Prologue: Part 2

I realize now that when I said I was going to write on this every week that I was being optimistic to the point of foolishness. I do not have too much free time on my hands, and I find that when I do have these rare spats of free-time, I spend them sleeping or not-thinking, and unfortunately, writing a blog requires a bit of thinking, if only a bit. (Although, I read some of the other students' "Travel Blogs", and I must admit, mine is certainly the most unique in that I don't always write in complete sentences and I intersperse my thoughts with unrelated tangents and inappropriate language.)

Well, we just started week 7 of the program. This past week was a struggle, I'll say that at least. I've found that I've blocked a lot of it out. I literally don't remember Monday or Tuesday. Surely they happened. Surely.

I suppose I'll continue where I left off, leaving out the less important details for the sake of not-boring-you-to-death.

We arrived in Morocco on the first day of Ramadan (the month of fasting, as you may recall). 

Having Ramadan just off-the-go like that was both a good thing and a bad thing. It's good, because we got it over with and now we don't have to worry about it for the rest of the time we're here. It's bad because all the shops were closed during the day, and its 8 billion degrees outside, and you couldn't eat or drink anything (publically) until 7:35pm at night when the sun goes down.

Our first night here we ate fish-soup. Mmm-boy. Those of you who know me well will know how excited I was to learn what dinner was going to be.

We got to meet our language partners that first weekend. They didn't assign us to language partners this time. They just sort of dumped us all together like M&M's into a bowl, and whoever you were talking to last at the end of the meeting was your language partner. It was weird, but it worked out for me at least, because my language partner, Chaymae, is a sweetheart.

The next day the program forced us and our partners out on a scavenger hunt without telling us beforehand that we were going out on a scavenger hunt. It was 8 billion degrees outside (as previously described), and they made us roam all around town on foot trying to find these points of interest for 2 hours without water. Apparently it was also a competition, and my group finished last because 1) another girl we were with had a leg brace on, and 2) we didn't care. Nobody won anything in the end, so who are the real winners here? The people who literally RAN all over town, or the people who briskly walked and didn't die from heat exhaustion?

Chaymae is the one in pink.

There are 17 students in the year-long program: 9 girls and 8 boys, [4 from the University of Maryland, 1 from Michigan State, 1 from the University of Arizona, 3 from OU, and 8 of us are from UT, because our program DOMINATES THE OTHERS.]

We've been taking 3 classes for the summer session. We started with just 2 weeks straight of only Moroccan dialect classes, so that we could develop  survival tactics for living with host families. But now we have three classes (and thusly more homework), and in addition to Moroccan, we're also taking Egyptian dialect classes and Modern Standard Arabic, or MSA. It's tricky, trying not to speak Moroccan in Egyptian and vice-versa, and trying not to speak in any dialect in MSA. We tend to trip up a lot.

I think I've rambled on for long enough this time. Next time I'll try to update you on our holidays and trips, though they are few and kind of boring.