Different perspectives

The address the to the UCLA Fulbright GPA Morocco blog to give you other people's perspectives... the posts I put on that blog are copies of the ones I put here, so nothing new from me there...

10 things about Morocco you probably don't know...

A quick post while I am Marrakech. I actually wrote this up several days ago.

So thought y'all might be curious about some of the basic everyday things here in Morocco which seem mundane to the locals, but somewhat interesting to us Americans...

1. The currency is the dirham, which at the moment has an exchange rate of  ~ 8 dirhams to 1 US dollar. Basic pricing for a few items:

"local" beer: 30 - 35 dirhams = ~ $4

Budweiser: 80 dirham

small bottle of water: less than 10 dirham = abit more than ~ $1.5

leather sandals I had to buy our first day: 150 dirham

100% cotton embroidered shirt also bought the first day: 90 dirham = less than ~ $11

2. Morocco is an absolute monarchy, though is considered "democratic" in the sense that there is a Parliament. But with close to 35 different political parties, no one party ever has a majority... Smart thinking on the king's part, no?

3. The official language is Arabic, but most people also know French.  Arabic here is different from Arabic spoken other places, with the Moroccan Arabic called Darijii (sp?). The Amazight (Berber) people speak Tamazight. Some Spanish is also spoken (mostly in Tangiers), while English is usually only spoken by the upper-class and those involved with the tourist industry. Most people here speak Arabic and French, but than can be said for mono-linguistic Americans.

4. Air Maroc sucks.

5. The capital is Rabaat, but airlines fly into/out of Casablanca which is the largest city in Morocco.

6. The movie Casablanca was not filmed in Morocco, there is no Rick's Bar, so you can't ask Sam to play it again...

7. Not all the women cover themselves in hijab... you'll see women on the street in anything from a form fitting short-sleeve dress and heels to capris, a t-shirt and sandals, to the full length "robe",  all worn with or without head cover...

8. You must bargain/haggle for most anything you buy... Bargaining is expected. Can be lots of fun actually, as the vendors way over inflate their prices, so you give the shocked face and tell them how crazy that price is and then you low-ball them... then they laugh and say no it really is worth that much, so you laugh and walk away, then they shout out a better price... and on and on it goes until you both reach an agreed upon price, usually quite abit lower than the original one. But let's but honest, as a tourist/ traveler, you will never get the Moroccan price.

9. The people are incredibly diverse ethnically... I'll go more into later.

10. Moroccan mint tea is SWEET (gives Georgia sweet ice tea a run for it's money) and should never be refused if offered. 

Oh, and an extra one for you:

11. Did I mention that Air Maroc can suck it? :-)

12000 horses

Disclaimer: I am still trying to figure out how to post pics to this blog, so sorry if the page seems out of sorts! If you know how to work blogs, let me know! Thanks.

Finally! A short trip to someplace less isolated and less Western feeling than the university... as an aside Ifrane (location of the uni) is called Little Switzerland... so that should give you some idea of what it is like... built by the French as a resort town in the 1920s.

Anyhow, we arrived in Meknes yesterday and after dropping bags at the hotel, we got back on the bus for a quick tour of Meknes and the Mausoleum of Moulay Ismail. Meknes is a large city (1 mil people I think)... the old medina (city) has the longest emcompassing wall of any city in the world at 25 mi total!

The gate we saw (there are 3) is called the Bab el-Khemis (Thursday Gate) pic above, called so because of the Thursday market that drew people to the medina. A lovely gate, with same aeration holes all throughout where swallows and chickadees have made their homes. Lucky birds!

We then drove to see the stables and graineries of Moulay Ismail. Moulay Ismail was a great sultan, who ruled for 55 years (1672-1727)... to put that in perspective, he was a contemporary of French King Louis XIV (14th). We couldn't go inside the structure, but was told that Moulay Ismail stabled 12,000 horses! My kind of guy! :-)

The Mausoleum of the Moulay Ismail was next (above). A beautiful structure, containing 3 rooms with wonderful zellij (geometric tilework), fountains and carved cedar wood ceilings. Although we could go inside, we weren't able to go into the actual room where the tombs are located.

We walked through the medina, which I loved. I love markets. Here is a shot of a man stoking the hammam fires by throwing sawdust in the fire...

We took a group photo in front of one the medina gates, and one of our guides was taking our pic with my camera, when a little old lady comes toddling by slowly in between him and us... we wait for her to cross, but she stops in front of Youness and tells him in Arabic "take my picture!" So he did... funny because she was very adamant and didn't ask for money!

The Fulbright GPA Morocco gang! 

L to R front row: Maceo, Jen, Manny, Jenny, Angela, Azeb. L to R back row: Beate, David, Sherry, Laura, Sylvia, our Meknes guide Abdellah, Casey, Carol, Julani, Shondale.

A small request: PLEASE ask me questions via the blog comments... Admittedly, they are keeping us very busy, so sometimes when I get time to blog, I am soooo brain dead, I have no idea what to write here... Odd, no? So I need your feedback as to what you want to read about!! Hopefully it will be easier to post pictures in the near future...

Next post: Volubilis

Ana Mush Fahim...

...means "I don't understand" (written phoenetically of course)... and that is about how Arabic language is going at the moment! :-) However, today was better than yesterday, at least language-wise.

My day started off really icky... was up at 3 am, couldn't go back to sleep (no Ambien, trying to wean) as I had a dream about my Maxx :-( I know he is better off, as he was so much more sick than realized, but I miss my sweet cat. So, started the day tired, sad, stressed and frustrated...

On the bright side, our luggage arrived today in Fez (about an hour from here). Azeb (our fearless leader!), Beate and Jalani (both fellow Fulbrighters with knowledge of French) braved the wilds that is Moroccan baggage claim and customs to retrieve everyone's luggage. Bless them! Nice to have clean clothes.

Arabic was much better today, though it still is difficult and it doesn't help that the classroom has no insulation so every little sound echoes... makes it hard to listen and repeat. Getting easier to "hear" though, and I am finding the writing part really fascinating... the calligraphy looks very artistic (to me at least), so as an artist I enjoy it, but it is a challange... Writing and reading is right to left which is awkward. And, the letters change how they look/ are written depending on where they are in the word (front, middle, last) and if they connect to another letter or not... It's hard to explain without pictures... so I will try take some of writing and it explain it better in another post when I can get some pictures downloaded.

Im addition to Arabic in the AM, we have history and/or culture class(es) in the afternoon. Today's talk was really interesting, but not sure how much y'all want to hear about all that, so let me know.

Tomorrow after Arabic, we go to Meknes for a couple days then back to Ifrane...

Oh, so far the food is REALLY disappointing... Generic American-tourist-college type food... BLAH. I am hoping for some real Moroccan food, even if it means eating from a street food cart (which while on the topic, so far no traveler's stomach, if you know what I mean! :-)

Where's Waldo?

If you find him, can you see if he has my luggage?

*sigh*

No joke, every single person in my group had their checked luggage delayed (that's at least 25 pieces of baggage, people! 25!)... KLM got the bags to Amsterdam no problem, but Air Maroc apparently has issues... Big ones. Bought a pair of very cool sandals and shirt and sharing toiletries for the last 3 days since I had to carry-on the photo equipment. Joy. BUT, I am not alone in my lost luggage misery... We should get our bags tonight, but won't believe until I see it.

Arrived to Casablanca late Sunday, drove to Ifrane on Monday and have been here at the the university since then... Had first Arabic class today. Lord help me. Very interesting, but not easy, and I *swear* teachers are the worst students. A couple people in my group just don't get it (i.e. shut up when the professor is instructing!)... But Inshallah it will get better.

My brain is alittle swimming in that sense, since I know neither French nor Arabic, so I am mentally tired. Physically notsomuch, thank God for Ambien! More later, some pics when I get my cords (in the checked bags).

10 1/2 hours of sheer joy

Just a quick update: I'm in LA, as we had a quick briefing yesterday at UCLA. My flight leaves LAX at 5:30 today... I then have a lovely 10 1/2 hours to Amsterdam... Ugh. The not so fun part of traveling... :-)

Soon to be Rockin' the Kasbah!

 This blog will be a chronicle of my almost 6 weeks in Morocco this summer as a Fulbright scholar, studying the arts, history, culture and language of Morocco.

Me?!? A Fulbright scholar? Who'd have thought... but yeah... I am one of those people. Cool. :-)

So watch this space for me rockin' the kasbah! (sorry for The Clash reference, I couldn't resist!)

- Angela