Transitions

Yesterday we left Fes and arrived finally to Rabat, where we will be for the rest of the semester. It was surprisingly hard to say goodbye to our host family in Fes-I never realized just how close you can become with a family after staying with them for just a couple of weeks. Right now I'm still transitioning into this family. The first few days of a homestay I have found are always filled with awkwardness for everyone involved, but now I know that after a few days everything will start to become familiar and comfortable.
My new house in Rabat is incredible. It's 3 stories tall with an open roof-bigger than my house in the United States! The walls are decorated with intricately detailed tile mosaics, which I will post pictures of later on. We even have a maid/cook who seems really nice. My room is purple and pink and has Disney princesses all around the walls haha. They even have wifi, which is a rarity in Morocco.
We [finally] begin classes on Monday. I'll be taking classes in French, Arabic, and English. It's definitely going to be an adjustment, but after this semester I will be done with my French minor so I guess now is the time to fully immerse myself in foreign languages. It will be weird being done with French after taking it consecutively since 7th grade.
It's strange to watch the news here, especially when it concerns the United States. Earlier I was watching the news about everything going on in Libya...seeing such events from a different perspective is really mind bending.

 Cats really do slum it up in Morocco.

 An oud lesson! This was in my house in Fes. Jamaal, our host sister's brother, taught it.

 My host sister and Jamaal's daughter. So precious.

 Fes at night.

 I tried messing around with shutter speeds...I need a tripod.

15 second shutter speed.

Henna-while it was drying. My host sister did it my last night in Fes. I actually thought she was making the henna when she was instead making a cake...I was a little confused when she mixed eggs, sugar, and yogurt today. Hahaha. Classic mistake.

 And after!

 My host mother and me. Miss her already.



Me, my host sister and mother in Fes, and my roommate Kati. I even rep Tierra Helada in Morocco like a good sister would.

Some more pics!

 Rooftop view of Fes.

 No dryers in Morocco...clothes are a little bit stiffer. I now see why we use fabric softener in
America.

 Volubilis-a city of ancient Roman ruins. About 1 hour away from Fes.

 A mosaic in an ancient Roman house.

 Lots of columns.

 My roommate and I.

 This was the main city square. The temple I think?

 We climbed up a hill 20 minutes for this view!

 Absolutely beautiful.

 The only circular mosque...or something like that.

 A fountain in the burial spot of Idris Moulay.

 Inside.

 The burial spot for Idris Moulay.

 An ancient prison.

 The prisoners carved this into the wall...or tourists. Same thing.

 The top of the prison. The circular things let in sunlight into the prison.

An archway in Menkes.

A few more pictures

Moroccans spend their weekends a little differently than we do in the States. Yesterday night our host mom's sister and her grandson came over for dinner and they ended up staying the night. The culture here is extremely family orientated-we all ate dinner and then watched TV and laughed at the grandson. He would just run around in circles laughing and his grandmother would pretend to hit him with her shoe and he would laugh even more.
We just got back from shopping in the medina with our host sister. I bought a skirt and a Moroccan style shirt that I probably will never wear in the States except for maybe Halloween. But it will be perfect for here because the material is made up of more polyester than cotton. One of the store owners dressed me and my roommate up...he had me in a dress that was apparently similar to the style of the characters in Sinbad?
Yesterday the water was out in all of Fes, so we were truly roughing it African style with no running water. Our host mom took me and my roommate out on their back porch and pointed to a kiddie pool full of water and said, "Cabina," which means toilet in Moroccan Arabic. I was just imagining how on earth it was possible to use a kiddie pool as a toilet and contemplated just not going to the bathroom for the rest of the night until my roommate and I figured out that it was a joke and we were just supposed to get water from the kiddie pool and put it into the back of the toilet. She's a prankster, our host mom. Her main two hobbies include burping and taking naps on their tile floor. She certainly enjoys life.
My life here has slowed down so much, and I have to say I've never felt more relaxed in my life. I'm not constantly checking my phone or on the go, which I basically did all summer long. It's only been a week here so far, but I feel like I've already experienced so much.

Just a few more pictures of the neighborhood we're staying in.

 This is called Batha. It's where we catch cabs every morning to get to school. The cabs here are red instead of yellow.

 Our room. All of our stuff has exploded everywhere haha.

 Our lovely bathroom.

 A glimpse of the medina. This is where we went shopping today!

 A guy making silk. It's quite labor intensive.

More of the shop along with some fabrics.

Life in the Medina

So I'm pretty sure I'm the only Asian in Morocco. Well maybe not the only one, but one of the very, very few. Today we were walking on the streets and a man goes "konichiwa" or whatever hello is in Japanese. When I was trying to exchange money at the airport, the banker asked if I had yens. I think it's pretty hilarious that everyone assumes I'm straight from Asia just because I'm Asian. Some things never change.
Besides that, my roommate and I have made friends with the shop owners across the street from our house. They always make sure to tell us that our house is indeed straight across from them so we don't miss it like we have before...today I had to go back 3 times to try and ask for laundry detergent because I didn't know how to say it in Arabic and kept forgetting what it was called after asking my host sister twice.
Our Moroccan Arabic professor is also pretty hilarious. The other day she had to pause in between teaching to take a hit of her inhaler...it always seems like she's ready to burst out dancing while teaching. It makes for a pretty entertaining 3 hour class.
So I guess you really just have to find the humor in everything while you're abroad, because not everything will go how you want or expect it to. It's made for some pretty good times already.
Anyway, enough of my anecdotes...here are a few more pictures I took today.

 The medina is a haven for cats.

 A lost donkey in the medina? It almost ran me over.

 Just a glimpse of what I see everyday here in Fes.