Feb 7th

First day do school!!

Today (FEB SECOND) was my first day of school in Morocco..... it was not particularly interesting to be honest and I was freezing the entire day (and still am right now.). It's very nice outside but I was inside all day and the insulation's terrible in these buildings. I am going to ask of an extra blanket tonight. Def. I was freezing all day and that is saying a lot coming from me. I just changed into pjs and I have basically 2 sweatshirts on, leggings and sweatpants, I need a hat though. Okay so after boring school (it wasn't really that boring)... I am very resentful to the Moroccan dialect, Darija. I can not speak one word of it. I know literally two words and i dont even know what one of them means but i say it a lot... We had class for 3 hours today and two other sessions before that..... It's frustrating because i feel that all of my arabic studying up until now has been for nothing.... I can not speak to these peeps unless I use French, which ALSO scares me for this summer. I don't want to talk about it. After Arabic class we had 2 more classes: our multiculturalism seminar and then a field studies seminar. We spoke about the pros/cons of the spread of democracy in the first session and then basically how to perform a non-participant survey in the second one. Our first field studies assignment was to pick an identity (out of: race, religion, gender, or class) and to observe the dynamics between people who fall under different classifications of whichever identity we chose. I chose class. We met with our groups and discussed our strategy and I'm bored writing this so u must be bored reading it. We were dismissed after our meeting and a few people were talking about meeting up at a cafe- "Too Much" in Agdal (the upper class area of Rabat). We decided to go home to change/drop our stuff off and meet again at the CCCL (so close to my house and nobody else's.... I always win somehow) at 6 pm. When I got home there were a million coffee cups and a billion cookies on the table in my room. Apparently my host father was having work friends over. My host mom held out some cookies for my sis and I, AND my cousin made us crêpes and coffee. I need to join a gym pronto pronto. Peeps were coming over at 530 and I was leaving at 6. I fiddled with my wifi card (ca ne marche pas) and then it was time to go. Oooo I forgot one of the top events of the day!! I bought baby powder (talc bebe), and I think it is safe to say (I am not ashamed) that the shower count for February is going to be in the (high ~8 or 9) single digits. Especiallywith the dreaded week-long village stay rapidly approaching. I powdered and brushed my hair, put on a lil make up, and took OFF the clogs- I was a new woman. I met two friends at the CCCL and we met the others elsewhere in the medina. Another highlight: we stopped at Inui (cell phone place) and my bf that i spent a better part of Friday Night with was there (he wasn't when i went back on Saturday... It looks like the internet stick that i bought will either a-work (finally) or b-i will get my $$$ back. I told Him that it was NOT a problem w/my computer and that the Maroc Telecom (their competitor) stick worked perfectly. He was understanding and told me to come back tomorrow and that he would call me when his little genius friend was there and would be able to help, or not. Regardless, it looks as if i will be getting my money back-yippee!!! I just hope this guy doesn't sell my phone number to strangers or something weird like that, after that pitstop, we took the tram to Agdal (my first time on the tram) and everything went very smoothly. I got a seat and the doors opened right at where I was standing on the platform- i claimed that it was bc i was from NYC (did u guys know thats where im from????.) We got off at the right stop, but weren't totally sure where to go from there. We asked a few peeps and finally a woman offered to basically take us the entire way there. Somehow I got stuck talking to her (in French.) for the entire walk, but we made it. Finally! "too much" was too much. It was not crowed at all, but decorated nicely and there was a band setting up. We sat and ordered and some more of our friends came. They had curfews, which reminded me to ask my sister what time dinner was (9:30). "too much" (weird name btw) was fun. We decided that we could afford cabs on the way home so we split up. One group (not mine) wanted to go to McDonalds, so we broke off. We both got cabs right away. We told the cab driver where we were going "Lalou Street" and he had no idea where that was. We said we could direct him, so off we were. We made it back safely, but I think we kinda took a round-a-bout way, but the taxi ended up being only 2.50 USD ANd we gave him a very generous tip- high even for NYC standards come to think about it .... idk if we are even supposed to tip taxi drivers here???o well. We got off basically at a mid-point between our houses which meant I had a very short walk home alone. I walked quickly but wasn't nervous. I have to start to remember to bring my iPod (filed with music, not Quranic verses....) when I go places. My morning walk to class ROCKS because I am alone and don't feel weird about having headphones in, as I do while I'm in my host house or in the cafeteria after lunch when we are all on our computers.... anyway I came home and was fed more tea and cookies.... And then it was time for dinner! I am sad to say that dinner tonight was the first sub-par meal that I have had here. It was a weird unidentifiable soup, chicken that wasn't bad actually (I ate half of the plate... Nobody else ate any? Idk why not....?) and those fossilized funnel cake cookies that I am starting to get sick of (didnt stop me from eating 2.5) but will miss in September. The dad and I are the only peeps who eat them... I then layered up and wrote his post. That was my day.... Goodnight from the ice box.