Darija, Sightseeing, and Host Families...Oh My!

When I started this blog, I vowed to update it every day, or at least as often as I could given the somewhat tenuous internet situation here in Morocco. Clearly I have already failed in this objective, but then again, you all will probably appreciate reading this blog more if I give you the cliffnotes version (read only the most interesting things I've done). There, I've just rationalized my poor communication to myself and feel much better.

Ok, back to Morocco. The past few days have been good, but intense. I have been arriving at the offices of AMIDEAST every morning at 8 and spending the day taking lessons in Moroccan safety protocols, cultural adjustments, and darija, or Moroccan colloquial Arabic. Darija is enough like Modern Standard Arabic, which I what I've been taking classes in for the past two years, that I can generally remember the words that we are taught, but some things, like the numbers are difficult, first, because Arabic numbers are just ridiculously complicated in general, and second because the darija numbers are just different enough from MSA numbers that I get the two of them confused. Unfortunately numbers are rather important when doing things like, oh say, buying food... Oh, well I'm sure I'll get the hang of them eventually. We also had a really fun lecture about Moroccan nonverbal communication, as Moroccans tend to use lots of hand gestures. We learned all of the nonverbal signs for commonly used darija words, and those of us in the program have had a ton of fun practicing them. My personal favorite is the sign for maka neeshan, which means dishonest, and the gesture is moving your hand like a fish, to show that the person does not follow a straight path. That and muzzeean, which means great and is the thumbs up sign. It's all fabulous.

When we're not in class I have been busy exploring Rabat. I've paid another visit to the souq, but my favorite place so far has to be the Tour Hassan. This is the sight of what was going to be a huge, massive mosque, which was never completed. There are the beginnings of a minaret and a large open plaza full of the ruins of what were intended to be the columns supporting the structures ceiling. The best part, though, is the stunning view of the surrounding city and Atlantic ocean. It is so peaceful and I definitely plan to spend a lot of time there in the future. Unfortunately, Tour Hassan is about as close to a real mosque as I'm going to get, seeing as how non-Muslims are not allowed inside.

Speaking of Islam, as I mentioned in my last post, Muslims in the world are observing Ramadan. This means no eating or drinking period from sunup to sundown. This makes living in Rabat a little strange. Most restaurants and bakeries are closed, and it is inappropriate for anyone to be seen eating out on the street. There are a few shops and bakeries open during the day, many of which sell traditional ftour (the first meal eaten after sundown) delicacies. I have eaten traditional ftour meals soup, pastries, dates, eggs, bread, and tea almost every evening since I've been here and it's a good thing I like it, seeing as how it will be eaten by my host family (and thus yours truly) every evening for the remainder of Ramadan. I am not obligated to fast, seeing as how I am not, in fact, a Muslim, but I might try to for a couple of days while I'm with my family.

Families! I am going to be moving in with my host family tomorrow! I am still really nervous, but I think it's going to be OK. AMIDEAST has decided to put two Americans in each host family (with a couple of exceptions), and I do have a roommate. She seems great, and we should get along well. Plus, she speaks French (I do not) and will be able to get answers about important questions regarding things like bathrooms, laundry, and transportation from our host parents. My family seems pretty cool. I have a mom, dad, three sisters, and one brother. Two of my host sisters are in their 20s, one is exactly my age (I suppose that means 20s too, eep!), and my brother is 15. My 20 year old host sister is leaving to go to Canada for study abroad in a week, the study abroad coordinator said that our host mom is looking forward to having us, as she will be missing her own daughter. Apparently the family is quite open-minded and has hosted American students before, with consistent positive feedback. This is a bit of a relief to me, as it would be really hard to be a first time study abroad student with a first time host family. Talk about the blind leading the blind! My favorite part about my host family is that in the pets section of the sheet given to me, it says that they have one bird and three chickens! Muzeean!

All this exciting host family/Rabat exploring/ftour eating aside, the best part of my week was probably getting my suitcases. My baggage arrived yesterday afternoon, and I took a cab to the Rabat airport with another guy from my program whose bags had also been found to retrieve them. The cab ride was pretty excellent as my companion speaks a good deal of Arabic and French and was able to chat with our driver. I understood about 70% of their conversation, which was cool, and the man really took a shine to us. He pointed out landmarks as we passed, taught us some dareeja, and when we got to the airport, came inside and helped us get our bags. He even introduced us to some guy he knew who was at the airport. It was great!

So now, I am preparing to move bag and baggage into my host family's home. The plan for tonight is to repack my suitcases in a more efficient manner and practice some darija so I can talk to my host family at least a little tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Also, I've been trying to upload pictures but the internet just can't handle it! I'll try again when I have a better connection, sorry folks!