Morocco Pictures

Rick's Cafe in Casablanca

The Hassan II Minaret

Hassan II Mosque

Leather Slippers in Marrakech

Morocco!

i spent the last week in morocco with a group of students from auc and had an incredible time-- we visited casablanca, rabat, and marrakech.

CASABLANCA
as soon as i got off the plane i started singing 'as time goes by' in honor of the movie--however, sad to say, casablanca doesn't have the cool hats, humphrey bogart, or piano bars, AND it's in color. what a disappointment. what casablanca DOES have is the third largest mosque in the world: the hassan II. with the tallest minaret in the world, the hassan II was absolutely stunning. it sits right on the atlantic ocean, and with the symmetrical columns and open courtyards you can feel that it is an incredibly spiritual place. we all spent ours just sitting on the ground looking at the colorful marble mosaics that line the ceilings and walls, and enjoying the fresh air from the sea.

the actual CITY of casablanca, however, could not be farther from the peacefulness of the mosque. in fact, it's sort of the detroit of morocco. gross. parts of the old city are pretty--but in general, the city is dangerous, industrial, and um, dangerous. one of the guys in our group got his pants sliced open in two places with a knife and then had to run through the market place screaming to keep the guy from stealing his camera. fun? not so much. but it was an experience, none the less. oh, and since we were in casablance for the last day of ramadan and the first day of eid, the city was essentially closed. sigh.

RABAT
rabat, however, is a gorgeous city. we visited the king's palace and an unfinished mosque--i'm starting to really love islamic art and architecture. the geometrical symmetry, the vibrant colors, and the amazing detail work make me want to spend hours just looking at the ceilings alone. we then went to the cazbah, which used to be where the pirates suppposedly lived but is now a place for artists. morocco is particularly famous for their ceramics, wood work, and the beautiful mosaics that line every building. the cazbah's tight winding alleyways were incredibly cool and well ventilated--and the blue and white of the buildings apparently kept mosquitos away. we had tea and pastries overlooking the city and the ocean.

MARRAKECH
this was by FAR the most incredible part of the trip. the city itself is beautiful--all the buildings are an earthy red, and most have mosaics inside. it was pouring our first day there which was very exciting for a bunch of students who haven't seen rain in months and months--so we decided to walk about forty minutes to the sooq or market. the markets in marrakech are REALLY fantastic. there are acrobats and monkey tamers and snake charmers and everyone looks like a jedi. i should explain that. the traditional dress is a long, hooded robe--almost identical to the ones used in star wars (which was filmed in neighboring tunisia). but the best part of the ensemble are the leather, pointed moroccan slippers that come in a variety of bright colors--you'll see an old man in a plain robe with hot pink slippers. it's pretty hysterical. and the markets themselves were just amazing--there were spices, and scarves, and jewelry, and lanterns, and shoes, and daggers, and plates... we spent days in the market alone.

AND, i got to speak french again since moroccan arabic is absolutely unintelligible. even the egyptians on the trip couldn't communicate in arabic. moroccan arabic is a weird mix of french, arabic, and berber. oh, and there are no vowels to speak of which makes the language pretty ugly in general. but french worked really well.

anyway, i have midterms this week, i'm going to mount sinai next weekend, and nick comes shortly after that! time here has just been flying by--i really can't believe i'm halfway done.

sorry for the long time no post.

in colloquial class yesterday, our ustatha ran out of things for us to do so we just practiced pronouncing words that are essentially unpronouncable. and when she said the word 'ghel' and said it was uncle and then the word 'ghel' and said it was a question word, i made the mistake of asking her what the difference was. she then leaned over her desk slightly, stared me right in the eyes, and made a sound analogous to a choking dinosaur. this sound lasted about a full minute (i guess she really wanted to make a point), in the mean while the rest of the class is laughing openly and i'm sitting in my seat incredibly uncomfortably. after she made me make various attempts at creating this unpleasant sound, which (surprise, surprise) i can't, class was finished.

i realize that i haven't told you very much about our english classes. i have 3 things i want to cover: our students id pictures, the homework, and the best class ever.
1) all of our students had to turn in pictures for id cards--they just needed to be passport size, with names written on the back. however, most of them must have gone to the photo place nearest to campus which does 'glamour shots.' needless to say, we have a bunch of pictures of very serious sudanese and sri lankan men with smiley faces and exploding flowers all over the background. i cracked up when i was passing the id cards back, and they all said 'we know we have the stupid girl picture!' hahaha.
2) we were covering 'i can ____' in class the other day, and we had them write sentences about what they can and can't do. much to my delight, one of the students wrote this: "I can speak English quite well, but I can't spell. Can you spell parlamint? No I can't I'm sorry. My seplling is very poor. I can also sink but I can't sing." I'm still not really sure what he meant by the last part, but it was amusing none the less.
3) I decided to bring in "for the longest time" by billy joel when we were doing our lesson on superlatives. i printed out the lyric sheet, and we read through it pointing out words that they didn't know. i then pushed play, and proceded to sing a billy joel song with a group of refugees in egypt. it really wasn't something i had ever thought i would do in my life. and who would've thought billy joel would be such a huge hit? the next class four people had bought "the billy cassette" and three others had asked to borrow my cd (i'm burning cds for them). anyway, they want me to bring in one song a week. and i think i will.

yup. that pretty much sums it up.

just one of those days.

you know those days where cars seem to swerve into you, and you run out of milk...and bread...and cereal...and juice, and you get hissed at just a little more often?

well, not to complain, but EVERYTHING today has just gone a little wrong. i am currently in my room waiting for more things to turn on me. i started the day off well, memorized some vocabulary, went to my 7:30am class, and then fell down an entire flight of stairs. other than a big bruise on my back, and the dignity that will never be recovered, i'm fine. then, i went to buy dry-erase markers for my english class. it was 7.50, and i paid with a ten. but they didn't have change, so they wouldn't sell me the markers. argh. i started my long trek home. and, as i looked a cranky old man on a bike right in the eye, he ran straight into me. when i finally made it home, i got into the elevator, leaned against the wall... and then remembered that i had seen the janitor there this morning, cleaning the walls with his spit.

i'm sorry it's been so long updating. i've been trying to get ahead on schoolwork, and finish an article for a korean newspaper on my cruise in upper egypt. i will be taking some pretty exciting trips in the next month, but they coincide with midterms, so i'm doing what i can.

so far, i'm going on a five day trip to morocco at the end of this month (we're spending time in casablanca and marrakech), and the weekend after that i'm going to climb mount sinai with some egyptian students--which will be incredible. but, until then, my life is just not that interesting. although, i am in egypt, so i have that going for me.

oh english...

i just had my first english class... what a trip. i'll write more about that later, but i just wanted to post an email i got immediately after from one of my students. The subject was: "Information for good lovely and HAPPY TEACHERS!"

Dear Teachers,

With due respect and honor I am here by emailing you all my great attitudes concerning my education,may be God is great I have missed my BACHELOR DEGREE NOT COMPLETED due to conflict in the Country Sudan and if I may get a chance through your direction for the way I can completed it it could be good as Mollie said she may try.

Now I am carring only University I.D Card I waiting for your positive response and your measure is highly appreciated.

I am too happy for Star English which I am learning now and I hope every body is too happy for that.

THANKS

lost in translation

as you know, it's ramadan.. which means decorations, celebrating at night, weird hours, and lots of fasting. which means that people are getting a little loopy.

for example, i asked one of the guards how he was doing. he said, and i quote: " my head is cut off my head, and up there, with hunger... you know that, yes?" yes, yes i do.

tex-mex night was really fun but not really, well, mexican. which is not a surprise. we had an unlimited amount of great food that they thought was mexican because they served tortilla chips with everything. ha. but it was delicious, and there was a dance floor, and bad music, and margaritas. it was a fun night.

i also underwent teacher training on saturday and start teaching a class of thirty tomorrow! i decided that this is really going to be a blast. they said we have complete freedom to create our own activities and bring in songs that we think teach various aspects of english. i'm thinking of 'here, there, and everywhere' to teach locations. i'm so excited about this, i have my textbook and the students' notebooks, and i am busy making lesson plans with the my co-teacher. if anyone has any fun suggestions to make learning vocabulary or grammer fun, i would LOVE to hear what you have to say.

oh, and things all over the apartment are breaking. i started a bad trend with the kettle, and now our water heater and freezer have both pooped out. but it's ok, the electrician said he'd fix it this week... so if we take into account 'egypt time,' we have hot water sometime next month.