January: School and Beachy Vacations

The first month back at school has been pretty good. The first week was a little chaotic. I got a new roommate, another AU student named Rachel, and was told I have to do an independent study project in lieu of a third humanities class. My roommate situation changed when Rachel, who had requested to have a roommate, was put in a family without one. I am the year long student who lives closest to AMIDEAST and my family wanted another student, so Rachel moved in. At first I was a little wary as I had just started to settle into a roommate-less routine with the host fam, but Rachel is really great and settled right in, so all is well. She's different enough from Evelyn that the experience will not be comparable and the two of us are both AU Honors students. It turns out that we have tons of mutual acquaintances, but had never gotten to know each other. Rachel also speaks French, but is an Arabic beginner. Thankfully, my family has decided that they are only going to speak to me in Arabic, so I still get lots of practice there. It's actually kind of funny because my mom now only speaks Arabic to Rachel as well, so I had to play the role of translator for the Rachel's first week in the house.

As for the independent study project, I was supposed to take a sociology class about North Africa, but everyone else signed up for the class dropped it. My only other option was a French literature class (discounted for obvious reasons) and so I now have to an independent study project in order to have enough credits to keep my scholarship. To be perfectly honest, I didn't really want to do this project. It works out to more reading than any of my regular classes, and I spent all summer doing an independent research project. I also meet with the professor I'm working with twice a week for at least an hour, so it's a considerable amount of pressure. That being said, my topic of research, the relationship between the political and religious spheres in Moroccan society, really interests me, and my advising professor knows a lot about it. He's been pretty good about helping me sort out what kind of research will be feasible given me lack of sociology experience and French language skills. Given these rather important hole in my knowledge, all I'm hoping for is a reasonable well put together paper to turn in at the end of the semester. At least I should come out of this experience with a cool capstone topic to explore further next year.

My other classes are also fine. My Amazigh (or Berber) history and culture class is taught by the guy who practically invented the field of Amazigh studies, so it's interesting. My political science class is also OK, although we talk about a lot of things that I covered last semester, so not the most exciting three hours in my week. Surprisingly enough, my language classes are actually the highlight of this semester. My MSA class is taught by my Darija teacher from last semester, which had me slightly concerned in the beginning. As it turns out, my worry was needless because Toriyya is an absolutely fabulous MSA teacher. She is very receptive to questions and willing to work with us outside of class to fill gaps in grammar knowledge. She also holds us accountable for memorizing and retaining all of our grammar and vocab, which is more than any other Arabic professor I've had to this point. My class is also really small, 5 people, so it can be tailored to fit each of our needs. Darija is also good. My teacher is the head of AMIDEAST's Arabic program and she really knows her stuff. We use Darija to reinforce what we're learning in MSA and each of us has to give an in class presentation before the midterm.

Outside of class, life is falling into a pretty standard routine. I wake up, go to class, procrastinate by screwing around on the internet for a few hours at AMIDEAST, do some homework, go home, drink tea, avoid doing more homework, eat dinner, sleep. Pretty boring, truth be told. Last semester everything was new and exciting, now life in Rabat has the comfortable familiarity of routine. It's kind of nice, actually. My family seems to have achieved a certain level of familiarity with me as well. Neda and Sarah, having discovered that I startle easily, try to scare me at least three times a day. Rahma and I have conversations about school, cooking, and her family while I drink tea. My mom has finally started remembering my name with some consistency, and my dad told me I peeled my orange like a Moroccan last night. (Interesting side note, oranges are in season, and delicious so I'm averaging about three a day in consumption.) I've even managed to insinuate myself in neighborhood life. My tailor friend who I walk past whenever I take a cab home invited me in for tea last week, and the hanut guys all say salaam! when I walk past. It's nice to feel solidly comfortable with my family, my neighborhood, and my day to day existence.

I suppose I shouldn't feel too complacent though, as this weekend proved that there's still a lot of Morocco that I have yet to explore. This weekend was the first time that I've gotten out of Rabat since Erin went back to London. Emily, Shino (another AU person), and I went to Essaouira while all of the other AMIDEAST people went on the school sponsored trip to Fez. We started out our adventure on Thursday afternoon with a train ride to Marrakech. We spent the night in a hostel, and had an enjoyable evening chatting with four brothers who owned the soup stand we ate dinner at in the Jamaa alFna. The next morning we took a bus to Essaouira, a small beach side town and apparent tourist mecca during the summer months. One of the AMIDEAST administrators is from Essaouira and he reserved us a room at a great hotel, complete with a roof terrace and breakfast. Our first afternoon was spent walking along the dock, exploring the medina, and eating tapas at a fun little restaurant. Saturday found me knocked out with a weird stomach virus, but I rallied in time to enjoy an afternoon of ice cream eating, people watching, and sunset viewing from the dock. It was the perfect weekend after a month back in the school routine. Emily, Shino, and I spent hours chilling in a cafe, watching life go by and soaking up the seaside atmosphere. There was no rush, no hurry to see everything, or have a super-structured trip. It was relaxation, pure and simple. I was reluctant to return to Rabat on Sunday, but glad to see my host family again, especially when Neda greeted me with a yell of Catherine! and three kisses on my cheek. It was good to be home.