MOROCCO | Tuesday, 1 Jul 2014 | Views [1937]
I've been meaning to write about the aspects of Islam I have casually seen in Morocco (particularly my host family) for some time now. The beginning of Ramadan seems like an appropriate time to get around to it.
One of the earlier Arabic ... Read more >
Tags: food, islam, ramadan
SENEGAL | Tuesday, 1 Jul 2014 | Views [417]
The saying “it's the journey and not the destination that matters” does not apply to airplane travel.
First of all, airplane trips are all about the destination. You constantly need to present your boarding pass to prove that ... Read more >
Tags: french, airplane, airport, culture, interesting
SENEGAL | Sunday, 29 Jun 2014 | Views [438] | Comments [1]
Our final lecture in Senegal was so hard to listen to. To begin with, the speaker was quiet. And there was construction going on outside. It was the same building we'd been in for the last two lectures, but suddenly, there was construction. And ... Read more >
Tags: haggling, lecture, monty python, shopping
SENEGAL | Saturday, 28 Jun 2014 | Views [340]
After catching the ferry back from Goree (it was much less crowded this time. I also got to sit upstairs close to the edge of the boat. The breeze was so refreshing, and the sun wasn't in my eyes.) we checked in to the hotel. We had five minutes, ... Read more >
Tags: accents, electricity, lectures, migration, money, monkey
SENEGAL | Saturday, 28 Jun 2014 | Views [315]
The tour began by leading us past several artists and shops selling bracelets and necklaces. One of them recognized having talked to Natasha on the ferry and tried to sell her a necklace right there. After we repeated “we don't have time.... Read more >
Tags: cora, dancing, goats, haggling, shopping
SENEGAL | Saturday, 28 Jun 2014 | Views [358]
The “hotel” we were staying in at Goree was called “L'auberge la Maison du Marin de Goree.” “Auberge” means “inn,” “hostel,” or something between the two. That's a very quick description ... Read more >
Tags: bissap, food, hotel, showers
SENEGAL | Saturday, 28 Jun 2014 | Views [408]
The bus took us to the ferry landing. Before I left the bus, I just stared out the window and thought “really? I need to walk through all these people with my bulging bag (we left one bag at the hotel, so we were all carrying everything we ... Read more >
Tags: lectures, money, ocean, slaves, tea
SENEGAL | Friday, 27 Jun 2014 | Views [363]
The next day was slightly better. Assuming you define “better” as “easier to stay awake” or “shorter.” For a definition that doesn't include either of those, it was about the same.
Breakfast was the same as ... Read more >
Tags: fish, lecture, religion
SENEGAL | Friday, 27 Jun 2014 | Views [308]
There are breakfasts that are worth getting up early for. There are breakfasts that would have been worth getting up at 7 for. This was not one of them.
The best thing I can say about it is that the caffeine in the coffee seemed to be real. It ... Read more >
Tags: embassy, food, lectures
MOROCCO | Wednesday, 25 Jun 2014 | Views [334]
Before the airport in Dakar, I had a pretty quiet Sunday. (I'd seen the schedule for Dakar. I was taking advantage of quietness when I could.)
I did go out to accompany Abir while she sold textbooks. Or tried to. She went down a street, asking ... Read more >
Tags: airplane, airport, diseases, mothers
SENEGAL | Tuesday, 24 Jun 2014 | Views [493]
One of the first rules of going to a place like Senegal is to keep an open mind. Senegal is a “least developed country,” and constant wishful reminisces to how things are in the United States or Morocco will just lead to disappointment ... Read more >
Tags: airplane, airport, dakar, water
MOROCCO | Monday, 23 Jun 2014 | Views [404]
On Friday, Cynthia mentioned that her host sister had a surfing lesson at 11:00, so she was going to the beach, and invited other people to come too. So anyone else who was interested and particularly good at finding a small group of Americans ... Read more >
Tags: food, group, ocean
MOROCCO | Monday, 23 Jun 2014 | Views [402]
My host mother seems determined to make sure I learn “hamka,” the Darija word for “crazy.” She uses it nearly as much as she uses “Le bas?” and she asks me that every time I see her. It would be a fair trade, since ... Read more >
Tags: arabic, couscous, debate, endings, school
MOROCCO | Sunday, 22 Jun 2014 | Views [653]
I've now been in Morocco long enough that I'm forming definite preferences about food beyond “I like this, I don't like that.” One of these preferences is for their fried bread (I believe it's called “rif”) over the more bread-... Read more >
Tags: bear, food, henna, tea
MOROCCO | Saturday, 21 Jun 2014 | Views [310]
Classes on Thursday went well, though our lit professor spent about half the time talking about the reading we'd done for Wednesday. We only had the one presentation in politics, as was sane. But, before we could start our lunch, a woman from a Moroccan ... Read more >
Tags: cafe, debate, walking
MOROCCO | Saturday, 21 Jun 2014 | Views [1320]
On Wednesday, we didn't have politics class, going instead to the Center of African Studies. We got a short tour of the building, then sat down in a conference room.
The building wasn't that interesting. There were pictures of Mohammed V right ... Read more >
Tags: boat, karaoke, school
MOROCCO | Friday, 20 Jun 2014 | Views [314]
On Tuesday, I saw a car enter the Mdina the same way that I had just left it. So although the two-way road was nice, it was far from necessary, as any car that isn't overly concerned about pedestrians can just push its way through the crowd. (Said ... Read more >
Tags: dance, music, theater
MOROCCO | Wednesday, 18 Jun 2014 | Views [397]
On Monday, we had more classes. There was some confusion about what we were supposed to read for literature, since we were on week two of the class, but there was one poem left in the “week one” packet, and we hadn't yet finished the story ... Read more >
Tags: arabic, boat, cafe, food, toothpaste
MOROCCO | Tuesday, 17 Jun 2014 | Views [525]
Our tour of Fez skipped right over the “ville nouvelle,” because it had only been built in 1913 and consequently had no history, at least not according to the tour guide. As we drove past, he gave us a brief description: “It's like ... Read more >
Tags: animals, fabric, fes, shopping, tour
MOROCCO | Monday, 16 Jun 2014 | Views [303]
Breakfast was a buffet at the hotel. It was my kind of breakfast buffet, by which I mean the ration of bread to meat was at least 3:1. Their bread was pretty global- they had croissants, breads with glaze that I recognized seeing in the Mdnina in Rabat, ... Read more >
Tags: food
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