Hello again! I have been quite busy these last few weeks (midterms week here actually required some serious effort), so this post covers my last two weeks.
So Friday the 15th, I woke up feeling rather terrible. I originally blamed my discomfort on the mass quantity of sugars and sweets I had consumed the night previous (thanks for the care package mom!)--wishful thinking, I know. As it turns out, this was my first experience with the general lack of food hygiene here in Morocco. I still don't know what I ate/drank/touched, but my stomach was not pleased! But of course I went to my one 50 minute class on Friday (what an idiot), and then crashed for the rest of the day/most of Saturday. Fortunately I felt well enough to move around Sunday; I had a midterm in Meknes!
Sunday morning at 8:30AM my Arab Society class left Al-Akhawayn, headed for the old medina in Meknes. Our assignment was rather daunting: find a functioning, traditional Arab neighborhood. We had spent approximately 2 weeks in class discussing exactly what a 'traditional' Arab neighborhood meant--and it is absolutely nothing like any neighborhood you would find in the U.S. So I was nervous when our Professor walked us to the main square in Meknes and said "meet you back here at 2!". But as it turns out, our trip was one of the best adventures I've been on in Morocco thus far. After wandering through souks and alleys for 30 minutes, we stumbled upon درب التوتة (neighborhood Toota), which was actually marked with painted signs on the walls. We saw the traditional neighborhood fountain (سقاية), oven (فرن), hammam (حمام), market (سوق), and mosque (مسجد), and had a great time asking people questions about where they lived (though Kheirdene, the Moroccan in our group, did most of the asking because no one else really had the proficiency in Arabic to obtain the information we needed). I know that my darija is improving--while I couldn't have asked the right questions, I did understand some of the answers people gave us! We even got invited to spend time at a shopkeepers house, which was absolutely gorgeous. I wish I had taken lots of pictures (though snapping some shots of some family house seemed slightly inappropriate). There's way more to talk about here, so if anyone is interested leave a comment and I'll describe more.
Last but certainly not least is my trip to Tangiers! This past Friday William, Andrew, Chris and I took a trip to Northern Morocco to meet up with Elizabeth and her friend Adriana in Tangiers--despite leaving one hour and forty five minutes to get to the train station for a journey that usually takes just under an hour, we made the train with seconds to spare (and boy was I relieved)! It was a great trip, though it was definitely more lazy than our previous excursions. We spent Saturday morning/afternoon walking around the old medina (read: I got us lost for an hour), looking at relics in the Casbah Museum, and shopping, and then spent the rest of the day drinking tea, watching soccer, eating, and relaxing in the hotel. This involved copious amounts of Spanish chocolate (thanks Elizabeth!). I also got to see Spain! Pictures below (and plenty of others on facebook):
Word of the Week(s): مجوهرات = jewelry (I bet you can guess why that's a word of the week!)
So Friday the 15th, I woke up feeling rather terrible. I originally blamed my discomfort on the mass quantity of sugars and sweets I had consumed the night previous (thanks for the care package mom!)--wishful thinking, I know. As it turns out, this was my first experience with the general lack of food hygiene here in Morocco. I still don't know what I ate/drank/touched, but my stomach was not pleased! But of course I went to my one 50 minute class on Friday (what an idiot), and then crashed for the rest of the day/most of Saturday. Fortunately I felt well enough to move around Sunday; I had a midterm in Meknes!
Sunday morning at 8:30AM my Arab Society class left Al-Akhawayn, headed for the old medina in Meknes. Our assignment was rather daunting: find a functioning, traditional Arab neighborhood. We had spent approximately 2 weeks in class discussing exactly what a 'traditional' Arab neighborhood meant--and it is absolutely nothing like any neighborhood you would find in the U.S. So I was nervous when our Professor walked us to the main square in Meknes and said "meet you back here at 2!". But as it turns out, our trip was one of the best adventures I've been on in Morocco thus far. After wandering through souks and alleys for 30 minutes, we stumbled upon درب التوتة (neighborhood Toota), which was actually marked with painted signs on the walls. We saw the traditional neighborhood fountain (سقاية), oven (فرن), hammam (حمام), market (سوق), and mosque (مسجد), and had a great time asking people questions about where they lived (though Kheirdene, the Moroccan in our group, did most of the asking because no one else really had the proficiency in Arabic to obtain the information we needed). I know that my darija is improving--while I couldn't have asked the right questions, I did understand some of the answers people gave us! We even got invited to spend time at a shopkeepers house, which was absolutely gorgeous. I wish I had taken lots of pictures (though snapping some shots of some family house seemed slightly inappropriate). There's way more to talk about here, so if anyone is interested leave a comment and I'll describe more.
Last but certainly not least is my trip to Tangiers! This past Friday William, Andrew, Chris and I took a trip to Northern Morocco to meet up with Elizabeth and her friend Adriana in Tangiers--despite leaving one hour and forty five minutes to get to the train station for a journey that usually takes just under an hour, we made the train with seconds to spare (and boy was I relieved)! It was a great trip, though it was definitely more lazy than our previous excursions. We spent Saturday morning/afternoon walking around the old medina (read: I got us lost for an hour), looking at relics in the Casbah Museum, and shopping, and then spent the rest of the day drinking tea, watching soccer, eating, and relaxing in the hotel. This involved copious amounts of Spanish chocolate (thanks Elizabeth!). I also got to see Spain! Pictures below (and plenty of others on facebook):
Word of the Week(s): مجوهرات = jewelry (I bet you can guess why that's a word of the week!)
No comments:
Post a Comment