Wool blankets are heaven

Well, as I mentioned earlier this is bound to be a busy week and it’s proving to be nothing less than expected. Arabic class for three hours a day can be really tiring, but I really feel like I’m being challenged and it’s a nice change from lecture-style classes that typically include loads of reading assignments and paper after paper to write. I forgot how difficult it is to learn a new language…the last time I felt this clueless was the first week or so at Belgian primary school (though I think that was actually sheer terror). I’m still in that stage where someone will talk to me on the street and I’ll either freeze up or answer in French. I’ve made a few random friends on my route to school, so those are always ideal people to try out my new phrases with. We’re still learning Darija (Moroccan dialect) in class, but next week we switch to Fus’ha (modern standard) for the remainder of the semester. I’m in a class with five other people, so it’s small enough to not be intimidating, but large enough so I don’t always feel like Hannan, the instructor, is picking on me. As for Hannan…she deserves a gold medal for putting up with all of us. After about two hours in class we start to get a little disheartened when we’re still not pronouncing things correctly and have to repeat it for the umpteenth time in a row, but she’s probably the most patient person I have ever met and no matter what, she still keeps smiling. I think I’m starting to get back into this whole Arabic thing, but every once in awhile I make one of those stupid mistakes…just today I accidently said “I ate romantic for dinner” instead of “I ate pasta for dinner." Oops, my bad.
As for my homestay…I love it! I’m constantly coming up with new ways of keeping myself from freezing to death in the middle of the night, and curling up with a hot water bottle has proved to be the most efficient. Mama Z (as I have now started to call Zakia, but not to her face) makes me tea nonstop (in the morning, after class, before dinner, after dinner, when friends are over, etc) and the food has drastically improved since the sardine incident of ’09. Now she keeps trying to serve me bananas, but I’ve managed to keep these attempts at bay. I’ve definitely been luckier than half of the people in my group who have already had some form of stomach issue/food poisoning…it was a close call when I ate chicken liver the other day, but I’m doing a-ok. And it’s going to stay that way. And I totally didn’t mean to rhyme there. Mama Z also told me to pick an evening that I don’t really have much going on, and I can have a little party at the house for the people in my program. I’m assuming it will involve ridiculous amounts of tea and cake, and that sounds pretty amazing to me.
We had a seminar today to get us thinking about our Independent Study Projects (ISP) and I think I might be sticking with my original idea of researching reconciliation and mediation attempts by the government in regards to the Years of Lead, under the previous king, Hassan II. I know that I definitely want to focus on some sort of human rights issue, which also leads me to the other possibility of exploring the situation in Western Sahara (um, I mean, Moroccan Sahara). This might prove to be more difficult however, as travel into that area is limited (it all depends on whether the US Embassy will let me go) and contacts for interviews are harder to come by. I guess I’ll just have to see where my prep work leads me!
Well it’s time for me to snuggle under mounds of blankets, but I’ll post another update soon. We’re headed to Fes and Meknes this weekend so I’m sure to have plenty to report!
Also, sorry the pictures haven’t posted yet…I’m trying my hardest to get them to upload but the internet’s a little iffy. Bear with me please, I’ll post them ASAP.