My train ride was quite a trip. The only seats are the ones that are like four seats facing eachother. People kept on sitting in the other seats but then would get up and leave. It was weird, but gets weirder. This one man was very crazy. He sat across from me and would do EVERYTHING that I did- monkey see monkey do. If I had my hands above my head he would put his the same way. If I played snake on my phone, he would take his phone out and play with it. He was definitely off his rocker, OR maybe just hungry... He asked for my book- actually he DEMANDED IT, so I gave it to him and he started to "read it" upside down. He kept on making his eyes bigger and pretended to understand it and be very interested. He obviously had no idea what was going on. I spent a lot of time thinking about how to get it back. It was actually pretty interesting because he was turning the pages one by one "backwards" which was actually normal for him. He didn't even think/maybe he didn't know that we read English books differently... He was "reading" out loud to himself quietly. It was so weird. It was incredibly hot on the train at some points, so I could sympathize with his insanity. I got the book back when he got up to get his straw hat. He got it to fan me with, and I grabbed the book as he got out of the seat. He gave me the "one second" hand motion, but I shook my head and got the book back! He proceeded to sit back down and fan me with his hat. He also pointed to two melons and asked if I wanted to eat some. I sad no (all of this was without ANY words-- no Arabic, French, OR English...) then he asked if I smoked- again, no. Then he did some hand motions that I could not understand, so I smiled politely and went back to my book. We were both DRIPPING sweat. I started to miss the mountains.... I noticed a lot of different activity on the train because of Ramadan
-almost everyone fell asleep immediately upon taking their seats on the train
-only mothers with young kids were carrying water bottles, but I realized that this probably was not new because Moroccans don't really drink water anyway...
-there was no snack cart!
-I had to have a little snack on the train and I tried to do it discretely, but I think some people saw me- they didn't seem to mind though.
When I got to Rabat it was like I was gone for just one weekend. It was a BEAUTIFUL day, and muuuuch cooler than Marrakech. The Medina seemed a little different to me, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I didn't really recognize a lot of the stores on Mo V street... there were a lot of Moroccan flags hanging around. I thought it was for Ramadan, but I realized later that it is the holiday celebrating Mohammad Sadis (the curent King)'s accession of the throne. I stopped at our cakeball bakery, and Imane (the baker, not my sister) was very surprised to see me. I didn't want her to cry because she is usually very emotional... she didn't thank god. She also gave me a lot of cake-even though I said that I didn't want any... There were no cake balls- I think because it is too sunny and the chocolate would melt.
I remembered how to get to my house (obviously), and I said hi to all of my shopkeeper friends on the way. I was SO happy and smiley~~ PoPuLaR. I also ran into Zach, a girl on my program's Moroccan boyfriend... It was weird and he took my number so we could hang out, but he never called. :'(
A lot of the same peeps were hanging around the medina, and practically everything was open, which was surprising because it was like 3:30. I thought for sure the city would be dead, but it was very much alive.
I made it to the Mansours.... When I knocked on the door, Imane did her usual "SKHOON!!?!?" (Who is it??) She squealed when I said "Claireeeeee". It was great being back in the house. There were some changes though. They put the flat screen in the main (turquoise) living room on the wall. It's like a movie theater now- so cool. They told me that the bedroom (had the orange couches before) became an actual bedroom now, and they put two two beds in it instead. They were hosting an Italian girl for three weeks, and "she is always sleeping" according to Imane, so the doors were closed. A lot of catching up. Fatima was hard at work in the kitchen, so I helped her and Imane. They made a special fitr (literally-breakfast: breaking the fast) because I was there. We had pizza! Imane's job was to cut it. She was crazy as always and insisted on doing it in the hallway....
Everyone was pretty much the same, but more jovial than a normal day in the house... I am not sure if this is just my imagination, but I thought that everyone in Rabat seemed happier during summer/ramadan. People were definitely tanner, and wearing warm weather clothes, but it seemed that they were happier than normal. I am not sure if that is just because I haven't been there in a while, or what. It was great though. Anyway---The last hour of fasting is spent on setting the table-----
It was actually like 3 meals in one. Normal breakfast, pizza, and a tagine. with a million side dishes. U can see in this picture- pain au chocolate, rheef, cake, figs, dates, la vache qui rit, some sort of meat/bologna, olives, cake, pizza, shebekeeya (/animal, right Sara???), sfoof (brown stuff~ sesamie seeds mixed with other things that i dont know what it is... delicious & filling, but quite dry), CHEESE, and harira. The kefta tagine didn't fit in the picture.
Happy Simo minutes before the call to prayer
Everything was set up well before sunset. We sat at the table and were all anxiously waiting. Fatima told me I could eat because I wasn't fasting, but yea rite- I would NEVER. That would be so rude. I waited just like everyone else. It was amazing. Once the call to prayer went sounded- everyone DUG in. Traditionally, you break the fast with a date and wash it down with some milk. The call to prayer came faster than I expected, or maybe the fact that everyone jumped right in was startling, but once we started, there was no stopping us. My "dad" ate two dates, chugged the milk and then went downstairs to go to the mosque and pray... "dedication" as Simo says. There was no order to the breakfast... You could eat anything that you wanted whenever you wanted, which was daunting for me because I have become used to a very set-in order to my Moroccan meals. I ate A LOT. It was awesome. After you're done you just lounge a little bit, and keep eating because the food is still there. We hung out and watched TV or whatever. I helped do some dishes, and then lounged some more. Simo was in and out a lot, but at 10 he was like "are you ready? let's go" so I put on my shoes and we left.
Classic- I had no idea where we were going, but I was not worried at all. On the way out of the medina we saw Brahim (the cook for the CCCL). I REALLY love(d) him and was so glad that I ran into him... He said that he wasn't fasting because his doctor told him not to. He seemed upset and said that he would probably fast the next day regardless of what his doctor said.
We went into the car and waited for Eyoub! I got front seat because I am the princess. Eyoub was happy to see me, and we were on our way. We went to Hay Riad... A very wealthy area in Rabat that I actually had never visited before. It was SO crowded. It reminded me a lot of South Beach (as a lot of the wealthier places in Morocco do). There were a million cafés and they were all open because it was past sunset, but we actually could not get a seat ANYWHERE. Finally we found one, but it was really bad service because it was so crowded. We didn't mind though because we were not hungry or parched- just needed a place to hang out. I got sad when Eyoub asked me what I was going to miss about Morocco. I honestly haven't thought about it much because I have been spending time thinking about what I miss about America and what I am going to do upon my arrival home in a few weeks. I said that I hadn't thought about it, but the first thing that came to my mind was the children. I am definitely going to miss being able to touch any baby that I want to, and the occasional times that parents hand me their kids to hold, or tell them to go and kiss me. I LOVE that, and it's going to be so weird to go home and not be able to touch any stranger babies. Also just the people in general. Saying "salam!" to everyone and smiling as we walk down the street. I also said that I think that I will only start to realize what I miss once I am not in Morocco anymore... Eyoub's question made me kind of sad/made the weekend bittersweet...
We came home at ~1:30. Just in time for dinner. Oi.... We had fava bean and meat tajine. I was NOT hungry at all, but ate a lot (duh) because it was so good, AND anticipating the next day---I said that I would fast all day, so I wanted to be as full as possible. We went to bed after dinner (in BEDS, but same locations in the room)... I joked with Imane about it being MY bed and not the Italian girl's (who went to Tangier for the weekend btw, so I had the Mansours allll to myself!). Imane woke me up at 3 am (right before sunrise) for a last minute yogurt and water chug... I fell back to sleep right away after that. Great day=Sweet dreams!
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