first full day

Today was the first full day here in Rabat. I am very tired, which means it must have been a good day! We woke up at 8:45 (alarms were set to 8:30….. classic!!!) The hotel that we are staying in has a deal with the café next door and we get breakfast tickets to go there in the morning. We were supposed to be in the lobby at 9:30 and we were there at that time, but without breakfast. Moroccan "secular" time veryyy up to speed with "Claire time"(aka showing up 10 mins late is totally fine). Moroccan "religious time" apparently is the complete opposite, and being 10 mins early is actually being late. Thank goodness I don't have to be on that time ever. Anyway we went down to the café at 9:30 and tried to ask for breakfast to-go… Hard request. This girl, Heda, spent the first 8 years of her life in the UAE, so she can speak Arabic well (thank goodness again), but not read or write it. She always lets us try to communicate first, and when we fail (9 times out of 10) she comes in and speaks for us. Fortunately, we were able to get our TWO croissants to go, unfortunately there were no to-go cups for our coffee. We instead went down the street and got fresh-squeezed-before-our-eyes delicious orange juice for only 4 dirham (50 cents)! We walked with the group to the CCCL (Center for Cross Cultural Learning) to begin our day. Our first orientation was about "Fears and Expectations" and we all went around and introduced ourselves and said our fears and expectations. Our Academic Director (the A.D.) said that he would take notes on these fears and address the important ones at the end of the exercise I said (eloquently) that I expected to learn a lot, and was nervous to be dangerously harassed/feel unsafe, particularly walking down the street. He interjected with something like "that's hard to believe knowing that you are from New York City...", which made me feel better i guess. I don't really remember the rest of what people said besides being nervous for the homestay (I am too). I REALLY don't remember what the A.D. had to say addressing our comments because i was realllyyyy nodding off. It was so hard to stay awake. I know it was because of the lack of coffee, but I really think it was also because his voice is incredibly soothing, like a lullaby. We then had a 10 min break, so I went to the roof (2nd pic attached) to stretch facing the sun. It is really nice (65 degrees) outside in the sun, but it is weirdly cold inside. The next talk was about safety/security and group norms, which I felt I had heard all before. One interesting thing was that he told us that personal space does not exist in Morocco. The rest was boring. We had lunch which was delish: a meat that reminded me of the stew from Petit Abeille (no belgian fries tho), lentils, peas, and rice. I mixed it all together and ate it. There were also some cucs and tomatos (decent) on the side, and an orange for dessert. I didn't eat the orange it is sitting next to me as I type. We went back to the conference room to talk about "Engaging in Street Harassment" which was basically discussing the definition of sexual harassment in Morocco. It is different than the United States in the sense that there is no such thing as verbal harassment, but sexual harassment is illegal. Basically if someone were to touch me they would get into a lot of trouble. Some advice they gave was to walk with sunglasses on, listen to your iPod (GREAT for me), and do NOT engage (terrible for me). The iPod thing was curious because I would think that they would want us to use all of our senses to be aware of our surroundings, but I guess they think it is better to pay NO attention to them. The last piece of advice is going to be hard for me. For those of you who know me or have ever walked around campus with me, I am pretty friendly (if I do say so myself). I say hi to everyone I know. It is so tempting to respond "thank you" or even smile to a man who says something to you- My A.D. claims that the things they say to us is their way of seducing women. Whatever they say is usually in French or English, and it's usually flattering... except the one time when someone said "NICE GOGGLES!!!!!" (about my glasses??) or "YOU'RE CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!" (true, but how would heeeee know that?????!). I literally have to bite my tongue to get myself to not respond or smile. When they say "Welcome!" it seems so genuine and friendly, I feel that I need to respond. Anyway this lecture was basically about the sexual harassment of women, and when she opened the floor to questions I asked about kids. The professor who was leading he discussion did not have a lot to say about the street children begging, and they basically just said to walk faster if we are approached? I am excited to learn more about the children, but kind of discouraged by the lack of response from the director. Then we learned about our Arabic studies-- VERY intimidating. We got a syllabus and which said that we are going to be spending 3 hours a day/5 days per week on Arabic. (!!!!) the first week and a half we will be learning Darija- Moroccan Arabic, and then we switch to Modern Standard Arabic. We then took our placement test (written and oral). I was actually very nervous for the test! I did well though, and I was placed in the exact chapter where I left off at Conn. The oral part was very hard because I kept on sneaking in French words and i FORGOT how to say overcrowding (!!!!) There was only one person administering the test, so it took a long time for everyone to go. I started to have a headache when the woman was talking about our Arabic class, and it just continued until I was done with my test. I was an absolute bear. I found my friend Sara who was pretty far towards the end of the line and asked if she wanted to get out and grab a DC or coffee with me before it was her time to go. She agreed and we asked one of the ADs where to go. He drew a map and we were off!! We were in the old Medina (1st pic) which we hadnt really traveled to before. The streets are very narrow and there are literally "hole in the wall" shops everywhere. We went to the place he suggested, but they were only selling big bottles, which was the case with the next three shops as well. The owner of the third shop we went to called someone over who was walking by (we were told that everyone knows [everything about] everyone in the Medina- which is why it would be very disrespectful to our host families to come home late or drunk one night). The guy that the shop owner pulled over spoke perfect English, and after mediating between the shopkeeper and us, he told us that he would bring us to get some coffee. He gave us some advice (that we had heard multiple times before), and told us that he was working for a bank (or investment company?? that I hadn't heard of. I asked how he knew english so well, and he said that it was a long story... I didn't pry. We got to the coffee shop and there were only men inside. We learned today that women usually dont go to the cafes because of social norms, but it is okay if we do because we are not Moroccan. We entered and ordered two qarwahs and an older man excitedly pulled up two chairs to his table. Sara was a little reluctant to sit down, but finally did. The man didn't speak any english besides "welcome welcome" and BIG smiles. The man in the table next to us asked if we spoke French and we nodded, and asked if it was our first language. The person sitting next to him was apparently a Philosophy teacher at a University in Paris, which was cool. Our coffees turned out to be a mint tea and a delicious latte (which I grabbed quickly, but we ended up sharing both) the French men bought us two chocolate croissants, and it was a great excursion. We got nervous about Sara's oral presentation, so we kind of ate quickly, paid ($1.25 each) and said goodbye. On the way back to the CCCL we saw a number of boys playing street hockey and one was SO cute and screamed "WELCOME TO MOROCCO!!!!!!!!!!" I loved it. We went back to the CCCL for some veg time and dinner, and then we were on our way. Back into the streets!! Nothing incredibly exciting happened except we saw one dog that was on a leash, and that man called me crazy... We got gelato that was actually too sweet for me, and then just went back into our rooms. I have been so tired but I have been spending a lot of time in our room on my computer (savoring the wifi while it lasts) catching up with people and writing these LONG posts!!! I think I will have to shorten them, or take notes during the day so they get written quicker. Tomorrow we have a "drop-off exercise" where we take a bus to a random spot in Rabat and have to find our way back to the center. We are also given 20 Dirham (to buy ice cream, or take a cab... haha). Can't wait to see how it goes!!!!