Monday Feb 13

I am behind on my posts, so I might be leaving out some things. Lets see... Monday was good- it was the first day of Fusha (Standard Arabic... RIP Darija) and it was SO refreshing. I could actually COMMUNICATE with my teacher- what a concept!! We did a lot of fun activities and the time flew by. The second half of the day was another story... we had two classes (Human Rights & Multiculturalism Seminar, and Field Study Seminar) from 1:00- to what was supposed to be 4:15 and NO break. It was really really miserable. I can't remember the last time I have felt this bored/uninterested in a classroom. The first section was a lecturer who was talking about Suffism, and the only thing that I retained from it was that it is a "religion of love". Very very fluffy & the man had a soft/soothing voice- the equivalent of a lullaby... I didn't fall asleep but might as well have. The field study seminar was more interesting, and pertinent, but it was just a woman reading off of a black font/white background powerpoint. They then told us to "meet with our groups" at FOUR FOURTY FIVE, but didn't give us any instruction as to what we were supposed to meet about. My stomach kinda always hurts here, so my mom suggested I eat bland things for lunch (hoobz- bread, rice etc). As you all know my hunger level directly affects my mood, and by the end of those two painful classes I was such a bear I really couldn't even speak to anyone. I don't want to scare my new friends. Thank God Daisy asked me if I was hungry (she was too) and we (the sara(h)s alexa daisy and i) decided to go to our friend Fasil's sandwich shop-- King's Sandwich, and I had the best panini ever. (As always... not good in retrospect, but I was SO hungry) Chicken Panini with French fries, and salt (!!!) GOOD KETCHUP, and weird pasta with like mayonnaise on it (i obv ate it anyway). We were all veryyy happy and then went back to the CCCL to do some wifi (weeeee feeee) work. I then went home at like 6:30 (i think--- i might be making this up??) and i hung out with Imane. Fatima was making pizza (I didn't forget about the panini), so Imane and I ran to the grocery store to get some ingredients. It wasn't the grocery store... It was similar to the Dairy Barn in the sense that the worker gets the items that you ask for, but its walk-up, not drive-thru. I love walking thru the medina with Imane because she (like me- twins...) says hi to/knows random facts about EVERYONE. I met one of her ex-boyfriends (from middle school... similar to Matt Phillips or Egon Ryan I assumed) and he was cute, very cute, and shook my hand. We talked about how we were sad that we didn't really have valentines for tomorrow, but it was okay-- all my single ladies-- and I told her to wait and see what happens. We also agreed to be each other's valentine (She is my moroccan valentine). We came home and it already smelt delicious in the house... We just hung out and did some HW. I did Arabic and she did English. I gave her an entire lesson on Passive Voice, and she didn't really understand/i could tell she was becoming frustrated, but I assured her that the majority of my college (/arabic class....) would not be able to do the work that she was doing, and I think that made her feel better. I explained it really well (really!) but I think the language barrier hurt her comprehension. Her mom was there too and I think she was happy that I was helping. My Arabic hw was very tedious and boring- I was tempted to ask Imane to do it for me, but I did half of it and decided that I would go to sleep and wake up in the morning to do it. Then it was PIZZA TIME. I was very skeptical because it was "pizza crevettes"- shrimp pizza. Fatima brought out a huge serving tray, and it looked GREAT. Not a lot of cheese, and a kinda thick pizza sauce with thin crust and roasted red peppers, olives, and the dreaded crevettes. I ate it anyway (duh) and it was SCRUMPTIOUS. It was not NYC pizza at all, but I'd say it was better than Piola (on any day besides wednesday ladies night) and almost as good as Numero 28. I was so excited that somehow one of my slices of pizza fell straight out of my hand and into my cup of tea. We laughed a lot- my mom said "crevettes nagent" which i thought was hilarious and puny. I tried to assure them that I am not a clumsy person... more to come on that tomorrow. I was served (passive voice) another cup of tea, and another pizza slice. I said ca fee like twice maybe, but kept eating... bad Claire. I stopped when my brother said that he bet he'd see me out running tomorrow if i ate another piece...(???) It wasn't supposed to be offensive, but I definitely raised an eyebrow, AND did not eat any more 'za. I then went back on my computer (having internet in the house is dangerous) and went to bed later than I had wanted to...