In the Souk: Episode II

I miss home. Well, not really. Kinda. But we're having so much fun here that it hasn't really hit me yet! Monday was the start of FusHa, after learning Darija for a week it was like a slap in the face! I knew nothing that our Ustath was saying, it took me a while to get used to listening to Modern Standard instead of the dialect. FusHa is a lot easier to pronounce than Darija though because it actually has vowels. In Darija, Fahmt is a word....try saying that ten times fast!

After school on Monday we all decided to go to the Souk again! There was twelve of us, so we had to take three different taxis to the tram station. (The taxis only take 3 people each) John, Mobasshir, and I took the last taxi, arrived at the tram station, and didn't see any of our group. After a few frantic calls, we found out that the taxi drivers had decided to take the rest of the group to the medina! Ya allah! They were ok though, so John, Mobasshir, Tarek (another Ustath at our school), and I decided to wait for the tram to go downtown instead of taking another taxi. This turned into almost an hour decision, but eventually we met up with the rest of the goup.

Only 700 dirham...Mom you like birds right?

After this ordeal Mobasshir and I headed off to find deals on everything and anything that we saw. We actually bought some congratulations jewlery for Emily, our group leader, because she recently became engaged! We didn't find too many things for the prices we wanted, but we were fine with that because we learned more about what we wanted.

When we decided to head back home, we wanted to meet up with the group and take the bus back together. Mobasshir and I navigated through the labyrinth of streets that made up the Medina and eventually found our way to the modern part of the city. From here we called the other group to find out where they were, using a big green building next to us as a landmark.CJ picked up, but told us that he saw no green buildings anywhere near him! As we looked for another landmark for them to use to locate us, Patrick found us! It turns out that the whole group was only 20 feet away, CJ included! CJ told us that technically the building was green and white and that describing a building as green, even when all other buildings are white and brown and half as tall as our green building, is too vauge of a description. We have never been able to convince him otherwise, but now we know how to give CJ directions!

Check out these two videos that we shot in the Souk! Sorry I havn't posted in a while, we've had a lot of work today. Insha'allah I will make another post tonight or tomorrow, describing the calligraphy classes that we are taking as well as the Cookoff between Moroccans and Americans! Ma'salama!

The Souk! Look at all of the things being sold and the amount of people! The streets are always packed!
   

In the Souk: Episode 1

All of us in the Souk. Peter in the back,
 then Michael, then  me, then Mobasshir. 

What a long two days! Officially we have been here for a week and I think that we are starting to get the hang of al maghrib, but I'm sure theres much more to learn. Before I get into what we have been doing though, I'd like to thank everyone for reading this. I hope that you can see this beautiful culture through my eyes as I write my experiences here. I was especially like to thank the people who viewed my blog in Germany, Italy, and Saint Kitts and Nevis, I was especially excited that I had reached some of the people outside of the United States and Morocco!

Sunday was our first free day, and Michael and I lived it up! Our host father took us and our brother to a very nice pool in Sale where we chilled for hours. Michael didn't swim a lot, he was still recovering from when he was sick the night before. But Redda (our brother) and I did, and the water felt wonderful! That combined with a pool-side nap made a nice evening. The day wasn't done yet though, after relaxing Michael, Peter, Mobasshir and I all too the tram to the Souk, which is the Arabic Market. This is a gorgeous place, with lots of colors and people everywhere! You can find anything that you can think of in a Souk! They have the best fresh fruit juice and sugar cane juice.... most of it is hard to believe! There are also piles upon piles of spices and dried fruits and vegetables to buy....the Souk is truly an amazing place! At the Souk I bought a nice watch for 25 dirham...thats just over 3 bucks! Peter got Mobosshir and I a present: a necklace with the name of god written on it. It is an awesome piece, and I am looking for a silver chain to hang it on!

What I have gotten so far at the Souk....don't hate on the pillow...

The real fun of Sunday's visit to the Souk started when we were trying to get home. It turns out that the last tram runs at 9 O'Clock, and by this time its was past 11 O'Clock. We were also in the Souk in Sale, which is right outside of Rabat, the only problem is that taxis will not run between Sale and Rabat. Taxis were also a problem because they can only fit 3 people legally, and with our party of four that wouldn't fly. The only option was to take a grand taxi, which we were advised against doing but had not other choice! We didn't know this at the time, but Grand taxis have no meter, and the driver basically sets the price. We had a very wonderful ride to Hay Riad, which is where we lived and completely on the opposite side of town (you can see a video of what we were doing below). When we got out of the taxi at Hay Riad, the Driver asked for 200 dirham-- thats the equivalent of 8 watches, or 200 kiwis!!!! Of course we were outraged, and Mobasshir, our favorite Muslim, and Peter, a french-speaking genius, started yelling at him in Arabic and French! I think they actually hurt his feelings, because he started to drive off without even getting paid! Mobasshir and I wouldn't take this, and gave him 120 dirham, which we thought was more than fair! It turns out that a fair price would have been 70 dirham, so we didn't feel too sorry for the guy. Next time we would be more careful, especially 11 at night!

I hope you are all doing well, thank you all again for reading! I miss all of you, and I hope your summers are going great!

Another Day in Paradise!

My host brothers!

Ahlan from Morocco! We've been doing a lot of work here, we even had school on a Saturday! Friday we had class like usual, but nothing really after school. Michael and I ended up hanging out with our host brothers and going to a festival close by that was selling items and playing traditional music.  It was interesting to see a lot of the culture in a modern setting. The area that we walked through was beautiful, the landscaping was gorgeous! I wish we had a place like it in Mooresville! The architecture was also very interesting, it provided a nice background to the setting. They took us through to a nice sized ice cream parlor, which was delicious! I asked what flavors were and ordered the ice cream in Arabic, with a little help from Ridda and Abbas! After this we just came home, showed the boys american music, and went to bed. (late again...tonight I will get to bed early insha'allah)

Today we had an oral test in Darija! Now I will take the time to explain Darija vs. FusHa for those who are confused. Arabic has many dialects, which, unlike English for the most part, can be very hard to understand to those who speak a different dialect. For this reason, Arabic has a dialect called Modern Standard Arabic, or FusHa, which is used in all writing, the news, and other official procedures. Darija is the dialect of Arabic that is spoken in and only in Morocco. It is the hardest dialect for other Arabs to understand, many times movies shot in darija need to be translated even for other Arabs to understand! This first week we have learned Darija so that we are able to hold a conversation with the people of Morocco. They are able to understand FusHa, but the dialects are much easier to speak.

Anyways, the Darija test was fairly easy. the hardest thing that we were asked about were proverbs, we had 12 to memorize. My favorite one sounds like this in English:

Li bgha laasal kayasbar lqris nhal.

This means: He who wants honey should be patient with bee stinging. 

I like this one because it means that if you really want something you have to tough it up when things start to get bad. It reminds me kind of of what the SEALs said when explaining all the planning that went into getting Osama, they said that you have to focus on the prize and have a single focus mind. This is true for learning a language too, I have to spend time studying as well as hanging out with my friends. 

After our test, we went to Mega Mall in Rabat, which is honestly is not very mega compared to some of the malls in America! It is very relaxing though because of the layout of the building, a very nice place. I got a Pom's there, which is quite possibly the best soda that I have ever had! It is basically apple juice that has been made into a soda, but that description doesn't do it justice!

I hope that you all are doing well! I miss you all, but I am having a wonderful time in this beautiful country! 

Some Pictures from Rabat!

The best orange juice ever...

Look for more on Facebook!

al maghrib zween bizaaf! , and other ways to use our favorite adjective.....

Today is the third day that we have been in Rabat, and it is wonderful! They call it the green city of Morocco, and I certainly see why. Our host family is very kind and helpful to us, they know a good amount of English, and would like for us to be fluent in Arabic by the time that they leave! Yesterday was our first day of classes in the darija dialect, we will start fusHa' next week. All class is la inglesia, or no English, and very intense. I am doing a good amount of studying so that I will really learn the language. We also got to meet a lot of Moroccans at an event put on by our Arabic school, which was very interesting and showed us a lot about their culture.

Today we worked on more darija, more intensely than before. Raja, our teacher, kept having to get on Mobasshir and CJ because they were dasr (disobedient....haha love you guys) After we went on a scavenger hunt throughout Rabat! Our team came in last...that's because we had to buy a Quran and a traditional robe, well worth losing! We traveled with the same Moroccans that we met yesterday, and I was able to have a nice conversation with the taxi driver in Arabic. All in all very exciting. I would write more, but it is very late and I am very tired. More will come!

!!!أنا في مغرب

Today is our first day in Morocco. Also, due to the flight schedule, I have not slept in a very long time, close to two days (We'll be fixing that shortly...) Right now I am sitting in a hotel room in Casablanca listening through the wide open window to the traffic at 9pm. The hotel room is wonderful, one of the nicest I've been in, possibly because I'm exhausted but I think a lot because of the way it is arranged. Needless to say, I'm going to sleep very well tonight!

We arrived at the hotel around 1pm local time today. Before that we spent over 24 hours in airports and airplanes, which, despite my love of flying, just about wore me and everyone else out. I didn't sleep at all on the way over to Spain (which is a gorgeous country) but on the way to Morocco I fell asleep before we took off and woke up as we rolled into the gate. 

After we got to the hotel everyone took a long nap, then we took a drive too the beach in a bus. We passed the Hasan II Mosque, which we shall visit later in the trip. It is the 3rd biggest Mosque in the world, and home to the largest Minaret in the world. The pictures that I took do not do it justice, especially at night when it is lit up. The beach was interesting, very few people were in the water because it was so cold, but everyoneeee had a soccer ball... I'm going to have to practice up while I am here. 

You'll all be interested to know that we got a cell phone today! The numerals are the same as in the states, but I can officially text in Arabic! Don't even think about calling or texting from the states though, calls are 50 cents a minute IN MOROCCO, without even bringing anything outside of the country into the picture. 

Tomorrow we travel to Rabat after a meeting with the consulate in Casablanca. I am very excited to meet my host family. Classes start Wednesday. I hope that all is going well over there!

مع سلامة

Drivers in Morocco pretty much do whatever they want. This is out of our hotel room window. 

View from the roof of the hotel

Day 1: DC

The first full day with the group that I will be traveling over with Sunday, and I have to say this whole group is pretty awesome. 7 of them have been over with the same group last summer, and a lot of them have quite a bit of Arabic experience, more than I have at least!

Today, we have done a lot of the boring rules and initiations. (important stuff, but doesn't change the fact.) However we also talked about our host family and what to expect with them. I know that there is a culture barrier that I will have to overcome, especially with the food. In America, we are generous in different ways then they are in Morocco, especially with food. In America, it would be polite to offer a guest food, but in Morocco they would take offence if a guest rejected food. I am especially excited to bargain for things at the Souk. My American roommate and I will be working up strategy for that trip!

I hope all of you are doing well, and I can't wait to tell you more!

مع السللامة

4 Days Before Departure

It's four days before I leave, and I'm not sure that it has hit me yet. I know that I can't comprehend how long I really will be gone, 6 weeks is forever! I know for a fact that I will miss home and the United States, but I also know that at no time during my trip will I truly want to come home early. I think that being on the edge of a trip like this is like standing on the edge of a cliff. On a cliff there's the exhilaration and adventure that you feel while there, plus the subtle edge of fear to keep you careful. The same sort of thoughts have been going through my head for the past week, and will continue to do so until I leave. I'm not scared to go at all, just anxious and curious about what to expect. I have done nothing to compare this to, so I'll have to take what comes my way.

Mom is scared of course, but she is taking it very well. She knows that it is what I want to do and that I will be safe. I think Dad is similarly scared for me to some extent, but I know that he wishes me well and again knows that I will be safe. Jessie and Jared are somewhat apprehensive, I don't think that it has really hit them how soon I am leaving yet. I will really miss all of them while I am gone. I'm also going to miss all of my friends and the rest of my family. I'm going over too my Aunt Allison and Uncle Dave's tonight to see them before I head out. I hope that everyone keeps me in the loop by sending me emails, I will have access to them while away. I'm going to try to stay off Facebook so that I can concentrate on being in Morocco, but if you see me online on Skype feel free to call or message me. I know that this is going to be a great experience, and I can't wait for it to start!

Ma'a Salama