La'ilatee! (My family)

I met my family last night, the Alaoui family! They are so so so kind and generous and wonderful. There is Idriss, the dad, Salima, the mom, Ghita, my sister who is 12, and Khalid, my brother who is 15. I haven't met Khalid yet because he was out last night. I can already tell Ghita and I will be BFFs. Here's a selfie we took: 

She made this sign for my room also

It says "Olivia I love you! <3 your sister!"

Ghita goes to a school that teaches in Fusha and French, and she has been learning English since she was young and speaks it extremely well, lhamdoullah. Salima is learning English also and would chime in with an English word occasionally. Idriss knows the important English words, like work, drive, taxi, morning, thank you, and the numbers. So it wasn't that difficult to communicate. They would speak to me in Darija, Ghita would translate if I needed  (which I did), and I would ask her how to respond to my parents in Darija. We came home to their house which was so clean and pretty. Then Ghita and I hung out for the rest of the day. We listened to Maroon 5, put my clothes away, I showed her my old Arabic notes, we showed each other dance moves, she taught me how to do tricks with a basketball, and we played cards for a while. She spoke mostly in English and I would ask her how to say everything we said in Darija. I learned a lot of words! Take a look:

Ghita also told me about Islam when we were watching TV. She was very mature; she said I don't want to make you believe anything you don't want to, I am just giving you information. I loved that. And she told me about what Islam is and how it's practiced, and she loves it, which makes me really happy that she's so passionate and can speak about it so intelligently. The family seems pretty religious (both parents left after Iftar to go pray) but at the same time pretty Western  and relaxed. They had a pretty big TV and Idriss and Ghita wore Western clothes. They were very chill and welcoming with me. And so excited to use their English, and loved when I spoke Darija :)

We had an amazing Iftar, I used some Darija to say thank you and everything was delicious, and then I felt really tired and went to bed. Ghita came in and we learned more Darija. Then I actually fell asleep around midnight.

I overslept a bit this morning, but I made it down in time to take the taxi to Qalam. I am on my way to knowing what I'm doing! Idriss talked to the driver and the driver was very kind. It's about 19 dirhams to get to Qalam, which is kind of expensive so I might try to find a cheaper way.

We just took a language placement test. I could only complete about 1/5 of it, and some of the other kids could do more. 

We will probably be placed in an advanced beginner/intermediate class. The classes here are all Arabic immersion, which will be an adventure! 

The staff here are wonderful. I am very very excited for the rest of the summer!