First impressions: Always a must!
This city has so much history! The old city has retained its historical charm, and you wouldn’t believe the beautiful mosaic-style houses that lurk behind old wooden doors...
Hot. I saw that coming. Today was 101 F. I’m really right back at home in a Florida summer, although this heat seems more of a dry heat.
It’s Ramadan! Which means there are a lot of changes around here, and around the Middle East in general.
French. Darija Arabic. Spanish. French again. Uhhh..no. I still didn’t understand. Finally in a country where English is very uncommon. This is great for us Arabic-learners.
Moroccan/Algerian music is GREAT! I am impressed.
The food is..! Well, sorry Morocco. In my opinion it’s hard to top Turkish and Levantine cuisine.
I’m here in Meknes, Morocco, a city of about one million in northern central Morocco. It’s actually bigger than the capital of Rabat. In Meknes, there’s the old city and the new city and most everything is within walking distance YAAAAAS, I’ll WALK to class! Oh, well...it’s 100 degrees. Better not. That’s OK.
...Because taxis are easy and taxi drivers friendly! Alhamdulillah! They’re also very cheap, like most everything else here! I’ve spend a total of $20 this week. There are Petit Taxis, Grand Taxis, and a train stop just outside my apartment that is able to take us to the capital of Rabat, Tangier up by the Strait of Gibraltar and Spain, Fes to the east, and down to Marrakech and Casablanca as well. Transportation is not even on my list of worries.
So what is on my list of worries?...the heat probably. It reminds me of a few hot summers in Turkey. And speaking of Turkey, Morocco is nothing like Turkey or Jordan. In fact, when we got on the bus to drive from Rabat to Meknes, about an hour and a half away, the landscape oddly reminded me of inland Florida. Palm trees, ranch-like farms, long roads. I was even reminded a bit of rural Canada.
The people are very friendly here and I’ve been told Meknes is known for its friendliness. I’ve also noticed that people barely take a second glance at us foreigners, even though most of us do not look Moroccan! We Americans stood out in Jordan, and often gathered many stares, second glances, and catcalls. I feel a bit more comfortable walking around the streets here. Our group has 30 Americans, all from various backgrounds and schools around the US. They are the best people I’ve studied with before, dedicated to learning and speaking Arabic. You have to be dedicated and motivated to be in this program. Each of us is one in ten applicants that was awarded this scholarship. One thing a lot of us have in common: a lot of us have been to or studied in Jordan! Together, we speak a lot of Jordanian dialect Arabic, which kind-of helps us get around here, and in speaking to each other.
My host family is lovely as well. This is the fifth host family I’ve lived with, previously two in Turkey and two in Jordan. It’s strange to live in a house and with a family that you just met, but living with host families has gotten easier and easier over time! And it’s an unforgettable experience! This one is a lively family full of women! I have a host mother and four host siblings, a brother my age and three older sisters. None of them live in the house, which is a bit different from families in the Middle East where sons and daughters tend to continue living in the house until they’re married. My host siblings have been very kind and interested in us, helping us with homework and asking how our day was. Sometimes it’s difficult to be a new face in a tight-knit family. Relatives aren’t sure how to approach you, speak to you, or include you. But this family has included me and my roommate right into their family circle! My roommate and I have stuck to the language pledge, speaking half-Modern Standard Arabic, half-Jordanian dialect to each other in the house. One of our Moroccan host cousins has a small dog that visits often and brings a lot of fun to the house. On our first Friday here in Meknes, our family hosted iftar (breaking of the fast meal at sunset) at our house and many relatives came to share a traditional Moroccan meal of couscous. My host mom said they’ve been having these Friday gatherings since 1985.
Classes! Yeah, that’s why I am here. The Arab-American Language Institute in Morocco is located in the old part of the city and is centered in one of those large three-story, mosaic-tiled open-courtyard houses. We have classes in Modern Standard Arabic (written Arabic) and a dialect class where we learn “Darija,” the French-influenced Arabic dialect of Morocco. There also Amazigh languages present in Morocco, coming from indigenous tribes. Languages of Morocco: French (taught in schools, used in government, TV, radio), the “Darija” dialect of Arabic (most commonly spoken language, TV, radio), Spanish (studied and spoken some in the north) and Amazigh (spoken more in the south). Our classes are from 10 to 2 and most of us stick around for tutoring and office hours until 5 or 6. We have lots of homework, and the program is intended to cover a year’s study of Arabic. The teachers are awesome, we have language partners that we meet with on a weekly basis, and I can already see my Arabic skills improving immensely. Oh, and we also have a language pledge, which means we cannot speak a single word of English all day and in our home stays. Some of us are even sticking to the pledge outside of the center. We’ll see how long it holds up…
Ramadan. This is the first time I’ve really experienced Ramadan aside for a two-week vacation in Turkey where I had my head in the clouds, and the ending holiday of Ramadan on my first study abroad to Turkey in 2011. Ramadan means that Muslims are fasting from sunrise to sunset and that most places are closed during the day, at least until sunset, when Muslims break their daylong fast with the iftar meal and places open up for business. It’s quite dead during the day, but we’re in class for most of time. We do have some difficulty finding places to eat during the day, and guiltily, McDonald’s has become an open source of food, free wifi, and air conditioning. Today, McDonald’s was full of Americans and Moroccans studying and Moroccan children running around with their happy meals. Ramadan ends in two weeks and we’ll celebrate the Eid al-Fitr, a holiday of marking the end of Ramadan, filled with more food and family gatherings. I also remember lots of chocolate from Eid al-Fitr in Turkey...we shall see.