Today we had our first Moroccan Arabic class. Our professor Mohammed El Zahwari is the MAN. We only had class four an hour because he had a doctor's appointment but we learned so much in that hour. We learned a basic polite Arabic conversation between two people where we say hello, how are you, what's your name?, my name is, and, lastly, nice to meet you. The class was so fun and I'm looking forward to more class periods.
After class, I spent some time in the courtyard working on my Trip Leader application before our lunch of chick peas and bread, followed by a main course of chicken in a spicy tomato sauce, and then topped off with a glass of some delicious minty limeade. The limeade was by far the best part of the meal and tasted like a non-alcoholic margarita mix. After lunch, we had our first class session four our class taught by Lla MJ, our faculty advisor who is here with us. We just did some housekeeping work during class, talking about our home stays, the schedule for the rest of the term, and the syllabus for the class. Our weeklong break when we travel to the Sahara and around Morocco is May 5th to 11th and then we have free time to travel from the 11th to the 14th, during which we will probably be at a coastal town to hang out at the beach.
After her class, we had another guest lecture. Our lecturer, Prof. Sadad, spoke to us for two hours about sufism in its entirety. It was an interesting lecture and he covered a lot in the little amount of time he was given, which is impressive given the fact that he was basically told to talk about all the aspects of a major religion. For those who do not know what Sufism is, it is like a mystical branch of Islam similar to Kabbala for Jews or Santeria, which we are familiar with back home. The main difference, from my understanding, is how it deals with the esoteric aspect of Islam. Sufis are like a level above Sunnis (the Islamic branch with which a majority of Moroccans self-identify) and attempt to make one-on-one connections with God rather than through the use of a mosque and/or imam. This sometimes involves trances, dancing, and music in order to get closer to God. I'll be posting about Islam in general at some point in the coming weeks too.
Anyways, the two-hour lecture was exhausting after the two hours of class we had before it so we were all veritably dead. I slept for an hour and a half and then some of us went to dinner at a restaurant called Pizza Mamia which we renamed Pizza Mania. It was delicious. Afterwards, we came back and read the Andrew Lohse article from Rolling Stone all about hazing at Dartmouth. If you plan on reading it, the disclaimers I'll give you are that he doesn't have the most stand-up character, having had trouble with Hanover police on two separate occasions (he's currently suspended), he is one of 27 SAE brothers being charged by the school with hazing (last night, 24 of the other people's charges were dropped, but not his), and know that I am not in any of the frats that the article discusses. The author who wrote it is also the same one who wrote the infamous Duke lacrosse article from a few years back and who's methods are generally questionable (lied to students in order to sneak into tails events and question pledges, unreliable fact-checking, etc). Although it's six pages long, they don't talk about Lohse's personal issues until the last two pages or so, so read the whole story before passing judgment. It's on their website but won't got to print until April 12th.
Back to Morocco though. At 10, we went to one of our rooms and all watched Fast Times at Ridgmont High before going to bed. It was a funny movie and a good way to end the night.
After class, I spent some time in the courtyard working on my Trip Leader application before our lunch of chick peas and bread, followed by a main course of chicken in a spicy tomato sauce, and then topped off with a glass of some delicious minty limeade. The limeade was by far the best part of the meal and tasted like a non-alcoholic margarita mix. After lunch, we had our first class session four our class taught by Lla MJ, our faculty advisor who is here with us. We just did some housekeeping work during class, talking about our home stays, the schedule for the rest of the term, and the syllabus for the class. Our weeklong break when we travel to the Sahara and around Morocco is May 5th to 11th and then we have free time to travel from the 11th to the 14th, during which we will probably be at a coastal town to hang out at the beach.
After her class, we had another guest lecture. Our lecturer, Prof. Sadad, spoke to us for two hours about sufism in its entirety. It was an interesting lecture and he covered a lot in the little amount of time he was given, which is impressive given the fact that he was basically told to talk about all the aspects of a major religion. For those who do not know what Sufism is, it is like a mystical branch of Islam similar to Kabbala for Jews or Santeria, which we are familiar with back home. The main difference, from my understanding, is how it deals with the esoteric aspect of Islam. Sufis are like a level above Sunnis (the Islamic branch with which a majority of Moroccans self-identify) and attempt to make one-on-one connections with God rather than through the use of a mosque and/or imam. This sometimes involves trances, dancing, and music in order to get closer to God. I'll be posting about Islam in general at some point in the coming weeks too.
Anyways, the two-hour lecture was exhausting after the two hours of class we had before it so we were all veritably dead. I slept for an hour and a half and then some of us went to dinner at a restaurant called Pizza Mamia which we renamed Pizza Mania. It was delicious. Afterwards, we came back and read the Andrew Lohse article from Rolling Stone all about hazing at Dartmouth. If you plan on reading it, the disclaimers I'll give you are that he doesn't have the most stand-up character, having had trouble with Hanover police on two separate occasions (he's currently suspended), he is one of 27 SAE brothers being charged by the school with hazing (last night, 24 of the other people's charges were dropped, but not his), and know that I am not in any of the frats that the article discusses. The author who wrote it is also the same one who wrote the infamous Duke lacrosse article from a few years back and who's methods are generally questionable (lied to students in order to sneak into tails events and question pledges, unreliable fact-checking, etc). Although it's six pages long, they don't talk about Lohse's personal issues until the last two pages or so, so read the whole story before passing judgment. It's on their website but won't got to print until April 12th.
Back to Morocco though. At 10, we went to one of our rooms and all watched Fast Times at Ridgmont High before going to bed. It was a funny movie and a good way to end the night.
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