Where is my Habibi?

The wind is wildly whipping around my window and raindrops are pelting the building as I'm snuggling into my blanket covered bed. It has been a stormy week in Rabat. It began this weekend when Saturday the skies turned gray and menacing above us. We started the morning off once again with a visit to the Hammam. This time we ventured into the third and hottest chamber. This proved to be too much when about an hour later Brittini and I found ourselves stumbling out into the coolest room and quickly sitting down to keep from fainting. We then met our fellow students and program manager Doha in the Medina to do some shopping for all the cute clothes we left behind. We maneuvered the Medina easily at first finding piles of rather sketchy clothes (many had holes from security tags and one girl found a security tag still on a shirt she purchased) for only 3o dirham= almost $4. Doha it turns out is a world class bargainer as well and would argue endlessly in Arabic, French, and Berber if needed in order to get us all the best deal. Love her. In the end I went away with three uber cute dress/shirts and a pair of brown oxford shoes for less than $50, score!

That night I spent at home with my sisters and host mom. We shared a big bowl of pasta and another of popcorn(!) and I ended up staying up late laughing and having fun with them all. I shared photos from home and Rabia my host mom could not stop laughing at the funny faces I make in them. Sara my host sister brought out some of her childhood photos to share with me. We mimicked each others accents and it was pretty hilarious to hear my host mothers

impression of english. My host sister shared with me all the music on her phone, the likes of Justin Bieber and Avril Lavigne, singing along to anything we knew. Then we stood out on the balcony for a while listening to music and looking for Fatima's habibi. There is nothing like a night like this to make you feel you have found a new home and a long lost family :)

Sunday was quite relaxing, just like I like em'. Slept in, watched some cartoons (Tom and Jerry and Looney Toons), and of course read and did homework all day. We helped our host mom prepare the Tajine by peeling and slicing veggies again, a task I am getting better at. Later in the evening we took a break from the days work and ventured out with our host sister Fatima to a nearby salon to get our hair done. I was not surprised to find that salons are a universal

gossip haven for women. Something quite different is the lack of hair instruments, everything you could ever want done is done with hairdryers here. So I got my hair straightened, my roommate got hers curled and our host sister got her waist length hair cut and styled all while listening to the women gossip in arabic. After we took a trip to the supermarjet to get some much needed chocolate and settled in for the rest of the night.