First Two Days in Morocco!

We made it to Rabat around 12:30 yesterday, lhamdoullah! Lhamdoullah means "praise be to God" and people here say it after anything good. For example, after eating meals. We had our first Iftar, the meal you eat after sundown to break the fast during Ramadan, and it was very delicious, "bneen bzaff" in Darija (Darija is the name for the Moroccan dialect.) We went to a very big fancy restaurant in downtown Rabat where a lot of other tourists were. Seven of us sat at a table and we each had our own plate filled with delicious food. Here is a picture:

We stayed overnight in an extremely nice fancy hotel, and the beds felt like heaven compared to sleeping overnight on the airplane. 

Side note- Iberia Airlines is actually an amazing airline, they were extremely kind and accommodating. So next time you go to Spain or Morocco, fly with them 😎

The staff in the hotel spoke Arabic, French, and a few words in English and they were amazingly kind to us. The hotel owner called us all "his children" and treated us fantastically.

Today, we headed to Qalam, our language center, and got a crash course in Moroccan culture and common Darija phrases. Darija is basically Fusha (modern standard Arabic, what I learned at BCC and what we are studying in school this summer) but with no vowels. 

My favorite phrases so far are:

Meshee mushkeel: No problem

Bneen Bzaf: Very delicious! 

 I can see already that people in other countries are much better at languages. The airport staff spoke Spanish, English, and even French. The people in Morocco speak Darija, Fusha, French, and some speak a little Amazigh (Berber), English, and Spanish. 

Sentences here may contain words from 2 or 3 different languages at a time. It definitely inspires me to become as fluent as I can get in Spanish and Arabic! 

Here are more pictures: 

Crossing into Spain

Arriving in the Airport with Nabeela