The little blue and white city on a hill

This past weekend, I went to the beautiful town of Chefchaouen and the coastal city Tangier! It was very very beautiful!
On Saturday, we left Rabat at around 8:30am, and drove to Chefchaouen, arriving around 1:30pm. After checking into our hotels (7 rooms total, we booked out the entire hotel) and unloading our bags, we went into the old Medina and ate lunch at the Casa Aladdin. It was a three-course meal that took 3 hours to eat! But it was yummy, and the waiters wore Aladdin pants and pointy-toed shoes. For my appetizer I had a French omelette, my entree was beef kebabs, and my dessert was crepes with chocolate and almonds. Delicious! After our 3-hour meal, we went on a guided tour with the cutest little Moroccan man ever. He would be like "Hello! Hello! come on! Yalla!" and when we were walking down a slope, he says "Don't ski without the snow! No skiing!" He was super cute. After that, we trekked up a hilltop and found ourselves on the top of a hill, looking down on the beautiful blue and white town. Here are some pictures!

On top of the hill: Chefchaouen

Tour guide explaining that these are the paints that they use for painting the houses!

A house in Chefchaouen 

On Sunday, we drove over to Tangier, on the coast of Rabat. There was a beautiful beach, where the water was very turquoise-y! We had lunch by the beach, then went on a guided tour of the Medina there.

My roommate, Maggie, and I

The tour guide took us to a "millionaire's house"

Moroccan shoes - in Morocco, they are called "Belgha". I do plan on buying a pair to wear in the States!

While leaving Tangier, we stopped by Les Grottes d'Hercules - Hercules' Cave. This Africa-shaped hole was very cool! There were little kiddies jumping off the edges here.

So it was a great weekend!
Upcoming:
- This weekend: Fes, Meknes, and Volubilis!
- Next weekend: Merzouga - the DESERT. Camel rides, turbans, sunrises on the dunes. All that good stuff.

Sending love from Morocco!

Late nights

Hello!

All has been going well this week! I have a new roommate now, Maggie, who is Italian and is here studying Arabic. Though sadly, she's only here for 3 weeks :( Anyway, Maggie is studying at the Qalam Center, so she has a bunch of classmates who also live in the Medina. We've been hanging out these past few nights, going to the cafe, the beach, and the carnival from last week. We mostly hang out with these two Russian guys, Arthur and Sergei, and there are sometimes two older adults who also join us. Here are some pretty pictures from these past few days!

Moroccan sunset by the beach 

I tried an orange juice by the side of the road the other day and it was pretty good! Here's my buddy Abdenol, who's squeezing my fresh orange juice. Only 4dh! (about 50cents)

This is Bab el Had, one of the main gates entering into the Medina. At night, there are lots and lots of people around here just hanging out, playing around

Late night Medina! This guy is selling fruit, but there are also other stands selling snail soup, corn-corn on the cob, and popcorn

So it's been a couple of late nights, going out with Arthur and Sergei, but then they always walk us back to our house when they drop us off. This weekend, I am joining them and some other people in their Arabic class on a northern excursion!! We are going to Tangier and Chefchaoun, which are two little towns up north. Supposedly, you can see Spain from the coast of Tangier! I will definitely take lots of pictures this weekend, but for now, here are some great photos of Chefchaoun and Tangier, courtesy of google. We will be leaving Saturday morning, and coming back Sunday night. I'll definitely write about the weekend when I return!

! وداعا 

Fun-Filled Moroccan Weekend

This weekend was fun! On Friday, I hung out with Beka, Teneshia and Melanie, from the BU group. After work/class, we went over to the Hassan Tower, which I went to with my dad back when he was still here. It was a nice breezy evening, and we had lots of fun. Then we walked along the beach, and we come across this lovely mini theme park!

So we decide to go on 2 rollercoasters! We went on the "Supermontana Rusa", which turned out to be much scarier than expected. Also, being in Morocco, there was no electrical switch to work the carts - the guy manually pushed us onto the slope! We went downhill for a bit, then there was one long track upwards that was powered, but then from there on, it was, well, just gravity. Becca took an awesome video of our faces throughout the entire ride, and once she posts it, I'll link you guys there! For now, Melanie took some pictures of us on the ride.

We also went on a second, more tamer ride. It was one of those rides, where it just goes in circles and lifts you high off the ground. Here is a picture of Becca and I on the ride!

Saturday: Rebecca and I went to Sable d'Or with Rebecca's Wellesley friend who was visiting for the weekend, Cat. It was a beach about 20 minutes away, so we took a Grand Taxi. But we were badly ripped off, it turns out :( For three people, the cab driver charged us 200 dh one way. And when we came back, we were also charged 200 dh. But talking to the people at the CCCL today, they told me we could've just taken the bus for 4 dh each one way!! Booo. It's okay - a learning experience!

Sunday: I went to church! My friends Ryan and Mandy found an english-speaker church in the Rabat! It's called the Rabat International Church  However, Moroccan directions are always very vague. We were told to "Stop between the pharmacy and the school". The map they gave was also "Not drawn to scale". Suffice to say, we got very very lost. Little did we know that in Morocco, there are pharmacies on just about every block. At first, we were super excited to see a pharmacy, but turning around, we saw three other pharmacies on the same block. "Schools" are also very hard to distinguish, so we had quite the difficult time. Finally, this very very kind man understood my French and led us all the way to the church - a good 10 minute walk from where we had been searching! We had arrived at Chateau d'Eau in Takkadoum around 8:30am, but we didn't find the church until 9:30am! But it was so nice to be with English-speaking people again. There were Caucasians, African Americans, and even Asians! Koreans I think!
Indeed a fun-filled weekend.

The Return of the Cockroach, Jellaba, and Mint Tea

Yes, that is correct. The cockroach came back! If you remember, I found a cockroach in my clothes last week while about to take a shower. Yesterday, while about to get into the shower, I see Mr. Cockroach, lying inside the bathtub, wounded. I did feel bad for him, but I was also screaming on the inside. So I may have kindly, sadly, drowned it....but then I was just too miserable and freaked out to do anything else, so I called Mama Hyatt and she laughed as she grabbed a tissue and just crumbled it up. Then I started to take my shower, but halfway through, I see baby cockroach in the bathtub!! No fun. I left that one alone though, and he scurried away. It was not a pleasant experience. Sad and confused.


In happier news, the other day, my family had me try on a jellaba! It is a Moroccan dress (usually there is a headpiece, but I didn't try that one on). This one they had me try on is for a Moroccan wedding. So if I were to ever have a Moroccan wedding, this is what I would wear!

Moroccan wedding dress

I'm looking a little pregnant here though, because the belt that goes around my waist was too big for me. Also, I recently learned that in Morocco, there is no such thing as boyfriends! It's either friends, fiancé, or husband. No boyfriends! (Sidestory: This makes sense now! The other day, a creepy guy was following me and asking for my number, and I just kept saying no, but he kept on insisting. After about 3 blocks of following, I tell him I have a boyfriend already, but he says it didn't matter to him, and that he just wanted us to be friends. No worries though! He finally left, and said "tu es une fille méchante!" ("You are a mean girl") Now I understand!)


Also a big Moroccan tradition is mint tea! Mint tea is delicious, and is usually drank daily during tea time. My family hasn't had tea time these past two weeks, but we do have it for breakfast every morning. They use fresh leaves from the garden to make the tea, and it is usually served on a silver platter, in little glasses. I will definitely be buying a set of teapot and cups to bring home to my family!

Typical Moroccan breakfast: bread, pancake-type things, cheese, mint tea, and more bread. 

Moroccan mint tea

Also, I now have an internet key! Which means I will have internet while I'm home, which means skype time with family and friends! My skype is awang4829, add me so we can talk!

Two Weeks

I have been in Morocco for about 2 weeks now! 7 more weeks to go! Work at the CCCL has been going pretty well. So far, I've done a lot of work in their databases, and also a lot of work with archives. I also did a little bit of translation, from English to French. Twas difficult...Next week I begin a lot of transcribing work with their lectures and such. The people I work with are all so sweet and kind. My immediate supervisors are Nawal, Bouchra, Youssef, and Rajae.

Yesterday, Saturday, my Wellesley friend Rebecca Turkington and I went out together! We first went to Chellah, an ancient ruins site. It was very beautiful, and it was cool to be stepping in such old ruins! What was interesting, is that a whole colony of storks have set up nest there! There are so many of them. Here are some pictures we took at Chellah:

Storks! 

View of Chellah from the outside

Inside the ancient ruins

More storks!

We had a lot of fun together, and we also went to visit the Royal Palace. Here are some pictures!

The mosque inside the palace grounds

The Royal Palace

And for our Wellesley friends: look what we found when we were walking outside the palace walls!!

The iconic Wellesley lamp-post!

Afterwards we took the tram (!!) to the next town over, Agdal. Agdal is much more modernized and developed than where I am in Rabat. There were lots of very expensive stores (Mango, Aldo, United Colors of Benetton), and the streets were well-kept. We ate lunch there and then just shopped around a bit. The stores were all very nice, but it made me want to run back into the Medina and buy super cheap $4 shoes!

Anyway, in other news, after two weeks, I have mastered the angry-walking face. When I walk, I put on my sunglasses (my invisibility cloak), I don't smile, and I angrily walk. When men approach me and say things, I just keep walking and since they can't see my eyes, they just give up! So that's been working well for me. Though the other day, a guy walks right up to my face and screams "WO AI NI!!" (I love you in Chinese). He was silly.
Also after two weeks, I have become a pro at crossing the streets. The trick is just to rudely barge your way onto the street, and wait until they let you cross. If it's a two-way street, you first make your way to the middle and just stand there as cars speed by behind and in front of you. Then you cross your way to the other side.

While things have been going well, and I'm learning all sorts of new things, I am still terribly homesick. I miss long hot showers, comfortable beds (not couches), and not being stared at on the streets!
7 more weeks!

How a Cockroach Got into my Clothes

I don't really know how it happened. I was just getting ready to shower. I have to first take out all the things that are inside the bath-tub (empty buckets, old bags, rag towels). I did that, and then I proceed to take off my capris pants. But then I feel something - I thought maybe it was a loose string dangling on my legs? I look down, and you can imagine my absolute horror when there, on my left thigh, was a cockroach the size of my fist. (okay - that's probably an exaggeration, it was more like two fingers. but it really did look ginormous when I first saw it). I go into silent panic mode as I scream silently and flap around wildly. The bathroom in our house is also very small so I looked like I was going mad within a constrained bubble. It finally fell off me and scampered away into a dark hole. I proceeded to take my shower within 2 minutes, and run back to my room. Also in that time,  I lost the two hair ties that was on my wrist!! Now I really really don't know how that happened. I refuse to believe that they both fell off while I was having my panic attack, because they're pretty tight around my wrist....
Anyway, I was very very scared and sad. I also sprayed bug spray all over me when I went to bed. Sadface.

In other news, I'm doing well! Work is going pretty well. It's not too demanding, but I'm kept busy. In the mornings, I work at the Thaqafat association on mostly archives and data entry. In the afternoons, I go over to the Laalou annex and work with a lovely lady called Bouchra, and we do more proof-reading, data entry, and other computer work.

I also got two Morocco guide-books from the library and have been reading those. This weekend, my sisters and I are going to go ride camels hopefully, and visit Chellah and The Royal Palace. After that, I think I'll have visited all of Rabat? Then maybe one weekend, I'll be able to visit Fez or Marrakech! After work today, I'm going to visit the souqs on Rue Souika on Rue des Consuls. Will post pictures soon!

Couscous Friday

Hi all!

I have now moved into my host family and have begun work! Culturally, it is very different here and I am still slowly adjusting to Moroccan life. I miss home very very much! These are 10 things that I have observed from living with my host family.

1. Moroccans eat a lot of bread. For breakfast, I had bread with orange juice. Then for lunch, it was couscous with bread and l'ben. At tea time, I had bread and mint tea. And for dinner, I had bread and soup. Lots of bread.

2. Moroccans greet each other (woman to woman, man to man) with kisses on the cheek. Then we say salaam wa allais comme!

3. Generally, people here take showers once a week, at the hammam (public bath). But my host family is kind enough to let me take showers every day! They are very kind.

4. Moroccans eat dinner very very late. In my family, there is tea time at 6pm, and then dinner at 9:30pm. Sometimes even later. After dinner, we just clean up, I shower, and we go to bed. We eat dinner outside, because it's much cooler in the evenings out there.

5. In our free time, my sisters and I go to the souqs (markets). Here, you need to bargain for everything. Some stores have "prix fixes", where the prices are fixed, but most of them are not, and you have to bargain your way to a good price. It's very crowded, and it's just like a giant marketplace.

6. At meals, we eat with our hands. When we have soup, we eat with a spoon. But everything else, we just grab with our hands. Also, it's the traditional way to use your right hand.

7. Here, they really like to wear bracelets. My sisters have already given me bracelets, necklaces, earrings, and other pieces of jewelry! They buy them at the souq.

8. A lot of people think I'm Japanese. As I walk down a street, there will be men who look at me, and sometimes they will speak French and ask me how I'm doing, and what my name is. But other times, men call out "konichiwa!" - the Japanese word for "Hello".

9. Oranges here are delicious! Very popular here is le jus d'orange (orange juice), and it is always freshly squeezed. It was very sweet, and very yummy!

10. Couscous Friday. Ah, yes, couscous Friday. Every Friday, Moroccans go home during lunch time and eat couscous with their family. Today, I went home as well from work to eat couscous with Mama Hyatt and my sisters Sara and Ghita. Mama Hyatt made a giant bowl of couscous, with carrots, vegetables, chicken, and cucumbers. Then everyone just takes a spoon, and starts eating, right out of the giant bowl. (I don't know if it's like that in every family, or just mine.) It was quite the experience. We also drink l'ben along with our couscous. L'Ben is a drink that is a mix between milk and yogurt I think..I'm not quite sure but I drank it. As most of you know, I am not a fan of couscous....but I ate my couscous today! Mostly because I could mix it with the chicken and eat that. But I will definitely have to get used to it, because it's Couscous Friday every Friday!

And here is a photo of my room:

In other news, I have met some Americans! Woohoo! There is a group from BU here, so I ate dinner with them last night and they're all super friendly. They are beginning their home stay today, so perhaps I will even be neighbors with some of them! Also, I met another girl also from Wellesley who is working in Morocco, so we are going to try to meet up as well!