Hello from Morocco! Before I start on our first day in Morocco, I figured I would let y’all know the best news ever that we received during our seven-day trek from Ghana to Morocco; this news is that we found out that my dad, Champ, will be joining us in our after SAS travel! Rebecca…
Category: morocco
Morocco: Volunteering
Today was my second day of volunteering here in Rabat, and I’ve gotta say, volunteering here in Morocco is an experience vastly different from volunteering back home. First of all, the concept of orientation doesn’t really exist here. When we first arrived in Morocco, all of us kids indicated to Ouafaa, our program assistant/getstuffdone lady,…
Morocco: What the Schnell?
We did secret valentine’s gifts today after class. I had drawn Darby’s name, so I got her two pastries from a pattiserie close to our study center. Incidentally, she drew my name, and I was rewarded with the craziest, flashiest spinning top thing to ever exist, and two chocolate bars. However, the clear winner of…
Morocco: My Head Just Exploded
Yes, that is what you think it is. No, your eyes are not deceiving you. I found and you’d best believe I purchased Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince translated into Arabic today. I went into the French/Arabic bookstore next door to our study center today to buy a Moroccan novel I have to read…
Morocco: Picnic in the Forest
We went to the forest in Temara today for a picnic with several of the host families and their relatives. I played Bocce/Bocci/Botchi Ball (aka Le Bul) for the first time. The older men were so competitive! The only other time I had been around the game was at the Special Olympics my senior year…
Morocco: Casablanca
Several of us took the train to Casablanca today. We visited Hassan II Mosque, perhaps the most elaborate building I’ve been in aside from the Sistine Chapel. It’s minaret is 210 holycowareyouserious meters tall (That’s 689 ft for those of you who aren’t yet on the metric system. What are you doin’, America?). It was…
Morocco: The End of the Beginning
Today was our last day of intensive Darija class. Tomorrow we’ll have our exam and then Wednesday we start our regular schedules for the rest of the semester. We had 8 days of class total, and I took 24 full pages of notes. We went from learning the simplest of phrases, like “Hello, my name…
Morocco: Bread
I would conservatively estimate that I have had bread with 100% of the meals I have eaten here. Good thing I don’t count calories or carbs or whathaveyou.
Morocco: جابت الدجاجة من التلّاجة
Jaabat ad-jaaja min at-tllaaja. Jaabat ad-jaaja min at-tllaaja. Jaabat ad-jaaja min at-tllaaja. Jaabat ad-jaaja min at-tllaaja. Transliterated above for your viewing pleasure is the phrase that has been stuck in my head all dang day. I wish I could say it’s from a song or a poem or the like, but the truth is, it’s…
Morocco: Gird Your Loins, This One’s Kinda Lengthy
This past weekend was extra long because of مولد (Mawlid), the celebration of the Prophet’s birthday. We got out of class on Wednesday after lunch and didn’t have to be back until Monday morning, so we decided to make the most of it by traveling around northern Morocco a bit. We ventured to Meknes, Azrou,…