I woke up early Monday morning, eager and excited to start my new B3 class. I met my new teacher, an exceedingly kind and patient yet disciplined and serious young women named Sharafa. She proved to be a phenomenal and generous teacher, which is even more impressive considering she was fasting all week. Mad props to her, seriously. She has earned the respect of me and all of the students in my class.
At first, the students were the same as the ones in my B2 class, with the addition of Lutze, a 62 year old electrical engineer from Germany who has lived in Italy most of his life. He is endearing and genuinely passionate about learning such a difficult language. He learns at a slower pace than even me, which I could tell frustrated some of the other students. I have a lot of sympathy for him, considering I was in that exact same position not too long ago.
Anyway, class went great Monday. I was so excited to continue. I spent the rest of the day in a great mood. I went to the medina and bought a personalized keychain shaped like Morocco as well as beautiful scarf. I walked to the Oudaya with Bill and Andrew and we sat and talked while a strong ocean breeze cooled us off from the hot sun. I met up with Eric and Evan and we went to Eric's house for Iftar. His whole family was over and apparently they were impressed with the little Arabic/Darija I used with them. His host grandma was very vocal and I loved it. Moroccan grandmas are the best.
Then we went out after dinner and got pistachio soft serve and avocado smoothies again. That night was Lailat al Qadr, the most important night of Ramadan and one of the biggest holidays of the year. It was the night where the Koran was revealed to Muhammad. To celebrate, Muslim families dress up and go to the mosque and pray all throughout the night. We saw huge crowds gathered outside the mosques as we drove through in our taxi.
Which reminds me, I can't emphasize enough how Moroccan taxi drivers are the best kind of people. Taxi drivers and grandmas, they should run the world. Especially taxi drivers who are out before 7 in the morning, or after 7 at night, the hour before Iftar when no one is out. They know their city like the back of their hand, they will take you wherever you need to be quickly and safely, they will talk to you and make you feel welcome, even if you don't speak their language or practice their religion. They will play the station that reads the Koran on the radio each morning, which gives me a strange sense of comfort. They hear the words of the prophet and God whom they so highly revere, and practice their teachings of generosity, patience and kindness as they chauffeur customers to their destinations. It's funny that taking taxis was one of the most stressful parts of Moroccan life at first, and now it's one of my favorite parts. I will definitely miss taking taxis when I get back home, but I'm excited to walk everywhere again. And spend no money on transportation :)
Tuesday, I came to school ready to learn, ready to continue my great mood from yesterday, but alas. Nothing that good is ever meant to last.
I found out that my morning B3 class was cancelled. Apparently there was a greater need for teachers and classrooms for students in different levels. So now the only B3 class was from 2-6 in the afternoon. Which is the time that all of the NSLI activities are.
So I now had to make the choice between going to class and doing activities with my group. I was very frustrated. Just as I had begun to settle into a routine, it got flipped upside down. I wasn't supposed to have to choose between class and fun cultural activities with my group. But that's just how it was going to have to be.
I turned to Rebecca, my super cool classmate who happens to be working on her PhD at UCLA and spends her free time at the library in Rabat translating medieval literature. She rocks. She sympathized with my frustrating situation but implored me to continue with the class, arguing that the Arabic skills I gain from staying with the class now will allow me to have more cultural experiences with more interesting people in the future. She had a point.
So that morning, she and I made use of our now-unstructured four hours by going through exercises in our textbook, and signing up for a tutor to explain some new grammatical concepts. I felt very productive.
Class in the afternoon turned out to be fine. However, every few minutes, a new student would come in. About half way through the class, we were up to 12 students. It doesn't sound like much, but 12 students is way too many for a class this intensive and this focused on speaking, because each student gets less time to speak with the addition of every new student. So our teacher told us that to solve this issue, she was going to open up a section in the morning for two students. It would be only 2 hours long. I immediately asked to join it since I figured that would solve all of my problems. I was ecstatic to finally have my morning class back and finally be able to rejoin my NSLI classmates in the afternoon. But as soon as I got my hopes up, they were brought down once more.
Apparently NSLI mandates that I get four hours of class instruction each day. No exceptions. So I couldn't do the morning class even if I wanted. So I was staying with the afternoon class for the rest of my time in Morocco.
The first couple of days, the afternoon class left me exhausted. 2-6 pm is the time of day when I normally am my most tired and least able to focus. But I quickly adapted. I gave myself more of a break in the morning- using my mornings to read news articles and text friends, and get some homework done, so that I had mental energy for class and could go home and nap immediately after class was done. One night I went out with my friends to Hay Riad, which was nice because I got to fit in some of the social time with my NSLI group that I had missed. Here are the menus from the cafe, which I found amusing because all of the cocktails were just virgin juices and smoothies, and all of the coffee and chocolate drinks sounded way too good to be true.
And yes, they were. We fell for getting the milkshakes, but they turned out to just be milk with a couple pieces of candy at the bottom. I'm determined to go back and get a good tasting drink, but it might be too out of my way and too expensive. Oh well, it was an experience.
The next night I got invited to a basketball game by my host brother, but I was so tired from class, that I declined. I figure I will go to plenty of basketball games in my lifetime, especially being at UMD. I almost regret not going, because a Moroccan basketball game would have been sick, but I don't think it was what I needed. I slept instead and used my night of rest to fuel my productivity the following morning.
I'm learning to listen to myself more while I'm here. I'm more aware of what I need, whether it be a nap, water, food, alone time, or a conversation with a friend, and I am better able to deliver what I need when I need it.
I'm also learning that from here on out, each day is going to be a series of trade offs and sacrifices. I'll sacrifice trips to the city or calligraphy lessons for class. Sometimes I sacrifice social time for sleep, or I sacrifice sleep for social time. Sometimes I sacrifice reading the news for doing homework, or talking to NSLI friends for talking to my cool adult classmates. Did I mention I've also met a Czech Spanish and history professor working on her PhD and living with her Moroccan boyfriend? Or a U Chicago archaeology student from Montana? Or a retired Spanish spy? Yep, they are as exciting as they sound.
To sum it up, here is what I've learned this week:
-Change is the only constant.
-Life is meant to be lived on the edge of one's seat. Don't get comfortable getting comfortable.
-Emotions aren't mutually exclusive. I can be happy and sad at the same time, stressed and relaxed at the same time, nostalgic yet focused on the future at the same time.
-Sleep is actually extremely important and underrated.
-If I can get up at 7 each morning and sit through tutoring in the morning and a 4 hour class in the afternoon, then I will surely be able to survive my 9 am and 3pm classes in college.
-Horror stories over no stories. Better to go out and talk to someone new or explore a new part of town then to stay at school or at home all afternoon.
-Everyone is struggling just as much as I am, even if it seems like they
aren't. In fact, those who broadcast how easy something is for them or how great their life is are probably struggling even greater. (Example- Muslims who are fasting while working all day in the heat of the summer)
-Struggling is ok.
-Things won't always work out how I want them to, and that's ok.
-I don't have to go through life by myself. I am always capable of finding a classmate or teacher to help me with my homework, of messaging my friends and parents for their words of encouragement, of seeking out guidance from someone I trust.
On that note, thank you to all of you who are reading this right now because you have given me encouragement, support, and guidance in my life up until and throughout my time here. Keep it up :) An email or Facebook message here and there is always nice too.
I can't wait to talk to many of you all in person once I get home, because there is so much I can talk about that I haven't been able to here.
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