now that I am fed...
Hello everyone!
At the moment, I am sitting at ALIF (the American Language Center, where we are learning Arabic), listening to the call to prayer (which actually just ended), and just barely tolerating this fly that keeps landing on my legs (only tolerating it because I am unable to kill it). It's quite frustrating, actually.
Derija lessons are great--our teacher is super enthusiastic, but all of us were a little taken aback when we learned that our first two Arabic classes, in which we learned the alphabet, weren't our "actual" classes, which will start tomorrow. Our Moroccan culture lectures were great too, and very helpful in terms of preparing to meet our homestays. We basically learned polite phrases to say (most of which contain the name of God) in different situations.
I'm getting really distracted right now though...I want ice cream.
So, anyway, my family is great...very warm and welcoming. I have a 17 yr-old sister (who has a very sketchy boyfriend...DON'T TELL!!!), a 12 yr-old sister (who took me around the medina last night, amongst many "hello beautifuls" and "gazelles" from enthusiastic men), a 15 yr-old brother (who, for the past two days just sat on the couch and watched TV), and a 26 yr-old brother (who took me around the medina during the day and is really nice). There's also a 29 yr-old brother in Germany...the 26 yr-old, Akhbar, lives in Germany with his wife, but he is here for Ramadan. Anyway, I'm going to go for ice cream...!
So to summarize: I am very happy and love you all!
Love, Alexis