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.
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