Week 1 Rabat Morocco

It’s been a week since we first landed in Morocco.  We first arrived in Casablanca, then drove to Rabat and met our host families.  My first impression of Rabat was chaos..  We (my roommate Emani and I) first met our host mother at the CIEE study center.  We took a taxi to our apartment with our host mother, and carried our suitcases through the old town, under ancient fortress walls.  We settled into our new home, which is an apartment just outside the old medina of rabat.  Because it was Ramadan the first 4 days we were here, every night we would have iftar (meal at dusk to break the fast) in the outdoor dining space, sitting around a big round table and sharing food.  What surprised me the most was the family dynamic in Morocco.  It’s very common for many members of the family to live under the same roof, including cousins and uncles and aunts.  We had a lot of the distant family eating at the same table, whereas in my family, all of our relatives live on the opposite coast.  I immediately noticed the bilingualism in Morocco.  Morocco’s official language is Arabic, but most signs have both Arabic and French.  As a native English speaker and somewhat fluent Spanish speaker, one might think I had a really hard time getting around Morocco.  I’ve found that, for the most part, I can read French and understand it, but I can’t speak it to save my life.  Thus far, I am getting by with some English and some understanding in French, but hopefully I will be able to have full conversations in Darija by the end of this trip.  I came here knowing exactly 3 phrases in Arabic, which I later learned to be incorrect translations- I thought “mafi mushkla” meant “big problem” but it actually means “no problem”.  Our first three language classes went surprisingly well for me.  We met our teacher the first day in Rabat.  Our teacher speaks English, but the class is entirely comprised of Darija and Arabic.  English definitions aren’t named, so the whole class works together to guess the meaning of words and phrases.  It’s very different from the other language classes I’ve taken, but, having taken Spanish through the AP level, I have a good understanding of how to learn languages.  We’ve only had three days of classes (we had Friday off for Eid al-Fitr), but so far our excursions have included a walking tour of Rabat, a trip to the beach, a visit to the Kasbah, and a tour of Roman ruins outside the city of Salé.  I’ve really enjoyed visiting new places and meeting new people.  Our group of students is very diverse, and we work well as a team to help each other out while getting used to our new surroundings.  Some of us met in the airport on the way to Morocco, and others joined the next day.  My roommate and I met our host family the night we arrived.  I really enjoy having a roommate because we can combine our linguistic skills to explain something to our host family.  We have two host siblings who are just a little older than us, and we spend a lot of time together.  Moroccan society is very based around family, and it’s a very different lifestyle than I’ve been exposed to in America, but I’ve welcomed it with open arms.