I’m on break until Tuesday when I’ll fill you all in on our fab getaway to Saint Louis! Look for details about tourist attractions, non-tourist attractions, restaurants, and our hotel. :)
Category: On the Road
Midweek Adventure!
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!
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.
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?
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!
Two Week Mark
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!
My Friend Staci 
