Imdagdaga

I just finished my third day in Morocco! Today we got our host family assignments and tomorrow we will be moving in with them. So far it has just been “orientation” which has consisted of a lot of sitting around during the day amongst a bunch of American students. Getting to know the other people in the program has been really interesting, but I really do feel like I am in this little bubble and didn’t really get thrown into Moroccan culture yet. In fact every time I try to talk to someone in Arabic they respond to me in French! I have been trying to practice Moroccan Arabic, or darija with everyone! This includes taxi drivers, hotel doormen and waiters. The darija language is so odd and I cannot get my tongue to work properly at all! Essentially it is fusha Arabic minus all the vowel sounds. My favorite word so far is “imdagdaga” which you have to say super fast and means I’m exhausted and is almost as amusing as its French equivalent, fatigue. Lately any Moroccan I meet I am trying to talk to them in Arabic and they ALL think I am Lebanese. Really? Lebanese?
And then when they find out that I am fasting they are all shocked that there are Muslims in America. Its actually quite amusing because Moroccans will be explaining to the group of foreign Americans that are mainly majoring in Middle Eastern Studies what it means to “fast” and they all point to me and are like, Besan is fasting! All the Americans in the program are super nice to me though and seem so amazed that I survive the whole day. You know how some families spoil the younger kids with their favorite food and constant praise, that’s what the other students are doing to me and its quite enjoyable!
For dinner every night we have been going to restaurants and having “fatoor” which consists of hareera soup, shebekiya, hard boiled eggs, some bread, dates and coffee. Essentially its this miniature meal Moroccans break their fast on where they consume as much sugar and protein as possible while filling up as little space in their stomach. Its actually quite impressive. They don’t have their main meal until around 11 pm, but for the past three nights all I have been eating is fatoor because just the idea of eating at 11 pm and then going to sleep makes me sick.
Also just down the street from our hotel there is this huge mosque and for Taraweeh prayer it is completely packed and overflows onto the sidewalk. It truly is an amazing sight! So far there have been a couple of times while with the Amideast group when I wish I could just disappear, and one of those times was last night walking home from fatoor. A couple of girls and I were trailing in the back of the group and saw the prayer congregation so crossed the street in order to not walk right in front of them. Upon crossing we noticed the rest of the group in front of us walking right in front of at least 100 men praying on the sidewalk… God must have been really proud of us and wanted to reward us because across the street we stumbled upon this AWESOME ice cream shop named Terre de la Glace (which I initially thought meant potato of ice cream) with flavors like Kinder Surprise, tirmasu, hazelnut, and so much more that was absolutely delicious!
Probably the only other exciting excursions we have had so far apart from our daily fatoors are our late night outings to the Madina. Because it is Ramadan, or so I assume, the streets begin bustling just after 10 pm and are lit up with festive lights. It consist of road after road of men selling everything from colorful Moroccan shoes to Hannah Montana posters to delicious food to electrifying music. Two nights ago while we were roaming the souk, we got these ground beef + egg + ketchup sandwiches on fresh bread that were divine and washed it down with fresh peach and orange juice. That cost us a total of 10 dirhams which is about $1.25!!! Also that night I bought a new purse that is this bright fuchsia color (supposedly real leather but Im not sure about that, Ill have to have my mom look at it) and really adorable for 150 dirham or just under $20. Ok that might be a little much for a purse here but the dude initially asked for 200 Dh, so it feels cheap! Keep your eyes out for it in pictures because I think its adorable!
Ok, so this is a pretty long and random post, and I am imdagdaga, so bslama!

Ps. I am so excited to meet my host family tomorrow