two whole interviews under my researching belt. I know that doesn’t sound like a lot—and it’s not, but I feel good about it. I’ve honestly gathered so much more information out of those 2 interviews than I thought I would get even after 20. So writing this paper is going to be a lot easier than I initially thought! Of course, if I expect to call this paper even a little bit legitimate, I will have to conduct more than 2; but what I mean to say is that even if I don’t get to 20 interviews, my life will not be over and I’ll still have plenty to write about.

Wednesday
This morning I woke up and went to Rabat’s neighboring city, Sale with my friend Trena. Trena is volunteering at an association there that works with homeless children and other children in need. It’s technically a school but to put the laxness into perceptive, they gave Trena her own class time (2 hour classes twice a day) where she was to teach math and English within the first few days of her being there. So I went with her this morning to check things out and see if I could talk to anyone for my own project—and to help her out, etc.
I thought we might get to teach a “class” but we didn’t and I was a bit disappointed because I was looking forward to it, but we did wonder around the city with one of the activists that works there. First we walked to one of the public schools to get a kid’s “papers” because he was transferring schools. The story was not completely clear, but I think he and his bothers run away with his mother often trying to get away from an abusive father. They are kind of always on the run—the poor kid. Then we went to another home for a “follow up.” This woman had 5 children, the oldest is probably around 10 and her husband abandoned them all. Her oldest children have worked with this association for schooling and the man we were with was checking up on her and her family—mostly just to say hello, we’re still thinking of you and want to make sure everything is running as smoothly as possible in your home. She was so lovely. Her youngest child doesn’t have a birth certificate or any nationality card because so much of that information lies with the father and is under his responsibility or his name—and since the father is completely gone, it is very difficult for this mother to register her youngest son as even a HUMAN BEING in Morocco. (Trena said the day before she helped take a little girl to the doctor so he could tell her how old she was because she had no idea…)This country is so backwards in so many ways… But even though this woman is in a very very awful, sad situation, she still loves her kids so much. She told us that when she was growing up, it was just her father and she never got to “play” because he was very strict. They way she described it was that when she was young she had money but no liberty, but now her kids have no money, but at least they have liberty. It was very moving and while it was tremendously sad, it was also nice to see someone so optimistic when she could be giving up. “We don’t abandon our children until death,” she said.

Thursday
Thanksgiving was such a success!!!! First of all I made amazingggg stuffing. I don’t even know how it turned out so good. I was cooking it with Sarah and we were one moment questioning whether or not it would even turn out, then all of a sudden it was done and perfect! The bread wasn’t quite stale and we had to cook it on the stove top b/c getting to an oven wasn’t going to happen—nor was finding a pot that was oven safe. So my stove top stuffing worked out and everyone loved it. By the end of the night I was even considered a culinary expert which just couldn’t be farther from true—but I admit I happily took the complimentsJ .
Someone made lots of mashed potatoes, salads, green beans, fresh bread, apple pies… it was so successful and totally satisfying. There were about 30 of us there and we went to one of the small houses a group of girls are renting and it was just the right size, and there was plenty of wine not to worry.
Everyone was so upset—obviously—for missing Thanksgiving at home. Especially at this point in the program when we only have a few weeks/a few DAYS left and we’re really getting anxious to get home and see our families—a holiday like Thanksgiving could have easily just been a depressing day but instead it really worked out and I had a really fun time with everyone, AND I had incredibly satisfying, homestyle food! It was great!!!
(On a side note: I also got offered the RA job I applied for in the spring! Hurray!!! I also did NOT get into the Turkey program which was heartbreakingL. But at least I didn’t get doubly rejected in one week haha.)

ISP begins...

ISP blog:
Wed Nov 19.
Yesterday Was day 1 of ISP—independent study project—where I’ve moved out of my home stay and get to travel around the country as I wish to do research on a particular topic. Saying goodbye to my family was…bittersweet? But more on the sweet side most definitely. They had been EXTRA nice and attentive the last week or two and at first I thought, well that’s ironic, why are they being nice now? Why couldn’t they have wanted to talk to me 3 months ago? But then my more cynical side told me they probably wanted me to leave on an extra good note considering I was going to be filling out an evaluation for them in the near future. Oh well, they did invite me back for the Aide holiday (pronounced Eede) on Dec 8th or 9th and my mom told me that she would do my laundry for me. It’s a big holiday in Morocco where traditionally they slaughter a goat for some religious reason. So I do think I’m going to go for the culture aspect and for the free laundry serviceJ
So I left Rabat for the city of Fes on Tuesday morning. I’m traveling with my friends Camille, Elliot and Sarah. We made it to our hotel after a little hassle and then we wondered around had awesome lunch and dinner (god I’m so appreciative of yummy food!!) and then we came back to watch some movies and go to bed… it was really nice, I just don’t want to actually start working now!
Camille is working with an animal shelter in Fez for her ISP and she got up early this morning to go to her “internship.” She’s actually got it made for the next three weeks. She’s interning with this shelter—it’s run by Canadians so everything will be in English—then her family is visiting for a week over Thanksgiving then she has one week left and she’s just going to come back to Rabat and write her paper. I’m so jealous because life is not so sweet for me. I’m not a proactive person at allll and I’m being forced to be incredibly proactive for my project. Ugh… it will be really emotionally strenuous but in the end I’ll hopefully be very proud of myself.
In the afternoon, Elliot, Sarah and I took a cab to the medina and wondered around. (The Fez medina by the way is one of the most stressful places with its windy roads and insistent salesmen yet it’s a pretty touristy-friendly as well and as long as you don’t take any turns off the main path, it’s actually really great and cheap!!) Elliot’s doing his project about art and artists in Morocco so he chatted it up with some artists while Sarah and I shopped a bit. Then we had lunch—which again was delicioussss (I am so surprised at the food thus far!)
Camille also found out today that the veterinarian clinic she is volunteering at is willing to house her and if she were there 24 hours a day it would be really great—so this is where things start to trip me up because now that Camille is moving in with her job, I am roommate-less. …we’ll see I suppose!

Thursday:
Ok today totally sucks. I hardly got any sleep last night because I’m starting to get very stressed out. Everyone is leaving Fes today or tomorrow and I don’t know what to do. First of all, I can’t afford (with the stipend they gave us to live off of) to have a hotel room by myself and I don’t want to check into a youth hostel b/c I won’t be able to lock all of my stuff anywhere and I’m not willing to risk that. Second of all, I’m not sure I can just live in a city in Morocco for even a few days all alone!
This morning I thought maybe I would just go to Tangier a few days early. I had originally planned on meeting a few other people there next Monday or Tuesday, and Val switched her plans so she will be there this weekend, although how I would find her I have no idea. BUT I called Trena—the person I was supposed to meet in Tangier—and she ended up having a change of plans as well and is planning on staying in Rabat. SOOOO I surely don’t want to be in Tangier by myself for an entire week. You’re probably thinking why not just go to Tangier and visit Val for the weekend, and then make it back down to Rabat. But here comes problem number 4 (or is it 5…can’t keep count at this point), a group of us were planning on going to Chefchouen next weekend and it’s a city very close to Tangier so it was going to be a perfect route instead of taking the more expensive 6-hour train ride to and from Tangier/Chefchouen to Rabat twice. Chefchouen is supposedly one of the nicest, most beautiful cities in the country and I’m yet to see it so this plan had been in my book for a very long time and it’s really important that I go. SOOOOO ugh longgg story, that probably doesn’t make very much since to any of you is that I’m planning on going back to Rabat tomorrow after all. I really really REALLY did not want to spend my ISP time in Rabat… I’m so over Rabat!!! But it might actually make the most sense. At least then I know people, have contacts and will hopefully be able to really conduct come interviews..??? At this point, I really hate all of this right now.
Ok ok… it is now a few hours after the last time I wrote and I’m now much calmer haha. I decided that I AM going to go to Tangier and meet Val because to be quite honest, going back to Rabat held no interest AND no definite answers to my current dilemmas. But I DO know that going and seeing Val (even if that does mean I waste another 3 days not doing “research”) will make me so so happy and I’ll have a good time. And at this point, maybe I’ll stay in Tangier for a few days and carry out the plan I originally had with Trena. OR if I want, I will just take a train back to Rabat for Thanksgiving and then go to Chefchouen. It’s just money right? (Not like the 130 dirham/16 dollar train ticket is really going to make or break me anyway.)
I also am spending this last night in Fes with just Elliot b/c Camille is at her job now and Sarah had to go back to Rabat tonight. And he and I have had such a good time! I haven’t really had the chance to get to know him yet and I’m so glad I’ve had this opportunity because I wouldn’t have otherwise. Granted, he is also in the same very frustrated boat as I am about this whole ISP business so we are getting really good at venting togetherJ
So at this point in the night, I AM going to Tangier tomorrow and I’ll play it by ear….hmmmm

Friday:
So again I had trouble sleeping because I am apparently Miss stress-o-matic these days. BUT I told myself to suck it up, be brave and go to Tangier. Now I know it’s really not THAT big of a deal to go to Tangier like I had originally planned anyway but it was just overwhelming doing it alone. I surely couldn’t have done it alone a few months/weeks ago. But I have been to the city before and I’m comfortable with the train system. So Elliot and I woke up, we each showered and headed to the train station as early as possible. We got there at like 8:45 and of course his train to Rabat left 10 minutes later and mine to Tangier didn’t leave until 10:50. But I sat at a café, ordered coffee and read and I was of course fine. Sparring you the boring details, I made it on my train unharmed and even made the correct switch when I was supposed to! Moroccans really are very very nice. Anytime I had a question or wanted to double check I was in the right place at the right time, everyone was so willing to answer and they were very friendly—yet not TOO over friendly as Moroccans can also sometimes be. I even conducted my first interviews on the train! I was so proud of myself!!! There was a group of young men, about 25 years old and they sat in my train car at first I’m sure to chat me up, but we ended up having a great conversation and one of them was even a teacher so they had lots of interesting things to say about youth, etc. They were also quite smart and their English was great… To top it off, they had to get off at a stop about 10 minutes after I was done asking them questions so we didn’t have to endure 3 more hours of awkward conversation—something Moroccans tend to be very good at!
I made it to Tangier, got to the hotel Val was supposed to be staying at and they weren’t quite there yet so I sat in the lobby (this hotel was SOOO nice… definitely upper UPPER class for Morocco haha) And YAYAYAYAYAYAYAY oh my goodness I was sooo sooo happy to see herJ!!! I needed that so so so bad! What good timing! Plus she is so brave and such a great person to travel with! Most of the people in her group were pretty terrified of Morocco but she and two of her friends “braved” the night streets with me and we got dinner and tea. I just think it’s hilarious that they were so scared of Tangier! Tangier of all places, too! It’s one of the biggest, most touristy-friendly cities in the country. But I also understand. I was intimidated by the entire country at first too. Actually, it took me a very long time to get as comfortable as I am now. And I was very happy to be able to show them the Morocco I know! They surely wouldn’t have been able to enjoy it the way thee did without me and they were so nice and grateful and curious—perfect characteristics for travel buddies I say. Tomorrow I’m taking them into the oh-so-cultural medina—which it is!—and we’re going to shop all dayJ
I also decided to check myself into a MUCH cheaper hotel so I could at least try to stay within the limits of the stipend I’ve been given. And I really like having a room to myself! I thought it would be awful and scary. But I think I got a pretty big confidence boost being around Val’s terrified friends—as silly as that is haha. I also felt good about that first interview earlier today and am feeling much more inspired and confident in trying to meet more people. I can think I might be able to survive this?!
–Drama Queen Totta 11/21/08

Saturday:
Ok so I woke up and met Val and all of her friends at their hotel and I gave them the best tour of Tangier that I could considering I don’t really know that city very well either. But we had a really good time wondering through the medina, shopping and bargaining. They were all so fun to hang out with! Not to mention that seeing Val just MADE my life so much better.
It was kind of funny to me that most of them were pretty nervous about being in “Morocco.” I mean, obviously it’s a different way of life and things are not the same as the western world, but it’s not THAT scary! I was so surprised they had hyped it up to being a scary, unsafe place! I mean I’ve survived somehow hahaha. But I did a very good job showing them around and they were very nice and grateful for me being thereJ I had a really good time, too!
Tomorrow morning I’m taking an early train back to Rabat and am just going to spend the rest of me time in Rabat… Mostly, I just really don’t want to travel alone for 2 weeks ESPECIALLY over Thanksgiving!!! But if what I wrote before makes me sound on the verge of craziness, no need to worry, I have backed away from that ledge and am doing fine now hahaha (That is especially to my mother who I’m sure I freaked out with a depressed sad email I sent in the midst of all my worry hahaha… sorry Momma)

True Life: I live in Rabat, Morocco

We love going to dinner in huge groups and then trying to figure out the bill... haha

the bathroom: toilet/shower

the kitchen that I'm never invited into (I've opened the refridgerator once)

The hallway. The doorway on the right goes into the kitchen. On the left is green room then blue room (my room) then my parents bedroom. At the very end is the bathroom! thattttts it!

Zineb... she was being difficult and wouldn't take a nice picture haha. She and I are actually kind of friends. Her English is really pretty good and she always understands me when I ask for things:) But that's really the extent of our realtionship besides the occasioanl touge stuck out at me haha

the tea pot full of mint leave and green tea leaves and of course the sugar you can't see (That's how it tricks you!!)

ymmmmm Moroccan mint green tea

My average breakfast. Reif is what that tortilla thing is called. It's just fried bread and it's delicious. Then we have the cup of tea, a few options of cheese and honey. Don't forget the packet of cookeies hidden behind the tea... it's always offered even though I never take them (someone will grab them no worries)

My room at bedtime. We throw the pillows in the back of the room and spread out our blankets:) And then apprently jump around?

This is where ALL of my things have been for 3 months. not.com.plain.ing.

Mine and my sister's room. This is one of the two "salons," as they're called, in my house. This is the blue salon, the other one is green and that's where my brother sleeps. They are exactly alike except the other one has the TV.

My host mother. She was all dressed up because she was going to a party:)

orange groves at the ruins... We were actually encouraged to climb, pick and eat them. They were absolutely delicious as well.

Hey Stork! thanks for posing!

Old mosque in the ruines... notice the large stork nest on top... they are all over!

An old Roman/Berber ruins... This when we were doing our touristy sight-seeing of Rabat last weekend

Rabat is on the left and Sale (the sister city) is on the left and is seperated by a river that comes off the ocean.

King Hassan II himself! In the flesh! (kind of...) I do actually think his body is inside becasue this place is full of security guards (security gaurds who hate thier lives b/c of how bored they are gaurding a dead body... I saw one texting on his cellphone behind his huge rifle)

The Hassan II mosque... his dead body is inside

This is the old ruins of an old mosque that was destroied in an earthquake a few hundered years a go. And Rabat and the ocean in the background.

last week in Rabat!

Thursday:
I had my FINAL Arabic test today and actually… it went really well and I’m feeling very positive about the class overall. As slow as it began, now that it’s over I do feel like I learned a lot. I hope I’ll be able to keep it in my life somehow because it would be a shame to forget everything instantly… BUT either way it’s reason for celebration!
I also only have 5 more nights living at my homestay. Lately though—ironic as it is—everyone has seemed so much more friendly and I’ve almosssst enjoyed being there. My mother and I had our FIRST effort at a conversation over tea yesterday. And although that’s nice, it’s still bullshit that it’s been 3 months before she’s even tried. She’s just assumed I don’t speak Arabic or French so she therefore cannot talk to me. Thinking that maybe I’m here to LEARN Arabic obviously never entered her mind…. We also had our first classroom talk about our homestay with our professors today and it was actually really nice. I mean I’ve known all along that I’ve not been put in the WORST situation (one girl’s family actually lives in another house while she’s alone all the time, one girl has been served bread with cat pee on it, and one girl is totally ignored and sometimes not fed at all—the poor thing also just found out that the very itchy rash that hasn’t gone away in a few weeks is not a virus but SCABIES… If that’s not the worst thing to happen to you I don’t know what is.) Anyway, it’s definitely true that my situation could be a lot worse.
Anyway, during our chat today it was nice to hear about everyone else’s experiences and although I’ve talked to almost everyone about it already, I still learned lots of new things today that I wish I had learned weeks or even months ago. It may have made me appreciate my family for what they are sooner. I also realized that the biggest problem with my family is that while I’m getting so much out of living in in their home, they aren’t getting anything from me in return—and in theory this is a cultural exchange program. I know for a fact that our program wants the families to be equally as treated to our company as we are to theirs and I think after having SO many students over the past few years, my family has lost the enthusiasm to be an equal partner with me in this exchange. Jaded if you will. Buuuut no more complaining about that because it’s over and in the end was a great learning experience in so many ways. Hurray. J
I have also recently booked 2/3 of the tickets that I need for the 10 days I’ll be in Europe post-Morocco pre-coming home. Buying those tickets took the BIGGEST load off my shoulders it was so nice! And although those hidden taxes and fees that sprang up on me kind of added up, it still wasn’t THAT expensive and it’s definitely worth it to see Hanne and Irina especially!
I really wish I had more to say about this week but it’s been kind of eventless! The next three weeks will be really busy and I hope to have internet enough to update as often as possible….
For those of you who don’t know, I’m applying to another mini-study abroad program for next semester to Turkey. It’s a 2 hour a week class during the semester and then in June we are going to Turkey for 16 days. I had a phone interview with the professor in charge of the whole program last night and it went really well. Over 40 people applied and there’s only room for about 12-15 people so I’m still keeping my fingers crossed.
And while I’m here, I guess I’ve never really explained the phenomenon of the Moroccan mint tea, and considering it’s such an avid part of my daily life, it would be wrong not to give you all an explanation.
Well, first of all, tea is made in the pot itself and when poured there’s a little mini strainer inside the spout to strain the tea leaves and mint leaves that are inside the pot. Of course there are always little pieces in the bottom of your glass but you get over it. So inside the tea pot you measure out the proper amount of green tea leaves, mint leaves and of course SUGAR. Then you add the water and put it on the stove and wait until it boils. THEN of course you pour a few glasses that you directly pour back into the pot as to “stir” it up a bit. And when you pour, you have to raise the pot as the tea comes out to make sure the tea bubbles. “If it doesn’t bubble, it’s not good.”
And as for the sugar, they add BLOCKS of sugar to every pot of tea. For a tea pot that will pour about 5 small glasses, they probably use a full cup of sugar… I.am.not.exaggerating!! In the village they added even more. And at first it was nice because it was always sweet, but that was before I saw with my eyes how much sugar was actually in it. Tea is made in the average household 3-5 times a day and I order it often at the internet café because it’s also delicious along with being diabeticlly provoking. And to top it off, I think I’ve built up a tolerance to the immense amount of sugar because it doesn’t taste nearly as sweet anymore… that’s bad. I’ll never be able to drink sugar free tea againnnn Ahhhh. (I’ll add a photo “tour de Rabat” before I leave on ISP hopefully)
Speaking of sugar (and lots of BREAD at that…) if I was still questioning whether or not I’ve really gained weight while I’ve been here, it was answered this afternoon when I had to go get passport pictures taken to extend our visas for the rest of the semester. Technically, I still fit into all of my clothes but all I have are t-shirts and jeans that haven’t been put into a dryer after about 100 wears—so maybe that’s not so telling. I also never look in a full length mirror, or really any mirror at that. Only in the bathroom. But I absolutely have gained a few pounds and apparently they are all sitting on my face. Greatttt. Cannot wait to stop eating meat again—that did wonders the first time! And at this point I’m even very motivated to begin training for a marathon when I get home..? Paul you may get that wish after all… (but don’t hold me to it hahaha)

Saturday:
Yesterday (Friday) was the OFFICIAL last day of class and it could not have come at a better time. I’m really starting to appreciate the way our schedule is set up because even though I have an entire full month left, it doesn’t feel that way and it’s going to be spent being happy instead of homesick!
For our research project over the next 3 weeks we have to have an advisor—someone from Morocco, who speaks English, who is somewhat of an expert regarding our topic. My advisor, Mokhtar, is a professor of sociology at the university in Rabat and does his research surrounding youth in general. There are four of us who have him as an advisor and all four of us have pretty different topics although they all involve children/young people to an extent. So Mokhtar rocks!! I had such a great meeting with him yesterday, he was so so so helpful and had great insight and ideas—it was the first time I’ve felt like I’ve really talked to a professor and gotten advice and help from them this entire semester. His ideas for my project (which is hopefully defining the modern definition of “childhood” in Morocco and comparing it to past generations) was to get lots of photos of people and to write mini anecdotal narratives about different people’s childhoods. Anyway, it’s all still quite rough considering I haven’t actually started yet, but I’m excited nonetheless!
So yesterday was one of my good friend’s birthdays and we went out to eat to celebrate that and the ending of class and had a grand ole time obviously. Also, lots of people are staying in Rabat for their ISP so many of them have rented houses or apartments in the medina for really cheap so they have a place to stay (we are NOT supposed to stay with our host families and we are given a small stipend to live off of). Anyway, 5 of my friends got a little house which is awesome and they had a little party (I could only stay until 10 of course) but while I was there we had a lot of fun. ISP is going to be really great... I hope!

Sunshine: don't leave me!!

So yay.. I love Morocco again! It’s been a pretty awful, down, last few weeks. I’ve been ready to be home and I just have been OVER being in Morocco. But that’s just because lots of silly little things had kind of piled up but slowly I’ve been able to dig myself out of this pile scoop by scoop. First of all, there’s only one week left of homestay and class. Then, although I’ll be traveling nonstop for about a month, at least it will all be on my own terms and I get to choose when and what I eat, etc. Plus class for the most part will be over except for the final paper. AND I finaaaallly got all the mail I’ve been waiting for! Mom’s package that she sent over a month ago finally got to me. Well technically, the slip of paper telling me the package is here arrived—I have to wait for Monday to pick it up, but I’m assuming that all goes smoothly. I also got my new debit card THANK THE LORRRRRRD ALMIGHTY. I was so worried it wouldn’t come before I left for 3 weeks for ISP. BUT IT DID!!! Hurrraaaaay! I went today to activate it at an ATM and at first, I thought it wouldn’t give me money, but my friend Berit showed me the secret of the ATM and TADA it spewed money! Life is just so different now knowing I can actually buy the things I want to. Yay yay yay. I also got one other important item of mail, but that didn’t turn out as well L (Of course my few seconds of bliss have to be spoiled.) In short, three of my best friends from home and I decided to do a fun “Traveling bracelet” over the semester because we’d all four be all over the world and we wanted an excuse to write to each other and to have a piece of jewelry we could all share and add a charm to as it came to us. I was so excited to get it! I’ve been waiting all semester and I already bought the charm I was going to add! WELLL Lisa sent me the bracelet that she and Val had already added awesome charms to from Spain but of course, by the time it got to me, the letter had been opened, the bracelet stolen, and THEN forwarded on to me. So the package was bracelet-less and I wanted to cryyyy. It’s just sooo annoying people are that selfish and have awful morals like that! I promise that bracelet had more meaning to me than the few dollars you would make taking it to a pawn shop. UGHHHHH.
Minus that small, but nonetheless depressing crisis, life is not.to.shabby. J Today I went on a “tour de Rabat” with a few friends to see all the touristy things of Rabat that we never have actually seen. We went to the mausoleum of the last king, Hassan II, and to an old Roman/Berber ruins that was awesome and very beautiful and there were lots of orange trees and it was totally ok, and even encouraged, to climb the trees and eat the oranges. Then we walked back into town and went to a café that magically sells smoothies! I would have put money on the fact that the concept of “smoothies” had yet to make it to Morocco, but no! I had a coconut/pineapple/mango/plum concoction that was deliiiicous. And then we sat around and vented about Morocco and gossiped about SIT hahaha. I also forgot to mention that it was an absolutely beautifullll day which played such a key role in my mood. I’ve been so used to rain, rain, dreary rain for the past few weeks that sunshine and beautiful weather was exactly what I needed.
I also talked to my academic director on Friday about my ISP project and he was so helpful. After chatting with him and sorting through my brain with him, I’ve decided to concentrate my research on the sociology and social concepts of childhood in Morocco. I’ll spare writing to you all the details of that right now but I’m actually very excited and anxious to get working—that’s a big plus considering I’ll be, in theory, spending three full weeks thinking about it (and thus writing about it on here so get ready! Haha) I was really worried that the topic I chose was going to only be mediocre in entertaining me but this topic is of a lot of interest to me, especially taking into account the Moroccan perspective.
I also have been stalking up on bootleg DVDs and am about to watch one that hopefully actually plays on my computer! Wish me luck on that one…

I sure do love it when people leave me comments!

So time is really starting to count down! Today is Thursday and it’s a national holiday so we’re off school. We have one full week next week, then three weeks for our ISP—which hopefully will go by very quickly because I’ll be traveling around a lot and I get to have my own schedule—then that’s it! After that we have one week for a “de-orientation” and to present our final projects to one another. I admit I’m very very excited for December to get here! For Thanksgiving, though, my friend Val is coming down from Spain and spending the weekend with me so that’s something I’m reaalllly looking forward to, too!
So election night was amazing beyond words. The final results didn’t even get to us until Wednesday late morning our time, but Obama’s acceptance speech was at about 5:30 am. The 35 American SIT students that study at the CCCL (the center where we have classes and where our program is based) all had a sleep over/ election watching party at the center that night. It was really more like a middle school lock-in as I keep describing it, but I successfully did pull an all-nighter to watch the whole thing and it was well well worth it. I’ll spare everyone my personal rhetoric as to WHY I’m so excited because those of you who matter already know themJ. Magically though, with literally only one hour of sleep before breakfast and Arabic class, I wasn’t exhausted at all! Even the next day, I made myself take a little nap before I finished my homework because I really thought I’d be suffering. But I wasn’t! Who knew?!
This week though, overall was kind of crappy. First of all, there’s been an unprecedented amount of rain throughout all of Morocco and it sucks. I did finally buy some cheap boots thank goodness but I still need a coat that will last through a rainy day—but I still haven’t received my new debit card so money is not able to be as generously spent as I’d like… hahaha Actually, this has probably been a very good thing for my bank account—I’ve saved so much money I would have otherwise spent! (It’s still incredibly annoying nonetheless) But that’s its own stressful subject.
I’ve also been more than annoyed with my host family in Rabat. I’m literally treated like a potted plant in the corner! (I’ve decided that’s the best analogy for it—they walk by me several times a day without acknowledging my existence. They make sure I stay alive, but that’s about it. Just like a potted plant.) When I got back from the village stay, no one even asked me about it or even cared to say welcome back. They only talk to me when asking if I want to eat or sleep. I also was never given a key so can only come home when they all get home from work and school at like 6:30 every evening. When my class gets out at 2:30 that means I’m stuck wasting time or spending money trying to fill my time before I can actually go home. BUT, on a brighter note, I did have a nice long conversation with my oldest host sister. She’s the only one who speaks English so without her I’m very much alone in this house. But she never socializes with her family. She has this tiny tiny little closet she’s made into a room and has a computer and TV in there so never feels the need to come out… EVER. But last night we were talking a lot about the election, Moroccan politics and many other things and she mentioned at one point that she and her family are very quiet and independent from one another—and we agreed that this is very uncommon in Morocco. She said something along the lines of “I know I have a bad personality at times, and I’ve tried to change, but I just can’t. It’s just who I am.” Although I definitely knew these things, and this is one thing that really frustrates me, it was nice to have her admit it to me for some reason. I know they mean well, and in a lot of ways I wish they were more interested in talking to me and getting to know me, but that’s just not the type of family or the types of people they are. The fact that they can admit it somehow makes the world of difference to me.
Also, I found out last week that sending a box home with all my gifts will be much much MUCH more expensive than I first thought—like $500 expensive. This is obviously absurd and not worth it. This price came from DHL and FedEx so using the regular mail service might be cheaper but that has not proven to be reliable whatsoever given that my mom sent me a package at the beginning of Oct that has yet to get to me. So I think I’m just going to have to buy a big suitcase instead and fill it with gifts. The really really sad thing is though that I have to re-think some of the gifts themselves now, too L I had suuuuch a great gift for Zac and now I have to do something else and I’m very sad about it. Good thing here that I did lose my debit card and haven’t bought all the gifts yet!
AND , to top off my complaining, I missed Halloween.. I don’t even like that holiday very much but it was still really depressing not to be around for it… Thanksgiving may even bring me to tears because it’s one my my favoritessss… I’m just not even going to think about it.
Back to the election quickly: I’ve never actually really been homesick yet…until Tuesday night. It was hard being abroad for something so important and something that made me so proud to be an American. I’m very excited to get home… although, I do wish he could take office starting today instead of next year!!
LOVELOVELOVE

Village Stay photos

playing music and clapping... a favorite pasttime in the village

my beautiful henna

my family: Jemila, little Mona and Haammi

Wardia and Lubna with Liz (in the middle)

the kitchen (only lit by candle light after the sun sets)

my house

baby doneky on the left... big furry head: ick

biggest couscous ever!!

little Mona learned to love us!

shepharding... kind of

baby sheep!! (i never got a clear picture of that hyper active baby goat though!:( )

the hot springs... thank god for nature's little space heater!

the valley where the fresh water and hot springs come/go

walking on the never-ending road back from the miserable souk (our house is in the far far background)

The living room/sleeping room/ dining room and our warm sheep skins

Posing with our Spanish speaking brother (? what is he doing? he looked away liek that in every photo a took... touuuuugh)

airing out the carpets and blankets on the roof of our house

playing dress up with our Mamma... (all women take pictures with that stern look. Smilimg is not considered pretty. I also wish you could see the face tattoos she has. Her generation of rural women very commonly have blue tatoos on the T line and along the jaw line. This represents serious beauty in their culture)

the goat, Sarkozy, almost came all the way inside while we were eating lunch.. no biggie

the skinny cows in the mountains

the 5 1/2 hour hike... well at least we survived!

the view from our front yard

Village Stay

(The Village stay is a weeklong excursion where we all go live with Berber families in the rural part of the country. The dichotomy between rural and urban life is very important to the dynamics of Moroccans, but also an important thing for us to experience on this trip. The city we were in was called Oulmes and we all stayed with families that lived miles outside the city because they were all farmers and shepherds. We were ensured we would probably be very sick because of the new environment and the new food, and that it might snow. Basically, I was really not looking forward to this before I left…)
But believe it or not, the village stay was beyond great! Overall, it was more like a bi-polar/rollercoaster-esk change of emotion from misery to pure glee. But, the important thing is that the majority of the time we were on the very happy end. I’ve never experienced a 6-day period that felt like months. We were all supposed to be split up into groups of two in each house but mine and Leah’s family and Liz and Camille’s family were really the same group of people so we were all 4 together the entire time. That was one of the biggest reasons the whole experience was so great— because we got to do it together. If I had been by myself I would have probably cried every night, and even if it was just me and Leah, it would have been much harder. But the power of 4 was awesome. So I don’t really know how to tell this very long story because there are just so many components! I’ll just start with the family:
Family dynamics:
This was a very bizarre set-up and it took us the entire time to figure it all out (we actually still don’t know who one man was and where he fell into the picture) Ok so Leah and my “parents” were technically one of the sons and his wife who still live on the same family compound because he’s the shepherd of the sheep and goats and that’s the “family business” aka the only way the entire family makes any money as far as I could tell. And Liz and Camille’s technical “mom” was my grandma. Ok so grandma Fadma is considered the leader of the house and this is very uncommon in Morocco—for a woman’s name to be the name that represents the entire family. This only happens when she is a widow. (We later found out that her husband died in 2000.) Anyway, she has 6 children. The the oldest son Mohammad was in his mid to late 30s and we didn’t meet him until the last day. He lives “in the city” (which is about 4 miles away from our farm house in the middle of nowhere) Mohammad is quote, “a lot, a lot, a lot Islam” meaning he’s a very religious person and had apparently gone to Mecca three times and we were told over and over, before we met him that he speaks English and French and Spanish, which, believe it or not, ended up only being partially true. His English was enough to get him by but it was still easier for him to communicate in French with Liz. Anyway, he asked us what we think of Muslims and why there were women fighting in Iraq and WHY have so many people died there? That was the point in which I got up and walked away so that’s the end of my personal story about Mohammad. (We surprisingly delt with a lot of anti-American and anti-Bush hostility in Oulmes—a LOT more than I’ve experienced in Rabat. Although, on the contrary, the people of Oulmes were also the most hospitable and most friendly people I’ve met in Morocco as well…?)
The second child is Haammi (maybe short for Mohmmad?) and this is my father. He was so so so great. I think he’s about 32 and is married to Jemila (that means beautiful in Arabic) and they have a 3 year old daughter named Mona. They were really great although they only spoke the Berber language and we couldn’t really talk to them one on one. Mona will get her own section in a bit but Haammi was such a great father with her and that was very refreshing to see! Jemila though, we didn’t even meet until day 2 because she never came into the main family room (the house consisted of 2 rooms: the sitting/sleeping/eating room and the kitchen). This was obviously not because she was shy, but because she was married into the family not a first person member. That ended up being such an interesting dynamic actually. Especially because she and Haammi are living on the land that she will probably be the ruler of one day if she out lives him. She’ll eventually be the Fadma of that exact house because the rest of the siblings will marry off and move away, yet at this point in her life she’s more treated like the hired help.
Next is Fatiha, maybe about 30, who is married and has 3 young boys. They also live in the city and we spent a few evenings there and they live a life in a very different, higher social class than the rest of her family. They have couches, a car, satellite TV, a western toilet, and a washing machine—all the while 7 other family members plus the four of us used the bathroom on the back wall of the house. Her husband Achmed (no idea how to spell these names in English) was the man who picked us up on the first night and he spoke a little French so that was nice for communication reasons. As a profession, he’s a driver and apparently just uses his big, very old, very broke down van to escort people to and from the city and this makes five times as much money as herding sheep.
So next in line is the infamous Moujub who we ended up detesting in many ways. He spoke “Spanish” which was also nice for communication reasons but in reality he did not actually speak Spanish. It was awful and even I could recognize that, and my Spanish is also awful grammatically. He learned Spanish when he was in Spain for 2 years as an illegal immigrant. He only came back because he got deported. “Mucho policia” hahah. So in his defense, he probably speaks perfect immigrant worker conversational Spanish; but he didn’t understand anything we said to him. Ok, so at this point I’m just so frustrated at him and icked out I’m probably being unfair. It was nice to have some Spanish to enable us to talk to the rest of the family and we did benefit from that in a lot of ways. Anyway, he’s a big 27 year old baby who doesn’t work or do anything except follow us around for the week we were there. I’m not sure what he’ll do now that we’re gone.
So then there’s Wardia who is the 22 year old daughter who does everything for the entire household. She spoke French so was able to communicate with Liz and we all became pretty close to her. She was so sweet and cooked the bessssst food!! But she and Jemila work so hard—just like most people in these villages—and so often I felt so bad for her because she pretty clearly expressed her own frustration with the situation. She has absolutely no freedom and can never leave the house without a male family member with her. There is an arranged marriage waiting for her if she wants. It’s a Moroccan man who lives in Germany and when they meet, if she wants they’ll get married and move to Germany. So she’ll get to go to Rabat and learn German first and then hopefully go to some type of college as well. This would be amazing for her but when this will happen no one knows. I just hope it does if that’s what she wants. (I also think seeing the 4 of us was an especially encouraging experience for her—I hope so anyway) So yes, I feel very very lucky to be me and have the opportunities I do. We once started having a conversation about what the 4 of us wanted to do after college and options are so unlimited, but explaining that to them was a very foreign concept. Although, how awful is it that her best option for her life is an arranged marriage with a man she’s never met?! That’s another story, huh…
Lastly there’s Lubna who we think is 13. She’s adorable and became pretty obsessed with us—especially our cameras. She also does a lot of work like Wardia and Jemila but she also goes to school during the day so isn’t at home as much. We went to visit her school one day and the classrooms, for being a rural schoolhouse in the middle of nowhere, weren’t half bad. The two classrooms in the building were actually just a step nicer then the classrooms I had in Costa Rica. Lubna also loved playing the game thumper that we taught them the first night and then pretty much never STOPPED playing for 6 days! She wasn’t very good, and asking any of them for some rhythm was out of the question, but we did have a lot of fun playing games with them.
So now I have to go back to little Mona who was just so adorable, so dirty and somehow never cold even when we were shivering under 3 large wool blankets. Her life is really fascinating. It’s beyond different from the average 3 year old in America and even very different from an urban child in Morocco. She is given so much freedom it was scary to us! We pulled her away from blazing fires, away from the edge of the roof and made sure she didn’t eat dirt (that very very easily could have actually been the feces of a human or any animal). She actually inspired me to possibly do my final ISP paper on the life of a 3 year old in Morocco. As for being a female, she was surprisingly not subservient nor very obedient which was kind of funny, but ended up being a pain as well.
There was also a man who we thought was grandpa but Fadma’s husband/the father of all her children died in 2000. I really doubt she has remarried but there’s really no other reason for this man to be around. It’s a mystery that was never solved. He was really nice and adorable though. The whole family was really quite great and I even teared up saying good bye to them! I won’t even KIND OF be sad saying goodbye to my family in Rabat (they hardly acknowledged me when I got back on Friday, and I’ve learned enough Arabic at this point to know they refer to me as “the girl”… so loving!) Anyway, my village family was really great and they were just so so so nice. I learned so much more from this one week than from my entire other homestay combined. They said over and over that we were welcome back anytime. They even said we should bring our families and they would slaughter a goat in our honor. (This was told to us via sign language as well… hahaha) Fadma told us over and over that we were like 4 more daughters to her. They just really, genuinely enjoyed having us and we were equally as happy to be there. It was a nice change of pace, that’s for sure!
FOOOOD:
Food on this trip was what was supposed to give us the never ending diarrhea. But I think no one was ever really sick, no one in our house definitely ever was! And, to top it off, the food was fantastic!!! First of all, they made all of their bread obviously, and there were like 5 different types! (As it is in all of Morocco bread is your utensil so it’s a key component to any meal.) There was some fried, some more corn-meally, some just plain, my personal favorite was like a big, soft, thick and buttery tortilla. Anyway, it was all just so great. The couscous on this trip was also fantastic and somehow was just sooo much better than the other couscous I’ve had here. We also had rice pudding when it was really cold and the mint tea, Berber style, had an extra herb that made it extra amazing. The only downfall to the food (but this is not unique to rural life) was the immense amount of sugar used in EVERYTHING. It’s scary how much sugar they go through actually. What they don’t use is salt, so they don’t have issues with sodium, but they more than make up for that in the diabetes I’m sure all old people have.
Day by day play black:
So this whole program in Oulmes was affiliated with a local association in town called Anwar—this was our meeting ground, and where our two advisors stayed. We arrived there on Saturday afternoon and had a welcoming lunch and tea. This town was so so so excited to have us there. They were very hospitable and there were so many people from the town there awaiting our arrival. There were many introductions—including making all 26 of us introduce ourselves in Arabic!—and a lot of local people did their best to introduce themselves in English which I thought was so noble! It would be hard to get up in front of a group of young Americans and speak their native language that you were very new at learning. I was impressed. I also felt so welcomed it was very nice.
One of the biggest things our academic advisor said to us before we left was to think about not only what we are getting out of this town for our own learning benefit, but what this town is getting from us. We don’t want to be a nuisance but we also want to make sure they are housing us and hosting us because they genuinely want to. He also mentioned that we really are the last generation that will be able to have the opportunity to see what it’s like to live without any of the technology we are so used to in our everyday lives. Even in this small town, only 3 of the 13 houses we all stayed at didn’t have electricity or a toilet (I was of course in one of those 3 but I loved it and am grateful I got to really experience life that way). But even in my house, several people even had cell phones! So this lifestyle without any contact to the outside world is coming to a close and I’m really glad I got to see it first hand before it’s obsolete.
I mentioned this because I wanted to say that during our introduction time at the association, 8 different cell phones went off during that one hour. And none of them were ours! I thought that was just so surreal and it really spoke to what our AD was saying before we left. I was assuming I was being sent to this Podunk village where everyone lived in straw huts... and I was massively wrong. Even in the poorest communities cell phones WILL haunt groups of people trying to have a polite meeting. Hahaha
So then we took a small group tour of the city itself. It’s very very small town—simply made up of about 5 square blocks and then a large unfinished housing project where some houses were finished and people were living in them and some were not. I think it was the kind of thing where people spend years and years—sometimes decades—to build a house for themselves; just waiting for more money to come in to add on slowly. Within these projects is where the sister Fatiha lived with her family and their house was definitely finished and very nice, but she lived directly next to vacant lots.
Then we got picked up by our families and my dad, Haammi came and got 6 of us (Sarah S. and Sarah L. lived with our neighbors so they were part of our little group as well from time to time). We drove in Achmed’s car down some very dark windy roads and arrived and our family was so thrilled to see us. We sat around and played music and danced and chatted for hours, I was just so happy and comfortable there—I was shocked I felt this way because I expected the opposite effect! But it was lovely.
So Sunday morning we woke up before 7 because that’s when the rooster and the sheep wake up and Wardia and Moujub took us on a walk around the land and there was such a beautiful view! You could see into the valley and across the mountains for miles! It was very very gorgeous. They told us about these caves that exists down in the valley so we decided to try go on a little hike to find them. Welllll that little hike turned in to a 5 ½ hour hike which wasn’t too bad going down. But coming up was another dreadful story that I have tried to block out of my memory. I’m just not one for hiking in the first place but it was a beautiful day that was cool enough that we never got hot but never too cold either. Overall, it was a great way to spend the morning even though we never made it all the way to the caves themselves because they forgot to mention you needed to literally rock climb to get there and we thought falling to our death on the first day in the village wasn’t the way to go. We did get close to them and took photos… it was cool. When we got back we took a little nap—life on the farm is very simple and I do appreciate that! I can also understand going from being used to that every day to the big city would be a shocking experience. We also discovered today that baby goats are, by far, without a doubt, THE cuuuutest baby animal. (I later found out that baby donkeys are the ugggggliest baby animal.) This little goat though just pranced around and hopped and hopped and hopped. Adooorable.
Monday after breakfast our mom and sisters insisted we play dress up so they gave us their prettiest jalabas and kaftans that are only worn for special occasions and we took like a MILLLION photos. Hahaha but I was very nice of them and they were beautiful gowns! Then we went for a little walk and met Sarah and Sarah (there are 5 Sarahs on this trip by the way). They had also played dress up earlier that day but their new mamma didn’t really think of is as game so much as a reality. They had to wear jalabas everyday and couldn’t wear their tennis shoes and got hennas and wore traditional Berber makeup every day. AAHAHAHA it was hilarious but they were really good sports and didn’t mind at all so they definitely got pared with the right family. At 3 pm we had to walk the 2-3 miles into town for part of our program at the association. It was good to see everyone and find out how their home stays were going. The planned program for the day was to chat with locals of the town and high school students and just have a dialog with them about culture, language etc. but what it turned into was a “we hate America party” which, I’ll just say, was not very fun. It actually put me in a horrible mood. They asked very difficult and sometimes absurd questions ranging from “what do you think of Arabs” to “Why is your government giving arms (specifically tanks and missiles) to Israel to KILL Palestinians?” I don’t know!! I didn’t vote for George Bush! First of all, none of us were of age to vote in the last election and we wouldn’t have voted for him anyway! I couldn’t beeelive it. Ok so it’s important to note that this was a Berber village, so they don’t speak Arabic and don’t consider themselves Arab. This issue over ethnicity is a very big one in Morocco right now and there seems to be a pretty apparent ethnic battle of Berber v. Arabs throughout the county in different degrees. So these people, who are not Arab, were also kind of offended that we came to Morocco to study Arabic not their Berber language because that’s “what is really native to Morocco.” Anyway, I was glad to get out of there because it got a little bit too heated for those circumstances. That night we got henna done on our hands and I was so grateful we got pretty designs and not the traditional Berber henna which is just the entire palm covered like you were finger painting with bright orange paint. Almost everyone else got that traditional henna which is so heinous. But ours was nice and pretty with lots of flowers J
Tuesday is souk day in Oulmes. Souk just means market in Arabic and most small towns like this just chose one day of the week for lots of vendors to set up shops and sell things. Places like Rabat don’t really have a souk once a week because there is pretty much a souk everyday because the city is so big and the medina is always hoppin. It was in a souk that I thought I was going to be trampled to death a few weeks ago when I went to the waterfalls but this time it wasn’t nearly as crowded. BUT it also happened to be an awful awful rainy, cold AWFUL day outside. In the end, we survived but souk day sucked! We were all given a little money from our program to buy our family gifts. So we were there long enough to spend our money and we bought them lots of great things. But it was pouring rain and the ground turned into this awful muddy mess that my tennis shoes were not cut out for. We finally told our sister we had to leave because we just couldn’t take any more but then of course… we still had the 3 mile walk back to the house! This is another moment I’ve kind of blocked out of my memory but we were all just so so so cold and miserable we wanted to cry. But of course, there was no possibility for a ride back so we did have to trek it and walk back. By the time we made it back the rain kind of slowed and inside our house a big, warm pot of coals was waiting in the living room to warm our toes. And they served us delicious rice pudding and all of a sudden we didn’t hate Morocco once again. This is a great example of the rollercoaster effect I was talking about: we went from suicidal misery to absolute bliss in a matter of minutes! Later that night we gave the family our bundle of gifts we bought and they were so grateful and so happy! It was a very good idea for SIT to have us buy gifts for them because they just loved it!
With souk day behind us, we woke up Wednesday and had this amazing fried bread for breakfast that was like carnival bread with lots of sugarJ Then we went with our SIT group again and went to the Sidi Ali factory. Sidi Ali is the brand of every water bottle in the entire country and this factory is one of the only, if not the only, huge mechanized factory in the entire country so it’s a big deal to the community and factories are so cool so I was glad we went. So that was the highlight of that day but that night I experienced the worst night of sleep, maybe in my entire life. Our sleeping situation is this: In the big room, where everyone sleeps, we have a sheep skin per person laid down on the ground then a big blanket over that, then on top of us we have three big wool blankets. So first of all sleeping on the cement floor, even with the warm sheepskin underneath us is awful and very very uncomfortable. (I missed my couch in Rabat so much!) But it was also very cold this night and Leah somehow stole all the heavy blankets. So even though I had 3 layers of clothes on, I was freezing to death. It was awful and I was glad for the day to come.
Thursday was our last full day there and we woke up and it was actually pretty sunny so we wondered around with the sheep for awhile then took a blanket up on the roof and sat in the sun and read for a few hours. Then we had lunch and it was couscous again because they knew we loved it. We were served the biggest bowl/mountain of couscous I’ve ever seen! It was enormous!! But delicious, too! Then we walked to Lubna’s school where we ended up just being a distraction. Although we got to see the classrooms and the kids, we didn’t actually get to really see a class in action because our being there obviously outweighed the necessity to learn hahaha. So we had to leave in order for them to actually have class, but it wasn’t too bad. It was nice to see the school at all.
So another thing to mention is the fact that the view of the stars at night was one of the most incredible views I‘ve ever seen! On a clear light, with no light pollution, I could have stayed out there for hours! It was so beautiful!
Friday morning we woke up, had breakfast and got picked up around 10:30. I was so sad saying goodbye, but at the same time we were so ready to leave. Not only had we not showered in a week, we hadn’t washed our faces either and I just felt icccccky. We did get to brush our teeth with water bottles every day thank goodness although our family thought it was a very bizarre concept. I was also tired of being perpetually cold and I’d been wearing every pair of socks I owned—needless to say I wanted to take them off after a full week of never doing so.
So the moral of this story was that the village stay has probably been the highlight of this trip for me. I now appreciate toilets in a big way, but also understand that they aren’t the necessity I once thought. I feel that way about a lot of things really. This family hardly produces waste in any form and they are also so loving and their family dynamics fascinate me. And although many times I was very cold, at least it didn’t ever snow!!!