Ok- last Morocco entry!
Right now I’m on a plane somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean headed to New York City from Casablanca. It’s been an exhausting few days, and I’m completely emotionally drained at this point. Saying goodbye to all my friends was really hard; probably harder than I expected it to be. But I’ll start with Thursday.
Thursday, all the girls woke up early and Iman met us at the apartment to take us to the hammam. As always, somehow getting scrubbed by an old cranky woman who smelled bad made me feel wonderful! Sufficiently cleansed, we headed back home, got ready, and Julia, Lauren, and I went back to the medina for one last day of shopping. I spent a lot of money in a short amount of time- no surprise there. We also had the world’s most amazing omelette fromage sandwiches, and got our last fix of freshly squeezed Moroccan orange juice. Wow, am I ever gonna miss that!
At 4:30, we took our last taxi to Moulay Ismail, where we finished our oral Arabic exam and had the closing ceremony. It was filled with tons of delicious Moroccan snacks that would rot my teeth completely if I stayed here, and mint tea. All of the professors talked, and we had a kind of roast where the students imitated our professors and vice versa. Towards the end, Daniel said something akin to, “Know that you will always have a home in Meknes,” and it finally hit me that we were really leaving and I just felt this overwhelming wave of sadness. How is it possible that in two months we had created a whole new life in a whole new country on a whole new continent, and formed a family out of 14 strangers? We had made new friends, found new hangouts, attended a new school, learned a new language; it was like trying on a different life for two months. That night, I was really quiet and kept to myself, just thinking about returning to reality, to my real life waiting on me in Tuscaloosa. I know things will fit differently, and I’m a little nervous to see how. But I also know that it is home, and no matter how much I have loved Morocco, there’s no feeling like going home. Grades were also handed out at the ceremony, along with a diploma-type certificate in both Arabic and English. I ended up with a B in Arabic, which isn’t bad considering it was Intermediate Arabic taught by a man who barely speaks English. I know I learned a lot, and I’m satisfied with that.
Later that evening [much later- around 11:30], Iman brought the henna lady over to give us some fresh henna for the journey home. This time, most of us opted for black henna on our feet. It looks really beautiful, and I felt like it would be a good souvenir to take home and have for a few weeks.
Then, at 2am, Ben, Jared, Daniel, Julia and I took Jennifer to the train station because her flight left Friday morning. It was really sad, realizing that we were all beginning to go our separate ways. Watching her train pull away, I realized things will never be the same again. This summer will eventually become a memory, something I tell my kids about, or think of when I pull out my Berber rug…but it will never happen again. The way things were in Meknes, the dynamic between all of us and the relationships we shared – good and bad- will never be the same. And that’s sad. But it’s life, I suppose.
Friday was kind of a lazy day. We all woke up late- I woke up at 11:30,the latest I’ve ever woken up in Morocco! Then something cool happened: we all sat in the living room and watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics for three hours. It was such appropriate timing for us. It was almost like closure. We sat, awestruck, through the first hour, and then patiently waited as the countries’ teams paraded out, waiting to see our two countries. America was the first, and seeing the red, white, and blue, seeing our athletes, and the President and First Lady made us all really excited about coming back to the US. No matter how much we love Morocco, America is our country and our home and there is no place I’d rather call home. We were all so moved by the feeling that swept across the living room that we [I know, this sounds gay, but you really wouldn’t be able to understand unless you had been through what we had this summer] all broke out into “America the Beautiful”. Completely serious. Not in jest, or in a silly way; we were dead serious and sang it all the way through as we watched the American flag cross that stadium, and even though now it sounds stupid, it was beautiful. There we were, eight kids in an apartment in the middle of Meknes, Morocco, watching the Olympics and singing “America the Beautiful”. I loved it.
We got almost as excited when we saw the Moroccan flag come out into the stadium, and I felt so much pride even though I’m not Moroccan. Imad said that we’ve lived here and made a life here and in a sense, we are Moroccans now. I agree. I will always feel a special attachment and a sting of nostalgia whenever I see the flag or hear the country mentioned. We were a little disappointed that the King wasn’t there; we were waiting to see him. Finally, the ceremony was over, and we all spent the next hour or so packing up our Moroccan life into our tidy American suitcases. It was amazing and sad how simply this entire new life of ours folded up into tiny suitcases, because it had all seemed so much bigger than that, like something that couldn’t be contained. But it was, and it was bittersweet.
After I had finished packing, I went downstairs to the boys’ apartment and watched Ben pack. Sitting on his bed, under his cowboy sheets, and watching his slightly unorthodox technique, I realized how much I would miss him. There are three people from this group [you know who you are- Merzouga forever!] who I will miss so much. Ben has been half dad, half best friend to me on this trip. He watches out for me in every situation- making sure I don’t pay too much while shopping, watching to be certain I don’t get lost in a crowd at a festival, holding me back from crossing the street when he doesn’t deem it safe; it’s so funny and adorable. I will miss that. [Ben, I will also miss being able to say, “Yeah, I’ve heard that one already”, every time you begin a story. Get some new ones before I see you again!]
Then, Ben, Imad, Issam, Jared, Patrick, Michael, and I went to the medina for a huge free concert in the Jawla series in front of the Bab Mansour. It was ridiculously crowded; you could barely move! But it was so much fun! It was such a great ending to our Moroccan adventure. I spent all night dancing and laughing. It was a crazy scene though: people being thrown in the air, amateur cheerleading stunts three and four people tall going up all over the audience, people whipping their shirts around their heads, and wild dancing. At one point, a group of Moroccan men surrounded me and Michael and began dancing. Standing in the middle of that wild circle, I was a little nervous, but finally I just went with it and danced like mad. By the time we found our way out of the crowd, I was sweaty and exhausted and disgusting, but thoroughly happy. It was a beautiful end to our stay in Meknes.
At 1am, the bus came to pick us up. All of our Moroccan friends were there to say goodbye, and that was hard, but I was holding up pretty well. But then, when I went to hug Moha [he had decided not to come to Casa with us] for the millionth time, I felt something wet on my neck and realized that he was sobbing. That’s when I lost it. Watching Moha cry broke my heart. He has been so wonderful and I will miss him so much.
There were only nine of us on the bus, and four out of those nine were crying. It was all really sad, but eventually, one by one, we fell asleep. We arrived in Casablanca at 4:30am and dragged our stuff upstairs, and laid down in the exact spot where we spent five hours waiting the day that we arrived in Morocco. There I was, sitting in the same place I had only two months earlier, but I felt like a completely different person. It was a strange sensation, being back there again, but so different. Addison, Michael and I curled up and fell asleep, and I was out until 9am. Lauren and Megan left, and soon, it was Addison, Julia and my time to leave. Alexa, Michael, and Ben took the shuttle over to Terminal 3 with us, where we all said tearful goodbyes. It was hard saying goodbye to Alexa, even harder saying goodbye to Ben [he’s no good at goodbyes-that was the hard part!], and hardest of all saying goodbye to Michael. He and I stood there hugging and crying for a few minutes, and then suddenly, the three of them were gone.
Crying, the three of us going to New York went to check in. There was a considerable amount of drama then, with Royal Air Maroc saying that there were no seats left of the plane for Julia. We waited at the check-in counter trying to sort things out until 15 minutes before our plane was supposed to leave. When she was finally handed her boarding pass, we made a mad dash through Customs, security, and out onto the tarmac, barely making the plane. I think we’re something like halfway to New York now. I’m really tired, but I doubt I can sleep. I’m gonna make a quick little list, and then try to get some rest.
THINGS I WILL MISS ABOUT MOROCCO
-my ISA family
- khubz arabiyy
-Marackchiya, milfay, and labonny
- constant heckling from guys [let’s be honest, it’s an esteem booster]
-mint tea and fresh orange juice
-the music
-the Medina
-air conditioner pants
-call to prayer
THINGS I WON’T MISS ABOUT MOROCCO
-the heat
-three hour classes
-the little kids begging for spare change
-that smell you get a whiff of when the wind blows; you know the one
-explosive diarrhea [overshare? Nah]
-constant heckling from guys
THINGS I’M EXCITED ABOUT IN AMERICA
-rain
-Taco Bell
-Dr Pepper
-ice
-laying out by the pool
-wearing cute clothes
-my new house in Tuscaloosa!
More to come later…
Salaam wa hubb,
-Danielle
Marhaba b-Merzouga![
[or: Don’t Fight a Dung Beetle for Its Dinner]
[or: TIM- This is Merzouga]
[or: I don’t speak French!]
[or: These Days…]
I’m back from the Sahara! It was a long, exhausting weekend, but also one of the craziest and most exciting experiences of my life. I know I will never be able to do all the things that I saw and did justice with words, but I will try to give an excruciatingly detailed account of what happened as best I can. So here goes.
Thursday night Addison, Michael, Ben, and I set off for the bus station around 9:40PM. Upon arriving, I realized how nervous I was- getting on a bus to drive eight hours south of Meknes, to be picked up by someone we didn’t know, and do who knows what. Taban, the boys, being adventurous and manly and whatnot, weren’t nervous at all. My fears were eased somewhat when Moha showed up to wish us bon voyage and give us a few last minute pointers on the desert- he’s originally from a tribe in the Sahara. At 10:15, we said goodbye to Moha and got on the huge CMT bus. It wasn’t anything fancy, but it was better than what we were expecting. Ben and I sat together, and Michael and Addison sat together. And so the trip began!
Ben and I talked for a few hours about random things in our lives, and after the bus stopped for dinner around 1am [and we got 20Dh orange juice- kadeem!], I persuaded him to cuddle and had one of the most comfortable dozes ever. The drive itself was gorgeous. We went through forests and valleys and up and down mountains and across gorges….not to mention the stars. Driving through remote parts of Morocco, you could see everything- stars exploding across the sky like I had never seen them before.
Finally, four stops and eight hours later, we pulled up to the bus station in Rissani. By the time Michael, Addison and I managed to get our stuff off the bus, Ben had already found Moha’s brother, Aissa [they look exactly alike], and we all climbed into his Land Rover for the 45-minute ride to Merzouga. I cannot tell you the feeling I got inside of me watching the giant sand dunes of the Sahara desert rise up in the distance as we got closer and closer to the village. I was in awe. Huge orange pyramids of sand rising up from behind tiny mud and straw houses- incredible.
Aissa brought us to an auberge [a scaled-down hotel, almost like a hostel but a little nicer] run by his friends Isabelle and Richad, Auberge Sable D’Or. It was a small five room house made out of straw and mud and thatch, with a huge courtyard, a goat pen, and an outdoor room with two wooden beds and a bamboo roof with mosquito netting. Isabelle gave us a room to put our things in and served us a light breakfast of eggs and khubz arabiyy, plus orange juice and café au lait. We had to fill out police forms saying how long we would be in Merzouga, etc, which I thought was hilarious, because the entire time we were there, I never saw a cop or anything semiofficial [we saw a “military base” in the middle of the desert that consisted of one rundown building with a Moroccan flag on the top…wouldn’t you hate to be stationed at Erg Chiba in Merzouga, holding down the fort and watching out for the Algerians?]. In fact, people smoke pot out in the open everywhere. No one tries to hide it at all! We took it easy for a little while, then Aissa loaded us back into the Land Rover, and we were off. We drove out into the sand dunes first, and they were bigger and more beautiful up close than I could have ever imagined. Then the funniest thing happened- a group of about ten boys, all no older than 10, surrounded us, sat down in the sand, and started pulling things out- jewelry, toy camels, plates- trying to sell them to us! It was so surreal, sitting in the sand in the middle of the desert, shopping! After that, Aissa took us a stone’s throw away to the oasis, where a canal of water runs through the desert and each family is allotted a square of land to grow food in. Then we took a short ride through the small market, and drove out to the dunes where they bury people in the sand to cure illnesses like diabetes. Aissa told us he hates the trend because people come in and “leave their sickness in the sand and their trash on the ground”.
Aissa took us back to the auberge when it started getting too hot outside, and we took a five-hour siesta, which was not so much a siesta as a big, uncomfortable, sweaty sometimes-sleep in the main room on the cushions that lined the walls. In the desert, you feel like you should be out doing things because you’re not there long, but it’s too hot to move, much less sightsee. It was even too hot to sleep. I felt like a rotisserie chicken; sleeping on my back until it got too sweaty, then flipping over…for five hours.
Finally, sometime after 5pm, Aissa suggested we go back out in the four-wheel-drive. He took us out to the border of Mauritania, which I wish we could have crossed. Aissa was driving like a madman over the dunes and we were having a great time bouncing around when suddenly the car came to an abrupt stop. Aissa gunned the engine and shifted gears for a few minutes before we all got out to check out the situation. The tires were nearly completely under the sand! It was really funny for me watching the boys push the Land Rover while Aissa dug the sand out from under the tires.
We went to the market for an hour where the boys and I cooled down with some much-needed Coca Cola, and we missed the sunset, which we were all really upset about. We got back to the auberge just in time [I’m definitely being sarcastic here] to wait two hours for dinner to be ready- after 11pm! It was couscous Friday, and we all ate under the stars- if you could call it eating. In fact, if you combined all the food we ate over the course of the weekend, it would probably add up to be less than two cups of food! After dinner was a really cool experience: Richad and some of his Berber friends got out their gnaoua instruments [gnaoua is a native type of music here; we’ve heard really weird stories about girls getting possessed by it and dancing hysterically for hours, so I was a little nervous at first] and played for us under the stars. It was to primal and tribal and raw and real and a million other things at once. I finally felt like I was in Africa, but there was something distinctively Arabic about it too. It was all very intoxicating and overwhelming. The other thing that took away from it was that everyone was passing around a joint as they were playing, and of course I was bothered by that, and a little nervous to be around it [yea yea, I’m a naïve little goody-goody- I don’t care!], but I guess to sing and play and be so carnal like they were, it was conceivable that they would be high. Soon we were all starting to fall asleep, so mattresses were put on the roof for us, and we all headed up to pass out…but the sight of the stars unobstructed by anything was so breathtaking that you couldn’t tear your eyes from them to go to sleep. Shooting stars were streaking across the sky every few seconds, and the Milky Way stretched across the heavens like a giant silver ribbon. I’ve never seen anything like it; the sky was so clear and bright and flawless; I know I will never forget the sight of it. Finally, we all cuddled up and slept until 8am the next morning.
I woke up sick, which was horrible. I felt dehydrated and hot and faint and like both ends of my body would explode at any moment. Unfortunately, this feeling would last all weekend and for two days once I got back to Meknes. A shower didn’t help much; neither did the few bites of “breakfast” [eggs and bread- I’m telling you, they don’t eat in the desert!] that I had. Also, my nose started bleeding, and hasn’t stopped yet! I’m starting to get a little worried; five days of continuous nosebleed? Hardly healthy!
Also, a brief sidenote that is probably an overshare [grandparents and other relatives, feel free to skip this part!]: your nose produces the gnarliest boogers ever in the desert. Like, really. Giant, rockhard, bloody, painful boogers. All of us spent the entire weekend excavating them. We call them doogers: desert boogers. They need their own name because they’re one of a kind- my nose will never be the same! Ok, I’m done; I apologize for being disgusting!
Moving on.
Autumn had arrived from Meknes early that morning, so around 11 we headed out to show her the dunes.
Aissa took us on a tour all the way around the dunes, which lasted for three hours. I don’t actually remember much of this, because the bouncing of the 4WD put me to sleep- I was so sick and my eyes were on fire [contacts wearers beware- the desert will dry contacts up in an hour flat! Your eyes will burn and be itchy the entire time!]. We made a stop at a Berber family’s house- a very small, very primitive mud house, where we were served tea. It was a million degrees outside, but somehow the interior rooms were cool! However, it still boggles my mind that people drink hot mint tea in the middle of the Sahara! After the second or third cup I was served over the weekend, I decided I couldn’t do it anymore, no matter how much I love it!
Aissa explained to us as we were driving around that a Touareg is anyone who travels around the desert, so technically the five of us were Touaregs. I’m sure this is just something tour guides tell dumb white people to give them a little desert thrill, and it worked. We were all pretty excited.
We arrived at a gnaoua village next. All of the people there practice gnaoua music, and little boys are sent from other villages to learn it there. We sat in a cool, shady room, and about a dozen men came in in traditional dress and played about six songs for us, which was amazing. The music really is enthralling- I can kind of understand why women are “possessed” by it. I suppose there is something tribal and ancient in us all that is so moved by that thunderous beat that our bodies just take on a life all their own despite us. After they finished, they invited us to learn how to play their instruments. I tried my hand at the bongos, but sadly, I wasn’t blessed with the gift of rhythm. Michael and I tried to master the Berber castinets, but they’re large and bulky and take a lot of finger coordination to use, so it was a disaster. Autumn was really good at the different types of drums, and so was Ben. Then, one of the men decided he wanted us to dance, and pulled us all up to form a circle where we all took turns in the middle, imitating how we was dancing, but eventually giving up and doing our own thing. The whole experience was really fun and enlightening, and I really felt like a part of it the entire time, as opposed to just feeling like an observer in my own experience [you’d be surprised how often I feel like that here, especially on tours and things of that nature]. I also saw the cutest little African girl ever- I wanted to pull a Madonna and take her back home with me.
We got back to the auberge with less than an hour to spare before our Berber camping adventure. We all packed up a few small bags, and went outside, where there was a camel train waiting for us. Finally! I told my mom before I came that I wouldn’t come home until I had ridden a camel, and for a while I was afraid it wouldn’t happen. A few other tourists joined us – four Italians and a French man and his daughter who had been staying in the auberge with us: Jean Claude and his daughter who we affectionately [or not] called Kelly Osbourne. Jean Claude was nice enough; he was just very French. By this, I mean he wore jean shorts and shirts that were too tight for him in various shades of black, and had dyed his hair black when it obviously should have been gray, and spoke to me in French constantly even though he knew I didn’t speak the language except for a few phrases I’ve picked up from Ben. Kelly Osbourne, on the other hand, rubbed me the wrong way from the beginning. Our first day at the auberge, she spent over seven hours straight on the computer. This infuriated me because, come on, you’re in the freaking Sahara desert! She also made a snide comment about my French accent, which was so stereotypically French of her, and bothered me, because I don’t pretend to speak French, and I definitely don’t pretend to be good at the few words I do speak. Did I mention this girl is only fifteen and a half? I figure if you’re young enough to still be counting half-years, you’re too young to be snarky to an adult [Dios mio, I just called myself an adult- scary!] like that. Our impressions of these two divided the group somewhat over the weekend. Ben, of course, loved them, because he speaks French and could communicate with them. Michael, Autumn and I banded together in our dislike for them and became Team Danielle. Addison was somewhere in the middle as a type of Switzerland. The debate rages on even now. But more on those two in a minute.
We got onto our camels; mine was of typical-camel color and composition; I affectionately called him Phillip. Later, our Berber guides would tell us his name was Blondie, and he became Phillip Blondie Jamel [the Arabic word for camel], or PBJ for short. Getting onto a camel is an experience in itself. They get up very slowly, straightening one joint at a time, so you’re jolted violently forward as their front legs begin to unfold, and stay there, coming dangerously close to falling face-first into the sand, until they stretch out their back legs. The ride is bumpy and uncomfortable, but hey, you’re riding a camel, you can’t really complain. So we started our two hour trek through the desert to our campsite, which was largely uneventful, or at least as uneventful as riding a camel through the Sahara desert at dusk can possibly be. At one point, Jean Claude whips out his cell phone to make a call- in the middle of the Sahara desert. Michael took one look at him, looked at me, and simply said, “Team Danielle”. It was the icing on the cake. Oh, you silly Frenchman!
I did, however, sing the Alabama fight song. I’m pretty sure I’m the first person ever en la historia del mundo to sing Yea Alabama on the back of a camel in the middle of the Sahara. It was a pretty cool feelings.
We stopped for a few minutes to watch the sun sink down behind the dunes, and Michael, Ben, and I seized the opportunity to make sand angels. Then we loaded ourselves back onto the camels to finish the journey to the tents. It was pretty dark by time we got to the two small bivouacs situating between two big dunes, so the five of us laid down in the sand and watched the stars come out. We did this for a few hours, and attempted to make small talk with the Italians [in their limited English] while Ben chatted up Jean Claude. Finally, around 11:30, it was time for dinner, which, as usual, was small and unfulfilling…stupid desert food. Everyone got their mattresses to go to sleep afterwards, and we found a little spot behind one of the tents in the hopes that it would block some of the sand from blowing on us [no such luck; it’s the desert, for pete’s sake!]. After laying down for a few minutes, Autumn, Ben, and I decide to make it a truly unforgettable experience and go streaking. As soon as we decide that yes, it’s time to do it, and no, we don’t care if people aren’t asleep, it’s too dark for them to see anything anyway, Ben pops up and begins running around the sand like a crazy man, doing flips and somersaults and just generally acting crazy. In the dark, all we could see was the white outline of shorts- I thought he was still wearing his boxers, and was furious that he was cheating!
“Ben, you have to be naked to go streaking!” I yell.
“I am naked!” was the reply. “Touch my butt!”
I didn’t believe him; I could clearly see white boxers. At this point, he launches himself onto me and all I feel is…nakedness. It was at this exact moment that I realized the white boxers I was seeing was his tanline from Asilah, and he was, in fact, naked…and on me. So Autumn and I jump up, strip down, and take off through the dunes, laughing and yelling and being silly. It really was one of the most freeing, liberating feelings ever- the warm Sahara air rushing against my body, and the sand both warm and cold at once beneath my feet. After we were out of breath [running in the sand is hard work!], we ran over to where we had dumped our clothes to find…that Ben had stolen them! I ran back to the mattresses and dove beneath one.
“Oh my God, she’s naked.” Michael says in the darkness.
“Ben, give me back my clothes!” I yell.
Finally, after some cajoling, he throws our clothes at us..but my underwear are missing. So I make him go out into the dunes and find them.
We fell asleep shortly thereafter, and Ben failed to wake me up to watch the sunrise, although he claims otherwise. I remain unconvinced.
My wakeup was eventful, though. Around 6:45, I felt something tickling my face. I thought it was Ben, because he had woken me up the morning before by tickling my face. When it didn’t stop after a few seconds, I blearily opened my eyes to find…a camel. Right above me. Really?! Who can say they’ve been woken up by a curious camel in the Sahara desert?! Ohebu al-Maghreb!
We cleaned up a little bit [brushing your teeth without water –at this point we had run out- is not a pleasant experience by any stretch of the imagination] and got back on the camels for the two hour ride back to Merzouga. I was feeling sick, but trying to be tough and stick it out. The Sahara was a humbling experience for me. I was trying to push my body to the limit and take it to a place it had never been physically, but it just wouldn’t go to where I was trying to push it. It was like I had hit a wall, and no matter how hard I tried to spur myself on, my body wouldn’t cooperate. No Danielle, it kept saying, I’ve reached my limit. I was a little surprised and very humbled, not to mention a little embarrassed to be the only one who got sick. At one point, I had to ask Ben to ask the Berbers to stop my camel so I could get off and lay in the sand, because I thought I was going to vomit. On the way down, my body felt so weak that my grip on the saddle loosened and I almost went flying off the camel. I didn’t even care; I was too sick.
The auberge was a welcome sight. I got off my camel and went inside without even telling our guides goodbye. I sprawled out on the cushions in the main room and tried to will my nausea away. Breakfast didn’t help much, and a shower was frustrating at best. After three days of not washing my hair and washing my body with antibacterial hand soap, I felt sick, dirty, and hairy. Finally, Aissa drove us to Rissani to begin the last leg of our trip. He gave us a tour of the medina there, which was like any other medina: busy, bustling, chaotic, with acrid smells and too much noise and all kinds of activity that I usually find interesting but on Sunday found overwhelming and exhausting. I think we were all worn out from the travel, lack of sleep, little food, and hot weather. Despite the fact that the five of us there get along the best out of the entire ISA group, we were all snapping at each other and being very irritable. I know I must have been hard to deal with, what with the being sick and all, even though I tried to be as little of an inconvenience as possible with the state that I was in. After the souq, we saw a really interesting animal market, which, regrettably, I didn’t appreciate fully while we were there because I was preoccupied with making sure I didn’t puke. There was a big, open room filled with goats that were being literally thrown and stuffed into carts, bleating and yelling something awful. Another room had dozens of cows in it, tied up and mooing. Finally, a big open field adjacent to a huge pen contained hundreds and hundreds of donkeys- mating, standing, pooping, making noise, being loaded down with bags…it was a PETA person’s nightmare, but really interesting to see.
Eventually I couldn’t handle the activity anymore, and Addison, Michael and I went to a café to lay down while Autumn and Ben went shopping. Autumn bought me a really pretty green caftan shirt since I couldn’t go, and it was much appreciated. We were all starving, to Aissa took us to his house where we were served Moroccan pizza. Everyone was really impressed with it, but it was definitely not to my liking. There was some spice akin to cinnamon in it that I felt really weird about…but oh well. After lunch, we went to the basement of Aissa’s shop across the street where it was shady and cool and took the world’s most amazing nap on the floor…on mats like kindergarteners. It was funny, but so necessary, because we were all dying!
We woke up at 6pm, and our bus was leaving at 8, but Ben insisted we do the Circuit touristique, an hour and a half ride around Rissani to see the 300-odd casbahs and countryside. We went, and it was interesting and the scenery was beautiful, but I was starting to get nervous around 7:45 when Aissa was still talking and we weren’t at the bus station yet. Finally I told Ben we absolutely had to go. Aissa got us to the station, we paid him, and very nearly missed the bus.
The ride was long and miserable and uncomfortable; mostly, I think, because we were all very ready to be home and go to sleep and get back to urinating, sweating, and pooping normally [or as much as you can in Morocco in general]. Finally, at 4am we arrived back in Meknes sweet Meknes and made the walk home from the bus station, exhausted but exhilarated at the weekend we had just had. We were sweaty, tired, my hair was tangled beyond belief, I was sick, my uterus hurt, and everyone was slightly grouchy, but we still laughed and joked the whole way home.
It has taken me three days to write all of this down because I would get so frustrated at how words simply could not do the experience justice. In that time, Autumn unfortunately had to leave Morocco early due to a death in the family, and today we took our final exams in Arabic and Religion. Tonight, Michael and I spent some quality time [four hours!] together in the medina doing some last minute shopping. It is hard for me to comprehend that in a few days, all of this will be a memory. Sitting at a café in the medina tonight, Michael and I talked about how strange it was looking around at the chaos around the Bab Mansour and knowing in a few days it would all be gone, a world away. These last few days here are terrifying- I am constantly worrying that I will forget the way things feel, smell, taste, look…my senses are drowning in so many feelings that I’m afraid it will all just wash over me and leave me forever. It’s horrifying, the idea of forgetting this new life I’ve forged for myself in Morocco. I know my life back home will not be the same, and I know I can never come back to this life here, exactly as it is now. Nothing will be the same after this, but I’m also afraid things will be too much the same- like none of it ever happened. It’s a strange, surreal feeling, and a strange, surreal fear.
That’s it for me tonight, I’m exhausted. More tomorrow after my last day ever at Jahmiya Moulay Ismail. Goodnight.
PS- Michael and Jennifer voted me Most Attractive on this trip. Score one for under-made-up, conservatively dressed Danielle!!!
“This guy is the most annoying motherf----r I’ve ever met!”-Michael Castellano
“I should not have licked that.”-Addison Vawters
“Don’t fight a dung beetle for its dinner.”-Mr. Becker, by way of Ben
“Hello, I am Abdul, nice to meet me.”-shop owner
Salaam wa hubb,
-Danielle
[or: TIM- This is Merzouga]
[or: I don’t speak French!]
[or: These Days…]
I’m back from the Sahara! It was a long, exhausting weekend, but also one of the craziest and most exciting experiences of my life. I know I will never be able to do all the things that I saw and did justice with words, but I will try to give an excruciatingly detailed account of what happened as best I can. So here goes.
Thursday night Addison, Michael, Ben, and I set off for the bus station around 9:40PM. Upon arriving, I realized how nervous I was- getting on a bus to drive eight hours south of Meknes, to be picked up by someone we didn’t know, and do who knows what. Taban, the boys, being adventurous and manly and whatnot, weren’t nervous at all. My fears were eased somewhat when Moha showed up to wish us bon voyage and give us a few last minute pointers on the desert- he’s originally from a tribe in the Sahara. At 10:15, we said goodbye to Moha and got on the huge CMT bus. It wasn’t anything fancy, but it was better than what we were expecting. Ben and I sat together, and Michael and Addison sat together. And so the trip began!
Ben and I talked for a few hours about random things in our lives, and after the bus stopped for dinner around 1am [and we got 20Dh orange juice- kadeem!], I persuaded him to cuddle and had one of the most comfortable dozes ever. The drive itself was gorgeous. We went through forests and valleys and up and down mountains and across gorges….not to mention the stars. Driving through remote parts of Morocco, you could see everything- stars exploding across the sky like I had never seen them before.
Finally, four stops and eight hours later, we pulled up to the bus station in Rissani. By the time Michael, Addison and I managed to get our stuff off the bus, Ben had already found Moha’s brother, Aissa [they look exactly alike], and we all climbed into his Land Rover for the 45-minute ride to Merzouga. I cannot tell you the feeling I got inside of me watching the giant sand dunes of the Sahara desert rise up in the distance as we got closer and closer to the village. I was in awe. Huge orange pyramids of sand rising up from behind tiny mud and straw houses- incredible.
Aissa brought us to an auberge [a scaled-down hotel, almost like a hostel but a little nicer] run by his friends Isabelle and Richad, Auberge Sable D’Or. It was a small five room house made out of straw and mud and thatch, with a huge courtyard, a goat pen, and an outdoor room with two wooden beds and a bamboo roof with mosquito netting. Isabelle gave us a room to put our things in and served us a light breakfast of eggs and khubz arabiyy, plus orange juice and café au lait. We had to fill out police forms saying how long we would be in Merzouga, etc, which I thought was hilarious, because the entire time we were there, I never saw a cop or anything semiofficial [we saw a “military base” in the middle of the desert that consisted of one rundown building with a Moroccan flag on the top…wouldn’t you hate to be stationed at Erg Chiba in Merzouga, holding down the fort and watching out for the Algerians?]. In fact, people smoke pot out in the open everywhere. No one tries to hide it at all! We took it easy for a little while, then Aissa loaded us back into the Land Rover, and we were off. We drove out into the sand dunes first, and they were bigger and more beautiful up close than I could have ever imagined. Then the funniest thing happened- a group of about ten boys, all no older than 10, surrounded us, sat down in the sand, and started pulling things out- jewelry, toy camels, plates- trying to sell them to us! It was so surreal, sitting in the sand in the middle of the desert, shopping! After that, Aissa took us a stone’s throw away to the oasis, where a canal of water runs through the desert and each family is allotted a square of land to grow food in. Then we took a short ride through the small market, and drove out to the dunes where they bury people in the sand to cure illnesses like diabetes. Aissa told us he hates the trend because people come in and “leave their sickness in the sand and their trash on the ground”.
Aissa took us back to the auberge when it started getting too hot outside, and we took a five-hour siesta, which was not so much a siesta as a big, uncomfortable, sweaty sometimes-sleep in the main room on the cushions that lined the walls. In the desert, you feel like you should be out doing things because you’re not there long, but it’s too hot to move, much less sightsee. It was even too hot to sleep. I felt like a rotisserie chicken; sleeping on my back until it got too sweaty, then flipping over…for five hours.
Finally, sometime after 5pm, Aissa suggested we go back out in the four-wheel-drive. He took us out to the border of Mauritania, which I wish we could have crossed. Aissa was driving like a madman over the dunes and we were having a great time bouncing around when suddenly the car came to an abrupt stop. Aissa gunned the engine and shifted gears for a few minutes before we all got out to check out the situation. The tires were nearly completely under the sand! It was really funny for me watching the boys push the Land Rover while Aissa dug the sand out from under the tires.
We went to the market for an hour where the boys and I cooled down with some much-needed Coca Cola, and we missed the sunset, which we were all really upset about. We got back to the auberge just in time [I’m definitely being sarcastic here] to wait two hours for dinner to be ready- after 11pm! It was couscous Friday, and we all ate under the stars- if you could call it eating. In fact, if you combined all the food we ate over the course of the weekend, it would probably add up to be less than two cups of food! After dinner was a really cool experience: Richad and some of his Berber friends got out their gnaoua instruments [gnaoua is a native type of music here; we’ve heard really weird stories about girls getting possessed by it and dancing hysterically for hours, so I was a little nervous at first] and played for us under the stars. It was to primal and tribal and raw and real and a million other things at once. I finally felt like I was in Africa, but there was something distinctively Arabic about it too. It was all very intoxicating and overwhelming. The other thing that took away from it was that everyone was passing around a joint as they were playing, and of course I was bothered by that, and a little nervous to be around it [yea yea, I’m a naïve little goody-goody- I don’t care!], but I guess to sing and play and be so carnal like they were, it was conceivable that they would be high. Soon we were all starting to fall asleep, so mattresses were put on the roof for us, and we all headed up to pass out…but the sight of the stars unobstructed by anything was so breathtaking that you couldn’t tear your eyes from them to go to sleep. Shooting stars were streaking across the sky every few seconds, and the Milky Way stretched across the heavens like a giant silver ribbon. I’ve never seen anything like it; the sky was so clear and bright and flawless; I know I will never forget the sight of it. Finally, we all cuddled up and slept until 8am the next morning.
I woke up sick, which was horrible. I felt dehydrated and hot and faint and like both ends of my body would explode at any moment. Unfortunately, this feeling would last all weekend and for two days once I got back to Meknes. A shower didn’t help much; neither did the few bites of “breakfast” [eggs and bread- I’m telling you, they don’t eat in the desert!] that I had. Also, my nose started bleeding, and hasn’t stopped yet! I’m starting to get a little worried; five days of continuous nosebleed? Hardly healthy!
Also, a brief sidenote that is probably an overshare [grandparents and other relatives, feel free to skip this part!]: your nose produces the gnarliest boogers ever in the desert. Like, really. Giant, rockhard, bloody, painful boogers. All of us spent the entire weekend excavating them. We call them doogers: desert boogers. They need their own name because they’re one of a kind- my nose will never be the same! Ok, I’m done; I apologize for being disgusting!
Moving on.
Autumn had arrived from Meknes early that morning, so around 11 we headed out to show her the dunes.
Aissa took us on a tour all the way around the dunes, which lasted for three hours. I don’t actually remember much of this, because the bouncing of the 4WD put me to sleep- I was so sick and my eyes were on fire [contacts wearers beware- the desert will dry contacts up in an hour flat! Your eyes will burn and be itchy the entire time!]. We made a stop at a Berber family’s house- a very small, very primitive mud house, where we were served tea. It was a million degrees outside, but somehow the interior rooms were cool! However, it still boggles my mind that people drink hot mint tea in the middle of the Sahara! After the second or third cup I was served over the weekend, I decided I couldn’t do it anymore, no matter how much I love it!
Aissa explained to us as we were driving around that a Touareg is anyone who travels around the desert, so technically the five of us were Touaregs. I’m sure this is just something tour guides tell dumb white people to give them a little desert thrill, and it worked. We were all pretty excited.
We arrived at a gnaoua village next. All of the people there practice gnaoua music, and little boys are sent from other villages to learn it there. We sat in a cool, shady room, and about a dozen men came in in traditional dress and played about six songs for us, which was amazing. The music really is enthralling- I can kind of understand why women are “possessed” by it. I suppose there is something tribal and ancient in us all that is so moved by that thunderous beat that our bodies just take on a life all their own despite us. After they finished, they invited us to learn how to play their instruments. I tried my hand at the bongos, but sadly, I wasn’t blessed with the gift of rhythm. Michael and I tried to master the Berber castinets, but they’re large and bulky and take a lot of finger coordination to use, so it was a disaster. Autumn was really good at the different types of drums, and so was Ben. Then, one of the men decided he wanted us to dance, and pulled us all up to form a circle where we all took turns in the middle, imitating how we was dancing, but eventually giving up and doing our own thing. The whole experience was really fun and enlightening, and I really felt like a part of it the entire time, as opposed to just feeling like an observer in my own experience [you’d be surprised how often I feel like that here, especially on tours and things of that nature]. I also saw the cutest little African girl ever- I wanted to pull a Madonna and take her back home with me.
We got back to the auberge with less than an hour to spare before our Berber camping adventure. We all packed up a few small bags, and went outside, where there was a camel train waiting for us. Finally! I told my mom before I came that I wouldn’t come home until I had ridden a camel, and for a while I was afraid it wouldn’t happen. A few other tourists joined us – four Italians and a French man and his daughter who had been staying in the auberge with us: Jean Claude and his daughter who we affectionately [or not] called Kelly Osbourne. Jean Claude was nice enough; he was just very French. By this, I mean he wore jean shorts and shirts that were too tight for him in various shades of black, and had dyed his hair black when it obviously should have been gray, and spoke to me in French constantly even though he knew I didn’t speak the language except for a few phrases I’ve picked up from Ben. Kelly Osbourne, on the other hand, rubbed me the wrong way from the beginning. Our first day at the auberge, she spent over seven hours straight on the computer. This infuriated me because, come on, you’re in the freaking Sahara desert! She also made a snide comment about my French accent, which was so stereotypically French of her, and bothered me, because I don’t pretend to speak French, and I definitely don’t pretend to be good at the few words I do speak. Did I mention this girl is only fifteen and a half? I figure if you’re young enough to still be counting half-years, you’re too young to be snarky to an adult [Dios mio, I just called myself an adult- scary!] like that. Our impressions of these two divided the group somewhat over the weekend. Ben, of course, loved them, because he speaks French and could communicate with them. Michael, Autumn and I banded together in our dislike for them and became Team Danielle. Addison was somewhere in the middle as a type of Switzerland. The debate rages on even now. But more on those two in a minute.
We got onto our camels; mine was of typical-camel color and composition; I affectionately called him Phillip. Later, our Berber guides would tell us his name was Blondie, and he became Phillip Blondie Jamel [the Arabic word for camel], or PBJ for short. Getting onto a camel is an experience in itself. They get up very slowly, straightening one joint at a time, so you’re jolted violently forward as their front legs begin to unfold, and stay there, coming dangerously close to falling face-first into the sand, until they stretch out their back legs. The ride is bumpy and uncomfortable, but hey, you’re riding a camel, you can’t really complain. So we started our two hour trek through the desert to our campsite, which was largely uneventful, or at least as uneventful as riding a camel through the Sahara desert at dusk can possibly be. At one point, Jean Claude whips out his cell phone to make a call- in the middle of the Sahara desert. Michael took one look at him, looked at me, and simply said, “Team Danielle”. It was the icing on the cake. Oh, you silly Frenchman!
I did, however, sing the Alabama fight song. I’m pretty sure I’m the first person ever en la historia del mundo to sing Yea Alabama on the back of a camel in the middle of the Sahara. It was a pretty cool feelings.
We stopped for a few minutes to watch the sun sink down behind the dunes, and Michael, Ben, and I seized the opportunity to make sand angels. Then we loaded ourselves back onto the camels to finish the journey to the tents. It was pretty dark by time we got to the two small bivouacs situating between two big dunes, so the five of us laid down in the sand and watched the stars come out. We did this for a few hours, and attempted to make small talk with the Italians [in their limited English] while Ben chatted up Jean Claude. Finally, around 11:30, it was time for dinner, which, as usual, was small and unfulfilling…stupid desert food. Everyone got their mattresses to go to sleep afterwards, and we found a little spot behind one of the tents in the hopes that it would block some of the sand from blowing on us [no such luck; it’s the desert, for pete’s sake!]. After laying down for a few minutes, Autumn, Ben, and I decide to make it a truly unforgettable experience and go streaking. As soon as we decide that yes, it’s time to do it, and no, we don’t care if people aren’t asleep, it’s too dark for them to see anything anyway, Ben pops up and begins running around the sand like a crazy man, doing flips and somersaults and just generally acting crazy. In the dark, all we could see was the white outline of shorts- I thought he was still wearing his boxers, and was furious that he was cheating!
“Ben, you have to be naked to go streaking!” I yell.
“I am naked!” was the reply. “Touch my butt!”
I didn’t believe him; I could clearly see white boxers. At this point, he launches himself onto me and all I feel is…nakedness. It was at this exact moment that I realized the white boxers I was seeing was his tanline from Asilah, and he was, in fact, naked…and on me. So Autumn and I jump up, strip down, and take off through the dunes, laughing and yelling and being silly. It really was one of the most freeing, liberating feelings ever- the warm Sahara air rushing against my body, and the sand both warm and cold at once beneath my feet. After we were out of breath [running in the sand is hard work!], we ran over to where we had dumped our clothes to find…that Ben had stolen them! I ran back to the mattresses and dove beneath one.
“Oh my God, she’s naked.” Michael says in the darkness.
“Ben, give me back my clothes!” I yell.
Finally, after some cajoling, he throws our clothes at us..but my underwear are missing. So I make him go out into the dunes and find them.
We fell asleep shortly thereafter, and Ben failed to wake me up to watch the sunrise, although he claims otherwise. I remain unconvinced.
My wakeup was eventful, though. Around 6:45, I felt something tickling my face. I thought it was Ben, because he had woken me up the morning before by tickling my face. When it didn’t stop after a few seconds, I blearily opened my eyes to find…a camel. Right above me. Really?! Who can say they’ve been woken up by a curious camel in the Sahara desert?! Ohebu al-Maghreb!
We cleaned up a little bit [brushing your teeth without water –at this point we had run out- is not a pleasant experience by any stretch of the imagination] and got back on the camels for the two hour ride back to Merzouga. I was feeling sick, but trying to be tough and stick it out. The Sahara was a humbling experience for me. I was trying to push my body to the limit and take it to a place it had never been physically, but it just wouldn’t go to where I was trying to push it. It was like I had hit a wall, and no matter how hard I tried to spur myself on, my body wouldn’t cooperate. No Danielle, it kept saying, I’ve reached my limit. I was a little surprised and very humbled, not to mention a little embarrassed to be the only one who got sick. At one point, I had to ask Ben to ask the Berbers to stop my camel so I could get off and lay in the sand, because I thought I was going to vomit. On the way down, my body felt so weak that my grip on the saddle loosened and I almost went flying off the camel. I didn’t even care; I was too sick.
The auberge was a welcome sight. I got off my camel and went inside without even telling our guides goodbye. I sprawled out on the cushions in the main room and tried to will my nausea away. Breakfast didn’t help much, and a shower was frustrating at best. After three days of not washing my hair and washing my body with antibacterial hand soap, I felt sick, dirty, and hairy. Finally, Aissa drove us to Rissani to begin the last leg of our trip. He gave us a tour of the medina there, which was like any other medina: busy, bustling, chaotic, with acrid smells and too much noise and all kinds of activity that I usually find interesting but on Sunday found overwhelming and exhausting. I think we were all worn out from the travel, lack of sleep, little food, and hot weather. Despite the fact that the five of us there get along the best out of the entire ISA group, we were all snapping at each other and being very irritable. I know I must have been hard to deal with, what with the being sick and all, even though I tried to be as little of an inconvenience as possible with the state that I was in. After the souq, we saw a really interesting animal market, which, regrettably, I didn’t appreciate fully while we were there because I was preoccupied with making sure I didn’t puke. There was a big, open room filled with goats that were being literally thrown and stuffed into carts, bleating and yelling something awful. Another room had dozens of cows in it, tied up and mooing. Finally, a big open field adjacent to a huge pen contained hundreds and hundreds of donkeys- mating, standing, pooping, making noise, being loaded down with bags…it was a PETA person’s nightmare, but really interesting to see.
Eventually I couldn’t handle the activity anymore, and Addison, Michael and I went to a café to lay down while Autumn and Ben went shopping. Autumn bought me a really pretty green caftan shirt since I couldn’t go, and it was much appreciated. We were all starving, to Aissa took us to his house where we were served Moroccan pizza. Everyone was really impressed with it, but it was definitely not to my liking. There was some spice akin to cinnamon in it that I felt really weird about…but oh well. After lunch, we went to the basement of Aissa’s shop across the street where it was shady and cool and took the world’s most amazing nap on the floor…on mats like kindergarteners. It was funny, but so necessary, because we were all dying!
We woke up at 6pm, and our bus was leaving at 8, but Ben insisted we do the Circuit touristique, an hour and a half ride around Rissani to see the 300-odd casbahs and countryside. We went, and it was interesting and the scenery was beautiful, but I was starting to get nervous around 7:45 when Aissa was still talking and we weren’t at the bus station yet. Finally I told Ben we absolutely had to go. Aissa got us to the station, we paid him, and very nearly missed the bus.
The ride was long and miserable and uncomfortable; mostly, I think, because we were all very ready to be home and go to sleep and get back to urinating, sweating, and pooping normally [or as much as you can in Morocco in general]. Finally, at 4am we arrived back in Meknes sweet Meknes and made the walk home from the bus station, exhausted but exhilarated at the weekend we had just had. We were sweaty, tired, my hair was tangled beyond belief, I was sick, my uterus hurt, and everyone was slightly grouchy, but we still laughed and joked the whole way home.
It has taken me three days to write all of this down because I would get so frustrated at how words simply could not do the experience justice. In that time, Autumn unfortunately had to leave Morocco early due to a death in the family, and today we took our final exams in Arabic and Religion. Tonight, Michael and I spent some quality time [four hours!] together in the medina doing some last minute shopping. It is hard for me to comprehend that in a few days, all of this will be a memory. Sitting at a café in the medina tonight, Michael and I talked about how strange it was looking around at the chaos around the Bab Mansour and knowing in a few days it would all be gone, a world away. These last few days here are terrifying- I am constantly worrying that I will forget the way things feel, smell, taste, look…my senses are drowning in so many feelings that I’m afraid it will all just wash over me and leave me forever. It’s horrifying, the idea of forgetting this new life I’ve forged for myself in Morocco. I know my life back home will not be the same, and I know I can never come back to this life here, exactly as it is now. Nothing will be the same after this, but I’m also afraid things will be too much the same- like none of it ever happened. It’s a strange, surreal feeling, and a strange, surreal fear.
That’s it for me tonight, I’m exhausted. More tomorrow after my last day ever at Jahmiya Moulay Ismail. Goodnight.
PS- Michael and Jennifer voted me Most Attractive on this trip. Score one for under-made-up, conservatively dressed Danielle!!!
“This guy is the most annoying motherf----r I’ve ever met!”-Michael Castellano
“I should not have licked that.”-Addison Vawters
“Don’t fight a dung beetle for its dinner.”-Mr. Becker, by way of Ben
“Hello, I am Abdul, nice to meet me.”-shop owner
Salaam wa hubb,
-Danielle
...
Happy Belated Feast of the Throne Day!
It’s been a pretty chill week- I won’t bore you with the details. Class Monday, went to the medina that night. Arabic test Tuesday, went to the medina that night, then to the park.
Yesterday is when it got interesting. It was Feast of the Throne Day, a holiday in Morocco celebrating with King Mohammed VI ascended to power in 1999, so we didn’t have any class. All the ISA kids decided that a holiday with the word “Feast” in the name definitely called for a big American style banquet. So we made several trips to Label Vie and a local fruit market [and stopped on the way to get “The World’s Best Shawarma”], and started cooking around 2pm yesterday afternoon. Addison and I made my dad’s famous salsa, which was really difficult and took a long time because we couldn’t find a blender- so we chopped everything by hand into really fine little pieces. Michael made the world’s most delicious fruit salad- it included pineapple and cactus. Alexa made mashed potatoes, Lauren and Julia spent all day grilling chicken, Brigid made the world’s most delicious pudding, and Megan contributed baked beans. We invited our Arabic professors, Driss [the Beginning Arabic prof] and Zacharyae [my Intermediate professor], and they brought tons of beer and wine [who says Muslims don’t drink?]. Then Moha, Daniel, and three of Daniel’s friends showed up. Alexa and Brigid’s Moroccan boyfriends, Moiseen and Ilyas, came later, along with the boys’ Moroccan friends, Imad, Azziz, and Issam. We all ate until we were stuffed, and then the real fun began. First, Ben, Michael, Addison and I had to run to the bus station downtown to get our tickets for tonight, and along the way, Ben was “in rare form”. He was acting absolutely ridiculous, and I laughed so hard I thought I would die. After we got back, Ben and I teamed up to make the world’s most amazing Beer Pong team. At the end of the night, we were undefeated. Throughout the course of the party, we played Moha, Driss, and Zacharyae. I cannot even begin to explain how funny it was for me to realize I was in my apartment in Morocco, playing beer pong against my Arabic teacher. By 11pm, both of our instructors were completely wasted, and out of control. But the party kept going until 1am! All I have to say is, what a night!
Tonight at 10PM the boys and I leave for the Sahara! I’m so excited! So I won’t be writing again until Monday- expect a long one!
“Listen…..uhhhh….uhhhhh….uhhh….okay. You understand?” – Zacharyae
Zacharyae: Listen….uhhh….when you use yooreed…always with “an” or “anna”…ok? You understand?
Julia: What? No.
Me: Mudarra mansoob!!!
[Mudarra mansoob is a grammatical structure in Arabic]
Salaam wa hubb,
-Danielle
It’s been a pretty chill week- I won’t bore you with the details. Class Monday, went to the medina that night. Arabic test Tuesday, went to the medina that night, then to the park.
Yesterday is when it got interesting. It was Feast of the Throne Day, a holiday in Morocco celebrating with King Mohammed VI ascended to power in 1999, so we didn’t have any class. All the ISA kids decided that a holiday with the word “Feast” in the name definitely called for a big American style banquet. So we made several trips to Label Vie and a local fruit market [and stopped on the way to get “The World’s Best Shawarma”], and started cooking around 2pm yesterday afternoon. Addison and I made my dad’s famous salsa, which was really difficult and took a long time because we couldn’t find a blender- so we chopped everything by hand into really fine little pieces. Michael made the world’s most delicious fruit salad- it included pineapple and cactus. Alexa made mashed potatoes, Lauren and Julia spent all day grilling chicken, Brigid made the world’s most delicious pudding, and Megan contributed baked beans. We invited our Arabic professors, Driss [the Beginning Arabic prof] and Zacharyae [my Intermediate professor], and they brought tons of beer and wine [who says Muslims don’t drink?]. Then Moha, Daniel, and three of Daniel’s friends showed up. Alexa and Brigid’s Moroccan boyfriends, Moiseen and Ilyas, came later, along with the boys’ Moroccan friends, Imad, Azziz, and Issam. We all ate until we were stuffed, and then the real fun began. First, Ben, Michael, Addison and I had to run to the bus station downtown to get our tickets for tonight, and along the way, Ben was “in rare form”. He was acting absolutely ridiculous, and I laughed so hard I thought I would die. After we got back, Ben and I teamed up to make the world’s most amazing Beer Pong team. At the end of the night, we were undefeated. Throughout the course of the party, we played Moha, Driss, and Zacharyae. I cannot even begin to explain how funny it was for me to realize I was in my apartment in Morocco, playing beer pong against my Arabic teacher. By 11pm, both of our instructors were completely wasted, and out of control. But the party kept going until 1am! All I have to say is, what a night!
Tonight at 10PM the boys and I leave for the Sahara! I’m so excited! So I won’t be writing again until Monday- expect a long one!
“Listen…..uhhhh….uhhhhh….uhhh….okay. You understand?” – Zacharyae
Zacharyae: Listen….uhhh….when you use yooreed…always with “an” or “anna”…ok? You understand?
Julia: What? No.
Me: Mudarra mansoob!!!
[Mudarra mansoob is a grammatical structure in Arabic]
Salaam wa hubb,
-Danielle
...
What an incredible weekend it’s been!!!
I almost don’t even know where to start, so I guess I’ll begin with Thursday night. Ben, Lauren, Julia, Imad, Addison, Jared and I went to the medina to find something fun to do, as always. We wandered for a little bit, and Ben and I ate a fried fish. And by that I mean it was an entire fish, fresh out of the market, that was fried. We pulled it apart, ripped out the spine, and ate it whole! It was delicious! Ben even ate the head, because apparently it’s good luck, although I think it was just an excuse for him to be gross. Then we went to a café in the plaz by the Bab Mansour and had the most delicious omelette Panini ever. They absolutely love their omlettes here, at any time of day, and I’m totally ok with that.
Friday morning we woke up early and got on the bus to come to Asilah. It was a four hour bus ride but so incredibly worth it. As soon as we got to Asilah we went to Hotel Zelis, where we stayed. I was in a room with Lauren and Julia on the fifth floor. We got on the elevator, and it only went to the 4th floor. We were a little confused but took a spiral staircase up from the 4th floor and ended up….on the roof. Overlooking the ocean. It was absolutely breathtaking. There was a little veranda and behind it was our room. We definitely got the best room out of everyone. We freaked out and enjoyed the view for a few minutes before changing into our bathing suits and setting out to look for food. We roamed around the town, and let me tell you, Asilah is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. It’s perfect. After I retire, mark my words, I will move to Asilah and spend the rest of my life on the beach. There’s such a mix of culture and language…it’s unlike any other town I’ve ever been in. We ended up finding a wonderful little restaurant called Mataam Manar where I ate absolutely delicious swordfish- I had forgotten how much I missed eating fish! Because Meknes isn’t on the coast, we never get to eat it there. After that, we went to the beach and met up with the rest of the kids and alid out and played I n the breathtaking blue water. A typical Moroccan stalker told me I was Arab-colored, so that made my day. Eventually, Ben, Michael and I wandered over to a big wall of rocks that were shaped like huge jacks [like, bigger than a car] that had been carefully and strategically stacked. We happened upon a group of boys cooking tajine down in the rocks who gave us free temporary tattoos. We were feeling silly, so we each got one. Ben’s was definitely my favorite- a huge butterfly stretching across his chest. Michael picked out a heart with a banner across it that said Fun Lover for me, and I picked an octopus out for him. When our “new friends” started doing some sketchy stuff that I didn’t think it wise to be around in Morocco, I had Ben walk me back to the others. On the way, we were walking along this twenty foot high wall, and a man stopped Ben and warned him in French that his girlfriend [me] would get eaten by the shark-fish because I was showing too much skin in my bikini. Oh, Morocco. Ten seconds later, a big group of boys walked past us, and one of them jiggled my boob!!! Really. He reached out and JIGGLED MY BOOB, while making a ksss ksss kssss sound. I was in shock, and all I could do was yell “BEN!”, who promptly turned around and cursed at the guy in French.
That night, we all met at 7:30 to walk through the medina and watch the sunset. There’s some kind of art festival going on and there are people everywhere throughout the medina painting murals on walls and it was beautiful. We climbed down from the street onto some rocks jutting into the water and watched the sunset as little boys jumped from buildings in the medina into the water. It was beautiful. Unfortunately the horizon was a little foggy so we couldn’t see the green flash. Que lastima!
Later, Ben, Addison, Jared and I went on a walk along the beach, and the stars were so bright and so awe-inspiring. The Big Dipper literally jumped out of the sky. It was right over the water and so big and bright – I haven’t seen stars look like that in a long time.
Saturday was one of the best days I’ve ever had. Lauren, Julia and I woke up early and went back to Mataam Manar for omelettes. After that, we went shopping in the medina and I finally started doing some damage in Morocco. Up until yesterday, all I had really indulged in here was a Berber rug. Yesterday, I bought an orange caftan, a silver Berber ring that I am obsessed with, an antique silver hamsa bangle bracelet, hammered silver hamsa earrings, a yellow leather wallet embossed with a camel, and my favorite- an one of a kind original design dress from a local fashion designer that is wildly patterned and covered in intricate beading. It set me back nearly 600Dh but it is my new favorite piece of clothing. Afterwards, we ate shawarma and went back to the hotel, where the manager ordered a donkey cart to take us to Paradise Beach. One of the boys from the last ISA group here, Gabriel, told us that we absolutely had to go to Paradise Beach in a donkey cart, and now I could almost kiss him. It was the most bizarre, incredible, beautiful, scary thing ever. We climbed onto a small rolling table strapped to the back of this huge animal, and the ride was ridiculously bumpy and we were constantly in danger of flying right off. As an added surprise, the donkey pulling us started farting the second we started moving and continued a good portion of the way there. As we made our way through the medina, two guys in a Mercedes started following us and pulling up beside the cart to talk to us, and beg us to “go to the sea” with them. They even got on the phone to call their friends, and a few seconds later, we’re surrounded by three Mercedes Benzes! After following us for a good ten minutes, they finally gave up. We were only expecting a short ride, but 30 minutes later we were rolling down a dirt road, through watermelon fields and past shacks, and starting to get slightly nervous. We had no clue where we were, except that we were somewhere right outside of Asilah, with no cell phone service. But then, we drove in between two hills and the horizon opened up, and we were on a huge cliff towering above the ocean. It put the beaches in Cozumel and Hawaii to shame. Beautiful clear water, no one on the beach, and huts serving food and drinks. We spent nearly three blissful hours laying out and playing in the water. A few minutes before we were supposed to catch our cart back to Asilah, the three of us were lying down when we heard a sound like a donkey dying. We started looking around, and upon sitting up, found that four camels had appeared in front of us, like a mirage. We were so excited!!! We took pictures with them and petted them. There was even a baby who was very affectionate and nuzzling up against me. It was incredible! We took a slightly less eventful ride back to the hotel, and bid adieu to our smelly cart. The rest of the day wasn’t nearly as exciting. Everyone got together for dinner, wandered around the medina,and we took a disappointed trip to Hotel Alkhaim to go dancing [it didn’t work out].
Today we woke up early and went to Tangier for the day and seriously…nothing exciting happened. At all. Except we could see Spain. And Patrick puked the whole way home. That’s it.
I had a great weekend; I hope yall did too! Now it’s time to buckle down and study for my Arabic test on Tuesday and nag Ben until he finishes hammering out the details of our free weekend!
Salaam wa hubb,
-Danielle
I almost don’t even know where to start, so I guess I’ll begin with Thursday night. Ben, Lauren, Julia, Imad, Addison, Jared and I went to the medina to find something fun to do, as always. We wandered for a little bit, and Ben and I ate a fried fish. And by that I mean it was an entire fish, fresh out of the market, that was fried. We pulled it apart, ripped out the spine, and ate it whole! It was delicious! Ben even ate the head, because apparently it’s good luck, although I think it was just an excuse for him to be gross. Then we went to a café in the plaz by the Bab Mansour and had the most delicious omelette Panini ever. They absolutely love their omlettes here, at any time of day, and I’m totally ok with that.
Friday morning we woke up early and got on the bus to come to Asilah. It was a four hour bus ride but so incredibly worth it. As soon as we got to Asilah we went to Hotel Zelis, where we stayed. I was in a room with Lauren and Julia on the fifth floor. We got on the elevator, and it only went to the 4th floor. We were a little confused but took a spiral staircase up from the 4th floor and ended up….on the roof. Overlooking the ocean. It was absolutely breathtaking. There was a little veranda and behind it was our room. We definitely got the best room out of everyone. We freaked out and enjoyed the view for a few minutes before changing into our bathing suits and setting out to look for food. We roamed around the town, and let me tell you, Asilah is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. It’s perfect. After I retire, mark my words, I will move to Asilah and spend the rest of my life on the beach. There’s such a mix of culture and language…it’s unlike any other town I’ve ever been in. We ended up finding a wonderful little restaurant called Mataam Manar where I ate absolutely delicious swordfish- I had forgotten how much I missed eating fish! Because Meknes isn’t on the coast, we never get to eat it there. After that, we went to the beach and met up with the rest of the kids and alid out and played I n the breathtaking blue water. A typical Moroccan stalker told me I was Arab-colored, so that made my day. Eventually, Ben, Michael and I wandered over to a big wall of rocks that were shaped like huge jacks [like, bigger than a car] that had been carefully and strategically stacked. We happened upon a group of boys cooking tajine down in the rocks who gave us free temporary tattoos. We were feeling silly, so we each got one. Ben’s was definitely my favorite- a huge butterfly stretching across his chest. Michael picked out a heart with a banner across it that said Fun Lover for me, and I picked an octopus out for him. When our “new friends” started doing some sketchy stuff that I didn’t think it wise to be around in Morocco, I had Ben walk me back to the others. On the way, we were walking along this twenty foot high wall, and a man stopped Ben and warned him in French that his girlfriend [me] would get eaten by the shark-fish because I was showing too much skin in my bikini. Oh, Morocco. Ten seconds later, a big group of boys walked past us, and one of them jiggled my boob!!! Really. He reached out and JIGGLED MY BOOB, while making a ksss ksss kssss sound. I was in shock, and all I could do was yell “BEN!”, who promptly turned around and cursed at the guy in French.
That night, we all met at 7:30 to walk through the medina and watch the sunset. There’s some kind of art festival going on and there are people everywhere throughout the medina painting murals on walls and it was beautiful. We climbed down from the street onto some rocks jutting into the water and watched the sunset as little boys jumped from buildings in the medina into the water. It was beautiful. Unfortunately the horizon was a little foggy so we couldn’t see the green flash. Que lastima!
Later, Ben, Addison, Jared and I went on a walk along the beach, and the stars were so bright and so awe-inspiring. The Big Dipper literally jumped out of the sky. It was right over the water and so big and bright – I haven’t seen stars look like that in a long time.
Saturday was one of the best days I’ve ever had. Lauren, Julia and I woke up early and went back to Mataam Manar for omelettes. After that, we went shopping in the medina and I finally started doing some damage in Morocco. Up until yesterday, all I had really indulged in here was a Berber rug. Yesterday, I bought an orange caftan, a silver Berber ring that I am obsessed with, an antique silver hamsa bangle bracelet, hammered silver hamsa earrings, a yellow leather wallet embossed with a camel, and my favorite- an one of a kind original design dress from a local fashion designer that is wildly patterned and covered in intricate beading. It set me back nearly 600Dh but it is my new favorite piece of clothing. Afterwards, we ate shawarma and went back to the hotel, where the manager ordered a donkey cart to take us to Paradise Beach. One of the boys from the last ISA group here, Gabriel, told us that we absolutely had to go to Paradise Beach in a donkey cart, and now I could almost kiss him. It was the most bizarre, incredible, beautiful, scary thing ever. We climbed onto a small rolling table strapped to the back of this huge animal, and the ride was ridiculously bumpy and we were constantly in danger of flying right off. As an added surprise, the donkey pulling us started farting the second we started moving and continued a good portion of the way there. As we made our way through the medina, two guys in a Mercedes started following us and pulling up beside the cart to talk to us, and beg us to “go to the sea” with them. They even got on the phone to call their friends, and a few seconds later, we’re surrounded by three Mercedes Benzes! After following us for a good ten minutes, they finally gave up. We were only expecting a short ride, but 30 minutes later we were rolling down a dirt road, through watermelon fields and past shacks, and starting to get slightly nervous. We had no clue where we were, except that we were somewhere right outside of Asilah, with no cell phone service. But then, we drove in between two hills and the horizon opened up, and we were on a huge cliff towering above the ocean. It put the beaches in Cozumel and Hawaii to shame. Beautiful clear water, no one on the beach, and huts serving food and drinks. We spent nearly three blissful hours laying out and playing in the water. A few minutes before we were supposed to catch our cart back to Asilah, the three of us were lying down when we heard a sound like a donkey dying. We started looking around, and upon sitting up, found that four camels had appeared in front of us, like a mirage. We were so excited!!! We took pictures with them and petted them. There was even a baby who was very affectionate and nuzzling up against me. It was incredible! We took a slightly less eventful ride back to the hotel, and bid adieu to our smelly cart. The rest of the day wasn’t nearly as exciting. Everyone got together for dinner, wandered around the medina,and we took a disappointed trip to Hotel Alkhaim to go dancing [it didn’t work out].
Today we woke up early and went to Tangier for the day and seriously…nothing exciting happened. At all. Except we could see Spain. And Patrick puked the whole way home. That’s it.
I had a great weekend; I hope yall did too! Now it’s time to buckle down and study for my Arabic test on Tuesday and nag Ben until he finishes hammering out the details of our free weekend!
Salaam wa hubb,
-Danielle
...
Last night, Imad, Lauren, Julia, Jared and I went to the medina to see a concert at the old zoo. It was an old hippie band, and we liked it, but were all dying of thirst, so we went to la plaz at the Bab Mansour to get drinks. After that, Jared, Imad and I wandered around, seeing tons of Imad’s friends along the way, and picking people up here and there. It was such a Moroccan experience; someone would call out to him from across the street and come up and start talking in Arabic, Spanish, English, and French all mixed together. It was so uniquely bizarre and so humorous, and it was one of the times when I just felt so happy to be here. The feeling faded a little when my gnarly, down-ass Moroccan friend Imad [or at least that’s what I thought he was] starting hitting on me and asking me to be his girlfriend. Isn’t that how it always is when boys and girls are friends? Que lastima.
Today, the feeling was completely gone for most of the day. I was tired, and stressed, and anxious all for no reason. It was an overwhelming feeling and I couldn’t explain it. We went to belly dancing class, but at 10:30 our teacher still hadn’t shown up [class is at 10…she usually runs on “Moroccan time” and is around 15 minutes late, but 30 was just too much for us] so we left. Then we laid around until class at 4…totally unmotivated and lazy, although I will admit it was nice to have a relaxed kind of day, because we haven’t had any of those thus far in Morocco- we’re constantly moving a million miles an hour! Then we went to class and the most amazing thing happened to turn my day around; one of those things you always dream about happening in college, but that never seems to. After our break at 5:30, our teacher let us go early! An hour and a half early! Alhamdullelah! I think he could tell that we are all tired and a little sick and just burnt out in general, and that we were leaving for Asilah tomorrow and needed to rest. That lifted my spirits considerably, and now I’m pumped for the beach tomorrow! Three days of surf, sand, and sun in Morocco? I definitely need it! I’d say the weekend is off to a good start; I’ll keep you posted!
Have a nehiyat isbooah moomtaz!
Salaam wa hubb,
-Danielle
PS- Another reason why I love Morocco: Julia and Megan just waged war against Alexa and I in a date fight. There are dates all over the apartment and we’ll be finding them for weeks. Alexa got pegged in the face and now has the outline of a date on her eye. I LOVE MOROCCO!
Oh, and to update the flesh wound file..my entire right big toe is purple. How? No clue. I trip a lot.
And my tragus is infected.
That is all.
Today, the feeling was completely gone for most of the day. I was tired, and stressed, and anxious all for no reason. It was an overwhelming feeling and I couldn’t explain it. We went to belly dancing class, but at 10:30 our teacher still hadn’t shown up [class is at 10…she usually runs on “Moroccan time” and is around 15 minutes late, but 30 was just too much for us] so we left. Then we laid around until class at 4…totally unmotivated and lazy, although I will admit it was nice to have a relaxed kind of day, because we haven’t had any of those thus far in Morocco- we’re constantly moving a million miles an hour! Then we went to class and the most amazing thing happened to turn my day around; one of those things you always dream about happening in college, but that never seems to. After our break at 5:30, our teacher let us go early! An hour and a half early! Alhamdullelah! I think he could tell that we are all tired and a little sick and just burnt out in general, and that we were leaving for Asilah tomorrow and needed to rest. That lifted my spirits considerably, and now I’m pumped for the beach tomorrow! Three days of surf, sand, and sun in Morocco? I definitely need it! I’d say the weekend is off to a good start; I’ll keep you posted!
Have a nehiyat isbooah moomtaz!
Salaam wa hubb,
-Danielle
PS- Another reason why I love Morocco: Julia and Megan just waged war against Alexa and I in a date fight. There are dates all over the apartment and we’ll be finding them for weeks. Alexa got pegged in the face and now has the outline of a date on her eye. I LOVE MOROCCO!
Oh, and to update the flesh wound file..my entire right big toe is purple. How? No clue. I trip a lot.
And my tragus is infected.
That is all.
...
Last night I had this wonderful experience that I just had to write about.
It was over 100 degrees even after the sun had gone down, and I went to bed around 1am, but sleep was impossible. Around 1:30, I stripped down and lay on the marble floor, thinking maybe it would be cooler there and I would finally be able to get some sleep. After an hour with no success, I climbed back into my bed, defeated. Seconds later, my phone rang. It was Charlie! I was ecstatic to talk to him, and we had a great [and expensive] conversation. Finally, nearly two hours later, we got off the phone and I was laying in bed, willing sleep to come. It was hot, sticky, and dead silent. Then, suddenly, at 4:45, the call to prayer began. Five times a day, the mosques in Muslim countries broadcast a call to prayer [half song, half poem- all beautiful] over loudspeakers that can be heard all over the city. I’m used to hearing them over the chaotic sounds of the city, and they seem so appropriate blending in with the cacophony of Meknes. Sometimes it astonishes me how normal we all think it is, because if something like that were to happen in America, people would be offended and appalled and shocked and a medley of other less-than-desirable feelings. But last night…everything was still and calm, and slowly out of the darkness came this floating, wailing call to prayer. Seconds later, two other mosques began their call to prayer. Then a few more came seeping in through the night. Eventually, there were about a dozen calls filling the night air, all bittersweet and sad and tumultuous, all different, but all blending together in this beautiful melody. I laid as still as possible, wishing it would never stop. I think it was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard. I wish you all could have heard it. I’ve never been so awestruck by something in my life. So even though I was cursing my lack of sleep this morning in class, I’m so grateful I was awake to hear it.
Before all that, I went to the medina with Lauren, Ben, and Imad for a local concert series. It was fun; Imad spent most of the night teaching us bad words in Arabic, which is always entertaining. After that, we wandered over to McDonalds for a midnight Daim McFlurry, where we met a bunch of Imad’s friends and BS-ed for a few hours. We finally made it home around 1am. It was all good fun, and I learned my new favorite word- layahum. It means whatever, and therefore I will be using it a lot.
That’s it for now- it’s time to post some entries since I just hacked onto the network! Thank you Emtil, whoever you are!
Salaam wa hubb,
-Danielle
It was over 100 degrees even after the sun had gone down, and I went to bed around 1am, but sleep was impossible. Around 1:30, I stripped down and lay on the marble floor, thinking maybe it would be cooler there and I would finally be able to get some sleep. After an hour with no success, I climbed back into my bed, defeated. Seconds later, my phone rang. It was Charlie! I was ecstatic to talk to him, and we had a great [and expensive] conversation. Finally, nearly two hours later, we got off the phone and I was laying in bed, willing sleep to come. It was hot, sticky, and dead silent. Then, suddenly, at 4:45, the call to prayer began. Five times a day, the mosques in Muslim countries broadcast a call to prayer [half song, half poem- all beautiful] over loudspeakers that can be heard all over the city. I’m used to hearing them over the chaotic sounds of the city, and they seem so appropriate blending in with the cacophony of Meknes. Sometimes it astonishes me how normal we all think it is, because if something like that were to happen in America, people would be offended and appalled and shocked and a medley of other less-than-desirable feelings. But last night…everything was still and calm, and slowly out of the darkness came this floating, wailing call to prayer. Seconds later, two other mosques began their call to prayer. Then a few more came seeping in through the night. Eventually, there were about a dozen calls filling the night air, all bittersweet and sad and tumultuous, all different, but all blending together in this beautiful melody. I laid as still as possible, wishing it would never stop. I think it was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard. I wish you all could have heard it. I’ve never been so awestruck by something in my life. So even though I was cursing my lack of sleep this morning in class, I’m so grateful I was awake to hear it.
Before all that, I went to the medina with Lauren, Ben, and Imad for a local concert series. It was fun; Imad spent most of the night teaching us bad words in Arabic, which is always entertaining. After that, we wandered over to McDonalds for a midnight Daim McFlurry, where we met a bunch of Imad’s friends and BS-ed for a few hours. We finally made it home around 1am. It was all good fun, and I learned my new favorite word- layahum. It means whatever, and therefore I will be using it a lot.
That’s it for now- it’s time to post some entries since I just hacked onto the network! Thank you Emtil, whoever you are!
Salaam wa hubb,
-Danielle
...
I feel myself changing day by day in Morocco. I know most people would say that living in another country for two months can’t really change a person down to their core, but I completely disagree.
Physically, the changes are easier to see. I tend to describe myself as one giant flesh wound these days, because I have had one cut after another since coming here. I have cuts covering my hands from falling down the stairs one day, cuts across the back of my calves from the hike, huge bloody blisters covering my feet, and random cuts and scrapes from day to day life. I’ve also lost a lot of weight from small portions, no preservatives or artificial foods, and constant exercise from belly dancing, hiking, and walking everywhere in the scorching heat [today it was nearly 120F!] My face is tan from Rabat, although I’m sure my whole body will be even darker after this weekend in Asilah. I have brown-orange henna covering both of my hands and arms, and sandal tan-lines on my feet.
The internal changes are more subtle than all that, and far more complex. When I came here, I was so set on my plan that it was completely inflexible to change in any way. I’m still completely dedicated to my plan, and living in the Middle East this summer has made me sure that this is actually what I want to do, but I’m also open to the idea of serendipity. Perhaps something else will pop up that is just as fabulous as what I’m planning. I’ve also amended the plan to a certain extent, adding French and Hebrew to the list of languages I want to master. My attitudes about America have all been challenged by the things I have seen and done here. I realize how incredibly lucky I am to live in the States through my experiences here in Morocco. I would like to think that I’m braver than I was when I first arrived. The first few days here, the thought of taking a train to a random town in Morocco with no set plan would have terrified me, but now I’m anxiously awaiting our free weekend when Ben and I are going camping/sightseeing- as of yet we have no real agenda: camping in the Atlas, a night in the Sahara, maybe a day trip to Marrakesh. I’m so excited by the idea of gallivanting across an entire country in search of an adventure. I’m definitely more observant, as I try to absorb everything I see and do here; but still, everyday, I notice a building or landmark that I had never noticed before. I told the girls the other day that I feel like I could stay in Meknes for years and still not see everything, and I know it’s true. Some people are bored of it here already, but I can’t imagine ever not being enthralled by every aspect of life here. Even though I’m way more restricted in the things I do and the places I go, I absolutely love it. I’m also learning so incredibly much. Taban, I’m learning an insane amount of Arabic in class, but it’s so much more than that. I’m learning about things I never thought I would from the other kids here. I never knew anything about Judaism before I came here, and everyday Ben teaches me something new and interesting. Listening to Brigid talk about her travels and experiences abroad gives me an idea about the world I never had. Everyone brings something to the table and everyone here enriches me and makes me better in some way, even those that I don’t particularly care for. It all just fuels the fire in me, the desire to travel and see and do everything. Even when I’m totally confused and making a fool out of myself in Arabic class, I know that I am one of the lucky ones. I know that I would never trade this experience for anything. Finally, I’m not taking a single thing for granted. When I go to the bathroom and see that there is toilet paper, I rejoice- as opposed to complaining when there isn’t any. When I walk into a store and there’s air conditioning, I’m ecstatic; whereas the first few days we were here we were appalled when there wasn’t air conditioning anywhere. Every experience I have, I’m so grateful for and so amazed by. The other night as Addison and Michael and I settled in for our stay on the roof, I said, “Who ever would have thought I’d be on a roof in Morocco listening to Dane Cook?” The randomness of it all thrills me. Today, Julia, Lauren, Megan and I sat in the car for 30 minutes as our Intermediate Arabic professor loaded bricks into our trunk in the Zitoun. When I was imagining what Morocco would be like, I never pictured any of this random, seemingly mundane stuff, but it’s exactly that which makes this trip so exciting for me. Maybe I’m weird for that, but I love it. After all, not everyone can say that they belly danced on a bus with grass on the floor, to a song they didn’t understand the words to, as it zoomed across the desert en route to Ifrane. How amazing is life? How incredible, how invaluable, are these days here in Al-Maghreb?
With all that mushy stuff out of the way, today was pretty uneventful. We went to belly dancing class in the morning and the teacher finally complimented me on something that I did- a first! Maybe I’m finally starting to loosen up a little bit, although I have to say, the lack of structure in belly dancing makes me yearn for the technique and rigidity of cheerleading. I’ve been really tired for the past few days, and am actually really convinced that I do, in fact, have mono. But what’s a girl to do? No choice but to tough it out; it could be worse. Arabic class was alright- a little nerve-wracking, as always, but I know it will all be worth it when I go back to UA and know what I’m doing. People here are starting to get on each other’s nerves and tension is starting to develop, but even so, I know I will miss all of these people when we leave. it’s impossible not to after sharing an experience like this one. I’ll even miss the random crap Jared pipes up with out of nowhere…”We wanted to save kilos and kilos of pure Moroccan cat.” But I’m done thinking about leaving for now, I still have somewhere around two and a half weeks here, and I’m going to suck everything I can out of those two weeks. Uhebu al-Maghreb wa kulu al zumala-i.
I’m gonna head to the medina for a concert- goodnight, all!
Salaam wa hubb,
-Danielle
Physically, the changes are easier to see. I tend to describe myself as one giant flesh wound these days, because I have had one cut after another since coming here. I have cuts covering my hands from falling down the stairs one day, cuts across the back of my calves from the hike, huge bloody blisters covering my feet, and random cuts and scrapes from day to day life. I’ve also lost a lot of weight from small portions, no preservatives or artificial foods, and constant exercise from belly dancing, hiking, and walking everywhere in the scorching heat [today it was nearly 120F!] My face is tan from Rabat, although I’m sure my whole body will be even darker after this weekend in Asilah. I have brown-orange henna covering both of my hands and arms, and sandal tan-lines on my feet.
The internal changes are more subtle than all that, and far more complex. When I came here, I was so set on my plan that it was completely inflexible to change in any way. I’m still completely dedicated to my plan, and living in the Middle East this summer has made me sure that this is actually what I want to do, but I’m also open to the idea of serendipity. Perhaps something else will pop up that is just as fabulous as what I’m planning. I’ve also amended the plan to a certain extent, adding French and Hebrew to the list of languages I want to master. My attitudes about America have all been challenged by the things I have seen and done here. I realize how incredibly lucky I am to live in the States through my experiences here in Morocco. I would like to think that I’m braver than I was when I first arrived. The first few days here, the thought of taking a train to a random town in Morocco with no set plan would have terrified me, but now I’m anxiously awaiting our free weekend when Ben and I are going camping/sightseeing- as of yet we have no real agenda: camping in the Atlas, a night in the Sahara, maybe a day trip to Marrakesh. I’m so excited by the idea of gallivanting across an entire country in search of an adventure. I’m definitely more observant, as I try to absorb everything I see and do here; but still, everyday, I notice a building or landmark that I had never noticed before. I told the girls the other day that I feel like I could stay in Meknes for years and still not see everything, and I know it’s true. Some people are bored of it here already, but I can’t imagine ever not being enthralled by every aspect of life here. Even though I’m way more restricted in the things I do and the places I go, I absolutely love it. I’m also learning so incredibly much. Taban, I’m learning an insane amount of Arabic in class, but it’s so much more than that. I’m learning about things I never thought I would from the other kids here. I never knew anything about Judaism before I came here, and everyday Ben teaches me something new and interesting. Listening to Brigid talk about her travels and experiences abroad gives me an idea about the world I never had. Everyone brings something to the table and everyone here enriches me and makes me better in some way, even those that I don’t particularly care for. It all just fuels the fire in me, the desire to travel and see and do everything. Even when I’m totally confused and making a fool out of myself in Arabic class, I know that I am one of the lucky ones. I know that I would never trade this experience for anything. Finally, I’m not taking a single thing for granted. When I go to the bathroom and see that there is toilet paper, I rejoice- as opposed to complaining when there isn’t any. When I walk into a store and there’s air conditioning, I’m ecstatic; whereas the first few days we were here we were appalled when there wasn’t air conditioning anywhere. Every experience I have, I’m so grateful for and so amazed by. The other night as Addison and Michael and I settled in for our stay on the roof, I said, “Who ever would have thought I’d be on a roof in Morocco listening to Dane Cook?” The randomness of it all thrills me. Today, Julia, Lauren, Megan and I sat in the car for 30 minutes as our Intermediate Arabic professor loaded bricks into our trunk in the Zitoun. When I was imagining what Morocco would be like, I never pictured any of this random, seemingly mundane stuff, but it’s exactly that which makes this trip so exciting for me. Maybe I’m weird for that, but I love it. After all, not everyone can say that they belly danced on a bus with grass on the floor, to a song they didn’t understand the words to, as it zoomed across the desert en route to Ifrane. How amazing is life? How incredible, how invaluable, are these days here in Al-Maghreb?
With all that mushy stuff out of the way, today was pretty uneventful. We went to belly dancing class in the morning and the teacher finally complimented me on something that I did- a first! Maybe I’m finally starting to loosen up a little bit, although I have to say, the lack of structure in belly dancing makes me yearn for the technique and rigidity of cheerleading. I’ve been really tired for the past few days, and am actually really convinced that I do, in fact, have mono. But what’s a girl to do? No choice but to tough it out; it could be worse. Arabic class was alright- a little nerve-wracking, as always, but I know it will all be worth it when I go back to UA and know what I’m doing. People here are starting to get on each other’s nerves and tension is starting to develop, but even so, I know I will miss all of these people when we leave. it’s impossible not to after sharing an experience like this one. I’ll even miss the random crap Jared pipes up with out of nowhere…”We wanted to save kilos and kilos of pure Moroccan cat.” But I’m done thinking about leaving for now, I still have somewhere around two and a half weeks here, and I’m going to suck everything I can out of those two weeks. Uhebu al-Maghreb wa kulu al zumala-i.
I’m gonna head to the medina for a concert- goodnight, all!
Salaam wa hubb,
-Danielle
...
Not much has happened for the past two days. Night before last Addison, Michael and I set up camp on the roof. I wisely chose to sleep in the middle of the two of them, and apparently hogged the covers all night long and they were freezing to death. I slept like a rock, and didn’t wake up until 7:15. Then I climbed down off the roof and slept in my bed for another two hours. Lauren, Julia and I met Iman at the Bab Mansour at 10:30 and we wandered around the medina for a few hours. I didn’t end up buying anything, but it was fun just to look. After that Michael, Addison and I went to McDonalds and then Iman brought over a lady who gave all the girls henna. I’m sorry today’s entry is short and choppy, but I’m in a weird mood, and really tired. Maybe I have mono. Ugh.
Take care, all.
Salaam wa hubb,
-Danielle
Take care, all.
Salaam wa hubb,
-Danielle
...
Lafo ya molana lafo!
Last night Addison, Michael and I hung out on the roof and listened to Dane Cook until 2am, while watched a fire far off in the hills outside of Meknes. It was really chill and really fun.
Today we woke up early and drove to Rabat. We did the usual tourist stuff; and we were all miserable doing it. We paid literally no attention to our poor tour guide. We saw a casbah, the palace, a mosque that was destroyed by the Lisbon earthquake forever ago…just to name a few things. The good stuff started after lunch [at 2pm! We eat so late here!] when we went to the beach to lay out. The beach in Morocco is so different from the States! The first adventure was finding a way to change into our bathing suits. I don’t change on the beach even in the liberal US, much less in ultra-conservative Rabat, but we didn’t have much of a choice. It was a really complicated procedure, and we drew a lot of attention to ourselves, strategically making sure that we didn’t flash the entire beach. There was a lot of laughing and screaming, but all four girls [Me, Julia, Lauren, and Megan] and Jared finally got changed. Then Megan, Julia and I ventured down to the water, which was completely filled with scary rocks, so we didn’t go in too far. After fifteen minutes of narrowly avoiding getting pummeled by rocks and getting splashed by evil Moroccan children, we went back up to our towels to find Jared digging a hole to Australia [seriously]. Soon, a little Moroccan boy named Hitam came and started helping and it was one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen. I talked to him a little bit, but he mostly spoke dareeja [Moroccan dialect], which I don’t speak at all [I speak Modern Standard Arabic], so all I got out of the conversation was that he was nine and from Rabat. He was sweet and really helpful with Jared’s hole though. Then, two Arabic guys [one creepy, one ridiculously good looking, and both speaking a little English] came up and talked to us for a while about a lot of random stuff. We decided the cute one had to be a prince or something because he was very vague about his life and kind of skirted some questions that a normal person wouldn’t have. Hey, we can dream, can’t we?
Finally, we were ready to leave. Ben is staying in Rabat by himself in a hotel tonight, and I wanted to stay really badly. Michael and I had talked about it, but he chickened out at the last second. Ben asked if I wanted to stay with him, but I know deep down he really wants time to explore by himself, so I got back on the bus and came back to Meknes. Two hours later, we’re home and exhausted. Tonight Addison, Michael and I are going to sleep on the roof because it’s really breezy and chilly up there. I’m excited!
Did I mention anything about the weather yesterday? It was really overcast all day like it was going to rain –it never rains here though- and the air was really heavy and hard to breathe. Then, after dark, dust storms started. Dust, sand, and trash hung in the air. We couldn’t go anywhere because the wind was blowing so hard you could barely walk, and the dust and sand was barreling towards us so fast that it hurt. My first Middle Eastern sandstorm! Very exciting.
That’s it for today. Tomorrow Iman is taking us girls to the medina to get henna. We’re all stoked. I’ll let you know how it goes and take lots of pictures!!!
Salaam wa hubb,
-Danielle
Last night Addison, Michael and I hung out on the roof and listened to Dane Cook until 2am, while watched a fire far off in the hills outside of Meknes. It was really chill and really fun.
Today we woke up early and drove to Rabat. We did the usual tourist stuff; and we were all miserable doing it. We paid literally no attention to our poor tour guide. We saw a casbah, the palace, a mosque that was destroyed by the Lisbon earthquake forever ago…just to name a few things. The good stuff started after lunch [at 2pm! We eat so late here!] when we went to the beach to lay out. The beach in Morocco is so different from the States! The first adventure was finding a way to change into our bathing suits. I don’t change on the beach even in the liberal US, much less in ultra-conservative Rabat, but we didn’t have much of a choice. It was a really complicated procedure, and we drew a lot of attention to ourselves, strategically making sure that we didn’t flash the entire beach. There was a lot of laughing and screaming, but all four girls [Me, Julia, Lauren, and Megan] and Jared finally got changed. Then Megan, Julia and I ventured down to the water, which was completely filled with scary rocks, so we didn’t go in too far. After fifteen minutes of narrowly avoiding getting pummeled by rocks and getting splashed by evil Moroccan children, we went back up to our towels to find Jared digging a hole to Australia [seriously]. Soon, a little Moroccan boy named Hitam came and started helping and it was one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen. I talked to him a little bit, but he mostly spoke dareeja [Moroccan dialect], which I don’t speak at all [I speak Modern Standard Arabic], so all I got out of the conversation was that he was nine and from Rabat. He was sweet and really helpful with Jared’s hole though. Then, two Arabic guys [one creepy, one ridiculously good looking, and both speaking a little English] came up and talked to us for a while about a lot of random stuff. We decided the cute one had to be a prince or something because he was very vague about his life and kind of skirted some questions that a normal person wouldn’t have. Hey, we can dream, can’t we?
Finally, we were ready to leave. Ben is staying in Rabat by himself in a hotel tonight, and I wanted to stay really badly. Michael and I had talked about it, but he chickened out at the last second. Ben asked if I wanted to stay with him, but I know deep down he really wants time to explore by himself, so I got back on the bus and came back to Meknes. Two hours later, we’re home and exhausted. Tonight Addison, Michael and I are going to sleep on the roof because it’s really breezy and chilly up there. I’m excited!
Did I mention anything about the weather yesterday? It was really overcast all day like it was going to rain –it never rains here though- and the air was really heavy and hard to breathe. Then, after dark, dust storms started. Dust, sand, and trash hung in the air. We couldn’t go anywhere because the wind was blowing so hard you could barely walk, and the dust and sand was barreling towards us so fast that it hurt. My first Middle Eastern sandstorm! Very exciting.
That’s it for today. Tomorrow Iman is taking us girls to the medina to get henna. We’re all stoked. I’ll let you know how it goes and take lots of pictures!!!
Salaam wa hubb,
-Danielle
...
Night before last everyone except Megan and Alexa decided to be adventurous, so we all got dressed up and left the apartments around 11:30 and headed to Hotel Zaki. We had a few drinks at the bar upstairs, then went downstairs for some Moroccan entertainment. It wasn’t really that exciting, until we met a bunch of kids who speak English! They were all here for an Arab basketball tournament. One is even going to Troy University in Alabama to play basketball! We hung around and talked to them for a while, and made plans to hang out before they leave in a week. It’s always exciting to find people who speak English; I can’t wait to hang out with them!
After that we all took petit taxis back to Hotel Rif where we went dancing to American music [as opposed to Arabic music], but Julia and I left shortly thereafter.
Yesterday we went to bellydancing class [I’m getting a little better at loosening up those cheerleading limbs and getting them to flow like they’re supposed to!], then rushed around and got dressed so that we could go with Alexa and her Moroccan boyfriend to the National Handball team practice here in Meknes [he’s on the team, but injured so he can’t play this season]. We walked all over Meknes, and by time we got to the stadium practice was over. We were sad, but we got to see a ton of hot handball players, including Ilyas, the world’s sexiest man [no lie] with their shirts off. No complaints here. Then we all went to a café for some refreshing Coke [thank God we have Coke here..although I’m pretty sure you could go to the High Atlas and find a Coke stand somewhere] and headed to class. Arabic class is getting better and better everyday. Everyday I’m a little less afraid of making up sentences on the spot and I actually feel like I’m learning so much.
After class we came home and Mohammed came over to try and fix the couch that Ben broke [did I mention I also broke a chair? Demolished it. Just by sitting on it. Kadeem.], made us some tea, then we all [minus a few] went to the medina. We watched Ben, Mohammed, and Julia play this fair-style game where you try and get a ring attached to a fishing pole to go around a bottle of Coke. Nobody won- not surprised. I also ate cactus for the first time and it was delicious! Then we wandered around the medina for a while more, and came home to indulge in some wine. We got to go on the roof, which was really exciting and really beautiful at night. So we all hung out on the roof and drank for a while; it was really chilled out. I feel like we all need that. People are starting to grate on other people’s nerves. Sometimes it’s just one little thing that somebody says that just brain ninjas you [if you don’t understand that sentence watch Dane Cook because you suck at life]. It’s starting to get a little tense around here. I’m sure this too will pass though.
Quick thought: Yesterday in class I told my teacher I was majoring in Middle Eastern Languages, and he asked if I was learning Hebrew. He told me he had studied it in college and liked it a lot. I told him that my plan was just to concentrate on Urdu, Farsi, and Arabic, but he encouraged me to think about Hebrew. Last night I talked to Ben, our resident Jew, about Hebrew because he speaks a little bit of it, and he gave me a quick crash course in it. It’s a lot like Arabic in some respects [pronouns, grammar, syntax..] and I really liked the little bit I heard. So I might be tacking another language onto the list. I’ll keep you posted.
Today I hung out with Michael all day, which was nice because we definitely haven’t hung out enough, especially since he’s from Virginia Beach and goes to the school I might be transferring to after sophomore year. We went to a café this morning, then after lunch [it was couscous day! Masha’allah!] we walked to the medina and went to Musee Dar Jamai, which used to be the sultan’s palace. At first it wasn’t cool because it was really small, but then we found a guy who worked there and took us to all the parts of the museum that were closed for renovations. My favorite part was when he took us upstairs to the sultan’s bedroom and showed us where the sultan wa arbaa zoujahu slept. He even let us take pictures, which isn’t allowed. Michael got to sit in the sultan’s chair, but I had to sit on the floor where the harem slept. How very Morocco of him. Michael is in Intermediate Arabic with me so between the two of us we could actually understand everything that our guide was saying, even though he was only speaking Arabic. We were proud of ourselves.
Then we went to McDonalds, because neither of us had been there yet. We got McFlurries, and let me tell you something- they’re way better here. We got a McFlurry Daim, which is toffee. It was oralgasmic. I’m resting right now; later tonight Mohammed is coming over to teach us how to cook tajine, then we might all head to a hookah bar, even though we have to be up early tomorrow for Rabat. I hope you’re all having a good weekend! Busat min Meknes!
Some more randomness:
-Immodium AD is my best friend. Draw your own conclusions.
-I really miss milk- I’m pretty sure I have osteoporosis already.
-My feet are always dirty…and by dirty I mean disgusting.
-Men here make the weirdest noises when they’re hitting on you. I’ve been hissed, clucked, and cooed at. Kadeem.
-Today Michael and I saw kids swimming in trash and sewage. Ew.
Things we say a lot here:
“Kadeem!” Literally means “old fashioned” but we use it for just about everything here. Mostly used like I would usually use the word “weak” when something is ironic or unsatisfactory. But like I said, we say it about everything.
“Yella!” Means “Let’s go!” Obviously with 13 of us this gets used a lot when we’re trying to do something.
“Belek!” – “Watch out!” Mostly used in the medina when donkey carts or horses are trying to get through a narrow passage- they won’t stop for you! We use it around the house when someone is in our way though.”
“Cowed.” This is one of our favorites to use to each other because it literally means “F--- off.” Combined with the Moroccan hand gesture [hand out, middle finger bent back- like Spiderman], it’s pretty effective.
“Ana jaeea.”/”Ata dawaru juan.” These two are used on an hourly basis. “I’m hungry/I’m starving.” We always want “khubz arabiya”!
“Caneena Coca Cola wahed min fudlok.” This is my personal favorite because I use it all the time. “One bottle of Coke please.” So I’m addicted.
Salaam wa hubb,
-Danielle
After that we all took petit taxis back to Hotel Rif where we went dancing to American music [as opposed to Arabic music], but Julia and I left shortly thereafter.
Yesterday we went to bellydancing class [I’m getting a little better at loosening up those cheerleading limbs and getting them to flow like they’re supposed to!], then rushed around and got dressed so that we could go with Alexa and her Moroccan boyfriend to the National Handball team practice here in Meknes [he’s on the team, but injured so he can’t play this season]. We walked all over Meknes, and by time we got to the stadium practice was over. We were sad, but we got to see a ton of hot handball players, including Ilyas, the world’s sexiest man [no lie] with their shirts off. No complaints here. Then we all went to a café for some refreshing Coke [thank God we have Coke here..although I’m pretty sure you could go to the High Atlas and find a Coke stand somewhere] and headed to class. Arabic class is getting better and better everyday. Everyday I’m a little less afraid of making up sentences on the spot and I actually feel like I’m learning so much.
After class we came home and Mohammed came over to try and fix the couch that Ben broke [did I mention I also broke a chair? Demolished it. Just by sitting on it. Kadeem.], made us some tea, then we all [minus a few] went to the medina. We watched Ben, Mohammed, and Julia play this fair-style game where you try and get a ring attached to a fishing pole to go around a bottle of Coke. Nobody won- not surprised. I also ate cactus for the first time and it was delicious! Then we wandered around the medina for a while more, and came home to indulge in some wine. We got to go on the roof, which was really exciting and really beautiful at night. So we all hung out on the roof and drank for a while; it was really chilled out. I feel like we all need that. People are starting to grate on other people’s nerves. Sometimes it’s just one little thing that somebody says that just brain ninjas you [if you don’t understand that sentence watch Dane Cook because you suck at life]. It’s starting to get a little tense around here. I’m sure this too will pass though.
Quick thought: Yesterday in class I told my teacher I was majoring in Middle Eastern Languages, and he asked if I was learning Hebrew. He told me he had studied it in college and liked it a lot. I told him that my plan was just to concentrate on Urdu, Farsi, and Arabic, but he encouraged me to think about Hebrew. Last night I talked to Ben, our resident Jew, about Hebrew because he speaks a little bit of it, and he gave me a quick crash course in it. It’s a lot like Arabic in some respects [pronouns, grammar, syntax..] and I really liked the little bit I heard. So I might be tacking another language onto the list. I’ll keep you posted.
Today I hung out with Michael all day, which was nice because we definitely haven’t hung out enough, especially since he’s from Virginia Beach and goes to the school I might be transferring to after sophomore year. We went to a café this morning, then after lunch [it was couscous day! Masha’allah!] we walked to the medina and went to Musee Dar Jamai, which used to be the sultan’s palace. At first it wasn’t cool because it was really small, but then we found a guy who worked there and took us to all the parts of the museum that were closed for renovations. My favorite part was when he took us upstairs to the sultan’s bedroom and showed us where the sultan wa arbaa zoujahu slept. He even let us take pictures, which isn’t allowed. Michael got to sit in the sultan’s chair, but I had to sit on the floor where the harem slept. How very Morocco of him. Michael is in Intermediate Arabic with me so between the two of us we could actually understand everything that our guide was saying, even though he was only speaking Arabic. We were proud of ourselves.
Then we went to McDonalds, because neither of us had been there yet. We got McFlurries, and let me tell you something- they’re way better here. We got a McFlurry Daim, which is toffee. It was oralgasmic. I’m resting right now; later tonight Mohammed is coming over to teach us how to cook tajine, then we might all head to a hookah bar, even though we have to be up early tomorrow for Rabat. I hope you’re all having a good weekend! Busat min Meknes!
Some more randomness:
-Immodium AD is my best friend. Draw your own conclusions.
-I really miss milk- I’m pretty sure I have osteoporosis already.
-My feet are always dirty…and by dirty I mean disgusting.
-Men here make the weirdest noises when they’re hitting on you. I’ve been hissed, clucked, and cooed at. Kadeem.
-Today Michael and I saw kids swimming in trash and sewage. Ew.
Things we say a lot here:
“Kadeem!” Literally means “old fashioned” but we use it for just about everything here. Mostly used like I would usually use the word “weak” when something is ironic or unsatisfactory. But like I said, we say it about everything.
“Yella!” Means “Let’s go!” Obviously with 13 of us this gets used a lot when we’re trying to do something.
“Belek!” – “Watch out!” Mostly used in the medina when donkey carts or horses are trying to get through a narrow passage- they won’t stop for you! We use it around the house when someone is in our way though.”
“Cowed.” This is one of our favorites to use to each other because it literally means “F--- off.” Combined with the Moroccan hand gesture [hand out, middle finger bent back- like Spiderman], it’s pretty effective.
“Ana jaeea.”/”Ata dawaru juan.” These two are used on an hourly basis. “I’m hungry/I’m starving.” We always want “khubz arabiya”!
“Caneena Coca Cola wahed min fudlok.” This is my personal favorite because I use it all the time. “One bottle of Coke please.” So I’m addicted.
Salaam wa hubb,
-Danielle
...
Yesterday was uneventful- again. Three hours of class, which didn’t go quite as well as the day before. Then Michael, Addison, and I made fried eggplant breaded with flour and corn flakes, smothered in tomato sauce. It was surprisingly delicious! We’re going to make our own food every night from now on since the same tastes of the dinner we’re made are starting to make us sick.
There was a local concert outside where little kids were rapping and dancing. It was adorable. Addison, Ben, Brigid, Jamila, Michael, Jared, and I went and watched for a little while, and when it started to wind down Jamila, Jared and I went to Hotel Rif to the bar, where Jamila knows the owner. He gave us a free round and showed us the nightclub downstairs. We got excited and came back to the apartments to get Brigid and Michael. The five of us went back and the DJ turned on American dance music for us. Hardly anyone else was there and we were the only ones dancing except for a creepy old Moroccan, but we still had fun..for a few minutes I felt like I was back in the States and everything was normal again.
This trip has definitely made me start thinking about my plan and about myself and what I want out of life. I love Morocco a lot, and I love Arabic, but I think I need to cool down on my plan a little bit. It’s a lonely life even being here with 13 of my peers. Thinking about the job I want and my plan, my life is only going to get lonelier and more serious. Sometimes I’m ok with that, and sometimes I’m not. Being here also makes me reevaluate the entire life I left behind in Alabama. It’s an escape from reality, but eventually I’ll have to go back, and I keep wondering, am I satisfied with my life there? That’s not to say that life is so wonderful here, because it’s not perfect. I’ve definitely had my fair share of drama in the three weeks that I’ve been here. But somehow it’s less upsetting because it’s all only temporary. I’m only living here for 2 months, and I’m almost at the halfway mark. I’ve been in a weird mood for a few days, and I know that’s partially due to some interpersonal stuff going on here, and it’s also because we’re in the downslope from “OMG we’re in MOROCCO, this rocks!” I’m looking forward to getting excited about being here again. I hope it comes soon.
Salaam wa hubb,
-Danielle
PS-
It’s 2pm and we just ate lunch. Guess what we found buried beneath the meat and vegetables in the tagine? A rabbit head. No lie. Seriously. A rabbit head. Kadeem.
There was a local concert outside where little kids were rapping and dancing. It was adorable. Addison, Ben, Brigid, Jamila, Michael, Jared, and I went and watched for a little while, and when it started to wind down Jamila, Jared and I went to Hotel Rif to the bar, where Jamila knows the owner. He gave us a free round and showed us the nightclub downstairs. We got excited and came back to the apartments to get Brigid and Michael. The five of us went back and the DJ turned on American dance music for us. Hardly anyone else was there and we were the only ones dancing except for a creepy old Moroccan, but we still had fun..for a few minutes I felt like I was back in the States and everything was normal again.
This trip has definitely made me start thinking about my plan and about myself and what I want out of life. I love Morocco a lot, and I love Arabic, but I think I need to cool down on my plan a little bit. It’s a lonely life even being here with 13 of my peers. Thinking about the job I want and my plan, my life is only going to get lonelier and more serious. Sometimes I’m ok with that, and sometimes I’m not. Being here also makes me reevaluate the entire life I left behind in Alabama. It’s an escape from reality, but eventually I’ll have to go back, and I keep wondering, am I satisfied with my life there? That’s not to say that life is so wonderful here, because it’s not perfect. I’ve definitely had my fair share of drama in the three weeks that I’ve been here. But somehow it’s less upsetting because it’s all only temporary. I’m only living here for 2 months, and I’m almost at the halfway mark. I’ve been in a weird mood for a few days, and I know that’s partially due to some interpersonal stuff going on here, and it’s also because we’re in the downslope from “OMG we’re in MOROCCO, this rocks!” I’m looking forward to getting excited about being here again. I hope it comes soon.
Salaam wa hubb,
-Danielle
PS-
It’s 2pm and we just ate lunch. Guess what we found buried beneath the meat and vegetables in the tagine? A rabbit head. No lie. Seriously. A rabbit head. Kadeem.
...
Only two exciting things happened yesterday.
1) All the girls were sitting in the living room when a laser sight [like the kind from a gun] came into the window and landed on Brigid’s book. We all saw it and freaked out, running to Lauren and Julia’s room in the back of the apartment. Their door was closed and started shaking as we went to open it [that was just the wind, but at the time it was scary], so we ran back into the living room, diving on the floor, screaming about snipers. Julia refused to sit anywhere but on the floor for the rest of the night.
2) I initially went to bed at 9pm because there was nothing to do. At 10:30, I woke up hearing music outside in la Plaz. So I convinced Julia to get dressed and we ventured out into the night [without any boys- a first for us!], but the music was already done by then. We decided to wander a bit more and went towards the festival. We caught a glimpse of a white guy at a pay phone [you’d have to live in Meknes to understand how ridiculously exciting it is to see another white person!], and stalked him for a few minutes- until we noticed that we were getting stalked by Moroccan guys as we were stalking the white guy! We hurried off down the street, and two Moroccan guys followed us for a while talking about Cameron Diaz. Switching directions in an attempt to lose them, we passed the white guy we had seen earlier- and now he had a friend with him. They called out to us, “Hey, you speak English?” in [and this is the absolute best part] Scottish accents. It turns out that they are two late 20s/early 30s Scotts who randomly moved to Morocco on a whim to open a riyad in the medina. Their names are Reese and Frankie and they were really nice- especially since they were speaking English! They asked Julia and I out to coffee sometime so we got their numbers and I think we’re going to go either today or tomorrow. Hurray for hot new friends with sexy accents!
Other than those two things, yesterday was pretty boring. In Religion class, Zitouni said “if you want” a little over 500 times, and I did better in Arabic class than I have ever done. It was encouraging, especially since I was struggling a little at first. I ended up getting locked out of the apartment last night around 4am so I had to sleep downstairs in the boys’ apartment. I skipped bellydancing this morning because I stayed up way too late last night.
A few random thoughts for this random blog entry:
When I first got to Meknes, I thought piling six people in a grand taxi was crazy. Now when I see a petit-taxi zoom by with only one passenger, all I can think about is what a waste of space it is, and wonder how many more people could fit into it.
I think I will have some problems relearning to use sidewalks in the US. We walk in the street everywhere here!
I might actually miss the heckling. I will need some of my guy friends to follow me around to class and hoot and holler about how pretty I am so I won’t get homesick for Meknes.
I get more excited every day as I’m watching the TV with Arabic subtitles and understanding more and more of the words. I’m actually learning a lot!
“I want your hoohoo sauce.”-Random Arabic guy on the street to me and Julia
Salaam wa hubb,
-Danielle
1) All the girls were sitting in the living room when a laser sight [like the kind from a gun] came into the window and landed on Brigid’s book. We all saw it and freaked out, running to Lauren and Julia’s room in the back of the apartment. Their door was closed and started shaking as we went to open it [that was just the wind, but at the time it was scary], so we ran back into the living room, diving on the floor, screaming about snipers. Julia refused to sit anywhere but on the floor for the rest of the night.
2) I initially went to bed at 9pm because there was nothing to do. At 10:30, I woke up hearing music outside in la Plaz. So I convinced Julia to get dressed and we ventured out into the night [without any boys- a first for us!], but the music was already done by then. We decided to wander a bit more and went towards the festival. We caught a glimpse of a white guy at a pay phone [you’d have to live in Meknes to understand how ridiculously exciting it is to see another white person!], and stalked him for a few minutes- until we noticed that we were getting stalked by Moroccan guys as we were stalking the white guy! We hurried off down the street, and two Moroccan guys followed us for a while talking about Cameron Diaz. Switching directions in an attempt to lose them, we passed the white guy we had seen earlier- and now he had a friend with him. They called out to us, “Hey, you speak English?” in [and this is the absolute best part] Scottish accents. It turns out that they are two late 20s/early 30s Scotts who randomly moved to Morocco on a whim to open a riyad in the medina. Their names are Reese and Frankie and they were really nice- especially since they were speaking English! They asked Julia and I out to coffee sometime so we got their numbers and I think we’re going to go either today or tomorrow. Hurray for hot new friends with sexy accents!
Other than those two things, yesterday was pretty boring. In Religion class, Zitouni said “if you want” a little over 500 times, and I did better in Arabic class than I have ever done. It was encouraging, especially since I was struggling a little at first. I ended up getting locked out of the apartment last night around 4am so I had to sleep downstairs in the boys’ apartment. I skipped bellydancing this morning because I stayed up way too late last night.
A few random thoughts for this random blog entry:
When I first got to Meknes, I thought piling six people in a grand taxi was crazy. Now when I see a petit-taxi zoom by with only one passenger, all I can think about is what a waste of space it is, and wonder how many more people could fit into it.
I think I will have some problems relearning to use sidewalks in the US. We walk in the street everywhere here!
I might actually miss the heckling. I will need some of my guy friends to follow me around to class and hoot and holler about how pretty I am so I won’t get homesick for Meknes.
I get more excited every day as I’m watching the TV with Arabic subtitles and understanding more and more of the words. I’m actually learning a lot!
“I want your hoohoo sauce.”-Random Arabic guy on the street to me and Julia
Salaam wa hubb,
-Danielle
...
Wow.
Today was so ridiculously amazing. I can’t even describe how awesome it was. We woke up really really early and drove to Ifrane on the autobus hefla. We went on a short hike to a natural spring and drank the water, which was delicious and freezing cold. Then we climbed trees and took cute pictures and got back on the bus, and went to this guy Zorgon’s house, where they had made us a homemade Moroccan breakfast under an incredible Moroccan tent in their yard, surrounded by chickens, donkeys, and a whole manner of other animals. The breakfast was delicious, served with fresh milk and mint tea. After that we started the world’s longest hike [seriously] up through the forest. It was beautiful but really difficult- at some points we were going up the mountain vertically. It was ten kilometers, and really hard on my knee. But it was all worth it when we got to the top and saw what we had come for- monkeys!!! They were so cool, and would come right up to you and grab things out of your hand. Patrick got attacked not once, but twice, by a papa monkey who he kept making angry by going too close for comfort to a baby monkey. Then we saw the “world’s biggest tree”, which definitely wasn’t actually the biggest but was old and dead and really huge and really cool. Finally we finished the hike, but my feet were killing me because I had borrowed Julia’s shoes which were a size too small and not good hiking shoes to start with.
We were all dying but Daniel and Mohammed and Zorgon kept telling us it would be worth it if we could just make it for a few more kilometers, and they were right. We hiked through a few fields filled with sheep and goats and rams, and then straight up to the most amazing view I have ever seen. We were on a cliff overlooking all of Ifrane. I have never been that high up before without being on an airplane. It was beautiful. You could see for miles and miles and it was so peaceful. It was like we were the only people on the planet; you couldn’t see anything moving below us. I have never felt so at one with nature and so at peace. It was incredible. We took a few moments out on a ledge to just be quiet and listen to nature; it was indescribable.
On the bus on the way back, we had a party. Literally. The bus was flying down the road around twists and turns, the music was cranked up, and we were all in the aisles dancing. It was more fun than I’ve had in a long time. The drivers even switched mid-song, while the bus was still in motion! It was crazy!
I’m so exhausted, I’m pretty sure I burned a million calories today, and I have class at 8:30am. I hope you are all doing well. Take care!
Salaam wa hubb,
-Danielle
Today was so ridiculously amazing. I can’t even describe how awesome it was. We woke up really really early and drove to Ifrane on the autobus hefla. We went on a short hike to a natural spring and drank the water, which was delicious and freezing cold. Then we climbed trees and took cute pictures and got back on the bus, and went to this guy Zorgon’s house, where they had made us a homemade Moroccan breakfast under an incredible Moroccan tent in their yard, surrounded by chickens, donkeys, and a whole manner of other animals. The breakfast was delicious, served with fresh milk and mint tea. After that we started the world’s longest hike [seriously] up through the forest. It was beautiful but really difficult- at some points we were going up the mountain vertically. It was ten kilometers, and really hard on my knee. But it was all worth it when we got to the top and saw what we had come for- monkeys!!! They were so cool, and would come right up to you and grab things out of your hand. Patrick got attacked not once, but twice, by a papa monkey who he kept making angry by going too close for comfort to a baby monkey. Then we saw the “world’s biggest tree”, which definitely wasn’t actually the biggest but was old and dead and really huge and really cool. Finally we finished the hike, but my feet were killing me because I had borrowed Julia’s shoes which were a size too small and not good hiking shoes to start with.
We were all dying but Daniel and Mohammed and Zorgon kept telling us it would be worth it if we could just make it for a few more kilometers, and they were right. We hiked through a few fields filled with sheep and goats and rams, and then straight up to the most amazing view I have ever seen. We were on a cliff overlooking all of Ifrane. I have never been that high up before without being on an airplane. It was beautiful. You could see for miles and miles and it was so peaceful. It was like we were the only people on the planet; you couldn’t see anything moving below us. I have never felt so at one with nature and so at peace. It was incredible. We took a few moments out on a ledge to just be quiet and listen to nature; it was indescribable.
On the bus on the way back, we had a party. Literally. The bus was flying down the road around twists and turns, the music was cranked up, and we were all in the aisles dancing. It was more fun than I’ve had in a long time. The drivers even switched mid-song, while the bus was still in motion! It was crazy!
I’m so exhausted, I’m pretty sure I burned a million calories today, and I have class at 8:30am. I hope you are all doing well. Take care!
Salaam wa hubb,
-Danielle
...
The school week is pretty uneventful- lots of class and not much excitement; it’s kind of sad. It’s hard to find anything to write about, so I’ll catch you up on the past three days!
Thursday night Ben, Addison, Jamila, two kids from the last summer program and two Moroccans we’ve met here, and I went to the medina to wander around. There was an art display and tons of people milling about. I even got to see a camel! It was really cool, all dark and shadowy with vendors selling things by lamp light and fires. We ended up going to a restaurant/café that was situated in a corner of the medina courtyard and went three flights up to the terrace where we could overlook the entire chaotic scene. We stayed there for a long while talking and drinking and having a good time. Eventually we wandered through the souq for a few minutes, but most of the vendors were closing shop by that time- nearly 11pm. We came back to the apartments and stayed up playing Bullshit for a while.
Friday was one of the most interesting experiences thus far in Meknes! We sat around all day until about 4 when Iman and Moha came to take us to the hammam. Bridget, Lauren, Jamila and I walked to the hamman with Ben, Michael, Patrick, Jared, and Moha. How a hammam works is really difficult to explain, but I’ll do my best to do it justice. There are two sides to the hammam, the one on the left is for the boys and the right is for the girls. You walk right into a locker room type area where you take off all of your clothes [except for your underwear, in our case] and put them into a cubby. You are given a big bucket and proceed into a huge room that greets you with a gust of heat a lot like a sauna. There are several rooms branching off of one another, and naked women and screaming children everywhere. We walked to a room towards the back where there were women all around the walls. There are two faucets every few feet along the wall, one pumping out hot water and the other with cold. There are tiny white stools that you sit on as you fill your bucket with a mix of the hot and cold water, and use a smaller bucket to scoop out the water and pour it on yourself. Iman gave us sticky brown goo that ended up being soap to rub all over ourselves until we were super shiny. Then, washing women came in and sat in the middle of the room on the floor. We got up and laid on the floor, uncomfortably close to the women, and they scrubbed us down so hard that rolls and rolls of gray, dead skin started peeling off of us. They scrubbed every inch of our bodies [yes, every inch, nook, and cranny], flipping us over roughly as they went. After nearly fifteen minutes they were done, we went back to our stations and washed our hair, and were done. We dressed and walked home, trying not to get ourselves too dirty or sweaty. They say that you are never truly clean until you have been to the hammam, and I agree wholeheartedly. My skin has never been smoother or cleaner than it was yesterday. It was wonderful, even if it was a little awkward at first. I can’t wait to go back! I was rubbing my skin and asking people to touch me all day.
Last night, Ben, Jared, Patrick, Addison, Jamila, Michael, Imad [a Moroccan friend of ours], Samantha, Zain, Gabriel [three kids from the first summer session], Megan, Samantha’s boyfriend, and I drank wine and smoked hookah in the boys’ apartment until the wee hours of the morning. This ended up not being too terribly smart, because this morning we had to be on the bus to Fes by 9am. Fes was nice, but to me it was just a bigger, more tourist-infested version of Meknes. We went to a ceramics factory, a tannery, the huge and confusing souq, and several other places. Lots of interesting things were around to look at, but I’m starting to get a little burnt out of walking around with guides just looking at everything. It is overwhelming and physically exhausting. By the end of the day, we were all ready to come home and unwind. The tourist thing has gotten old for everyone, because we live here on a day-to-day basis and have kind of assimilated into the culture of Morocco, so walking around like a sightseer isn’t very much fun anymore. We’d much rather be let loose to explore.
When I came home tonight I had a little personal drama, but it’s basically resolved now. Tomorrow we have to be on the bus by 8am to go to Ifrane for a hike, which I’m ridiculously excited about, because there are supposed to be monkeys everywhere! I can’t wait! It’s only 10:30, but I think I’m going to go to bed here soon so I can wake up and not be hating life on the hike tomorrow. I will try and write tomorrow, and who knows when this will finally get online. Cross your fingers!
Salaam wa hubb,
-Danielle
Thursday night Ben, Addison, Jamila, two kids from the last summer program and two Moroccans we’ve met here, and I went to the medina to wander around. There was an art display and tons of people milling about. I even got to see a camel! It was really cool, all dark and shadowy with vendors selling things by lamp light and fires. We ended up going to a restaurant/café that was situated in a corner of the medina courtyard and went three flights up to the terrace where we could overlook the entire chaotic scene. We stayed there for a long while talking and drinking and having a good time. Eventually we wandered through the souq for a few minutes, but most of the vendors were closing shop by that time- nearly 11pm. We came back to the apartments and stayed up playing Bullshit for a while.
Friday was one of the most interesting experiences thus far in Meknes! We sat around all day until about 4 when Iman and Moha came to take us to the hammam. Bridget, Lauren, Jamila and I walked to the hamman with Ben, Michael, Patrick, Jared, and Moha. How a hammam works is really difficult to explain, but I’ll do my best to do it justice. There are two sides to the hammam, the one on the left is for the boys and the right is for the girls. You walk right into a locker room type area where you take off all of your clothes [except for your underwear, in our case] and put them into a cubby. You are given a big bucket and proceed into a huge room that greets you with a gust of heat a lot like a sauna. There are several rooms branching off of one another, and naked women and screaming children everywhere. We walked to a room towards the back where there were women all around the walls. There are two faucets every few feet along the wall, one pumping out hot water and the other with cold. There are tiny white stools that you sit on as you fill your bucket with a mix of the hot and cold water, and use a smaller bucket to scoop out the water and pour it on yourself. Iman gave us sticky brown goo that ended up being soap to rub all over ourselves until we were super shiny. Then, washing women came in and sat in the middle of the room on the floor. We got up and laid on the floor, uncomfortably close to the women, and they scrubbed us down so hard that rolls and rolls of gray, dead skin started peeling off of us. They scrubbed every inch of our bodies [yes, every inch, nook, and cranny], flipping us over roughly as they went. After nearly fifteen minutes they were done, we went back to our stations and washed our hair, and were done. We dressed and walked home, trying not to get ourselves too dirty or sweaty. They say that you are never truly clean until you have been to the hammam, and I agree wholeheartedly. My skin has never been smoother or cleaner than it was yesterday. It was wonderful, even if it was a little awkward at first. I can’t wait to go back! I was rubbing my skin and asking people to touch me all day.
Last night, Ben, Jared, Patrick, Addison, Jamila, Michael, Imad [a Moroccan friend of ours], Samantha, Zain, Gabriel [three kids from the first summer session], Megan, Samantha’s boyfriend, and I drank wine and smoked hookah in the boys’ apartment until the wee hours of the morning. This ended up not being too terribly smart, because this morning we had to be on the bus to Fes by 9am. Fes was nice, but to me it was just a bigger, more tourist-infested version of Meknes. We went to a ceramics factory, a tannery, the huge and confusing souq, and several other places. Lots of interesting things were around to look at, but I’m starting to get a little burnt out of walking around with guides just looking at everything. It is overwhelming and physically exhausting. By the end of the day, we were all ready to come home and unwind. The tourist thing has gotten old for everyone, because we live here on a day-to-day basis and have kind of assimilated into the culture of Morocco, so walking around like a sightseer isn’t very much fun anymore. We’d much rather be let loose to explore.
When I came home tonight I had a little personal drama, but it’s basically resolved now. Tomorrow we have to be on the bus by 8am to go to Ifrane for a hike, which I’m ridiculously excited about, because there are supposed to be monkeys everywhere! I can’t wait! It’s only 10:30, but I think I’m going to go to bed here soon so I can wake up and not be hating life on the hike tomorrow. I will try and write tomorrow, and who knows when this will finally get online. Cross your fingers!
Salaam wa hubb,
-Danielle
...
I just got out of another lovely three-hour long Arabic class, and now I’m back at the apartment “relaxing” before starting a whole bunch of ridiculous homework. Religion class was long, and the most boring three hours of my life. We counted how many times Professor Zitouni said “if you want”, and by the end of the three hours, the count was over 500 times! It was pure torture! The only bright spot in the day was the break after the first two hours when I got to go eat my milfay, this delicious concoction that is half wafer, half cake. It’s always the highlight of my day!
I was up with the boys until 3am last night playing Bullshit, so I was exhausted by time we got home from class, and took the world’s best nap until lunch was ready. It wasn’t very good today: cold rice and French fries in the green sauce we are constantly served. Arabic class was long, but productive. I’m beginning to understand more and more, even if it is embarrassing constantly making mistakes in front of everyone. It’s a really difficult class, but I know it will be worth it eventually.
I was up with the boys until 3am last night playing Bullshit, so I was exhausted by time we got home from class, and took the world’s best nap until lunch was ready. It wasn’t very good today: cold rice and French fries in the green sauce we are constantly served. Arabic class was long, but productive. I’m beginning to understand more and more, even if it is embarrassing constantly making mistakes in front of everyone. It’s a really difficult class, but I know it will be worth it eventually.
...
Well, I should be at bellydancing class right now, but unfortunately for me, I’m not feeling too well. So while my four friends are shaking [and sweating] off tons of calories, I’m sitting in my room blogging. So sad!!!
Yesterday was our first full day of class. Three hours in the morning and three hours in the evening is just about the least fun thing ever. We woke up at 6:45 and were at school by 8 for our 8:30 class, which was horrrrrrible. Our teacher is a sweet little man but he has a stutter, as people often do in their second or third languages, and has latched on to the phrase “if you want”. He says it at least twice in every sentence and it drives me absolutely crazy. Three hours dragged by. The only exciting event was the fact that we found a baby bat no bigger than a silver dollar clinging to one of the steps at the University- it was so cute! Don’t worry Daddy [or Mr. Wiggins- ha!], I didn’t touch it. It looked like it was hurt and I wanted to, but I didn’t.
Coming home was not fun; it’s so hard to catch a taxi from the University back to our apartments. The girls got a ride with our teacher, but there wasn’t enough room for all of us, so I stayed behind with the boys. We walked halfway home, then got a taxi ride the rest of the way- finally! Ughh. Thank God it was cool and breezy yesterday!
We took a siesta, did some homework, and ate lunch, then went back to school for Arabic. I really, really like my Arabic teacher and he teaches very well, but three hours is just a long time to be sitting in class. It crept by. Luckily, we have a break around the two hour mark in each class; if it weren’t for that, I’d die!
After we were all done with class at 7pm, the real fun started. It was our favorite person’s –Ben’s- 21st birthday yesterday, so Julia, Alexa and I went straight to Label Vie after our teacher dropped us off to stock up on supplies. I’m sure we fulfilled the Arabs’ views of stereotypical alcoholic Americans as we bought two large bottles of vodka and one of wine [I’m loving the lack of a legal drinking age here- but it’s turning us all into alcoholics since we can’t go out at night; all we can do is stay in and drink!], plus tons of Sprite and orange juice to mix the vodka with.
We came home [after being followed by a creepy shirtless Moroccan guy for a few blocks- gotta love the sexual harassment] and ate our first un-enjoyable meal since being here: some kind of chicken with cucumbers absolutely swimming in fat and oil. It literally fell apart in your mouth, but not in the good way. Instead of forcing ourselves to block all of our arteries, we opted to go downstairs and buy some French fries to eat.
Ben is Jewish, and we all make Jew jokes [so un-p.c., I know, but we’re college kids, c’mon] all the time, so we made a huge Star of David on our living room wall that said “4 Lyfe” inside of it, plus a huge hastily-constructed banner that said “Happy Birthday Ben”. The girls used this as an excuse to get dressed up and so we all donned our cutest dresses and did our makeup- for once! Then at 10PM the boys brought Ben up here and everyone yelled “surprise!” and the drinking commenced. The horror stories are too numerous to mention; things were broken, people got sick, people almost hooked up- all in all the party was a success! It was the most fun night we’ve had here so far, even if we can’t remember all of it. Don’t judge me.
I have tons and tons of pictures from all of our adventures lately that I need to put online somehow, but my computer has been lame-sauce lately and even at school I can’t pick up any wireless. I really wish you all could be here and see and experience everything that I am. It’s incredible, really. It already feels like we’ve been here for years; we have a daily routine, regular hangouts, and cross the street like pros. Even at the worst of times, like when I’m standing out in the heat for half an hour trying unsuccessfully to hail a grand taxi, I would rather be here in Meknes than anywhere else. Even with the constant staring, incessant sexual harassment, oppressive atmosphere for women, and lack of toilet paper, I still absolutely love Morocco. The people I’m with make day-to-day life infinitely better, and I love them all dearly. Without them, I don’t know what I would do.
I hope you are all doing well, and not missing me too terribly. Rest assured that I am learning a lot about myself and the world beyond what I knew. I love you and miss you all and can’t wait to see you in a few weeks. Take care and be safe; I’ll do the same.
Salaam wa hubb,
-Danielle
Yesterday was our first full day of class. Three hours in the morning and three hours in the evening is just about the least fun thing ever. We woke up at 6:45 and were at school by 8 for our 8:30 class, which was horrrrrrible. Our teacher is a sweet little man but he has a stutter, as people often do in their second or third languages, and has latched on to the phrase “if you want”. He says it at least twice in every sentence and it drives me absolutely crazy. Three hours dragged by. The only exciting event was the fact that we found a baby bat no bigger than a silver dollar clinging to one of the steps at the University- it was so cute! Don’t worry Daddy [or Mr. Wiggins- ha!], I didn’t touch it. It looked like it was hurt and I wanted to, but I didn’t.
Coming home was not fun; it’s so hard to catch a taxi from the University back to our apartments. The girls got a ride with our teacher, but there wasn’t enough room for all of us, so I stayed behind with the boys. We walked halfway home, then got a taxi ride the rest of the way- finally! Ughh. Thank God it was cool and breezy yesterday!
We took a siesta, did some homework, and ate lunch, then went back to school for Arabic. I really, really like my Arabic teacher and he teaches very well, but three hours is just a long time to be sitting in class. It crept by. Luckily, we have a break around the two hour mark in each class; if it weren’t for that, I’d die!
After we were all done with class at 7pm, the real fun started. It was our favorite person’s –Ben’s- 21st birthday yesterday, so Julia, Alexa and I went straight to Label Vie after our teacher dropped us off to stock up on supplies. I’m sure we fulfilled the Arabs’ views of stereotypical alcoholic Americans as we bought two large bottles of vodka and one of wine [I’m loving the lack of a legal drinking age here- but it’s turning us all into alcoholics since we can’t go out at night; all we can do is stay in and drink!], plus tons of Sprite and orange juice to mix the vodka with.
We came home [after being followed by a creepy shirtless Moroccan guy for a few blocks- gotta love the sexual harassment] and ate our first un-enjoyable meal since being here: some kind of chicken with cucumbers absolutely swimming in fat and oil. It literally fell apart in your mouth, but not in the good way. Instead of forcing ourselves to block all of our arteries, we opted to go downstairs and buy some French fries to eat.
Ben is Jewish, and we all make Jew jokes [so un-p.c., I know, but we’re college kids, c’mon] all the time, so we made a huge Star of David on our living room wall that said “4 Lyfe” inside of it, plus a huge hastily-constructed banner that said “Happy Birthday Ben”. The girls used this as an excuse to get dressed up and so we all donned our cutest dresses and did our makeup- for once! Then at 10PM the boys brought Ben up here and everyone yelled “surprise!” and the drinking commenced. The horror stories are too numerous to mention; things were broken, people got sick, people almost hooked up- all in all the party was a success! It was the most fun night we’ve had here so far, even if we can’t remember all of it. Don’t judge me.
I have tons and tons of pictures from all of our adventures lately that I need to put online somehow, but my computer has been lame-sauce lately and even at school I can’t pick up any wireless. I really wish you all could be here and see and experience everything that I am. It’s incredible, really. It already feels like we’ve been here for years; we have a daily routine, regular hangouts, and cross the street like pros. Even at the worst of times, like when I’m standing out in the heat for half an hour trying unsuccessfully to hail a grand taxi, I would rather be here in Meknes than anywhere else. Even with the constant staring, incessant sexual harassment, oppressive atmosphere for women, and lack of toilet paper, I still absolutely love Morocco. The people I’m with make day-to-day life infinitely better, and I love them all dearly. Without them, I don’t know what I would do.
I hope you are all doing well, and not missing me too terribly. Rest assured that I am learning a lot about myself and the world beyond what I knew. I love you and miss you all and can’t wait to see you in a few weeks. Take care and be safe; I’ll do the same.
Salaam wa hubb,
-Danielle
...
What a day we’ve had in Meknes! Today was a free day and we definitely made the most of it…although like Lauren said, at the end of every day, I can’t actually believe any of what happened actually happened.
We woke up to go to the souq in the medina to do some shopping. Alexa, Julia, Lauren, Ben and I were walking towards the medina when Ben made friends with a passerby named Mohammed [no surprise there..everyone is named Mohammed!!!] who spoke a little English and told us he had a shop in the medina and would take us there and then show us around. He took us to his shop and introduced us to his partner Abdul. They had stacks and stacks of amazingly colored Berber carpets made of wool and cactus silk. Julia and I haggled with Abdul over two beautiful carpets while drinking mint and sage tea and Ben talked about rock and roll with Mohammed- it was such a weird sequence of events! Finally, we settled on prices- D900, which is about $120, for carpets which are imported for thousands. My carpet is gorgeous red and yellow striped silk. Lauren bought a pouf made of camel skin that was embossed and beautiful. Then, Mohammed took us around on an insider’s tour of the medina to things that we never could have found on our own, through winding alleyways and down cobblestone paths. Occasionally, he would knock on a door and take us into a friend’s house for a tour. They were all beautiful. In one house, he took us upstairs onto a terrace that overlooked the entire medina, and it was a gorgeous view. All of the houses look broken down and sloppy on the outside, but the inside is breathtaking. It’s interesting how that works here. The inside is more important than the outside, and that is shown through everything.
He also took us to see the oven that heats the hammams [public baths] and the man who sits at the bottom of a ledge and shovels sandalwood dust into a kiln. We went by a cedar wood shop filled with delicious smelling carved wood and sawdust. We saw the village apothecary who we bought amber blocks of perfume from. Then Mohammed took us to the metalworking part of the medina and Julia and I bought handmade metal khamsas that we saw the silversmith making by hammering silver wire onto black metal- it was the coolest thing ever! Eventually we told Mohammed goodbye and attempted to find our way to the Bab la Mansour, but the market was so packed with people by that point that we got lost several times. Finally, Ben used his French to get us to the edge of the medina where we caught taxis back to the Hamriya.
We took two hour naps, then went on an “adventure” to find somewhere to eat, because most things were closed by the time we went out. We ended up eating in what we think was a brothel..because we were the only people at the restaurant until a skanky-looking woman showed up to meet a much older, creepy guy for dinner, where she proceeded to “accidentally” drop her cigarette into his lap..ahem. There were also two gay men who got very drunk and were on the verge of making out until a third possibly-gay man joined them. We were sketched out and left as soon as possible. It was such an interesting day…I’m so glad that we go out and do things I would never do at home. I would never follow a random stranger on a tour around a strange city in America, but here it’s totally normal. I would never normally wander around in a place where no one speaks the same language, or eat dinner feet away from a prostitute. I’m doing so many crazy things here, and really..it’s just another normal day in Morocco! Every day just keeps getting better and better!
Hopefully I’ll be able to post this tomorrow at school; we have our first Religion, Politics, and Culture class at 8:30am. Goodnight, all!
Salaam wa hubb,
-Danielle
We woke up to go to the souq in the medina to do some shopping. Alexa, Julia, Lauren, Ben and I were walking towards the medina when Ben made friends with a passerby named Mohammed [no surprise there..everyone is named Mohammed!!!] who spoke a little English and told us he had a shop in the medina and would take us there and then show us around. He took us to his shop and introduced us to his partner Abdul. They had stacks and stacks of amazingly colored Berber carpets made of wool and cactus silk. Julia and I haggled with Abdul over two beautiful carpets while drinking mint and sage tea and Ben talked about rock and roll with Mohammed- it was such a weird sequence of events! Finally, we settled on prices- D900, which is about $120, for carpets which are imported for thousands. My carpet is gorgeous red and yellow striped silk. Lauren bought a pouf made of camel skin that was embossed and beautiful. Then, Mohammed took us around on an insider’s tour of the medina to things that we never could have found on our own, through winding alleyways and down cobblestone paths. Occasionally, he would knock on a door and take us into a friend’s house for a tour. They were all beautiful. In one house, he took us upstairs onto a terrace that overlooked the entire medina, and it was a gorgeous view. All of the houses look broken down and sloppy on the outside, but the inside is breathtaking. It’s interesting how that works here. The inside is more important than the outside, and that is shown through everything.
He also took us to see the oven that heats the hammams [public baths] and the man who sits at the bottom of a ledge and shovels sandalwood dust into a kiln. We went by a cedar wood shop filled with delicious smelling carved wood and sawdust. We saw the village apothecary who we bought amber blocks of perfume from. Then Mohammed took us to the metalworking part of the medina and Julia and I bought handmade metal khamsas that we saw the silversmith making by hammering silver wire onto black metal- it was the coolest thing ever! Eventually we told Mohammed goodbye and attempted to find our way to the Bab la Mansour, but the market was so packed with people by that point that we got lost several times. Finally, Ben used his French to get us to the edge of the medina where we caught taxis back to the Hamriya.
We took two hour naps, then went on an “adventure” to find somewhere to eat, because most things were closed by the time we went out. We ended up eating in what we think was a brothel..because we were the only people at the restaurant until a skanky-looking woman showed up to meet a much older, creepy guy for dinner, where she proceeded to “accidentally” drop her cigarette into his lap..ahem. There were also two gay men who got very drunk and were on the verge of making out until a third possibly-gay man joined them. We were sketched out and left as soon as possible. It was such an interesting day…I’m so glad that we go out and do things I would never do at home. I would never follow a random stranger on a tour around a strange city in America, but here it’s totally normal. I would never normally wander around in a place where no one speaks the same language, or eat dinner feet away from a prostitute. I’m doing so many crazy things here, and really..it’s just another normal day in Morocco! Every day just keeps getting better and better!
Hopefully I’ll be able to post this tomorrow at school; we have our first Religion, Politics, and Culture class at 8:30am. Goodnight, all!
Salaam wa hubb,
-Danielle
Volubilis
This morning we woke up at 7:45, got ready, and left for Volubilis at 9am. It was about a 25 minute drive there, and then we had a tour around the Roman ruins. The views were beautiful, and a surprising number of floor mosaics were still intact. Only a third of it has been excavated, so I can’t even imagine what is left beneath the ground.
We rode the bus up the mountain near Volubilis to take pictures of the city Moulay Idriss from the top. The road was super skinny and we were in the big autobus hefla [party bus], and we were all holding our breath, nervous we were going to go over the edge. We were literally inches from the edge most of the ride, and the road was bumpy and uneven. From there we rode down into Moulay Idriss and Saturday is market day there. Our big bus lumbered through the streets, clearing people out of the streets, most coming within centimeters of getting hit by us, and the buildings lining the street were only inches from our windows on either side. It was a nerve-wracking ride to say the least, but totally normal for the bus driver. Moha [Mohammed] and Iman showed us around the market a little bit and we had caramelized dates and this delicious honey and peanut cluster that got stuck in our teeth. The market was so chaotic- boys on donkeys riding through crowds of people, carts full of delicious flatbread wheeling around, vendors shouting and hawking things, donkey poop everywhere, and the smell of kebabs and tanjine hanging in the air, making your mouth water. Not to mention everyone is always staring at us. Yesterday at the café, men actually moved their chairs so that they could stare at us better. And it isn’t brief glances..it’s outright, constant staring. Today at the market, a vendor even offered a group of us 1,000 camels and 1,000 donkeys, which is basically a wedding proposal; the livestock would be a type of bride price. That is not at all unusual thus far- Moroccan men harass their own women nonstop, so upon seeing us wandering around, looking “exotic” [to them, at least], we frequently draw calls of “Very nice!”, “La bella!”, and “Yes!”. It’s almost flattering, but mostly just annoying. Five of us girls [Julia, Alexa, Lauren, Bridget and I] have a point system for every catcall we get, and whoever gets offered 5,000 camels or amasses a huge number of points first wins. It’s pretty entertaining.
The people in the group here are wonderful and we’ve already become a type of family. There’s Julia and Addison, a boy and girl from UF who are brilliant in Arabic and have travelled abroad extensively; Bridget who was born in Kenya and spent a lot of time living in Europe and the US and speaks as many languages as I do; Alexa, my roommate from Hawaii who is wonderful and thoughtful and super sweet; Lauren from Houston goes to Carnegie-Mellon and is intellectual, confident, and take-charge when called upon; Megan from Maryland is quiet, shy, and sweet; Ben, the comedian, who never fails to make me laugh out loud; Michael who is from Virginia Beach [yeaaa!] and goes to William & Mary is really quiet and genuine; Patrick is 24 and taught himself Arabic in 6 months; Jared…the words fail me…interesting; Autumn in the Air Force who is 26; and Jamila and Jennifer who aren’t taking Arabic and are just kind of along for the ride, but really fun. I love them all, with few exceptions.
Later on in the day, we went to the internet café [again..we’re so pathetic], went and got some more Merekschia [that delicious pastry!], and wandered around a bit. Right now, the only thing I really don’t like about Morocco is that the girls and boys don’t hang out very much. There are some boys we don’t get along with as well, and because they all hang out as a group, we end up not hanging out with any boys. I absolutely adore all the girls I live with, with no exceptions, but in general, I get along much better with boys. I’m craving testosterone and it’s killing me. I’m not sure how to handle the situation yet. I know that, especially in this country, it will look bad if I just go hang out with the boys by myself, and I don’t want to miss out on anything the girls are doing because we always have so much fun. But I can only handle so much estrogen, no matter how wonderful everyone is. I suppose it’ll resolve itself in time.
In the coming weeks, I’m really excited about getting some henna, our three day beach trip to Asilah, and our free weekend when Moha is taking us to the Sahara to play in the desert and ride camels.
Right now, I’m going to go try and find a way to entertain myself [the other girls are doing homework and playing card games and I really don’t want to do either of those things right now..I’m an antisocial slacker I suppose]. Goodnight min Meknes!
Salaam wa hubb,
-Danielle
We rode the bus up the mountain near Volubilis to take pictures of the city Moulay Idriss from the top. The road was super skinny and we were in the big autobus hefla [party bus], and we were all holding our breath, nervous we were going to go over the edge. We were literally inches from the edge most of the ride, and the road was bumpy and uneven. From there we rode down into Moulay Idriss and Saturday is market day there. Our big bus lumbered through the streets, clearing people out of the streets, most coming within centimeters of getting hit by us, and the buildings lining the street were only inches from our windows on either side. It was a nerve-wracking ride to say the least, but totally normal for the bus driver. Moha [Mohammed] and Iman showed us around the market a little bit and we had caramelized dates and this delicious honey and peanut cluster that got stuck in our teeth. The market was so chaotic- boys on donkeys riding through crowds of people, carts full of delicious flatbread wheeling around, vendors shouting and hawking things, donkey poop everywhere, and the smell of kebabs and tanjine hanging in the air, making your mouth water. Not to mention everyone is always staring at us. Yesterday at the café, men actually moved their chairs so that they could stare at us better. And it isn’t brief glances..it’s outright, constant staring. Today at the market, a vendor even offered a group of us 1,000 camels and 1,000 donkeys, which is basically a wedding proposal; the livestock would be a type of bride price. That is not at all unusual thus far- Moroccan men harass their own women nonstop, so upon seeing us wandering around, looking “exotic” [to them, at least], we frequently draw calls of “Very nice!”, “La bella!”, and “Yes!”. It’s almost flattering, but mostly just annoying. Five of us girls [Julia, Alexa, Lauren, Bridget and I] have a point system for every catcall we get, and whoever gets offered 5,000 camels or amasses a huge number of points first wins. It’s pretty entertaining.
The people in the group here are wonderful and we’ve already become a type of family. There’s Julia and Addison, a boy and girl from UF who are brilliant in Arabic and have travelled abroad extensively; Bridget who was born in Kenya and spent a lot of time living in Europe and the US and speaks as many languages as I do; Alexa, my roommate from Hawaii who is wonderful and thoughtful and super sweet; Lauren from Houston goes to Carnegie-Mellon and is intellectual, confident, and take-charge when called upon; Megan from Maryland is quiet, shy, and sweet; Ben, the comedian, who never fails to make me laugh out loud; Michael who is from Virginia Beach [yeaaa!] and goes to William & Mary is really quiet and genuine; Patrick is 24 and taught himself Arabic in 6 months; Jared…the words fail me…interesting; Autumn in the Air Force who is 26; and Jamila and Jennifer who aren’t taking Arabic and are just kind of along for the ride, but really fun. I love them all, with few exceptions.
Later on in the day, we went to the internet café [again..we’re so pathetic], went and got some more Merekschia [that delicious pastry!], and wandered around a bit. Right now, the only thing I really don’t like about Morocco is that the girls and boys don’t hang out very much. There are some boys we don’t get along with as well, and because they all hang out as a group, we end up not hanging out with any boys. I absolutely adore all the girls I live with, with no exceptions, but in general, I get along much better with boys. I’m craving testosterone and it’s killing me. I’m not sure how to handle the situation yet. I know that, especially in this country, it will look bad if I just go hang out with the boys by myself, and I don’t want to miss out on anything the girls are doing because we always have so much fun. But I can only handle so much estrogen, no matter how wonderful everyone is. I suppose it’ll resolve itself in time.
In the coming weeks, I’m really excited about getting some henna, our three day beach trip to Asilah, and our free weekend when Moha is taking us to the Sahara to play in the desert and ride camels.
Right now, I’m going to go try and find a way to entertain myself [the other girls are doing homework and playing card games and I really don’t want to do either of those things right now..I’m an antisocial slacker I suppose]. Goodnight min Meknes!
Salaam wa hubb,
-Danielle
4th of July
Happy Fourth of July from al-Maghreb!!!
Yesterday was the first day of class for us here in Meknes. We got to sleep in [if you call 9:00 sleeping in], then we woke up, had breakfast, got ready, and went to the supermarket, Label Vie. We bought wine at the liquor store and got a black bag for it so no one could tell we bought alcohol since it is so frowned upon here..although the black bag is kind of a dead giveaway.
After that, we had a delicious lunch and went to get tea at Café Montreal, which is downstairs and two shops over and very convenient, not to mention American- and woman-friendly and amazing.
Yesterday was really cool and breezy and such a nice relief from the heat..with the windows open it felt like beach weather!
We caught a taxi to class, which was really entertaining. Only six of us are in intermediate Arabic, and our teacher is eccentric and hilarious. He does random dances and is just all-around pretty crazy. The first two hours of class flew by, surprisingly. Then, with 45 minutes left to go, we had a break and all went down to the cafeteria and bought Pepsi’s, and after the break I just was not all there anymore. Our teacher gave us a ride home from the university since it would be hard to catch a taxi at that time of day, and is going to do that every day, which is good, because it’ll save me D10 a week, which is only a little more than a dollar, but hey, that’s a dollar I can spend on mint tea!
We came home and had the most tender beef and potatoes ever for dinner with blended cucumbers to drink [it sounds really weird I know…and it is]. After dinner the rest of the students came to our room and we all hung out and talked and drank wine until around 2am. Then Megan, Alexa, Julia, Lauren and I stayed up for another hour and a half talking, drinking tea, and having fun.
We woke up late this morning, around 10:30. We got ready and had a meeting at 11, which was stupid. After that we had traditional Friday lunch, couscous. It was- no surprise- absolutely delicious. Afterwards, we went to the internet café and attempted to figure out the French keyboards. They, like the French, are the most retarded things ever. Then we went to Café Montreal for more mint tea. At 5, Iman came to pick us up and we went to belly dancing class. It was amazing! It’s in a below-ground studio, and the woman made a special class just for the 8 girls who wanted to go. It was like bikram yoga; sweltering hot, and we were pouring sweat for an hour. We didn’t know that we could be scantily clad, and I sweated straight through my linen pants and shirt. We were all soaking wet by the end of the class, but it was ridiculously fun and such a good workout! We’re going every Tuesday and Thursday morning for an hour and a half until we leave. Three hours a week for 5 weeks for only D150! We’re all so excited!
Iman took us [all sweaty and gross] to buy kohl eyeliner, to see cafes, the cinema, shopping areas, get this delicious orgasm-in-your-mouth chocolate-chocolate pastry that I would never be able to spell properly, and to the amazing Café de Terasse. It is a terrace café that overlooks the entire city with music and delicious drinks. We also went to a 17-day long festival with incredible local music and dancing. I bought two head scarves that are absolutely beautiful. Between the two scarves and Moroccan eyeliner, I spent D28- $4 USD! I love Morocco!
The only problem with Moroccans is that sometimes they’re almost too hospitable. Upon seeing that we’re white, they automatically assume we’re French, and start speaking to us in French, so it’s hard to practice your Arabic.
Today was actually one of the best 4th of July’s that I’ve had, yet it was one of the most “Moroccan” days we’ve had thus far. Julia and I reasoned that we’re celebrating America by showing the Moroccans that we’re not all ignorant, racist, judgmental bastards, and I like that idea. I hope it’s true, and we’re just not ignorant to the fact that we’re still hopelessly ignorant.
We’re waking up tomorrow at 8am to go to Volubilis, the Roman ruins here in Morocco. So I’m going to shimmy on over to bed with my head scarf and kohl..goodnight, all!
Salaam wa hubb,
-Danielle
Yesterday was the first day of class for us here in Meknes. We got to sleep in [if you call 9:00 sleeping in], then we woke up, had breakfast, got ready, and went to the supermarket, Label Vie. We bought wine at the liquor store and got a black bag for it so no one could tell we bought alcohol since it is so frowned upon here..although the black bag is kind of a dead giveaway.
After that, we had a delicious lunch and went to get tea at Café Montreal, which is downstairs and two shops over and very convenient, not to mention American- and woman-friendly and amazing.
Yesterday was really cool and breezy and such a nice relief from the heat..with the windows open it felt like beach weather!
We caught a taxi to class, which was really entertaining. Only six of us are in intermediate Arabic, and our teacher is eccentric and hilarious. He does random dances and is just all-around pretty crazy. The first two hours of class flew by, surprisingly. Then, with 45 minutes left to go, we had a break and all went down to the cafeteria and bought Pepsi’s, and after the break I just was not all there anymore. Our teacher gave us a ride home from the university since it would be hard to catch a taxi at that time of day, and is going to do that every day, which is good, because it’ll save me D10 a week, which is only a little more than a dollar, but hey, that’s a dollar I can spend on mint tea!
We came home and had the most tender beef and potatoes ever for dinner with blended cucumbers to drink [it sounds really weird I know…and it is]. After dinner the rest of the students came to our room and we all hung out and talked and drank wine until around 2am. Then Megan, Alexa, Julia, Lauren and I stayed up for another hour and a half talking, drinking tea, and having fun.
We woke up late this morning, around 10:30. We got ready and had a meeting at 11, which was stupid. After that we had traditional Friday lunch, couscous. It was- no surprise- absolutely delicious. Afterwards, we went to the internet café and attempted to figure out the French keyboards. They, like the French, are the most retarded things ever. Then we went to Café Montreal for more mint tea. At 5, Iman came to pick us up and we went to belly dancing class. It was amazing! It’s in a below-ground studio, and the woman made a special class just for the 8 girls who wanted to go. It was like bikram yoga; sweltering hot, and we were pouring sweat for an hour. We didn’t know that we could be scantily clad, and I sweated straight through my linen pants and shirt. We were all soaking wet by the end of the class, but it was ridiculously fun and such a good workout! We’re going every Tuesday and Thursday morning for an hour and a half until we leave. Three hours a week for 5 weeks for only D150! We’re all so excited!
Iman took us [all sweaty and gross] to buy kohl eyeliner, to see cafes, the cinema, shopping areas, get this delicious orgasm-in-your-mouth chocolate-chocolate pastry that I would never be able to spell properly, and to the amazing Café de Terasse. It is a terrace café that overlooks the entire city with music and delicious drinks. We also went to a 17-day long festival with incredible local music and dancing. I bought two head scarves that are absolutely beautiful. Between the two scarves and Moroccan eyeliner, I spent D28- $4 USD! I love Morocco!
The only problem with Moroccans is that sometimes they’re almost too hospitable. Upon seeing that we’re white, they automatically assume we’re French, and start speaking to us in French, so it’s hard to practice your Arabic.
Today was actually one of the best 4th of July’s that I’ve had, yet it was one of the most “Moroccan” days we’ve had thus far. Julia and I reasoned that we’re celebrating America by showing the Moroccans that we’re not all ignorant, racist, judgmental bastards, and I like that idea. I hope it’s true, and we’re just not ignorant to the fact that we’re still hopelessly ignorant.
We’re waking up tomorrow at 8am to go to Volubilis, the Roman ruins here in Morocco. So I’m going to shimmy on over to bed with my head scarf and kohl..goodnight, all!
Salaam wa hubb,
-Danielle
Ana Oheb Al-Maghreb!
Every day that I’m in Morocco is like a blur! So much is packed into every single day that I feel like it’s been weeks already.
Last night Alexa, Julia, Lauren and I were bored- women can’t really go out after dark without being harassed incessantly by the swarms of Moroccan men out on the streets- until we found a bottle of wine in the fridge. We have a huge picture window in our living room that overlooks the main street, so we opened it wide, drank wine, and people watched while hanging out the window for a few hours. It was so interesting, trying to figure out the way the culture works here. There are so many paradoxes in the way people behave that it’s absolutely fascinating, but I’ll get into that more later. So we drank our Moroccan wine and bonded and had fun while the boys were out at the bars [women in bars here are almost always hookers].
This morning I woke up at 5am to a rooster crowing outside my window. So we woke up, ate some bread, and went on a bus tour of Meknes at 8:30. Meknes is beautiful- much nicer than Casablanca, which was surprising to me. There are four different parts of town and each of them is different and beautiful in its own way. I live in an apartment in the Hamriya, or ville nouvelle, which has a lot of French architecture and influence. We went to the older part of the city and saw ancient aqueducts, hanging gardens, the casbah, and an alley-way asooq that was breathtaking. The hustle and bustle of the city is chaos. Everyone is always doing something different; darting in front of a car, fighting, haggling, eating…it’s the law of entropy at work. The asooq was partially covered by awnings hanging over the alleyways, so it was cool and very crowded. There’s every kind of vendor: caftans and jibalas, spices, knockoff designer clothes, shoes, handicrafts. The smells of the city permeate everything. One second you’re breathing in saffron and the next you smell sewage, rotting food, or horse/donkey/sheep/goat dung. It’s a schmorgesborde for your senses. There are donkey carts, and every type of person milling about.
We also went to the mosque where the sultan Moulay Ismail [my university here is named after him] is buried. One thing I have noticed about the mosques here- there are very few that you can go in as a tourist, but when you can, the people are very welcoming and warm even though they know you aren’t a Muslim. I was somewhat surprised by that fact because of the stereotypical Muslim most Americans envision. They want you to learn about their religion and they’re happy to share it with you. It’s very much the opposite of everything we think in the US.
Travelling around the city in the 115 degree Fahrenheit weather started to take its toll on us [it’s actually not as bad as you think; thank God for dry heat with no humidity..but don’t get me wrong, I still complain constantly. Plus, air conditioning is hard to find here- none in our apartment! We keep the windows and the doors to the balconies open all the time and when we’re lucky we catch a cool breeze], and we were so grateful for huge jugs of water waiting on us when we arrived at Jahmiya Moulay Ismail, the university where we will be taking classes, for the welcoming ceremony. They also served traditional hot Moroccan mint tea. I didn’t expect to like it, but it was absolutely delicious and I am already addicted to it; it’s my new Starbucks. I’m going to buy a ton of it to bring home with me! After we met our professors we had the placement test for Arabic class. The written portion was actually pretty difficult and I freaked out a bit because the required score for Intermediate Arabic 1 [Arabic 201 at UA] was an 80% or higher. The oral exam was awkward. There were other people in the room, so the professor whispered and I could barely hear him enough to answer his questions. Plus, he only asked two questions in Arabic before he started chatting away in English. Sidenote: the code-switching here is incredible! I cannot tell you how amazing it is to be surrounded by such linguistically gifted people. Even within our group of 14 people, at any given time you are liable to hear Spanish, English, French, Swahili, Italian, or of course, some meager Arabic. Our resident director will sometimes start speaking Spanish and not realize it. The professors at school will start a speech and realize a few minutes into it [from the confused looks on our faces, I’m sure] that he is actually speaking French or Arabic instead of English. Morocco is truly a melting pot of cultures! It’s incredible!
But I digress. After the tests, we went back the apartment for a two hour break for lunch. Two Arabic women come in and prepare three meals a day for us in the apartment, and it is always delicious. Today we had the tenderest lamb I’ve ever tasted, marinated in a green sauce with dates and figs, lots of bread, and potatoes. It was mouthwatering! Afterwards I caught a quick siesta, then the program directors showed up to teach us how to use the grand-taxis. They are actually Mercedes Benzes [not the kind you’re probably thinking, they’re not very nice] that function like a bus. They run on a fixed route and you can get on and off anywhere along that route. Six people can fit into one car, although not comfortably or safely, but Moroccans are not very concerned about traffic safety. No one stays in any lanes [in fact, lanes aren’t really marked on the roads]; sometimes cars are on the left and right, sometimes they drive right in the middle, plus tons of people squish into one car, or people drive with their doors open. It’s completely possible in a grand-taxi to end up practically on the lap of a complete stranger who climbed in as another person climbed out. Personal space is nearly nonexistent here! We got back to the university without incident, and suffered through a three hour long orientation on health, safety, and housing. The Arabic professors also came in and gave us our placement test results. I didn’t make an 80% on the test but they bumped me up to Intermediate 1 anyway, so I was relieved.
Trying to find a taxi home from the University was difficult as it usually closes around 6 and no more taxis wait outside afterwards. We waited for nearly half an hour before Daniel, our resident director, drove up and offered us a ride. Four of us rode with him, three girls walked the 40 minutes home, five others took a city bus, and two boys hitchhiked. Dinner was waiting on us at home, an egg and meatball ziti-type dish which was, of course, scrumptious. Afterwards, four of us girls went out to find a cheap Moroccan cell phone and experienced more of the infamous Moroccan hospitality. Several times already, people have pitied us in our complete ignorance and helped us out in difficult situations, without us asking. We were being harassed our first night in Casablanca by a man begging for cigarettes [everyone smokes everywhere here…and I mean everywhere], and a businessman waiting in line behind us at the ATM [we were moving very slowly too, so I was surprised he wasn’t irritated with us] chased him off to save us. Another time at Marjane, the Moroccan version of Wal-Mart, we were walking around looking for contact solution, and a man who overheard us, stopped and said, “What you need is someone who speaks English like me,” then pointed us in the right direction. Tonight in the Meditel cell phone store, a man who was listening to us struggle to convey what we needed to the clerk in muddled French apologized for his bad English [he actually spoke it very well, and with the best accent I’ve heard thus far!] and spent nearly fifteen minutes helping us. It was heartening to find the people so concerned for us and willing to help whenever possible.
After leaving, we decided to try and find some ice cream even though it was getting dark. That was a mistake! Suddenly, there were no women around and hundreds of men making cat calls, following us, and giving us lines in French, Arabic, and English. It’s a little scary, so we headed home as fast as possible.
On a side note, I’ve been taking cold showers here, and I couldn’t be happier. When it’s 115 degrees outside, it feels wonderful!
Class starts tomorrow at 4pm and goes until 7pm, so I’m sure I’ll be exhausted. But hopefully my internal clock will start adjusting and I won’t wake up at 5am for the third day in a row. I’m taking lots and lots of pictures, and hopefully I will be able to post this using the university’s wireless internet tomorrow! I miss you all! Goodnight!
“Shit as much as possible.”-Daniel Ostad
Salaam wa hubb,
-Danielle
Last night Alexa, Julia, Lauren and I were bored- women can’t really go out after dark without being harassed incessantly by the swarms of Moroccan men out on the streets- until we found a bottle of wine in the fridge. We have a huge picture window in our living room that overlooks the main street, so we opened it wide, drank wine, and people watched while hanging out the window for a few hours. It was so interesting, trying to figure out the way the culture works here. There are so many paradoxes in the way people behave that it’s absolutely fascinating, but I’ll get into that more later. So we drank our Moroccan wine and bonded and had fun while the boys were out at the bars [women in bars here are almost always hookers].
This morning I woke up at 5am to a rooster crowing outside my window. So we woke up, ate some bread, and went on a bus tour of Meknes at 8:30. Meknes is beautiful- much nicer than Casablanca, which was surprising to me. There are four different parts of town and each of them is different and beautiful in its own way. I live in an apartment in the Hamriya, or ville nouvelle, which has a lot of French architecture and influence. We went to the older part of the city and saw ancient aqueducts, hanging gardens, the casbah, and an alley-way asooq that was breathtaking. The hustle and bustle of the city is chaos. Everyone is always doing something different; darting in front of a car, fighting, haggling, eating…it’s the law of entropy at work. The asooq was partially covered by awnings hanging over the alleyways, so it was cool and very crowded. There’s every kind of vendor: caftans and jibalas, spices, knockoff designer clothes, shoes, handicrafts. The smells of the city permeate everything. One second you’re breathing in saffron and the next you smell sewage, rotting food, or horse/donkey/sheep/goat dung. It’s a schmorgesborde for your senses. There are donkey carts, and every type of person milling about.
We also went to the mosque where the sultan Moulay Ismail [my university here is named after him] is buried. One thing I have noticed about the mosques here- there are very few that you can go in as a tourist, but when you can, the people are very welcoming and warm even though they know you aren’t a Muslim. I was somewhat surprised by that fact because of the stereotypical Muslim most Americans envision. They want you to learn about their religion and they’re happy to share it with you. It’s very much the opposite of everything we think in the US.
Travelling around the city in the 115 degree Fahrenheit weather started to take its toll on us [it’s actually not as bad as you think; thank God for dry heat with no humidity..but don’t get me wrong, I still complain constantly. Plus, air conditioning is hard to find here- none in our apartment! We keep the windows and the doors to the balconies open all the time and when we’re lucky we catch a cool breeze], and we were so grateful for huge jugs of water waiting on us when we arrived at Jahmiya Moulay Ismail, the university where we will be taking classes, for the welcoming ceremony. They also served traditional hot Moroccan mint tea. I didn’t expect to like it, but it was absolutely delicious and I am already addicted to it; it’s my new Starbucks. I’m going to buy a ton of it to bring home with me! After we met our professors we had the placement test for Arabic class. The written portion was actually pretty difficult and I freaked out a bit because the required score for Intermediate Arabic 1 [Arabic 201 at UA] was an 80% or higher. The oral exam was awkward. There were other people in the room, so the professor whispered and I could barely hear him enough to answer his questions. Plus, he only asked two questions in Arabic before he started chatting away in English. Sidenote: the code-switching here is incredible! I cannot tell you how amazing it is to be surrounded by such linguistically gifted people. Even within our group of 14 people, at any given time you are liable to hear Spanish, English, French, Swahili, Italian, or of course, some meager Arabic. Our resident director will sometimes start speaking Spanish and not realize it. The professors at school will start a speech and realize a few minutes into it [from the confused looks on our faces, I’m sure] that he is actually speaking French or Arabic instead of English. Morocco is truly a melting pot of cultures! It’s incredible!
But I digress. After the tests, we went back the apartment for a two hour break for lunch. Two Arabic women come in and prepare three meals a day for us in the apartment, and it is always delicious. Today we had the tenderest lamb I’ve ever tasted, marinated in a green sauce with dates and figs, lots of bread, and potatoes. It was mouthwatering! Afterwards I caught a quick siesta, then the program directors showed up to teach us how to use the grand-taxis. They are actually Mercedes Benzes [not the kind you’re probably thinking, they’re not very nice] that function like a bus. They run on a fixed route and you can get on and off anywhere along that route. Six people can fit into one car, although not comfortably or safely, but Moroccans are not very concerned about traffic safety. No one stays in any lanes [in fact, lanes aren’t really marked on the roads]; sometimes cars are on the left and right, sometimes they drive right in the middle, plus tons of people squish into one car, or people drive with their doors open. It’s completely possible in a grand-taxi to end up practically on the lap of a complete stranger who climbed in as another person climbed out. Personal space is nearly nonexistent here! We got back to the university without incident, and suffered through a three hour long orientation on health, safety, and housing. The Arabic professors also came in and gave us our placement test results. I didn’t make an 80% on the test but they bumped me up to Intermediate 1 anyway, so I was relieved.
Trying to find a taxi home from the University was difficult as it usually closes around 6 and no more taxis wait outside afterwards. We waited for nearly half an hour before Daniel, our resident director, drove up and offered us a ride. Four of us rode with him, three girls walked the 40 minutes home, five others took a city bus, and two boys hitchhiked. Dinner was waiting on us at home, an egg and meatball ziti-type dish which was, of course, scrumptious. Afterwards, four of us girls went out to find a cheap Moroccan cell phone and experienced more of the infamous Moroccan hospitality. Several times already, people have pitied us in our complete ignorance and helped us out in difficult situations, without us asking. We were being harassed our first night in Casablanca by a man begging for cigarettes [everyone smokes everywhere here…and I mean everywhere], and a businessman waiting in line behind us at the ATM [we were moving very slowly too, so I was surprised he wasn’t irritated with us] chased him off to save us. Another time at Marjane, the Moroccan version of Wal-Mart, we were walking around looking for contact solution, and a man who overheard us, stopped and said, “What you need is someone who speaks English like me,” then pointed us in the right direction. Tonight in the Meditel cell phone store, a man who was listening to us struggle to convey what we needed to the clerk in muddled French apologized for his bad English [he actually spoke it very well, and with the best accent I’ve heard thus far!] and spent nearly fifteen minutes helping us. It was heartening to find the people so concerned for us and willing to help whenever possible.
After leaving, we decided to try and find some ice cream even though it was getting dark. That was a mistake! Suddenly, there were no women around and hundreds of men making cat calls, following us, and giving us lines in French, Arabic, and English. It’s a little scary, so we headed home as fast as possible.
On a side note, I’ve been taking cold showers here, and I couldn’t be happier. When it’s 115 degrees outside, it feels wonderful!
Class starts tomorrow at 4pm and goes until 7pm, so I’m sure I’ll be exhausted. But hopefully my internal clock will start adjusting and I won’t wake up at 5am for the third day in a row. I’m taking lots and lots of pictures, and hopefully I will be able to post this using the university’s wireless internet tomorrow! I miss you all! Goodnight!
“Shit as much as possible.”-Daniel Ostad
Salaam wa hubb,
-Danielle
