Who knew it rained in the desert....

Hokay, so, EPIC ADVENTURE: The Southern Excursion.

We went all around Eastern/Southern Morocco, and saw A LOT. First we went to a winery/large farm to learn about agriculture in Morocco. We got to see the process for growing olive trees. They start out with very temperature and humidity controlled with little seeds. They then move them progressively out to the outdoors.

Apparently they also have an air cannon that blows away hail so it doesn't damage the plants..wish i could have gotten a picture...but I did not. We also got to see the winery, a nice change from the heat outside.
Then we got to see the Barbary Macaque (monkey native to the Cedar Forest of the Middle Atlas). They were very tourist friendly and I got some really cool pictures.

Then we went to Azrou (a city in the middle atlas mountains, it means rock in Berber), we then proceeded to climb the giant rock that has a crown on top of it. Woot!

Then of course the EPIC SANDSTORM. Prolly the best thing ever. We had been on the sand dunes for approximately 20 minutes when we realized that there appeared to be a large storm coming our way. Our director insisted we start to return to the auberge. So we began to turn around. It took several more minutes for all of us to realize that we would not be making it back to the auberge before it came upon us. There was a definite moment of "oh snap that storm is gigantic and we are so not going to make it back." So our very skilled camel guides got us to a lower area of the dunes and covered us in blankets after several minutes. After waiting around 20 minutes in the storm we realized it was not going to stop and went back on the camels (I named my Achmed). I covered my face the whole time with a scarf to protect myself from wind, sand, rain, and hail. Basically a once in a lifetime adventure. It was SOOOO cool.



The morning after we woke up before dawn to see the sunset over the dunes. It was beautiful.

We learned a little about Berber culture and saw the architecture....if you could call it that. Mud and straw buildings in the rain = worst plan ever. We also got to see the palm oases in the desert and the mild form of irrigation they use, just underground well systems which then form a pool from which the people move mud around to force the water to the palm trees.

Then everyone got stomach sick (roughly half the group) and the next few days are somewhat uneventful. We went to Marrakech, which was awesome and realized Rabat is NOT a tourist city, Marrakech is. There's a beautiful minaret that I took a million sunset pictures with. And also monkeys, snake charmers, sotry tellers, and so many nuts and dried fruit I would have eaten had I not been ill *sigh*
Finally we went to the ocean town of Essouira which was also beautiful. Apparantly the fish was excellent...but I was still kinda sick so I only ate soup (which was also great). Overall most people came back a little ill but it was a wonderful adventure and I wouldn't trade the experience for anything!

كسكس (coos coos)

Ramadan is done! Thanks be to Allah!! ( In arabic it's Al-hamdillah....but I don't know how to spell it)

Short post today just about the end of the not eating. So as celebration of this my family made كسكس (coos coos) and I attempted to document it and now will explain the process.

So it starts with adding salt, sugar, pepper, lots of ground ginger, what I think is ground and dried bell pepper, a lot of olive oil, a little vegetable oil, cut up onions, a huge hunk of parsley, tomatoes, and two hunks of beef.
Then they cover it with a strainer type thing and simmer/boil it for 20 min. This is a terrible picture but it's the only one I have of the strainer thing...I guess use your imagination.

As that simmers they cut up carrots, cabbage, okra, potatoes, sweet potatoes. They add those with garbanzo beans and add water. They let that simmer for I think 1hr30-2hrs. Then they add the coos coos on top of the strainer and let that cook for a while....I got distracted at this point by showing my host sister Mulan in French. So anyways here's a picture of the final product....basically it was the best thing ever.
And then also a picture with me and the food in one of the traditional clothing pieces of Morocco that my host sister really wanted me to wear, a Kefta.Leaving tomorrow for basically the best adventure of our stay in Morocco. Going to the mountains, the desert, Marakesh, and Essaouira (the ocean town equivalent of Cancun). I get to ride a camel through the desert!!! So pumped. Hope everybody is awesome!!

Hokay, so, I have many things to comment on, it was a very exciting weekend.

McDonald's Adventure
It's one of the only places serving food at lunch in Rabat. So firstly, the cashiers wear fezs (or whatever that plural is) with big M's on them, I unfortunately did not get a picture. But I did get a picture of the several interesting menu items.
The one most interesting to us was the McArabia, a meat patty with spices, pepper tomato sauce, in a pita bread.There was also Chicken Mystic....basically just a chicken sandwich.Overall, a great adventure.

Meknes:
It is one of the four imperial cities, inland of Rabat. We actually got to go into a mosque! That was cool. Also there's a golf course there...it was very strange to see bright green grass next to dirty medina. It is only 200 MAD to play ($25).

Volubilis:
Roman ruins. This place was pretty legit. Very much the same as the ruins in Turkey except for a few awesome differences. One, there were completely intacked mosaics.
This one was of Hercules' life (I know that apostrophe's gonna drive Brenna crazy). You can see the two snakes when he was a baby, Haites' three headed dog, and Pegasus. Thus, basically the rest of our tour was me thinking, so this is what it would be like to live in a Disney movie.
They had INDOOR HOTTUBS.And finally the "arrows" that pointed out brothels. Arrows are a stretch....

Fez
This is the coolest city we've been to by far. The medina (old city) is the biggest in the country and crazy confusing. There were single person wide streets, completely covered passageways, and a TON of people. Although, the coolest part was the tanneries.

They take off all that is not the skin in the white stuff (pidegeon excremint, because it is apparantly very acidic), then the different colors (all natural sources) are for dieing the leather (the yellow dye on the roof was made from saffron). It smelled terrible but was SO COOL.

Hello again all,
Finally got internet in the classroom place (called the CCCL). Am in the process of getting an internet modem so I can have it at all times.

Fun things:
Leonardo Di Caprio is apparantly in Tangier.....I'll prolly be hitting that up
Guys hold hands here as friends
60% of all beggars are not needy
The King has a 91% approval rate....WOW
Black Hawk Down was filmed in Sale (the town across the river from Rabat)
The ocean view property is cheaper than the rest....for some strange reason
Playing soccer on this beach is incredible because the sand is hard enough to run on....but the girls here aren't very good....and I don't think it's that good to play with boys you don't know..
Me on the beach

My Adventure at the Carnival:
There are NO LINES for rides in Morocco, it took us 4 tries to get on the ride, I had to physically elbow a girl off of the seats, almost lost my shoe, and got hit in the face with the safety bar. But it was so worth it. This was on last Wednesday night....my nose still hurts.

My Host Family:
There is a mom and a girl, both named Fatima. They are REALLY REALLY nice.....but the food's really greasy.....kinda feel ill from it....but apparantly it's just for Ramadan. The girl speaks Fusha (higher arabic), Daraja (the Moroccan dialect) and decent french (prolly slightly better than me). The house has 3 rooms, a kitchen, and a VERY small bathroom. I have yet to see my host mother shower or brush her teeth....only saw my host sister "shower" at the public bath.

My host sister and me

Ramadan:
The food system is really weird...there's 3 meals during the night (only for Ramadan) the first one is is called فطر (futoor) and is a lot of fried stuff and soup and is at sunset. The second one is at midnight and is normally meat in a tagine (This meal is WAY to late for me). The last one is at 4:00 am.....I have yet to see this meal. Everything closes at like 5:00pm and reopens from 8:30-12:00pm. Also, they sell figs and dates everywhere and I think of when I walk through the souk (market) is "SUGAR DATES, SUGAR DATES AND FIGS!" (Aladdin style).

Also, below is a picture of a dinner we all ate together that's a traditional فطر (futoor), breaking of the fast. You start with a date, then eat an egg with cumin, sugar, and salt (delicious). Then eat the soup.
The خمام (Khamem) or Public Bath:
I never need to ever see anyone naked ever again, there were WAY TOO MUCH NAKEDNESS. This was sauna combined with shower.....I was unsure of whether I was wet and clean or just REALLY sweaty. Also I think everyone stared at me for the ENTIRE time..several kids didn't look away for probably 20 min.

Class:
We've got 3 hours of Arabic a day, then b.s. politics محاضرات (lectures) for 2 hours. These mostly consist of other people talking about how they feel about the arab world....I have learned very little in these. But I can actually catch some sentences in Diraja (lower arabic) now.

Hurray Morocco!

All cultures are equally stupid and equally smart

Hello all from المغرب (Morocco),
note: I will include random arabic words so you can all learn with me.

So I have so much to tell that I'm gonna try to separate it into two sections, fun short stuff and all the cool things I'm learning about the culture (this section will prolly be long). So check the top for quick updates.

Fun Stuff:
Olives here are AWESOME. I have all my life hated them, but they are SOOOOOO good here. Prayers at 4:30 in the morning, definitely wake you up. People talk REALLY fast. If you are a Moroccan woman in a bar you are a prostitute. The plane did all three languages, so it started with Arabic then French then English. So I'd catch like one word in Arabic, multiple words in French, then all the stuff I thought I had understood largely different in English. Thus, we'll see how the whole speaking the language thing goes. Also, the place where we take classes is awesome:
The food is SOOOO good. Expect me to come back very fat. :)
(From left to right is meat tangine style, slow cooked with spices and such, then carrots and olives, above that is apples with cinnamon, and to the left beet salad. YUM)

Also, harassment is apparantly the way many guys meet women here.....who would have thought. As my arabic teacher said: "you call it stalking, we call it courting." OH, and, despite my attempts to dress modestly, I will forever stick out (kinda saw this coming). Although when we don't walk around in big groups I do get spoken to in French. WOOT!

Interesting Stuff:
Menstrating women are the most unclean people in all of Islam.....don't know how I feel about this, they're considered so unclean that they are not allowed to cleanse themselves with Ramadan and have to make up the days later.

People aren't supposed to hit on women during the day in Ramadan, so women specifically go out at night to get hit on. Apparantely normally women go to mosques to meet husbands, same deal with the harassment. And a Hijab won't stop the harrasment it will just make it "more polite." So instead of childish pick-up lines it's something along the lines of: "be my wife."

Here's just pictures of the hotel room and the view from on top of our school building.My room plus one of my roommates for the week Margo.View of the ocean and some buildings in Rabat.

Hope everyone is wonderful.
<3 Chelsea

Today I finished the first book on the recommended book list for the program. Hurray! It was about emigration to Spain and all the reasons people move there (from an abusive husband, to failing high school exams, to unemployed men). It was good insight into some background of the country. Yay!