So. I realize it’s been forever since I’ve updated. Sorry about that. But here is an extra-long post, or maybe several, about everything since last Wednesday.

First of all, I came home Wednesday to no stove and fridge, so I borrowed Kelly’s and cooked some food for Olga and myself.

Thursday after class I went to Hassan Tower. It was supposed to be this huge mosque with the tallest minaret in the world…but it was never finished. It’s pretty awesome, though. I enjoyed walking around. We were there for the call to prayer, and it gave me a chance to ask Mohammad, the guy who does the excursions, about prayer in Islam. I learned that they say the same thing every time, but for the 5 different prayer times they say it a different number of times. And all this in Arabic! It’s amazing how much more you learn when you’re surrounded by people who speak it all the time. Not that people on the street speak Modern Standard Arabic (Fus’ha), but that’s what the teachers speak around the school, even outside of class, and all the other students as well. And Mohammad’s English, though pretty good and definitely better than my Arabic, isn’t great, so he does his tours in Arabic (fus’ha). He speaks slowly and clearly with simple vocab, and I usually understand most of what he says. Sometimes if there’s a student who’s fluent in fus’ha who also speaks English, ze will translate, but I really prefer when I try to speak with Mohamma in fus’ha. It makes me happy when I can understand, and even happier when I can translate for other student, especially those in Beginner 1 who are just starting to learn the alphabet.

Thursday evening we came back to a fridge! And a stove! And a clean room! But…Olga’s jeans were missing. And this was a mushkil kabir jeden. They were literally nowhere to be found, and believe me, we looked. So she called Adil, the school director, who said they would deal with it on Friday.

Friday was some people’s last days, including Olga, Chris, Tifen, and Alberta. After lunch, Chris and Olga cajoled me into going to the beach. I’m so glad I went. We got an umbrella (thanks Chris) and beach chairs (thanks Olga), and just lay on the beach for a couple hours. It was heavenly. I got tan- I am reclaiming my African roots, mainly the large amounts of melanin that is my birthright. Then we came back to the school for Olga to talk to Adil again about the jeans- it was a very big deal to him that something was stolen from a student residence. After they got all that sorted out, we went back to the dorms. And our room had been cleaned. Again. But still, no pants. But luckily nothing else was missing.

There was a small get-together at the old school to say goodbye to people, so Olga and I got ready and headed over to that. As we were waiting for the taxi, Olga got a call from Alberta…she had found a mysterious pair of jeans in her room. The transformation was magical- she was literally jumping up and down in the street. We went to Alberta’s room and they were indeed Olga’s pants. And she was excited. Our best guess is that when they cleared some plastic trash out of our room, they picked up the pants with it by accident, and then dropped them when they were cleaning Alberta’s room (which is in another building, mind you). Then, they found them in there and assumed they belonged in there. So. Problem solved. The cleaning ladies do not steal, and I no longer feel the need to put a sign on my door asking people not to clean.

We went to the old school, and Chris, Michael, Olga, and I went to dinner. I got some really good spaghetti. Then we went back and hung out for a while. I was my friend Samuela, who is pretty sick. She’s lactose intolerant, and the host family gave her some food with milk anyway, and then she went to the doctor, and the medicine he gave her apparently had lactose in it. So that was awesome. She got other medicine, now, and she’s doing a little better, but still.

Then, when Olga and I got back, Kelly came and knocked on our door. She’s been feeling off ever since we went to Fes, and had been to the doctor once already- he had given her some antibiotics. Friday night she was having bad heartburn that was spreading through her chest, so she called Adil to take her to the clinic again. Olga offered to go with, since Kelly doesn’t speak French, and if she had to get certain tests done Adil would have had to wait outside since he was a man. Good thing Olga went, because apparently Kelly had typhoid fever. She had been told the last time but didn’t really understand. So she got some other medicine to help her stomach and she’s feeling a lot better now.

So, that’s everything up until Friday night. Tomorrow, I’ll post about my weekend in Marrakesh- it was really really fun.

To my grandparents: I made it home safe and sound from Marrakesh! And I felt safe the whole time. =D

Tomorrow, look for a full update about the whole weekend, plus probably an update about the Exotic Gardens tomorrow.

Much love,
Aisha