Sorry to leave you all hanging! In case you were wondering, I made it back relatively painlessly from the drop-off. My group was the last group dropped off, and after an hour of driving, we figured out that there was no way they would expect us to retrace our steps that entire way and that it must be a loop. Luckily, we were right. We found the tram tracks and followed them until we were in a recognizable area. We spent the rest of the day in orientation sessions, learning more about proper manners for our homestay and such. We then had a welcoming dinner, complete with Pastilla (a Moroccan specialty). All of the staff members from the CCCL gave a brief welcoming speech and it all felt really great. I am so looking forward to getting to know all of them as they all seem like incredible people. They are definitely a unique group of intellectuals (especially the women) in the middle of an old city where many are illiterate or have very little schooling.
Today, we began our day with our first Moroccan lesson! I can now (maybe) tell you my name, how are you, where I'm from, that I'm a student, and numbers 1-5, although we learned 1-12. It is definitely going to be a challenge, but the class seems like it will be a lot of fun since all we can do is laugh at everyone's pronunciation. We then were given a lesson in staying healthy while here, although the lesson seemed to be entirely filled with the history of diseases and their transmission complete with graphic clip art images, with the only practical information being to simply use your common sense. We also had a session about bargaining and were then given 10 dhs (~$1.2) to go out and use our newly acquired skills. It really is like a game. After the exercise, a local religion scholar came to talk to us about the Prophet's birthday, a Muslim holiday happening this Sunday and Monday (everyone has the day off). To save myself time, I am going to refer you to this link if you're interested in learning more about the holiday. It was a very interesting talk and it brought up some issues that we will most definitely be discussing more in depth throughout the semester. Another reason I am not summarizing the talk is because I did not do my best job of focusing since right beforehand we were given our homestay assignments (which begin tomorrow!!). Here is the info I have been given so far:
mother: Mbarka
father: Brahim
daughters: Oumayma and Boutayna
languages: Moroccan Arabic and French
room: Shared
toilet: Turkish
This will definitely be a family situation to push me outside of my comfort zone!
After the lecture, we had dinner at the center and then came downstairs to find a group of Moroccan musicians with drums, dressed in traditional garb (stripped robes) who began to play music and invited us all to dance. It was a high moment (until I started to get nervous they would call me up to dance...).
A group of four of us (seeming like good friends!) headed back to the hotel then met up with one of my friends' friend from school's homestay brother from last semester (do you follow?). His name is Sad (he said Americans call him happy) and I am hoping to hang out with him much more. He gave us some of the inside scoop and it generally felt good to be making connections outside of the group of Americans. What we're here for. We went to a fresh juice place (again, yum!) and talked for a while. As we were walking back, we noticed a bunch of firetrucks along our route. We have already seen a few groups and marches of protestors of the unemployment situation. You also may have read this. As we continued walking, we saw a huge group of policemen and part of an army, and then people running in every direction. Sad directed us another round-about way, but we continued to be surrounded by all of the craziness. We were in the middle of all the action!
Tomorrow we have another moroccan arabic lesson, then go on a bus tour, and then meet and join our homestay families! I'm nervous but also looking forward to it.
Hope all is well back in the U.S!
Love,
Karin
Since I didn't have time to upload some pictures, I wanted you all to see what my yahoo mail page looks like:
Today, we began our day with our first Moroccan lesson! I can now (maybe) tell you my name, how are you, where I'm from, that I'm a student, and numbers 1-5, although we learned 1-12. It is definitely going to be a challenge, but the class seems like it will be a lot of fun since all we can do is laugh at everyone's pronunciation. We then were given a lesson in staying healthy while here, although the lesson seemed to be entirely filled with the history of diseases and their transmission complete with graphic clip art images, with the only practical information being to simply use your common sense. We also had a session about bargaining and were then given 10 dhs (~$1.2) to go out and use our newly acquired skills. It really is like a game. After the exercise, a local religion scholar came to talk to us about the Prophet's birthday, a Muslim holiday happening this Sunday and Monday (everyone has the day off). To save myself time, I am going to refer you to this link if you're interested in learning more about the holiday. It was a very interesting talk and it brought up some issues that we will most definitely be discussing more in depth throughout the semester. Another reason I am not summarizing the talk is because I did not do my best job of focusing since right beforehand we were given our homestay assignments (which begin tomorrow!!). Here is the info I have been given so far:
mother: Mbarka
father: Brahim
daughters: Oumayma and Boutayna
languages: Moroccan Arabic and French
room: Shared
toilet: Turkish
This will definitely be a family situation to push me outside of my comfort zone!
After the lecture, we had dinner at the center and then came downstairs to find a group of Moroccan musicians with drums, dressed in traditional garb (stripped robes) who began to play music and invited us all to dance. It was a high moment (until I started to get nervous they would call me up to dance...).
A group of four of us (seeming like good friends!) headed back to the hotel then met up with one of my friends' friend from school's homestay brother from last semester (do you follow?). His name is Sad (he said Americans call him happy) and I am hoping to hang out with him much more. He gave us some of the inside scoop and it generally felt good to be making connections outside of the group of Americans. What we're here for. We went to a fresh juice place (again, yum!) and talked for a while. As we were walking back, we noticed a bunch of firetrucks along our route. We have already seen a few groups and marches of protestors of the unemployment situation. You also may have read this. As we continued walking, we saw a huge group of policemen and part of an army, and then people running in every direction. Sad directed us another round-about way, but we continued to be surrounded by all of the craziness. We were in the middle of all the action!
Tomorrow we have another moroccan arabic lesson, then go on a bus tour, and then meet and join our homestay families! I'm nervous but also looking forward to it.
Hope all is well back in the U.S!
Love,
Karin
Since I didn't have time to upload some pictures, I wanted you all to see what my yahoo mail page looks like:
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