Week One Reflection

Oh my gosh, one week has already passed. So far, we have been studying the Moroccan dialect, Darija, in class. It is completely different from Modern Standard arabic BUT tomorrow we will be starting modern standard arabic :)

I seriously love the people of Morocco. Some of them are disgusting when they cat call and disrespect us women. Overall, everyone here is so nice. This morning, I was waiting for my friend to get water and this guy came up to us and started talking to us in Arabic. It's nice to have people that are interested in you and where you came from. My family is so unbelievably nice. I can't get over how hospitable they are. Yesterday I brought a friend home and they immediately brought us juice and couscous. What I like most about my family is how close they are with one another. They don't necessarily like to go out and party all the time. They like to keep to themselves and hang out as a family all together. My host siblings are finally becoming comfortable with me and my roommate. So now, we've developed inside jokes and I've introduced them to my friends here.

I have probably been to the Souks almost everyday since I've been here. It's a really great place to hang out and find some really great deals on Moroccan goodies. Although, I would recommend going in the night time because it gets up to 113 Fahrenheit here.

Marrkech so far!

I've been in Marrakech for a total of two days and I love it so much. My host family is super nice and I have a feeling I'll be learning a lot in the next five weeks. Tomorrow they are taking us on a tour around Morocco and I'm super excited for that. I love everything about this country (minus the cat calling). We went to the main souq yesterday and walked around. There are some crazy acts around here. We came across a women that was telling people she could eat absolutely anything for money and that was probably the craziest thing I heard. There were a lot of monkeys coming around and some men came up to me with their snakes and I ran away immediately. I'll update later with more details!

أهلا وسهلا إلى المغرب! (Welcome to Morocco)

Today we arrived after our long journey to Casablanca! It was so exciting to get to Morocco and see where I will be living for the next six weeks! We are currently in Rabat for the night and we will say goodbye to the Rabat people and head over to Marrakech! The idea of going to Morocco did not really hit me until I was walking around in the city of Rabat. Before we even landed on Moroccan soil, I was able to see how generous Arabs are. The man sitting next to me would constantly ask if I was okay and would even climb over me so that he didn't have to wake me up. When the plane finally landed, everyone started to clap because they felt like they were home.

On the bus ride over, we jammed to classic Arab music and looked at the desert part of Morocco. Surprisingly, the weather here is splendid and it is not nearly as hot as I thought it would be. But, let's wait till we get to Marrakech and then we can talk about heat. Everyone here is extremely nice and we all have one common goal, to learn as much Arabic as possible.

Orientation!

We basically just wrapped up our orientation in D.C. today! We fly out to Casablanca tomorrow and I couldn't be more excited :) I was experiencing a little bit of homesickness at first but I quickly got over it when I met all the great people here. I'm really excited to meet my host family and form a great bond with them. We basically did a few icebreakers and discussed a few restrictions we would have in Morocco. We've been experiencing a variety of foods like Afghani, Indian, American and Mexican. Today we had someone from the actual Department of State come and talk to us about what our main goals are in Morocco. It's really interesting to hear where everyone is from and why they want to learn Arabic. Overall, it has been a great experience so far and I'm looking forward to going to Morocco tomorrow! Talk to y'all when I'm in Marrakesh :) 

The Big Day...

I fly out to D.C. tomorrow! I have such a mix of emotions right now. I've been so busy packing and getting everything together that I haven't even thought about the fact that I'll be gone for six weeks! I'm really excited to meet everyone and form close friendships but, there are huge butterflies floating around in my stomach. I don't really have a lot of experience making new friends but I am really excited to get to know all of these amazing people! I am most excited for my host family :) Next time, I'll be writing from D.C. :)

My Host Family Gifts

I thought for a really long time about what I wanted to get for my host family. I was torn because even though I was born and raised in Texas, I'm not really your stereotypical country girl. I'm more of a city girl who picks Aldo over Cavender's Boot City. But finally, I wanted to get my host family things that were your "stereotypical Texas" I went to the Texas Gift Shop at an outlet mall and found a bunch of Texan goodies. I got a brown cowboy hate, pecan pralines, two Texas placemats, and a chocolate bar with nuts and jalapeno's. I'm really happy with what I got and I hope my host family loves the goodies!