Expanding My Circles

I met lots of people of all varieties this week.  There is one other NSLI-Y program here in Morocco and it is implemented by Legacy International in Marrakech.  That group stayed in Rabat for a night over their vacation, so we had dinner with them on Tuesday.  It was fun to meet them all, but shocking to hear how different their experiences have been.  We are similar ages, doing the exact same program except in different cities at different schools.  Theoretically the programs should be very similar, right?  Their group dynamic, host family relationships, daily routine, and perspectives on Moroccan culture are very different.  It seems like they are not nearly as close as exchange students, but have very strong ties to their host families.  They have many more opportunities through their program like woodworking workshops and teaching English classes by themselves, but are less free/able to explore the city on their own.

Thursday marked my fourth French class; I’m in the international adult class Tuesday and Thursday nights at the Institut Francais.  My classmates are from Germany, Korea, Taiwan, Spain, Syria, Holland, and Morocco, and there is one other American.  They are all generally young professionals, many are working with organizations related to their embassy, and few know or study Arabic.  The work is not very challenging, but it is an excellent opportunity for me to practice my speaking.  It also fun to meet other foreigners who all have interesting stories to tell.  Hopefully the girls in the class (me, a Korean girl, a Taiwanese girl, and a German girl) will all go out soon.  Insha’Allah.

This weekend my host mom, Fatimazahra, brought Zoe and me to her aunt’s farm about 30 minutes outside of Rabat.  It is a beautiful property, and we got a tour of the orchards, fields, and livestock sheds (sheep, cows, and a donkey!).  Her aunt and uncle and very kind and welcoming.  After exploring and picking some oranges, we had tea and cookies inside with several other older relatives/ family friends.  It was really nice to get out of the city and see a Moroccan farm.  It reminded me of my (American) grandparents’ house a little bit.  It was also nice to have tea time with a group of older, more traditional Moroccans.  It was a great day!

Making Way for the New/ Accepting Change

One of the hardest parts of studying abroad, and being 18 in general, is accepting change; not the small changes like your waist size (which definitely shifts) or your favorite color, but the big ones- watching the lives of loved ones move on without you, learning to be more independent, and figuring out where you fit in this world.  When I first began this gap year, I knew to expect the excitement that comes from new food, new friends, and incredible new experiences, as well as the frustration that comes with homesickness, language barriers, etc.  But I did not realize how much change, as an entity, would affect and transform my perspective.  Here are a few of the major changes that occured this week:

Tuesday, my baby sister turned 17.  

It’s funny how my relationship with my sister has changed the most while I’ve been so far away.  I’ve finally accepted that we are both nearly adults now, almost independent, and that our lives together and apart are dramatically transforming.  Throughout childhood our relationship was just part of the greater family dynamic.  But now that our parents are divorced and we are grown up, we have to define a relationship that is between us two as individuals; based on personality instead of proximity.  It is now entirely up to us how often we talk, how close we are, how much we argue, how supportive we are, and how much we prioritize each other.  Redefining such fundamental relationships is really scary, but necessary.  Thankfully, we have stayed in pretty good contact over these months, and we both miss each other very much.  As hard as it is, I am glad we have this separation to realize how much we love and value each other as sisters.

Thursday, our stellar resident director Sarah Daoudi moved back to the US.

It’s difficult to put Sarah into words.  She is intense and loud and passionate and extremely easy to love.  Unfortunately, most of our interactions over the past few months were rushed and harried due to her overwhelming work schedule.  For personal reasons she decided it was best for her and her family to quit her job and move back to the US, and I am very happy for her.  Although it was really sad to lose her, I know it was the best for everyone.  Our new resident director, Annie, is a young English teacher at AMIDEAST from LA and she seems amazing!

The resident director acts as a surrogate parent during the program.  She is everything everything from rule-enforcer to vacation planner to the shoulder you so desperately need to cry on.  Losing that figure after only a few months into the program can be detrimental; as the one familiar adult in your life, you rely on her academically, emotionally, and mentally.  It’s hard to lose Sarah so suddenly, but it also might be the necesary shift I need to stand on my own two feet and rely on myself first and foremost to get through and enjoy the rest of the year.  I have a good feeling about Annie and I think she will be a good support, but I also want to learn how to support myself.

Friday I gave my first 10 minute Powerpoint presentation in Arabic and today we finished our textbook, Al-Kitaab Part 1.

I’m doing it.  I am actually learning Arabic.  Little by little, my vocabulary is expanding and my sentences are becoming more complex and my writing is becoming more fluid.  Although it often seems like I am not progressing much, I have improved incredibly compared to the summer of 2013 when I began learning the alphabet.  Now I can read it fairly quickly and I am comfortable speaking it (albeit choppily). We are moving on to Al-Kitaab Part 2, which is at a low-intermediate level.  I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited for new homework…

Adventure #3: Ifrane

The view from a cafe.

The group! (plus one of their girl friends from Al-Akhawayn University).

The morning after.

This weekend I went on my third trip outside of Rabat: to Ifrane!  This was a special trip because it was not with AMIDEAST, but with a group of friends (yes, I actually have Moroccan friends).  It took a little begging on my part of my dear resident director Sarah, but she finally said yes.  So Sunday morning I met the group in Sale: Soukayna, a Moroccan girl who grew up in New York City and is taking this semester off between her undergrad and masters to live here; Soukayna’s friends Saad and Nabil; and their friend Said.  I met them at Soukayna’s apartment in Sale and we had breakfast together before setting off.  We took a rental car on the easy 3 hour drive.  Around 20 km outside of the city we started to see snow dusting the landscape, and it was actually really exciting to see it.  Soukayna and I were the only ones who had ever experienced snow before, so the boys were very anxious to have their first snowball fight, build their first snowmen, etc.

Once in the very European-looking city, we drove through the middle to Al-Akhawayn University, a private English university.  One of the things that struck me most was the house roofs; in Rabat and in most Moroccan cities I’ve visited, the houses are made of cement and basically shaped like big blocks.  They all have flat rooves used for satellite dishes and clothes lines.  But in Ifrane the buildings all had very steep, long, triangular rooves with shingles.  It was very strange to see shingles for the first time in so long.  Either way, it was very pretty, and the university was also reminiscent of an American school.  After a walk around/ snowball war, we ended up at a cafe in the downtown for much needed warm drinks.  By the time we finished, it was almost dark and there was about half-a-foot of snow on the ground with no signs of melting anytime soon.  We rushed to the car, hoping to get out of the mountainous city before it was too late (we had intended to get home that night- silly us), but quickly discovered that all major routes out of the city were closed and the roads were a traffic nightmare.  Our solution?  We left the car parked at Al-Akhawayn University and walked back into town and managed to find an apartment to rent for the night.  It took a considerable amount of bargaining to get the price down and convince the owners to give us one apartment (in Morocco, 3 boys + 2 girls + 1 apartment= frowned upon).  But we eventually got it, and since the boys all decided to sleep in the living room together, Soukayna and I each got our own bedroom.  For dinner, Saad, Soukayna, and I braved the snow to buy sandwiches and snacks from a nearby hanout/ market while Said and Nabil went to move the car to a closer location.  We spent the rest of the night curled up on the sofas, eating our food and watching “Fast 5” while our socks and jackets dried in front of the not-so-safe propane heater.

The next morning we got a quick breakfast from a hanout and attempted to drive home.  The roads were STILL closed, and so we had to wait at one of the gates out of the city for a large plow truck to come and lead the way.  But we finally escaped, and after maybe an hour of extremely slow driving we were out of the mountains and on clear and sunny highway.  I returned home tired, desperately in need of a change of clothes, and satisfied with my first trip to Ifrane.  It definitely didn’t go as expected but it was a lot of fun, and it was great to see snow again (if for no other reason than to reinforce my appreciation of mild Rabat winters) and make some new friends.

Insha’Allah I will return some day, and insha’Allah I will have many more adventures in my remaining months here.  

 

Ringing in the New Year

The candle-holder parade.

Moroccan men dressed in their best.

Couscous tfaya!!

Soukayna, Hamza, and me at the party.

Happy New Year!  Sometimes it’s still hard to believe that I am living in Morocco.  I feel like I just got here and it is still some sort of dream, but then I remember how many months it’s been and I am shocked by how time flies.  My New Years Eve was pretty uneventful; some last minute plans fell through, so Zoe and I ended up staying home and watching a movie.

However, the following weekend was better than any NYE party I’ve ever been to.  Sunday was the Prophet’s Birthday, and a friend of mine invited me to a party in the neighboring city of Sale.  I had heard rumors of some sort of candle festival/ ceremony in Sale, so I was very excited for what was to come.  The party was at a girl’s house in the medina of Sale, and it was much different than anything I had seen thus far.  Her house was like a huge riad (with a giant courtyard in the middle), and several floors of rooms surrounding it.  It was shared by multiple families, and I believe most of them were her cousins and other relatives.  Either way, the house was spectacularly ornate, and filled with people.  Us teenagers all went to one salon to eat a delicious chicken and rice dish together.  Afterwards, we went down the street to the girl’s cousin’s house, which was more of a series of large apartments with open hallways centered around a much bigger courtyard with a large tree in the middle.  We all went up to the balcony and watched a procession of djellaba-clad men walk through with drums and large, colorful structures (look at the pictures and video- they do a much better job of explaining than I ever could).  These structures held candles and represented, respectively, the Prophet, the King (of Morocco), the kingdom, and other sacred figures.  After marching around and out of the courtyard, they walked to a nearby mosque to hang these colorful candle-holders in place of the ones from the year before.  It was beautiful, and amazing to see.  After the parade, everyone gathered down below for plates and plates of incredible couscous under strings of light bulbs (reminiscent of Christmas lights).  That was followed by hours of playing drums, singing traditional Moroccan songs, and dancing with all of the teenagers.  It was an amazing experience, and a great way to start 2015.

Adventure #2: Fez

The NSLI-Y crew at Cafe Clock!

The whole YES/ NSLI-Y group at the metalworking workshop with our finished products.

One of the medina doors.

View from a riad roof.

Me at one of the oldest universities in Morocco.

A few days after Christmas, the NSLI-Y and YES Abroad groups got to take our first trip together… to FEZ.  It is a land-locked city about 3 hours by car due east from Rabat.  It is very well known for it’s age and size: it has the country’s oldest school and largest old medina.  It is a breathtaking city set in between mountain ranges, filled with the best of traditional Morocco.  We only got to spend two days there, and I definitely hope to go back some day. We drove there via Majestic Tours bus Monday morning, and arrived for lunch.  After checking into our grand hotel, we set out to lunch at Cafe Clock, a well-known spot in the medina.  It is a cross-cultural cafe, and takes care to recreate traditional Moroccan flavors with a modern flair.  The food was delicious, and the vibe very cool.  I loved it!

Afterwards we met with a man named Hamza, who arranged to bring us on a behind-the-scenes tour of metalworking in Fez.  His father is a master artisan, so he brought us into his father’s workshop for a firsthand look.  We learned about the tools and materials used to make ornate tea trays and display dishes of all kinds.  At the end of the presentation, we even got to make our own!  It is much harder than it looks, let me tell you. The day ended with a very special trip to Moulay Yacoub, a natural sulfur hot spring just outside of Fez.  People come from all over the country to go to the hammam there, and the boiling green water is said to cure all skin ailments from leprosy to acne to dryness.  Needless to say we were all very excited to be making such a journey.  As you descend to the public bathhouses at the bottom of the hill, the stairs are surrounded by stores selling every sort of hammam essential imaginable; my teacher described it as the Mecca of Hammam.  So we all bought everything we were missing (and much more), and seperated into two groups: the ones taking their bath at the public hammam, and those taking theirs in the private ones.  I chose the private one, which turned out to be a bath tub in a simple room with a hot and cold water faucet.  The water itself felt very good and the bath was very relaxing, although in all honesty I think I prefer my usual hammam back home.  After we all recovered from the baths and wrapped ourselves sufficiently in djellabas and scarves, we headed out to a nearby restaurant for pizza and kebabs (brochettes).  We turned into the hotel shortly after, and most of us fell right asleep.

The second day in Fez was my favorite!  After breakfast in the hotel, we all split up for a free morning of exploration and so I went with Meghan and Zoe (my roommate) from the NSLI-Y group and Dana from the YES Abroad group.  We wandered around the medina, bought a ridiculous amount of sweaters from a second-hand souk we stumbled upon, finished our morning with tea and debate on the roof of a riad-turned-hotel/ restaurant that had a terrific panoramic view of the city.  We spent a few hours up there talking about everything from politics to relationships, to our experiences in Morocco so far.  It was the perfect end to an amazing (albeit too short) trip.  We all met up at the bus around 2 pm and made our way back to Rabat.

I absolutely love Fez, and I intend to return.  I love the medina itself- it is much bigger and older than the Rabat medina, and I find it a lot more interesting to wander through.  Riads are also a great part of medina in Fez- old mansions scattered throughout the medina characterized by large courtyards and exquisite mosaics (zellij).  The city also fulfills more of the Moroccan stereotypes like having donkeys walk through the tight streets alongside motorcycles, and watching djellaba and slipper-clad women walk with their high-heeled, Zara-dressed daughters.  I love the contrast between traditional and modern that can be seen everywhere in Morocco, but especially in Fez.

Merry Christmas to All!

Christmas Tree, oh Christmas Tree…

Monica opening her presents 🙂

Christmas Breakfast

PRESENTS

In case you haven’t heard it enough already, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!  This is a few days after, but it’s never too late for a little holiday cheer.  My Christmas in Morocco this year was surprisingly festive- I’d even venture to say it was one of my favorites so far!  I officially kicked off the holiday season last Saturday, December 20th, with a new Spotify Christmas playlist and a Christmas tree in our living room.  Our host family has a small tree from last year’s Christmas with exchange students, so we set it up and decked it out in ornaments, sparkling wreaths, and Styrofoam snow.  We did a very nice job if I do say so myself.  That night we also watched Frozen (yes, it was my first time) to instill a snowy, winter-y frame of mind.  Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning were spent in a mad frenzy of Christmas shopping everywhere from the Mega Mall and Marjane (Morocco’s equivalent of Walmart, except better) to the old medina.

Christmas Eve was a crazy day: in the morning I finished my shopping at Marjane with Zoe; in the afternoon I went to Fondation Orient-Occident and found myself dancing with a large group of adorable kids at their holiday party which was an incredibly happy experience; and in the evening, I went to a rather confusing half Spanish- half English Catholic mass with Zoe, Sophia (one of the YES Abroad girls), and Sophia’s host sister Kaoutar.  Exhausted but satisfied with my day, we got home around 9:30 pm and the other three NSLI-Y girls arrived shortly after.  We had a pasta dinner with delicious yogurt-fruit cups for dessert, and we spent the night talking, playing cards, and watching movies (including Frozen of course).  I was also able to add the final touch to our tree: Christmas lights purchased at Marjane.

We all accidentally fell asleep on the couch in the living room, and woke up Christmas morning around 8 am.  As is American tradition, we spent the morning eating breakfast (croissants, hot chocolate, tea, eggs, and more bread) and opening presents.  We all exchanged a wide variety of heart-felt gifts wrapped in snowman wrapping-paper and craftily decorated newspaper alike.  We then finished the morning by watching “100 Foot Journey” together (AMAZING MOVIE) before the other girls went home.  It was an amazing Christmas, and I really couldn’t have asked for any better friends to spend it with.  Although my host parents had work as usual on Christmas day, we opened presents with them that night, and luckily they liked theirs!  I love my host family very much as well, and it was especially nice that they were able to celebrate Christmas with us.

Zoe and I got dressed, cleaned up the aftermath of gift-giving in our room and the living room, and I went to school to video chat my family and wish them all a Merry Christmas!  I even got to watch my sister open some of her presents via Skype, and my mom read a Christmas card she wrote for me.  It was also so nice to Skype my grandparents for the first time since I’ve arrived in Morocco.  Later that afternoon Zoe met me at school and we taxi-ed to the Mega Mall to meet the other NSLI-Y girls plus Dana, a lovely YES Abroad girl.  We walked around, looked at all of the beautiful stores, and rounded off our Christmas afternoon with Domino’s pizza (yes, it was incredible and just like home).  Mega Mall reminds me very much of America, and it is the perfect place to go when feeling a little homesick.  They even have a store called “Taste of America,” which sells American products ranging from Strawberry Pop-Tarts (aka Heaven in a box), Lucky Charms, candy canes, Arizona iced tea, salsa, to Nerds.  Needless to say I made more than a few overpriced purchases there.

I am so incredibly thankful for everything I have this Christmas season, both tangible and not.  I have an awesome support system here, my friends and family are so great, and I have everything I need.  School is going well, the program activities we do are a lot of fun, and I am having a great time exploring my new city and delving deeper and deeper into Moroccan life.  There are definitely hard days and frequent setbacks or disappointments, but those pale in comparison to the positive experiences I’ve had so far.

كيعجبني المغرب بزاف و مستقبل ديالي هنا غيكون زوين بزاف.  احب المغرب كثيراً و اتمنى انّ مستقبلي سيكون مُمتاز جداً

“I love Morocco so much and I am looking forward to what’s to come.” (in Darija first, and then MSA)

 

Every Ending is a New Beginning

Trying on takshitas! AKA Moroccan wedding dresses.

Looking like royalty.

I have officially been here for two and a half months.  Where has the time gone?  I think to myself that I am still settling in, and that everything is still new.  Yet I am now realizing that I am adjusted and quite comfortable here.  I know which bus to take (sometimes), I know where to get my morning coffee, I know how to bargain, and I definitely know why the hammam is so wonderful.

Here is an anecdote that may seem trivial, but that I feel signifies my progress thusfar in a meaningful way:

I had stopped by Galapagos Cafe in Agdal for its coffee and free Wi-Fi.  It was after dark, so I hailed a taxi as usual for the trip home.  I was the second passenger in the car, the other one being a young West African woman.  She was talking in fast French on her phone, and the taxi driver pulled over after about a block to drop her off.  She was anxiously trying to explain to him that this wasn’t the right place, but she only spoke French, he only spoke Darija (Moroccan Arabic), and her urgency made him agitated.  She was saying that she needed to go back the other way a few blocks to the mosque.  She tapped me and asked me if I spoke French.  I said yes.  So she explained her situation to me, where she needed to go and how she had only been here two months and didn’t know her way around yet.  In broken but understandable Darija, I explained to the taxi driver.  We drove back, waited for several minutes for her friend to come out and give her money for the taxi ride, and I managed to keep the taxi driver calm (he was angry about having to wait and not understanding why).  She finally paid him, thanked me, and we drove away.

It is funny that I played the role of the translator and she the role of the confused newcomer, despite us having lived in Rabat about the same amount of time.  I am very proud that I was able to translate between the two languages I’m learning in order to solve a problem.  In a way, that was my first time acting as a multi-lingual mediator.  I am somewhat glorifying a brief and confusing taxi-ride experience, but it is the little encounters like that which motivate me to keep practicing and working hard.

That taxi ride also occured at a very appropriate time.  It came just after the ending of many of the introductory aspects of the NSLI-Y program.  It marked the end of the beginning- the start of the rest of my year in Morocco.  Tuesday we had our last FGLL with our Darija teacher Amina, Thursday was Meghan’s Birthday and the end of her 18th year (more important for her than me, but still), Saturday was the last AMIDEAST English class of the 10-week session that I assisted with, and today was our final exam for Darija class.

Our last FGLL was one of my favorites: we went to a wedding shop and played dress-up with takshitas (traditional Moroccan wedding dresses), which included professional preparation by the women at the store.  It was so much fun to learn more about Moroccan wedding ceremonies, and of course exciting to feel like a princess for a few hours.  We took many pictures, and those can be seen above.  Sadly Monica did not come with us, so it was only four out of the fantastic five.  Thursday was Meghan’s 19th birthday (she’s the oldest of us all).  Our classroom at school was filled with balloons, cards, and cake throughout the course of the day, and we went to a Syrian restaurant that night for dinner.  Although probably not like her typical birthday festivities, it was a lot of fun and we did our best!  Friday night we went out to a nice French restaurant called L’Avant Gout for a second birthday dinner with two of the YES Abroad girls.  Saturday was exam day for the kids in the English Class I help teach with Laurel.  They all passed the exam, l’hamdulilah, and we watched Frozen after the test as a reward.  I truly enjoyed helping with the class, and I plan on continuing for the next session.  Finally, today, I had my Darija final exam. It was oral of course, because Darija is a primarily spoken language, and it was a one-on-one conversation with my teacher Amina.  It was definitely nerve-wracking, but I think I did alright.  That is it for formal Darija lessons, and so from here on out I only study Modern Standard Arabic.  It is up to me now to continue improving my Darija on the streets and with my host family.

As the title of this post states, several things have ended.  However, many more are only beginning.  The orientation phase is over, and now I am ready to take control of my exchange experience and make it as personally fulfilling as possible.

When one door closes, another opens,

Or so they say to me.

It is my turn now, to welcome what comes,

and to embrace each new opportunity.  

Shokran comme toujours for reading, and come back next week for a very Merry Christmas post!

Adventure #1: Tetouan and Chefchaouen

Last weekend was AMAZING.  For our first program trip out of Rabat, we went to the northern cities of Tetouan and Chefchaouen.  It was only three days long, but it was definitely a much needed break from daily life in Rabat.

THURSDAY: Us 5 NSLI-Y girls and our trip leader (our MSA teacher Fedoua) left from AMIDEAST early in the morning for Tetouan via Majestic Tours bus (yes, the travel agency I intern for).  It took around 5 hours, and we arrived just in time for a delicious lunch at a (Spain) Spanish restaurant.  We checked in at the Riad Blanco and settled into our luxurious rooms, then went out to explore the city for the rest of the afternoon.  Tetouan definitely looks more European than Rabat does (well, except for the Centre Ville/ downtown area), and it is very hilly.  One of my favorite parts of the city is that it is nestled into a mountainside, and so from most streets you look down and see these gigantic, jagged mountains in the distance.  It makes it seem unreal.  The streets are mostly stone, and the buildings are generally very old.  It feels a little smaller than Rabat, and definitely more relaxed.  That night for dinner, we went to an unassuming Italian restaurant (because nothing else was open), and they had the BEST pizza ever.  Almost better then American pizza- almost.  It was absolutely incredible, and I intend to go back just for that pizza.

FRIDAY: We woke up early again for a simple breakfast at the hotel, and then set out for a bit of picture-taking in and around the hotel before leaving for our next destination: Chefchaouen.  In that very short time, I fell in love with Tetouan, and I definitely intend to go back some day.  Insha’ Allah, maybe I’ll even be able to study abroad there in college!  I hear it’s even better in the summer, and there are nearby beaches on the Mediterranean Sea that people say are amazing.

We got to Chefchaouen in the early afternoon and spent some time settling into our second hotel: another large riad.  Just FYI, a riad is a large Moroccan mansion, characterized by a large multi-story courtyard in the center.  They are usually in the middle of an old medina, and although they all used to be owned by the Moroccan elite, most have now been converted into hotels.  They are usually very old, always beautiful, and they make great places to stay!  Anyways, afterwards, we wandered around the old medina and had some lunch at a nearby cafe.  Then in the evening we hiked up to the Spanish mosque, which sits on top of a small mountain and overlooks the entirety of the city.  It is gorgeous, and where we took many of our pictures.  We had dinner at a beautiful restaurant next to our hotel, and had the most delicious food called pastilla.

I have mixed feelings about Chefchaouen.  In the haze of summer-fueled excitement, I fell in love with the small mountain city when I first visited in the summer of 2013.  It is famous for its blue houses and blue walls all throughout the city, and it really is beautiful.  But what I realized this time is how TOURISTY it is.  It reminds me of a Moroccan-style Disney World: everything (at least in the central part of the city) is over-the-top, extremely colorful, and manufactured for tourists.  Everyone who lives and works in the central area specialize in tourism.  Vendors are aggressive, cafes are sub-par and very overpriced, and no one will practice Arabic with European-looking girls.  The pictures are great and I’m glad we stopped by, but I don’t plan to return.  I found Tetouan to be much more authentic and enjoyable to spend time in.

SATURDAY: We spent the morning taking more pictures and souvenir-shopping before making our way back to Rabat.  The bus ride home was long and it rained for the later half, but it was still nice.  We stumbled in the door of our house tired and cold around 7 pm, but very satisfied with our short vacation.

* More pictures can be seen on Facebook 🙂 *

Happy Two Month Anniversary!!

This week was our first vacation of the year, and it also marked the two-month anniversary of our arrival in Morocco.  What a week!  I’ll break it into two parts: my break spent in Rabat, and our very exciting trip up north.

Monday I hung out with Dana, from the YES Abroad group.  We had a lot of fun!  She lives in Agdal, so she gave me the tour of her favorite places: a small chwarma restaurant, a large indoor produce market, a cool little bookstore, and a papeterie (office supply store).  After that, I had dinner with my family at home and then hung out with a Moroccan friend for a while.  Tuesday, our Moroccan friend Jihane brought us NSLI-Y girls to college with her so we could sit in on a class and meet her friends.  Although the class was disappointing (the class was too big and the professor spoke too quietly), it was really cool meeting her friends.  They were all very nice, and they didn’t speak English and so we got to practice our Arabic (and my French).

Wednesday was tough.  Tuesday night I got bad news from home: my lifelong neighbor Baldwin passed away the Friday before.  Throughout my entire childhood, he used to come over at least once a week to talk about the Yankees with my dad.  We would come home so many afternoons to Yankees news stuck in the door, highlighted and annotated by Baldwin.  He would bring my sister Christina and me little treats when we were little, and he was always interested in what we were doing from playing soccer to applying to boarding schools to graduating high school.  He was proud of us, and I am really going to miss him.  He was a huge part of my childhood, and it hurts to lose him.  His passing also made me really homesick, and it hit me hard that I couldn’t be home during it.

♦       ♦       ♦       ♦       ♦       ♦       ♦       ♦       ♦       ♦       ♦       ♦       ♦       ♦       ♦       ♦       ♦       ♦       ♦       ♦       ♦       ♦

Being an exchange student is an intense emotional roller coaster.  Whereas at home I only react dramatically to things like fights with my sister or college acceptances, everything is an emotional experience in Morocco.  I am euphoric when I successfully take the bus by myself, and devastated when I miss an opportunity due to language barriers.  The “little things” in life dictate my state of mind here, and my daily routine both exhausts and exhilarates me.  As the Red Hot Chili Peppers said it, every day it feels like the more I see, the less I know.  Every answer reveals a thousand more questions.  In Arabic class and in the outside world, it is easy for me to feel like I’m not making the progress I hoped to and get frustrated.  But that’s when I have to take a moment to reflect.  I HAVE learned a lot, and I know so much more than I did stepping off the plane on October 9.  It may seem sluggish, but my advances will be astonishing by the end of this year.

I think the key to having more ups than downs is keeping a “learning frame of mind.”  Back home I horseback ride with an inspiring woman named Lisa.  She is an amazing trainer and a role model.  She stresses the importance of respecting the horse, and protecting the horse’s physical, emotional, and mental well-being at all times.  During training, one of the most important things is keeping your horse in a “learning frame of mind.”  When you are not making progress, it is easy for both the horse and the rider to get frustrated and angry.  But when when negative emotion takes over, your minds both close and you are both unable to learn from your mistakes.  This is when you have to stop, regroup, and reevaluate your state of mind.  You can only grow and improve when you are open to it, and so you must always be checking your frustration and keeping your mindset relaxed and positive.  Considering this whole year is one big wild ride (excuse the pun), I must always remind myself to keep myself open to criticism, hard lessons, and difficult experiences.  You can never master the jump if you are too scared of falling to try.

Is It December Already?

Monday: I am still getting used to our adjusted Monday schedule: MSA class from 2- 5 pm, and Moroccan Culture and Society (MC&S) class every other Monday from 6:30- 8 pm.  This week we had MC&S, and we spent the whole class discussing CAPSTONES.  At the end of this year, both the YES Abroad and NSLI-Y programs are expected to complete capstone projects on some aspect of Moroccan society.  I also believe that NSLI-Y’s is different in that we are expected to complete ours in Arabic.  Scary, right?

Professor Mohammed went to each of us one by one, asking what our prospective topic is and giving us his thoughts on it.  It is incredible how much he knows!  We all have very different subjects, and yet he could give a full-length lecture (or several) one every single one.  As of now, I intend to focus on some aspect of migration in Morocco.  There is so much movement in and out of this country, and I am fascinated to look at who is immigrating and emmigrating and why.

Tuesday: We were especially lucky to have not one, but TWO, Facilitated Group Language Learning (FGLL) activities in a row.  This week the focus was traditional medicine and Moroccan herbs.  We visited several shops in the souk to try varieties of mint (there are SO many, who knew?), to learn about traditional healing, and to see many of the essential spices in Moroccan daily life.  It was quite interesting!

In other news, Tuesday was also the magical day that Fatuma and I picked up our djellabas from the tailor in Sale.  OMG.

Wednesday: I took the bus to Fondation Orient-Occident (FOO) as usual.  Sarah told me about this amazing coffee place on the same street as the bus stop, where the coffee is only 4 dirhams!!!  So I arrived with a deliciously warm cup of coffee as well.  I was given the task of creating excel spreadsheet versions of receipts of the many migrants who receive financial help from FOO.  Most of the work I’ve done there is simple office work, but I don’t mind it at all, and I love being there.  Eventually, I see myself ending my internship with Majestic Tours to be at FOO more often.  Did I ever mention that FOO receives its funding from the UNHCR?  In a way that sort of makes me a UN volunteer.  I’m one step closer to my dream career!  Shweeya b shweeya (little by little).

To make the day even better, I wore my new djellaba all day.  Cultural note: when a person buys new clothes, takes a shower, goes to the hammam, has a good meal, etc. it is polite to say “bis-ha” as a way of acknowledging
their improved health.  The proper response is “lya-tiks-ha.”  So with that, I got dozens of “bis-ha”s that day, even from perfect strangers!  It was wonderful.

Thursday: Our lovely language partners (and friends) Jihane and Imane brought us to Campus Sweet for tutoring that day- a popular cafe near the college in Medina Al Ifrane.  It was lots of fun, and now I have a new place to study.

Friday: I had my internship at Majestic Tours in the afternoon.  It was better than usual because I was given an imaginary client request to handle, soI looked up the hotels and calculated the total price.  PRO TIP: If you are ever traveling to Morocco, use a travel agency (*cough* *cough* Majestic Tours).  The preferred pricing hotels give the agencies is so discounted that it is still much cheaper even with the commission they add.

Later I went out to dinner with a new friend that I met at the YES Thanksgiving fundraiser.  We ate at a French restaurant called “L’Avant Gout,” and it was delicious.  It is nice to be making friends outside of the NSLI-Y/ YES Abroad bunch, and I look forward to hanging out with more new ones in the future!

Saturday: I helped with Laurel’s English class at AMIDEAST as usual in the morning, and in the evening Zoe and I (and the other three) all went to a surprise birthday party thrown by a Moroccan-American friend of ours named Soukaina.  It was for her cousin Nabil’s birthday, and it was held at her grandmother’s house in Kasbah D’Oudayas.  The house was beautiful and the party was very well planned, and there were a lot of kids I knew there from the YES Thanksgiving party.  So yay for friends!  We didn’t stay too long, but we enjoyed the delicious desserts and seeing familiar faces.  It was definitely a well-spent Saturday night.