Day 3: A Small Taste of America

Monday, June 24

On the first day of class, we were late. My phone, which had been connected to the internet, was for some reason an hour behind. I thought it was because it didn't account for daylight savings time, but they have that here too (but only for two months during the summer). We took another Big Taxi that morning because we didn't have time to find a Petite one, and everything was awkward all over again.

Fortunately, after getting to school, explaining what happened, and that I had no way of knowing that the time was off (also because the internet went down the previous night, but luckily came back up again the next afternoon), they decided to let it slide. 

We are taking 4 classes this summer: Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Colloquial Arabic, Media, and Round Table Discussion (despite the obvious fact the table is rectangular). The Colloquial Arabic class is so insanely easy compared to the Moroccan dialect class we had last semester. It's like they're babying us a little bit.

Oh, and they do have WiFi here in the apartment. I guess you've assumed that, by now. Only about 2/3 of the program's families have internet. Needless to say, some people are going through internet withdrawal.

But not here! Noura is literally on Facebook and Skype all day. I suspect she Facebook-stalks her other daughters who are in college/work (one of them is in Dubai).

After we got home, Noura gave us some croissants and jelly, and, being the clever individual that I am, I just so happened to have brought peanut butter with me. So you know what that means.

At some point later in the day, Noura out of nowhere decided it would be super fun to dress us in her clothes, pose us, and take pictures. So that's exactly what she did.

At dinner, she made us cheeseburgers and French Fries. She was trying so hard to make us feel at home. The hamburger was good but obviously very different, with different spices and no mayonnaise because I'm super white. BUT, 'dem fries were friggin' good.

With Gouda cheese.

Then, while I was doing homework in the living room, the TV had been left on to channel MBC4, which plays a very wide variety of shows, from Arabic comedies to American dramas and sitcoms, including Project Runway in English. So, I watched that. It was an old season, so I know who wins, but it is interestingly my favorite season.

Not much else besides homework for that day.