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!