The second picture is of Rabat.
One weird thing is that there are tons of cemeteries on the beach. It's odd but nice in a way.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
The beach
The second picture is of Rabat.
One weird thing is that there are tons of cemeteries on the beach. It's odd but nice in a way.
Friday, January 20, 2012
Things I've discovered
Last night I got terribly lost and had no idea where I was, but discovered that my darija is good enough that I can ask for directions and even kind of understand them!
Also, cabs are incredibly convenient (costs about 8DH = $1 to get pretty much anywhere within the city, and they REALLY help if you're lost! hooray)
Also, cabs are incredibly convenient (costs about 8DH = $1 to get pretty much anywhere within the city, and they REALLY help if you're lost! hooray)
Fried Cauliflower
Had this in Fes actually, but I'll post as much of the recipe as I know (aka the list of ingredients).
1) Cook the cauliflower almost all the way (boil, steam, whatever)
2) Mix together a bunch of olive oil, an egg, a few (possibly many) cloves of garlic, some (possibly a lot of) cumin, salt, a hefty chunk of parsley, and I think some amount of harissa but I'm not entirely sure about that. Generally the important principle is "something spicy".
3) Fry the almost-cooked cauliflower in that mixture for a short period of time.
If anyone tries this and it tastes good, then that means that my darija is improving!
1) Cook the cauliflower almost all the way (boil, steam, whatever)
2) Mix together a bunch of olive oil, an egg, a few (possibly many) cloves of garlic, some (possibly a lot of) cumin, salt, a hefty chunk of parsley, and I think some amount of harissa but I'm not entirely sure about that. Generally the important principle is "something spicy".
3) Fry the almost-cooked cauliflower in that mixture for a short period of time.
If anyone tries this and it tastes good, then that means that my darija is improving!
Couscous Part II
It's definitely a Friday / special occasions thing. And the KEY to making great couscous is to add the cooked-in-cinnamon-I-think-raisins. I think.
An important verb, found only in the imperative form
"kla" means "to eat," but one only needs to know the form "kul!" which means "eat!"
My host parents (especially mother) say "kul!" to me a lot, regardless of how much I may be eating at the time they're telling me to eat. I have been told (insistently!) to eat while currently chewing on large amounts of food.
The following is quickly becoming a common event:
I am eating food, possibly a borderline-rudely large amount of food. The mother looks at me, says "kul! kul!" and the dad then says "kul!". My mouth is full of food so I can't really say anything, I just kind of nod and chew a little faster. Then the dad puts more food on my plate, regardless of how much I've already eaten. Then he says "kul!"
Another example of this is the first night I was here, when they were serving us tea. They served me one cup of tea, which I gladly drank. Then they served me another while I wasn't looking, which I also gladly drank (the tea is really quite amazing). Then the mother asked me if I wanted more, to which I said "la shukrun" (no thanks). She insisted, and I said again, "la shukrun, la shukrun," to which she said "un petit peu!" and then filled up my cup all the way.
My host parents (especially mother) say "kul!" to me a lot, regardless of how much I may be eating at the time they're telling me to eat. I have been told (insistently!) to eat while currently chewing on large amounts of food.
The following is quickly becoming a common event:
I am eating food, possibly a borderline-rudely large amount of food. The mother looks at me, says "kul! kul!" and the dad then says "kul!". My mouth is full of food so I can't really say anything, I just kind of nod and chew a little faster. Then the dad puts more food on my plate, regardless of how much I've already eaten. Then he says "kul!"
Another example of this is the first night I was here, when they were serving us tea. They served me one cup of tea, which I gladly drank. Then they served me another while I wasn't looking, which I also gladly drank (the tea is really quite amazing). Then the mother asked me if I wanted more, to which I said "la shukrun" (no thanks). She insisted, and I said again, "la shukrun, la shukrun," to which she said "un petit peu!" and then filled up my cup all the way.
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Bye bye, Fes!
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.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Some less offensive ruins
On Sunday we went to Volubilis and Moulay Idriss.
Volubilis is these cool Roman ruins.
There were also lots of mosaics like the one above, but honestly you might as well look at the wiki page for those. It was really sunny so it was hard to take good pictures.
And lastly...
Can anyone guess what those lines in the floor are for?
Volubilis is these cool Roman ruins.
That is the public bath. You sit in the indentations on the sides. I have no idea what the middle part is for.
Those are at the base of columns to certain buildings. The symbols let you know what structure it is. The first is the bakery and the second is the butcher. Pretty cool stuff.
That's a gate. You can also see how they had different styles of columns, some plain and some spiraled.
And lastly...
Can anyone guess what those lines in the floor are for?
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