Marhaba HSSA session II f Maghrib!

Just a day after session one departure, we welcomed our session two students with open arms. After a long day of travel with many delays, all our students made it to Rabat. All students landed in Casablanca (CMN) airport and were taken to the Rabat study center. At the study center all students anxiously waited to be picked up by their host families. Many students felt a mix of emotions from excitement to nervousness. Students immediately wanted to create a bond and connection with their host families and wanted a crash course in Darija to properly greet their families. Once students met their families, they were taken to their new homes for some well needed rest. Students throughout the month will be living in different parts of Rabat, from the old city to other suburbs of the city. Living with host families gives students a better sense of the Moroccan culture and they can have a fully immersive experience, while also applying the language they learn in class.

After a full day’s rest, students met back at the study center on Monday for orientation. Orientation provides students the basic knowledge and tools to navigate Moroccan culture and living with a host family. During orientation students are given more insight and context about the structure of the program and about cultural norms/taboos. At orientation students were also placed into their language classes for the duration of the program. Throughout the program students will be studying both Darija and MSA.

On Tuesday students had their first day of language classes where they learned basic greetings. An integral part of the language curriculum are CCs or what we call into the Community Conversations. Into the community conversations are led by the PLs. CCs take place Monday to Thursday and during this time students can apply the language they have learned in class with locals around the study center. After the CCs, students had their welcome lunch at a local favorite, Yamal Acham. At lunch students were able to reflect and discuss everything they had done and learned in just two days.

Every day after lunch students have an afternoon cultural activity which can range from cultural lectures to exciting competitions or even kayaking, just to name a few. For their cultural activity of the day students embarked on a logistical tour around the study center and visited the park. During the tour students were taken to different places around the study center like the tram station, local shops and different snacks/restaurants. After the tour, students walked to one of the parks near the center called Ibn Sina park. At the park, students participated in a friendly competition which helped them further apply the language they learned in class.

More to come soon! Tomorrow students will have a guest speaker come in to talk about modern Moroccan society and later in the week we have henna, story telling and much more!