الاخوين Part Two

My last post was rather long--so I'll try and break down my future posts into smaller chunks of info! So this post is about my first week of school/classes here at Al-Akhawayn. Classes here are taught like classes in the U.S, so most things are pretty similar (though no one raises hands...we all just blurt out answers). Though Al Akhawayn has taught me to really appreciate Haverford's bookstore and general campus organization; one of my professors won't be here for two weeks, and the textbook for another class wasn't ordered and won't arrive until mid-October! I won't bore you with my three political science/history classes, besides to say that the Moroccan students (and the European exchange students, for that matter) know far more about the regional history and political dynamics than I do. I'm sure the same thing happens to Moroccan exchange students coming to the U.S., but my relative lack of knowledge about major events/cultural relationships is somewhat disconcerting...why hadn't I been exposed to this stuff in the U.S? In any case, this post is really about my دارجة (Moroccan Colloquial Arabic) class. The professor is awesome--speaks 7 or 8 languages/dialects related to Arabic, and even understands Spanish "if he listens hard enough." He suggested to us that speaking in دارجة is key to understanding/participating in Moroccan culture, and he's right. Even when we manage to utter just a few words in Darija, people treat us differently, as they sincerely appreciate the effort we've put in to learning the language. Accordingly, after two days of class our homework assignments became "make a friend, and ask him some questions." In Darija, of course. At first, this task was rather daunting. However, I ended up 'talking' to a chef at the cafeteria named Nordiin, and it was an incredible experience. I'm looking forward to learning more Darija, so I can have some real conversations with him!

Phrase of the Day: لا باس (la bas; not bad). A typical darija greeting--one asks لا باس؟ and one answers لا باس

P.S. I got a Camera! here are some pictures of Al Akhawayn University (you can find plenty more on my facebook page)