Wednesday Feb 22nd

Today was a totally free day in Marrakech- we were allowed to do whatever we wanted. It was very busy, exhausting, but awesome. In the morning we decided to go to the Jardin Majorelle, which is currently maintained by Yves Saint Laurent. It was a 50 dirham entrance fee, but Faduoa said that the CCCL would re-emburse us on tickets to anything we went to in Marrakech, so it was FREE! It was smaller than I expected but really beautiful- a lot of succulents and cacti. There was a Berber museum that we did not go to, but there was also a small room that had a lot of framed pictures. The images were apparently drawings that Yves Saint Laurent drew and sent to his friends and family over the holidays. They all had the word LOVE on them, and they were really cool. I wished that I was on the list to receive them before he died, and I am definitely going to look up all of the pictures online soon. Outside of the jardin there were two little boutiques that were very European, but sold Moroccan novelty items. We browsed a lot and then waiting for Hicham (Sidney’s tourguide) to pick us up from lunch. As we waited I bought a scarf, and got a good deal (I think) beause I insisted to the woman that we speak in “arabee fuqat” “only Arabic”, after she asked “French, Spanish, or English??”. She was impressed that I was learning Arabic, and we had a (very elementary) conversation, but I understood everything that she said. She initially wanted 150 dirham for the scarf (She obviously thought I was a sucker…) but then I miraculously got her to knock it down to 50 dirham. Its really nice: like striped and rainbow colors.

Finally Hicham picked us up from outside of that little shop. We drove to his house. We passed a lot of apartments that I could definitely see myself staying in this summer……… Hicham’s apartment was beautiful and huge. His family was incredibly nice, and welcoming (typical Moroccan fam). There was a little girl “petit Sara” who was incredibly shy and stuck her tongue out at me (cute, but rude). We had tea and cookies, but I was hungry for food food, so I got a little nervous. A lot of the lunch conversation was in fusha (classical Arabic) which was good, and their main motto (YOLO ha jk) was basically to have us speak (even with mistakes) as much in Arabic. It was really refreshing, and a good reminder that I actually DO know Arabic, after being somewhat discouraged for the past month. I am definitely going to make a serious effort to speak in Arabic more when we get back to Rabat. Both in class, AND at home. I am going to make little Imane listen to my Arabic, and try to understand. It will probably be good for her too because she knows Darija, and is learning fusha too (she is def better than me. Duh, but practice is always good). After tea Hicham’s mother asked if we were ready for GRHeda-ah (lunch) and we said we were. They brought up the tagine, and it was couscous! (not Friday tho...). One of Hicham’s ideas is that in order to best learn Arabic, one must eat a lot of tajine/couscous, and drink tea. My friend Sydney is just starting to learn Arabic, so Hicham says that she needs to eat a lot more meals. It was funny. We talked about “Jin”- a Muslim notion of a devilish spirit entering and taking over someone’s body. It was an interesting conversation, and I learned a lot. I do not believe in that stuff, but Hicham’s family seemed pretty convinced. They also said that Fes was a big area that performs exorcisms for these people. His story about the spirits started with Adam & Eve. I keep on forgetting how intertwined Islam is with Christianity and Judiasm. Hicham told me that if I end up in Marrakech for the summer that he would be happy to help me in any way necessary- a very good contact to have. We left Hicham’s house, and petit Sara finally blew us kisses good-bye (I knew she would come around). Hicham drove us back to the Marrakech medina because we wanted to explore some more.

We waited for our friends (for a long time- they were late) in the square, and the #1 juice cart. I might have already mentioned this, but the Marrakech medina is very different than the Rabat one because there is a GIANT SQUARE square in the middle that is the main focus. There are mostly juice spots and some nut/fruit places, but the main draw is definitely the animals that are roaming around. Their owners tend to throw them on you in an effort to force you to pay for the picture that you will undoubtedly take once that happens. I was previously warned about this, so I was VERY aware of my surroundings. No animals on me!!! We stopped at a cart that had a lot of nuts and dates and figs and looked around a little bit. The owners obviously tried to get us to buy something by feeding us some of their products. They had these delicious honey roasted peanuts that were covered in sesame seeds. The owner noticed that we liked them, so he basically started to bag some up for us. We didn’t protest too much, but in the end he tried to sell us a kilo (2.2 POUNDS) of these nuts. It was ridiculous, and Sara and I joked that our children would have to finish them if we ended up buying all of them. We tried to get them to give us a quarter of what they had measured out, but it was VERY hard. The language barrier had a lot to do with it, but the shop keeper was very stubborn too. We ended up getting the perfect amount for the perfect price after a lot of laughs and yelling. We continued on our way and just bopped around. Nothing specific, and I don’t think I even bought anything. We DID see those Moroccan trick boxes, and we tried to figure them out. I know that I learned how to do them from the Amazing Race or that other show, but I couldn't do it. Asif (a boy on our program) tried the other day, and ended up breaking (buying) it, so I didn't try too hard. We stopped at a café towards the end of the day, and the Yale professor who came in and spoke with us one of the first weeks (and is a SIT Morocco alum) was randomly at the same exact restaurant as us!! Very random, but nice to see her. After coffee we walked back to the hotel. It was a long walk, but nice because the sun was setting, and the clouds were BEAUTIFUL. We stopped at the grocery store for snax, and then it was almost dinnertime.

I was supposed to meet with the woman from the organization that I was considering working for this summer, Education for All, at like 4, but then she rescheduled to 7 (dinnertime…) so I asked if I could go right after dinner, and she agreed. I was a little flustered, and kind of nervous for the meeting, so I INHALED my dinner and put on a kinda crazy outfit. I called her to make sure she was home, and she was. I took a petit taxi because I didn’t want to get lost, but her house was very close. Her directions were a little confusing so I ended up knocking on her neighbor’s door first. They were not pleased, and pointed to Aniko’s real house. There were two guys kind of loitering, but I kept my cool and ignored them. Aniko came to the door and greeted me with la bise. There was a young (cute) girl behind her ~11 years old I’d say- on the stairway to the house. She had an iPhone in her hand and was taking a pic of a bug that turned out to be a HUMONGOUS BRIGHT GREEN SCORPION THING. Really crazy, but luckily I am not so squeamish about bugs- Ali, u would NOT have reacted well/gotten the job… I bonded with the girl about it, and then we went inside. Aniko offered me a beer or glass of red wine, but I took Mary Devins’ advice to never mix busness with pleasure (aka don’t drink on the job) & I politely declined/asked for a water. Aniko was SO French it was crazy and exhausting. She reminded me of Mary Elizabeth and Nancy: short hair/cool glasses/trendy. She was kind of negative about a lot of things, but not in a mean way. She took a 15 minute call in the middle of our meeting, but I was okay with it. The general summary is: she totally dismissed the notion that I would be able to practice my Arabic while I am here. I showed her my itinerary for the excursion that I was currently on. She asked me who planned it, and basically said that it was a poorly executed schedule, and we were seeing trivial sites. Finally she discredited the Hassilabied Association and said that the women do not get nearly enough money for the amount of work that they do, and I did agree with that point. She had basically already planned my entire 3 weeks during ISP and then my 6 weeks in the summer, but it is not exactly what I want to be doing… She works with girls from rural areas, and I am more interested in both boys and girls from more urban/cosmopolitan areas. She also said that she would hire me a translator, which would be great, but I want to try to do a lot of work in Arabic on my own. The outcome of the meeting was that I was not going to work with her, but I still haven’t told her. I am having trouble creating an email to let her down easily. I also want to ask around in my program to see if anyone would be interested in taking over this project for me (I feel that there might be one or two people who would). I also want to kind of keep her in my back pocket in case (WORST CASE) I can’t find anything else to do (unlikely). Will keep you updanted on this…

I WALKED home (in the dark… alone…on the phone w/my mom…). I felt very cool and like I belonged there. Confidence is key. All of my friends were going out so I had to play catch-up and get ready quickly. A lot of girls were in my room (including Fadoua!!!- the program assistant/”boss”). I knew it was going to be fun. We went to “Gossip”- a place that we had passed the night before on our way to Africa Chic, and it was bumpin. It was fun, A LOT of peeps from my program were there, and the journalism kids too. After that we walked (a long way) to this place called "Silver", which was equally crowded & playing my type of American music. Weird for a Wednesday, but appreciated. We met some nice boys who were from England, and said that they went to Oxford- looking back I think we were lied to…... We took a cab back to the hotel and I slept well after that VERY long day.