Mizyan!

Mizyan means "good!" in Darija. I think I have a pretty good grasp of some darija -- mostly adjectives and nouns like "delicious!" and "broken!" and "bathroom" and "fruit".

Today was my first real day of classes. I had Arabic at the Marassa annex of CCCL outside the walls of the medina. After class I talked to the storekeeper who tried to fix my phone, but sadly it was unsuccessful. I had lunch at the main CCCL complex, chatted a bit with the cook, and headed on over to another CCCL annex where we had our lecture with Professor Abdelhay.

We started talking about Morocco in very broad terms so that when we study the human rights and political progresses that have been made, we have a good idea of what the country has seen and done in the past. I had no idea that Morocco was not colonized until 1912 -- pretty impressive considering Spain is just a stone throw's away.

I feel like I left a lot of grey areas that I should fill in since I arrived in Morocco. Great things have been happening!

1) We had our first iftar, or breaking of the fast, Wednesday evening in the main CCCL center. We broke the fast with dates, bread, milk, and lots of sweets. Ibrahim, the jolly chef that works here, brought out a dish to every table called Pastilla. I don't think I have ever tasted anything like it! It is like chicken pot pie with a very sweet filo dough covering. The flavor was absolutely stunning! It was like eating dessert and dinner at the same time.

2) Thursday afternoon we found out about our host families! Here's a picture of me holding up my family's info sheet and anxiously waiting at the CCCL for members of my host family to arrive. I was bursting with excitement if you could not tell!

3) There are cats EVERYWHERE! And they are incredibly tiny and malnourished. It's a bittersweet sight.

Tonight is Laylatul Qadr. The king of Morocco, King Mohammad VI, appears on television this evening to do a special ceremonial prayer. My host mother has lit up these scented ashes and placed them around the house. She explained that this was tradition in laylatul qadr, which roughly translates into "the night of power/fate". This mystical night supposedly is the night in which the skies of heaven open up and virtually every prayer is accepted. The mosques are laden with pious and laymen alike.

Reporting from Rue Taht al Hammam, bonne nuit!

Asil