The Sun!

Sorry for the two posts in a row but the internet decided to actually let me use this website so I'm going to post the two things I've written over the past few weeks. So finally after waiting for a month for the traditional Moroccan weather of sun and warmth, it is FINALLY here!! With the sun shining constantly and the temperature in the high 60s and low 70s at all times, it will be very difficult to find me in a bad mood. Today I even went up onto the roof to do some Arabic homework and ended up taking a roof-top nap in the sun! It was great! The sun is a perfect cure for a surprise extra two days of classes while every other student in Meknes doesn't have school. We were supposed to have these days off because of the Prophet's birthday, but since we are running on Moroccan time, the birthday of the Prophet moved to Saturday... how convenient... Since the Prophet's birthday is on Saturday, we of course are taking part in it. Meknes is the place to be during the Prophet's birthday according to the ISA directors. There are tons of people here and it is a big ol' gross party. Apparently too many gross things happen while people are in trances, so the host mom of Bukky, Amanda, and Amanda (yes, two Amanda's in the same house) told us to stay away from the North side of the Medina!! "That is where the goat gets slaughtered! Not good!" There are too many gross details that nobody wants to hear about so I'm not going to describe it; I'll just post pictures instead... KIDDING!! Happy birthday to the Prophet!!

After getting to know Bukky, Amanda and Amanda's host family, who has invited me over for dinner three times already, I decided to hang out with the mom, Majda, and the son, Mamoun, today along with Bukky. We went for a walk in the park and then Majda brought us to the Meknes Tennis Club and we watched an international tennis match with participating countries such as Argentina, Croatia, Slovakia, Spain and France. It was awesome!! It was cool to see something so basic as a tennis match in a different county. After spending the day with Majda and Mamoun, Majda insisted I come over for dinner again tonight. Majda speaks mainly French and only sort of understands English... can you see how this can become a problem? I only speak English and I pretend to know or understand French. But somehow we make it work and she treats me as if I lived there too.

The more time I'm spending in Morocco, the more it is starting to feel like home. I am more comfortable walking around during the day or even at night and all of the cat-calls and comments I just shrug off or ignore because this is starting to feel like normal. I am SO excited for my parents to come soon! I do things everyday that I want them to be a part of or tell them about and get sad thinking they won't be able to... until I realize they'll be here in less than a month! Also I have started to form my spring break plans... as of right now I'm planning on spending some time with my mom and dad in Malaga, Spain and then flying to Istanbul, Turkey to spend the rest of break with a few fellow ISA goers. Looking forward to the adventure!