Bowling Barefoot!

Wednesday got off to an interesting start! This time Mama Katoum didn’t walk me to the bus so of course when I got to the bus stop there were two buses without numbers on them. A lady came and asked me what number a bus was and I told her I don’t know. Apparently the buses were broken down and weren’t going anywhere. We waited for a while until finally a 37 came, but the driver and ticket taker pretty much ran out of the bus. When they were asked what was wrong… the bus was broken and we had to wait for the next bus! The next bus FINALLY came and we were able to get on, however, a few minutes into our drive the bus began to smell terrible and we pulled over at the next bus stop. We waited on the bus for the next bus to come until we saw a 37 speed right past us, then we just got off the bus and people started talking about getting grand taxis. One woman was telling me I should get a grand taxi with her and a man was telling me to just wait because the next bus would be around soon. He struck up a conversation with me in a mix of French and Arabic because he had seen me practicing my numbers on the bus. After talking for about ten minutes a 37 pulled in and we all boarded. We didn’t have to pay again because our bus driver jumped on and told the other one what happened to his bus. The rest of the trip was smooth except for a minor yelling fight between the ticket taker and an angry passenger (about what? I have no clue). This bus driver let me off right next to the school instead of the hair place so that was coolio.

        I ate lunch at school with Samia and found out that she is from Morocco but lived in Paris most of her life. She got a job in Casablanca as an event coordinator but didn’t like how fast paced it was. She wanted to come to Morocco for a break from the fast paced Paris life so she is now staying here in Rabat with her family who lives in Hay Riad! The same neighborhood as the CCS home base. She’s learning Arabic because she feels like a fake when she says she’s from Morocco and doesn’t know how to speak Arabic. It’s funny because she speaks really good Moroccan Arabic, French AND English already. I doubt anyone would think she’s a fake of any kind! Hahah but she’s super cool and I told her I want to go to Chefchouan next weekend and she’s down to go with me! Yay! She knows where to go to see the waterfalls and hiking trails so that will be cool.

        As for the others in the class, there’s Tiberiu (still not sure if I spelled that right) who is 23 and from Romania, Wouter who is 33 and from Holland, and Stephanie (who just joined the class from the level above) who is 40 and comes from Switzerland. I love the diversity hahah and that I am the only native English speaker!

        After class we decided that it was too late to go to the Souk and went out to the Mega Mall instead. The Mega Mall is the only mall in Rabat (and in the whole country too I think). It has a food court, some stores, a kid’s area, and a bowling alley. We got a bite to eat by a panini place that was blasting Akon, Maroon 5, Lady Gaga etc… and every time a song came on that they liked, they would turn it up louder. It was amusing and I enjoyed watching the employees dance :D After eating, we went to the kid area and looked for Halloween stuff for the party. We actually found a place selling some costumes and candy but everything was WAY overpriced… like $45 for a box of candy coins! We decided it was better to just be creative and find our own props and costumes.

        We went to the bowling alley after and paid an entrance fee to get in and then paid again to play heheh… I was wearing sandals and didn’t want to put my feet in the bowling shoes so I bowled barefoot which was  interesting :P Samia’s older brother joined us for bowling, I can’t remember his name but he was very nice. He told me the difference between living in Paris and living in Morocco… “In Paris you can go anywhere, do anything, without anyone looking at you. In Morocco you CAN’T go anywhere or do anything without everyone looking at you.” He said this perfectly, and it’s so true. Parisians really don’t look at much, and nothing really shocks them (or at least they don’t show it), while in Morocco the men gather at cafes all looking out at the street; like it’s a big show and they are the spectators and judges of all that goes on. Despite all this, he adamantly  said that he loves HIS country and likes it better here.

        Samia drove me home from the mall since it was too late to take the bus and she didn’t want me to take a taxi, so that was nice. I remembered most of the way except one turn so we did get a teeny bit lost (oopsy!). We drove by a car being flipped back upright by some men on the side of the road, apparently this is a normal thing?

Thursday, we (Me, Samia, Wouter and Tiberiu) got up early and met at the school so we could buy stuff for our costumes at the souk. Samia is a new driver, and driving in Morocco is insane to say the least. On top of this, she has never been to the souk in Rabat and had to rely on our directions. We would disagree on which way to go and she would be like “guys, guys? Tout droit? A gauche? Where do I go? QUIIIICK!” hahah… But we made it in one piece. Samia and I decided that we would dress up as Gypsies so we bought some cheep rings and bracelets. I bought a belly dancing scarf to either put in my hair or on my waist.. I haven’t decided yet. Wouter bought a white shirt because he’s going to be James Bond, and Tiberiu bought a fez and long white mens kaftan because he’s going to be a Moroccan!

        We walked down to the ocean because Samia hadn’t been there yet either but then we realized we had to get back to class AND eat first so we had to speed walk a LONG way back to the car. We just barely got back to school in time to buy lunch so we were still eating lunch when Sarah started class… we were a teeny bit late, but we wouldn’t have lasted through class without some kind of food. Sarah is so sweet and didn’t mind at all, she is such a positive person ALL the time, and VERY encouraging. I’m so glad to have her as a teacher ( I can use all the encouragement that I can get!)

        Class was long and I think my brain may have imploded a few times but I’m really starting to get some of the new terminology and vocab so that’s good. Even though it’s difficult, class goes by so fast and I really don’t feel like it’s a long time. We got out late but I had no problems taking the bus home. I didn’t spend much time with the family tonight because I had so much homework and review to do, I was too tired and stressed to try to work on it while I watch tv with them like I had been doing.

I have to start class early now because we have a quiz……. Sigh… K bye!

Qalam Wa Lawh

I'm going to give just a summary of the past few days because I don't have much time, I may fill in the details later :)

        On monday I took my test and finished the first page fine and struggled with the second page (Each page kind-of goes up a level or two to see where they should place students). So I'm ahead of Beginner 1 and slightly behind Beginner 2. Fabulous. They put me in Beginner 2 for the first half of the day and I didn't feel like I was up to the level I needed to be so the teacher talked to me and we agreed that I would go into the end of the Beginner 1 class for 2 weeks then move up to Beginner 2 (hopefully). Beginner 1 has been going for a few weeks and have finished the alphabet and begun on vocab. It's perfect timing because that's about where I left off in my summer Arabic class. The second half of the day, I joined the beginner class in calligraphy and then a bit of dictation which I did fine in. I was definitely a little rusty trying to remember things, but it was not over my head like the other class was. Frustrating to be back in beginner, but I can deal with it for now.
        My teacher's name is Sarah and she is absolutely awesome... full of enthusiasm and very patient. There are only three other students in the class: Samia, Walter, and a guy from romania (i think?) who's name I cannot even attempt to pronounce... I'll get back to you on that :D They all speak good English and French, and I'll tell you more later when I can remember everything. They are nice though, class involves a lot of laughing, so it's good. 
        Oh yeah and Mama Katoum rode the bus with me the first day so I would know how to get there. I take bus 37 and I have to tell the driver when I need to get off because they don't normally stop there hahah... gotta love it. After class I ride home alone and it's dark out so I was kind of nervous but I remembered basically where to get off and I almost forgot which door was the Marouazi's door but a french girl helped me and just rang the door bell for me hahha... Mama Katoum came to the door and was like "C'est ton amie?!" and the girl explained that I was lost or something and left. It was really funny. She made me dinner and we watched another Tommy Lee Jones movie on tv... they must like him here or something.

        Tuesday Mama Katoum walked me to the bus and yelled at the bus driver to let me off at Jacques De Songe which is a hair salon right across from the school. He made sure he let me off and told me to have a good day! hahah I felt like I was in a movie of some sort. I thoroughly confused the lady at the front desk by asking for the Beginner English book when I meant the Beginner Arabic book... Oh la la... that gave us a good laugh. Our class was short because we had a field trip to a big pottery workshop (which I believe is called pottery village for all the CCS people). I was in a bad mood the whole time for some reason. I was trying to shake it, but I just really really didn't want to be there for some reason. I think I was feeling the pressure of not being here for very long. I didn't want to spend class time going to touristy places when I needed to be learning. Weird attitude huh? I was being a total cranky-pants and I really just wanted to put myself in the corner hahah..
         I got a lot of good review in despite my crankiness and the little field trip. Samia told me about a halloween party at the school on Friday so that also helped me cheer up a little (lame, i know). We think we're going to get our class to dress up as a theme... possibly gypsies or something. We decided to all go shopping in the Medina together on Wednesday after class. Class got out 30 minutes late and I had to wait a long time for the bus that night, what's worse is that I was extremely hungry since I missed lunch. I think all of Rabat could hear my stomach rumbling. 
        I got Moroccan soup and an omelette when I got home. Mama Kartoum knew that I hate fish so she didn't try to serve me what they had for dinner. She always says "come tu voux ma petite!" I could smoke inside, I could have a dance party, I could do almost anything and she would say "come tu voux ma petite!" hahah I love her. Papa Ali helped me with my homework... or tried to. Since it's not Moroccan Arabic, sometimes he disagrees with the teacher, furrows his brow and grinds his jaw. It's when he's confused or thinking really hard I think. I was extremely tired, so I passed on the nightly movie and went to bed early.

Adieu!

"Ma Petit"

Saturday

        We got to sleep in for the first time in a long time which was kind-of nice, though we could only sleep until around 8 or 9. I filled out the paperwork for staying an extra night and all the feedback forms for CCS. I really had nothing to complain about, but I gave a few suggestions especially about my placement at the school but I don’t know how much CCS can really do about all that. There were only five of us left in the house (Me, Jordan, Jean, Heidi and Becky), and Becky left after lunch I think.

        In the morning, Jean and I went to the Acima for internet and it wasn’t working so we walked all the way to a café near the Mahaj Riad and it didn’t work there either. Just when we were about to give up all hope, our favorite waiter came up to get our order so I told him the internet wasn’t working and he went and fixed it for us somehow! So we got to get a little bit done before heading back to the house for tea. After tea, Jean told me what she could see in my future (she’s psychic if you missed my earlier post that mentioned her). Then we (me and Jean) went to the Medina and on the bus she told me what she about my past life J It was fun and I would write what she said here, but I don’t have time right now so maybe later. It was really nice just strolling around the Medina together because we were in no hurry and neither of us NEEDED to get anything so it was a lot more fun. I got some sun glasses and earrings but that was about it.

        All through the day new people started arriving and moving in. It was weird because I wasn’t quite sure what to do with myself. I didn’t want to be rude and ignore them because they were all excited to be there and begin their adventure, and yet I didn’t necessarily want to socialize either. I had a paper looming over my head, I didn’t have the energy to get to know a bunch of new names and faces when I’m about to leave and I didn’t want them to waste their time getting to know me either. Despite all these fabulous reasons to close myself off and hide away until I left, I ended up socializing and hanging out a bit anyway.

        Mohamed fixed the internet right after the majority of people had shown up so those of us who had been without internet were on our computers for a bit, plus Bethy skyped me so I HAD to talk to her! Then Jackie got on and we did a three way skype which was fun. Then Jean told me I should be doing my paper… and she was right, so I worked on my paper some more but it was really hard to concentrate with all the people excitedly talking everywhere. After dinner we went for gelato and a bunch of the new people came with, I made myself stop stressing for a bit and actually talked and got to know a few people like a decent human being would :P I’m actually going to miss getting to know some of these people FOR REAL. They’re a cool bunch.

        That night, I had a really hard time concentrating because I was so anxious about moving out the next day so I was up super late. This ended up being good because I was online when Jackie skyped me to tell me she had just gotten ENGAGED!! She and Justin were there with Reggie, Nick, Danielle and Wendy. I got to see everyone and Jackie’s ring, it was very cool and I am very happy that I got to be a part of it. All my girls are getting HITCHED… It’s soooo weird hahah…

Sunday

         I was up early because even though I didn’t get to sleep until 4am, the call to prayer woke me up, then the ladies who had moved into our room were up early to go running and showered early so I was UP. I had a lot to do still, so that was fine with me! After breakfast everyone had orientation while I finished up packing and put the last touches on my paper. Jean and Heidi went to Casablanca for the day, so I hugged her goodbye and said I’d try to come back and visit every once in a while. I returned all my teaching supplies to Abdellah and took pictures with Aicha (my singing cook) and one with Mohamed and Abdellah. Khadija had gone on errands so I couldn’t get one with her L …all the more reasons to come back to visit! They all made sure I knew I was welcome back anytime which was very sweet. Mohamed called the number I had for my host family before I left to make sure they were there, and good thing he did! The number wasn’t for my host family, it was for the SCHOOL! The person at the school said that I’m supposed to come there first for an orientation and then the family comes to pick me up from there. So that was good to hear, a little less weird than just showing up on their doorstep knowing nothing about them.

        Mohamed walked me to the other side of the street and got me a cab, he made sure the driver knew where the school was and gave me money to cover the cab ride. The people who had just arrived were walking back from their little exploring assignment for orientation and saw me with the cab and all waved goodbye to me. I had to fight off tears a little when I was getting into the cab and driving away. I’m not sure why I was getting so emotional but I think it had to do with me being on my own, really on my own, and not exactly sure what was going to happen next.

        The driver dropped me off at the door of the school that said “Qalam Wa Lawh” on the side of the building. I paid him and he got my bags out for me while I rang the door bell. A man let me in and took my luggage through a little garden and through double carved wooden doors. Inside there was a huge front desk that was as tall as I am I think but nobody was there so he had me sit on a couch and told me to wait a few minutes and something about someone being here soon. A friendly looking woman came in and greeted me in Arabic, asked where I was from and what my name was then left and went on with whatever she was doing so I must not have been waiting for her. I checked out the glass window I was sitting against which was completely inside the center of the building surrounding a little garden of some sort with trees. It was open to the air and there were no doors to get in, so I assume it was just for decoration. I liked it though, whatever it was. I played sudoku on my phone until a slim, dark haired guy with white jeans and a white t-shirt waltzed in and greeted me immediately. I was waiting for him, his name was Lotfi and he was the new student advisor. He looks like he’s in his 20s and said he had been working there for only 6 months. His English was very good, he said he had taken the job so he could practice English and kept apologizing for it but I understood everything he said. I could only hope to speak Arabic like he speaks English.

        Lotfi put my passport information into the computer and gave me a quick tour around the school. I'm in love with the garden area so I doubt I will ever be inside unless I have a class :) There's WiFi there so I won't die too much from lack of internet at my host family's house. Lutfi said that the family I'm staying with is an older couple and their 40-something year old daughter. He says there are tons of host families so if I don't want to stay there, he can find me another. That was comforting i guess. He called Mrs. Marouazi to come pick me up and we just talked until she came. A little lady shuffled in smiling from ear to ear and hugged Lutfi who patted her on the back and said "she's so cute, you will love her." And I did. After introductions, I told her "yala!"which means "lets go"... she thought that was hilarious and said "yala ma petite." I met Mr. Marouazi outside waiting at the car for us. He too was a short man with a kind face and twinkling eyes. I knew I would like them from that moment. We drove home listening to muslim praise music (that's all I can really categorize it as lol)... to my surprise it was in english hahah sweet. Even though we didn't understand much of what each-other said, I could definitely recognize exclamations over traffic. It was hilarious to watch them interact. 

        We pulled into a small street and onto another where there were apartment-like buildings. The doors were all on street level and the houses all went up to the roof so they were skinny and tall i guess. My suitcase was was almost bigger than the stairwell and was almost impossible to get up hahah... My room is on the second floor with two beds and a big wooden dresser that I got half of. I immediately organized all my things since the room was small and I wanted to keep my suitcase out of the way. I came down to hang out in the kitchen area because there was a low couch lining the walls. I studied a bit and then Madame Marouazi introduced me to her daughter Nadia and we all sat around and ate out of the same tagine. It was delicious LAMB! My favorite, and a salad of green pepper, tomatoes and onions. I loved it all. After dinner I showed Nadia and MM some of my pictures from home. They thought that Kelsey was my boyfriend and loved the dance picture (thanks mom!). MM said that she loved Grandma Wrenn just from looking at her which made me smile. They really are so sweet.

        The rest of the day consisted of going to the market as a "family" and visiting the Bookstore that Nadia owns. They showed me around and gave me a necklace from the store. When I got home, MM brought out tons of little photo books from all the other students they have hosted. Apparently I am the 6th Sarah to stay with them! Some of the pictures looked like they dated back to the 80s or earlier! She also showed me pictures of the rest of her children. She has 5 I think, one is a french teacher who married and english teacher in Marrakech I think, another is married to a tunisian and lives there, their youngest son lives in France right now and is studying I think. Their oldest son is an actor, to show me his picture they pulled out a magazine where he and a co-star were featured on the cover. There was a whole article and tons of pictures of him and the lady from the show. They said he just got married in Essouira a few weeks ago.

        Before bed, we watched a movie with Tommy Lee Jones called Double Jeopardy. It was in english with Arabic subtitles but they had seen the movie before so whenever I got scared or cringed they would assure me that it would be okay and tried to tell me what would happen next hahah... When I went up to bed, MM said that she loves her new foreign daughter and "bon nuit ma petit." She even came in to get my bed ready for me, I feel like a little kid :P

More later!

All Good Things...

        I apologize that I haven't updated this weekend but it has been a crazy few days (but a wonderful few days!) I am now safely living with my host family and starting school but I'll catch you up starting with Friday for now....

Friday

        We showed up to school and two of the ladies gave me and Chad little wooden boxes as goodbye gifts. One of them told me that she hopes her daughter grows up to be like me which really surprised me since she is one of the more conservatively dressed women and I wouldn't expect that she would want a daughter like me hahah, but I definitely felt honored that she would say that. They were thoroughly confused when I tried to explain why and where I was staying in Rabat the next 6 weeks but finally they realized I was going to study Arabic and they offered to help me learn if I came back to see them! They are so sweet :) 
        We finished the lyrics and worked on some last review things and for the last 30 minutes of class I told them more about me and gave them my facebook and e-mail if they ever want to contact me. I showed them where Michigan is on US maps I gave them a lesson on how to point to where I'm from on their hand. I then gave them chocolate covered cherries from Michigan and showed pictures of my friends and family. They laughed at my old ballet pictures, the boys asked if Shannon (my college roomie) was married and if I could put in a good word, and the girls wanted to know if Kelsey was married (once they found out that he was my BROTHER and not my BOYFRIEND hahah). So that brought on a lot of laughs. So Kelsey, if you ever want to date a pretty Moroccan girl... I know a few that would LOVE to meet you ;D (Same to you Shannon- there are some boys with an eye on you!)
       I pulled out a camera to take a class pic after talking for a while and that just lead to a frenzy of everyone (plus chads class) pulling out their camera phones to take pictures with me and Chad. It was hilarious and I really wish I had pictures to share with you but I used Jayme's camera and it didn't have the memory card in so who knows if we will be able to get the photo off :( I hope my students post the pictures to their facebooks so I can steal a few! I'm really going to miss my class, they were so much fun and I learned a whole lot while gaining more much needed confidence in handling new situations. One of the students asked me: "tell your family about me" but he rephrased it a couple times and I think he meant to say "give my regards to your family" or something of that sort. He was in Chad's class and had written a whole letter which he read out loud to him in class! How nice is that?! We definitely felt very special on our last day.
        At home we still had no internet and nobody was going to the Cafe since many of them were leaving the next day anyway so we just lazed around and played banana grams  (and I worked on my paper... with a break for dinner and banana grams lol). I interviewed Khadija that night and it went really well. I found out a lot of cool stuff and that I write wayyyy too many questions for interviews. It took forever but she was very gracious and let me prod her with questions until I was blue in the face. She is a very intelligent and strong woman, but very respectful of her faith and family all at the same time. I really admire her in many ways. 

I have to get ready for my entrance test in a few mins so I'll write more about saturday and sunday later if I can!

Tah Tah!

Competing With An African Gospel Choir

Yesterday was frustrating, amusing and bittersweet to sum it up using the range of emotions I’ve been through today. Frustrating because (can you guess by now?) our class was once again without a room. We bumped our noses on the locked café door once again so I ran up to tell the lady in charge who said she would have it unlocked. We waited for a while until a cook came down, opened the kitchen door and began preparing food. We knocked on the glass to ask her to unlock the inside so she came out and started discussing our situation with one of the students in Arabic. She finally opened the door but apparently we weren’t allowed in because they were feeding people in there later (or that’s what I got of it). So I ran back up the stairs and tried to explain in my broken French about the crazy cook who wouldn’t let us in and the lady finally just followed me down the stairs and started talking to the cook and they concluded that we would have our class outside in the courtyard of the café. By the time that was decided the crazy cook had closed and locked the door of the café and went back to her cooking again. Our whiteboard and the chairs and tables needed to have class were locked in there with her. So we knocked and motioned towards the board desperately while she began looking strangely like someone who had just inhaled 67 Serrano peppers. We couldn’t hear her but we watched, bemused, as she started to emphatically bang things around and dramatically yell something that I don’t think she expected us to hear. Finally a student talked to her and she opened the door for us to drag our stuff out hurriedly in case a pan or piece of meat came hurdling our way.

We worked on some simple madlibs in class where we used nouns, verbs and adjectives that they have learned the past few weeks. I told them to write down their words first and then I gave them the story to fill in around the words. Each person told a story that started with “Hi my name is _____” and the first blank was a celebrity or famous person. Most of them were confused at first and tried to change their answers so I had to point to their original answers and most of them got it when they heard a few students do it and realized that everyone’s stories were funny and didn’t make sense. We almost died laughing when one of the guys said that he was Celine Dion, he had to choke it out because he was trying so hard not to laugh. We also had a Katy Perry and an Eminem (who apparently lives in a supermarket… who knew?!) So that ended up being fun, but it was a little hard and I felt bad that about 3 or 4 of them really didn’t get it. I also had them listen to a song and fill in blanks in the lyrics. That seemed to work rather well until the African Gospel Choir started belting and bellowing over the music my students were trying to understand. We asked them to keep it quieter for 15 minutes until we were done listening and they obliged us for about 2 minutes and slowly started getting louder and louder until we could hardly hear each other. It was glorious, let me tell you……..

After class some of my students came up and asked me if I was a Christian. It had NOTHING to do with anything we were doing in class or had talked about so I was kind of taken by surprise but of course I told them yes. They just nodded so I asked jokingly if we could all still be friends so they laughed and said of course hahah… then one guy volunteered that he had a girlfriend in Ireland and another added that he is going to the US in a few years and plans on getting an American girlfriend… I’m not sure how this all related but it was rather random and amusing for an after-class discussion. Tomorrow is my last class! How weird… I think I’ll miss them.

I researched the election candidates and filled out my absentee ballot yesterday! So to all you people in the States: I’m in Morocco and I’m voting… what’s your excuse NOT to vote? Hmmm? The big day is November 2^nd. Do your research, be at the polls and make the forefathers proud by exercising the freedoms they fought for. Hahah okay, I’m done for now ;D

We had to say goodbye to Lori today which was sad, she is such a sweet and thoughtful person. She said some VERY kind words to me before she left that made me tear up a little. It’s so weird how few of us are left in the house now. It’s like a non-competitive game show where people just keep dropping out little by little, but everyone wins in the end :D I think the rest of the day dragged by. Not necessarily in a bad way, but I just did a whole lot of work on my computer and everyone just hung around talking or listening to Jean tell Heidi about her past life and future.

Oh! but after lunch I did get to meet with Mohammed and talk about my research and thoughts with him. We must have talked for an hour and a half because he has so much wisdom and many experiences to talk about. I really do feel like I have learned so much these past few weeks. I’m very lucky to be where I am. No doubt about that.

Pistachio Milkshake

I'm sitting on the patio of the internet cafe on top of the Acima building sipping a pistachio milkshake and watching the sun start to set over Rabat. Hay Riad, the neighborhood I'm in, is kind-of on a hill that looks over the city and I just realized that I can even see the ocean from here. When I first arrived in Morocco, the city seemed so big and daunting to me, but now that I look over it from my little perch, I realize that it has shrunk. Not literally of course, but it has become smaller as my sense of awareness has broadened... if that makes any sense. I just finished frantically organizing my sources for the paper I'm writing and looked up to realize that there's a world out there still. I tend to become overwhelmed when work and school start to gang up on me, but I refuse to let that happen to me here. I'm in too beautiful a country to be missing the sunset because I'm too focused on my duties. The sun just went down behind a cloud. If I hadn't just looked up and around when I did, I may have missed it.

Over all, I think this week has been testing me. The internet is down when I need it the most, but I realized today that I really enjoy getting out of the house more often to go to the internet cafe. I never would have seen this beautiful view from the top of the Acima and I may have not thought to try a pistachio smoothie. The internet really messed with my plan for teaching class, but I think if I had done what I originally had planned, I wouldn't have had to get as creative and my class wouldn't be participating and having as much fun as they are now that I have had to find new ways to get them involved. Also, the whole situation with Amerispan just makes me laugh now. I am more at ease since I heard from the lady who will be sending me my placement information. People still ask me if I know where I'm staying yet, I say that I still don't know, but now I can laugh it off and I see it more as a surprise than an inconvenience. I have faith that they will place me in a home, either that or they will find a spot for me in the dorm or an apartment. I will be fine and there is no need to worry, I can't afford to waste my time worrying while there are sunsets and pistachio smoothies to enjoy ;)

As for the happenings today, our good luck with our room yesterday didn't carry over to today. We were once again locked out of the cafe and the lady who assigns the rooms was nowhere to be found. A student asked a cleaning lady to unlock it and she claimed that the back door was open, but it wasn't. There was a window cracked open, so we joked about sending someone through it to unlock the door. A student finally found someone who gave us permission to use the computer room, but there was no white board in there anymore. Some guys went to get a white board and came back with the one we left in the cafe.... so they had unlocked the cafe for us to get the white board, but not for class. This NEVER gets boring hahah... We went over directions again and played hang man since one of my students, Ayoub requested it. That was fun, but I had a hard time finding phrases that they considered just right... it was either "too hard!" or "too easy!" ...oh la la... ay dios mio! After class Ayoub invited me and Chad to come hang out and 'tour' Rabat with him sometime this weekend. I'm trying to figure out if my schedule will allow it or if I'll be too engulfed in my work and packing to want to venture out farther than the Acima or the Mahaj Riad down the street.

I got a lot done on my paper and made a cool lesson plan for tomorrow when I went to the Acima after work. Then we had lunch and Abdullah took us to an archaeological museum and an art museum or gallery of some kind. The archaeological museum had all kinds of artifacts and info on stuff from the Chellah ruins in Rabat, the Volubilis ruins near Meknes and a bunch of other sites around Morocco. It was very cool, especially the guy who followed us around explaining a bunch of the sculptures and pieces. One statue from roman times had no head or hands but he pointed out that they were meant to be like that since every time there was a new person in charge, they would just put the new bust on and different objects in the hands! So much easier than having a NEW statue made every time hahah :D He often pointed out the difference between the roman and berber people by the noses. The romans had that bump or the sharper nose while the berber people had a softer smoother looking nose. One bust I was looking at was of a berber prince or ruler of some kind who had supposedly married Anthony and Cleopatra's daughter! Very cool.

At the art museum there was some modern art and a lot of cool photography pieces on display. They also had a gorgeous outdoor theatre and gardens that I can imagine would be beautifully etherial when lit up at night for a concert or show of some kind. My favorite of the photos was one of an old lady and her llama that was taken in Peru. The lady was holding the llama around the neck with one arm and her extremely wrinkled face showed some strange emotion that  seemed to be a mix between strong serious pride in her possession (the llama) and an ever so slight glimmer amusement around the corners of her lips. The llama, on the other hand was looking straight at the camera (with one eye of course) with a cool look of indifference and aloofness. I wish I could post it for you, if I find it online I will surely share it, but hopefully the comedy and pure genius of the photo can be slightly conveyed to you through my description :D (And yes I did try googling it and you have NO idea how many pictures there are of old ladies and llamas!!)

Well my pistachio shake is donezo and I'm starting to get cold since the sun is down... soooo peace!

If I wasn't full of myself, what else would I be full of?!

Heya blog! I had a great day with the students today. We played a review game at the beginning and they remembered a lot! I was worried at first that it was too complicated to explain, but after a few practice rounds they got the concept and even got a little competitive :D I did the lesson on travel and transportation so I had an exercise on giving directions. This one I almost left out of my lesson plan for fear of them not getting it and it did end up being a little difficult for them to grasp. I drew a simple map on the board with street names and various locations like the bus stop, train station, hotel, airport, post office etc... and I would ask people to give me directions from one place to another. The had sped through the directions I taught them so I thought this would be a piece of cake but I had to do a LOT of explaining and examples to get them to understand how to do it. One guy who was a little more advanced volunteered to try so he gave everyone else courage to try and a few of them did a really good job giving me directions before class ended. It was pretty funny when they gave me the wrong direction to go because I would start to act really lost and have my person (the marker I used to keep track of where "I" was on the map) wander around in confusion. They enjoyed the humor in this I believe... they're a much more easy going group than my Monday students :)

Khadija talked to us about muslim traditions in morocco for births, deaths, and marriages. They are celebrated extremely differently than here... it's crazy. To chose a baby's name, they have family and friends write a name down and they basically draw it randomly!! How odd is that? Khadija named her brother and he named their other brother! hahah... As for the rest of the day, it's been less than exciting since I've just been researching for my paper all day. Don't get me wrong, the material is interesting and fascinating, but not as fun to write about here since I've been writing about it all day and my brain is confusing a few concepts hahah... bear with me, I'll explain my fantastic finds later when I'm in a better mental state to do so.

Oh! and I heard from the Amerispan lady, so I know I have my place still but they don't give out the placement details until last minute. I looked up the school and it is literally around the corner from me, so at least I know where that is :)

Well the Cafe is closing up so I guess I should let the server clean up our spot and go home...

Later!

Fresh Squeezed and Fishy!

Saturday

        We woke up rather early (we were used to waking up around 6 or 7 during the week) which was good because we really got to enjoy the whole day and just savor the sights and sounds of Essouira without worrying about time. It was a lazy day and I loved it! We wandered down to the beach looking for food by the water and settled on a little place called Fanatic. I got fresh squeezed juice (pineapple, peach, banana, lime, orange and strawberry maybe) and a Salade Nicoise. It really hit the spot and my stomach welcomed it after eating so much junk food recently. After finishing our food we walked right onto the beach and found a place to nap. The wind is usually harsh in Essouira around this time but it was just a soft, steady breeze all day that kept us from being too hot. It was perfect and we all just slept for hours in the glorious rays. Carley and I braved the waves at one point and chatted while jumping waves. There’s an island near shore that we could see the ruins of some buildings that I believe used to be a jail or some sort of institution that was abandoned. The island is now known for being a breeding spot for falcons, I wanted to take a boat ride out there but we never ended up figuring out how (I think we needed to get a permit or something). I forgot to bring a surf board from the hostel to the beach so sadly, I didn’t get to practice my surfing. The waves were pretty tame that day anyway since the wind was milder. We slept for a little longer, only being interrupted by about two or three people trying to sell us bracelets or faux Ray Bans. They were all very friendly though, nobody really bugged us. I would have been happy laying there all day, but our poor white skin was beginning to suffer from over exposure. We started to resemble lobsters and decided to leave the beach around 3:00 to head back to the Hostel to change.

        We went shopping for a while after and I must say that I REALLY enjoyed bargaining there. The shop owners are so friendly and it really is like a game. If I don’t like the price, I walk away and if I offered to low, they let me walk. I literally walked about 20 feet away from one vendor and was entering another shop when he tapped me on the shoulder and had all the stuff I wanted all packaged up for me! He still offered over my ideal price so I told him sorry, but no (because I really couldn’t justify spending that much) and he finally relented and gave it to me for my price :D I was also talking to a store owner who was selling similar purses to the one I got in Rabat. I found out that I had bought my purse for as much as HE buys them for! He couldn’t believe I got it for the price I had …I think I’m almost ready for shopping in Marrakech! …I think.

        For our night-time activities, Jordan and I went to buy some rum and fruit juice to mix at the Hostel. It seemed appropriate since we heard Essouira used to have pirates. Pirates loved their fruity cocktails… we all know this :D But mainly it was just cheaper for us to mix our drinks than buy them at the bar. We took our drinks to the roof where Adil and the eastern Europeans were hanging out. We also met a British guy and an Australian guy who had met in another hostel and were now traveling around together for a bit. They were much easier (and less awkward) to talk to than the other guys. Though we did enjoy leaning over to Carley and just asking her “…sex?” to imitate the guy from last night. The Aussie and Brit found it amusing once we finally explained the story to them. We smoked some hookah and enjoyed the beautiful night air for a while. Adil decided he wanted to go out with us but we had to wait until he was off work so we went to get schwarmas really quick before returning to pick up Adil. We weren’t able to get into Taros that night… something about them closing early? Weird. We then went to the club right next to Chrysalis which had a live African pop/ reggae sounding band. The drink menu was a little pricey for the gang and everyone seemed antsy so we migrated to the Hotel Sahara which had hookah and middle eastern music sung by a man who had a track playing in the background. We sat on couches and scoped out the place, I thought it was cool but our friends (the brit and aussie) weren’t digging it and just went back to the hostel for some cheap beer. Jordan fell asleep in the corner of the couch (or “Rested [his] eyes while listening to the music”) and Adil tought me and Carley some dance moves.

Sunday

        Everyone slept in really late Sunday but I couldn’t sleep past 9ish so I just worked on my computer since we actually had WiFi that worked PERFECTLY at the Hostel (do you sense the slight bitterness in my typing?) …heheh. They finally woke up and we went shopping a little more and walked down to the Skala which is where all the fishing ships and little tents were set up to cook fresh fish. They ordered shrimp and some fish while I went next door and got myself a cappuccino ice cream bar (mmmm!). We went to the sea wall and sat on it for a while watching the fishermen and birds searching for food in the rocks. There was also a scuba diver of some sort and we noticed that a lot of that part of the beach was covered in sea glass, pottery shards, fish nets, wood scraps and other random things. We couldn’t figure out how to get back on the wall from the other side so we didn’t get to jump down and collect some of the glass unfortunately.

        Walking a little farther down took us to the docks where they were building and repairing ships. There were rows and rows of dark blue fishing boats tied together and a few tall masted ships waiting to head out. It was just a nice leisurely walk, we didn’t DO much, but I enjoyed it immensely. After one last Shwarma on the street, we grabbed our bags, Carley wrote a goodbye note on toilet paper for Adil, we left our keys and headed to the Supratours bus stop. We ran into the Brit and Aussie near the bus and got to say goodbye and wish them save travels and such. I slept the whole bus ride, but thank god it was air-conditioned because I was right next to the window and had to close the shade because the sun was so severe.

        After getting our 2^nd class train tickets back to Rabat (they were out of 1^st class), we ate at a KFC in the train station. Fried chicken isn’t my favorite but they actually got the mashed potatoes right! Yum! The train boarded early though, so we had to shovel our food and run down to get on before all the seats were full. In 2^nd class there are no assigned seats so we wanted to make sure we were together and in decent seats for our 4-5 hour train ride. We found a compartment and were settled just fine. It was odd though because about three different times on the train, people asked Jordan for his water. He just had a big bottle of water, we had little ones and didn’t get asked, the train station had plenty of water… It was just odd. They would just say “please, can I have your water?” or something of that sort. I still can’t think of any reason to explain why they wanted his mostly-drank-out-of water! Hahah… I NEED to know! Someone explain please!

        When we arrived at Agdal train station in Rabat, the taxi drivers were crowded around the entrance as usual and we tried to get two taxis since the limit is 3 per cab. One man had us follow him and we assumed he was taking us to his and someone else’s cab. But he took the taxi sign OFF of his roof and motioned for us all to get in! We were hesitant because it’s technically illegal for them to take 4 people. He charged us double, there’s a danger fee apparently :P

Monday 

        I’m back and settled at the house for my last week with CCS. That is SO weird to think about. My stomach is literally churning when I think about leaving and going on to my next place. I still haven’t received details from Amerispan on my home stay. I don’t know if I even HAVE a family to stay with, I don’t know about where my class is, I have no idea who my teacher is or what is expected of me. This is so last minute and after all the prep work and info that CCS sent me, it’s like flying blind. I have sent an e-mail asking for more info. so HOPFULLY in the next day or so, I’ll hear back from them so I can plan. On top of that, I’m trying to put together my research and other school work with the limited internet. Our Skype doesn’t even work at Home-Base anymore (not that that helped me with my work at all ;D) They are having people come to the house tomorrow to try to fix it so hopefully we will be reconnected again. For now, I will hop internet Cafes.

        My students showed up a half hour late except for one who I got to chat with while we were waiting. He speaks and understands better than most so I got out a map of the US to show him Michigan. We went on to talk about some of the other states. He thought that Alaska and Hawaii were next to each other since maps just put the little picture of them in the corner. He told me what he knew about Sarah Palin, Hilary Clinton, Obama and some other political figures. I wish classes were more like that. I would definitely prefer to tutor one-on-one and help people based on THEIR needs. The rest of the class showed up finally and it seemed like quite a few of them were in fowl moods. One girl in particular, who is a little better than everyone and corrects people a lot, was really getting on my nerves. She came in an hour late and started complaining that I didn’t translate everything into French, she also would have discussions with the girl next to her and then ask me to re-say and explain everything she had just missed. Everything she does is with a very harsh tone and with a blank or almost mean expression on her face. At one point I was trying to make sure everyone understood a vocab word I was demonstrating and she was just giving me this blank stare. I just asked her directly if she understood and she never broke her gaze. I didn’t know what else to do to get her to respond so I laughed and told her in French that she just stares and I can’t tell what she’s thinking or if I should explain again. She finally kind-of smiled and it seemed like she was a little more engaged for the rest of the class.  

        I really wish I had more time with that class, even though they are a little more moody and difficult to understand. I really feel for their situation and they really need a lot of help with their pronunciation and basic phonetics. They turn ‘TH’ into a ‘WU’ kind-of sound and add ‘S’ at the beginning of random words. I found a chart that had sets of letters and how they are pronounced based on their French and English sound. It was VERY helpful and I think they really understood it.

        There was another guy in the class who walked me out and talked to me for a little bit. His English was mostly fluent because he’s from Nigeria and he says that everyone speaks English there. He was frustrated because he doesn’t speak French and cannot communicate easily with Moroccans. So he’s attending French classes as well as the English ones. In my class, he had a kid write the French word to all the ones I was teaching in English. I told him that since he knows English he’ll probably pick up the French faster. I hope everything ends up well for him because he seems like a very motivated and pleasant person.

        On other news, I heard a car crash today. That was interesting. I also napped MOST of the day while some guys fixed the radiators in our rooms upstairs. Yayyy for heat! The nights are getting chilly in Rabat :(

Over and Out <3

From Bob To Bob

Friday

        My English class only went up and down the stairs once! I think our new home will be the Cafe. Unfortunately for us, they cooks were preparing fish so it reeked in there. The cooks were also very loud and chatty so with the echo, it was also very hard to hear my students (it didn't help that my sinuses and ears are all blocked up too lol). There was also someone in the area outside of our room using a drill on the tile... wow. I tried closing the door to block out his sound but we nearly passed out from all the fishy smell so we decided to keep it open and bear the noise. Class was huge that day and we had a lot of fun learning clothing and working on pluralizing things. While we were reviewing body parts, I asked them what I smell with... to which a student confidently replied that he smells with his mouth. Most of the class got the humor and bust out laughing, leaving him rather confused until I reminded him what 'to smell' means. Good times.

        After class I packed the rest of my stuff and rode the CCS van with George to go meet Jordan and Carley at the orphanage. We decided to get some McDonalds since it's right across from the train station. Jason and Ashley came with us since it would be the last time we see them (their flights home were the next day). The restaurant was packed out! It was literally a mad house but SOOO worth it for my Toblerone McFlurry :D We then said our goodbyes, bought some snacks and boarded a train to Marrakech. The train ride was amusing since for most of our trip, there were two men in our compartment. One was rather annoyed by all of us for some reason, and the other one chatted Carley's ear off for much of the ride. He was from Dubai and had missed his flight so he had to catch this train to Marrakech. He promptly asked Carley for her facebook, bought her pringles, asked her if she had a boyfriend and told her he liked her personality. It was pretty cute :D 

        After only a small amount of confusion on directions when we got to Marrakech, we stumbled onto the bus station we needed for the last leg of our journey. The Supratour buses are GIGANTIC! I mean, they're complete BEASTS. The were like... i don't even know... but compared to everything else in Morocco, it looks like it could swallow about ten cars and the road too. After gaping at them for a minute, we made sure we knew our bus time and sat in the cafe for a bit. I got fresh squeezed orange juice which was amazing... I need to get a juicer for my apartment. The waiter was super sweet too, he asked me where I was going to then told me that I was beautiful, to be safe and to have a wonderful trip. 

       The bus dropped us off after dark in a huge square outside of the Medina so we walked to the gate and tried to figure out where our hostel was located. Two guys offered to take us there for 20 DH so we took them up on it since we really had no other clue how to get there. It was just a short distance from the main street and down two or three streets which got smaller and darker the closer we got to the Hostel. We checked in with no problems and Adil (the guy who works there) showed us to our room which had 6 beds in it but only us staying there. The center courtyard was painted to look like a beach and had two hammocks hung through the middle. On the main floor, Adil showed us around the little common area which had a mini bar with free tea and coffee any time (and really cheap beer). It also had two computers to use the internet, free hookah anytime we want, and tv/games etc... It was a legit place and I wouldn't hesitate to stay there again if I ever come back to Essouira. We locked our stuff up and explored the Medina for a little while. There were still places cooking chwarma and shish kabobs, dogs and cats ran everywhere and little boys tried to sell us tissues. One little boy even tried to guilt us into buying them by saying, "please, 5dh... 50 cents, take it so I can go to bed!" It was sad but I couldn't buy them because I've seen a lot of this and it's really like begging. They come out late at night and get tourists to give them money out of pity. 

       We found a place called Taros that Adil had shown us on the map. We followed the sound of music up a few flights of stairs and came out on top of the building on a sprawling terrace that overlooked the Medina and the sea. It was all lit up with little lights and candles and had tons of plants, a large bar, a DJ, and a dance floor. We scoped out the crowd and most of them seemed to be travelers as well, but from all sorts of places. It was a cool atmosphere and we really enjoyed it until it quickly shut down at one. A few of the patrons told us to come over to another place called Chrysalis so we met them over there after getting lost and wandering around the main street for a while. We mark where we turn by which bab (gate) in the medina we're at and how many babs until we get there. "Bab" is pronounced bob so we found it rather amusing to ask "how many bobs until we're there?"...okay it was more funny at the time I guess. A nice man helped us find it and even walked us in and out. We thought he would ask for money but he just bid us goodnight and was on his way! How nice :) We didn't like Chrysalis because it was dark, smoky and rather sketchy, so we headed back to the Hostel. 

        When we got back we smoked hookah and a few people (including some eastern european guys and Adil) played around on a guitar that was missing a string. I got sleepy and headed up to my room but accidentally walked into the wrong room and saw one of the eastern european guys in his underwear (eeek!). Carley had an interesting run in with the same guy though. She was on the stairs and he asked her if she wanted to go upstairs on the terrace or something... then when she was still confused, he clarified his intentions by simply asking her ..."sex?" hahah. Best pick up line ever, straight and to the point ;D

I have to get ready to go, so I'll fill in the rest later! Peace yo!

The Nomadic English Class

Okay FINALLY I have a little internet so here's a catch-up Thursday's happenings :D I'll write more when I get a chance (Essouira is AMAZING btw!).

Thursday

        English class was rather hectic since, once again, we had no class room to call home. I think the whole class migrated up and down the stairs from the very top floor to the basement level about 4 or 5 times before someone finally just unlocked the Cafe and let us set up shop in there again. I told my students that perhaps they just wanted us to get some exercise before class to get the blood pumping in our brains... I doubt they understood exactly what I said, but a few of them laughed so it may have made SOME sense. I was then upgraded to a white board WITHOUT permanent marker on it! Yeehaw! (oh the little things in life..) Class was very small that day since most of them were in another class (l'Informatique or Francais). This made it much easier for the class since there were a few new people that needed to be caught up a little bit. Not a bad day at all :)

        When I got back to the house I crawled in my bed and passed out for a few hours since I was finally feeling the beginnings of some kind of illness. The whole house has been sick the past 3 weeks and I've escaped it this long so I didn't want to feel left out or anything........ grrr.  It was a nice nap, and Jean gave me some Olbas Oil which opens up your sinuses and throat. It's very nice actually and it helped me sleep along with a pile of tissues and a big bottle of water of course. After a good amount of rest, Ashley and I went down the street to a local spa to get pedicures. It was super cheap there and the girl was really good and very detailed in her work so that was nice. Then we lounged around the common room of the house and I worked on lesson plans and school stuff for a while until Khadija came and gave us henna tattoos. She does very beautiful, intricate designs and she does them super fast too! She said she started practicing when she was about 15. I pictured her as a little girl at a sleepover practicing henna with all her friends lol... so cute :D 

        Later, the gang (Ashley, Carley, Kim, Jason, Jordan, George, and moi) went down to the Mahaj Riad to check out the sushi restaurant that we'd heard raving reviews about (sushi? in morocco?). Since I had no desire to partake in digesting such slimy-ness, I opted for a delicious banana crepe with green tea ice cream (it had some fancy name that I can't remember, but that's basically what it was). Our waiter was super sweet too because when we asked him to take our picture, he even climbed behind a planter box and poked the camera through it's plants in order to take a good picture of us all. After eating, we went across the street to our favorite Tapas restaurant for Sangria and Mojitos (Yummy!) When we got back, I took my sick self to bed early and the rest of them smoked hookah (I dislike being responsible sometimes :P)

Sans l'internet!

Well due to lots of wind and storms here in Rabat, home base has been without internet :( ..I have limited time until this internet cafe is closed so i'm literally copying and pasting the journal entries from yesterday and today. Forgive me if they are a little sloppy :/

Tuesday

Well, it’s been mostly rainy and cold the past few days here in Rabat. We had a huge thunderstorm a few nights ago and one of the trees in the back yard fell down… luckily not on the house, but It was a really good shade tree so that’s a bummer. My class was good today, we started off really well and review was easier for them! I worked on some phonetics which they seemed to understand somewhat, then I moved on to times like weeks, months, times of day etc.. but that was too easy for most of them. I then took out a lesson plan on weather that wasn’t even for today and THAT was too easy for them as well. I let them out a few minutes early because I really had little else prepared that would work that day. I talked to a few of them who said it was pretty easy and I said I would make it harder tomorrow. Unfortunately our internet has been messing up so it will be hard to have hand outs printed :/ I will be working on more relevant things tomorrow, like workplace and classroom vocab (desk, phone, printer etc…) since they ARE here to hopefully get a job as receptionists or other jobs that could require a little English.

In other news, I’m going to Essouira this weekend! I hope the cold weather doesn’t follow us up there because it’s known for it’s beaches and I’m hoping to try a little surfing if the waves are decent. Most of all I just want some sun! Who told Morocco it was okay to be cold?? I mean, if I wanted this weather I would be in Michigan right now :P hahah, so anyway, I’ll be going with Carley, Jordan and George. Ashley, Jason and Kim leave this weekend so we will have to properly send them off on Thursday night. Kim has been talking about going to a dance club in Rabat since she really hasn’t gone out AT ALL this trip. The only problem is that most clubs are not female friendly (unless you’re a prostitute or would like to be thought of as one). I would really love to go dancing but it’s been hard trying to find anywhere that is appropriate for us to go. She found two places in the Lonely Planet guide book that have good reviews though, they are in hotels and are known to be very upscale and modern (with American themes). I’ve heard that the more modern it is, the better. So we’ll see how that plays out.

After I work on some lesson plans, I’m meeting Ashley at the orphanage and walking to the Medina with her to go shopping :D  I won’t be doing ALL my shopping now since it’s so early and I really don’t want to lug everything around with me but I do want to ship a bunch of things home since shipping is cheaper than taking an extra bag on the plane I think. I wish I could just stock up and buy a ton of everything because there are so many cool things that would make awesome gifts for people or cool decorations for my apartment. The clothes and shoes are cool as well.. I may be broke when I get back ;D

Goodbye for now!

Today!

Shopping with Ashley yesterday was quite successful and even somewhat of an adventure. I got some perfume (It’s quite lovely and smelly!), a red and black traditionally decorated shirt/ tunic thing, the leather purse that I’ve been needing, and I finally got my cell phone! I only paid 200 DH (about 25 bucks) for it and I’ve been having all kinds of fun with it. It has some really fun games and a prayer reminder setting, it has an application that tells me which way mecca is (no matter where I am!), there’s also a fake call setting that lets you set a time anywhere from 5 seconds to 3 minutes to get a “phone call” so you can get out of a situation easier (hahah).

Our shopping became somewhat interesting when it started POURING rain, luckily I had a rain coat, but Ashley just had a t-shirt so we were hopping, running, skipping from stall to stall to stay as dry as possible. I was checking out some super cute Nikes when I heard “teacher, teacher!” behind me and felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around to see one of my English students grinning from ear to ear. He told me in broken English mixed with French that he had class that day and would be there tomorrow. It was cute :D I felt kinda famous for a second hahah.. I was also excited to find a few people who sell the hookahs made of pure brass! They are gorgeous and look hand-made, I will have to go back and get one later for sure. Ashley also bought a hookah that spins for her boyfriend, it’s very cool as well.

We finished off our shopping extravaganza with some pizza and wings at a Dominoes Pizza in our neighborhood since we had missed lunch and tea time. Note to self: NEVER get Moroccan hot wings.. at least not at a Moroccan Dominoes. The pizza was just fine but the wings were naked and served with an oil with hot pepper in it that was indeed SPICY but it didn’t taste like anything, they also gave us barbeque dipping sauce. Utter fail. We had a good laugh and fed some of it to some street cats who appreciated it immensely more than we ever could have.

In other news, the whole not having internet thing has kind-of thrown a wrench in the works. I can’t access my blog, I can’t go online to prepare lesson plans, and I can’t print anything (because I need to e-mail anything I need printed. The printing part is the worst since I have to write out all the exercises for my English class and I can’t bring them the hand-outs and activities I planned. I’m also unable to print my ballot and voting papers that have been e-mailed to me. I hope we get back online soon so I can get my vote in on time. 

My english class was struck by murphy's law today. First, I didn't have the handouts I promised them (or the new ones for that lesson) because of the internet problems. Second, only a half hour into our class we got kicked out of our class room and had to move to another room. Third, the room wasn't a classroom, it was the cafeteria that had a bad echo. Fourth, I had to run up to the top floor to get a white board since I have no hand outs, we NEEDED something for a visual. Fifth, once we were all settled I realized that the white board was written on with PERMANENT marker! So I had to write between lines the whole rest of the class. I felt so bad because they had a really hard time reading it. It was a good class though other than that, I think they learned more, reviewed well, and there were even more students than before. Chad said his class has grown too, and I think Jill's looked much bigger as well, so they must be learning SOMETHING. I hope :)

All of this craziness started getting to me today and stressing me out so I stayed home from the outings and shopping trips to organize my thoughts and relax myself. I laid out in the sun for an hour on the back  porch, had tea and watched Judy try to help a bird get out of the window it was trapped in, sat in the sun again while organizing my notes and planning class. I worked out a little, took a looooong shower, then organized my masses of clothing (it's kinda sad that I'm finally doing this when I have a little over a week left). I feel much better now, and ready to face the world again.

If you don't hear from me by Friday morning... 

I'll be in Essouira soaking up some sun for the weekend :D

Hasta la vista baby!

Kissing Camels and Sleeping in Sand

Saturday (part 2)

        On Saturday afternoon we drove through miles and miles of black rocky wasteland which began to turn more to sand. We passed tons of fences in grid-like patterns that were an attempt to keep the desert out.  We passed signs pointing down trails (they could hardly be called roads) towards distant hostels and camp sites, some advertised air conditioning. The wind was wild that day and we couldn't see to the horizon... just billowing clouds of sand. We passed a work site with huge trucks and for a few minutes we could see absolutely NOTHING outside of the van, when we had almost made it out of the dust and it began to clear,  the driver had to steer the van back on the road away from a rock pile. Quite exciting! We finally reached the "end of the road" and took the last turn towards a town called Merzouga. The town itself blended into the desert and sat literally on the edge of the Sahara Desert. We took tea at the Nasser Hotel where a man tied mine and Maryam's headscarves since we were failing miserably at wrapping them. He said his headscarf was 10 meters long! It was awfully huge... he pulled it off well though. Very legit :D 
        Our camels waited patiently for us at the gates of the hotel, just laying there blinking their long eyelashes and wearing fixed expressions that resembled peaceful smiles. They began matching us up with our camels and I took off my flip flops so I could ride barefoot. The camel in front of me really won me over for some reason and I secretly hoped (okay... I did tell Hamza that she was cute) that I would get to ride her. To my surprise a man came up, strapped my bag on her handle and motioned for me to climb up. Then, almost before I was ready, he made a soft sound in her ear and she started to unfold her legs to stand up so I grabbed onto the handle in order not to fall off. It was a lot easier than I had thought. They really are extremely graceful creatures despite their clumsy appearances. I had a fabulous view since my camel was at the head of our two trains of camels, each train consisted of about 6 camels tied to each other with the front one being lead by one of the guides. Mine was lead by a man in a dark shiny blue Djellaba and giant turban who took our camels on the easiest paths through the sand dunes. We took tons of pictures of each other, Lori was behind me so we got some good shots of one another, and Hamza (who was on foot) ran up to take pictures of whoever wanted one. I got to take a few with my Grand Valley 50th Anniversary scarf flying in the wind, I'll have to send one in if they came out okay :D 
        It was truly unreal and beautiful beyond words being swallowed up in the sea of orange sand. The wind threw sand in our faces but I was well covered with my scarf wrapped around my face and sunglasses. The sky was a bright blue if we looked straight up and as it became darker our silhouettes on the sand looked extremely exotic. I wish I could have spent more time wandering around the desert, although my hips and inner thighs beg to differ! After a while we started passing other camps and little desert "hotels" made out of tents and animal skins with Camels parked out front. We came over one last ridge and saw a bigger camp with a few palm trees and a good number of tents clustered together in almost a circle shape with a big open space in the middle. 
        After parking our camels out front, we wandered into the largest tent and sat around a big table. There were two other small groups of people there, one group of moroccans and one french speaking group I think. We drank tea and ate salted nuts then went into the "courtyard" in the middle to escape the heat of the tent while we waited for dinner to come. They passed around drums so a few people attempted some beats and the rest of us clapped or made some kind of noise to add into the little jam session. I used my bangle bracelets to add a little percussion to the mix. We tried to sing some songs from the lion king but couldn't remember enough words so they kind-of fizzled out :P Our food came in giant Tagines. There were veggies, potatoes and delicious chicken in them. We also got a bunch of oranges and melon for desert. While we ate, a few of the local guys played drums and sang berber songs to us. It was a beautiful night and only got better when they laid out our mattresses, blankets and pillows in the "courtyard" so we could sleep under the stars. The wind still whipped sand on us, but with my scarf wrapped around my face and a slit for my eyes, I could see the stars and the milky way. 

Sunday

        We woke up at 5:30 with all orifices full of sand and sore seat bones. We immediately went back to our camels who were lazily chewing on whatever camels chew on and found our ride from the previous day. I re-named mine Pookie since I couldn't remember her proper name and she just looked like a teddy bear (a really long legged and long necked teddy bear!). We mounted back up and headed back towards our hotel. Hamza had us stop around 6 a.m. to climb a dune and watch the sun rise but it took too long so after some pictures of the gorgeous landscape around us, we slid back down the hill to our camels. I had Lori take a picture of me pretending to kiss my Pookie but it took more than one try since she decided to lean in, open her lips and BURP in my face! She's a keeper, it was love at first whiff :D As we continued on, one of our guides joked that we were headed to Timbuktu and he would see us later. What a joker. 

        Back at the hotel, I bid farewell to Pookie, changed clothes, stuck my feet in the pool and ate a little bit of a breakfast they had laid out for us. The ride home was a rather smelly and cramped one. I coulda sworn the bus was way bigger on the ride up! It was also freezing surprisingly since heaven decided to unload on us pretty much the whole ride back and Hamza thought we wanted the air conditioning ON and not OFF... sad mistake :/  We passed by a group of nomad tents that he usually takes people to go see and meet some nomadic people. He offered to take us in, but it was so muddy and we were tired, freezing and in no mood to meet anyone unfortunately. I wrote in my journal and slept most of the way back. We only stopped for gas and food so it was a looooong 10 hour drive. 

        It was such a relief to make it back to Home Base. I was sad to leave Hamza, but we all tipped him well and ran inside since it was pouring rain. A lot of people left that night too, and some the morning before, I wish I had known when because I think I pretty much missed EVERYONE who left :/ 

Today!

       WOW! Am I actually back on schedule for my blogs again?! This won't last long I'm sure :P ...I thought that I would be dead today since I was so exhausted last night, but I woke up with a decent amount of energy and was ready for my new class. Our regular classes don't really meet on Mondays so instead, they gave people the option to show up and just talk, ask questions, have discussions etc... I wasn't going to do that though since I had agreed to teach the other English class for the refugee kids. It was a little confusing at first because a lot more students showed up (despite pouring rain!) and Chad couldn't make it today since he is sick with whatever community disease has been going around in this house (I haven't gotten it yet... knock on wood). Jill had a plan for her more advanced students at the Cafe, so the beginner/ intermediate students had nowhere to go. I felt terrible since I was THERE and couldn't teach them because I had about 20-25 other students waiting on me. Luckily Abdullah was there to try to explain the situation and apologize for their inconvenience. 

        The kids I got to work with today were very cool and fun. Most of them came from Congo or the Ivory Coast and spoke little to no English. It was quite a challenge to communicate and give them instructions, though my French definitely came in handy many times. Most of them were 14 or 15 but a few were 20. The class was definitely not long enough and I wished I had more time with them. Many came up to me asking if we had class tomorrow and I had to tell them that I had another class and I would only be teaching one more class next monday. I talked to Abdullah though and he said that there are a bunch of volunteers and three of them will definitely be sent to the East West Foundation to teach, so hopefully one of them will be able to pick up the class!

        After placement I met some of the ladies at their placement (the Children's Hospital) and walked over to a Hammam. Now this is not something I would usually do, but I feel like it's such a huge part of middle eastern (especially Moroccan) culture that I had to be brave and try it. I also feel like I need a good scrubbing after being encrusted with sand and sweat all weekend. For those of you who haven't heard of a Hammam before, it's a public bath house for women (there are some for men too but I think they are slightly different). It started out as a place to get clean since plumbing wasn't always an option back in the day, but now it's more of a tradition where women go once a week or maybe once a month just for the social interaction while others just don't feel properly clean if they don't go. I won't go into too much gory detail but basically a lady tells you to take off your clothes and takes you to a big steamy room (like a big sauna) and scrubs you with a really rough mitt-like thing and something called black soap that's really good for your skin. These women are strong, these women are quite large, these women are naked (except for their underwear) and these women mean BUSINESS. After the initial awkwardness, it is a very relaxing and cleansing experience. My skin is extremely soft now and I may even have to go again before I leave :)

        Our meeting was short, happy and uneventful today. Everyone has a job that they don't hate and feel useful in, so there really weren't any complaints. I laid out on the balcony and wrote for a while since the sun came out for a bit, I may do that more often if the weather holds up :) No exciting plans tonight, just getting caught up on work, organizing my mess of clothes, making tomorrow's lesson plan and sleeping at a decent hour hopefully!

A bientot!

Allah, Country, King

Thursday

       Class was good but we decided to pass out evaluation papers so that we could split people up by their learning level and preference of pace. The class was really too big to function the way we wanted it to. Lunch was so yummy because we got to make sandwiches out of baguettes, fresh veggies, cheese, and a choice of meats. They had little sausages, mini hamburger looking things and some kind of breaded chicken that was to die for. It sounds simple (which it kind-of was), but it was a nice break from the more traditional dishes. As much as I LOVE the tagines, a good ol' sandwich is welcome every once in a while!

       After lunch I worked on my computer until the living area was invaded by a Moroccan band with drums and crazy noise makers. It was sooooo loud but tons of fun because they got us all up and dancing despite our self conscious grins and clumsy imitations of their dance moves :D  The songs were so long that by the end of one or two songs we had a break for tea time before they came back and did two or three more. I'll try to post a video of them later so you guys can see!

        Since it was our last night with a lot of people in the house leaving this weekend, a few of us went out after dinner to a nice hotel downtown Rabat called the Golden Tulip. Jordan and George had been before, and maybe Carly but Ashley, Jenna, Christine and I hadn't gotten a chance to check it out yet. It took a bus ride and a 15-20 minute walk to get there, but it was nice out and kind of an adventure so we didn't mind. They took us upstairs to the rooftop where there was a great view and tables out by a pool. It was very relaxing and nice. We got a few fun pictures too :D ...At the end of our shenanigans up there we took taxis back, smoked some hookah, and called it a night.

Friday

        It was a rough start on Friday morning since I had been out the night before but I hardly felt how tired I was because I was so excited (like REALLY REALLY excited) for the camel trek to start later that day. I headed out in a nauseously optimistic mood for my last class of the week but it was quickly dampened slightly by some confusion splitting up our classes and finding classroom space for them. In my new (truly beginner class) it seemed like the levels and willingness to learn were very different among a few groups of my students. The review seemed like I was teaching it for the first time (and took most of our class time) and a group of younger students were being rather distracting. As I said I WAS in a good mood and I always like laughing and having fun but they came in late and loudly, they giggled and talked while other students were trying to practice their role plays. Two of them really had NO clue what was going on and took their answers word for word from one of the other girls. I could tell it was frustrating the other students possibly as much as me so I decided to skip over them if they busted into their giggling fits instead of trying to do the exercise. At one point I told them to leave the classroom if they wanted to talk loudly because I couldn't hear a student who is really trying hard. I hate to see them ruin these other peoples' learning experience :/

        Back at the house, I threw the last of my stuff together and hung around until Hamza, our fearless leader for the weekend, and his driver pulled the "Touriste" van in front of Home Base and we piled in. I immediately wished I had brought a pillow with me because it was a rather tight squeeze with not much to lean on. The drive was wonderful otherwise because my eyes were glued to the window and my camera was put to good use the whole way. The scenery was hypnotizing as it changed from town to town. There were so many sheep and their shepherds, ruins, crumbling buildings, and random donkeys piled high with odd things that I was never bored with what I saw.  I couldn't concentrate enough to read though and I didn't even listen to my iPod because I was really enjoying the music that Jane had the driver put in. Hamza was hilarious how he would turn around in his seat to face us with his gigantic grin to tell us random facts about things we passed or tell us the names of towns we passed through. His english wasn't quite perfect and he speaks rather fast so after each little announcement he would nod, say "ok? Thank you," plop back in his seat and leave most of us with question marks dangling above our heads and looking for someone to translate parts of what he said. We drove by a couple of big hills and buttes which gave me a chance to break out singing "I like big buttes and I cannot lie..." --Yeah, REAL mature. I know. The best part of the day was when we drove through a forest area and stopped the van because we saw monkeys by the road! Hamza had brought some almonds for us to feed them (this was all part of his master plan) so the monkeys would come up to us and grab the nuts right out of our hands. They were so calm and chill around us, even the monkey momma with her baby riding on her back. It was completely precious and I couldn't believe how close they would let us get to take their pictures, I almost died of excitement. That night we stayed in a hotel in a little mountain town called Zaida. The rooms were clean-ish and the beds were pretty cozy so it was a welcome rest after 5-ish hours in the van.

Saturday

         In the morning, I looked out the window of our room to see "الله، الوطن،الملك" written on the hillside. It's the Moroccan motto "Allah, Country King." I hadn't noticed that it was there when we'd driven up in the dark. As I was admiring that, I noticed that I had unfortunately gotten some unwanted attention from some men standing around talking in the parking lot. I had forgotten that we were right by a gas station... so my moment of admiring the outside turned quickly to embarrassment and the long drapes on my windows being shut immediately. 

        After a quick breakfast, we hit the road for another 5 hours or so. The ride was even more fascinating and the landscapes began to become increasingly dryer, sandier and dramatic. I loved it when we started driving into the foothills and winding through the Middle Atlas Mountains. Rosemary plants grew like weeds and colonies of bees were kept by men on the sides of the road selling their honey. We stopped at one of many scenic overlooks to take pictures so Hamza jumped over the barrier wall and grabbed a handful of rosemary for us :D It smelled soooo delish! 

       Along the road and in the towns we passed, I noticed that the color of the locals became generally darker and they looked slightly more asian in their features. Their skin was very nice looking and in my opinion the people were quite beautiful.  The towns became fewer and far between... we were going until the the end of the road... literally. At one point we came over a hill and saw a vast bright blue lake of some kind, cradled between huge contrasting orange-ish brown mountains. The sight was mesmerizing and I took way too many pictures of the darn thing! Hamza announced that it was the largest reservoir i think. All I wanted to do was run down the hillside and jump in. It looked so clean and seemingly untouched, how could I not? Unfortunately there were no stops there and we sped right by. We did stop, however, at a marble "factory" that took fossils from the dessert and stones like alabaster to make them into pretty things... or I should say to make ordinary things like toilets, sinks, showers, tables and other little odds and ends out of polished stone that still contained some long deceased creatures inside of them. Yousef, the owner showed us around and comedically demonstrated how things were done. I had little interest and more than slight disbelief in much of what he said, but his humor alone made the stop worth while. He would yell the approximate age of things in a deep official sounding voice for dramatic purposes... comments saying that certain fossils were "billions of years old!!" then he would crack himself up. Yousef's laugh was enough to crack all of us up since it sounded like a hiccuping donkey with asthma.  I also enjoyed his all too frequent and out-of-context uses of the word please. He almost used it in every sentence as punctuation or just a filler word (kind of how a Valley Girl would use the word "like"). 

        Our last stop was at a Casbah (Which means fortress); it was nothing like the one in Rabat. This one was a home to around 200 families and was bade out of an adobe-like clay, mud and straw mixture. In the courtyard there were a few women sitting around separating huge piles of dates and yelling at the old man that was guiding us to not let us take their pictures. We followed the man through tiny unlit passage ways with an increasing amount of children following at our heels, some on bikes and trikes, others on foot and one on a donkey which he kept beating with a stick to show off in front of the other kids. That was slightly disturbing and sad to see. We got to go into the old man's house and meet some of his family; he showed us pictures and took us to the roof where there was a huge panoramic view of all the other rooftops in the casbah. Dates lay out to dry everywhere and a boy on the porch next door yelled "skut!" (which means "hush" basically) at a dog that was alarmed by our foreign presence on his roof. An interesting observation (made by Jason) was that even in this seemingly primitive method of existence in mud houses, almost every single house had a satellite dish! We went and walked back and around the casbah some more, along the oasis stream and palm trees, the kids found us again and started to ask for pencils and candy. Two boys even started to slightly mock me when I said I had nothing. It was rather creepy and I wasn't prepared to handle the situation so I kept walking until we arrived back at the van. We all piled in and a few people actually HAD brought pencils for the kids so Hamza and the old man gave them out to the now swarm of kids around the van. The kids fought over the pencils. This bothers me terribly and is one of the reasons why I support CCS in their discouragement of giving handouts to the people they help. This is just a minor example of the issue but many places in the world are becoming or have become reliant on hand outs  instead of being taught or learning how to make decent lives for themselves. They also get an attitude about tourists, that they are selfish and greedy if they don't give things out and share their "riches," or they think that visitors think that they are superior and need to help the poor lowly people. This is damaging and degrading to both parties but mainly that of the locals. It's very hard to control, and even harder to fix once the damage has been done. Okay, I'm off my soap box now, and I know that all the tourists mean well and the local people are just trying to fend for themselves the best and easiest way they can :/

I feel bad for leaving you on such a negative note, but I really cannot keep my eyes open and I DO have to teach tomorrow so I'll finish my update on the best part of my trip (Camels!) later.

Much love :D