morocco round 2

 Hello all,

So here is my update way long overdue. To be fair, I do not have internet readily available. My host family has internet, but the concept of typing it on a French keyboard would be painful to both me and you all, so I decided it was better to wait.

This update took a lot of time I’ll have you know, mostly because the internet here at the welcoming center is very slow, especially considering there’s about 40 other pcv’s who are desperate for internet.

Things are going really well here. For those of you who didn’t know training happened in the city Fes, and while most of the other PCV’s headed off to other towns and cities in the surrounding area I got selected to be the guinea pig group for the first time in the city of Fes. Fes is a city of about 1-2 million people depending on where you look and who you’re talking too. I live in the neighborhood of zohour which is very busy. I live right off a street that has a market (known as souq) every day from about 4-12am. It gets noisy. There's a picture below with explanations so you can see the differences.  Things start picking up around 4:30- people selling vegetables and fruit out of the back of little flatbeds attached to motorcycle or these two wheeled pushed tables. The fruits and vegetables here are great. I love them so much. There are so many new things to try and taste- my favorite fruit is definitely a cactus fruit called Hendia- it’s green and sweet and incredible juicy. The only downside is there’s a ton of seeds, you just have to ignore them. In general there’s a ton of fresh fruits and vegetables here, and although the food is often based around or cooked with meat, it’s been very easy being a vegetarian here.  You, the audience at home, can make a very easy Moroccan dish! We had it last night and it was delicious; take rice, raisins, sliced apples and banana’s, and cut up dates and put them cold in the bowl then blend up 1 large avocado 2 small banana’s and a liter of milk then blend them up with a decent amount of sugar then pour that over the rice and fruit mixture. Yum. I plan on making this in the summer but adding some more stuff like nuts and maybe strawberries.

The food here is fantastic and the coolest thing about it all is that at meals everyone eats from one communal dish, more often then not without utensils. You use your right hand only though, because with Turkish toilets, you use your left hand to do your business. (I am luckily enough to have a western toilet in my house though). I am also in carbo-overload, they do not shy away from bread- known as xubz- my host mom makes ours herself, but we usually run out faster then she can make it, and it’s really easy to buy more right outside our door. Since I’ve been here I’ve helped make a biscotti type cookie, as well as help the upstairs neighbors make peanut butter ball cookies for an upcoming wedding.

My days are mostly occupied by language classes where I’m learning Dirija (Moroccan Arabic) Shwiya beh shwiya- or little by little as they say here. There’s a lot of consonants placed together in this language (take the verb to work for an example- xdm) so it’s part luck, part memorization and part slaving your mouth into making the sounds. I am really excited to be learning another language, but man was it easier when I was 16. The best part for me so far is learning the Arabic script. It’s been a dream of mine to learn Arabic since 2002- so I’m using this opportunity to at least get the alphabet under my belt. Besides language classes, there’s a lot of sitting in the living room studying, procrastinating studying and going out shopping with my host mom for dinner supplies. I’m looking forward to upcoming Sundays off where I can hopefully travel to other Peace corps volunteers sites and visit somewhere besides Fes. Don’t get me wrong, Fes is great , but it’s nice to see somewhere less urban then this big city. Last weekend going to Sefrou with my family was definitely a breath of fresh air, no car horns, kids crying or yelling neighbors below. Also getting to walk around amongst trees was an incredible soul rejuvenation.

I worked really hard to not have expectations when coming over to Morocco, which is good, but it was hard not to. Expectations are hard to live up to, and so far I don’t know if my expectations can even fit into my experience here. Morocco is way more developed then I had imagined a peace corps country would be.  I have access to  western toilets, American television, washing machines, let alone the running water and electricity. Don’t get me wrong I really love Morocco- I love the food, the music, the clothes, the colors and all the new things I’m going to get to do here, but at the same time I was hoping for something…. Quieter is maybe the word I’m going for. I’m looking forward to getting my full time site (fingers crossed a smaller town or city).  All in all, I am 97.99% excited to be here and loving it, but every once in a while, but while I sit in my bed hearing car horns- I would trade anything for the sound of sheep, donkeys, crickets or chickens. And kids, that’s why you don’t go into situations with expectations, because even though 97.99% of the time I am 110% pumped about being here and all that I’m going to do,  that 2.1% is still there.

Anyways. Moving on to pictures! Here they are, with even more words underneath. Whew.

me and my roomates from training, kim, sarah and myself

 even in a city of 1 million people seeing donkeys or horses on the street is fairly common here in fes, as is seeing people riding double on mopeds with kids babies and even german shepards.

 gary and rachel at the cafe across the street from the youth center (dar shabab) where we drink our qhwah or coffee during breaks in our language classes.

the view from our classroom, a typical day

 the view from my street at around 12  in the afternoon

 the view at 4:30- this isn't even considered crowded yet the area on the right fills in way more with guys selling fruits and veg

 my host aunt took me to her sisters house in the next town over called Sefrou- a huge difference between fes and here. Sefrou was so quiet! It was a great day! we went to her house (which was gorgeous) and had delicious food and she gave me a modern jlaba. We had a very relaxing day where we looked out over the city then went down to the waterfall. The coolest thing about my host aunt who lives in Sefrou is that she is the president of a woman's artisan partnership and has all of these looms in her basement.

loom in her basement!

There are about 42 women who participate and make all sorts of things, blankets, rugs and shawls. She makes all the dyes herself using plants. I got to try making this rug, which wasn't hard, but I couldn't imagine making a huge rug, time consuming for sure. 

me at the waterfall in Sefrou in my new jlaba. funny story: it's pretty common for men to harass women here and hamdullah (thanks god) i've been fairly lucky, almost being completely void of harassment, instead I get these crazy stares. I decided that I would be all integrated like and wear my jlaba to class the day after I got it- lo and behold, the first and only time I've been harassed. I thought that was funny. 

 my host father fouad and my host sister zineb.

zineb, she's two and adorable. I have two other host brothers, Youssef and Abdelqdr, but they occupy themselves more often then not with watching tv or playing games online, so I don't see all that much of them. They are very nice though. Also my host mom and dad are amazing. My host mother is an amazing cook and it's been fun getting to know here and hang out with her (speaking in french, not dirija. )

so.. now that i've made this blog post unbearably long, congrats if you've read this far. I promise I'll update more often from here on out, because it's time consuming for both me and you, also there's more stuff I would love to share that I have left out to spare this becoming even more rambly and long. so here's the first real update from morocco! i look forward to the rest of my time here.

first post in Morocco!

Hey all! so here is my first post in Morocco.

So far, so good. Mostly very tiring. This week has been a lot of basic language training (I use basic loosely though because I have a lot of Darija (moroccan arabic) floating around in my head right now.). Also it has been a lot like KP Staff Week, lots and lots of information and tools that you know are useful, but have not yet had a chance to put into practice. It's exciting, but I'm kind of chomping at the bit to get it all in motion. Patience is one of the things Peace Corps talks about as being very important to have in our time here; I'm working on it. 

My trainee group is really great! We all get along really well and a lot of us have been playing games at night such as phase 10, spoons and bananagrams. It's been nice to have sort of a touch of home in that way. In staging they called us "our new government issued friends" which I still think is hilarious. I feel very blessed that we have such a great group. I also have fantastic roommates, who don't look at me too weird while I sleep on our balcony every night! 

The most challenging thing thus far, besides wanting to magically speak the language, is probably the turkish toilet. Not the biggest deal for me, because of my work at NC I'm pretty used to popping a squat in the woods, this is just a more formal version of it. I'm trying to go in head first (or left hand first)- and so far it's been alright.  I say left hand first because culturally here you use your left hand to deal with your business and your right for everything else. I realize how that might sound, but it's actually not bad at all. The squatting is better for your digestion and in theory it saves on resources. You do your stuff then you use a little water to get yourself clean then you use either a small amount of toilet paper, a washcloth or drip dry, then you pour a small beach pail into the hole to flush it all down. Voila, turkish toilet 101. It takes a little getting used to, but it's not like it's news to me. I'm realizing though that I am not so good at squatting. I've got to start doing yoga so I have better balance. 

As part of our training we did a walk around the city of Fes the other day, to listen to the language as well as cultural observation. We got to go to one of King Mohammed VI's palaces, it was really beautiful. Fes is full of cafe's and little shops, and markets (souk's). It was nice to get out of the training center and walk around. I got a coke and it was great, I'm pretty sure they're made with real sugar here, so it tastes way better. Here's some pictures so far:

Me in front of the palace door in my culturally appropriate clothing. PS I cannot wait to get one of the tunics most of the women wear here, they look so cool and comfortable and the colors here are amazing! definitely a country after my own heart. Also there is such a variety of clothing women wear, from traditional clothing, "western" clothing, interpreted traditional tunics with jeans, to cute dresses with shirts over or under and matching scarves Maybe I'll learn how to match? I wouldn't count on that ;) 

some of the mosaic detail on the palace

All in all it is just a huge learning process, and I'm working patience, both with the process and with myself. I am so glad to be here and cannot wait to do more and more and more. At the end of the week we head out to our CBT's (community based training) where we will be placed with a host family and do more intensive Arabic lessons. I'm excited to get more immersed in it all here. 

Most of all though, I'm excited for the day off tomorrow. I'm hoping to get into the old medina (old city) of Fes and see more of the city as well as practice my language, speaking of which, I should go brush up on my numbers! thanks all! 

before I leave

Hello All!
so I'm officially starting my blog.
I am more or less packed, leaning on the side of more rather then less. I think I've done a good job at packing. In theory (according to the highly accurate weight measuring standard of standing on a scale and peering over your luggage to see the weight) both of my bags are closer to 40lbs a piece. makes me feel good! technically just on weight limit. Which I am taking as a win for me. The one of them was 30lbs but then I added books because I have the space, why not use it and I can leave them there for other people. Very thrilling.

All in all it has been a fairly painless process. It did involve a lot of tissues (because of my allergies) and a decent amount of caffeine, but i've actually enjoyed the experience.  I got rid of 3 huge bags of stuff on my return home; A lot of what I got rid of was clothes and books and college paperwork so that was cathartic. I recycled three large boxes of paper yesterday. I love recycling. I'm also excited to pass my clothing on to new people. I have a strong attachment to my clothes, so I like to see them going to new homes. In my mind I was getting rid of a lot more stuff then I ended up getting rid of, but I ran both out of time and emotional capacity. I'm not good at letting go of my stuff. Maybe when I come back I will purge my life of more . To be fair however, a lot of it is old journals and books and craft supplies and I love living my life in a way that I can go "hmmm... it'd be cool to try and make rubber stamps/make a book/do a sewing project/make a bracelet/etc..." and be able to reach into a box somewhere and do it. I see a craft room in my future someday. My room is like a well stocked kitchen, but instead of spices and flour it's thread, paper and random art supplies. I'm bringing some of my beads with me as well as a set of knitting needles, some embroidery floss,  and a monster cross stitch I've been working on. So i'm doing well in the craft department for my adventure.

I'm very thrilled to be parting on this adventure so soon. I can't believe it's happened so fast. the summer just flew by. I feel like I showed up for work crew just 2 weeks ago, and now I'm almost leaving. I've been doing well emotionally speaking, the only time I've cried was while I was watching a video about my falcon ridge family (and how could I not? not only was there the sadness that I missed them this year, but 525600 minutes and may I suggest were on the soundtrack, those songs slay me). I think I'm more nervous and excited then sad, I'm expecting those emotions to kick in right around the time I'm on the plane or settling in for training, we shall see though.

Anyways. In theory I'd like to update this blog once every 1-2 weeks though I'm not entirely sure what my internet situation will look like for a little while. I'd also love to write letters in the next two years, so if you read this blog and want to be a pen pal send me your mailing address. for the next few months the place to send me LETTER mail (no packages please) is :

(Your Name)

                               s/c Corps de la Paix                                 

2, Rue Abou Marouane Essaadi, Agdal,

Rabat 10100, MOROCCO

hello again blogosphere

ok blog world. I'm going to do it for real this time. i'm actually going to make a commitment to updating you. mostly because I got into the peace corps and i'm leaving for morocco on September 12th. incredibly daunting, incredibly exciting and incredibly new. Also incredibly across the world from most if not all of my near and dears. so. blog it is. i'm not sure how much internet i'm going to have over there, but i've been seeing it's fairly easy to get, if not my goal is to update at least once a week.
right now i'm just working at camp, mentally and physically preparing for this new adventure. this week i'm dying my hair from pink to brown, so i have a normal color of hair. i've had my hair pink on and off since 2005, and pink dreadlocks since 2007 so this is a huge change for me. i'm going to miss them. luckily i don't have to chop them off completely, so i'm considering it a blessing. but i kind of don't want to. i'm buying the hair dye either tomorrow or the next day. fingers crossed. pictures will be posted.
well that's it for now. i just wanted to do a quick intro post to tell all y'all out there to put this blog back on the map, because it's happening kids. i'm making it work, the interwebs will be updted of my wherabouts, and what abouts so, as they sing in the lion king, be prepared.

ok people i need input on what tent to buy.

here's my minor criterion:
-not a coffin. ie- a 2 person tent something i can sit up in and change clothes in without wriggling around like in a back seat of a clown car.
- under 4lbs (ideally 3lbs or even 2lbs, but i know i'm pushing it with the size i want)

- FREE STANDING.

- a practical vestibule would be nice, that way i don't end up with a load of crap inside my sleeping area, but that's lower on the list.

this sounds dumb, but i want a tent i can both throw into the back of my (proverbial/non-existent) car and be comfortable in at a festival or a simple overnight, but something i'm not going to hate lugging around in my pack when i go hiking.

so. here's some of the tents i've been looking at.

sierra designs lighting

sierra designs vapor light.

big agnes seedhouse

nemo espri

big agnes fly creek

black diamond mirage

the only one i'm meh about is the black diamond mirage- mostly because of review.

i think my top contenders are the sd lightning and vapor light and then the seed house.

BUT those of you who know me well know that i'm terrible at making decisions on my own. so i'm sending the request out to all of you out there. help me pick out a tent?

home again

So hey all.

Officially on my 'break' for the month. Initially I had all these grand plans of going on trips somewhere (alaska had been on the table, as had been the west coast) but i decided financially it was best for me to stay on the east coast and appreciate the simplicity of being at home. I re-instated my netflix and i have my cross stitch and lovely back roads and places to walk and hike. i also just placed an awesome book order. i can't wait till they get here so i can read them.

i know 3 weeks isn't all that long, but at the beginning it feels daunting and eternal. being out in the middle of practically nowhere without a large social circle can sometimes be hard for me. everyone i love is so far away. i wish they were closer and i could visit. but that's not the way the world works at this time and place. i wish i had a transporter that could magically get me places with minimal cost. someday right?

nothing too exciting going on. In my head i had idealized new england marches to being warm with 50-60 degree days and i thought i could maybe do a hiking trek or something, but there is still snow on the ground and lots of flooding so camping would suck- so i've ruled it out. i wish new england springs were more like those in my head. but alas.

so here is my brief update. i'm trying to run while i'm home (and one of those books i ordered is born to run- mostly because my only foray outdoors running so far has landed me with sore shins and knees, so i need to figure out my technique so i don't cripple myseld in an attempt to stay healthy. ha.)

also my birthday is coming up. very exciting. i'm turing 25 in 12 days. craziness. i will officially be able to rent a car, which i think will make me an official grown up. also my mom just offered to buy me a tent. hell. yes.

so that's all folks. maybe more later.

running

ok people . i need help.

it seems everywhere people are running. marshall in how i met your mother, mary in scotland, tina in portland, julia in mass, i feel like i'm seriously missing something; and I want in.

I know this is silly, but I've been sick so I've been watching a lot of TV. One show I've been getting into is "How I met your mother" which I am really really enjoying and recommend all my friends to watch. It has allyson hannigan in it (my first ever girl crush! and i still love her she's so freaking funny) but yeah. This show is not only funny but it makes me feel good about dating/love etc etc because of the way they show these relationships and people my age and a bit older mucking through it all. kind of the opposite of "The Notebook" for me (which made me want to give up on love completely. ) I digress...

Yesterday I watched an episode where Marshall decides to run the NY marathon. Now this is season 2 and up until this point Marshall's character has pretty much enjoyed being cute with his girlfriend/fiance of 10 years, drinking and watching tv. but this episode he's like "my pants are tight" then decides he wants to run the ny marathon. Now in terms of body, this guy would kind of be a tall male equivalent of me, kind of, if you don't think about it too hard.

so. here begs the question. HOW DO I LEARN TO RUN!!!!!!??????????!!!

someone teach me, I want in on this solitary nirvana where you put in your music and just go. Someone help me. I do love exercising (once I get started, it's the getting started that's hard) I just don't know how to love running.

anyone have any hints/clues/ideas/directions to point me in. because I really need something- and I really want to learn how to run. (and like it. )