That's all folks.
I took my final exam this morning. I think it went pretty well. We were all done by 10:30 or so, and it feels kind of weird to have all this time off, since we're usually in class for another 3 hours.
Tonight there is a banquet during which we all get our "diplomas" and say our last goodbyes. Tomorrow I fly out of Fes at 7 in the morning. Quite a few people are on that same flight, all the way to Amsterdam, from whence we split ways and travel to our own individual regions of the US. The University is taking us to the airport, but we have to leave here at 4am. Because I have to check out of my room before then, and so many people are leaving at the same time, I will probably just stay up all night, check out around 2 or 3, and then sleep on the plane. It's a considerably shorter journey home that it was getting here, but I still won't arrive in St. Louis until 10pm tomorrow (Saturday) night. It will be after midnight CDT by the time I actually get to Columbia, which means I'll have been traveling for about 26 hours. It's gonna be a long way home.
Anyway, thanks for all the comments, I've appreciated hearing from home. I can't wait to see everyone when I get back!
Love,
Emeline
Friday, July 25, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
I take a ride on the Marrakech Express
We didn't really take the Marrakech Express, but I feel like it would have been a lot quicker and less miserable had we actually done that.
This weekend the ARANAS program sent us to Marrakech. Class was cancelled on Friday, because it literally took us 12 hours to get there (though it shouldn't've), and we spent most of Sunday getting back, so we really only had Friday night and Saturday to spend in Marrakech. We'd been warned for a while that it was going to be miserably hot there, as in 50°C (which I calculated to be 122°F) but lucky for us a cold front moved in that weekend and it was only in the high 80s-low 90s.
We left the university on Friday morning at seven, in one large tour bus, a smaller tour bus, and a large van. About an hour down the road, the driver of the bus I was on made a slight swerve (very slight, or else the bus would have tipped over) to avoid a dog in the road, and we all heard a loud "bang!" that sounded suspiciously like either a bus hitting a stray dog, or a tire blowing. It was neither- the steering column broke. Which means that it was probably about to break anyway, because really the driver did nothing that wouldn't have happened in the normal course of driving anyway. The dog, by the way, was absolutely fine. The bus, however, was not. So, we all had to pile into the other big bus and the van while we spent another hour getting to Khenifra where we were to have breakfast. Once there, we all piled into this little restaurant for orange juice and croisants, courtesy of the University. Although I don't know why they didn't just have us all eat at the university before we left, because it could have saved a good two hours of sitting around while 90 people were served. I always feel bad for the places we eat when we all go on big trips together. We're like a hoard of locusts descending upon whatever small town we stop in, completely taking over the restaurant of our choice.
We arrived in Khenifra sometime around 10, and those of us on the broken bus got to wait there until after 1 for another bus to come, while the rest of the group continued on the journey. When our bus finally arrived, it was small and uncomfortable, and the A/C only worked when we went really fast. We finally arrived at the hotel in Marrakech around 7, after a short lunch break. It was a really nice hotel! While we were waiting to check in, we could see people from our group who got there before us swimming in the pool. The pools here are nice, because they are all really deep. I feel like all the pools in the states are mostly shallow, with a small deep end, which is just no fun. But not so here. Anyway, we swam around for an hour until the pool closed, and then had dinner at the hotel. Each table got a bottle of water, which the University usually pays for when we go on big outtings like this. However, this time they didn't pay for it... because they were charging 20 Ds for one bottle of water! That is an outrageous amount, considering you can literally go around the corner and get one for 5. We all grumbled about that for the whole weekend. Afterwards, we dispersed in many small groups across the neighborhood in search of a liquor store and the Haagen-Dazs store- neither of which my group found after a good two hours of wandering around.
My roommate and I slept in late the next morning and then I went to go look at some historical sites with a couple guys from my class. Unfortunately, they were all closed because it was midday. So instead, we followed some guy into the Jewish quarter and looked around an old school. Then we walked around the spice market, which was possibly one of the coolest things I've ever seen. There were just piles and piles and piles of spices everywhere you turned, and it all smelled so good. After that, it was back to the hotel for lunch. I meant to take a short nap after lunch, so I could wake up when all the historical sites opened, but ended up sleeping for about four hours, so I didn't get to see them after all. But my friend Amanda and I, along with a woman from KU, took a petit Taxi to the main square called Jama el-Fna. Have I mentioned yet that I'm pretty sure there are more tourists in Marrakech than actual Moroccans? I'm willing to bet that's true. We wandered around the huge square for a while, and then made our way into the surrounding souqs. They were huge! And there were so many pretty things to buy! Mostly stuff you can get anywhere else in Morocco, but the size of it all was overwhelming! I mean, when you think "Morocco," this is the picture that pops up in your head. I didn't plan on spending any money there because it was supposed to be really expensive due to the huge numbers of tourists (I've noticed that a lot of the Europeans really don't barter much at all), but I ended up spending almost 300 dirhams. That night, we hung out by the pool for a while before going to bed. The next morning we left at 10, at lunch at the same place, and arrived back home to AUI around 8ish. All that traveling for one day in Marrakech! But I enjoyed it, and I would definitely go back.
Yesterday, Wednesday, my class and the other beginning class took a trip to Fes to look at some old medresas and an old library. We always joke that Ustedha Meriem gets her way about everything, and that everyone else follows her rules... here's proof: for time's sake, we ate lunch at MacDo in Fes, where she talked the employees into giving us sit-down service. That's right, I went to MacDonalds and they took my order at the table and then brought it out to me. Who else can say that? Anyway, we went to several old and very pretty medresas around the old medina, and then made our last stop at the Karouyeen Library (sidenote: that's a horrible transliteration, but I figure there aren't really any standard ones, so I can just make it up). It was built in the 2nd century hegira (8th Century AD), and was absolutely stunningly beautiful. It has one of the largest collections of Arabic manuscripts, which we got to see. Apparently tour groups aren't usually allowed to see them, but they always make an exception for AUI... we decided that AUI is the exception to everything in Morocco. So, this guy who was telling us about the library took us up to this super hot room and opened all these really old books that were written on gazelle skins in various calligraphic styles. He didn't wear any gloves when he was handling the books, and he just kind of flipped through them like you would a normal book. We were all kind of astounded because at home that stuff would be in a glass box and no one would be able to touch it. We saw the only surviving copy of a medical book written by some guy that covers every malady from the head to the toes in poetic verse, so it would be easy for everyone to memorize. We also saw several other books with various forms of really pretty calligraphy.
All the Moroccan students leave today or tomorrow, so we will have the campus mostly to ourselves for our last week here. I'll be sad to leave, but really relieved when my 8 weeks of super-intensive Arabic classes are finally over. I think everyone, including most of the teachers, are pretty burned-out by now.
I've got a last movie to watch tonight, and a last load of laundry to do, so I will end here. I can't wait to see everyone in a few weeks!
This weekend the ARANAS program sent us to Marrakech. Class was cancelled on Friday, because it literally took us 12 hours to get there (though it shouldn't've), and we spent most of Sunday getting back, so we really only had Friday night and Saturday to spend in Marrakech. We'd been warned for a while that it was going to be miserably hot there, as in 50°C (which I calculated to be 122°F) but lucky for us a cold front moved in that weekend and it was only in the high 80s-low 90s.
We left the university on Friday morning at seven, in one large tour bus, a smaller tour bus, and a large van. About an hour down the road, the driver of the bus I was on made a slight swerve (very slight, or else the bus would have tipped over) to avoid a dog in the road, and we all heard a loud "bang!" that sounded suspiciously like either a bus hitting a stray dog, or a tire blowing. It was neither- the steering column broke. Which means that it was probably about to break anyway, because really the driver did nothing that wouldn't have happened in the normal course of driving anyway. The dog, by the way, was absolutely fine. The bus, however, was not. So, we all had to pile into the other big bus and the van while we spent another hour getting to Khenifra where we were to have breakfast. Once there, we all piled into this little restaurant for orange juice and croisants, courtesy of the University. Although I don't know why they didn't just have us all eat at the university before we left, because it could have saved a good two hours of sitting around while 90 people were served. I always feel bad for the places we eat when we all go on big trips together. We're like a hoard of locusts descending upon whatever small town we stop in, completely taking over the restaurant of our choice.
We arrived in Khenifra sometime around 10, and those of us on the broken bus got to wait there until after 1 for another bus to come, while the rest of the group continued on the journey. When our bus finally arrived, it was small and uncomfortable, and the A/C only worked when we went really fast. We finally arrived at the hotel in Marrakech around 7, after a short lunch break. It was a really nice hotel! While we were waiting to check in, we could see people from our group who got there before us swimming in the pool. The pools here are nice, because they are all really deep. I feel like all the pools in the states are mostly shallow, with a small deep end, which is just no fun. But not so here. Anyway, we swam around for an hour until the pool closed, and then had dinner at the hotel. Each table got a bottle of water, which the University usually pays for when we go on big outtings like this. However, this time they didn't pay for it... because they were charging 20 Ds for one bottle of water! That is an outrageous amount, considering you can literally go around the corner and get one for 5. We all grumbled about that for the whole weekend. Afterwards, we dispersed in many small groups across the neighborhood in search of a liquor store and the Haagen-Dazs store- neither of which my group found after a good two hours of wandering around.
My roommate and I slept in late the next morning and then I went to go look at some historical sites with a couple guys from my class. Unfortunately, they were all closed because it was midday. So instead, we followed some guy into the Jewish quarter and looked around an old school. Then we walked around the spice market, which was possibly one of the coolest things I've ever seen. There were just piles and piles and piles of spices everywhere you turned, and it all smelled so good. After that, it was back to the hotel for lunch. I meant to take a short nap after lunch, so I could wake up when all the historical sites opened, but ended up sleeping for about four hours, so I didn't get to see them after all. But my friend Amanda and I, along with a woman from KU, took a petit Taxi to the main square called Jama el-Fna. Have I mentioned yet that I'm pretty sure there are more tourists in Marrakech than actual Moroccans? I'm willing to bet that's true. We wandered around the huge square for a while, and then made our way into the surrounding souqs. They were huge! And there were so many pretty things to buy! Mostly stuff you can get anywhere else in Morocco, but the size of it all was overwhelming! I mean, when you think "Morocco," this is the picture that pops up in your head. I didn't plan on spending any money there because it was supposed to be really expensive due to the huge numbers of tourists (I've noticed that a lot of the Europeans really don't barter much at all), but I ended up spending almost 300 dirhams. That night, we hung out by the pool for a while before going to bed. The next morning we left at 10, at lunch at the same place, and arrived back home to AUI around 8ish. All that traveling for one day in Marrakech! But I enjoyed it, and I would definitely go back.
Yesterday, Wednesday, my class and the other beginning class took a trip to Fes to look at some old medresas and an old library. We always joke that Ustedha Meriem gets her way about everything, and that everyone else follows her rules... here's proof: for time's sake, we ate lunch at MacDo in Fes, where she talked the employees into giving us sit-down service. That's right, I went to MacDonalds and they took my order at the table and then brought it out to me. Who else can say that? Anyway, we went to several old and very pretty medresas around the old medina, and then made our last stop at the Karouyeen Library (sidenote: that's a horrible transliteration, but I figure there aren't really any standard ones, so I can just make it up). It was built in the 2nd century hegira (8th Century AD), and was absolutely stunningly beautiful. It has one of the largest collections of Arabic manuscripts, which we got to see. Apparently tour groups aren't usually allowed to see them, but they always make an exception for AUI... we decided that AUI is the exception to everything in Morocco. So, this guy who was telling us about the library took us up to this super hot room and opened all these really old books that were written on gazelle skins in various calligraphic styles. He didn't wear any gloves when he was handling the books, and he just kind of flipped through them like you would a normal book. We were all kind of astounded because at home that stuff would be in a glass box and no one would be able to touch it. We saw the only surviving copy of a medical book written by some guy that covers every malady from the head to the toes in poetic verse, so it would be easy for everyone to memorize. We also saw several other books with various forms of really pretty calligraphy.
All the Moroccan students leave today or tomorrow, so we will have the campus mostly to ourselves for our last week here. I'll be sad to leave, but really relieved when my 8 weeks of super-intensive Arabic classes are finally over. I think everyone, including most of the teachers, are pretty burned-out by now.
I've got a last movie to watch tonight, and a last load of laundry to do, so I will end here. I can't wait to see everyone in a few weeks!
Monday, July 7, 2008
I have an adventure
This weekend was possibly one of the most exhausting and awesome weekends I've had since I've been here. However, taking a lesson from my friends Suzy and Greg, I'm not going to tell you about it. They lived in Spain for a year, and kept a blog, but realized that they wouldn't have any good stories to tell when they got back because everyone already knew them all from reading their blog.
So, you'll have to ask me about my 4th of July weekend when I get back. I'll give you a hint, though... getting to my final destination involved a taxi, a train, and a boat.
Also, the guy whose camera cord I was borrowing to put pictures up had to leave three weeks early because his stepfather died unexpectedly. Total bummer. Also means no more pictures. I guess you'll have to wait for those too.
So, you'll have to ask me about my 4th of July weekend when I get back. I'll give you a hint, though... getting to my final destination involved a taxi, a train, and a boat.
Also, the guy whose camera cord I was borrowing to put pictures up had to leave three weeks early because his stepfather died unexpectedly. Total bummer. Also means no more pictures. I guess you'll have to wait for those too.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
I learn that it's a small world after all
So, it really is a small world after all.
On Tuesday, I met a girl named Sarrah who, it turns out, will be spending next year studying abroad at the wonderful Truman State University, where she will be the TA for the very first Arabic class offered by Truman. I'm relieved to find out there will actually be someone there who is a native Arabic speaker, because I doubt the French professor teaching the class can say some of the letters.
THEN, on Wednesday, I learned again what a small world it is. There is a group of teachers from Kansas City that are spending a few days here at AUI while on a 5 week tour of Morocco courtesy of a Fulbright scholarship. On Wednesday afternoon they got together with half a dozen of us American students just to chat, and it turns out that the guy I was talking to went to Mizzou and did his student teaching with my very favorite high school teacher, Mrs. Grupe! So now I have to write her and tell her that she was an awesome teacher and that while I was in Morocco I met this guy that she mentored. Now he is a librarian at the Metropolitan Community College in KC.
So that's that.
On Tuesday, I met a girl named Sarrah who, it turns out, will be spending next year studying abroad at the wonderful Truman State University, where she will be the TA for the very first Arabic class offered by Truman. I'm relieved to find out there will actually be someone there who is a native Arabic speaker, because I doubt the French professor teaching the class can say some of the letters.
THEN, on Wednesday, I learned again what a small world it is. There is a group of teachers from Kansas City that are spending a few days here at AUI while on a 5 week tour of Morocco courtesy of a Fulbright scholarship. On Wednesday afternoon they got together with half a dozen of us American students just to chat, and it turns out that the guy I was talking to went to Mizzou and did his student teaching with my very favorite high school teacher, Mrs. Grupe! So now I have to write her and tell her that she was an awesome teacher and that while I was in Morocco I met this guy that she mentored. Now he is a librarian at the Metropolitan Community College in KC.
So that's that.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
My roommate takes me home
This last weekend I went to Rabat with my roommate. She goes every single weekend, even though it's a two and a half hour drive and a four hour train ride one way if you can't find a car.
We caught a ride with one of her friends from AUI, who drove us down in his brand new VW Golf (though despite being new, it didn't have a sweet sunroof like mine did ;) ). Driving was kind of terrifying because we would be going upwards of 120 kph down these tiny, curvy rural roads, which was twice the speed limit. Passing was acceptable as long as you could see 20 ft ahead, as a two lane road can always turn into three lanes if absolutely necessary. When passing, we would often make it up to 160. On the way, we stopped in Meknes to get some lunch at MacDo. Just like in Pulp Fiction, they totally had a "Royal with Cheese." They also had a "McArabia," which is kind of like a hamburger on pita bread with meat that has been seasoned to taste mutton-y and Middle-Eastern. As is the case everywhere, the Coca tastes very different. In general, McDonalds in Morocco is expensive and not quite the real McCoy. On the way to Rabat, we listened to a lot of Lynyrd Skynyrd, especially "Sweet Home Alabama," because Selma's boyfriend is currenty studying in Alabama on a tennis scholarship. Another of her friends is going to be studying in Austin, TX, this fall, too. She says she was offered either Kansas or Arkansas (she couldn't remember which) or Austin. I told her Austin was probably the better choice. But I don't know why these Moroccans all choose weird places like Texas and Alabama to study when they go to America. You'd think they'd all go to California or something.
Anyway, once in Rabat, I got to meet Selma's parents. Her mom has light brown hair and blue eyes, and her dad is this cute little old man who wears his pants pulled up to his chest and speaks pretty good English. Her house was pretty big, and was in a kind of fancy looking neighborhood where everyone had big gates and fences around their houses. The lawn was very manicured, and there were citrus trees growing in the back with lots of gorgeous, giant, colorful flowers everywhere. It actually reminded me a whole lot of Florida.
The first night we just hung out with some of her friends from Rabat, and I learned a couple bad words. We went somewhere by the beach, where there was a big fixed-price market, and I bought a bunch of stuff. Now I really do have to buy another suitcase to take it all home. The merchants would immediately recognize that I was American and start speaking to me in English, but Selma would tell them that I had to practice my Arabic... so I did a lot of practicing my Arabic. It was good for me.
The next day, Selma's parents went to Casablanca for her nephew's birthday. Selma and I and her roommate during the schoolyear, Alia, went with them and they dropped us off halfway in a town called Mohamedia where her parents had a beach-front condo in a really nice resort area. As far as I could tell, the whole town was pretty much a resort for tourists and wealthy Moroccans. So we hung out in the pool (which was filled with salty water like the pool in Errachidia), tried to tan (I'm still pasty white), and then went down to the beach. The beach was very rocky, with very coarse sand. The sand was actually pretty cool, though, because it was just shell flakes, but each one was really colorful. I wish I'd had a bottle or something to take some of it back in. There were a lot of people swimming in the ocean, but only in little alcoves where the water was only a few feet deep. There was a range of outfits from teeny bikinis to people swimming in jeans, long-sleeve shirts, and hijabs. At the pool in the condo, most people were wearing bikinis, but I did see some mothers walking around in long-sleeves and hijabs, holding the hands of naked kids who were almost too old to be walking around in public with no clothes on. It was a weird dichotomy.
The next day, we took the train back to Rabat, about a 45 minute ride. From there, we drove back to campus, where I immediately took a nap. But all in all, it was a good, relaxing weekend. I got a lot of stares all weekend, though, because I don't think we were in a place where too many Americans go. It was probably especially weird to see one American hanging out in a group of Moroccans.
On Thursday, us Americans are getting together to have a 4th of July BBQ. We're not doing it on Friday because a lot of us want to travel over the weekend. Sometime after our American foodfest, some friends and I are going to make potato salad, pasta salad, and apple pie. However, we're having some trouble finding brown sugar and vanilla to bake with (they have this weird powdery vanilla stuff here that comes in giant boxes). Tomorrow the ARANAS program is hosting a mock Moroccan wedding so we can see what it's like. Our friend James volunteered to be the groom, and then volunteered our friend Lisa, without her knowledge, to be the bride. So in class today we got to tease her a lot about getting married tomorrow.
We got a new kid in our class yesterday, who came for the second 4-week session. Her name is Ariel. She used a different book than we did, and now has a lot of catching up to do vocabulary-wise, so that kind of sucks for her. But she seems nice.
Not much else to report, I guess. Homework time!
We caught a ride with one of her friends from AUI, who drove us down in his brand new VW Golf (though despite being new, it didn't have a sweet sunroof like mine did ;) ). Driving was kind of terrifying because we would be going upwards of 120 kph down these tiny, curvy rural roads, which was twice the speed limit. Passing was acceptable as long as you could see 20 ft ahead, as a two lane road can always turn into three lanes if absolutely necessary. When passing, we would often make it up to 160. On the way, we stopped in Meknes to get some lunch at MacDo. Just like in Pulp Fiction, they totally had a "Royal with Cheese." They also had a "McArabia," which is kind of like a hamburger on pita bread with meat that has been seasoned to taste mutton-y and Middle-Eastern. As is the case everywhere, the Coca tastes very different. In general, McDonalds in Morocco is expensive and not quite the real McCoy. On the way to Rabat, we listened to a lot of Lynyrd Skynyrd, especially "Sweet Home Alabama," because Selma's boyfriend is currenty studying in Alabama on a tennis scholarship. Another of her friends is going to be studying in Austin, TX, this fall, too. She says she was offered either Kansas or Arkansas (she couldn't remember which) or Austin. I told her Austin was probably the better choice. But I don't know why these Moroccans all choose weird places like Texas and Alabama to study when they go to America. You'd think they'd all go to California or something.
Anyway, once in Rabat, I got to meet Selma's parents. Her mom has light brown hair and blue eyes, and her dad is this cute little old man who wears his pants pulled up to his chest and speaks pretty good English. Her house was pretty big, and was in a kind of fancy looking neighborhood where everyone had big gates and fences around their houses. The lawn was very manicured, and there were citrus trees growing in the back with lots of gorgeous, giant, colorful flowers everywhere. It actually reminded me a whole lot of Florida.
The first night we just hung out with some of her friends from Rabat, and I learned a couple bad words. We went somewhere by the beach, where there was a big fixed-price market, and I bought a bunch of stuff. Now I really do have to buy another suitcase to take it all home. The merchants would immediately recognize that I was American and start speaking to me in English, but Selma would tell them that I had to practice my Arabic... so I did a lot of practicing my Arabic. It was good for me.
The next day, Selma's parents went to Casablanca for her nephew's birthday. Selma and I and her roommate during the schoolyear, Alia, went with them and they dropped us off halfway in a town called Mohamedia where her parents had a beach-front condo in a really nice resort area. As far as I could tell, the whole town was pretty much a resort for tourists and wealthy Moroccans. So we hung out in the pool (which was filled with salty water like the pool in Errachidia), tried to tan (I'm still pasty white), and then went down to the beach. The beach was very rocky, with very coarse sand. The sand was actually pretty cool, though, because it was just shell flakes, but each one was really colorful. I wish I'd had a bottle or something to take some of it back in. There were a lot of people swimming in the ocean, but only in little alcoves where the water was only a few feet deep. There was a range of outfits from teeny bikinis to people swimming in jeans, long-sleeve shirts, and hijabs. At the pool in the condo, most people were wearing bikinis, but I did see some mothers walking around in long-sleeves and hijabs, holding the hands of naked kids who were almost too old to be walking around in public with no clothes on. It was a weird dichotomy.
The next day, we took the train back to Rabat, about a 45 minute ride. From there, we drove back to campus, where I immediately took a nap. But all in all, it was a good, relaxing weekend. I got a lot of stares all weekend, though, because I don't think we were in a place where too many Americans go. It was probably especially weird to see one American hanging out in a group of Moroccans.
On Thursday, us Americans are getting together to have a 4th of July BBQ. We're not doing it on Friday because a lot of us want to travel over the weekend. Sometime after our American foodfest, some friends and I are going to make potato salad, pasta salad, and apple pie. However, we're having some trouble finding brown sugar and vanilla to bake with (they have this weird powdery vanilla stuff here that comes in giant boxes). Tomorrow the ARANAS program is hosting a mock Moroccan wedding so we can see what it's like. Our friend James volunteered to be the groom, and then volunteered our friend Lisa, without her knowledge, to be the bride. So in class today we got to tease her a lot about getting married tomorrow.
We got a new kid in our class yesterday, who came for the second 4-week session. Her name is Ariel. She used a different book than we did, and now has a lot of catching up to do vocabulary-wise, so that kind of sucks for her. But she seems nice.
Not much else to report, I guess. Homework time!
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