Hello everyone!
So sorry it has taken so long for an update. I’ve been pretty busy!
Before I start... RIP Michael Jackson :( What a tragedy. I tried to explain to my Moroccan family that my American family dances to Michael Jackson at dinner time and that we love him dearly in Arabic, but it didn't work too well. I don't think they thought i really said "Dancing during dinner."...but, either way. Very sad day. It was awesome to see the mass moonwalk on the news though....He will live on.
Now where did I leave off..
Spain was amazing. We took a really shady bus up to Tangier and then rode on the ferry over to Tarifa, one of the little coastal towns of Spain. It was refreshing to be able to have full conversations with people, and there was definitely a nightlife that I’d been missing out on for the past few weeks. We went to the beach on Saturday and then head back Sunday morning. I was sad to have "gone" to Spain without actually seeing much at all, but that is a place I will definitely be going to in the future...
I am halfway through my study abroad program! I finished a midterm and paper already, and am on the homestretch. I am loving it here, but it will be nice to get home and get some rest.
This past weekend we went to a famous festival in a town called Essouaria full of Gnawa music. Now, this stuff is right up my alley. Gnawa music is a mix of Afro-Arab jams basically, but it sounds mostly tribal Sub-Saharan to me. During this festival, the tiny beach town turns into a host of over 1.5 million people. There were tons of Rastafarians and hippies there, just jamming out all night long. Some of the concerts didn’t even start until 2 or 3 am. I really loved the atmosphere there, and it definitely had an “African” vibe to it. Jimi Hendrix visited this town and Led Zeppelin samples some Gnawa music on a few of their tracks. Everyone who figured out we speak English was acting like knew Jimi Hendrix personally. It was pretty funny.
On the way back from the Gnawa festival, we stopped to spend the day in Marrakesh. Marrakesh is a beautiful city, and it also happens to be where my Arabic teacher at home is from. We took a tour of an old Islamic “mudrasa” which was a school for young children. It was full of amazing mosaics and carvings and had a beautiful center square where the children learned the Quran and prayed. I have a video of the square with the Adhan, or call to prayer, going in the background. I will try to post it asap. Also in Marrakesh is a huge middle square in the town where most of the business takes place. It was here that we found the fortune tellers, henna artists, monkey handlers, and snake charmers. I got to hold a monkey and a snake, which you all know made me pretty excited. Also, we saw some more Camels! I love the way they look and have some pictures to put up of those as well. We are going to try to make a trip to the desert soon so hopefully I’ll have some good ones of me actually riding one…but all in all it was a great weekend trip.
While in Morocco so far I have witnessed 4 car accidents and 4 legitimate fights. The car accidents are self explanatory (rules are more like polite suggestions here,) but the fights have been pretty interesting. On the way back from Spain, we had to all crowd into the customs line, where there were a mess of international people and nowhere to go. We were just minding our own business, when we heard a loud smack. A Spanish girl punched a Moroccan girl in the face, and all of their friends started going at it. It was crazy because there was a ton of shouting in all these different languages, and it was just an interesting event to watch in general, seeing how different kinds of people react in different situations. Anyway, lots of security, lots more waiting ensued.
The second fight was the best. Pete, Staci, and I were sitting in a sidewalk restaurant/café just enjoying some chawarmas, when a waitress from another restaurant came in and started screaming at the cook in Darijat. We couldn’t understand but were very intrigued because the lady looked pretty agitated, pointing and screaming. The best part was that the cook didn’t say a word. He just looked at her, his eyes getting all crazy and BAM! Took a knife and tried to chop this lady’s hand off! Seriously within an inch. I would say that he was definitely aiming at her hand that was on the counter with serious intent. She ran out screaming and yelling, unharmed but it was a close call. We all looked amazed, but nobody else in the restaurant seemed phased at all. That’s Morocco for you. The other two fights were at the Gnawa festival , which was to be expected.
I have 17 days left in Morocco and am hopefully going to make the most of it, so I’ll be back to update as soon as I can !
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Friday, June 19, 2009
June 19
Update: Public baths still exist in the world. They still very much exist in Morocco, and are very weird. All I can say is, the dirtiest and cleanest experience at the same time. Moving on. For our culture class we went to an Athropology museum yesterday, and it was very interesting. They have a skull from the first known operation ever in mankind. The man's skull looked like a bunch of puzzle pieces put back together with stitches, but apparently he survived. There were also a TON of Roman sculptures and statues, which was great because while I never really consider myself someone who is interested in that period, seeing it really is breathtaking and gives you a new appreciation.
My Moroccan brother graduated from high school yesterday and there were a ton of people in the house. I didn't have anything of course, because my conversations take 3 times longer than they should and involve heavy use of the dictionary, so I kind of steered clear until the masses cleared out. In Morocco, from what I gathered speaking with the family, there is an "end of high school test" that determines whether you graduate or not. My brother was on the evening news looking his name up on the sheet of names of kids, presumably to get his results. It was pretty cool seeing him get interviewed, even though I didn't understand a word of it.
Today Staci, Pete, and I are going to take a ferry to Spain and see what's going on over there. We don't have time or plans to fly into any big cities, so we are kind of just gonna go with the flow once we get over there. I am glad to go because I've been craving a little Spanish conversation. It's funny, watching all the tv shows and listening to the radio in Arabic I think has made my brain get frustrated because it hasn't heard much of English or Spanish sounds in a few weeks. Although now I can definitely pick out the verbs, nouns, etc. in the news. I just have an extremely limited vocabulary.
Have a good weekend everybody!:)
My Moroccan brother graduated from high school yesterday and there were a ton of people in the house. I didn't have anything of course, because my conversations take 3 times longer than they should and involve heavy use of the dictionary, so I kind of steered clear until the masses cleared out. In Morocco, from what I gathered speaking with the family, there is an "end of high school test" that determines whether you graduate or not. My brother was on the evening news looking his name up on the sheet of names of kids, presumably to get his results. It was pretty cool seeing him get interviewed, even though I didn't understand a word of it.
Today Staci, Pete, and I are going to take a ferry to Spain and see what's going on over there. We don't have time or plans to fly into any big cities, so we are kind of just gonna go with the flow once we get over there. I am glad to go because I've been craving a little Spanish conversation. It's funny, watching all the tv shows and listening to the radio in Arabic I think has made my brain get frustrated because it hasn't heard much of English or Spanish sounds in a few weeks. Although now I can definitely pick out the verbs, nouns, etc. in the news. I just have an extremely limited vocabulary.
Have a good weekend everybody!:)
Monday, June 15, 2009
June 14
Hello to you! Lots of pictures of Rabat are coming once I figure out this program. The internet, when I have it, is pretty unreliable so I might just put them on facebook instead. Anyone who likes bargain shopping should really come here. Yesterday Pete, Staci and I went to the medina with three of our Moroccan friends, and it was crazy. There is so much stuff it’s impossible to go through every store. Moroccan mirrors, pillows, scarves, shirts, shoes, food, drinks, jewelry, souvenirs…everywhere. My friend Raja negotiated prices with the shop owners whenever we wanted something. I was able to get a Cristiano Ronaldo ManU jersey for about $10. Try doing that in the States right about now. I also got a Moroccan jersey and a Moroccan flag for cheap. I am on the hunt for my coveted multicolor Air Force Ones, but apparently they haven’t quite hit the Moroccan scene yet. I won’t give up though. We also walked around the Kasbah again and I got some great pictures this time around. Then we went out to dinner to a placed called “Seven” which was attempting to be a very New York styled nightclub/restaurant with booming techno, it was pretty funny. Today I went to my Moroccan brother’s basketball game and ate some lunch with the fam, now I have to go do my homework! “Maa salaama (goodbye!)”
June 13
Okay so I was wrong. The boy speaks much better English than I do Arabic. He made fun of me the other night because Christiano Ronaldo got sold to his team, and we are able to talk pretty easily between my Arabic and his English. Even though I can’t understand about 99% of what the family is saying, I feel like I know their personalities just through body language and movements, etc. They are a very nice, casual family, just as you would find at home. The dad is an engineer and the mom stays home and is a very good sewer. The boy and girl are into American music and movies and everything, also. I am very comfortable here now, especially after finding out how good the food is! When we went to Madiha’s house the other day, her mother apologized about 10 times for the lack of food, and it was a 4 course meal. One of the words I know and hear the most is “kul! Kul!” which means “Eat! Eat!” Breakfast is usually just bread with a lot of different spreads, like butter, cheese, or jam, and coffee. The mom or the dad make it for me before I go to school and we eat out in the garden/porch/sunroom, whatever you would call it. It’s a little enclosed outdoor area right off the living room with no ceiling in one part and a tent-ish thing on another. There are some caged birds in there and a turtle. The turtle didn’t move for the first few days and I asked if it was dead and they all laughed at me. Apparently it’s 30 years old so it doesn’t move much.
After breakfast I walk to school, which takes about 45 minutes. I could take the bus but I’m not confident in my directional abilities to know where to get on and where to get off, so I have the walking route drawn on the map. All the streets here are very confusing, though. First of all, the signs of the streets are perpendicular to the street instead of parallel, which has been throwing me off. Also, some of the streets are French names and some are Arabic names, so the translations are spelled completely differently on the map than on the street sign. For instance, “Rue al khattib il ouddane” is more like “rue al kateeb il wadane.” So it takes a while to figure everything out. At school I take 2 classes, an Arabic class by myself with a woman teacher . She only speaks Arabic and French so we have to use a lot of hand motions, etc. to get the lessons across, but it’s going well. My other class is with the other 2 students and it’s basically just a survey course on Morocco.
Usually after class, we have something to do like walk around the medina or have some Moroccan students take us to lunch. We have three Moroccan buddies who speak excellent English, and they are hilarious. They took us to a jazz festival last night in Chellah and it was really sweet. It was amazing to think we were Americans watching a European jazz band on Roman ruins in Morocco. Crazy.
Morocco is full of so many customs. I expected living with a Muslim family to be very different, but it’s really not. The house is decorated with a lot of Quran passages and there is a section of the living room that is decorated for prayer only. The family is religious, but I kind of steer clear from them to give them their privacy when they are praying so I’m not sure if they actually do it five times a day. Some families do, some kind of condense them into fewer prayers. They do have a clock that goes off with the _______ 5 times a day. It is very beautiful, but it takes some getting used to because it goes off every morning at 4 a.m. On Friday, the holy day, everybody eats couscous, and the couscous here is excellent. Also, the tea here is some of the best I’ve had. It’s a very hot, very sweet mint tea that they drink all day long, and it’s poured from very high up from the glasses to “reveal the aroma” or something. Needless to say I love this very much. There is definitely some kind of spring cleaning deal going on right now in my house, because I just left my room and an African (I know they’re all African, but even the Moroccans call the black people Africans. Weird, huh?) is here ripping out the couch cushions with my house mom and doing some kind of mass cleaning with incense. More to come later.
After breakfast I walk to school, which takes about 45 minutes. I could take the bus but I’m not confident in my directional abilities to know where to get on and where to get off, so I have the walking route drawn on the map. All the streets here are very confusing, though. First of all, the signs of the streets are perpendicular to the street instead of parallel, which has been throwing me off. Also, some of the streets are French names and some are Arabic names, so the translations are spelled completely differently on the map than on the street sign. For instance, “Rue al khattib il ouddane” is more like “rue al kateeb il wadane.” So it takes a while to figure everything out. At school I take 2 classes, an Arabic class by myself with a woman teacher . She only speaks Arabic and French so we have to use a lot of hand motions, etc. to get the lessons across, but it’s going well. My other class is with the other 2 students and it’s basically just a survey course on Morocco.
Usually after class, we have something to do like walk around the medina or have some Moroccan students take us to lunch. We have three Moroccan buddies who speak excellent English, and they are hilarious. They took us to a jazz festival last night in Chellah and it was really sweet. It was amazing to think we were Americans watching a European jazz band on Roman ruins in Morocco. Crazy.
Morocco is full of so many customs. I expected living with a Muslim family to be very different, but it’s really not. The house is decorated with a lot of Quran passages and there is a section of the living room that is decorated for prayer only. The family is religious, but I kind of steer clear from them to give them their privacy when they are praying so I’m not sure if they actually do it five times a day. Some families do, some kind of condense them into fewer prayers. They do have a clock that goes off with the _______ 5 times a day. It is very beautiful, but it takes some getting used to because it goes off every morning at 4 a.m. On Friday, the holy day, everybody eats couscous, and the couscous here is excellent. Also, the tea here is some of the best I’ve had. It’s a very hot, very sweet mint tea that they drink all day long, and it’s poured from very high up from the glasses to “reveal the aroma” or something. Needless to say I love this very much. There is definitely some kind of spring cleaning deal going on right now in my house, because I just left my room and an African (I know they’re all African, but even the Moroccans call the black people Africans. Weird, huh?) is here ripping out the couch cushions with my house mom and doing some kind of mass cleaning with incense. More to come later.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
June 9
Hello, everyone! Today I ate lunch with Madiha, Staci, Pete, and Ali in Madiha’s house. It is a beautiful house, partially inside and partially outside. The front door opens up to a huge living space that could easily be called a sunroom or a porch than a living room. The ceilings were draped with beautiful red green and gold materials, and the food, once again, was amazing. Couscous is the most popular meal in Morocco, followed by tajines. Tajines are basically Moroccan stews, but more actual food in them and less liquid. Basically anything can go in a tajine, it is just called that because it is cooked in a special type of clay bowl that adds a distinct flavor. All of the kids running around are so cute, also. In Morocco it is custom to kiss each cheek when greeting people you know. The adults understand if Americans are shy about it, and adults only do this practice with members of the same sex or family. The little kids had no fear, however. They just grabbed us down to their faces and went for it, it was pretty funny. Then I went to meet my homestay family. I was a little nervous because of the language barrier, but I knew it would be fine. The Arabic I study in school is called “fushaa,” or Classical Arabic. Basically no one ever actually speaks this, except for official things. “Fushaa” is used for news and official documents, such as government or business. The kids learn it in school but it is never spoken, sort of like Latin. Here, Moroccans speak something called “darijat,” of which I know nothing. So, even if I was good at Arabic, whatever they are saying would still sound like gibberish. They all understand me when I say something, but give me a funny face. Right now I am picking up simple words like….day, week, street, family, girl, numbers, to, from, school, etc. Nothing of substance. While I’m here in school I will continue learning “fushaa” but hopefully I can pick up some “darijat” so that my family won’t think I’m stupid.
My family is a beautiful traditional Moroccan family. The mother and father are very sweet, and there is a boy and a girl here. The family has one more daughter that just moved away recently. I didn’t catch how old the daughter is, but my guess is 17-18 range. The son is 19. He is very cute and is the only one in the family that speaks any English, and his English is only a little better than my ‘fushaa.” They put me with this family because there is a boy my age and a girl as well, because I told them I get along well with boys and that it would be nice to have a girl so I can see how she acts/dresses. Also, this family is very into sports, which is nice. I took to the boy right away because he was watching soccer. He is actually a very good basketball player and made it to the Moroccan national championship. It’s good becaue the family sits around and watches basically the Moroccan version of SportsCenter, so I at least know what they are talking about. I can follow their conversations much better with some reference, especially when they are throwing around words like Kaka and Kobe…Now I am going to bed in my cute little room, because I have my first two classes tomorrow! I have to take the bus, but the boy is going to show me how and ride with me the first day. Wish me luck! My teacher speaks zero English, or “cefr Ilingleezee” if you will.
Also, sorry about not having pictures. I am still trying to figure out the blog...coming soon!
My family is a beautiful traditional Moroccan family. The mother and father are very sweet, and there is a boy and a girl here. The family has one more daughter that just moved away recently. I didn’t catch how old the daughter is, but my guess is 17-18 range. The son is 19. He is very cute and is the only one in the family that speaks any English, and his English is only a little better than my ‘fushaa.” They put me with this family because there is a boy my age and a girl as well, because I told them I get along well with boys and that it would be nice to have a girl so I can see how she acts/dresses. Also, this family is very into sports, which is nice. I took to the boy right away because he was watching soccer. He is actually a very good basketball player and made it to the Moroccan national championship. It’s good becaue the family sits around and watches basically the Moroccan version of SportsCenter, so I at least know what they are talking about. I can follow their conversations much better with some reference, especially when they are throwing around words like Kaka and Kobe…Now I am going to bed in my cute little room, because I have my first two classes tomorrow! I have to take the bus, but the boy is going to show me how and ride with me the first day. Wish me luck! My teacher speaks zero English, or “cefr Ilingleezee” if you will.
Also, sorry about not having pictures. I am still trying to figure out the blog...coming soon!
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
June 6, 7, 8
Salaam from Africa! The past two days have been such a blur, I can't believe it. I flew from Raleigh to New York at 4 pm on Saturday, and then flew overnight from JFK to Paris. After that very long flight I jumped right on another plane from Paris right to Rabat, Morocco (or Maroc as they say in French.) I was nervous at first because I am not advanced in Arabic and everyone here assumes I speak French because I am white, so I have to give a lot of confused looks and I feel very typically American. After going through customs and being questioned about the swine flu by some government doctors, I found the driver with the CIEE sign and headed to the hotel.
Rabat is beautiful! The plane ride got me all excited because we flew over the most beautiful river called the Bou Regreg (you know how I love rivers :)) and all of the varying brown and yellow patches of land juxtaposed to it were amazing. Rabat is located right on one side of the river, opposite a residential city called Sale. The hotel I am staying at last night and tonight is right in the middle of downtown and is very cute (I am sitting on the terrace right now with some apartments overhead and people chatting in Arabic and French in the restaurant below.)
After we arrived at the hotel and met our program director, Madiha, we all met up for dinner at the hotel. After dinner, the three of us students walked downtown and through the medina (center market). The medina was crazy! There were people shouting prices everywhere with everything from meat and fruit to cheap soccer cleats (NICE) and random plastic toys and rugs. It was very overwhelming and awesome at the same time. More about the market later…
Rabat is beautiful! The plane ride got me all excited because we flew over the most beautiful river called the Bou Regreg (you know how I love rivers :)) and all of the varying brown and yellow patches of land juxtaposed to it were amazing. Rabat is located right on one side of the river, opposite a residential city called Sale. The hotel I am staying at last night and tonight is right in the middle of downtown and is very cute (I am sitting on the terrace right now with some apartments overhead and people chatting in Arabic and French in the restaurant below.)
After we arrived at the hotel and met our program director, Madiha, we all met up for dinner at the hotel. After dinner, the three of us students walked downtown and through the medina (center market). The medina was crazy! There were people shouting prices everywhere with everything from meat and fruit to cheap soccer cleats (NICE) and random plastic toys and rugs. It was very overwhelming and awesome at the same time. More about the market later…
The second day was all full of touristy activities. We first went to Chellah, which is an ancient ground that dates back to the 12th century. It was really cool to see Roman ruins right next to Arab and Berber ones. We had a hilarious tour guide named Fatima who told us all about the history of the two cultures. There was a beautiful view from there of the city next door, Sale. We also went to the Hassan Tower, which is a famous landmark. The Hassan tower is an unfinished minaret built by a sultan in 1200, who tried to build the largest mosque in the Arab world. It was under construction when the sultan died, and so building stopped halfway through. Right next to the Hassan tower is the Mausoleum of Mohammad V, which is very cool.
Next we went to the King’s Palace, which was beautiful but of course we could not go inside. We actually needed clearance to get into the walls of the palace alone! There are guards everywhere dressed in intricate clothing. My favorite part of this tourist trip was definitely the local Kasbah. The Kasbah was built inside an old fortress, so there are beautiful clay walls and gates surrounding the outside. Inside the Kasbah is a very urban and hip neighborhood where all artists and rich retired people live. Of course my camera died right before then, but we should go back. The walls are half ocean blue and half white, with a very Greek feel to it. Lots of beautifully decorated doors and mosaics are all over the hallways of the Kasbah.
At night, we went to a very cool, very hidden Moroccan restaurant inside the medina. The medina, like the Kasbah, has lots of twisted alleyways with many unlabeled doors. I have no idea how people can tell which doors are houses or mosques or restaurants or shops, they all look the same to me! The restaurant was amazing, and the food was even better. I met my Arabic teacher at dinner. She is a very sweet Moroccan lady who speaks Arabic and French, but no English. Tomorrow I will meet my family! I will write about that later…
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
