Feb 9

Feb 9th

Bday shoutout to auntie el (el o el)

Today was uneventful. It is 8:07-my time and I'm sitting watching a Turkish soap opera (volume very loud) with the laydays of my family. I dont even have hw due tm, so I'm kinda bored for the first time here. Not sure exactly what the opinion of me napping would be, but I guess I'll just wait it out and go to sleep early. I still feel sick, but not necessarily sickER than yesterday which is good. I took an aspirin and that seems to be helping. We had Arabic in The morn and I was wrong-we weren't doing our oral presentations- we are creating and performing them tomorrow.... I guess it's pretty laid back. I am going to try to have as little lines as possible so I don't bring my group down. I'm always terrible at these things.... We then went back to the cccl for our cooking session. We learned how to (watched the home stay coordinator) make couscous ( kstktska in Darija- precisely why I dislike the dialect so much) she didn't speak in English bc it was only the higher level students, but it didn't matter bc there weren't really any measurements, just eyeballing everything. I won the "guess the spice game" (it was one spice, and she said "skingweer"-not that hard...ginger, duh) anyway it was like savory/sweet couscous and she caramelized the onions.... Sooo yum, and a speciality mine-we prepare them the same way, and both use a lot a lot of sugar. Everyone but a select few of us ate one spoonful (there wasn't a lot of it) but I, the queen of the clean plate club, finished it off with a few of my peers. Then it was lunch (not couscous-that's tomorrow). It was fine. I don't like white beans, but I ate some... We ate outside and peeps are starting to get sunburnt, not me though... I'm being good, and sun screening Regularly (Ellen). We then booked our hotel for Fes. I booked with 3 of my friends (sara sarah and alexa) and 2 girls who are very friendly, but I don't even know one of their names.... Jk it's Sophie, but I only realized this at like 6:45). There will be 5 of us total, and another big group of SIT kids are staying in a hostel nearby. This is food bc we will be together kinda, bit will be able to do our own thing & wont feel as guilty from breakng off from the group. Then we had our afternoon session. We had a guest speaker who was in the SIT Morocco class of 1993. She told us about her experience here and her ISP (About Moroccan Prostitution) and then opened the floor for questions.... Someone asked about the harassment comparing it to her time here as a student and her time as a researcher (she is now on sabbatical from Yale University to study social movements & particularly the Arab Spring movements) and she says its hard to compare for her because she is now here with her 6'4" husband and 3 year old daughter, so less men are inclined to say things to her. She DID say that she was flashed four times throughout the years (many years idk the exact number) in Morocco and 3/4 of he times she was with her mom. (Maybe we should re-think ur visit mamma.... Jk ha). Anyway she said that sometimes men followed her for hours (nobody has said that had happened to them yet), and that the best way to avoid this Is to simply ignore them (duh.). Some girls said that men have grabbed them here (?!?!? I find that hard to believe???) and our AD said that we are to report that if that ever happens again. Some girl asked about tasers and mace, and then I rolled my eyes dramatically and tuned out of the discussion. I did hear the professor say something about "the look" that her roommate had mastered that turned any guy away in a second. Not to toot my own horn or whatever, but I think I have the look down. She also taught us how to say "yeah right" and "in your dreams" which I am definitely going to add to my short list of Darija vocab. When she was done w her presentation my group-"class" met to discuss our presentation tomorrow. My group is bad and didn't really do any outright observation. We are simply relying on experiences that we have had thus far and are each going to talk for 2 mins to amount to the 15 min presentation. We each picked an area to deal with in regards to class discrepancies surrounding class in Morocco (shopping, food, social media, transportation, police enforcement-me, schools etc.) and then we basically went on our way. I hope that this works out, but it always does-right?? Then I went back online and emailed some more and then my friend Sara wanted to go t Maroc Telecom to see if they could fix HER wifi card. Side note: as you all know, I have been dealing with this wifi stick for a very long time. I have finally figured out my plan of attack. Here u go, if u care. The sticks give u ~3.6 weeks (I honestly sat and tried to do the math and I can NOT figure out how many days that is-Peggy, help?!) but I figure it's like almost three weeks and like 4 days maybe- 26 days?? idk whatever. I'm going to fes/fez this weekend and there is wifi (and hot showers!!!) at the hotel we r staying at. I will use heir wifi for the weekend (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) when I am not sight seeing and then u will come home and activate the Internet (3.6 weeks worth) on Monday, or maybe Sunday night-we will see. It makes sense to me and looks good when it's on the calendar bc I will have Internet for our Northern Excursion (week 4) and then it will die a day or two into the village stay (week 6...don't remind me). I won't bring my comp to the village so I guess I could actually activate it now, but ugh whatever I made my decision. I also don't know why I am dwelling on this... It's really NOT a big deal and I should be able to survive without using the stick at all, but I guess it's a security thing, AND most of u are simply starting ur days when I am coming home, so it would be nice to be able to talk live instead of emailing from time to time. I also want to try to figure out how to stream shows here (besides south park... Thanks tho Nico). Ppl have been talking about a number of websites that they have found. I've really been craving a Kate Hudson movie (???) recently. I should have brought some DVDs. Okay so we went to Maroc Telecom and I started to crash hard. Very very fatiguee / sore (I think embarrassingly from my run and not from this potential fever). So I sped up the pace and I think I cut the line a little, but I don't care.... I can do whatever I want!!!!!!!!! Kidding kinda. Idk if I mentioned this but LOL the last time we were in Maroc Telecom The woman who was helping told Sara that she was going to call customer service, and she called her DAUGHTER. Guess who happened to be in the store and was the most helpful person today?? Yep, that's right. The lady's teenaged (maybe even tween) daughter hahahaha. We got it to work humdelallah, and I bought my 1 month card and we bid Maroc Telecom farewell for the next 3.6 weeks (inshallah). Then it was off to the juice stand to get a banana orange (protein & vit c) jus. And then back to the cccl for some more Internet/socializing/watching the sunset on the terrace. Sara went to the hamam (public bath) but I didn't bc I showered yesterday, and will tomorrow Saturday AND Sunday. Also I was not in the correct mindset... I will soon though. Okay then I came home. We live on the first floor, but the sun was set past the medina walls, so the stairway was PITCH black . It was really terrible. The stairs are windy kinda, I couldn't see a thing, AND I had my clown clogs on. I walked up the stairs at snail speed to make sure I didn't trip, and that my toes were at the back of each stair before I went up to the next one, if that makes sense?? Thankfully Fatima must have heard me slowly struggling and she came to the front door and turned the light on. We laughed together bc it was really crazy of me, but necessary at the time. Speaking of crazy we learned a new word for it n Darija-"zen zen", and I can't wait to break it out next time Imane is being hamqua. Speaking of Imane, she was nowhere to be found I asked if she was at the "dentist" and our "mom" said yes. Fatima (our 27 year old unmarried "bint" cousin who does EVERYTHING around the house) and I exchanged smirking looks. We had tea and olives (the black kind that my mom gets and I can actually tolerate- I always mistake myself for liking olives, and am always rudely reminded that I in fact do NOT like them when I am in the middle of am chewing one), and then I went into my room to read up on Fes. I'm not sure if this is totally the right place to be going on our own for the first weekend, but it will definitely be an experience. I know which restaurant I want to go to for dinner one night, and I doubt my friends are doing research, so I most likely will win... Once again. I'm debating buying stuff in Fes seeing as I haven't had much bargaining practice, and apparently the sellers are VERY pushy and pry on tourists, but knowing me I will prob buy SOMETHING. Apparently they have great pottery (Mary) and leather goods (I want a backpack). We will see. I am going to rest my eyes before dinner.... This has been a long post bc I am bored.

Today continued.... I read about fes in my OTHER Morocco book while lying down. Fatima and Imane asked if I wanted a blanket, I did, but said no? I got one eventually and JUST as I was about to enter lala land my "father" said "Karima. Karima. Kulee"... I was confused bc my name is Claire, not Karima and then he said that Karima was going to be my arabic name "ism jmeel"- beautiful name. I again didn't say anything bc my Arabic name is obviously Aya and NOT "Karima"... We'll see how long it sticks. My Arabic teacher knows that my name is Aya but I think she confuses it with the person who sits next to me "Ari" (I could also be mishearing) but it seems as if she is calling Ari Aya. Not okay. I'm going to make a point to have my name be Aya in the oral presentations tomorrow, so she gets the message. Ok so dinnertime. No French fries tonight :( it was very normal.... Just like veggies in a stew-like thing, and a little meat. I did NOT have a 2nd piece of bread at din and used my bare hands to eat instead (that's okay over here). I had a cutie for dessert and then went to my room and surprisingly packed for my trip tomorrow (instead of waiting last minute, as always). I really have no idea how much $$ to bring, but I figured it was better to be safe than sorry and I split it up and hid it in different places around my bag (hopefully I won't need some of it and will forget about one of my hiding places and find it when I am running out of cash-NOT when I'm back in USA bc then it is useless). Another thing about the money is that I took my American coins out of my wallet while everyone was in the room, and my "dad" asked if I had any more American dollars. I said yes (bc I do) and I asked if he wanted to see it (???). He said no (duh) and that he would take it from me when I need more dirhams and he would give them to me. Idk why he wants to do this, but fine by me. This way I won't have to pay the bank fee to exchange thm- I will just have to be sure that I kno the exact exchange rate before I do it. He wouldn't rip me off, but just to make sure. Ok so I packed up (everything into my small (dumb) purple backpack), and was very smart and good about packing. I brought the socks and undies that I already "washed" bc while reading up on Fez I learned that there is a laundromat close to my hotel (GREAT NEWS). My friends are also bringing their laundry (to try the sink method- GOOD LUCK) so maybe I can try to convince them to do one load at the laundromat w/me. I also was thinking ahead today and I knew that I wouldn't want to bring allll of my shampoo and conditioner, SO I acquired two tiny bottles of water and put some shampoo and conditioner in each of them. I have paper soap (thanks mom) and all of my toiletries fit in one little ziplock Baggie. While packing I found a stash of chocolate that I didn't give to my host fam yet, so I put some in my backpack for the trip. I might eventually give them the white chocolate (yucky) but I doubt they will see the dark stuff. Ok So I finished packing and then got into bed. I am going to go to sleep right away bc I was about to nap, but didnt (good 4me)

Ni nii