On August 19th I landed in Morocco to find an extremely hot country in the midst of Ramadan. Knowing no one in the country, there I was, surrounded by a new language and culture, everything foreign to me. It was one of those moments when I realized how big the world was and how little of it I had experienced.
I was overcome by regret for not better preparing myself for this experience. I hadn’t practiced French in years, didn’t bother to prepare myself with the dialect, and could barely tell you anything about Moroccan culture. Words like “labas” “bzaf” and “mzyan” just frustrated me because after 4 years of studying Arabic, I was pretty sure that they weren’t real words. There I was, thrown outside my comfort zone, completely lost, with no one to lean on. I had no choice but to make the most of the experience and slowly swim to shore.
The lesson?
Things just always work out. You readjust to your environment and meet amazing people who are willing to help you along the way. It just takes a lot of faith.
So after four months in Morocco and a lot of learning, it has become a part of me. As homesick as I was at points, I now yearn for the smell of couscous on Friday afternoons and friendly kisses from everyone I meet. Not only did I learn the dialect (to the point where people sometimes would mistaken me for a Moroccan) but I also truly bonded with my host family and made lifelong friends.
I could not have asked for a better study abroad experience. I fell in love with the city of Rabat, which is situated right along the ocean with the perfect mix or development and traditional culture. I was never concerned about what others thought of me, but only that I would miss an exciting adventure. For the first time in my life, I got to spend quality time with myself. I learned that perspective is the key to life.
Disconnected from technology and stress, things just felt a little easier. The pace of life is what I will miss most about Morocco. People value relationships and make time for each other. They just aren’t as stressed as we are here in the States. It’s a concept that’s difficult to articulate, but let’s just say that I will certainly miss eating fresh bread at every meal.
Now that I am back at Penn, Morocco almost feels like a dream. As much as I felt like I grew while there, I am most afraid of losing sight of it all when tossed back into the hectic life on campus.
Memories are deceiving, the ones that have pictures always stand out in our minds and the little moments that meant so much at the time get buried away. That’s why I wanted to make a list of those little memories before they feel so far gone.
It’s sort of in chronological order, but not really…
- Arriving on the first day at my host family to find a packed house with all the extended family visiting
- Shaking my host dads hand after every taraweeh prayer before walking back
- Going jalaba shopping with my host sister before Eid
- Getting a pair of yellow shoes for Eid, and more importantly my host mom’s excitement when she gave them to me
- Visiting Othmane and his extremely hospitable family in Casablanca and praying at the mosque that was packed to miles outside with Shabneez with no room to pray
- Jet skiing in Aseelah
- Drafting “operation mission happiness”
- Spontaneously deciding to go to the Jazz festival in Tangier
- Sitting in a carpet shop in Fez for over an hour trying to bargain down the price. He didn’t budge on the price but offered me some tea and then proposed
- First arriving at my tajweed teacher’s house, except she had no idea why I was there or who I was, and I had no idea that she didn’t know. Yep, most awkward 15 minutes of my life
- Climbing the Eiffel Tour tout seul and taking pictures for all the couples up top
- Searching through a used book store in the heard of Paris
- Starting tennis lessons
- Kicking butt at darts
- Always leaving youtube songs open on my computer because it would take hours for them to download
- Trying to learn how to cook couscous with my host mom
- Revising my coffee order at every café, trying to find the perfect combination of coffee and milk that made it taste most like American coffee
- Teaching an SAT course to Moroccan high school students and grading really really bad essays
- Pastel drawing along the marina and in the l’oudaya café
- Karaoke kayaking
- Trying to make a piñata for a friend’s birthday
- Spontaneously going to the hammam for the first time in Chefchouen, completely unprepared
- Hiking along slippery rocks in the pouring rain looking for the “Bridge of God”
- Covering 4 cities in 6 days with my Mom when she came to visit
- Discovering the National Library and curing my home sickness there
- Visiting my Quran teacher every day after her 22 year old daughter passed away
- Walking along the beach towards the sunset
- Always looking at the sky because it was so beautiful
- Retail therapy in Agdal
- Banana juice and harsha at the “juice place”
- Becoming an expert on all the cookies in “hanoots”
- Jumping on a train with Tunuka while heading to Ifrane
- The two boxes of sweets my amazing friends brought me to take home to my family
- Leaving the country with only ½ a dirham after an entire day in the medina buying gifts, almost missing my flight because I was at the wrong terminal and then finding a driver to take me to the right terminal pro bono.
This and so much more is what I hope to remember whenever I think of Morocco!
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Enchanté Paris, it was real!
We had a one week “reading pause” so I decided to do my reading in the city of love, Paris! This week was relaxing and riveting at the same time. Spending time with Melissa had to be the highlight. After almost 2 months in Morocco I couldn’t have asked for a better break that really allowed me to reflect on what I was doing while abroad.
Day 1- Monday
I left my house in Rabat at 4 am to catch my 9 am flight which was cancelled, then got rescheduled to an 11 am one, which was then delayed. Long story short, I met Melissa in Odeon, Paris at 6:30 in the evening. Seeing her lovely face and the warm Starbucks coffee in her hand for me, I was overwhelmed with emotion. The first night we ate at her apartment, talked for hours, and went to bed relatively early.
Day 2- Tuesday
Melissa not only had her regular coursework, but also had an exposé (big presentation) to prepare for on Wednesday so with her Paris Lonely Planet Guidebook I ventured out to the intimidating, chic streets of Paris. I decided I wanted to take this trip slowly. I wanted to explore the ambiance of Paris at my own pace.
I ventured out to explore the neighborhood, carefully watching my steps so that they could be easily retraced. I couldn’t have asked for Melissa’s apartment to be in a better location. Leaving her apartment and turning right I was in the middle of the St Germaine shopping district, so I thought what better way to begin my day than with French boutiques? Well actually it was more that it was freezing in France and I was not prepared at all so I needed a winter jacket. The styles were adorable and the prices ridiculous. After using my broken French with posh store workers and trying on at least 10 jackets, I found the perfect one that fit me perfectly and certainly in my budget! I put my jacket on, and walked out of the store feeling proud for accomplishing my mission so well!
Then I just wandered around the neighborhood more, again focusing on absorbing the ambiance of Paris and using my French with people. I sat down in a café. It is now my Parisian café because that is where I bought my first espresso and baguette sandwich. I sat observing the people passing by. It was exciting and I felt French, but this was the one and only time that I did that alone because of the ridiculous price. Regardless, it was checked off the list and I greatly enjoyed it!
With my appetite satisfied, I walked along the Seine which is the main river that cuts right through Paris. This is when I establish my game plan for exploring a city alone. Rather than planning things and using a map, I would just walk aimlessly until I saw an interesting building in the distance or a sign for something that I vaguely remember from my high school French class. So walking along the Seine I see this huge building to my right and thinking that it was a palace or parliament I walk in. Lucky for me, when I saw the massive glass triangles awkwardly placed in the middle of this classic building I had a déjà vu from the DaVinci Code and knew it was the Louvre! The building was closed for some event, but I walked around observing the awkward architecture. Then across the river I spotted another building that was gorgeous. In fact this is my favorite building in all of Paris. It’s the French Institute whose main function is to preserve the French language. I slowly retraced my steps stumbling upon gorgeous art galleries and other national monuments to Melissa’s apartment.
Again, this trip was about taking things slow and just exploring “tout-seul”. But too much time alone is a dangerous thing. So I was very excited to be meeting up with a friend that night. First I travelled to La Defence which is the Wall Street of Paris with its massive office building. Most impressive here is that I got there without getting lost. Thanks to my summer in Boston, I was able to figure out the Metro system surprisingly easily. In fact, there were a couple of times during my stay where I would stop to help a confused tourist or old lady that was staring blankly at the large map on the wall.
Getting off the Metro by Montmart was quite a surprise for me. Up to this point Paris seemed to be filled with rich white people taken straight out of Vogue magazine. Here one finds the less advertised Paris that is filled with culture and diversity (which also means more danger). I am very happy I got to see this neighborhood because otherwise I would have left Paris with a much skewed impression of Parisians. Anyways we climbed the steps up to Montmart, visited the cathedral and then sat and overlooked the entire city completely lit up, including the Eiffel Tour which I saw sparkling for the first time. This was as typical of a Parisian night at I could imagine, but I loved it and it was the perfect way to finish my first day in the city of lights.
Day 3- Wednesday: I packed my running clothes with me and this was the smartest decision I made during the trip. It gave me the chance to be in my own zone, relax, and explore all at the same time. Melissa suggested running through the Gardens of Luxembourg and they were absolutely breathtaking. Even though I had just woken up it was lunch hour so there were groups of people eating there.
Wednesday was the day of Melissa’s big expose, so after her presentation and before her next class we had a few hours together and decided to visit the Mosque of Paris. I seriously thought I was in Morocco! Around the corner there is this café that we drank “atay” at with sweets. For some reason I am so intrigued by the Muslims in France. I don’t think that I would be comfortable being Muslim there, it’s just not as welcoming as the states. It’s hard to put my finger on what is so different.
Melissa went to class and I spent some time wandering the neighborhood, looking for the Arab Center of the World that I saw signs for everywhere. I stumbled upon another garden and an open air sculpture museum. The Arab center was just closing by the time I arrived, so decided to find the only shoe store in Paris that sells size 11 shoes according to a source. After taking forever to find this place it too was just closing when I arrived. I did spot a pair of brown boots in the window but didn’t get the chance to try them on. I was so tempted to bang on the window and beg the man in broken French to just let me super quickly find a pair of boots. Ive been looking for a pair since I was in Morocco and just spent two hours trying to find this place, but this was one of the few times while abroad that I withheld myself from doing something stupid. So I bought a McOriental sandwhich from McDo to refuel and then headed back home.
That night Melissa and I went out for crepes to celebrate her exposé being over and left the waiter an adorable acrostic poem as a thank you and said “Tu es …CREPE”. It took us forever to find a word for “C” so we used cool, but later felt stupid for not choosing “chouette” because it’s just an awesome word!!
Day 4- Thursday: By this point, I haven’t been really hard core about sightseeing. Instead my trip has consisted of my spending time relaxing and wandering aimlessly around Paris. I just haven’t really had the desire to see the main monuments. I would have been perfectly content spending another day without a plan but Melissa thankfully pushed me to come up with a plan and see the famous sights that people come to Paris to see. So this morning I left the house with an itinerary. The best way to get myself to do something is if I think I will regret not doing it in the future.
So I started off my morning with the Notre Dame which was pretty cool, a little too gloomy for my taste though. Then I tried to find St Chapel, which is Melissa’s favorite cathedral and couldn’t, so went to the next thing on the list which was to actually visit the Arab Center, which was a little disappointing but had a wonderful view at the rooftop that overlooks the city. When leaving I saw signs for the Bastille, which I remembered learning about in history class, but couldn’t remember what it was for the life of me! I even tried referring back to the guidebook but still couldn’t find it! So I just followed the signs, imagining a thousand and one different things it could be. It really is a comical feeling, following signs for about 30 minutes without knowing where you are going. At one point I expected to find something similar to the Gettysburg battlefield in the middle of Paris. When I finally arrived, it was a tall pillar in the middle of a roundabout I was trying to figure out which direction to go next before brilliantly realizing that I had actually arrived at the Bastille.
After this adventure I really felt like shopping so decided to head back to the shoe store. This time it didn’t take nearly as long, and I am really happy I went back because I found a pair of leather boots that I absolutely adore. They cost a ton of money, but I was really happy with them and now felt like I could better fit in with the chic streets of Paris, especially since I was wearing my huge Asic running shoes for my day of sightseeing.
That night I put on my boots to head out to the Musee D’Orsay. Here I realized that I actually LOVE museums at night. Thursday is the one night that it stays open until 10 pm. The building is an old train station converted to house some of the most beautiful pieces of art work in the world. My favorite piece of “art” in the museum was the building itself and this huge golden clock that was preserved from the train station days. Unfortunately most of Monet’s art was being lent out to another museum in Paris, but I did get to spend quality time with both Renoir and Van Gough. This was my first time in a museum by myself and boy is it quite the experience! I never realized how much I need to be talking in life! There were so many hilarious comments that I was dying to share with someone. Also when you’re in a museum by yourself you tend to observe the people around you so much more.
The feeling didn’t last too long, because I ran into one of my friends randomly in the museum! I was looking at a picture and heard my name. Convinced that I had gone completely mad, I turned around and saw Hind! Seeing her was quite the coincidence especially because she is studying in Belgium! Then while I was walking home along the Seine I ran into another kid from Penn! Two Penn people in one night! I feel like the older I get, the smaller the world becomes!
Even though I had to push myself to do the traditional sightseeing I am so happy I did and by the end of the night I felt so accomplished!
Day 5- Friday: Despite my attempt for the third day to wake up and start my day early, I woke up at 9 and didn’t actually leave the apartment until noon again. But that’s the wonderful thing about being on vacation! C’est pas grave! I started off my morning heading over to La Defense to get lunch with a friend, which was a ton of fun and then I headed over to the Arc de Triumph and walked along the Champs Elysee. Of course I took my time shopping and was probably most impressed by the H&M there. My next plan was to go towards the Eiffle Tour, because I remembered them being close. My strategy? Look up at the sky and walk towards the tour. Talk about a fail…I couldn’t spot it anywhere so I kept walking along the Champs Elysse, and saw this huge museum and walked towards it and found out that it was the Hotel de Palais that is currently borrowing 57 of Monet’s paintings from the Musee d’Orsay. I thought of going in but decided against it. Then I saw this huge building with two gorgeous golden columns on both sides, and walked towards that. I would be such a good tour guide because I then spotted the Eiffle tour! It looked pretty near, took me at least 30 minutes to walk to, but worth every step. I decided to climb the steps, something to mark off my bucket list, and spent about 3 hours reading the historical plaques, drinking coffee at the café, and pondering. My favorite part is that on the second level there are these plaques that point to all the monuments around the city and give you a brief history. Walking around, overlooking all of Paris was probably the highlight of my trip. Of course, knowing that I marched up all those steps made it that much sweeter.
Then for dinner I had a delicious spinach galette (popeye) with Melissa and then we headed over to the Louvre which is open until 10 pm on Friday nights. I decided then that I only enjoy museums at night. Seeing the pyramids lit up against the backdrop of the classical Louvre was breathtaking. Despite me not having much interest in visiting the museum in the first place, I was extremely excited to see one of my homegirls…Mona! We quickly found her and I can confirm for everyone that if you stand on one side of the hall and walk in a semi circle to the other side her eyes will follow you! In fact, I did it twice just to make sure. The good thing about going that late at night is that the hall was relatively empty. On our way back we had the most delicious gelato ice cream of my lifetime, and that is saying A LOT!! The lady made my half vanilla, half Nutella small cone in the shape of a rose. It was beautiful. And delicious! I have a feeling we will be returning once again. It was a formidable typical Parisian Friday night, spent in the wonderful company of Melissa.
Day 6- Saturday: I got up early in the morning to go for a run along the Seine. My last run before leaving Paris and also the last bit of time I would spend wandering the streets “tout seul”. Along my run I came across the St Chapel, which is one of Melissa’s favorite places in Paris. I always try to find it whenever I am in that area and never do. That morning I was just running aimlessly and I see this line of people all waiting for the church to open. I was so excited and couldn’t wait to go home to shower and change and then come back. But when I did, following the EXACT same steps I couldn’t find it, end up searching the whole neighborhood, ask people and no one knows (which was probably due to my pronunciation) and then when I thought I found it, I was actually in St Germaine. So…its still a mystery what this church looks like and I guess it gives me a reason to go back to Paris!
Lulu and Nancy arrive a little later, and the four of us go out for Pizza. Catching up with them was priceless but it was very ironic that we were all sitting there together, half way through our semester abroad, pretty carefree. It was a reminder that our semester abroad would be over before we knew it.
Then we went shopping, and I tried to show Melissa where I bought my jacket from, and even though we were in the neighborhood, passing by all the same shops that I had also gone into, I couldn’t find the store! It felt very Harry Potter-ish.
This was our day to celebrate Melissa’s birthday! So we went out to dinner to the restaurant of her choosing, Tex Mex, and ate delicious Mexican food. Then we tried to find this café that I walked by earlier that week that had live jazz. It looked like a lot of fun and had this very Parisian, laid back environment. You guessed it, I searched and searched, almost 30 minutes and couldn’t find it! Finally we gave up the search and on our way to a random café we stumbled upon it!! Finally I had some luck in Paris! It was well worth the search and worth me not finding the previous two locations. The music was phenomenal and we had such a wonderful time together. The perfect way to spend my last night in Paris.
Day 7- Sunday: This is my last day in Paris. I feel like I have come to know the city well and my French has improved infinitely. Most importantly, it was priceless to spend time with friendly faces. While I had aimed to wake up early and walk around I decided to sleep in with everyone else, take it easy and pack my things. We had a skype date with Haein and Eli in Beijing over quiche and tarts.
Then it was au revoir paris! Possibly one of my favorite vacations in my life was coming to an end, but I was excited to return to Morocco and finish off my semester, taking advantage of all the unique opportunities I had now come to appreciate much more!
Enchanté Paris, it was real!
Day 1- Monday
I left my house in Rabat at 4 am to catch my 9 am flight which was cancelled, then got rescheduled to an 11 am one, which was then delayed. Long story short, I met Melissa in Odeon, Paris at 6:30 in the evening. Seeing her lovely face and the warm Starbucks coffee in her hand for me, I was overwhelmed with emotion. The first night we ate at her apartment, talked for hours, and went to bed relatively early.
Day 2- Tuesday
Melissa not only had her regular coursework, but also had an exposé (big presentation) to prepare for on Wednesday so with her Paris Lonely Planet Guidebook I ventured out to the intimidating, chic streets of Paris. I decided I wanted to take this trip slowly. I wanted to explore the ambiance of Paris at my own pace.
I ventured out to explore the neighborhood, carefully watching my steps so that they could be easily retraced. I couldn’t have asked for Melissa’s apartment to be in a better location. Leaving her apartment and turning right I was in the middle of the St Germaine shopping district, so I thought what better way to begin my day than with French boutiques? Well actually it was more that it was freezing in France and I was not prepared at all so I needed a winter jacket. The styles were adorable and the prices ridiculous. After using my broken French with posh store workers and trying on at least 10 jackets, I found the perfect one that fit me perfectly and certainly in my budget! I put my jacket on, and walked out of the store feeling proud for accomplishing my mission so well!
Then I just wandered around the neighborhood more, again focusing on absorbing the ambiance of Paris and using my French with people. I sat down in a café. It is now my Parisian café because that is where I bought my first espresso and baguette sandwich. I sat observing the people passing by. It was exciting and I felt French, but this was the one and only time that I did that alone because of the ridiculous price. Regardless, it was checked off the list and I greatly enjoyed it!
With my appetite satisfied, I walked along the Seine which is the main river that cuts right through Paris. This is when I establish my game plan for exploring a city alone. Rather than planning things and using a map, I would just walk aimlessly until I saw an interesting building in the distance or a sign for something that I vaguely remember from my high school French class. So walking along the Seine I see this huge building to my right and thinking that it was a palace or parliament I walk in. Lucky for me, when I saw the massive glass triangles awkwardly placed in the middle of this classic building I had a déjà vu from the DaVinci Code and knew it was the Louvre! The building was closed for some event, but I walked around observing the awkward architecture. Then across the river I spotted another building that was gorgeous. In fact this is my favorite building in all of Paris. It’s the French Institute whose main function is to preserve the French language. I slowly retraced my steps stumbling upon gorgeous art galleries and other national monuments to Melissa’s apartment.
Again, this trip was about taking things slow and just exploring “tout-seul”. But too much time alone is a dangerous thing. So I was very excited to be meeting up with a friend that night. First I travelled to La Defence which is the Wall Street of Paris with its massive office building. Most impressive here is that I got there without getting lost. Thanks to my summer in Boston, I was able to figure out the Metro system surprisingly easily. In fact, there were a couple of times during my stay where I would stop to help a confused tourist or old lady that was staring blankly at the large map on the wall.
Getting off the Metro by Montmart was quite a surprise for me. Up to this point Paris seemed to be filled with rich white people taken straight out of Vogue magazine. Here one finds the less advertised Paris that is filled with culture and diversity (which also means more danger). I am very happy I got to see this neighborhood because otherwise I would have left Paris with a much skewed impression of Parisians. Anyways we climbed the steps up to Montmart, visited the cathedral and then sat and overlooked the entire city completely lit up, including the Eiffel Tour which I saw sparkling for the first time. This was as typical of a Parisian night at I could imagine, but I loved it and it was the perfect way to finish my first day in the city of lights.
Day 3- Wednesday: I packed my running clothes with me and this was the smartest decision I made during the trip. It gave me the chance to be in my own zone, relax, and explore all at the same time. Melissa suggested running through the Gardens of Luxembourg and they were absolutely breathtaking. Even though I had just woken up it was lunch hour so there were groups of people eating there.
Wednesday was the day of Melissa’s big expose, so after her presentation and before her next class we had a few hours together and decided to visit the Mosque of Paris. I seriously thought I was in Morocco! Around the corner there is this café that we drank “atay” at with sweets. For some reason I am so intrigued by the Muslims in France. I don’t think that I would be comfortable being Muslim there, it’s just not as welcoming as the states. It’s hard to put my finger on what is so different.
Melissa went to class and I spent some time wandering the neighborhood, looking for the Arab Center of the World that I saw signs for everywhere. I stumbled upon another garden and an open air sculpture museum. The Arab center was just closing by the time I arrived, so decided to find the only shoe store in Paris that sells size 11 shoes according to a source. After taking forever to find this place it too was just closing when I arrived. I did spot a pair of brown boots in the window but didn’t get the chance to try them on. I was so tempted to bang on the window and beg the man in broken French to just let me super quickly find a pair of boots. Ive been looking for a pair since I was in Morocco and just spent two hours trying to find this place, but this was one of the few times while abroad that I withheld myself from doing something stupid. So I bought a McOriental sandwhich from McDo to refuel and then headed back home.
That night Melissa and I went out for crepes to celebrate her exposé being over and left the waiter an adorable acrostic poem as a thank you and said “Tu es …CREPE”. It took us forever to find a word for “C” so we used cool, but later felt stupid for not choosing “chouette” because it’s just an awesome word!!
Day 4- Thursday: By this point, I haven’t been really hard core about sightseeing. Instead my trip has consisted of my spending time relaxing and wandering aimlessly around Paris. I just haven’t really had the desire to see the main monuments. I would have been perfectly content spending another day without a plan but Melissa thankfully pushed me to come up with a plan and see the famous sights that people come to Paris to see. So this morning I left the house with an itinerary. The best way to get myself to do something is if I think I will regret not doing it in the future.
So I started off my morning with the Notre Dame which was pretty cool, a little too gloomy for my taste though. Then I tried to find St Chapel, which is Melissa’s favorite cathedral and couldn’t, so went to the next thing on the list which was to actually visit the Arab Center, which was a little disappointing but had a wonderful view at the rooftop that overlooks the city. When leaving I saw signs for the Bastille, which I remembered learning about in history class, but couldn’t remember what it was for the life of me! I even tried referring back to the guidebook but still couldn’t find it! So I just followed the signs, imagining a thousand and one different things it could be. It really is a comical feeling, following signs for about 30 minutes without knowing where you are going. At one point I expected to find something similar to the Gettysburg battlefield in the middle of Paris. When I finally arrived, it was a tall pillar in the middle of a roundabout I was trying to figure out which direction to go next before brilliantly realizing that I had actually arrived at the Bastille.
After this adventure I really felt like shopping so decided to head back to the shoe store. This time it didn’t take nearly as long, and I am really happy I went back because I found a pair of leather boots that I absolutely adore. They cost a ton of money, but I was really happy with them and now felt like I could better fit in with the chic streets of Paris, especially since I was wearing my huge Asic running shoes for my day of sightseeing.
That night I put on my boots to head out to the Musee D’Orsay. Here I realized that I actually LOVE museums at night. Thursday is the one night that it stays open until 10 pm. The building is an old train station converted to house some of the most beautiful pieces of art work in the world. My favorite piece of “art” in the museum was the building itself and this huge golden clock that was preserved from the train station days. Unfortunately most of Monet’s art was being lent out to another museum in Paris, but I did get to spend quality time with both Renoir and Van Gough. This was my first time in a museum by myself and boy is it quite the experience! I never realized how much I need to be talking in life! There were so many hilarious comments that I was dying to share with someone. Also when you’re in a museum by yourself you tend to observe the people around you so much more.
The feeling didn’t last too long, because I ran into one of my friends randomly in the museum! I was looking at a picture and heard my name. Convinced that I had gone completely mad, I turned around and saw Hind! Seeing her was quite the coincidence especially because she is studying in Belgium! Then while I was walking home along the Seine I ran into another kid from Penn! Two Penn people in one night! I feel like the older I get, the smaller the world becomes!
Even though I had to push myself to do the traditional sightseeing I am so happy I did and by the end of the night I felt so accomplished!
Day 5- Friday: Despite my attempt for the third day to wake up and start my day early, I woke up at 9 and didn’t actually leave the apartment until noon again. But that’s the wonderful thing about being on vacation! C’est pas grave! I started off my morning heading over to La Defense to get lunch with a friend, which was a ton of fun and then I headed over to the Arc de Triumph and walked along the Champs Elysee. Of course I took my time shopping and was probably most impressed by the H&M there. My next plan was to go towards the Eiffle Tour, because I remembered them being close. My strategy? Look up at the sky and walk towards the tour. Talk about a fail…I couldn’t spot it anywhere so I kept walking along the Champs Elysse, and saw this huge museum and walked towards it and found out that it was the Hotel de Palais that is currently borrowing 57 of Monet’s paintings from the Musee d’Orsay. I thought of going in but decided against it. Then I saw this huge building with two gorgeous golden columns on both sides, and walked towards that. I would be such a good tour guide because I then spotted the Eiffle tour! It looked pretty near, took me at least 30 minutes to walk to, but worth every step. I decided to climb the steps, something to mark off my bucket list, and spent about 3 hours reading the historical plaques, drinking coffee at the café, and pondering. My favorite part is that on the second level there are these plaques that point to all the monuments around the city and give you a brief history. Walking around, overlooking all of Paris was probably the highlight of my trip. Of course, knowing that I marched up all those steps made it that much sweeter.
Then for dinner I had a delicious spinach galette (popeye) with Melissa and then we headed over to the Louvre which is open until 10 pm on Friday nights. I decided then that I only enjoy museums at night. Seeing the pyramids lit up against the backdrop of the classical Louvre was breathtaking. Despite me not having much interest in visiting the museum in the first place, I was extremely excited to see one of my homegirls…Mona! We quickly found her and I can confirm for everyone that if you stand on one side of the hall and walk in a semi circle to the other side her eyes will follow you! In fact, I did it twice just to make sure. The good thing about going that late at night is that the hall was relatively empty. On our way back we had the most delicious gelato ice cream of my lifetime, and that is saying A LOT!! The lady made my half vanilla, half Nutella small cone in the shape of a rose. It was beautiful. And delicious! I have a feeling we will be returning once again. It was a formidable typical Parisian Friday night, spent in the wonderful company of Melissa.
Day 6- Saturday: I got up early in the morning to go for a run along the Seine. My last run before leaving Paris and also the last bit of time I would spend wandering the streets “tout seul”. Along my run I came across the St Chapel, which is one of Melissa’s favorite places in Paris. I always try to find it whenever I am in that area and never do. That morning I was just running aimlessly and I see this line of people all waiting for the church to open. I was so excited and couldn’t wait to go home to shower and change and then come back. But when I did, following the EXACT same steps I couldn’t find it, end up searching the whole neighborhood, ask people and no one knows (which was probably due to my pronunciation) and then when I thought I found it, I was actually in St Germaine. So…its still a mystery what this church looks like and I guess it gives me a reason to go back to Paris!
Lulu and Nancy arrive a little later, and the four of us go out for Pizza. Catching up with them was priceless but it was very ironic that we were all sitting there together, half way through our semester abroad, pretty carefree. It was a reminder that our semester abroad would be over before we knew it.
Then we went shopping, and I tried to show Melissa where I bought my jacket from, and even though we were in the neighborhood, passing by all the same shops that I had also gone into, I couldn’t find the store! It felt very Harry Potter-ish.
This was our day to celebrate Melissa’s birthday! So we went out to dinner to the restaurant of her choosing, Tex Mex, and ate delicious Mexican food. Then we tried to find this café that I walked by earlier that week that had live jazz. It looked like a lot of fun and had this very Parisian, laid back environment. You guessed it, I searched and searched, almost 30 minutes and couldn’t find it! Finally we gave up the search and on our way to a random café we stumbled upon it!! Finally I had some luck in Paris! It was well worth the search and worth me not finding the previous two locations. The music was phenomenal and we had such a wonderful time together. The perfect way to spend my last night in Paris.
Day 7- Sunday: This is my last day in Paris. I feel like I have come to know the city well and my French has improved infinitely. Most importantly, it was priceless to spend time with friendly faces. While I had aimed to wake up early and walk around I decided to sleep in with everyone else, take it easy and pack my things. We had a skype date with Haein and Eli in Beijing over quiche and tarts.
Then it was au revoir paris! Possibly one of my favorite vacations in my life was coming to an end, but I was excited to return to Morocco and finish off my semester, taking advantage of all the unique opportunities I had now come to appreciate much more!
Enchanté Paris, it was real!
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Rabat...I know you
10/2/10
This week is pretty heavy on homework and midterm papers, so I figured I would write an entry before things got “hectic”.
I cant believe its already October! I have a little under two and a half months left here in Morocco and it has reached the point where I’m beginning to make sure I can fit in everything that I want to do before leaving . This is my first weekend in Rabat since Ramadan finished so I am using it to catch up on rest, my three page to-do list, and to explore the city better. Not only do I not have much time left, but I also know the beautiful weather wont last and it is soon due to get cold and rainy.
One of the greatest mysteries of the Middle East is how is everyone always so relaxed? People just don’t get stressed out here. When I first arrived, the lack of stress was actually what was stressing me out most! I found some extra activities to keep me busy like tajweed classes (reading the Quran), tennis lessons (which I have never played before in my life), teaching an SAT class (for some extra cash), consulting interview prep, and going for runs in the morning. One of my new favorite pastimes is watching American movies in French. Its amazing how much you can learn by watching a movie! I also bought the kids version of Madame Bouvery to start reading, am half way through Naguib Mahfouz’s Palace Walk, and read a few too many books on Women in Islam (extra reading for a class).
I also realized that I didn’t really write about my family much so I thought I would do that. They are amazing! I was incredibly lucky with my placement. I have three host siblings. Siham is 23 and works full time while also going to school. She’s really reserved and always busy, and its sad that we don’t spend more time with her. Saads 18, the only boy in the family, and clearly the mom’s favorite. They’re always arguing like school aged children and she keeps referencing him as fat, even though he clearly is not. Then there’s Zobeida who is 12 and she LOVES music. We’ll find her randomly walking around the house singing and dancing. She also seems to have a really heavy homework load because ever since her school started she is always studying when we come home. I am always helping her with her math homework (which is in Arabic), and constantly surprised that teacher assignes them so many problems!
Despite having three siblings around our age, Julianne and I are both much closer with the parents. Our host mom keeps referencing us as her daughters and is so happy that we’re happy and comfortable in her house. She also loves to teach! She explains everything to us in both French and Arabic, which we greatly appreciate. One day we stayed out after school until 8 pm and when we came home she was like, I was waiting for you two to come home all day and I was surprised by how much I missed you both! The dad is also really nice and its cute how every morning when we wake up he says good morning and shakes our hands. He also helps out around the house a ton and enjoys cooking. In the mornings he prepares our breakfast and lunch. Our mom is really appreciative of how great of a help he is and constantly says that he is a blessing from God.
The last thing I want to update you on is Rabat. I have fallen in love with the city. If I ever move to Morocco I cannot see myself living anywhere else. Yesterday I spent my Friday afternoon in a café in the Andulacian Gardens, which is completely filled with traditional tiles and overlooks the ocean. There I sat drinking mint tea while doing my homework. There’s also the Kasbah which I love. It overlooks the beach and was built in the 11th century, the site of the original ribat and citadel of the Almohads. The gate, Bab Ouaia is enormous and has this magical ability to make you feel like you are standing there 10 centuries ago. The entire city is filled with rich history that doesn’t have the touristy feel of other attractions around the world because it is still in use by the city and incorporated into everyones life. Thats why playing cards on the terrace at the top of the Kasbah, which was once a strategic defensive base for pirates is completely normal! Oh how I love Rabat!
This week is pretty heavy on homework and midterm papers, so I figured I would write an entry before things got “hectic”.
I cant believe its already October! I have a little under two and a half months left here in Morocco and it has reached the point where I’m beginning to make sure I can fit in everything that I want to do before leaving . This is my first weekend in Rabat since Ramadan finished so I am using it to catch up on rest, my three page to-do list, and to explore the city better. Not only do I not have much time left, but I also know the beautiful weather wont last and it is soon due to get cold and rainy.
One of the greatest mysteries of the Middle East is how is everyone always so relaxed? People just don’t get stressed out here. When I first arrived, the lack of stress was actually what was stressing me out most! I found some extra activities to keep me busy like tajweed classes (reading the Quran), tennis lessons (which I have never played before in my life), teaching an SAT class (for some extra cash), consulting interview prep, and going for runs in the morning. One of my new favorite pastimes is watching American movies in French. Its amazing how much you can learn by watching a movie! I also bought the kids version of Madame Bouvery to start reading, am half way through Naguib Mahfouz’s Palace Walk, and read a few too many books on Women in Islam (extra reading for a class).
I also realized that I didn’t really write about my family much so I thought I would do that. They are amazing! I was incredibly lucky with my placement. I have three host siblings. Siham is 23 and works full time while also going to school. She’s really reserved and always busy, and its sad that we don’t spend more time with her. Saads 18, the only boy in the family, and clearly the mom’s favorite. They’re always arguing like school aged children and she keeps referencing him as fat, even though he clearly is not. Then there’s Zobeida who is 12 and she LOVES music. We’ll find her randomly walking around the house singing and dancing. She also seems to have a really heavy homework load because ever since her school started she is always studying when we come home. I am always helping her with her math homework (which is in Arabic), and constantly surprised that teacher assignes them so many problems!
Despite having three siblings around our age, Julianne and I are both much closer with the parents. Our host mom keeps referencing us as her daughters and is so happy that we’re happy and comfortable in her house. She also loves to teach! She explains everything to us in both French and Arabic, which we greatly appreciate. One day we stayed out after school until 8 pm and when we came home she was like, I was waiting for you two to come home all day and I was surprised by how much I missed you both! The dad is also really nice and its cute how every morning when we wake up he says good morning and shakes our hands. He also helps out around the house a ton and enjoys cooking. In the mornings he prepares our breakfast and lunch. Our mom is really appreciative of how great of a help he is and constantly says that he is a blessing from God.
The last thing I want to update you on is Rabat. I have fallen in love with the city. If I ever move to Morocco I cannot see myself living anywhere else. Yesterday I spent my Friday afternoon in a café in the Andulacian Gardens, which is completely filled with traditional tiles and overlooks the ocean. There I sat drinking mint tea while doing my homework. There’s also the Kasbah which I love. It overlooks the beach and was built in the 11th century, the site of the original ribat and citadel of the Almohads. The gate, Bab Ouaia is enormous and has this magical ability to make you feel like you are standing there 10 centuries ago. The entire city is filled with rich history that doesn’t have the touristy feel of other attractions around the world because it is still in use by the city and incorporated into everyones life. Thats why playing cards on the terrace at the top of the Kasbah, which was once a strategic defensive base for pirates is completely normal! Oh how I love Rabat!
Monday, September 20, 2010
Mabrouk El Eid!
9/12/10
Happy Eid everyone from Morocco! The three day celebration of Eid just finished a few hours ago, and tomorrow morning it is back to school. While Eid was a ton of fun, the most important part is that Ramadan is now over and hopefully this country will go back to normal.
Day 1: After fatoor Thursday night, everyone was eagerly waiting to see if we would be fasting again the next day. My host dad was pretty certain that we would because Morocco started a day after the rest of the Muslim world, but regardless the rest of the family had hope! So we are sitting around the fatoor table still, watching TV (which is the 6th member of our family) and all of a sudden this music starts playing, the show is stopped, and in Arabic it says Eid Mubarak. Im not quite sure what happened next, but all of a sudden everyone was jumping up and down shouting Mabroooook and kissing each other. It felt like the clock just struck midnight for the new year. Mind you, my host sisters are 23 and 13 and they were jumping up and down yelling “Eid is tomorrow, Eid is tomorrow”! And then the phone started ringing and the whole country was ecstatic.
My host mom quickly got dressed to go to the Medina to buy some things, she really wasn’t prepared. I sort of wanted to go with her, but she said she’s going to be really quick. Despite all the excitement, or possibly because of it, I was feeling incredibly exhausted so set my alarm for a short nap. Next thing I know, my host mom is waking me up and they got Julianne and I both Eid presents: Traditional yellow Moroccan shoes! They fit us both perfectly, me with my size 11’s and her with size 6’s. Apparently our mom had planned this a while ago and measured our shoes. She told me she wanted to buy mine gold, to match my new Jalaba, but couldn’t find them in my size. That was fine with me because I have had my eye on the obnoxiously bright yellow, Wal-Mart smiley face shoes that people are walking around with since day one, and now I have a pair of my own. Granted it didn’t match my Jalaba (that I had bought specifically for Eid) at all, but that was fine. My host mom is too cute for me not to wear them with it or say anything.
Wow, so this is about half a page, and the morning of Eid hasn’t even started yet, and I am writing this at 2 am because I can’t sleep (you’ll soon know why), so I am going to pick up the pace.
Day 1 rolls about, and I am excited but don’t really know what to expect so I wake up at 7 am (granted this is also because I went right back to bed after getting my present). My poor host mom however was up at 5:30 am cooking. So I get dressed in my green and gold Jalaba and go to the Eid prayer with my host dad in the morning. It was just the two of us and the mosque is packed, which already makes concentrating on the prayer difficult, but the women are all dressed in very elegant and colorful Jalabas and I may have spent most of the time comparing different ones and taking notes on what colors and styles I like. Everyone was dressed in their best, and I really wished I could have un-awkwardly taken pictures of people… Vogue magazine missed a great assignment!
Then I come back home and so begins the long amount of sitting around that I do not understand how is associated with such an exciting holiday. Its 9 am at this point and my mom is still cooking, so Im just sitting around, and the Jalaba is getting hot, and everyone else is still asleep so I go and change back into my pajamas… Bad idea! My mom saw me and gave me another one of her dresses to wear and told me to go put my hair down and put make up on and look zweena (nice). This wouldn’t be worth noting if she hadn’t given the same advice to Julianne the moment she woke up. 9-12pm is just sitting around waiting, there are cookies on the table that we’re snacking on, but at this point I am pretty hungry and sort of just want an egg or some bread to eat!
I also helped my mom out for a little in the kitchen making Raggheef, which is my FAVORITE Morrocon dessert in the world. Essentially its this dough that is made really thin and then folded into layered squares and then flattened out a bit before first deep frying and then dipping into honey and then covering with some type of seeds and almonds. The outside is crispy and the inside soft and moist. There a specialty for Eid so unfortunately I may not be seeing them again and I didn’t quite catch how to make the dough. I may ask my mom to break the tradition at least once before I leave Morocco. Its only been two days since eating them and I am already craving more!
At noon some of our dads family from Sale, a city right on the outskirts of Rabat come to pick us up (because we don’t have a car) and in fact we take all the food over there…that’s why no one was eating. There most of the family is gathered and essentially from 12-3 we are just sitting around snacking on all these sweets and cookies and drinking mint tea (which actually has more sugar than mint). This is the first time we meet this side of the family and everyone is really nice and welcoming. There is this 2 year old baby that is strapped into his car seat on the floor and then leached to a chair. That was a funny sight, but what was amazing is that this child was not complaining!! Parenting magazine anyone? He’s just sliding about his territory getting people’s attention to play with him and grabbing anything in sight…but not crying!
Then there is our dad’s brother in law who is a religious studies teacher. He used to be an English teacher about 20 years ago, and his English is still pretty good! He sits down beside Julianne and I and the first thing he asks, in French is, are we Christian? Julianne says yes, I say no, and then he surprises us by switching to English and looking me in the eye to say, “you should teach your friend about Islam.” This is the first conversation we have and the beginning of that 3 hour period where we are waiting for dinner. For some reason I think the French word “drole” captures the situation best. Without going into too much detail, the news was on TV so we ended up having very “drole” conversations about Hamas and the Quran Burning Day in the US. Before being seated in a room with about 30 Moroccans while this story is being reported on the news, I didn’t really understand the repercussions that this church’s plans were having! I am pro free speech, but if the remaining 1.5 million Muslims all over the world were also watching their televisions with as much shock, confusion and grief as to why Americans would organize a day to burn the Quran, then you’re yelling “fire” in a crowded theatre… an uncomfortable moment to be American to say the least.
Looking on the bright side, the dinner was delicious, most certainly worth running on nothing but sugar and sugar until 3 pm. The men and women segregated and each side was given two courses, one huge dish of chicken and one of lamb. Essentially, there is this big plate of two huge chickens, and only using your right hand everyone digs in. This was the first time we have eaten in this true Moroccan fashion and didn’t really realize how good we were at it until in the end we saw our greasy right hands and our sugar headache was slowly fading. Soon after dinner Julianne and I left to go home, but not without me stealing one more Raggheef!
Our way back was a little difficult because there weren’t many taxis out, but we made it back without too much trouble. We rested for a bit and when our family got back, at around 7 I decided to head out to a café with some friends. Being an idiot and not realizing that there weren’t going to be taxis, I head out and after walking all the way to the other side of the madina looking for a cab, I stop one of the big white ones that usually carry six passengers and ask him to take me to the place. It should have been a maybe 6 dirham cab ride from there, but the guy wants 30! I guess it sorta makes sense because he isn’t really a cab, and I figured my safety was worth the 30 dirhams, but wow was I surprised on how he changed his price based on the laws of supply and demand…
Hanging out at the café for a bit was fun, not really worth the 30 dirhams to get there, but it was a nice night and again we had a little bit of trouble finding cabs home and since I was by myself going in one direction and the other three girls going in the other I had dibbs on the first cab. The driver was nice and when he realized I was American guess what we ended up talking about? … Quran Burning Day! Yep and then he missed the turn so we ended up driving two blocks in reverse to get to my apartment.
And by the time I got home it felt more like the first week of Eid than the first day
So really quickly…
Day 2: Went to visit some family in Harhura, this gorgeous beach town out side of Rabat, ate more good food, went on an hour long walk with Siham, my host sister and really bonded with her for the first time. Got back home around 7 and not wanting a repeat of the night before and also feeling a little sick decided to call it a night at 8 pm.
Day 3: Couldn’t sleep most of the night. For the first time felt incredibly sick and also had bed bugs. The saying, “don’t let the bed bugs bight” will never have the same nonchalant tone for me anymore! There were also ants that I was constantly flicking off of me…I even felt one crawling in my ear.
I wake up in the morning, still feeling really sick, despite taking Aleve during the night. My host mom makes me Zaatar, which is the same remedy my dad uses when I am sick to my stomach at home. The thing about me is that usually I am pretty good about not getting too home sick, but when I become physically ill then I hit my breaking point and just want to go home. So the fact that my host mom made me zaatar really meant the world to me!
Im lying in bed in pain, but not really sure what to do or how bad it is or even what it is. Its about noon now so I have been in bed for 16 hours and haven’t eaten anything since lunch the day before. I would have given anything to be able to just throw up. Then I get up to go to the bathroom and on my way back I stop being able to see, everything goes red and next thing I know I am on the floor.
Beep beep beep
And the entire family is around me but by the time I was conscious again the pain in my stomach had become absolutely unbearable and they called the program head, but because it was Sunday and still Eid most people things are closed.
Some good tips I learned from my host mom though if anyone gets sick to their stomach- drink something sour. It helps make you able to throw up. Usually I have a pretty strong stomach and can handle things, but the down fall of that is that its hard for me to throw up. I have probably thrown up at only like 5 points in my life.
The second thing that was really surprising is perfume. The mom sprayed perfume in her hand and brought it up to my nose and I distinctly remember feeling at ease for a moment there. So they get a cab, I am white as a ghost barely able to walk, in pain, and moaning. The other thing is that I would have not thought to go to the doctor because stomach pain is usually one of those things that comes and goes and had I not blacked out in the hallway I may have never made the call myself.
I feel bad for the cab driver who I think was also pretty scared and drove super fast! Oh and the entire family accompanied me to the doctor’s office which was also very nice! So I get there, to the place the program told me host parents to take me, and there’s no doctor! So my mom throws a little fit and keeps saying “Shooma, Shooma” (shame, shame!!) before we go to the UN clinic. There I went straight in, felt like a patient on ER, and had two doctors examining me. The problem with Morocco though is that all foreigners get spoken to in French. So here I am speaking my broken French and whenever I don’t know the word for something like “pressure” use the Arabic word, and still these guys are speaking to me in French! Anyways, lets just say that its infinitely easier to explain your symptoms in your native tongue!
So I got two shots of pain killers, for the first time in my life and could instantly feel my body relaxing and the pain easing. Then talking to him in French was much more bearable and I might add that I was surprisingly impressed by how easily I was able to communicate! One thing to note though- when I am in pain and scared at the same time, I cant stop laughing. So here I am all sweaty and in pain and the guy is poking my hand looking for a vein while the nurse is carrying a huge needle, and I am cracking up!! He must have thought that there was something else wrong too!
And literally within a minute after getting my shots of pain killers, I am almost completely fine and beginning to think that the entire morning was just my imagination. It’s a little incredible how one can go from feeling like they are on their death bed to feeling like there is not a care in the world within a few minutes. Right now I am doing much better, alhamdulilah and if it wasn’t for the four different medicines I was prescribed then I wouldn’t think that anything happened to me.
So what has wrong with me? Apparently the doctor didn’t feel the need to tell me. What medicine am I taking? Not really sure, just know that two of them have pictures of stomachs on them. What did I do upon coming home? Just slept some more. What am I doing, now at 3 am? Not sleeping. Oh and guess who has a note that says that I don’t have to go to school the next three days? Me. And guess who is super bored dork and tired of sleeping and will probably go anyways…
Yep, so that is my Eid weekend. Day 1: sweets, looking nice, and sitting around. Day 2: beach, good food, good company. Day 3: pain killers. Let me just add that holidays away from home are always tough and that my yellow shoes and the family trip to the doctor made me feel like I was with family!
Happy Eid everyone from Morocco! The three day celebration of Eid just finished a few hours ago, and tomorrow morning it is back to school. While Eid was a ton of fun, the most important part is that Ramadan is now over and hopefully this country will go back to normal.
Day 1: After fatoor Thursday night, everyone was eagerly waiting to see if we would be fasting again the next day. My host dad was pretty certain that we would because Morocco started a day after the rest of the Muslim world, but regardless the rest of the family had hope! So we are sitting around the fatoor table still, watching TV (which is the 6th member of our family) and all of a sudden this music starts playing, the show is stopped, and in Arabic it says Eid Mubarak. Im not quite sure what happened next, but all of a sudden everyone was jumping up and down shouting Mabroooook and kissing each other. It felt like the clock just struck midnight for the new year. Mind you, my host sisters are 23 and 13 and they were jumping up and down yelling “Eid is tomorrow, Eid is tomorrow”! And then the phone started ringing and the whole country was ecstatic.
My host mom quickly got dressed to go to the Medina to buy some things, she really wasn’t prepared. I sort of wanted to go with her, but she said she’s going to be really quick. Despite all the excitement, or possibly because of it, I was feeling incredibly exhausted so set my alarm for a short nap. Next thing I know, my host mom is waking me up and they got Julianne and I both Eid presents: Traditional yellow Moroccan shoes! They fit us both perfectly, me with my size 11’s and her with size 6’s. Apparently our mom had planned this a while ago and measured our shoes. She told me she wanted to buy mine gold, to match my new Jalaba, but couldn’t find them in my size. That was fine with me because I have had my eye on the obnoxiously bright yellow, Wal-Mart smiley face shoes that people are walking around with since day one, and now I have a pair of my own. Granted it didn’t match my Jalaba (that I had bought specifically for Eid) at all, but that was fine. My host mom is too cute for me not to wear them with it or say anything.
Wow, so this is about half a page, and the morning of Eid hasn’t even started yet, and I am writing this at 2 am because I can’t sleep (you’ll soon know why), so I am going to pick up the pace.
Day 1 rolls about, and I am excited but don’t really know what to expect so I wake up at 7 am (granted this is also because I went right back to bed after getting my present). My poor host mom however was up at 5:30 am cooking. So I get dressed in my green and gold Jalaba and go to the Eid prayer with my host dad in the morning. It was just the two of us and the mosque is packed, which already makes concentrating on the prayer difficult, but the women are all dressed in very elegant and colorful Jalabas and I may have spent most of the time comparing different ones and taking notes on what colors and styles I like. Everyone was dressed in their best, and I really wished I could have un-awkwardly taken pictures of people… Vogue magazine missed a great assignment!
Then I come back home and so begins the long amount of sitting around that I do not understand how is associated with such an exciting holiday. Its 9 am at this point and my mom is still cooking, so Im just sitting around, and the Jalaba is getting hot, and everyone else is still asleep so I go and change back into my pajamas… Bad idea! My mom saw me and gave me another one of her dresses to wear and told me to go put my hair down and put make up on and look zweena (nice). This wouldn’t be worth noting if she hadn’t given the same advice to Julianne the moment she woke up. 9-12pm is just sitting around waiting, there are cookies on the table that we’re snacking on, but at this point I am pretty hungry and sort of just want an egg or some bread to eat!
I also helped my mom out for a little in the kitchen making Raggheef, which is my FAVORITE Morrocon dessert in the world. Essentially its this dough that is made really thin and then folded into layered squares and then flattened out a bit before first deep frying and then dipping into honey and then covering with some type of seeds and almonds. The outside is crispy and the inside soft and moist. There a specialty for Eid so unfortunately I may not be seeing them again and I didn’t quite catch how to make the dough. I may ask my mom to break the tradition at least once before I leave Morocco. Its only been two days since eating them and I am already craving more!
At noon some of our dads family from Sale, a city right on the outskirts of Rabat come to pick us up (because we don’t have a car) and in fact we take all the food over there…that’s why no one was eating. There most of the family is gathered and essentially from 12-3 we are just sitting around snacking on all these sweets and cookies and drinking mint tea (which actually has more sugar than mint). This is the first time we meet this side of the family and everyone is really nice and welcoming. There is this 2 year old baby that is strapped into his car seat on the floor and then leached to a chair. That was a funny sight, but what was amazing is that this child was not complaining!! Parenting magazine anyone? He’s just sliding about his territory getting people’s attention to play with him and grabbing anything in sight…but not crying!
Then there is our dad’s brother in law who is a religious studies teacher. He used to be an English teacher about 20 years ago, and his English is still pretty good! He sits down beside Julianne and I and the first thing he asks, in French is, are we Christian? Julianne says yes, I say no, and then he surprises us by switching to English and looking me in the eye to say, “you should teach your friend about Islam.” This is the first conversation we have and the beginning of that 3 hour period where we are waiting for dinner. For some reason I think the French word “drole” captures the situation best. Without going into too much detail, the news was on TV so we ended up having very “drole” conversations about Hamas and the Quran Burning Day in the US. Before being seated in a room with about 30 Moroccans while this story is being reported on the news, I didn’t really understand the repercussions that this church’s plans were having! I am pro free speech, but if the remaining 1.5 million Muslims all over the world were also watching their televisions with as much shock, confusion and grief as to why Americans would organize a day to burn the Quran, then you’re yelling “fire” in a crowded theatre… an uncomfortable moment to be American to say the least.
Looking on the bright side, the dinner was delicious, most certainly worth running on nothing but sugar and sugar until 3 pm. The men and women segregated and each side was given two courses, one huge dish of chicken and one of lamb. Essentially, there is this big plate of two huge chickens, and only using your right hand everyone digs in. This was the first time we have eaten in this true Moroccan fashion and didn’t really realize how good we were at it until in the end we saw our greasy right hands and our sugar headache was slowly fading. Soon after dinner Julianne and I left to go home, but not without me stealing one more Raggheef!
Our way back was a little difficult because there weren’t many taxis out, but we made it back without too much trouble. We rested for a bit and when our family got back, at around 7 I decided to head out to a café with some friends. Being an idiot and not realizing that there weren’t going to be taxis, I head out and after walking all the way to the other side of the madina looking for a cab, I stop one of the big white ones that usually carry six passengers and ask him to take me to the place. It should have been a maybe 6 dirham cab ride from there, but the guy wants 30! I guess it sorta makes sense because he isn’t really a cab, and I figured my safety was worth the 30 dirhams, but wow was I surprised on how he changed his price based on the laws of supply and demand…
Hanging out at the café for a bit was fun, not really worth the 30 dirhams to get there, but it was a nice night and again we had a little bit of trouble finding cabs home and since I was by myself going in one direction and the other three girls going in the other I had dibbs on the first cab. The driver was nice and when he realized I was American guess what we ended up talking about? … Quran Burning Day! Yep and then he missed the turn so we ended up driving two blocks in reverse to get to my apartment.
And by the time I got home it felt more like the first week of Eid than the first day
So really quickly…
Day 2: Went to visit some family in Harhura, this gorgeous beach town out side of Rabat, ate more good food, went on an hour long walk with Siham, my host sister and really bonded with her for the first time. Got back home around 7 and not wanting a repeat of the night before and also feeling a little sick decided to call it a night at 8 pm.
Day 3: Couldn’t sleep most of the night. For the first time felt incredibly sick and also had bed bugs. The saying, “don’t let the bed bugs bight” will never have the same nonchalant tone for me anymore! There were also ants that I was constantly flicking off of me…I even felt one crawling in my ear.
I wake up in the morning, still feeling really sick, despite taking Aleve during the night. My host mom makes me Zaatar, which is the same remedy my dad uses when I am sick to my stomach at home. The thing about me is that usually I am pretty good about not getting too home sick, but when I become physically ill then I hit my breaking point and just want to go home. So the fact that my host mom made me zaatar really meant the world to me!
Im lying in bed in pain, but not really sure what to do or how bad it is or even what it is. Its about noon now so I have been in bed for 16 hours and haven’t eaten anything since lunch the day before. I would have given anything to be able to just throw up. Then I get up to go to the bathroom and on my way back I stop being able to see, everything goes red and next thing I know I am on the floor.
Beep beep beep
And the entire family is around me but by the time I was conscious again the pain in my stomach had become absolutely unbearable and they called the program head, but because it was Sunday and still Eid most people things are closed.
Some good tips I learned from my host mom though if anyone gets sick to their stomach- drink something sour. It helps make you able to throw up. Usually I have a pretty strong stomach and can handle things, but the down fall of that is that its hard for me to throw up. I have probably thrown up at only like 5 points in my life.
The second thing that was really surprising is perfume. The mom sprayed perfume in her hand and brought it up to my nose and I distinctly remember feeling at ease for a moment there. So they get a cab, I am white as a ghost barely able to walk, in pain, and moaning. The other thing is that I would have not thought to go to the doctor because stomach pain is usually one of those things that comes and goes and had I not blacked out in the hallway I may have never made the call myself.
I feel bad for the cab driver who I think was also pretty scared and drove super fast! Oh and the entire family accompanied me to the doctor’s office which was also very nice! So I get there, to the place the program told me host parents to take me, and there’s no doctor! So my mom throws a little fit and keeps saying “Shooma, Shooma” (shame, shame!!) before we go to the UN clinic. There I went straight in, felt like a patient on ER, and had two doctors examining me. The problem with Morocco though is that all foreigners get spoken to in French. So here I am speaking my broken French and whenever I don’t know the word for something like “pressure” use the Arabic word, and still these guys are speaking to me in French! Anyways, lets just say that its infinitely easier to explain your symptoms in your native tongue!
So I got two shots of pain killers, for the first time in my life and could instantly feel my body relaxing and the pain easing. Then talking to him in French was much more bearable and I might add that I was surprisingly impressed by how easily I was able to communicate! One thing to note though- when I am in pain and scared at the same time, I cant stop laughing. So here I am all sweaty and in pain and the guy is poking my hand looking for a vein while the nurse is carrying a huge needle, and I am cracking up!! He must have thought that there was something else wrong too!
And literally within a minute after getting my shots of pain killers, I am almost completely fine and beginning to think that the entire morning was just my imagination. It’s a little incredible how one can go from feeling like they are on their death bed to feeling like there is not a care in the world within a few minutes. Right now I am doing much better, alhamdulilah and if it wasn’t for the four different medicines I was prescribed then I wouldn’t think that anything happened to me.
So what has wrong with me? Apparently the doctor didn’t feel the need to tell me. What medicine am I taking? Not really sure, just know that two of them have pictures of stomachs on them. What did I do upon coming home? Just slept some more. What am I doing, now at 3 am? Not sleeping. Oh and guess who has a note that says that I don’t have to go to school the next three days? Me. And guess who is super bored dork and tired of sleeping and will probably go anyways…
Yep, so that is my Eid weekend. Day 1: sweets, looking nice, and sitting around. Day 2: beach, good food, good company. Day 3: pain killers. Let me just add that holidays away from home are always tough and that my yellow shoes and the family trip to the doctor made me feel like I was with family!
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Weekend in Casa
9/6/10
Yes, I now refer to Casablanca just as Casa, and yes It does make me feel cool! This past weekend was the first time that I have travelled outside of Rabat and it made me more appreciative of many aspects of Rabat that I have taken for granted so far such as the proximity of everything in this city and the quiet familiarity that it carries. The trip was just over 24 hours but it was long enough so that when we stepped off the train the next day in Rabat we all thought “home sweet home!”
The train ride was a surprisingly pleasant experience. The train station had this European feel to it and it was incredibly clean and well kept. A first class round trip ticket to Casa only costs 70 dirhams or about 8 dollars. Yep, my first time in first class! It was Shabneez, Gabby, Alissa, Nadine, and me on this trip and the main purpose of it was to visit Hassan II mosque, which is one of the largest in the world, second only to the one in Mekka. Upon first arriving we took cabs straight to the mosque trying to catch the 2 pm tour, but when we got there they said that because it is Ramadan the last tour was actually at 11 am. Non-muslims can only go into the mosque by paying something 100 dirhams for a guided tour but we were quite disappointed because our trip was short and this was the main purpose. While regrouping to discuss a game plan the guy comes up to me and asks if we are Muslims, and I said that Shabneez and I are. He goes, so are your friends Muslim? And a light bulb goes off in my head and I am like, yes….
So we all cover up and go in. I figured it wasn’t that horrible of a thing since the mosque is open to everyone, our timing was just off. So we go in to do Wudu and it was hilarious watching the other girls trying to act Muslim and copying everything we did. They were keeping up pretty well through wudu, until it came to the hair, ears, neck step that I usually perform really quickly. So we all performed wudu and are covered and heading up to the mosque and we see the guy again. He asks If we just want to pray or if we want a tour. Now, to the five of us a tour means a guided tour where he explains the history, so we thought why not! So he asks for 200 dirhams for the five of us, which isn’t that bad for a tour. After we finally figure out the money and each pay 40 dirhams, the guy disappears and we are left dumbfounded. It is a little frustrating to think that you got ripped off when visiting a mosque, but I think there was this lack of communication somewhere in between.
I was secretly a little happy that this was the first time that I felt ripped off in Morocco. Getting off the train station I came pretty close when the cab driver asked for 20 dirhams to take us to the Mosque and even though I didn’t know how far it was asked that he just use the meter. He said that the meter didn’t work and then offered 15 dirhams. When I said no to that too and began to walk away, the meter decided to magically work and apparently it is like a 5 dirham trip from the train station to the mosque!
But yep, so no tour… However the mosque was gorgeous! The women’s section is on the upper level with tiles and carvings and gold and chandeliers and all the gorgeous decorations you can think of. At first, afraid that we were still supposed to be undercover everyone was afraid to take out their cameras, but then realized that everyone was in their own element. There were people sleeping there with bags or stuff that I was confused about, but we will come back to that later! While the mosque was beautiful and it was great praying there, there is something a little unsettling about how flamboyant it is.
I am very happy we visited the mosque in the afternoon though because it carries very different beauty in the night and day. One of my friends from Philadelphia is actually spending time with his family in Casablanca so we met up with him and his sister afterwards. His name is Othmane and his family also invited us all over for fatoor which was really nice of them. But it was incredibly bizarre that Gabby, Othmane and I were all spending time together in Casa! It just goes to show how small the world is and how random life can be at times. First we toured the city which is HUGE compared to Rabat and has so many different parts, but because it is still Ramadan the streets were relatively quiet and most stores were closed. Afterwards we checked into our hotel which cost $10 per person and on a scale of 1-10 for sketchiness, 10 being the highest, it was probably a 7, but I am writing this safe and sound back in Rabat
Afterwards we went to visit the king’s palace then headed over for fatoor. On the drive over to their house we drove by the beach where I possibly saw the most incredible sunset of my lifetime that looked like an angel’s wing. We arrived a little after fatoor due to the traffic but Othmane’s mom went all out for the fatoor and there was fresh orange juice, delicious dates, homemade shabakiya, homemade bread (ragheef), the pancake bread, hareera soup… and this was just the first course. While eating I wished so hard that I had more room in my stomach and it required strategy to not get full too quickly. Then we had a whole grilled stuffed fish (picture below) with an olive and grape stuffing along the side. Also we were eating in the outdoor patio and it was a gorgeous night. This has to have been my favorite fatoor in Morocco!
After fatoor some of us went back to the mosque for the Taraweeh prayer, thinking that we were leaving early to get a good spot. Little did we know… In front of the mosque there was so much traffic so we got down to walk while Othman’s dad parked the car. Never in my life have I seen that many people. The next day in the paper we read that there were 250,000 people there that night that not only filled the mosque and the terrace, but also the entire surrounding area out to the street. As massive as the sound system is, half the people could barely hear the imam reciting the prayer! Shabneez and I first tried to pray along the outskirts but really couldn’t hear anything, and thanks to her braveness, the two of us ventured closer to the mosque. Better crowd control really could have allowed more people to get closer to the mosque because there was some extra room for people to squeeze in. After about 20 minutes of steering past people praying and climbing up and down these waist-high steps we reached a place where we could here, and were lucky enough to have the ocean right behind us. The salty air, starry sky, crowdedness of people and sight of a 300 meter minaret in front were all topped off by it actually being the night that they completed reading the Quran in the prayer, so there was a beautiful invocation at the end. Now I understand however why those people were sleeping in the mosque earlier that day, its just like staking out a spot for a concert!
And trying to leave with all the traffic was also like a concert! It took us over an hour to get to the hotel that’s about 10 minutes away. We called it a night early and then left to the train station first thing in the morning. Happy to have visited Casa and surprised by the sense of belonging we all felt upon arriving in Rabat!
Yes, I now refer to Casablanca just as Casa, and yes It does make me feel cool! This past weekend was the first time that I have travelled outside of Rabat and it made me more appreciative of many aspects of Rabat that I have taken for granted so far such as the proximity of everything in this city and the quiet familiarity that it carries. The trip was just over 24 hours but it was long enough so that when we stepped off the train the next day in Rabat we all thought “home sweet home!”
The train ride was a surprisingly pleasant experience. The train station had this European feel to it and it was incredibly clean and well kept. A first class round trip ticket to Casa only costs 70 dirhams or about 8 dollars. Yep, my first time in first class! It was Shabneez, Gabby, Alissa, Nadine, and me on this trip and the main purpose of it was to visit Hassan II mosque, which is one of the largest in the world, second only to the one in Mekka. Upon first arriving we took cabs straight to the mosque trying to catch the 2 pm tour, but when we got there they said that because it is Ramadan the last tour was actually at 11 am. Non-muslims can only go into the mosque by paying something 100 dirhams for a guided tour but we were quite disappointed because our trip was short and this was the main purpose. While regrouping to discuss a game plan the guy comes up to me and asks if we are Muslims, and I said that Shabneez and I are. He goes, so are your friends Muslim? And a light bulb goes off in my head and I am like, yes….
So we all cover up and go in. I figured it wasn’t that horrible of a thing since the mosque is open to everyone, our timing was just off. So we go in to do Wudu and it was hilarious watching the other girls trying to act Muslim and copying everything we did. They were keeping up pretty well through wudu, until it came to the hair, ears, neck step that I usually perform really quickly. So we all performed wudu and are covered and heading up to the mosque and we see the guy again. He asks If we just want to pray or if we want a tour. Now, to the five of us a tour means a guided tour where he explains the history, so we thought why not! So he asks for 200 dirhams for the five of us, which isn’t that bad for a tour. After we finally figure out the money and each pay 40 dirhams, the guy disappears and we are left dumbfounded. It is a little frustrating to think that you got ripped off when visiting a mosque, but I think there was this lack of communication somewhere in between.
I was secretly a little happy that this was the first time that I felt ripped off in Morocco. Getting off the train station I came pretty close when the cab driver asked for 20 dirhams to take us to the Mosque and even though I didn’t know how far it was asked that he just use the meter. He said that the meter didn’t work and then offered 15 dirhams. When I said no to that too and began to walk away, the meter decided to magically work and apparently it is like a 5 dirham trip from the train station to the mosque!
But yep, so no tour… However the mosque was gorgeous! The women’s section is on the upper level with tiles and carvings and gold and chandeliers and all the gorgeous decorations you can think of. At first, afraid that we were still supposed to be undercover everyone was afraid to take out their cameras, but then realized that everyone was in their own element. There were people sleeping there with bags or stuff that I was confused about, but we will come back to that later! While the mosque was beautiful and it was great praying there, there is something a little unsettling about how flamboyant it is.
I am very happy we visited the mosque in the afternoon though because it carries very different beauty in the night and day. One of my friends from Philadelphia is actually spending time with his family in Casablanca so we met up with him and his sister afterwards. His name is Othmane and his family also invited us all over for fatoor which was really nice of them. But it was incredibly bizarre that Gabby, Othmane and I were all spending time together in Casa! It just goes to show how small the world is and how random life can be at times. First we toured the city which is HUGE compared to Rabat and has so many different parts, but because it is still Ramadan the streets were relatively quiet and most stores were closed. Afterwards we checked into our hotel which cost $10 per person and on a scale of 1-10 for sketchiness, 10 being the highest, it was probably a 7, but I am writing this safe and sound back in Rabat
Afterwards we went to visit the king’s palace then headed over for fatoor. On the drive over to their house we drove by the beach where I possibly saw the most incredible sunset of my lifetime that looked like an angel’s wing. We arrived a little after fatoor due to the traffic but Othmane’s mom went all out for the fatoor and there was fresh orange juice, delicious dates, homemade shabakiya, homemade bread (ragheef), the pancake bread, hareera soup… and this was just the first course. While eating I wished so hard that I had more room in my stomach and it required strategy to not get full too quickly. Then we had a whole grilled stuffed fish (picture below) with an olive and grape stuffing along the side. Also we were eating in the outdoor patio and it was a gorgeous night. This has to have been my favorite fatoor in Morocco!
After fatoor some of us went back to the mosque for the Taraweeh prayer, thinking that we were leaving early to get a good spot. Little did we know… In front of the mosque there was so much traffic so we got down to walk while Othman’s dad parked the car. Never in my life have I seen that many people. The next day in the paper we read that there were 250,000 people there that night that not only filled the mosque and the terrace, but also the entire surrounding area out to the street. As massive as the sound system is, half the people could barely hear the imam reciting the prayer! Shabneez and I first tried to pray along the outskirts but really couldn’t hear anything, and thanks to her braveness, the two of us ventured closer to the mosque. Better crowd control really could have allowed more people to get closer to the mosque because there was some extra room for people to squeeze in. After about 20 minutes of steering past people praying and climbing up and down these waist-high steps we reached a place where we could here, and were lucky enough to have the ocean right behind us. The salty air, starry sky, crowdedness of people and sight of a 300 meter minaret in front were all topped off by it actually being the night that they completed reading the Quran in the prayer, so there was a beautiful invocation at the end. Now I understand however why those people were sleeping in the mosque earlier that day, its just like staking out a spot for a concert!
And trying to leave with all the traffic was also like a concert! It took us over an hour to get to the hotel that’s about 10 minutes away. We called it a night early and then left to the train station first thing in the morning. Happy to have visited Casa and surprised by the sense of belonging we all felt upon arriving in Rabat!
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
8/29/10 Classes!
Today is the first day of classes! Last night I was having some déjà vu of being in kindergarten and just so excited to learn! It’s a little dorky, I know. But since arriving I’ve been spending so much time walking around with my Berlitz French in 30 Days book and three pages of Darija phrases and words teaching myself that I was so excited to actually have a teacher teach things to me. Unfortunately the excitement didn’t last that long. Trying to stay awake during my 8:30 am Arabic class after just eating dinner at 1 am and then sahoor at 4 am, I was essentially running on about 4 hours of sleep! I miss those filled lecture halls where the teacher doesn’t know any ones name! My Arabic class only consists of me and another Penn student, Rachel, so sleeping is not an option! But the teacher is so sweet and essentially spent the first hour bashing Al-Kitaab which is what all American universities use to teach Arabic.
Its crazy though how quickly I am picking up on Darija. My teacher’s name is Touriya and she is an old lady but has SO much energy that you get tired just listening to her. But I know that the lessons have been paying off because last night in the Medina I was able to hold a conversation with the shop keeper. One of the first things she taught us was “That is too expensive, I am only a student.” Looks like I am going to need to find some more phrases for bargaining because after talking to the dude for twenty minutes trying to buy this pair of fushia purple Aladdin pants he only took the price down from 80 to 70 dirhams. Opportunity cost of time would call that an epic fail. He even told me he wanted to visit America and still wouldn’t budge below 70!
Oh well, they are super comfortable!
This weekend was pretty low key since its Ramadan. The whole country spends the whole day just chilling waiting for fatoor time and then after people eat the streets and beach are packed to the max! On Friday night I went to the beach with my twelve year old host sister and her cousin. There is this long pier that goes all the way out into the Atlantic with huge rocks along the side that people are chilling on. It is absolutely gorgeous and just a ten minute walk from my house. They also have kayaks, jet skis and a place where you can take surf lessons there.
Yesterday I went to the Mohammed V mosque and mausoleum twice. The first time was during the afternoon and it was beautiful but really hot and we just spent about 30 minutes there. I am not going to even try to explain the beauty, Ill upload pictures soon. Then for the taraweeh prayer that night me and my host dad went there again and it was one of the most moving prayer experiences ever. The mosque was packed so people were praying out on the terrace under the stars facing the front of the mosque with delicate lights shining on everyone.
After the prayer, me and my roommate went to the medina to buy my host mom a Ramadan present and got this traditional serving plate. Here my bargaining skills worked a little better. At first the guy asked for 100 dirhams and we ended up buying it for 70. Our mom really liked it and also last night was the first time we ate couscous in the house. She used our plate to serve the couscous and kept thanking us.
Ahem, now on to the couscous!!!!! It was BINEEN BZAAF (very delicious!) We all used spoons to eat from the big plate and it was covered with vegetables like squash, sweet potato, carrots and potatoes and also had meat. I saw my mom put in a whole bar of butter into the pot so I thought I would just eat a little but it was just too delicious. Me and Julianne were both stuffed and just kept eating. I cant wait till Ramadan is over so we can eat couscous every Friday. The lesson: Couscous is by far my favorite dish in the world and I will learn how to cook it like my host mom and make it for everyone in the states.
B’slama!!
Ps. Note to self: Don’t write blog entries about delicious food at lunch time while you’re fasting.
Its crazy though how quickly I am picking up on Darija. My teacher’s name is Touriya and she is an old lady but has SO much energy that you get tired just listening to her. But I know that the lessons have been paying off because last night in the Medina I was able to hold a conversation with the shop keeper. One of the first things she taught us was “That is too expensive, I am only a student.” Looks like I am going to need to find some more phrases for bargaining because after talking to the dude for twenty minutes trying to buy this pair of fushia purple Aladdin pants he only took the price down from 80 to 70 dirhams. Opportunity cost of time would call that an epic fail. He even told me he wanted to visit America and still wouldn’t budge below 70!
Oh well, they are super comfortable!
This weekend was pretty low key since its Ramadan. The whole country spends the whole day just chilling waiting for fatoor time and then after people eat the streets and beach are packed to the max! On Friday night I went to the beach with my twelve year old host sister and her cousin. There is this long pier that goes all the way out into the Atlantic with huge rocks along the side that people are chilling on. It is absolutely gorgeous and just a ten minute walk from my house. They also have kayaks, jet skis and a place where you can take surf lessons there.
Yesterday I went to the Mohammed V mosque and mausoleum twice. The first time was during the afternoon and it was beautiful but really hot and we just spent about 30 minutes there. I am not going to even try to explain the beauty, Ill upload pictures soon. Then for the taraweeh prayer that night me and my host dad went there again and it was one of the most moving prayer experiences ever. The mosque was packed so people were praying out on the terrace under the stars facing the front of the mosque with delicate lights shining on everyone.
After the prayer, me and my roommate went to the medina to buy my host mom a Ramadan present and got this traditional serving plate. Here my bargaining skills worked a little better. At first the guy asked for 100 dirhams and we ended up buying it for 70. Our mom really liked it and also last night was the first time we ate couscous in the house. She used our plate to serve the couscous and kept thanking us.
Ahem, now on to the couscous!!!!! It was BINEEN BZAAF (very delicious!) We all used spoons to eat from the big plate and it was covered with vegetables like squash, sweet potato, carrots and potatoes and also had meat. I saw my mom put in a whole bar of butter into the pot so I thought I would just eat a little but it was just too delicious. Me and Julianne were both stuffed and just kept eating. I cant wait till Ramadan is over so we can eat couscous every Friday. The lesson: Couscous is by far my favorite dish in the world and I will learn how to cook it like my host mom and make it for everyone in the states.
B’slama!!
Ps. Note to self: Don’t write blog entries about delicious food at lunch time while you’re fasting.
8/25/10 I hope you're hungry!
Today is my first day with my host family and they are absolutely adorable! My host dad’s name is Mohammed and my host mom’s name is Karima. They have three children, Siham (20), Saad (17), and Zoubaida (12). Julianne, another student in the program and I will both be staying here for the semester. This was not the family that we were initially assigned to live with. Just an hour before it was time for us to meet our host families, which was a surprisingly nervous moment for me, Julianne and I were told that our host family will be moving out of Rabat this month and cannot host us. All the students were afraid that their host families wouldn’t like them, which was really cute and quite hilarious, but Julianne and I figured that worst case scenario is that this family also decided to “move” out of Rabat.
Alhamdulillah, it really worked out for the best because in our new home we both have our own bedrooms and the family has hosted three sets of American students before us. Julianne is just beginning Arabic so we are both relying on French to communicate with the family and the little bit of darija that we learn in class. I am incredibly impressed with how quickly French has come back to me though!! Granted there have been countless conversations where I have no idea what is going on and am just nodding, but that’s because I am just too tired to try and figure things out before fatoor.
For the past four nights we have been having fatoor at restaurants and I thought that was impressive, but today my host mom Karima out did anything we had seen so far. There were dates, figs, hareera soup, quiche, pizza (I think this was our special welcome), eggs, cheese, homemade bread, fried fish, meatballs, and probably so much more that I had forgotten. By the end I was stuffed and there was so much more that I still wanted to try. Right now it is 11:30 pm and Karima is in the kitchen again preparing dinner. From what I have seen, there are two whole roasted chickens, liver, sweet potatoes, an eggplant dish, and probably some other things. I was sort of expecting cous cous, but apparently it is not common during Ramadan except for on the 27th night which is “laylat al qadr”, or so that’s what I understood.
I am hoping that Karima does not tire herself out this much every day during Ramadan because unlike what I am used to in my family where you cook until fatoor time, she keeps going afterwards! I don’t know how she does it but hopefully this is much more food than we will be normally eating. Oh and did I mention that there is another meal at 3:30 am? I am praying so hard that I will have room in my stomach for the midnight meal, but unless a special miracle happens there is no way I will be able to eat that third meal.
For our first night here, they also invited some extended family over. After dinner Julianne and I spent the whole time talking to the little girls who are about 12 years old in French. For some reason I have had the hardest time asking “how old are you?” That and midway in French sentences I will insert Hebrew words like can (yes), ayfo (where), biimed (really). No one has any idea what I am saying! Regardless, by the end of my first day I feel like my French is exponentially better than it was when I first arrived. But my new technique from now on when trying to learn a language is to always befriend children because they don’t hesitate to look at you like you’re crazy when you throw in Hebrew words where as my host dad just smiles and nods:)
Julianne and I are so excited to begin to explore the area around. We are a ten minute walk from the Medina in a neighborhood called Hassan. We are already making lists of things we want to do like kayaking, surfing, and jet skiing. I also think I am going to try and take tennis lessons. I’ve always wanted to learn but have never played before so this feels like a great opportunity to fit in lessons! So I guess this is what I will be calling home for the next four months. The warm yellow walls of my bedroom make me feel like I am in Morocco. The American bubble I was in the past four days has burst and the real adventure is just beginning!
Alhamdulillah, it really worked out for the best because in our new home we both have our own bedrooms and the family has hosted three sets of American students before us. Julianne is just beginning Arabic so we are both relying on French to communicate with the family and the little bit of darija that we learn in class. I am incredibly impressed with how quickly French has come back to me though!! Granted there have been countless conversations where I have no idea what is going on and am just nodding, but that’s because I am just too tired to try and figure things out before fatoor.
For the past four nights we have been having fatoor at restaurants and I thought that was impressive, but today my host mom Karima out did anything we had seen so far. There were dates, figs, hareera soup, quiche, pizza (I think this was our special welcome), eggs, cheese, homemade bread, fried fish, meatballs, and probably so much more that I had forgotten. By the end I was stuffed and there was so much more that I still wanted to try. Right now it is 11:30 pm and Karima is in the kitchen again preparing dinner. From what I have seen, there are two whole roasted chickens, liver, sweet potatoes, an eggplant dish, and probably some other things. I was sort of expecting cous cous, but apparently it is not common during Ramadan except for on the 27th night which is “laylat al qadr”, or so that’s what I understood.
I am hoping that Karima does not tire herself out this much every day during Ramadan because unlike what I am used to in my family where you cook until fatoor time, she keeps going afterwards! I don’t know how she does it but hopefully this is much more food than we will be normally eating. Oh and did I mention that there is another meal at 3:30 am? I am praying so hard that I will have room in my stomach for the midnight meal, but unless a special miracle happens there is no way I will be able to eat that third meal.
For our first night here, they also invited some extended family over. After dinner Julianne and I spent the whole time talking to the little girls who are about 12 years old in French. For some reason I have had the hardest time asking “how old are you?” That and midway in French sentences I will insert Hebrew words like can (yes), ayfo (where), biimed (really). No one has any idea what I am saying! Regardless, by the end of my first day I feel like my French is exponentially better than it was when I first arrived. But my new technique from now on when trying to learn a language is to always befriend children because they don’t hesitate to look at you like you’re crazy when you throw in Hebrew words where as my host dad just smiles and nods:)
Julianne and I are so excited to begin to explore the area around. We are a ten minute walk from the Medina in a neighborhood called Hassan. We are already making lists of things we want to do like kayaking, surfing, and jet skiing. I also think I am going to try and take tennis lessons. I’ve always wanted to learn but have never played before so this feels like a great opportunity to fit in lessons! So I guess this is what I will be calling home for the next four months. The warm yellow walls of my bedroom make me feel like I am in Morocco. The American bubble I was in the past four days has burst and the real adventure is just beginning!
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