recent maghribi excursions

Hey everyone. its been a while, i know. Since i last wrote, i had an issue with my family. I was really upset about how they didn't include me in their life. I felt like a border and not like a member of the family. I almost switched, until I realized that I was at a really bad point emotionally. I was pmsing, missing everyone, sick as a dog, and just generally homesick. This combined to make anything minor major. I figured this out after I talked to the homestay coordinator, Doha. Doha was really surprised that I was upset with the family, so she asked me to talk to them. I learned, in going to talk to them, that my sister, fatimazahra, the only one in the family who speaks english and the one I have been hanging out with, was sick all weekend. The rest of my family was going in and out, especially after my mother’s friends mother died, so it was a bad weekend for everyone. I decided to give it another week or so and see what happened. I am so glad I did that. After Casablanca yesterday, I came back and had a great time with the family. We had a huge dinner, laughed, and I just generally felt really comfortable with the family. That is how everything has been since. I’ve found that if I make any form of effort with them, they respond tenfold. My mother is amazing anyway. They came to my defense when I bought a cell phone and I realized it was probably stolen, as it didn’t come with a charger even. It was a bad call on my part, but my family was supportive and gave me a good place to go get a charger for cheap, so I didn’t get more ripped off. Today, my sisters and I dressed up in traditional clothes and took pictures.

To this weekend. We, the groupies, went to Casablanca. Its about an hour long train ride away down the coast. We left on the 3:30 train on Friday, got there at 4:30, and as we were getting of the train it began to pour. We all debated whether or not to take a cab, since the hotel was supposed to be really close, and we ended up waiting until the rain stopped and then walking. We got to the hotel and had to negotiate some hotel rooms, as apparently our reservation didn’t work out quite as we planned it (instead of 3 rooms, 4 ppl each, we ended up with 2 rooms for 3. Ahh, language barriers.), and we all ended up with rooms. After drying off, we decided to go out and walk around. Casablanca is huge. Its like, nyc to boston, only not quite the same sizewise, but it feels that way. Rabat is little in comparison. We ended up at the medina, which, unlike rabat’s medina, was built by the French, not the arabs. Very interesting bit of info. It even has a clocktower built into the mosque’s minoret, which is weird. We all split up into 3 groups, and my group decided we were going to find a drink. We walked around and, an hour later, ended up at a little restaurant that served beer for 20 dh each and jugs (literally, jugs) of wine for 30 or 60, depending on the size. That is an amazing price. We called up everyone else, and soon the whole group was there, pre-gamming. It was fun, we got cheese and bread too. Mmm delicious. We then walked back to the hotel, changed, and took a cab to Aein Diab, the clubbing, hip area of Casablanca that has all the good places. We ate at a really sweet restaurant that, although it was expensive, had a really good chicken ceaser salad. After dinner and a few more drinks, we walked around the street, trying to find a club. Its about 12 now, fyi. We found one place, but it had a 200dh cover, so we said screw that. We then found a place that was free for girls and only 100dh for guys, plus one free drink each. That was our club, especially considering we are 10 girls and 2 guys (2 ppl didn’t come, one girl was sick and one’s parents wouldn’t let her). We then stayed until 3:30, listening to really bad electronica music, dancing, and generally having a good time. Condisering there were 12 of us, only one got drunk, and only one hooked up with someone, so all in all a pretty good night. Haha. It was a lot of fun, the music was aweful and hard to dance too, but eventually we got into a suedo-groove and ended up having fun. At 3:30, we were all so tired, so we took a cab back and I ended up falling asleep by 5. Worked out well. We got up at 11:30, had checked out of the hotel by 12, and were on our way to breakfast. We found a little café that served eggs (awesome!) and we chowed down. After a brief dispute with the waiter about the check(some stuff was added that we didn’t order), we decided to go check out the medina in the day time. We walked through it and then decided to go look at Hassan II Mosque. Now, this thing is amazing. It’s the 3rd largest mosque in the world and can house st peters or nortre dame cathedral. it is gorgeous. Built to celebrate the previous king’s 60th, it is still being worked on in a few places. It cost over ½ billion and in the interior can house over 24000 worshippers, with room for 80000 in the courtyards. It has a minoret that is over 210m high and there were 6000 people working on it at all times. Its amazing. I took a shit ton of pictures, so you’ll be seeing them up on picasa soon, probably tomorrow(Monday). Unfortunately, we missed the times for the tours, so we couldn’t go in. we spent an hour though outside, chilling in the sun, sitting by the beach and taking pictures. We decided that we are definitely doing a day trip back to go to the mosque, because it is one of 3 in morocco that non-muslims can go into. Unfortunately, there aren’t any in rabat, so we’d have to go to Casablanca for it. I’ve watned to see the inside of a mosque for a while, so I really would like to go. Maybe in the next few weeks.
So that’s been my last few days. My group is really amazing. It surprises me that we get along so well. While admittedly there are small groups of good friends, its great how we can all still hang out together and it doesn’t matter who’s with who, we all get along. I can do one thing with some people, and then another with another group, and then go back and hang out with another group. We are the perfect size, as there are enough of us to have distinct personalities and yet still be cohesive. It’s a lot better than my china group, because while we got along while we were there, there were definitely cliques and they ended up leaving people out. I feel like no one gets left out here.
Well, sorry its been so long since i last updated. All the pictures will be up soon, i promise! the slow internet is a big downer, but I do with what I have. I miss everyone and can't wait to video chat with you all and to see whats going on in your lives. Please email me, I'd love to hear Boston/Vermont/Cali stories.
Love you all!
hilary