Huna wa Daba (here and now)

In honor of my one-week anniversary with al Maghreb, I've decided it's time to get down to it and write something in English. I hope you'll forgive the "travel diary" nature of this blog, but it seems a number of people are for some reason interested in what I do here. So rather than suck the life out of my loved ones with unending monster-paragraph emails, I'll relay some of the daily happenings here. Read on if you dare...or are terribly bored at work (ahem-Alexa).

I'll organize this post into 3 sections that essentially amount to events (stuff I've done), random occurrences (stuff that happened), and issues (the deep stuff). This way you won't get lost.

Stuff I've done:
The first few days was orientation with the other Fulbrighters, so I spent my time listening to experts on a number of Moroccan topics, including a security briefing that was either terribly misinformed and overly cautious or a superbly dry sort of sarcasm. I listened or feigned it when necessary. I also rediscovered the most joyous part of Rabat- friends coming by or bumping into you in the street! My good friend from two years ago, Simo, surprised me with a visit to my hotel to take me and some tag alongs to a hookah place. It was delightful and energizing and made me all the happier to be here. What a great start. Simo rules.

On Wednesday, the rest of the group left for Fes for an optional 5 week orientation, leaving me to the gems of Rabat- Liza, Jory and Anna. See if you can keep up: Liza and Jory studied with me here in 2006. Liza returned in 07 as a Fulbrighter and has been living with another 07 Fulbrighter, Anna. Jory was here for a vacation from DC. And the combination is perfect. If the Moroccan chef Shamisa could concoct a more perfect tagine than LizaJorAnna, I have yet to see it. We have spent the last several days exploring Rabat, listening slash singing to music at the beach, visiting old friends including my host family, getting our nails done at a posh french salon, sleeping in and generally having fun and relaxation bizaf. I have the great fortune to be able to stay at Liza and Anna's gorgeous Agdal (a neighborhood in the ville nouvelle) apartment until I'm no longer homeless and these gracious hostesses have truly made me feel at home.

I've also seen old Moroccan friends including Saad, who just studied abroad in West Virigina (I know, WTF???) for a year and my amazing professor and recommender extraordinaire, Said. Plus this business of making new Moroccan friends by following Jory's lead and talking to anyone and everyone, usually punctuated by gregarious bursts of laughter that would make Lucifer want to be your pal. Jory has an amazing knack for putting people at ease and energizing them at the same time. I have learned so much already from her adventurous and warm approach to micro foreign relations. And now I have a phone full of numbers.

Now it's on to the apartment hunt and Arabic tutoring....see upcoming posts.

Stuff that happened:
I've been called a Spayeez Gurrl again (yessssss!) and got blisters from walking too much. The ocean has sprayed me, my Arabic is slowly increasing shuia b'shuia (little by little) and tiny medina kittens have cried and simultaneously broken my cold American heart. And no one can stop thinking or talking about Sarah Palin. I prefer the topic of Morocco. It's less depressing.

The deep stuff:
There are tons of Americans and other standard non-Moroccans EVERYWHERE! The study abroad programs here have doubled in size and the city is generally a little more, dare I say, Western. Not sure what this means or how I feel about it so far. Will defer to Eduaord Said for now and get back to my own interpretation of Orientalism another day.

Most Moroccans are still very poor. Compared to what? What to do? How do we know? What does that mean, exactly, for them? for me? for us?

Sometimes Moroccan friends can still be a little too, how you say.... enthusiastic. It will be an interesting task to keep new friends (particularly men) at bay whilst (that's right, I said whilst) encouraging them to be my friend. Again, this topic has not yet fully congealed and will have to be revisited. We'll see how many messages I have on my phone when I finish this post. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I'm the most popular girl in Rabat or some sort of socialite. It's just that sometimes you meet people here and they think they should immediately call you every five minutes to see if you're interested in being best friends forever. There's no playing hard to get here. Which in the long run can be annoying, but is ok for now as I would definitely prefer not to have to chase after anyone to be my friend.


More is most certainly to come, but for now please just know that life here is a) exciting; b) cuddly and warm; and c) all that I wished for and more. So far so good.