So today after class we went over to Salé, which is directly across the river from Rabat, making the two almost like one city–or so it says geographically. Realistically, Salé is like a poor man’s version of Rabat. Also it smelled like garbage. I won’t be going back. However, I did get an amazing t-shirt. But wait! Let’s tell the story in pictures!
Check out those colors! Ready to cross the river! Luckily the Boat Guy didn't let Rajae drive... On-board snack? I wonder how long those have been there...
Now, most of Salé’s medina was like the dollar-general version of… any other medina I have been to on this trip, which was a real disappointment because I was prepared to load up on gifts for family and friends back home. But I didn’t because… I wasn’t in the market for used remote controls or knockoff sunglasses.
...but they had AWESOME fabric.A poor woman was selling colored chicks for 1DH each. That's how she makes her living.
Since the bus from school–boat across the river–walking several miles ordeal to get to the Salé medina took us almost two hours, we opted on getting a taxi for the way back. But there were six of us. Problem?
...no problem! Four in the back and two in the front (plus driver) is perfectly acceptable!
After the taxi we took another bus to school, then I took yet another bus home. It has been a bus-y day! (See what I did there? Its a pun.)
Also, today is July 7th! I have officially been in Morocco for one month. Seems like wayyy longer than a month though!
Today marks the two week mark. Two more weeks of classes! That means seven more sessions of Arabic and three more sessions of the CORE class. I wonder where I will be with my Arabic abilities two weeks from now. I still have a hard time coming up with sentences (read: it takes me ages to organize and formulate my thoughts such that if I attempted to speak Arabic the listener would get bored, stop listening and walk away) but my penmanship is pretty good! Hey man, I take praise where I can get it. Madiha’s husband showed me a sweet program I can download that will do virtual flashcards for me so I don’t have to rip up half of my notebook to make actual flashcards, so yay, saving trees and saving me time. Plus I can just pull up the program here on my laptop whenever I have a spare moment. Vocabulary here I come!
Fish. This weekend (and today) I have had fish like five times. Chicken, please! Also I had paella yesterday but it didn’t live up to the memory of the one I had in Spain. Laaaame. Oh well, at least I am getting over my aversion to shrimp! As long as they aren’t cold I can eat ’em, and on some occasions, even enjoy them!
Lastly, my host family may or may not be getting tired of me. I mean, I would too, idk. Anyway the oldest daughter has never really seemed like a big fan since the first day she dragged me along to the medina (third wheel on a date with her secret boyfriend!) and it just seems like I’m in her way. Oh well, she can deal with it, she is just a moody teenager. I think the younger ones still like me–they are more fun anyway! Wait, you say, Staci getting along with children? I know, right?
Also, Morocco is doing terrible, horrible things to my hair and complexion. It is so dry lately! Almost makes me want to go back to the humid days of my first weeks here. Seriously its making my hair like straw. I hope it pulls through okay because I don’t want to have to chop too much of it off when I get home!
Still haven’t ridden a camel although there were some more at the beach yesterday. The quest continues!
How does one celebrate the 4th of July in Morocco? Well, if we had planned better, there was a party at the embassy we could have gone to, but we didn’t RSVP with our passport information in time so that was out. It probably would have just been a bunch of 30-something year olds with their kids; I don’t really know how many Americans my age would have turned out. Later, I heard reports that there was Dr. Pepper there, which really would have made going worth it. C’est la vie.
How did I celebrate? I slept in until 11, had traditional Moroccan food for lunch, but for dessert we had watermelon! I always associate watermelon with the 4th in my mind as a result of church BBQs and seed spitting contests. Here in Morocco it’s a pretty standard follow-up to any meal, but the fact that it coincided with it being Independence Day was kind of cool.
I found this picture on Google.
Later I went to the beach with the family (5 hours) and made a playlist of songs on my iPod that reminded me of America (titles containing “America,” titles containing city names, songs I know were written about a certain city or region, etc etc). Really getting into this fourth of July thing, right?
After the beach we went over to the [extended] family’s house in Temara, a beach town south of Rabat. None of us (American students) are exactly sure who actually lives in this house, because at any given moment there are at least 20 people around, including craaazy kids who never seem to run out of energy. It really is an exciting place, and its quite a change from the small apartments (okay, my family’s apartment is actually quite big) that we are used to. Anyway Madiha’s [Madiha is my Residential Coordinator] sister and I taught the kids to play “duck duck goose” and well, we played for a good hour. It was funny hearing how they pronounced “duck” because the “uh” sound isn’t really used in Arabic so they didn’t know how to say it. The word kept coming out like “daak.”
After that, more traditional Moroccan food (fish that had literally just been stuck over a fire and roasted that way) and more watermelon! As much as I wanted to organize a seed spitting contest I refrained. I did help myself to three big pieces, though, as I thought of the good ole USA.
Fun Fact: Morocco was the first state to officially recognize the USA’s independence from Britain. Moroccans are very proud of this fact and will remind you at any given opportunity.
My Friend Staci 
