Day 67: Last Day

Today is my last full day in Fes, so I was pretty happy I didn't wake up hungover! I slept in until 10, despite Benton waking up at 6 to exercise on the roof and go to school. In the morning, I ate breakfast and then did some blitzing. I'm pleased to report that we did not have baguette today, so that means I'm in the clear and on my way to Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Cracklin Oat Bran breakfasts when I get back to Florida.

At 11, I met up with Elle and Marissa to do some shopping. I got the last remaining gifts and haggled for the last time. I went out with a bang though by getting everything I bought for 50% of the initial price. I went home for lunch and then napped for three hours in the afternoon. I was woken up by Elle and Marissa at 5 who wanted to watch a movie. We went to the riad and watched Judd Apatow's phenomenal creation, Forgetting Sarah Marshall. It was a good movie to end the friendship on. After the movie, I submitted an application to work in California for Google in the fall. Though I'm currently signed up to go to Spain with the Spanish department, if I get a job offer from Google, it's going to be a hard choice to make. Either way, it should be a fun fall!

I said goodbye to Elle, Marissa, and Ariel in the riad before heading home. It's weird to think that I won't see these people I've been spending 6 - 12 hours a day with for three weeks. In Marissa's case, because she's a rising senior and graduating a term early, if I don't go back to school until the spring, I won't ever see her again! I'm flying home with Christy, Ron, and Joe though, so they're stuck with me for a while longer. 

At home, I ate dinner and did the last remaining bits of packing. I'm all ready for my 5:30 wake-up tomorrow. I hung out with my family tonight and gave them my thank you gifts because it is probably the last time I will ever see them. Though I have complained on this blog upon occasion, I will miss my Moroccan family.

Also, I'm going to put up the last photo album soon featuring pictures of the pool, of my family and house, and a 60 picture series I took today that recreates the walk from my house through the medina to Batha. If you flip through them fast, it's pretty fun. 

Secondly, I've decided I'm going to keep blogging while I'm in the Galapagos next week because I've enjoyed having a record of everything. While I'm home for 48 hours, I'm going to work on creating a new blog for all my international travels because the Galapagos obviously aren't in Morocco, so it doesn't make sense that they should be written about on andrewinmorocco.blogspot.com! In the future, this site will redirect you to the other site. More news on that to come.

Day 65: Pottery with the Sweeneys

Still finals, still grinding out the papers. However, today I finished both of my first drafts! I went to the riad in the morning and reread all of Leaving Tangier to get quotes for my comparative literature paper. I went back home for lunch, avoided eating the fried fish, and then did some more work in my room.

At 3, Elle, Marissa, Alice, and I had planned to go back to the pottery studio we visited during the first week of the term to get some gifts. Meredith called me right before we left because she remembered we were going and wanted to come too. We had forgotten that her dad, brother, and best childhood friend had all flown in last night, so we got to meet them and they tagged along too. While they took the tour of the studio, we did our shopping. I got a joint Mother's Day/Birthday present for my mom. I hope she'll like it, and, better yet, I hope it doesn't break on the airplane home!

Afterwards, I went to the riad with Joe, Tash, Marissa, and Ariel. Two big things happened during this time period: 1) I finished the first draft of my comparative literature paper and 2) I blitzed Prof Sadiqi about the length of the paper and she blitzed us all saying it should be 8 to 12, not 10 - 12 like she had said yesterday. It was like Moroccan Christmas all over again.

When I got home for dinner, I had a big surprise: a roommate! His name is Benton and he goes to Virginia Military Institute, which strangely enough, is located in Virginia. He's 21, from Texas, and a rising senior. Benton's on track to be an officer in the US Marines after graduation. He also has already done an ALIF program before, having lived with a family in Fes last summer, and he is fluent in Modern Standard Arabic. He's really nice, and I'm excited because I've decided living with him for the next two days is God's way of helping me transition back to American life more smoothly.

After dinner, I worked some more. Benton went to bed at 11:15, so I set up camp in the kitchen and worked until I finished my 1st draft of my sports paper at 1:30. I'm in a great place workwise moving into the second to last day of finals.

On an unrelated note, Mr. Sweeney told me that they have kept up with my blog in the Sweeney household this whole term. It made me ecstatic to hear that my grandmothers are not the only ones who have been keeping track of me and to be meeting one of these mysterious readers in the flesh! Mr. and Mrs. Sweeney, thank you for reading my blog. I hope you've enjoyed my posts and you probably heard some stories from this trip you wouldn't have heard otherwise haha!

Day 64: 64

It's still finals, so I'm still working on my papers. For the first day in a while, I got to sleep in so I stayed in bed until 10:30. After breakfast, I set up camp on my bed and got some research and writing done on my sports paper. I've done just over 6 pages on it so far, but the bad news is that we found out today that it's supposed to be 10 pages, not 8 like we all thought. People aren't very happy about this, myself included. After lunch, I napped for an hour and then went to the riad. While there, I began to work on my paper about Leaving Tangier, which luckily did not have its length changed from 8 to 10 pages today, too. As of writing this post before bed, I am 4 pages into that one and 6 pages into the other. That means 10 of 18 pages down and the remaining pages all have quotes, ideas, and paragraph snippets just waiting to be expanded. This has been a very relaxed finals period so far and I'm happy with my progress. I am hoping to finish both papers tomorrow so that I can do all the proof-reading on Monday and hand them both in Monday night. Not much else happened today, but Amanda graduated from high school yesterday, so congratulations on that, sister!

To keep things interesting, I will talk about the number 64, the number of days I have been in Morocco. I will now do a stream of consciousness discourse about the number 64 and relate it back to itself. 64 is a square number, the product of 8 and itself. Broken down into prime factorization, it is 2^6, so it can represented in binary (base 2 numbering system) as the number 1,000,000. Binary code is used to represent bit strings. Bit strings are used in computers. One of the first and most popular mainstream home computers was the Commodore 64. Commodore 64 was also one of the first game consoles. Game consoles. Nintendo 64 was released by Nintendo in 1996 and one of the first gaming consoles to feature 3-D graphics. Video games. Board games. Chess. 64 is also the total number of squares on a chess board and the number of disks in the myth of the Towers of Hanoi. 

A Shakespearean aside: For those who do not know what the towers of Hanoi is, it is a simple game where there are three pegs and a set of disks of descending size. All the disks must be moved from one post to another post with the conditions that no disk can be below a disk bigger than itself, that only one disk may be moved at a time, and that only the top disk can be removed from any given post. The game is pretty simple because you just have to recognize the pattern, and once you have, you can win any game in the optimal number of moves with any number of disks. The smallest number of moves for any given number of disks is 2^n - 1, where n is the number of disks. A Towers of Hanoi solver is an assignment in most lower level computer science classes. In the myth, there are 64 golden disks that Brahmin monks in India must move. However, they are wasting their lives doing this because it will take them 2^64 - 1 moves to do so, which is over 18 quintillion moves. The moral of the story is that if faced with the choice of becoming a Brahmin monk, you should run the other way because you do not have 585 billion years to spare. 

To bring us back to 64-ology though and using India as a segway, there are 64 positions listed in the Kama Sutra. Sex leads to children. Children play with crayons, and there are 64 crayons in the Crayola 64 pack. As a child, I played with crayons in the 90's. The 90's. 90's rap. Old rappers always rap about their low-riding 64 Chevy Impalas. Rappers. Musicians. Rock music. The Beatles have a song called "When I'm Sixty-Four." The Beatles are a four man group. 4 squared is 16, but if you cube it, it's 64. And thus we find ourselves back where we started at the not-so-simple number of 64. Hopefully, you learned something or another on this journey.

Day 63: WATERPARKS!!!

Today was the best day of finals I have ever had. I woke up at 9 and did some work until 10, when Elle and Marissa came over. At this point, Driss, his two friends, and the three of us went to Batha to get cabs to go to the pool. Squished with the driver into a 5 person car, we drove across Fes to a vacation spot called the Diamant Vert. They had a huge pool, big grassy areas, a river with swan boats, and most importantly 8 water slides! It only cost 60 dh to get in ($7) and we had access for the whole day. There was a big patio with a dj on it and Driss told us there are concerts there every night.

The composition of the visitors was interesting because it was all 14 to 23 year old Moroccan men. There were probably about 120 men and only 10 women in the whole place. There were no parents present either. It was the ultimate teenage paradise with the big lawns around the pool, the music, and the water. Elle and Marissa stuck out more than I did with their blonde hair and female figures. This didn't stop us though from going on every water slide in the park. Marissa had never been on a water slide before so it was an eye-opening experience for her! She didn't really like them, but I think she just needs to give them some more time. Elle and I had a blast though. The highlight was either a big white slide that finished with a bowl at the bottom where you "toilet-bowl" around and then fall out the bottom of it or another slide where it was only like a 10 ft long slide and then a 12 ft drop straight down into a big pool. The cool water felt so good and we had a good time swimming and relaxing in the sun. We also met Driss' girlfriend who was very pretty. I don't know if his family knows about her though, so we'll keep that a secret.

The three of us left Driss and his friends at the pool and came home at 2. For lunch, Lla Fatima had prepared two tagines: chicken with cauliflower and chicken with carrots, and for dessert we had honeydew on the rind. Everything was tasty.

Afterwards, I got some work done on my papers and did a bunch of research. At 5, I went to the riad to watch The Descendants with Elle and Marissa. It's a George Clooney movie that came out last year about a lawyer in Hawaii who reconnects with his two teenage daughters after his wife gets into a power boating accident and is in a coma. It was an incredible movie and both he and the girl who plays his 17 year-old daughter do a great job.

I spent the rest of the night working on my papers and went to bed by 1. Today definitely felt like summer and I'm excited to be finishing up with work over the next couple of days. Enjoy this super-summery song by a teen from Miami who is the son of my uncle's friend. This acoustic-ish reggae-ish cover of Foster The People's "Pumped-Up Kicks" just embodied the feel of today so well.

Day 61: Making Moves

This blog post will be just as short as yesterday's because I still have a ton of work to do and have the Arabic final tomorrow. More Arabic class in the morning, followed by lunch at the center. I hung out and did work at school afterwards until the riad opened, at which point I went back to the medina to work there. I stayed at the riad until 9 with Tash, Joe, and Meredith and then went home for dinner. Over tagine, I practiced some Arabic with my parents after explaining to them that I have an Arabic test tomorrow. I then studied some more in my room and went to bed by 2. 

I'm feeling pretty good about my level of studying as of writing this before bed. Today was super productive because I banged out the film review, did my presentation write-up, and did all my Arabic studying. That leaves me with the whole weekend to do my two remaining papers. It wasn't a very exciting day otherwise.

Highlight of the Day: in the riad, Meredith threw a roll of toilet paper at Tash, causing Tash to scream, "AHHHHH MY BOOB!!" in front of the whole riad.

Day 55: Burritos

Today I went to class like usual. I had a presentation on The Sand Child in the afternoon. I know you're probably thinking, "What! You're in school?! You have homework!? What kind of crazy plot twist is this!" to which I respond, "Yes? Yes. Yes. The plot was beginning to get a little dry anyways." The presentation was a little unorganized because I read the book and put the presentation together three weeks ago, but it went well. 

I didn't go home for lunch so I would have time to work before I presented. Instead of having tagine, Tash, Meredith, Joe, and I went to McDonald's. I had a McChicken AND a Big Mac because I put on my big boy pants this morning. I didn't walk either direction today because I took a cab to school in the morning and in the afternoon, I started walking back to the medina, but then an empty cab just happened to stop in front of Meredith, Tash, and I just after leaving school. 

We all hung out in the riad because Elle's parents are visiting for a week and brought us some of the ingredients to make a proper Mexican fiesta! We had American tortillas, rice, refried beans, salsa, and spices, but all the chicken and veggies were Moroccan. We cooked it up in the kitchen of the riad and had a lot of fun. I spoke some with Elle's mom while we had a terrible time trying to cut the raw chicken off the bones because that was our assigned job. I faked cutting my finger, with salsa for blood, to lighten the mood. It only achieved moderate success and prompted stories from my FSP-mates to warn Elle's parents not to believe most of what I say or do. The burritos tasted delicious and it was nice to have some comfort food. I'm sad I won't be around this weekend to adventure with Elle, her parents, and Marissa, but I'm sure I'll enjoy the beach weekend I've got planned.

In the riad, I watched the new 21 Jump Street movie and it was one of the funniest movies I've seen in a while. Fun fact: the directors, Phil Lord and Chris Miller, both graduated from Dartmouth in the early 2000's and they also directed Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs a couple years ago. Phil also went to my high school, Ransom Everglades, and Chris was in my fraternity during his time at Dartmouth. You could basically say we're in a three-way best friendship. 

After dinner, I skyped with my mom and Amanda. They are good. Then after that, I watched the original Batman from 1989, directed by Tim Burton. The third movie of the reboot of the Batman franchise, The Dark Knight Rises, comes out this summer, so I'm going to try to watch all 6 Batman movies between now and then. I haven't seen any of the original four films, so this was a good start. I went to bed before midnight in order to rest up for the 7:10 am train the next morning.

Day 54: Dinos in Heat

I have been going through a huge Jurassic Park binge recently. I watched the third movie last night, the second movie tonight, and the first movie is one of my favorite movies of all time. I also started reading the book, Jurassic Park, today, which, although only 50 pages in, is much more violent and exciting than the movie. Supposedly, the screenplay only used 10 to 20% of the material presented in the book.

They were made to go hand in hand. The perfect pong table

Also, today was so hot that the only time I walked was on my way home at the end of the day. I was so tired and dehydrated when I woke up this morning that I ate breakfast and then fell asleep for two hours! I ended up getting to class 40 minutes late but I felt much better after the extra rest. I repeated the same thing at the riad tonight too, falling asleep for an hour as soon as we got there when I was in the middle of checking blitz.

Besides Jurassic Park 2, I also watched a silly movie named A Fish Called Wanda about some diamond thieves in Britain. It was hilarious and all of the actors in it (Jamie Lee Curtis, John Cleese, Kevin Cline) were incredible. Cline's character Otto, hands down, stole the show in my opinion.

Do you have any suggestions for movies I should watch? Let me know.

I don't really have any new news from Morocco except it's hot. My bowels are doing well.

In the mean time, enjoy this acoustic cover I found the other day of LMFAO's I'm Sexy and I Know It.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsvlsuLau5c

Day 53: Return of the Baguette

The baguette came at me when I was at my lowest. I was covered in sweat, despite sleeping on top of the covers and having the fan my family gave me turned to the "Medium" and "Oscillate" settings. I was tired, after a night of rough sleep spent dreaming about what it must be like to be Bruce Willis when he realizes he's dead at the end of the Sixth Sense. Whoops, after-the-fact spoiler alert. I overslept, because I had forgotten to set an alarm on my dead iPhone. And I needed to shave, because I was as hairy as an 8 year-old Paul Bunyan.

Then, without warning, I opened the door to find a baguette sitting there on the table, smiling at me with its golden brown crust and relishing in my despair. WHAT. A. JERK! However, like the Star Wars movie referenced by the title of this post, it was time to make a comeback against this bready Sith lord. The shower and shave revitalized me like Leia freeing Han Solo from the carbonite in Jabba's Palace. Then I was ready to assault the breakfast table like it was the Death Star's shield generator on Endor. My ewoks, butter and strawberry jam, helped me take down some of the baguette, but before long, I found myself facing off against the baguette and the warm milk, one-vs-two like Luke against Vader and Emperor Palpatine. The Nesquik helped bring out the good in the milk and together, we were able to defeat the baguette before I drank the milk's last gulp. George Lucas would have been proud of this meal.

Have you heard enough nerd yet?

I walked to school with Alice, walked home for lunch with Marissa, cabbed back to school, and walked home with Marissa, Elle, and Tash after school. We stayed at school for two and a half hours because we had to meet with our professors about our final papers. For my gender in the medina paper, I will be writing about women's participation in sports and interviewing people's host siblings about their athletic involvements. It should be a fun paper to write and Prof. Sadiqi seemed excited about it too.
Tonight, I watched the 1 hour long season finale of How I Met Your Mother and the movie Crazy Stupid Love. Such a good movie and a good use of time. After, I watched the first 45 minutes of Jurassic Park 3, but got too tired, so I'll finish it tomorrow night.

I was just happy to come out of this day alive and as a Jedi Breakfast Knight!

Day 52: Hot Hot Heat

This morning class was pushed back until 10. Unfortunately, Fes is even hotter now so walking at 9:15 would have been miserable. I was tired. I took a cab.

Strange interactions I had today with Moroccans:
- I saw a man with his half of his index finger up his nose while trying to sell groceries. Ewww
- I watched a man pick up a foot long stick and use it as an ear cleaner
- I saw a teenage Moroccan wearing a shirt that said "German and Sexy." He was neither.
- The man who charged me 6 dirhams for water in the morning charged me 8 in the afternoon. An excellent lesson in supply and demand (it was hot, I needed water, he had water) and understanding your clientele (he could tell I was too lazy to walk down the block and was willing to forgo the extra quarter).

I walked home for lunch, but then took a cab back. After class in the afternoon, I walked home. Because we have a week and a half of classes left before reading period, my only remaining work is my two final papers due May 29th and an Arabic final on May 24th.
When I went to the riad after class today, I watched 2 episodes of 30 Rock and the new modern family where they go to Disneyland and I laughed so hard.
After dinner, I skyped with my buddy Chris Gibson for an hour and with Maddie for an hour after that. There was no layover between conversations which was a little rough. It felt like running through an airport to catch your connection but without the airport and running parts, just the out of breath thing. Both of them are doing well.

After, I watched the new episode of Game of Thrones. It was great.
And to quote Forrest Gump, "That's all I have to say about that."

Day 42: FaceTime Live

Today was a day of rest. I slept in until 9:30, so I got 11+ hours of sleep last night! I can guarantee no one who is reading this got that much sleep last night, especially if you are between the ages of 13 and 60. Today was pastry day too, so I ate a croissant for breakfast. Then I got back in bed and watched 3 episodes of Game of Thrones. It may not sound fun to you, but I rather enjoyed myself. 

Lunch was tagine chicken and dates with apple and strawberries for dessert. Afterwards, I got back in bed and finished game of thrones. At 3, I took a taxi at school to meet up with Elle, Marissa, and Joe and then we did some shopping. We bought some wine to take with us to the dessert tomorrow and then walked back to the medina. I was hoping to get some gift shopping done today but because it is the day of worship, most shops were closed. We ended up going to the riad and Elle and I watched some of the movie Horrible Bosses. 

Afterwards I went home and had potato patties with stuff inside them that you cover in a tomato and onion spread and then put inside a piece of bread. It ends up being a sandwich within a sandwich aka inception sandwich. Then I did FaceTime with my sisters and mom. 

Live Blogging the FaceTime session:

10:21 - begin FaceTime

10:24 - FaceTime drops the call

10:25 - FaceTime gets the call again

10:31 - My mom got new sunglasses and a new plaid shirt from Old Navy. She shows them off

10:32 - She also has lost weight recently, so send her supportive emails and comment on how good she looks when you see her. Don't directly comment that she looks thinner but first mention that it looks like she might have gotten a hair cut recently or that the lighting frames her well. 

10:39 - Sarah leaves.

10:42 - Good quote from Amanda: "It's like I'm fat boothing my face without using Fat Booth"

10:45 - Another good quote from Amanda: "For some reason, I didn't think you were living in a real house." For the record, Amanda, mud huts tend to not be wi-fi enabled and I always Skype you from my comfy twin bed so deductive reasoning should have ruled out any possibility of me not living in a real house.

10:50 - My host mom comes in. I introduce them and then use my Arabic to 1) show off and 2) translate between the two parties. 

10:56 - Amanda and Mom recount having an intervention with Abigail about wearing deodorant more often

10:57 - Amanda: "No one had the heart to tell you that you wear the smelly kid in middle school"

10:57 - I shed a tear

10:59 - Mom asks why an old picture of me from Prom came up in her News Feed today. I explain it's because she has 95 friends and only 4 of them are people who actively use Facebook. Me, two sisters, and one other unfortunate soul

11:02 - FaceTime drops the call

11:03 - FaceTime resumes the call

11:06 - Mom "Go on Raider Net and see your sister!" Amanda "SHUT UP MOM!"

11:06 - In unison, "We can tell when your'e not looking"

11:07 - I admit to wearing the same pants for all 5 days this week

11:12 - Mom "You should wear you're travel pouch next week"

11:12 - Andrew "I'd really rather not"

11:14 - I come up with some bullshit excuse for signing off like "packing" or "it's 11:15 pm"

11:15 - Mom "Go check Raider Net" Amanda "Why would he ever want to go check Raider Net?"

11:15 - FaceTime is over

Yes, she did make faces like that the whole time we talked

Fun talking to you guys. I'll be sure to check Raider Net when I get a chance haha

Day 40: Friends with Benefits

This morning, I was so tired from staying up late studying that I accidentally squirted my body wash directly into my belly button. I'm not sure what kind of health effects this will lead to because I feel like the soap would kill any parasites that try to fester in it, but only time will tell. I'll let you know about any developments in the future and keep you updated on my progress in using Q-tips to get it out.

Arabic quiz went well this morning but the big focus of the day was on the midterm in the afternoon. It ended up being easier than expected but I wrote the wrong essay. I compared the protagonists's takes on the revolution in Year of the Elephant and Dreams of Trespass instead of Return to Childhood and Dreams of Trespass. It shouldn't be an issue though because I talked to Lla MJ about it and she said it was nbd so idc (if you don't know what this means, you are too old for this blog).

We were done early, so to celebrate, Elle, Marissa, and I ran back wine o'clock in the riad. We watched Friends with Benefits like we had wanted to on Sunday and laughed at the antics of Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis a fair amount. It was a nice way to unwind after a pretty stressful week. 

Afterwards, I went home and ate some spaghetti and some potato-beets-and-egg casserole. Lotfi has the first of his three interviews with Disney tomorrow to work at Disney World Orlando as a waiter so I worked with him for an hour on a cover letter/introduction, possible interviewing questions, and just to practice some higher level English and interviewing techniques. It was a fun way to hang out with my brother.

I spent the rest of the night Facebook chatting up the wazoo with friends back home. Maddie and I even got to talk on FaceTime for like 10 minutes, which was fun. I went to bed kind-of late.

Keep checking out the pictures I've put up. If you haven't, you're falling behind! Also if you've found yourself really enjoying my blog recently, share it with your friends. This is Post #50 and you all have propelled me to over 2000 page views in the 5 weeks I've been here! Tell your friends about it, tweet about it, make memes about it, send the link to your myspace friends, discuss it on 4chan, blitz it to your list servs, tell Perez Hilton to read it, make youtube response videos, and, most of all, keep reading!

http://www.andrewinmorocco.blogspot.com/

Thank you all for encouraging me to keep writing!

- Andrew

PS If you don't know how to do half the things I mentioned in that last sentence, I repeat: you are too old for this blog. Go ask Quora for some help. Wait, you don't know what that is either? Haha

Day 39: Labor Day

May Day is Labor Day in Morocco. All classes at ALIF were cancelled for the day, but Prof. Sadiqi still made us meet at 3 for her class. In the morning, I slept in until 10 and did some reading. Before lunch, I decided to take a 15 minute nap, but it turned into an hour and 15 minute nap. Whoops. We had a big plate of cous cous and it was nice to have everyone home for lunch because of no school/work.

After class at 3, I went to Cafe Scorpion with Joe, Alice, Christie, and Ron. The Berber tent we normally hang out in was full, so we had to sit at a table like normal people. I had a pretty bad case of the munchies so I ended up ordering fries and a drink. On our walk to the riad, I was still hungry so I got a tube of cheese Pringles from a new grocer I found who sells whole tubes for 25 dh and has 7 flavors (including the chili cheese, sea salt and vinegar, and cheese and onion varieties). Although I hadn't eaten any Pringles on Sunday or Monday, I ate the whole tube last night. Once again, whoops. 

Got some reviewing done in the riad before heading home. I didn't end up reading the whole 5th book; I read half, skimmed the rest, and reread the important articles. 

In other news, I started watching Season 2 of Game of Thrones. Sooooooo gooooooood. It makes watching tv fun again. Also, blitzmail was unexpectedly down all day, so sorry for not responding to my thousands of fan mail letters. Lastly, the most exciting news: I'm a trip leader again this year for Freshman Trips! I'm leading a canoeing trip on section G and a bunch of my friends are also leading trips on Section G. Maddie is leading a hiking trip on Section H too, so good news all around.

Day 38: How to Dress for Success in Morocco

The only thing to disrupt my usual Monday schedule of toast, walk, arabic, walk, lunch, walk, Lla Mj's class, walk, riad was a sandwich. Rather than eat lunch with my family, I had one of the best meals I've had in Fes for 20 dh. We went to a sandwich place stand in the medina where they cut open a thick piece of pita and stuff it with cheese, grilled chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, sauce, olives, and french fries. All the fries are on the top and all the chicken, melted cheese, and sauce linger for you at the bottom. It was eye-opening.

After 2 hours of Lla's class, I went to the riad to study for the midterm we have on wednesday. We have to read 5 books and a couple articles for it. I have read three of the books so far (I read one last night) and a few of the articles, so I have some work to do. I read the fourth book tonight and hope to read the 5th tomorrow.

I skyped with my mom today who was chilling at home cause she has been sick. I've surpassed the data limit on my wi-fi stick but I'm not going to buy more until after the midterm. It'll keep me from getting distracted between now and then.

To liven up this post, I'm gonna talk about how to dress like a cool kid in Morocco. The key is to never admit you are sweating. You have to always be wearing your skinny jeans and your jacket, no matter what. When it's 95 degrees out, you still don't take your jacket off. Jackets must be leather or lightweight athletic jackets. Layering jackets is crucial too, but at least one must be worn at all times.

They also have a pretty narrow view on skinny jeans (intentional pun). Firstly, if you can move around in your pants, you're not doing it right. Secondly, you only wear blue or black jeans and they must be bleached down the back of the legs. Lastly, ripped jeans are not acceptable but, on girls, booty jeans are. 

For what you wear under your jacket, it's either solid color v-necks or crew necks. If you're out of those, two-color muted striped shirts are suitable substitutes. The trump card is soccer jerseys. You can wear them whenever you want and with whatever color pants you want. For example, in Morocco, red and blue-striped Barca jerseys go great with green pants (just an example though, only blue and black jeans, remember?).

As far as hair is concerned, it must have more gel in it than a Grease character or a resident of East LA. If it's not standing up, please stay seated. Girls can only have long hair but boys can't; for them, it's either Maroc-hawks or short hair. Each of these have popular mullet and rat-tail variants. The standard Maroc-hawk comes in two forms: full hawk and back-less, but it is important to note that not all Maroc-hawks are required to be gelled. Maroc-hawkers can save money in the gel department, but have to spend it on more frequent hair cuts to maintain a good Maroc-hawk. As a result, the cost-benefit analysis is inconclusive and our American research team has not reached a consensus on which haircut we prefer. 

Finally, it's important to have nice kicks to pull the whole look together. Nikes and Adidas are key and you really have no excuse not to own them in a society where you can get knock-offs in any store. Wearing them lets everyone know that you're ready to play soccer whenever wherever, which is important in a city where you can turn the corner and find yourself in the middle of 11-on-11 alley soccer, . Loafers can be worn too when you want to look nice. For girls, it's sneakers and flats; you only wear heels when you're headed to the clubs.

My brother Lotfi demonstrating acceptable attire

Now that you know these tips that our team has accrued over the past 5 weeks, put on your best outfit and head into the medina. Because it's socially acceptable to wear the same outfit for more than three days in a row, all you need is money, to pay shoe-shiners, and a bottle of gel, to keep your hair up, and you can survive in the medina for weeks.

Day 37: DST

Today was a lazy sunday. Last night, Morocco "sprang forward" as a result of Daylight Savings Time so now the time difference is one hour greater from home (+5 hours from EST). I slept in until 10, which was really 11, and this kind of set the tone for the day. I turned down eggs in favor of toast for breakfast and watched some of Step Up 3 with Lotfi. I'm a bigger fan of Step Up 2: The Streets, but you get what you get and you don't get upset, especially when it's in English. I spent the rest of the morning watching 8 episodes of 30 Rock in bed. Lunch was at 2 pm and was noodles, olives, and chicken, all mixed together. After lunch, I met up with Marissa and Elle to do something fun. Unfortunately, it was raining and we were all tired, so we decided to just go to the riad and try to watch a movie. However, because of the time change, the riad opened an hour later than we expected. We couldn't get a movie to load on Netflix, so we spent 3 hours just hanging out. We went home at 7:30 and I decided to start doing work for the week. I read all of Tahar Ben Jelloun's The Sand Child, which I am presenting on this week. It is about a family of 7 girls. When the 8th child is born, the father decides, regardless of gender, the child will be a boy to the world. The story is told from the point of view of storytellers in a square in Marrakesh who read the story of the child from a diary the person left on their death bed. It was interesting how the narrative unfolded especially once Ahmed hit puberty and after the death of the father, who had been controlling this whole scheme. I worked on my presentation, watched some of "The Longest Yard" with my brothers, and then went to bed by midnight.

Not a very interesting post...

Putting up pictures tomorrow morning

Day 34: Trials

Today was a looooonnnnnngggg day. Shower, toast, walk to school was how I kicked things off. Then began a 8.5 hour day at ALIF. In Arabic, we had a big quiz but all of our fretting the past couple of days was for naught because it was pretty easy. I skipped going home for lunch and went to Casa Nostra with Christie, Tash, Joe, and Meredith so that I could spend some time studying for our Gender in the Medina midterm during the lunch break. We had the first 30 minutes of class to respond to one of two questions in a two-page essay. I think it went pretty well too. She lectured for the remainder of class, but at 4 o'clock we still weren't done. We had a guest lecturer, Prof. Sadiqi's husband, who was going to speak to us for an hour about language and education policy. While the talk was interesting, most of us were too burned out to really appreciate his lecture. He also spoke until 5:30, which didn't make matters any better. 

"Leap Day William" from the 30 Rock episode

Free from class, we decided to celebrate by having wine o'clock in the afternoon. Although there is no where we can really drink, this has never stopped a Dartmouth man before. We decided to discretely take mixed drinks into the riad and just hung out and listened to music. We played a fun game with the Leap Day episode of 30 Rock where we had to take a sip whenever they said "Leap Day." We ended up hanging out from 6 to 9 and all involved parties had fun. Afterwards, I went home for dinner and to Skype my friend Abby Cohen. We had a lot of fun talking, laughing, and catching up. Afterwards, I watched some more 30 Rock on my laptop, packed, and went to bed. 

Day 33: A Discourse on Pringles

Today was a rough day because of the presentation I had to give and all the studying I have to do for Thursday. While the presentation went well (I got an email after from her saying I did a good job!) and the studying has been coming along well too, I will just ignore discussing these facets of my day in this post.

Usual start to my day: toast, 7:30 wake-up, skipped a shower, walked to school. I got chided by some of the people on my program who get to take cold showers every other day for passing up the chance to take my daily hot shower! Arabic in the morning, lunch at the center, and then Lla Mary Jean's class in the afternoon. I got caught up on Modern Family and How I Met Your Mother during study breaks in the riad and at home. I skyped with Maddie for an hour but didn't really communicate much with America otherwise.

This post has been curt because I'm struggling. For weeks now, I have been falling into a downward spiral, a black hole, a dark chasm… addiction. I have become addicted to red tubes of Pringles since I got here, eating a small one for 10 dh every afternoon on the walk home. There are three Pringles dealers I usually go to: the food stand at school where they only sell the Red and Green small tubes for 10 dh, the Australian women on the walk home who also sells the Paprika variety but ups the price to 12 dh (I like to justify paying the higher price as paying for service in English), and, lastly, the grocer just outside the Riad who, if I can hold out for that long, sells a full tube for 22 dh and even has multi-grain sour-cream and onions Pringles. While I have stuck to consuming only the Red Pringles, I have since recategorized them as "gateway potato chips" because I have also developed a craving for the Cheddar Cheese flavor, one that I haven't been able to find. I have also seen other flavors such as a mysterious purple tube of unknown taste sensations and a Jalapeño flavor, but I don't think I have fallen far enough to try to eat those. 

I didn't realize I had a Pringle problem until yesterday when it dawned on me while making a duck bill with two chips. I realized that I had used the phrase "Once you pop, the fun don't stop" 6 times this week, which is six times more than you are allowed to say it in your whole life. I also realized my addiction developed as a coping mechanism with a tajine chicken diet and the lack of chicken tenders in my life. I've begun working with my host grandmother to help me overcome my problem, as she used to be addicted to raw artichoke. This explains why she never eats it when we have it for lunch, which I had attributed to her being an old wise women who had realized decades ago that artichoke is not meant to be eaten raw. 

Never Again, Mr. Pringles

I'll let you know how my recovery goes. In the mean time, I've got a midterm tomorrow to study for. Anything to keep my mind of that salty crunch.

Day 32: The Baguette Strikes Back

Unfortunately, this post has nothing to do with Star Wars; I have just been dying to make a Star Wars reference.

Today was not a good day food-wise. The return of goat milk yesterday should have been seen as an omen of bad news to come. At breakfast today, I had my choice of day-old khubz (bread) or the dreaded baguette. On the bright side, my parents ate breakfast with me. I just drowned my sorrow in nutella and tried to move on with my day.

In Arabic, we learned a lot of really useful phrases and verb conjugations today to help us better express our wants, as in I want to play soccer with you(ana bgheet nlAb lkara maAk), you want to buy a kilo of tomatoes (n'ta bgheetee tshree kilo dyal taneesha), and we don't want to go to school (Hna mabgheenash nmshaaoo l'mddrasa).

Unfortunately, I did not tell my family "ana mabgheetsh n'kool heut." As you try to struggle through that last sentence, Spoiler Alert: this story ends with me eating fried sardines for lunch. I politely ate half of one and just ignored the rest. The fruit salad for dessert made up for it though.

Taken from google images. Fortunately, there weren't this many on my plate

Class in the afternoon was interesting and I followed it up with some time in the riad doing more readings. I have two more articles left. Unfortunately, they are 50 and 90 pages each. I watched a hilarious episode of Modern Family as a study break and also skyped with my friend Paul Finklestein back at Dartmouth. Most of the night was spent finishing my write-up for Year of the Elephant because I had to do some outside research about Islamic Feminism.

Lastly, in travel news, plans to travel to Spain this weekend have been nixed. Instead, Marissa, Elle, and I are going to travel to the beach town of Asilah on Friday. It's like 50 km south of Tangiers and supposed to be gorgeous. We're leaving on Friday during the day day and coming back on Saturday night, so we can hammer out work on Thursday and Sunday. Should be a pretty low-key, recovery weekend at the beach.

Day 31: Tired

It's hard to get back at 8 o'clock on Sunday from a great weekend like that and not feel completely exhausted. Rather than try to resist, I embraced my lack of energy and spent the whole day in a groggy state of affairs.
Breakfast was more toast and some goat milk. Arabic was long. I walked all four directions to and from school. Lunch was tagine with carrots and some fruit salad for dessert. I managed to dodge a bullet in the afternoon and didn't have to do my presentation on Welcome to Paradise because we watched a powerpoint about Orientalist art. It's European artwork that's not nearly as fun to look at because the women in the paintings aren't allowed to be naked.
This week is going to be hard because it's midterms period. Ranting for a minute:
Tuesday - 3 page paper due summarizing my Year of the Elephant presentation from last week
Wednesday - Welcome to Paradise Presentation
Thursday - Arabic Quiz and Gender in the Medina midterm (have to read 220 pages of articles before then)
Monday - Sand Child presentation
Wednesday - Arabic Quiz and Lla MJ's midterm and Welcome to Paradise 3 page paper due

Not sure if Spain is going to happen this weekend because this week has the brunt of the work on the program. As much as it pains me to say it, work takes precedence over adventures. As a result, I spent 3 hours doing readings in the riad this afternoon, spent some time after dinner working on my write-up and refining my presentation for wednesday, and am dreading the rest of the afternoons and nights between now and Thursday. Sorry for the depressing write-up. Don't worry it's not that time of month for me. Here's a silly picture to make up for it.

Day 24: The Day to Day

Exhausted after a fun weekend, I slept well. Lla Fatima surprised me by giving me toast again for breakfast. I walked to school with the usual crew and made it in time for Arabic class. Arabic has been getting a lot harder because the volume of what we have learned has started to explode as we have begun to learn verb tenses, verbs, and their conjugations. I went home for an artichoke-free lunch and then walked back to school by myself. I put on my djellaba with my headphones underneath and had a very introspective walk back. This week, we have four classes with Lla MJ to make up for having four classes with Prof. Sadiqi last week.

After class, Christie and I went to Maroc Telecom so she could buy a wi-fi stick and I could get mine fixed. Turned out, it has a data limit of 3GB per 200 dh so I had used all that up. I've got internet back though, so I'm happy to spend the money. We then went to the riad where I got some work done and skyped Mom and Amanda. They caught me up on what's going on at home and revealed to me the details for our June 2nd to June 11th trip to the Galapagos!

Afterwards, I went home and read some Scar Tissue after dinner. I have a presentation tomorrow on The Year of the Elephant so I spent some time preparing for it too.

If you still haven't checked them yet, check out the pictures I put up from the weekend.

Day 18: Rituals

I started my day off the usual way with baguette, nutella, and a shower. I walked to school, enjoyed Arabic class, and then was supposed to head home for lunch. However, Elle, Meredith, Tash, and Alice were going to Casa Nostra for lunch and I was craving some melted cheese so I joined them. I didn't realize until I got my dish that Moroccans don't really include cheese in typical Moroccan dishes. I think it is a relic from times before they had cows, which also explains the lack of good beef/steak options. Anyways, I had some delicious four cheese penne before returning to school for some computer time before class. 

Professor Sadiqi's class was very interesting today. It was about the four major rituals in Fes area. The first three were birth, baptism, and the Achoura Feast (the commemoration of the assassination of Mohammed's grandson Husayn that caused the split between Sunnis and Shiites). The last was a yearly cherry festival in a town near Fes. We discussed the role women play in each one of these. In the first three, the woman plays a crucial role and is somewhat celebrated. At birth, men are not allowed to see the baby for the first seven days. The mother and baby spend this time together in a room with the two grandmothers. Starting on the second day, other women can come to see the baby and to celebrate the mother's accomplishment. It is not until the second ritual, the baptism, that men get to see the baby. Even though the man has the honor of publicly proclaiming the baby's name for the first time, the mother still receives special treatment and is focused on more than the father is throughout the day's festivities. Thirdly, during the Achoura Feast, which is almost like a Moroccan Christmas because most of the funeral aspects have been forgotten, women cover themselves in henna and visit other women for tea throughout the day. The cherry festival, however, serves as an example of how when women's rituals are brought to the public sphere, they become skewed. The festival includes a Miss Cerisette contest (named for the type of cherry) where a jury of women chooses a winner; however, while that process is pure, during the parade and the rest of the festival, the sentiment Prof. Sadiqi expressed to us is that the woman is objectified as a sexual icon, rather than feeling like she has value.

After class, I went home for an hour before going to the riad for three hours with Ariel, Joe, and Meredith. I did some homework at the riad, relaxed, and listened to music. I came home for dinner at 8. We had spaghetti and tomato sauce. Lotfi spent the night out last night and Driss has been gone for a couple of days at an uncle's house, so I was home alone. I watched the movie, The Illusionist, on my computer and finished the Steve Jobs book. The movie, a drama with a hint of romance, is based off a short story about an illusionist at the start of the 20th century who wins the heart of the Prince of the Hapsburg Empire's fiancé and goes about faking her death so that they can run away together. It was a solid movie and nice way to spend some time alone. I also really enjoyed the Steve Jobs biography and am a little unhappy that I finished it so quickly. Some internet research turned up an interview with the author, Walter Issacson, where he said that this is only the first draft of the book, so that gives me something to look forward to over the coming years. Tomorrow, I plan on starting Tucker Max's I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell, a raunchy New York Times Bestseller about a playboy-type figure's debaucherous exploits in high school, college, and law school. It's supposed to be pretty entertaining and should be a complete change of pace from the celebration of life that I just read.

That's what I know. Staying healthy and didn't have to eat any more artichoke today. Check out the pictures I put up this morning and linked to two posts ago.