"Good For You Baby!"

Tuesday was cold and rainy, It probably seemed colder to me since I didn’t pack any truly substantial enough layers. I’m VERY glad that mom encouraged me to bring my rain coat because I would’ve been a sad freezing and soggy girl without it. So now I’m just a sad freezing girl hahah… okay I’m not really sad either. The bus was packed and foggy from so many bodies, I had quite a hard time getting off at my bus stop since I wasn’t close to a door and had to squeeze between people with my gigantic backpack and nothing to hold onto but the people around me. I also had to pretty much step on an old lady and her folded up wheel chair that had been squeezed onto the little steps by the door. I didn’t really step on her but it was quite an obstacle and I basically had to launch myself off the top step and onto the pavement to avoid her. Sooo much fun lol…

        I was a little late to class and was completely lost when I first sat down, he was speaking in vocab that I had no clue what it even related to. Luckily Matthew showed me his notes and I got in the loop pretty fast. Hassan, my teacher, really doesn’t waste time in introducing new vocab lol… The pace of the class is perfect though and I wouldn’t want it any other way. He kind-of surprises us with vocab that some of us may or may not know and has us attempt to use it and explain it before he confirms or disconfirms what it actually is. I think it’s a really good memory technique as well as a good way to keep people from being scared to try saying things they aren’t sure of. One of my biggest downfalls is that I have very little confidence in my grammar and I hate saying something if I’m not sure it’s right. I’m not a perfectionist or anything, but with all languages I’ve tried, there seems to be this reoccurring fear. I think the people that learn the quickest tend to try everything and just say stuff whether it’s wrong or not, so I need to try to go with my instincts and be less afraid of failure. Hey… that’s a good life lesson as well hahah. I found a quote the other day by some successful person that basically encouraged people to keep trying big things despite failure because it will make you less afraid of failure and more likely to succeed in at least the small things.

        As I waited for the bus it started pouring so I was REALLY glad I had my raincoat. I swear the only have two busses running the route now for how long we have to wait for one and how crowded they always are now. Two busses passed us by because there were too full… finally one stopped (after I had been waiting for 45 minutes), but it was full and everyone was just cramming themselves in like sardines. At this point I just started walking because I was not going to try to get on there. I made the right decision because as the bus drove away I saw someone’s hand caught in the door… that SO would have been me… or my backpack lol The walk wasn’t bad, I don’t mind the rain and there were other people walking, a policeman smiled at me in a friendly-non-creepy way as he passed me so that was nice. I did get a few ride offers from someone on a motor bike but I had to pass on that one. I was about half way home when I saw a cab pulling out of a parking lot in front of me. I waved him down and he took me the rest of the way. We had a broken conversation in which he kept slyly asking if I was married and I would pretend not to understand or change the subject. Finally when he dropped me off he asked again and I told him no as I got OUT of the car and before I closed the door he said “marry me?!” with a goofy grin on his face. I must say I was tempted to say yes just to see what he would do lol but I just smiled and told him no thank you and ran off. I told Mama Katoum and baba Ali about my wet walk home, expecting them to feel sorry for me or be sympathetic but they were proud of me hahah… they pretty much said “good for you baby!” I love these people :) 

Wednesday I actually wasn’t late for class for the first time but I thought I would be since the freaking bus driver literally wouldn’t let me off! It was packed again and I made sure to get near the door before my bus stop but he closed the doors in my face before I could get off, I banged on the door for him to open them but he kept driving. Someone yelled something that I assume had to do with me needing to get off but even at the next stop, he didn’t open the back doors that I was at! Just the front doors! I couldn’t help but laugh but I really needed to get off so luckily at the next stop the guy near me yelled at the driver to open the back doors for me, they opened then closed again so I banged on them and he opened them again hahah… It was really weird.

        Class was only two hours since we were all required to attend a lecture from a guest speaker on the Western Sahara conflict. I was really excited to hear how they would talk about such a touchy issue but unfortunately the whole presentation was in Arabic and less than 50% of the students actually understood what he was saying. However, there was Q&A session after that we all asked to be in English so we could understand some of it. The speaker seemed a little high and mighty about his position on the issue and laughed at the thought of Western Sahara being it’s own self governed state. I don’t know much about the issue but I could tell he wasn’t the most unbiased source to learn from but I appreciated hearing his opinion. He gave a lot of history that was really helpful as well. One American guy who asked a question started off by saying that he was proud to say that this conflict is actually one that the US is NOT involved in… heh… Once again I don’t claim to be a W. Sahara expert but I’m pretty sure that the US has had plenty of involvement in the issue since it doesn’t recognize the W. Sahara Polisario front and gives lots of military and financial aid to Morocco’s war efforts (despite UN security council disapproval). I’m not saying the US is right or wrong in it’s support since I don’t know all the motivation behind all sides, but I had to stifle a chuckle when the guy said that. Maybe he meant that it was one issue that the US hasn’t caused? Meh…

        After class I dropped my stuff at the house and went down to the Medina to buy a warm coat. Mourad met me down there to help me bargain and be my body guard hahah… I proudly used my Arabic to ask how much things were and usually understood the price though Mourad had to translate that sometimes. I wanted a coat in one store that was a mens store I guess and Mourad steered me away since he didn’t think I should buy a guy’s coat. It was really cool looking though :(  …oh well, the next store went to get a coat for me and while we waited Mourad told the girl that I’m learning Arabic and she got all excited and made me practice with her too. The coat they brought for me was perfect! It was long, warm, and had a hood… and Mourad said it was “jamiiiiila” so I got it. Unfortunately I found out later that the zipper didn’t work but I fixed that with a pair of pliers so no harm done. We walked around and got gelato and he asked me about going to Marrakech this weekend but I told him that I couldn’t go with him unless some of my school friends came too. He kept asking me why and I finally got through to him by asking ‘hypothetically if he had a daughter and she was in a far away country would he want her traveling alone with a guy she just met?’ – He replied “NO!” immediately and I smugly said “I win” and he admitted that I had indeed won. He showed me a newspaper from the Western Sahara that he got over the weekend. There was an uprising and a small-scale war in the same area he went to for the break dancing battle. His group was delayed at the airport since their plane was used to bring dead bodies back to Morocco. He told me that his dad called him every two minutes while Mourad was waiting for a flight out, asking where he was and if he was okay. Mourad told his dad that he was in a different city so he wouldn’t worry about him as much :/ We had a minor awkward moment because a cop and a plain clothed guy came up to us as we were talking and started harshly talking to Mourad. After they left, he told me they were asking if we were married and he had told them YES to get them to leave us alone hahah… I had failed to notice that we had chosen to sit in an area of a park with a lot of young teenager couples being all lovey dovey. They were going around breaking them all up and I’m sure they assumed we were doing the same thing. My stomach had been hurting so I decided it was a good time to get a taxi and bid my *wink* “husband” *wink* goodnight. Still not in Kansas Toto…

  

Thursday was miserable because I got home and was freezing as usual but this time I couldn’t get warm no matter how many blankets I piled on my bed. I even wore my new coat in bed to do my homework. I was up all night tossing and turning with my upset stomach and inability to keep my body heat up. I dozed in and out of dreams between 4 and 6am but started to realize every part of my body hurt; my legs ached, my back had this awful pinched feeling, my shoulders and neck were stiff and tense and my head was throbbing. As soon as I heard mama Katoum in the kitchen I shuffled down to ask for some water. She immediately knew I was sick and made me some tea from some weird smelling herbs. The tea was really strong and numbed my mouth, it was really strange but it felt good so I drank it all. Baba Ali came up the stairs and exclaimed at my being up so early. When he learned that I was sick he lit a cigarette and told me that if I wear my big coat and walk all the way to school I’d feel better, he was sure of it. I thanked him but since I had a hard time walking down the stairs I doubted how much walking I was really up for that morning. They offered me breakfast but my stomach was churning and I didn’t think that the fried bread would be good for my stomach. I went upstairs, passed out for a few hours and was woken up by mama Katoum looking worried and asking if I was going to class. I looked at my phone and it was almost time for class to start, I was still aching from head to toe so I told her that I would stay home today, I needed to sleep this off whatever it was. I must admit that I had a minor "I want MY mommy moment" but Mama Katoum did a good job as a substitute.

        I did some homework and slept until mama Katoum brought me cookies and orange juice saying it was good for me and to finish it all lol… At lunch they made me come downstairs and try to eat a little. It was a really yummy Tagine and fresh veggies so I managed to eat a little bit and drink a lot of water and orange juice. Nadia was animatedly telling mama Katoum a story while I was zoned out watching the news covering something on the West Sahara, I snapped back to it when mama Katoum started translating for me. Apparently Nadia ran into a man that morning who had greeted her pleasantly, shook her hand, asked how she was (all the standard stuff); then proceeded to ask her for all her money! Here! In the Morning! They were almost laughing about it but Nadia clearly had a little bit of a scare and was lucky she literally had NO money on her. This made me glad that I try not to acknowledge anyone on the street.

        Every time I coughed or sneezed, Nadia and Mama Katoum would look at each other very decidedly and told me that I had “trappe le froid” which I’m guessing they were diagnosing me with catching cold. I hope that’s all it is, and I really wish I could “trappe le chaud” but I can’t seem to warm up no matter what. Mama Katoum made me wear slippers and told me that it was bad for me to just wear socks on the cold floor. I was also instructed to take a long shower and I would feel much better… long showers ALWAYS make me feel better :) The rest of the day I just went between doing homework and lots of sleeping.