winding down, jumping up

so, we officially have one week left in tangier.

i have thoroughly enjoyed this summer, and cannot believe it's almost over. i guess i can never believe that summers ever end, but this one is especially hard to see ending.

despite the fact that i put myself through yet ANOTHER summer of CLASSES, and despite the fact that it was incredibly difficult to leave kalamazoo, this summer turned out to be indescribably wonderful. indescribable. don't ask me to describe it.

so, we're finishing up the last full week of classes, cranking out a term paper in arabic, getting ready for our final exam, doing last-minute souvenir shopping, and trying to squeeze in time at all our favorite places... and we have to take these frickin oral proficiency interview/exams again.

dang.

we took the exams on sunday. and despite the fact that i left the interview feeling like an arabic-blundering idiot, i found out that i jumped four levels in my speaking ability. i can now officially claim advanced-low proficiency. whatever the hell that means. regardless of my cynicism though, i am really happy with those results. i still think my initial scoring (novice-high???) was not correct. but i'll take the final result, no questions asked.



money well-spent, state department.

my future home

this past weekend (this post is surprisingly up-to-date), we visited a city close to tangier called assilah. i intend to live there for some period of time at some point in my life. and so far, that is the only foreign city i've been able to say that about. it was a great little city along the atlantic coast - kind of like chefchaun, but cooler. we happened to visit this city on this particular weekend because it happened to be the opening of this month-long international arts festival that is held in assilah. we didn't get to see any of the actual opening ceremonies, because it is by invitation only, but i may be returning this weekend to check it out.

due to this month-long art festival, there are a great number of artists that live in assilah, who make art for the festival... duh. perhaps someday, when i get the urge to be an artist for real, i will more to assilah. also due to this festival and the fact that there are so many artists living in the city to produce art for this festival, there were great murals all over the place. it was great. i took pictures. and it was a bonus that the old part of the city (the 'medina') was located right along the coast. a lot of times, the medina is more centrally located, but this one was right on the coast. and it was just wonderful.

al hoceima

al hoceima is a city on the northeast coast of morocco, along the beautiful mediterranean ocean. a few weekends ago (this post is late), four of my friends and i rented a car and drove out to al hoceima for the weekend, while the rest of the CLS program headed down to the sahara to ride some camels and roll around in sand. i actually might have loved going down to the sahara, but it was about that point in the program where i really needed to get away from those whom i frequently (daily) feel the urge to punch in the face.

and i don't think i could have made a better decision. al hoceima was one of the best cities i've visited so far. and, i saw the king. as much as i liked chefchauen for its blue buildings and shameless catering to tourism, i like hoceima because it wasn't quite like that. and because the king was there.

so, we took this trip on a weekend we happened to be given friday off classes, about mid-way through the program. we got the rental car around 4 in the afternoon that thursday, and started our long drive out to hoceima. the drive was beautiful and slightly treacherous. unfortunately, i wasn't feeling confident enough in my manual-driving abilities to take the wheel on any part of this trip, despite all the practice i got driving karl's car up the hills of kalamazoo this year. anyway, we arrived in hoceima around midnight (maybe a little later), only to be greeted by tons of moroccan flags and banners lining the streets, as well as news that there were 'no' rooms available in all of al hoceima because the king was in town. which, of course, turned out not to be true... we found a room. it just wasn't the most ideal room in the city. so, after we found out that the king was in town, and finally found a room, we fell asleep.

the next morning, i was supposed to be everyone's alarm clock, but decided to be generous and let us all sleep an extra hour or so. (hey, i was tired too.) so, by the time we all got up and moving it was about 10:30-11:00. and we moseyed over to a cafe across the street for some coffee and croissants. then we jumped in the car and headed toward the beach. as we were driving through town, toward the port, we noticed a strange crowd standing behind barricades, lining the street we were driving down... and it dawned on us that the king would be passing by soon. so, we hurried to find a parking space, got yelled at by some guards, and made it out to the street in time to see the king drive by in his rover after friday prayers. it was cool. he waved.

then we spent the day at the beach.

the next day, we intended to do some hiking. but had some unfortunate complications that involved two poorly-labeled national parks on either side of al hoceima, with neighboring cities that had almost identical names, and and unclear guide book... it was very, very confusing. and we ended up doing a little off-roading in a car completely unsuited for it. ever heard of a picanto? don't take them off road.

eventually we found somewhere to climb around for a while. and afterward, we spent a few hours playing frisbee on the beach. then, we ate dinner, drank some wine on a beach, and went to sleep.

and we were fortunate enough on the drive home to find great frickin radio stations and see lots of keef fields....

juj, hada, alhumdu lillah, wakha wakha, fawzy doob

darija.

that's what they call the colloquial language here in morocco. and let me tell you, it is one of the weirdest deviations of arabic i have ever heard. i'll blame that on the french influence. french, i will maintain, is one of the stupidest languages ever. and unfortunately that stupidity leaked into moroccan arabic. not that i'm any spokesperson, but on behalf of the french language, i apologize, moroccan arabic. you deserved more spanish influence.

so, by far the most entertaining quirk in darija is the word 'wakha'. (that 'kh' thing represents that weird phlegmy-hacking thing required in speaking arabic.) anyway, 'wakha' basically means ok. but, when moroccans really get going, and start throwing wakhas around left and right, it kind of sounds like "waqa waqa waqa"... and if you remember anything about the jim henson's muppets... fozy bear says 'waqa waqa waqa' also.

doob = bear (in arabic)



so. that is amusing to no end.

harvard hear me cry

so this professor from harvard came to visit our program last week. he was sent by the state department (i think) to evaluate the teaching/learning and to hear our comments/complaints on/about the program, and he unfortunately gave all 45 of us the opportunity to express our opinions in one sitting. i have never heard so much complaining from a group of college-age and above people in my life. sitting in the room listening to everyone complain like spoiled twelve-year-olds made my want to jump out of my skin.

but mr. harvard was right when he told all the complainers that they need to take some god-damned responsibility for their own god-damned education.




i'd like to learn how to say god-damned in arabic.

fourth of what?

i can't believe it's july already. well, happy belated independence day. (i can say independence day in arabic... impressed?)

this weekend, we took a group trip to the neighboring cities of tetuan and chechaun. for some reason unbeknownst to me, we only stopped in tetuan for 20 minutes. guess it's not a very interesting city? i guess i might have known the reason, except that i have this horrible/wonderful habit of completely ptfo-ing (mom: ptfo = pass the f*** out) as soon as i sit down in any moving vehicle. so, since were were on a bus, i was slept while our program director explained the history of the places we were visiting. too bad. guess i'll have to read my guide book to understand where we went.

so tetuan was pretty uneventful. i ate a croissant.

but chefchaun. man that place was cool. first of all, tetuan is about an hour southeast of tangier (by tour bus), and chefchaun is approximately another hour away from tetuan. and it's further inland, so we were in more mountainous terrain. chefchaun is this really cool little city that is located between two mountains, which is where it gets its name - from the berber word for 'horns' because the mountains look like two horns. or, so i've been told... or maybe, so i've misunderstood. we were given a small presentation (pre-sleeping through the bus presentation) that was a little more detailed about chefchaun, and from that presentation i came to understand that that is the origin of the name 'chefchaun'. but, the presentation was in arabic, so i may be completely off the mark on that one.

anyway, the town is really cool. because it's in a valley though, the medina was kind of annoying to walk around because every other turn you ended up walking up a hill. laysa mushkela. i especially liked (and i think chefchaun is famous for this) that the bottom half of all the buildings was painted blue (subject-verb agreement in that sentence... someone help?). so, it made you feel like you were walking around in anarctica or something, and that all the buildings were really igloos and that it wasn't a hundred and frick seven degrees. it wasn't really that hot, but it was hot. probably needless to say, but i took a lot of pictures. it was amusing that i ended up walking around with two other people from the program who also happen to take a lot of pictures. chefchaun is a pretty tourist-y town though, so we weren't really worried about sticking out as tourists.

our program only scheduled a day-trip to chefchaun, but we of course had the option of staying over if we wanted to. of course i wanted to, and of course i did. so we got to the city on a saturday, hung around the town and did a little site-seeing. then on sunday, i climbed one of the mountains!

yeah, i thought i wasn't gonna get to do any of that mountain-climbing stuff this summer, even though mountain-man karl is out in colorado again. so i was happy to be on a trail again. although, i have to admit it was nothing like mt. yale... what a bitch. anyway. it was fun. and i took a lot of pictures of that too. so i'll put those up somewhere, sometime... perhaps.

the hike took us about 8 hours, but that was because we had to walk up part of the valley, and then walk through the valley for a while more until we actually started walking up the mountain. then we followed a road for a long time, and then we had to blaze our own trail up the the summit. but we made it to the summit.

so yeah. that was my fourth of july weekend. hope you all enjoyed the independence!

class: remedial arabic

so, after a series of tests and interviews and surprise reading comprehension tests in DC and OPI (oral proficiency) interviews in fes, we were finally placed in appropriate levels for our summer of arabic learning. i didn't place as high as i thought/hoped i would, but that's ok. we must all keep in mind that i have not taken an arabic class since last summer, and didn't practice that much while in school. (hey, writing a SIP takes up a lot of time.)

anyway, the first two weeks of class have passed without much tumult. well, that's not quite true. there were a number of people who freaked out and complained about the work load, the class time, not getting to interact with "real" arabic speakers, blah-blah-blah ---

this is the time i have to remind myself that i have now spent 3 out of 4 of my college summers in intensive arabic classes... i guess i have an unfair advantage.

--- and then things settled down a little this past week (the second week).

i guess most of these past two weeks have been a combination of getting used to living in a new city (finding places to eat, run, shop, drink coffee, etc.) and getting used to being in "arabic mode." we have class starting at 9am, and it lasts until 1pm. we also have optional twice-per week quranic arabic, poetry, and moroccan arabic classes. (i attend all the optional classes. of course.) we've also signed a language pledge to "only" speak arabic while we're here. it's not actually a serious language pledge though. we did actually sign a piece of paper, with the word 'pledge' in its title; however, that paper said that we agreed to speak arabic exclusively in common areas between the hours of 8am and 4pm. what kind of bullshit is that? actually, i think it would be ok if people actually stuck to it. but i'm finding a lot of people here don't seem as serious about studying arabic as i thought they would be. hm... i won't use this as a place to complain about things. however i will say that, in all honesty, i thought this program would be a lot more intense than it has been so far.

is that just me?

ok. i'll work with what i've been given.

disclaimer

i would like everyone reading this to know that the opinions expressed in this blog in no way, shape, or form reflect, represent, or are influenced by the United States Department of State. my writing style is much like my daily thought process, please do not take offense to my sarcasm, and please know that i am writing with no partisan but to myself.


also, the title: just my way of expressing my highest (perhaps most out-of-reach) goal for this summer. it is my dream to speak like a "native." i'll be sure to let you know if/when i've "gone native."

week 1 - strangers

have you ever had the urge to get to know 44 new people all-too-well in less than a week? yeah, i've never had the urge either. but life has a funny way of happening.

so this critical language scholarship program began with a three-day orientation in the capital city of our great nation, Washington DC. aside from the customary eighth grade trip to the capital, i've never really been to DC. it's pretty cool.

however... having my "strategically" "planned" after-college "life" jump started by having to learn 44 new names, faces, life stories, and future plans is not cool. but life has a funny way of happening.

the three-day orientation was pretty useless, especially because i was in no state of mind to focus on/assess dozens of future school/career opportunities. (so f-u state department, i could have enjoyed the last weekend of undergrad life and not have had to pack every shred of my existence up in one day. but thank you oh wonderful, glorious state department for this unparalleled opportunity to spend the summer in morocco studying arabic - i owe you some measurable amount of my life in service.)

anyway. after being informed of the many opportunities for our futures, the 45 chosen for the tangier CLS program departed for morocco. we landed on june 14 in the casablanca international airport. pretty cool, huh?

casablanca was nice, but not as glamorous as that one movie might portray. we didn't spend long in "casa" (as called by the locals), our first day, we saw the mosque of hassan the second then had some free time. the al-hassan II mosque is the "only" mosque in morocco open to non-muslims. (this is an unfortunate law left over from french colonialism... damn french, standing in the way of my festering obsession with mosques. hopefully someday the law will be debunked.) after that we all slept, which was much-needed. and the next morning we were whisked off to marakesh. marakesh was much more 'moroccan' so to speak. the city was much more interesting, more 'exotic,' and the hotel we stayed in was... may i say... fucking sweet. we spent about 2.5 days in marakesh. the first day we had some free time, and the group split into smaller fragments, but we all mostly ended up in the same place - the souq, or the market. i went with a small regiment to find power adapters for out electronic devices. then we waded through a freak thunderstorm to a small cafe and eventually found our way to the market. but by that time, it was getting close to dinner, so we headed back to the hotel. the next day, we had some tours of ancient tombs and palaces and things like that... not very interesting... (sarcasm, of course - i love visiting really old things).

the next day we traveled a very very long time in a bus to fes, where we stayed in an old home in the medina (old city) that had been converted to a hotel. i would love my future house to be even half as beautiful as that hotel was. anyway, we spent a few days in fes and did much of the same kind of site-seeing, mostly old stuff that a lot of people in the group weren't actually that interested in. i was. i just wished i wasn't walking around with 40-some other people all the time. but i thoroughly enjoyed our stay in fes also.

after our stay in fes, we finally headed to tangier, where we will be for the rest of the summer (aside from a few trips to some near-by cities).

tangier is awesome. (i'll have a bigger post on this city later.)



ironically, it rained at least once in every city we stopped in.

FYI

if you're familiar with me (family, friends), you probably know a few things. a while ago, i sent out a facebook message informing the general public that i was presented with the opportunities to study in morocco for the summer, and also to teach english in china next year. well, i have officially accepted both offers, and am in fact in morocco as i type.

why am i in morocco? primarily to study arabic, but also to have a little bit of fun, courtesy of the state department's pocket change. that's right, i am a participant in the department of state-funded critical language scholarship. this is a scholarship that sends undergrad and grad students around the world for the summer to study languages of particular interest to said department. i am in morocco, to study modern standard arabic. in case you've missed out a little on the last four years of my life, i've taken a particular fancy to studying languages. the pursuit of arabic has been somewhat troublesome because kalamazoo college does not have an arabic department. thus i have spent 3 out of 4 of my college-year summers studying arabic (this summer being the third).

by the way, i graduated. to my knowledge at least - i have not received any high-importance emails informing me that i must return next fall. however, i did miss commencement, so i do not physically posses my diploma at this moment in time.

i did not commence because this program started june 11, the day kalamazoo's finals finished. by june 14 (graduation day), i was already in a new country. the program will last 10 weeks. i will be home august 14 (or 15, i can't remember), and will promptly depart for china around the 20th.

it'll be a whirlwind, but i intend to keep updates consistently. more consistently than the egypt posts, i [almost] promise.



funny to think that i should still be measuring my life in ten-week increments. i thought i was leaving the quarter system behind...


salaam.

watch out blog world, i'm back.

salaamu alaykum.


this is my new blog. please follow along and feel free to comment as i travel and study in morocco this summer.

-alyson