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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