I am now in Rabat. I feel like I hardly spent any time in Fes, and I will sorely miss it. It was lots of fun and I barely scratched the surface of it. I'll still write a few more blog posts about my time in Fes -- there are some things that I haven't gotten around to yet -- but those might have to wait. For now I'll quickly tell you about my first day in Rabat.
Our host family is really cool and active. Both parents speak French. We met them at the IES center in Rabat and drove to their house, which was a bit of a drive with traffic (which there was a lot of), although normally I'll be walking. There was a lot of conversation on the way there (sharp contrast with my experience in Rabat), in Arabic, French, and English. It was all very fast but enjoyable. At one point our host dad asked in Arabic, "Do you like sports" to which I replied that I liked football and American football. He got excited, said "real madrid vs Barcelona tonight! You real or barce?" to which I replied "Real". He got even more excited, said that he also liked Real Madrid, but he had a son who like barcelona.
Then his car broke down.
So after awkwardly waiting around for a few minutes, he said "Welcome to morocco, eh?" (very cheerfully) and we took a cab back home. There was a ton of traffic so at one point the cab just went into the other lane (with traffic going the other way, but there wasn't much traffic that direction). This was somewhat terrifying but admittedly saved us a huge amount of time. It was sort of awkward when other cars came directly towards us, though. It was a bit of a game of chicken. Also at one point we got so close to hitting a pedestrian that our host mom screamed.
Then we arrived at the house and met the sons (I'm not entirely sure how many there are, I think there are 4 but one of the 4 we met was actually a cousin, so...), all of whom, upon meeting us, asked us "real or barce?"
This was especially funny when it was the 4 year-old asking us this, as he was pretty adamant that real was the way to go. He also high-fived us at least 20 times. He really enjoyed high-fiving us, going back to his seat a few meters away, then running back to us and high-fiving us again.
Then we were watching TV before the game came on, but at some point the TV stopped working. So the spent about an hour trying (and eventually succeeding, in time for the game) to fix it. At about the halfway point the host dad again turned to us and said, "Welcome to Morocco, eh?" (still cheerful).
The house is incredibly nice. The living room is quite big (maybe as big as the apartment I was staying at in Fes) and there are 3 floors. I have no idea what's on the third floor, though, it might be nothing. But all the bedrooms are on the second floor. They have a really nice TV too, as well as a maid.
I have now discovered that living with maids is incredibly awkward because they do all of your chores for you and you sort of just feel rude having this person do all of your work.
Lastly, although the house is very nice, and they have two bathrooms one with a normal toilet, none of their bathrooms have sinks. I'm kind of confused. Also the bathroom with a toilet doesn't have a door that closes which is sort of weird.
Finally, the answer to the question I posed is: The lines are for sliding doors.
Our host family is really cool and active. Both parents speak French. We met them at the IES center in Rabat and drove to their house, which was a bit of a drive with traffic (which there was a lot of), although normally I'll be walking. There was a lot of conversation on the way there (sharp contrast with my experience in Rabat), in Arabic, French, and English. It was all very fast but enjoyable. At one point our host dad asked in Arabic, "Do you like sports" to which I replied that I liked football and American football. He got excited, said "real madrid vs Barcelona tonight! You real or barce?" to which I replied "Real". He got even more excited, said that he also liked Real Madrid, but he had a son who like barcelona.
Then his car broke down.
So after awkwardly waiting around for a few minutes, he said "Welcome to morocco, eh?" (very cheerfully) and we took a cab back home. There was a ton of traffic so at one point the cab just went into the other lane (with traffic going the other way, but there wasn't much traffic that direction). This was somewhat terrifying but admittedly saved us a huge amount of time. It was sort of awkward when other cars came directly towards us, though. It was a bit of a game of chicken. Also at one point we got so close to hitting a pedestrian that our host mom screamed.
Then we arrived at the house and met the sons (I'm not entirely sure how many there are, I think there are 4 but one of the 4 we met was actually a cousin, so...), all of whom, upon meeting us, asked us "real or barce?"
This was especially funny when it was the 4 year-old asking us this, as he was pretty adamant that real was the way to go. He also high-fived us at least 20 times. He really enjoyed high-fiving us, going back to his seat a few meters away, then running back to us and high-fiving us again.
Then we were watching TV before the game came on, but at some point the TV stopped working. So the spent about an hour trying (and eventually succeeding, in time for the game) to fix it. At about the halfway point the host dad again turned to us and said, "Welcome to Morocco, eh?" (still cheerful).
The house is incredibly nice. The living room is quite big (maybe as big as the apartment I was staying at in Fes) and there are 3 floors. I have no idea what's on the third floor, though, it might be nothing. But all the bedrooms are on the second floor. They have a really nice TV too, as well as a maid.
I have now discovered that living with maids is incredibly awkward because they do all of your chores for you and you sort of just feel rude having this person do all of your work.
Lastly, although the house is very nice, and they have two bathrooms one with a normal toilet, none of their bathrooms have sinks. I'm kind of confused. Also the bathroom with a toilet doesn't have a door that closes which is sort of weird.
Finally, the answer to the question I posed is: The lines are for sliding doors.
Sliding doors??? I should have guessed!!
ReplyDeleteMark, I actually feel affection for both the towns of Fes and Rabat, and for your host families, from your descriptions. Your writing really makes me see what's happening. Blessings on the people taking care of you, and many thanks to them all from your mom. Please don't talk with your mouth full. Who won the soccer match?