So, this week has been fairly uneventful. On Monday, Kelly, Ale, and I walked to Label Vie, a mall-type place. Ale got lunch in the food court, and I had a fresh pineapple juice, which was good. Then we went to the grocery store part. I got enough food to last me through next week, including a lot of groceries. Afterwards, I just went back to the dorm, did work, hung out, etc.

Tuesday was the excursion to the Exotic Gardens. I don’t know if I would call them exotic, but they were really nice. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=125143&id=725549275&l=72648db96d I think hibiscus are my new favorite flower. They’re EVERYWHERE here. People use them as hedges lining the walls of their property. I would pick some and put them in my room, but a lot of the buildings here are embassies and embassy residences, and I don’t want to start World War 3. Also, the cleaning ladies would probably throw them out. They are so thorough. They do things I would expect, like make the bed, sweep, clean the bathroom and the sink, but they also wash your dishes, fold all clothes, straighten the desk, take out the trash, etc. It’s nice, but a little annoying- they throw away all my bottles, one of which was the Coca Cola bottle with Arabic script that I was saving. So anything I don’t want thrown away I put in my suitcase now.

Wednesday I stuck around after class because there was a lecture on the beginning of Islam. It was really really interesting. My teacher, Samir, was the one who gave it. It was in Arabic, but obviously he used basic vocabulary and talked really slowly. It was so interesting! I’m really excited to go back to Stanford and take more classes on Islam, as well as other religions.

Yesterday was the excursion to the Royal Palace. I was going to go, but I decided not to at the last minute. I was just really tired, so I headed back to the dorm and did my homework and talked to some friends. Apparently you need to show your passport to get into the Royal Palace…I’m not sure why. I went to another goodbye party, but I was so tired I came home soon after I got there and was in bed by 11:30.

Today class was really fun. He always asks us what we did the day before and if we have any news, and Kelly brought up Sotomayor. We talked about her for a while, and how good it was that the American government is slowly getting diversified. So that was really interesting. That lasted like an hour. And then, we were doing the conditional, and he asked, “If you were president, what would you do?” Elena, who is American, said she would throw Bush in jail. And Hanane, who’s Moroccan and Belgian, said, “That’s not fair, because he was fairly elected by the American people.”

And I could not let that pass. So I said, “Mumkin…”, maybe. And then Kelly and I tried to explain the American political system and the electoral college. In Arabic. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life. But it was interesting. I don’t know how much the other students got it, but I think everyone got a kind of basic idea.

I enjoy class the most when we just talk about random stuff. It’s certainly more fun than grammar, and it’s a very organic way to learn vocab. For example, we learned the word for “to get dressed” from our vocab list the other day. And also the word freedom, because Maha, the girl on the DVD, was talkin about how her parents don’t give her the freedom to wear whatever she wants. And then we started talking about whether or not we thought people should have complete freedom to wear whatever they wanted, an interesting topic in a Muslim country, I think. There are two girls in our class who are Muslim, one born and one convert, and neither of them wear hijab. They do dress fairly modestly, though. And our teacher is Muslim and he said that his mother and sister wear hijab, but that to him, wearing hijab is not necessary. We pretty much all agreed that people should be able to wear whatever they want, although one girl said that she thought uniforms in schools are a good idea because then no one gets made fun of. But then someone brought up the fact that there should be at least some laws governing clothing or people would walk around naked all the time- we all agreed we don’t want to see all that. And then that lead to talking about things like naked bike rides in Belgium. It’s so random, but related to class, and a very good way to learn new vocab. Apparently Elena had always wanted to know the word for naked, but wasn’t sure how to ask, but now she knows! =)

Tomorrow morning I’m going to Tangier and Chefchaouen with Sarah, a high schooler from Pennsylvania, and Kelsey, a girl from Texas who converted to Islam a few months ago and wears hijab. I’m interested to talk to her and find out her story. And I’m also really glad it’s just 3 of us so that we can be more flexible. We’re meeting at the train station at 7, getting into Tangier around 12:30, grabbing lunch there and walking around a little, and then getting a bus to Chefchaouen. When we get to Chefchaouen, we’ll walk around there, and also try to figure out if there are buses that leave regularly back to Rabat. If not, we’ll catch a bus back to Tangier and a train to Rabat. We’ll see. We’re very flexible. I’m very excited because in the Tangier region, since it’s so close to Spain, Spanish is more common than French! And I love Spanish. And I miss it. So I plan on using that a lot.

I was planning on going to Spain by ferry, but I think I’d rather spend my time exploring Morocco, as I don’t know when I’ll be back here, but I plan on going to Spain for part of junior year. Actually, I’ll probably take the ferry down here for a little. I really like it here, and I might come back some other time to keep studying my Arabic. I’m really impressed by the Center- if anyone is looking for somewhere to study Arabic, I fully endorse the Qalam wa Lawh Arabic Center in Rabat, Morocco. Talk to me if you want more details!

I’m excited because today I paid for a trip to the Sahara next weekend! We’re leaving on Friday morning and coming back on Sunday. I think it’s going to be a blast.

Alright, that’s all for now. Look for more on Sunday or Monday when I write about my time in Chefchaouen!