Until next time...Inshallah!

I will miss......

- The breezy evenings, when the sun has set and the people are out and about, and the weather is perfect
- Orange juice! Freshly squeezed, and only 4dh at the side of the street!
- 7dh scoop icecreams
- 9dh sandwiches at Omar's
- Cafe Blueberry, out by the pier, cheesecake, tiramisu, icecream sundaes, pasta. Yum
- The ever so trusty La Mamma, where I ate a plate of Spaghetti Bolognaise, every week for nine weeks
- The staff at the CCCL - Nawal, Bouchra, Farah, Fadoua, Badrdine...and so many more
- The desert. Endless dunes, starry skies, and camel rides
- Shokran, salaam wa allais comme, inshallah, labass, hamdelilah...and all the other Arabic phrases I have learnt!
- The Medina. Despite the claustrophobic feeling when you venture onto Souika at 7 or 8pm, I have come to love the distinct smells and the feel of the Rabat Medina
- Label Vie - the market where I bought all my water!
- Sidi Ali, best water ever
- The kind street vendor that smiles and waves every day as I walk past. I gave him a pudding today!
- Mint tea, tajines, brochettes
- The tram - though they never did implement "Phase 2" of the project, each ride was still a well-spent 7dh
- Friends. Americans, Italians, Canadians, Belgium-ers, Russians

There are many more that I just can't think of right now. I'm sad to leave, but I'm also excited to go home. I do hope to come back one day.

Until next time, Morocco. Time to go home :)

The Sights, Sounds, and Smells of Morocco

Souika. Bustling with people, pushing and pulling, some trying to make their way home, others trying to shop. The sound of men, yelling at the top of their lungs, "Solde, solde!", trying to attract you to the heap of clothes and shoes lying on the table. The smell of sweet corn, roasting. The smell of popcorn, popping in a black cauldron. The smell of snail soup (still haven't dared to try it!). The smell of freshly squeezed orange juice by the side of the street. 4dh.
The distinct smell of leather as you approach Rue des Consuls. The smell of scented aromas and oils. The smell of black soap, used in the hammams. The smell of mint tea, brewing at tea time.
The sound of the waves as you leave Rue des Consuls and approach the beach. The sound of the whistle as the tram guy blows it frantically, telling you to get off the tram tracks because the tram is coming (despite the fact that the tram is moving at 3mph!).
The smell of an empty Medina, when the shop-keepers have left and you realize how wide the street actually is. The smell of over-flowing trash, overflowing into the street.
The sound of the 4:30am call to prayer. The sound of the 5am parade that went by this morning (!!). The sound of the rooster at 6am, going off every single minute (I counted). The sound of honking.
The traffic. The cars coming at you as if he will never stop. The sound of screeching tires. The sight of the bus-stop, when masses are waiting for the bus. The sight of teenagers riding on roof-tops of buses, because the bus is full. The sight of masses gathering in front of the parliament building, carrying signs and shouting chants of protest. The sound of Moroccans, singing together as they wave the Moroccan flag.
The sound of silence. Which is rare, and precious!

Three weeks from today, I will be on a plane, heading home to the US! I am two-thirds of the way done! After six weeks here in Morocco, I am thankful for the experience I have had so far. I am thankful for all my French teachers over these years, because I would've never been able to make it here without the French! I'm thankful for the cockroaches, the tummy bugs, the man who scammed me for money, the lady who won't let me return my broken internet key, the many Jawal cards I used up trying to figure out how the minutes here work, the couch that is now my bed, the impossible task of crossing the street, the cold showers, the spiders in my shower, and all the things in between! I'm thankful because they are all learning experiences that have helped me appreciate the comfort of being at home! Though I am much more comfortable here now than I was six weeks ago, I still have lots to learn and experience. But for now, I am thankful.

And so, the countdown for home begins. 21 days :)

P.s. Souvenir shopping has begun! Taking any present requests now!

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.

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!

Day 2!

Today we had some ups and downs as we explored Rabat! But we are quickly getting the hang of being here and the kind of culture the Moroccans live in. Here is a summary of our day.

Downs:
- Speed walked our way into the Medina to try to find the CCCL, but we got lost! Road signs are invisible here.
- We got scammed by a fake tour guide when we visited Kasbah des Oudaya :( He just kept following us, and explaining things to us even when we said no! At the end, he asked us for lots of money...But Papa Wang came to the rescue and scared him off. We ended up just giving him a little bit of money and he left angrily and we went in the other direction
- There are lots of woman in the street who tried to give me henna and there was a very large needle involved...I was scared.
- Crossing the street is no easy task. Drivers think pedestrians are invisible as well and simply keep driving. We almost died many times today. Also, the light for the drivers and the light for pedestrians change at exactly the same time. So the moment the pedestrian sign changes red, is also the exact moment the drivers light turns green. More chances for death there.
- We have been living an hour behind everyone else these past 24 hours. Apparently, there is a five hour time difference with the US, not 4 hours as we had thought, and appropriately set our watches to. We only found out because at one point this evening, our watches told us it was 5pm, while a local clock said it was 6pm!! Confused.

Ups:
- Tajine (photo credits: google) is very yummy! Perhaps I won't have too much trouble with food here as I thought i would! Still haven't experienced couscous Friday though...
- Tramway system. Super awesome! It's so pretty-looking, and the people are so nice. It is still in its early stages because the system started only less than a month ago! So there are lots of people working as service people, and they hand out brochures and maps. The tramway system makes my dad and I very happy.
- The Hassan II tower and the Mausoleum is very beautiful. Architecture here is generally very intricate and amazing. We got up nice and close and took lots of photos!
- La Gare de Rabit-Ville. The train station - very clean and modern. The garden is also very pretty! We will be taking the train tomorrow.

So that was today! Tomorrow, we are taking a day trip to Casablanca, and Wednesday I will begin training and orientation at the CCCL! Hopefully I'll continue to have enough internet to keep posting!

The Mausoleum 

Kasbah des Oudaya

Le Centre-ville de Rabat!

The fabulous tramway. Pretty? 

My new buddy in front of the Mausoleum

Mausoleum