I guess I'll start with the title of this post. Alif Baa! !اب Not only is that the name of the textbook I've been using recently, but it's also the names of the first 2 letters of the Arabic alphabet. Yep. We've learned the alphabet now! All 28 letters, their 3 different positions, and then the vowels that exist but people don't actually really write with. Ahh learning the alphabet really brought me back (to kindergarten, that is) - having to write the same little symbol over and over again, practicing your handwriting and trying to get everything to look juuuust right. And then of course, listening exercises and trying to distinguish between letters that sound so damn similar. It's getting better though. And oh! You take reading for granted - at our level, we've gotten to a point where you almost can't not read a sign when you see one. So we might not remember that feeling of actually being able to distinguish those weird symbols on a sign and actually know what it's talking about! Ha I'm getting to experience that feeling all over again. Signs and streets and menus aren't just incoherent pretty little symbols - sure my vocab is super minimal, but I'm actually able to sound out words now. And there are some that I can sound out and even recognize the word! Take for example Mohammad V Avenue... Sure it's an easy one. But I can actually sound out the word for avenue, and then recognize Mohammad in Arabic. Bah. Do you know how exciting this is?!? I'm excited... Oh also, I can show you what my name looks like in Arabic أنا yeaaah. Which leads me to a little story about my name that I checked and can't believe I haven't written about yet! Some of you already know so sorry to repeat. But. My name. We had to do a project on our names in 7th grade, and I found out my name means 'graceful' (ha.. yeah). It also is supposed to be a 'bridge' name - one that transcends different cultures, or bridges them even, and so can be found in a number of different languages. So I was totally unprepared for what I found here when I introduced myself to people! My name, ana, literally means "I" in Arabic. So when people asked me my name and I said "Anna," they looked at me funny like "Ok... go on.." No. That's it. Anna. Or I. My name is I. That's what it sounds like. So needless to say I've been given some other names here. A few people have been calling me "Anni," which is kind of cool. My Arabic teacher said he'd be giving us Arabic names soon, so hopefully he works on that.
So yeah, the Arabic's been taking up a lot of time. 3 hours a day! But let's see, besides that there's other things I could tell you about. This past weekend we went on our first bigger excursion as a group - the "Four Dynasties" tour. That meant leaving Rabat mad early Saturday morning and hopping on a bus to hit up Meknes first (you can see on the map - Meknes and the other cities we went to are just east of Rabat, the red dot). Meknes is the pretty little city that was the capital of Morocco for about 20 years I think? Way back in the 1500s. We visited this enormous old granary that supplied the horses in the army of the sultan - the granary could hold enough food to feed 12,000 horses for 3 years. Yeah, it wasn't small. We also went to this one shop that told us about the crafts that they make only in Meknes - like this black metalware that they hammer silver into to make designs. That was GORGEOUS - there were plates, bowls, more sculptural pieces like birds, etc. I wish we'd seen more of Meknes but right after that we got on the bus to go to Moulay Idriss - this small little town nestled in the valley between some mountain-ish hills. It's not very wealthy but apparently this town does pretty well for itself - the land's fertile, so they grow olives, wheat, and I think grapes. It's apparently a good location. Because if you drive about 15 minutes away (which we proceeded to do right after lunch, which is all we did in the town. Again, wish I'd seen more of it) you get to Volubilis! Roman ruins much? Yeah - for those who weren't aware, the Romans made it all the way to Morocco and set up camp here. The ruins we saw were kind of like what you would see at someplace like Pompeii or Ephesus - a pretty substantial town, complete with a Roman bath house, indoor plumbing, a basilica/church, brothel, etc. The ruins would be in better shape, but there was a massive earthquake in the 1700s that destroyed a lot. Still though, you got a pretty good feel for the town. The ruins were gorgeeeous. It was cute too, on 2 of the columns that are still left standing are some enormous birds nests. Apparently there are storks that spend part of the time at these ruins, where they lay their eggs, and spend the rest of the year in Paris. What a life, right?
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| Fes old walled madina |
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| Tannery in Fes |
So after time at the ruins, we drove on to Fes, which was founded in something like 791. Ah Fes. This city is huge. Our old madina, where I'm staying, can seem overwhelming to those who've never traveled it with all the winding streets. We have about 40,000-50,000 people living in the Rabat madina. Fes? about 900,000. The madina takes up something like 750 acres, and I'm pretty sure is the largest madina of it's kind. I think I could spend a year in this madina and still get lost all the time. The streets are way crazier here too - some are so super narrow, your shoulders are practically touching the walls on either side. And, the most popular form of transportation is a donkey. So, you hear "Balak!" "Attention!" often because oo hey! There's a donkey coming down the street, carrying some load for its owner. The donkeys never really looked so happy - I felt really sorry for them. But apparently some lady started a veterinarian clinic just outside the old madina, so now at least they can get treated when they're sick. But yeah, in this madina we were taken all around to different sites. Saw an absolutely beautiful madrasa, or what used to be a functioning school, that looked more like a mosque it was so finely decorated. They also took us to a leather shop, where we also got to the see the famous tanneries. Ooo lord. Talk about exploitation of workers. The owners are apparently pretty wealthy, but the workers see hardly any of the profit. The working conditions look absolutely miserable too - this picture is one I got off the internet, and let me tell you that pic is doctored. All day, guys are stuck in these huge vats of either dye or some kind of fixative, to work the leather. It looks like a huge amount of work too - the skins are enormous, and with all the absorbed liquid look really heavy. It was pretty hot in Fes, so it's got to be some pretty nasty, sweaty work. Ah lord, these are some working conditions that need some improvement soon. As soon as I get my own pictures up you can see the real thing. The smell is incredible too - when we walked in they gave us all a sprig of mint, so we could have a kind of gas mask to cover up the stench. I feel weird now, seeing all the leather goods everywhere, when I saw for myself the process of how those came to be.
Besides that though, Fes was pretty sweet. A few of us got these kaftan kind of things - apparently the new style of dress in Morocco. It's like a dress sort of thing but has a piece running along the middle. It's one piece of fabric and really hard to describe how it looks/how to put it on because it's really weird, but basically I feel like a princess in it and it's clearly Moroccan, not Western, so people in the streets always say "Ah zwina!" and clearly get a kick out of American girls wearing Moroccan dress. But I think, for the most part, they appreciate it too.
So anyways, I'm going to go to bed soon (got sick after this weekend of travels, which made an appearance during my stay in Casablanca - had to leave early, no fun. Need sleep) but before I do I just want to say one other thing I did this week that was a definite highlight! Finally visited a hammam - a Moroccan bathhouse. I went with a few of my friends, one of their host moms, and the host mom's friend and daughters - so it was a partay. We picked up this weird, brown taffy looking substance on the street that was our soap, along with some henna to mix in with the soap to get extra clean and soft. For 10 dh, we got admission into the hammam. From there, we took all our shampoo, soap, and requisite mats and made our way into one of the three rooms. If anyone has ever seen a Roman bathhouse, it was the same idea except smaller, with a long room that had an arched ceiling. We had buckets of water in front of us and... were completely naked. There wasn't a ton of lighting in the room but still - you saw everybody. Then, for 20 dh (about $2.50), a lady came over and used the scrubby thing I'd bought from off the street to scrub me down... everywhere. And whoa, my scrubby thing was pretty new, so it was like taking sandpaper to your body and rubbing hard. It was interesting though, and the whole process just felt really motherly. I felt super clean afterwards, definitely the most clean I've felt this trip. And ah, being in that pretty hot room and dumping cold water all over feel soo. good. I would definitely go back. I think we're going to try and hit up some other hammams, to do some kind of comparison. I want to go to one of the more high end hammams to get the mud masks done - that sounds sweet. But yeah, that was my interesting bit of culture I got to explore this week.
So I've got to go to bed. But I'll try and write more again soon!
WORD OF THE DAY:
Darija:
Tabib - doctor. The older woman in my house keeps telling me about the tabib, because she's apparently had to go a bunch recently and I think she's not supposed to be eating much sugar now (Ramadan definitely takes its toll on people, and a bunch of them have health problems afterwards because of all the tons of sugar they consume during that month).
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