No, not that Africa... the OTHER Africa!

Hey everyone. It's been awhile since a legitimate post so I figured I will just throw one up.

Um, no, I didn't mean throw up, I meant... oh whatever.

The good news is that I'm not sick. I can drink the local tap, eat the fruit (so long as it's washed, obviously) and eat things like a normal person. First person to get sick on the trip was Matt S (not my Matt; there's another one on the trip). But it was kind of light, which is good. Dooler, however, left class in the middle of the day because she didn't feel well. I hope she gets better. We had a betting pool going on who was the first to get sick... I had pretty long odds, which is good. Didn't place any money though so, meh.

Class is going well. I'm practicing my Arabic each night with my host sister and in the street. It's a bit disconcerting because when I try to buy things the shopkeeper will talk to me in French (it's standard due to all the tourists) and I kind of have to push to get them to speak to me in Darija, which isn't exactly what we're learning in school but it's what's spoken in the home and we've had plenty of exposure to it.

As for the food, it's mostly good. I think I eat like five plate-sized pieces of bread a day. Those things are more numerous than pidgeons in central park. They are everywhere, everyone sells them, and it's always fun to see kids running home with one or two after being sent out by their mom with a few dirhams.

Now there are people practicing Darija around me and it's hard to write in English! Also, I've gotten in the bad habit of saying "You know what is..?" before saying a word in English to my host sister and cousin because that's what they say all the time. If I come back speaking a broken English/French/Dari-Fusha, I apologize. I really am trying to learn Fusha but all the other five languages keep getting in the way (there's also Tamazight (), Spanish, and I've even gotten people speaking to me in Italian. Weird.)

Back to the food. Like I said, lots of bread. Haven't had much couscous at home, and when we do have it I don't really like it because it's rather bland with just some sugar and cinnamon and raisins, which I don't consider to be a meal. Lots of stews though, which is cool. Chicken is a big mover here since they're small and inexpensive and don't have to be halal. The pressure cooker is my mama's best friend. She also likes to make us "sandwiches" which are pretty much the bread I mentioned earlier with either some egg and leftovers inside, or yesterday it was chicken and fries. Oh yeah, homemade fries are huge here.

What's best, though, is the fruit. We've got everything (even one weird thing that I tried but didn't really like; I'll see if I can get a picture of it so someone might be able to identify just what it is). Baby plums, cherries, apples, pears, bananas, LOTS of oranges, grapes, and the most delicious peaches I have ever had. Whew, I love fruit.


I also have to admit that I'm addicted to Moroccan Mint Tea. Seriously, I'll drink it like four or five times a day. I personally think my mama's is best (of course) but it's all really good. Also, they do have coffee here and you can get european style expresso drinks in the cafes, but insofar as in the home, I avoid it like the plague. Pretty much just boiled water with a few scoops of "taster's choice" dumped in and boiled to a sludge. The coffee at school, however, is a bit better and I'll buy one for like three dirhams when I need a mid-Arabic lesson pick-me-up at 10 in the morning.

My typical day starts at 7:40am when my alarm clock goes off. I hear my host mama shuffle downstairs to make me breakfast while I get dressed for school. I pack up my backpack and my purse and go down to the kitchen for some bread-butter-and-jelly and my morning tea. I chat a little with my mama in broken Dari-Fusha and English and let her know if I'll be home for lunch or will eat it at the CCCL, and also establish when I'll be home for dinner. I inevitably forget something upstairs, so I have to run back to my room, grab what i'm missing, and then walk along Ave Laalou to the Bab Laalou, cross the street to the Mobil (and not get hit) and then walk down the street about a block and a half, make a quick right-left and I'm at the Annex. Class starts at 8:30, with a break from 10-10:30 and wraps up at 11:45.

My arabic teacher is Omama Mansour, who is getting married to her husband (weddings happen in three parts: engagement, then official signing, then the actual ceremony; Omama has done the first two but her big party is at the end of July, right before we leave) and has invited Kristen and myself to join her as part of her official entourage (they don't really do bridesmaids, but we've been told that we will "help her get ready" for the wedding).

The only other student in my class is Kristen, which means the three of us know each other very well and we get a lot accomplished each day and have a good time doing so. After class, I walk back to Ave Laalou and either go home for lunch or head to the CCCL for lunch there (like I did today) and afterwards we have class. If I go home, it's either because I have class later, at like 4:30 (SIESTA TIME! WHOOO!) or we have the afternoon off, like I did yesterday. Sam and I walked around the Souk and the Kasbah, so I've added a few more pictures. Check them out on the righthand side of the page. If you click the slideshow, it will take you to my web album where you can read my captions and leave comments.

Ok, they're about to shut down the center, so I need to go. Maa Salaama!

Important Morocco Info - UPDATED!

Schedule:
June 8 - Depart Houston (12:50pm), Layover in Atlanta

June 9 - Layover in Madrid, Arrive in Casablanca (1:30pm Local, 8:30am CST), Train to Rabat

June 9-12 - Program orientation

June 11 - Intensive Arabic Language Training begins in Rabat

June 26-29 - Southern excursion to Marrakech and Essaouira (for the Jazz Festival!)

June 28 - My 20th Birthday!

July 12-16 - Northern excursion to Fes, Meknes, Ouazzane and Brikcha

July 28 - Train from Rabat, Depart Casablanca (11:45am Local, 5:45am CST) Layover in New York, Arrive in Houston (10:55pm)

My Postal Address:
Mely RABALAIS
Center for Cross-Cultural Learning
PO Box 6291, Rabat Instituts
Rabat 10101
Morocco

*Note: capitalize my last name please; it will make receiving mail much simpler*

In-Country Cell #: +212 15 82 61 19

e-mail I will be checking: i.heart.jp2@gmail.com

Post Dump. More recent stuff later.

11 June 2008 12:53pm GMT+1 Rooftop of the Marquez, Rabat
So, we woke up at 7am for breakfast at the 4 saisons, again. The orange juice (( is super fresh, if a bit sugared, and the pain au chocolat isn’t bad, but the coffee taste like a steamed doubleshot (the starbucks drink from a can that you drink cold). Hey, at least it’s caffeine. I burned my tongue last night on a café au lait at the singular café we’ve found with free wireless (imagine 9 of us crammed into a small room on the second floor using the internet and praying that our batteries don’t run out b/c the room lacked plugs).


12 June 2008 10:45pm GMT+1 في بيتي (at my house)
So, I kind of got called away when I was writing that last entry. Now I’m sitting in my host family’s house, watching TV. Satellite is huge here; everyone has one. So far I’ve watched episodes of Charmed and Friends subtitled in Arabic (which scrolls too fast but I can understand certain words here and there) and a Turkish soap opera dubbed in Arabic. Whoa; want to talk about confusing?

Anyway, I’m staying about midway between the Annex and the Marquez. So you know, the Annex is where I have Arabic classes in the morning and the Marquez (the CCCL) is where our Culture & Society Seminar and all extracurricular activities take place. I have free wireless there, but it’s been off/on in the past few days, and I can only access it until 6:30.

I got my language placement. Apparently no one was placed into intermediate. There’s beginner low (aka newbies), beginner mid (myself and Kristen), and beginner high (4 students). I’m learning a lot that was neglected when I took Arabic at St. Ed’s. Colors, Time, counting past twenty, and adjectives (I am… hungry / happy / tired / strong / pretty / exhausted / short, etc.) Tomorrow is day 3; after that we don’t get to speak English in class except when we say a word after “Kaif Na-Kool…?” to know how to spell it. Though today I had to play pictionary since Omama (our professor; she’s getting married at the end of July and Kristen & I are invited!) didn’t understand “truck.”


13 June 2008 9:08pm GMT+1 في بيتي (at my house)
Apparently I just can’t get an entire entry done in one sitting. Something is always coming up. For those of you who expect me to have sent you an email/ postcard/ letter by now, I’m sorry. I’ve barely had time to sleep, and I only have internet when I’m at the Marquez, which closes at 6:30 on weekdays and is closed all weekend. I’ll see what I can do.

During our orientation, we were told that the Television (tel-e-fiz-ee-oon) is a part of the family. There’s a formal living room, but the majority of the action in the house is in the family room. Really. It’s the nexus of the house, where we eat lunch & dinner (breakfast is a quick affair in the Cosina (kitchen, in Darija) and sit at all other times. You do your homework there, hold conversations, and the TV is never, ever turned off except when everyone leaves and Mama goes to sleep on the couch. In Morocco, it is normal for girls to sleep on the couches in one room and boys to sleep on the couches in another, even to the point that after a certain time the parents will sleep separately. It’s just the way it’s done.

The house I’m in though has all teenagers and 20-year olds. Abdelatif (29; haven’t met him yet) and Zacharia (23; perfect French, good English, no Fusha) sleep in one room, and Maryem and I sleep in the same room next door. Maryem is awesome. She picked me up at the center (her mom, Fatima, who I call Mama, is housebound… she can’t walk very well, so she sleeps in the third floor family room. On the second floor is the kitchen and the bathroom and the first level of the roof where the clotheslines are. She sends out Zacharia or Maryem for whatever she needs and her family (two sisters and a brother) live in the house below us on the first floor… It’s kind of funny because when I’m on our roof, we can look down into their atrium. And I just realized I’m in parentheses still. Sorry!) and Maryem and I get along great.

She’s 17 and speaks excellent English, perfect French, and has studied Fusha so she’s helping me with my homework and pronunciation. My first night here she took me to the Kasbah, the fort overlooking where the river that runs between Rabat and Salé goes in to the Atlantic Ocean, and we talked about a lot of different things. I asked her about the cat-calling guys do on the street and when she started wearing the Hijab, and she asked me what religion I was. When I said Catholic, I had to explain that it was Christian, and then the difference between Protestants and Catholics. That was interesting. I still haven’t found where Mass is being said, but I’m going to try to do that after class tomorrow (we have 2 Saturday classes the first week, then from there on we’re on regular Mon-Fri, 8:30-11:45am class).

Ok, it’s late (11pm) so I think I’m going to wash up and go to bed. Don’t know when I’ll post this. There might even be more entries before I put this up. Maa Salaama!