Nothing short of thankful

I am sitting here in my room, about to pass out, and thinking back to my whirlwind week. And what a whirlwind real first week it was.

Classes began this week, which means Monday-Friday a 6:40 am wake-up call, breakfast, and a 40 minute walk to school. I'm not complaining by any means, though I also wouldn't complain if I could sleep a little bit later :) The first week of school is shopping week when all the students are allowed and encouraged to attend the classes they are interested in and then by the end of the week be decided on which classes he/she will take. So I did just that. Classes were for the most part interesting, some more than others. Wednesday in a class called, "The Islamic World and the West", we already had a guest speaker, a friend of the professor. He had just flown in on an evacuation flight from Tunisia. He gave us some history of the country, background of the events taking place there, and told the story of his first-hand experience there. Pretty amazing stuff. In my, "Islam and Gender" class we are already reading about the concept of "gender" in the Arabophone or Arabic speaking world. In "Contemporary Moroccan Culture" we have read about Ramadan in Morocco as well as a short story entitled "The Merchant of Heaven" about Brother Lemon and American who tries to bring christianity to Ghana but does not understand the culture and is not open to the people. Then there's Arabic, Fusha everyday at 8:30 in the morning and Darija Monday and Wednesday. The Foosha teacher is wonderful but I am quickly discovering I have a LOT of work to do. Let the studies begin!

Family time this week was also wonderful. I am beginning to feel more and more at home in my room, the apartment, and with my family. Each day I find that Brittini and I seem to want to return to our welcoming host family and comfortable home. I love nighttime here when we all gather in the "living room" after our long days to eat from communal dishes of food, share our days, and usually laugh and giggle together about silly Soap Opera's or Arabic comedians. One night they brought out family pictures of a cousins wedding and took great pride in showing each one too us. We were amazed at the extravagant dress and the number of times it seems the bride changed, I swear it was more than 10 times! Another night we were all mesmerized by a Bollywood film that had the favorite actress of my host sister in it. My host sister Fatima is proving to be not just a new sister but also a teacher, she encourages us to practice or Darija and even tests us. She helped me practice reading through a dialogue I need to learn for class. Last night we looked through a book about Morocco and planned a weekend trip for the beginning of February to a beach town called Agadir with our host sister Sara. Perhaps the funniest and most Universal moment occurred last night with our host sister Fatima, who is the smallest person and is always leaping up and running across the apartment for something. She of course jumped up and ran out of the room but just as she was rounding the corner we could see her little feet catch the rug as she went tumbling to the ground. Of course she was fine, we were informed that it happens all the time, and we all cracked up laughing for a few minutes. Perfect unity.

Random adventures, this week I seem to have had plenty. Wednesday night I went for my second time to Up Stairs to meet two other girls and one of the two boys in our program. We shared some wine and

had good conversation and I was planning to head home pretty early but soon enough we all ended up in taxi's on our way to the Kasbah. We followed Nate, who has already been here a semester, through the windy deserted streets and stumbled down the dark rocky backside of the Kasbah. It was worth it. We sat atop the ledge of an ancient wall looking out over the water where the ocean meets the Oued Bou Regreg river.

It was a full moon, the lights of city were twinkling, and we all were overcome with, what may sound like a silly realization, that we are in Morocco. After, on our way out we looked back at the Ocean and offhand I mentioned that I had never touched the Atlantic Ocean, ever. We hesitated for only a moment before turning back and heading to Ocean. Once we hit the sand I took of running and touched the Atlantic Ocean for the first time, ever. It was a magical night. Then on Friday the whole group met up at Mega Mall for ice skating, which turned out to be one of the fanciest malls I've been to. We hit the ice with Moroccan pre-teen couples and skated our hearts out. Some had never skated, many fell; we danced, we sang, we had tons of fun.

So I can rightfully say that I would not want anything different from my first real week in Morocco. I am nothing short of thankful...for the Avett Brothers who say it better...

I know I’m up and down.
Please, try to (accept)
Apologies for the sadness that I’ve found.
The years we’ve (spent)
Nothing short of grateful for our trip.
And those we’ve (met)
Nothing short of thankful.
Nothing’s gonna change my mind,
I’m travelin’ a different highway.
Nothing’s gonna change my mind.
I’m walkin’ a different line.
Oh, nothing’s gonna change my mind.
You’ll find what you need if you want it.
Nothing’s gonna change my mind.
I’ll find mine.

The wonder that's keeping the stars apart

12 days. Twelve days I havebeen in Morocco today. I felt the urge today to count the number of days I have been in this country. Just enough time to start to feel a pang of longing for loved ones at home but also to grow comforted on my walk home, knowing I was returning to my new Moroccan home. This place full of kind generous people has already lived up to the all encompassing term, "home". I have a family who already has welcomed me as one of their own; I am blessed with dinners to fill my stomach each night, a room to share with a bed piled with blankets, and a feeling of contentment to feed my soul. I am reminded though that things are different here; I am forced to live without, to go outside of my comfort zone, to live in a very different way than I am used to. And for this I am thankful. I came to Morocco knowing I would not have a normal or easy experience. Living in a less developed country, learning a new and difficult language, becoming familiar with a culture and religion that sees life and the world differently than anything I have been exposed to before. I am ready for this.

It is time for me to distance myself from everything I know and have always known. To be away from those I love and sometimes depend on. Time to feel uneasy, scared, uncomfortable, and maybe even sad. But I know that these feelings, moments when I want to burst into tears, will not come without great rewards. In the end I will have learned a beautiful and meaningful language. I will have lived within a culture completely different from my own and learned from it, learned things I can share with others. I will understand better a religion that I and much of the world know little about. I will have formed strong, lasting relationships with Moroccans and others. I will have taken tests and written papers. But most importantly I will have developed a "Me" outside of the me I know now. Across the Atlantic with nothing but a suitcase all I have is myself to depend on. So the challenge will be to discover a "me" that is truly without a doubt nothing but ME. I will have a greater vision of who I am, what I stand for, my beliefs, my quirks, my talents, my likes and dislikes, and my life passion. With this I will be able to work toward the best me I can be.

I believe in all of my being that this will come from my experience in Morocco, and so it will be, Insha'Allah!

...here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows

higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

- ee cummings

Layla Saida friends

More pictures and news on how my first week of classes is going to come!

Beauty found

Ssalam u 3alaykum all.

Today is a day for picture of my new home. Clothes pins, my neighborhood with clothes hanging from every balcony. My bedroom, the entrance room, lunchtime tajine's, my new slippers, and the room we spend the most time in to eat and watch many Arab soap opera's. Enjoy the beauty of my new life here in Morocco. It is a wonderful place that is filled with beautiful language, kind and welcoming people, delicious food, family time, social experiences, and a charm that I can already feel seeping into my soul. One week in Morocco has already changed me and I am only beginning to understand the ways it will change we in four months. For now I am opening myself up to all this country and culture has to show me about life. I am ready and wiling to expand, grow, learn, create relationships, and understand more about myself through knowledge of others. Here's to a new experience in a land called Maghreb!

Up Stairs

Today was the last day of orientation Hamdullahe (praise be to god)! Learning and doing so much important stuff every moment is kind of exhausting to say the least. Today was all about education because our classes start on monday. Brittini and I found our way to school without a problem, hooray for us. We spent the morning learning about differences in the education system in Morocco and America. In Morocco education is teacher centered, the Qur'an has a saying that says essentially, a teacher is eq

ual to a prophet. Thus classes are mostly lecture, most class time is spent taking notes, no reading is done for discussion and most think

ing by the students takes place at test taking time. We also got to meet our professors and learn a bit about the classes. One I am really excited about is on Islam and gender, we get to visit some women's organizations in Morocco for the class.

We spent a great deal of time wandering around Agdal today as well. During breaks in the orientation schedule we walked around looking in shops, getting qhwa (coffee), and running errands. We checked out two gyms that we want to sign up for and looked around a book store. After lunch commenced the longest darija arabic lesson of my life, 3 hours! Needless to say I have only had 2 darija arabic lessons so far but still, 3 hours! Our sweet teacher taught us a popular Moroccan song and the whole class sang it over and over again. The story of the song is of a girl asking her love if he likes her. We then learned about an opportunity to volunteer teaching english twice a week, I am eager to volunteer and become involved in the community.

In the evening we had a small dinner with the students and faculty in the program. We milled around and talked meeting more professors and two of the other students who have already been here for a semester. The food was bite size sweet and savory treats. Most were mysterious so I adopted taste testers to check the snacks for meat. We were about

to leave with two other host girls and the one and only host boy we've met when we stared talking to some guys who teach english at AMIDEAST, Trent, Gavin, and John. They invited us to Up Stairs for a drink. This marked my first bar experience! The bar was fun inside though I noticed immediately the telltale blonde heads of foreigners. We all got drinks and talked for a while listening to stories about life in Morocco and also about how the girls in Tennessee might seem sweet but can punch hard, Trent's first hand experience. We said goodbye and caught a taxi back home using some of our newly learned darija arabic.

After we got home we got to meet our other host sister Amina. She is in a wheelchair and can't speak much but she seemed happy to meet us. We practiced our arabic with Fatima and Rabia and sang them the song we learned but mostly forgot. They said this is a song that all Moroccan girls know. Tomorrow begins our first weekend here and I am guessing it will be used for sleep and relaxation. In the morning Fatima is going to take us to the Hammam, or bathhouse that is very popular here. So now I must lay my weary head down to rest.

tsbh 3la khir (Good night)

Awkward turtle...

The majority of today was spent walking. Walking here walking there, walking up (many stairs) walking down, walking all around. The next Doctor Seuss eh? Woke up bright and early at 5:50 am when the call to prayer went

off at the Mosque right across the street from our apartment. I was able to go back to sleep until around 7:30 for my alarm,which I have finally figured out! I might also mention that there is a rooster in an apartment across the street from us that crows not only when the sun rises but also nearly every 30 minutes after that.

Brittini and I ate a quick breakfast with our host mother and sister and headed to AMIDEAST. It was about a 30-44 minute walk. It was lovely to get out and walk in the brisk morning air with our host sister Fatima. She is very easy to talk with, eager to learn and to help teach us Darija (Moroccan arabic). At AMIDEAST we told each other stories about our first night with homestay families. All seems well, some host families are very modern, some speak mostly french, come are very busy and never home, while others stayed up late on their sofa's talking. Of course my homestay seems to be the best :)

Then came time for the Rabat challenge, a scavenger hunt throughout the city and a whole lot of walking. I and four other girls hit the town! We had to get pictures of various places, a cafe, internet hot spot, pharmacy, bank, etc. Also we needed to go to the Medina and buy a gift and something ambiguous for the rest to guess it's purpose. We headed towards our homestay's to show each other our new homes. Along the way we passed a high school which must have just gotten out for lunch because crowds of youngsters were gathered around. We caused the biggest ruckus I have ever caused. Everyone was yelling things and boys were drumming on the cars, we're kind of a big deal I guess.

We magically found our way everywhere we needed to go without barely looking at the map. We stumbled upon homestay's, wandered right up to the walls of the Medina, came out the other

side, remembered our way to the post office and train station, and jumped in a taxi saying, "McDonalds Agdal," and they took us to the McDonalds right around the corner from AMIDEAST! Needless to say we felt pretty accomplished.

We gave presentations of our days, revealed our ambiguous objects which were interesting cookie cutters in the shape of a pyramid, swirly design, and the Hamsa. During tea time after we arrived home I spoke the most arabic consecutively since I arrived in Morocco. Brittini and I worked our hardest to communicate with Rabia the host mom and it actually worked. We gave them our gifts from home and had a very enjoyable meal. Later I taught Fatima some American hand gestures and meanings like "high five", and "awkward turtle" and I learned others. My personal favorite is "Shooma" which you say as you pull down the skin beneath your eye with your index finger, it means shame. Then of course some good ol' Moroccan soap opera's to end the night. In this one the jealous housewife made her maid change her name to her mothers in order to scare her husband away from here. Oy Vey, what will

they think of next!

Layla sa3ida (goodnight)

p.s. this is the view from my room

The international language of Soap opera's

Today was THE day,

the day we went to live with our host families. Anxiety, excitement, fear, anxiety, happiness, nearly every feeling under the sun was building up in all of us in anticipation of this moment. We spent the morning at AMIDEAST and went through another hyper-intensive Survival Moroccan Arabic course. My word for you today is Kol shi bikhir meaning all is fine. You can use this as an answer to how are you, and you better! Then we gathered in a classroom and awkwardly waited as someone from our families came in to meet us. Of course almost all the Moroccan Arabic we had just been franticly learning disappeared from our minds, but we knew enough for the polite greeting. Fatima one of the girls in our family came to pick my roommate Brittini and I up. She is a tiny Moroccan woman who wears a headscarf and speaks what I would say is very good english and she only learned it from watching tv!

We then spent a good 10 minutes hailing a cab during rush hour. Our cab ride was crazy and included a moment when the cab drive, fed up with traffic, simply drove into the land lane of oncoming traffic to go around. Yikes! Luckily we did make it in one piece to the apartment. We met Rabia the house mother and Ali the shopkeeper who came home for lunch. Fatima left for her job with the ministry of energy, pretty impressive I must say. We unpacked and then sat down for lunch with Rabia a kind and welcoming Moroccan woman. We watched a Moroccan soap opera which proved to be pretty interesting. We communicated with Rabia as much as we could and she is very welcome to teaching and learning herself. Soap opera's are pretty universal it turns out, there was a cheating spouse, what we think was a depressed woman because she couldn't have kids, and even a villian who tried to choke another lady in a department store for not coming to work. Anger issues, I guess they've got them everywhere :)

We went to our rooms to relax then and I took a much needed nap. There are so many sounds here you notice when laying down. The call to prayer sounds 5 times a day, people on the street, people in the apartment above, and Rabia cleaning what seemed like the whole apartment and doing laundry. Needless to day I slept very well :)

We gathered in what seems like our women's room, because Ali hasn't eaten with us, for tea and snack time. So much bread and delicious treats and of course Moroccan mint tea complete with a cup or two of sugar. We talked while watching tv, most notably Kung Fu Panda dubbed in arabic. It wasn't quite the same without Jack Black but everyone still found it funny. Then we watched all of Catch Me if You Can with Arabic subtitles and at a light dinner of some sort of pasta in a bit communal bowl and clementine like fruits. So my homestay family is very kind and hospitable and I can see becoming very close with them. Also I am going to bed very full and must make a note to learn "I am full, thank you" in order to keep from gaining 1,000 pounds!

Layla saida (goodnight) from a happy apartment in Rabat, Morocco to anyone out there listening.

oh and lieu of new pictures for tonight and oldy goldy that makes me happy. This is not Morocco but rather high in the Sierra Nevada's, my happy place :)

YMCA

Sorry for the late post, internet freaked out on me last night but here it is!

Tired. Sums up the days end pretty well. Today was a day of information. It started off early when my alarm clock and phone accidentally went off at 6:15am, 2 hours early, someday I'll get it figured out. The morning was spent in orientation classes learning about Nonverbal communication in Morocco and Home-stays. The orientation classes pretty much consist of the 13 girls and Dohathe program manager, a beautiful and stylish Moroccan woman whom I can already see becoming our second mom while we're here. I learned that many Darija (Moroccan arabic) have nonverbal hand gestures. Forexample the word kyf kyf means same or all thesame to me and you can signify it by putting your index fingers together parallel to the ground and moving them back and forth, toward your bodyand away. Go try it out!

I also received my host family information. I am going to be living with another girl Brittany here with a family of 3 girls one my age named Sara, Amina, and Fatima, and a mother who is a housewife named Rabia and father who is a shopkeeper named Ali. I will meet them and move in tomorrow in their home, eeek!

Later after lunch we went to our firstSurvival Moroccan Arabic classes. We split up according to previous Arabic knowledge. We were waiting in the classroom when in walks the hyper hard to understand woman from the arabic placement tests. We then had an hour long session learning Darija with her. She was funny and quite energetic for someone with gray hair, sorry mom, and I did learn a lot. However we all came out of it feeling quite overwhelmed. No sooner were we about to leave when we were whisked away to a cafe nearby to practice ourjust learned language skills. The cafe was modern and had a dj, awesome! We ordered delicious coffee and danced to YMCA and Night at the Roxbury music. Another highlight of the day was dinner with the group as well as some past students and the staff in the Medina. I finally got to try Tajir, a traditional moroccan dish, in a vegetarian version this time. We were all fooled during dessert when delicious yogurt in ceramic cups turned out to be Dannon. Haha. After we went on a walking tour in the Medin, which is the old part of town inside a large wall consisting of a maze of alleyways and walkways lined with shops and venders selling everything and anything. Dead chickens, live chickens, boots, you name it! We were looked at much and even called spice girls, my favorite greeting yet :)

The night ended with my hotel roomate sara and eyediscussing feminism and literally passing out in bed. Well at least she has, I am not far behind!

Layla saida (Good night) my loves.