Hi There,
Went to the Old Medina today, which is an old Moroccan Market down town which is what you think of when you think Morocco barter area. We walked around and looked at "butt covers" which we've found to be the better of shirts as most men here are ass men, and looked at some purses and other trinkets. While shopping a friend had the best quote of the day after a shop keeper said "oh you speak english I give you good price" to which she said yeah that' s a line I've heard before. I learned that my southern co-workers however petite are the most feisty of barters and are not to be messed with. (side note, I have noted all the gramatical and spelling errors I've been making... just haven't corrected them all yet :) ) So the highlight of my day was when we were shopping a shop owner told my friend that he'd give her 50,000 camels for me, why he thought that he should ask her, I'm not sure as she is asian and obviously doesn't look like a family member, and so I started laughing and he raised his offer to 55,000 camels. At that point we walked away, but it has been bugging me all day... what's the dollar equivalent to that? I've tried to google it but haven't been successfull. Hopefully no one tells my dad or he may take him up on the offer :) Anyway that was a first for me, I'm not even sure if it was a good offer, another friend in our group said it was a great offer and that it would be enough money she wouldn't feel guilty after selling me... I think she was joking... but if not you can find her teaching social studies at the school if I ever go missing! Later I told my friends I should have taken a picture with the guy that offered 55K camels just so I could consider it later if my confidence ever went down :) So please feel free to let me know if you ever find the dolar equivalent to a camel :)
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Class, Ramadan, and other random things
Hi There,
So I've never been so aware of class as I am here, in the US there are some seperation but most are taught that regarding people to be of a certain class and treating them differently is NOT ok, in fact I think most would say you have no class by marking the difference.
However here is different, and it is hard to realize that by treating everyone the same is foundation shaking. It's had for me not to smile and greet everyone, (I know, I know the men thing is duely noted, side note I really dislike the phrase duely noted!) But at the school there are guards and maintainance workers that you can greet but at a distance, a demure wave and Bonjour. Nothing too friendly ever, and I have to keep reminding myself that it's how I can show respect to them is by maintaining their culture...
Ramadan has been interesting, eating in private, or just going to lots of western restaurants. However, on Sunday TGIFridays did something here that would never happen back home. After church we went to TGIF and unfortunately they were closed until 8pm (during Ramadan you can only eat during the dark hours, you are even discouraged from swallowing your own spit) so there isn't much business during the day, but for us they opened the restaurant! So during their prep hours they served a group of 50+ people. Other than that and McDonalds, we've been eating in private since they eat lunch here 2ish and dinner 8-10ish... yeah that part once Ramadan is over may take some time to acclimate. Things I won't miss from Ramadan is the 9 o'clock service on the outdoor PA system for an hour of chanting, along with the 3 am ( yes that's right in the middle of the night) there is another hour long service that is broadcasted.
We did a scavanger hunt on Monday, and I had a blast, exploring the city with others, learning how to hail a taxi, and just buy things was fun. I still need to learn my neighborhood. I'm looking forward to doing that, my downstairs neighbor has been great and we're going to check some things out this week.
The coolest thing that I did today was having tea as a co-workers house and going to this store in Dar Baouzza called Natty Natty (said Naughty Naughty I think that my been a freudian cue) they sell the best ice cream, chorizo, and french cheeses, oh and the best mustard! The ice cream I bought today was creme brulee... I let you know how it is :) People have been great, I've equated it to the fact humans when they are about 6months on discovering the world with their mouths, and a lot of the people helping us aclimate are in that stage and I'm glad to reap the benefits.
I love you all and will continue to keep you posted :)
So I've never been so aware of class as I am here, in the US there are some seperation but most are taught that regarding people to be of a certain class and treating them differently is NOT ok, in fact I think most would say you have no class by marking the difference.
However here is different, and it is hard to realize that by treating everyone the same is foundation shaking. It's had for me not to smile and greet everyone, (I know, I know the men thing is duely noted, side note I really dislike the phrase duely noted!) But at the school there are guards and maintainance workers that you can greet but at a distance, a demure wave and Bonjour. Nothing too friendly ever, and I have to keep reminding myself that it's how I can show respect to them is by maintaining their culture...
Ramadan has been interesting, eating in private, or just going to lots of western restaurants. However, on Sunday TGIFridays did something here that would never happen back home. After church we went to TGIF and unfortunately they were closed until 8pm (during Ramadan you can only eat during the dark hours, you are even discouraged from swallowing your own spit) so there isn't much business during the day, but for us they opened the restaurant! So during their prep hours they served a group of 50+ people. Other than that and McDonalds, we've been eating in private since they eat lunch here 2ish and dinner 8-10ish... yeah that part once Ramadan is over may take some time to acclimate. Things I won't miss from Ramadan is the 9 o'clock service on the outdoor PA system for an hour of chanting, along with the 3 am ( yes that's right in the middle of the night) there is another hour long service that is broadcasted.
We did a scavanger hunt on Monday, and I had a blast, exploring the city with others, learning how to hail a taxi, and just buy things was fun. I still need to learn my neighborhood. I'm looking forward to doing that, my downstairs neighbor has been great and we're going to check some things out this week.
The coolest thing that I did today was having tea as a co-workers house and going to this store in Dar Baouzza called Natty Natty (said Naughty Naughty I think that my been a freudian cue) they sell the best ice cream, chorizo, and french cheeses, oh and the best mustard! The ice cream I bought today was creme brulee... I let you know how it is :) People have been great, I've equated it to the fact humans when they are about 6months on discovering the world with their mouths, and a lot of the people helping us aclimate are in that stage and I'm glad to reap the benefits.
I love you all and will continue to keep you posted :)
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
First Days
Hello there,
so my journey began a while back to get to this point, so be ready for some back fill :) later. I wanted to keep everyone up on my experiences because each person I know has contributed in a way to get me here. So one Sat. the 7th at 7:30 PM I flew from Boise to Salt Lake City, then from SLC to JFK. Oddest thing in SLC, they have a smoking room, I have been in my fair share of airports and I've never seen a smoking room, and Salt Lake City UTAH has one? really?!? odd, but anyway my plan was to sleep on the flights as night and then be ready to go once a arrived in Casablanca (which everyone here refers to as Casa). However, the child sitting behind me from SLC to JFK did get the consept, nor did her parents... have you ever seen parents treat an 8 yr old like a 2 yr old?, it's sad. So I only had 2 hours of sleep going into Sunday, a 13 hour layover at JFK, which wasn't very fun, I just hung out at the airport walking around to stay awake. Did you know that you can't serve alcohol in New York before 12 noon, but apparently their bars stay open until 4am. So while I was waiting for the Air Morac counter to open up I was able to run into a co-worker that was on the same flight as me, and she and I chatted, and met Morase, the cutest old jewish man you ever did meet! He's 75-80 years old and lives on 5th ave, in NYC and travels a lot all by himself, (to go on group tours) but wow, I would like to be that independent at his age. We sat with Morase until we boarded, which by the way I saw an Airbus 380, it's HUGE! I didn't take a picture of it though, silly me. While we stood in line to board we met a man who's wife was on the board of directors for the school, small world huh? Then once we were abord the girl sitting next to me had an internship for a week at GWA last spring, even smaller world :) So the flight to Morocco was it's own cultural experience, first, the meal was awesome, caprese salas, regular salad, chocolate cake, dinner roll, cheddar cheese, spaghetti, coffee and drink (non-alcoholic, I'll get to the more later). Really good food, then Clash of the Titans (new version) was played, then another newer movie, then was Leap year, I slept about 4 hours on this flight. So besides the food, people just wandered all over the cabin like it was a lounge, oddest thing, getting themselves extra food and drinks. We were served breakfast too, yogurt, croissant, chocolate muffin and coffe. Once we landed it we deboarded into 100 degree heat with50+% humidity, and not too many places have AC... we went through customs and everyone's baggage was there so yeah!!! The school driver was there to meet us, (mini plug for something later, I smiled and waved at the toll booth attendant so kinda smirked and then really smiled, I'll get abe to this too) and we went straight to the school. I was given another don'ts list, which once is making eye contact with men, so of course I told my co-worker about the toll booth and she had to tell me how what I did was received... "Hey Baby, how you do'n, I think you're hot". Great! the girl that never flirts is doing it from the get go! So then we dropped off my bags, and then I went to the supermarket to get some toiletries, where I smiled at the male cashier (and I told my co-worker that he was looking at me first, I feel like I'm having to defend something that is just considered good manners, but oh well) I came home unpacked, went to dinner with my downstair neighbor where I almost fell asleep at the table. So one of the first things I noticed is that women do wear some tank tops, not very often, but T-Shirts are totally ok. So I've talked to some of the other co-workers and we've errored on the side of cautiousness with our dressing but am really glad that I brought t-shirts! So I went to bed around 10ish my time and slept like a log, woke up to the morning call to prayer and got ready went to school with the neighbor and helped in the library, went to the supermarket again and then to a dinner at one of the staffs house, there are about 30 of us new staff. I'm just starting to think about all the running around I'm seeing the HR Staff doing right now and thinking, ok this will be me next year! But these guys drive... yeah so driving, california drivers have NOTHING on Casa drivers, cars share lanes, people use horns as a greeting to let people know you're there, and using the road is an option (saw a Bus using the ditch when traffic was backed up...) so the motorcycles ride the lines or in between the cars, along with the pedal bikes, and rolar bladers, and the pedestrians constantly walk into traffic, I personally think they have esphixiation issues. Oh and they pile up on the left hand turn sometimes 5 cars and then all turn all at the same time... and it works however there are a few accidents, I've seen 5 since I've been here 3 days! We went to the beach today, and someone brought a bikini berka, what's that you want to know? well it's like a moomoo but it has embroadery and this one was sleaveless and had slits up the sides to the knee hence the "bikini" part. Since there was no one on the beach in a western style swimsuit over the age of 4, I just waded in the water, Marc our lucky English (from Whales) man of the day got to escort us, yes we were chaporoned. I've had to check my ego and realize that in order to make a difference here I'm going to have to be approachable and that changes my strong independance just while I'm here, besides it keeps us safe. I started orientation today too, so my goal is to write some each day and each person can read when they like... So since I've had you waiting to hear about the non-alcoholic drink thing from the plane... Moroccians aren't supposed to drink alcohol, so the aisle of shame (as it is being refered to) is an aisle that has a guard, and roll up door, you go in unescorted, they close the door behind you (but you have to show your passport to buy wine since they don't want natives drinking it) and they don't turn on the light so you have to bring your own light source to see the labels. So Ramadan started today, the chanting across the street was about an hour long, kinda pretty, but I've heard having a good voice is not a prerequeset, and that one isn't so good... I'll let you know.... More soon! see pictures at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=69762&id=1020933390&l=0c2f374890
so my journey began a while back to get to this point, so be ready for some back fill :) later. I wanted to keep everyone up on my experiences because each person I know has contributed in a way to get me here. So one Sat. the 7th at 7:30 PM I flew from Boise to Salt Lake City, then from SLC to JFK. Oddest thing in SLC, they have a smoking room, I have been in my fair share of airports and I've never seen a smoking room, and Salt Lake City UTAH has one? really?!? odd, but anyway my plan was to sleep on the flights as night and then be ready to go once a arrived in Casablanca (which everyone here refers to as Casa). However, the child sitting behind me from SLC to JFK did get the consept, nor did her parents... have you ever seen parents treat an 8 yr old like a 2 yr old?, it's sad. So I only had 2 hours of sleep going into Sunday, a 13 hour layover at JFK, which wasn't very fun, I just hung out at the airport walking around to stay awake. Did you know that you can't serve alcohol in New York before 12 noon, but apparently their bars stay open until 4am. So while I was waiting for the Air Morac counter to open up I was able to run into a co-worker that was on the same flight as me, and she and I chatted, and met Morase, the cutest old jewish man you ever did meet! He's 75-80 years old and lives on 5th ave, in NYC and travels a lot all by himself, (to go on group tours) but wow, I would like to be that independent at his age. We sat with Morase until we boarded, which by the way I saw an Airbus 380, it's HUGE! I didn't take a picture of it though, silly me. While we stood in line to board we met a man who's wife was on the board of directors for the school, small world huh? Then once we were abord the girl sitting next to me had an internship for a week at GWA last spring, even smaller world :) So the flight to Morocco was it's own cultural experience, first, the meal was awesome, caprese salas, regular salad, chocolate cake, dinner roll, cheddar cheese, spaghetti, coffee and drink (non-alcoholic, I'll get to the more later). Really good food, then Clash of the Titans (new version) was played, then another newer movie, then was Leap year, I slept about 4 hours on this flight. So besides the food, people just wandered all over the cabin like it was a lounge, oddest thing, getting themselves extra food and drinks. We were served breakfast too, yogurt, croissant, chocolate muffin and coffe. Once we landed it we deboarded into 100 degree heat with50+% humidity, and not too many places have AC... we went through customs and everyone's baggage was there so yeah!!! The school driver was there to meet us, (mini plug for something later, I smiled and waved at the toll booth attendant so kinda smirked and then really smiled, I'll get abe to this too) and we went straight to the school. I was given another don'ts list, which once is making eye contact with men, so of course I told my co-worker about the toll booth and she had to tell me how what I did was received... "Hey Baby, how you do'n, I think you're hot". Great! the girl that never flirts is doing it from the get go! So then we dropped off my bags, and then I went to the supermarket to get some toiletries, where I smiled at the male cashier (and I told my co-worker that he was looking at me first, I feel like I'm having to defend something that is just considered good manners, but oh well) I came home unpacked, went to dinner with my downstair neighbor where I almost fell asleep at the table. So one of the first things I noticed is that women do wear some tank tops, not very often, but T-Shirts are totally ok. So I've talked to some of the other co-workers and we've errored on the side of cautiousness with our dressing but am really glad that I brought t-shirts! So I went to bed around 10ish my time and slept like a log, woke up to the morning call to prayer and got ready went to school with the neighbor and helped in the library, went to the supermarket again and then to a dinner at one of the staffs house, there are about 30 of us new staff. I'm just starting to think about all the running around I'm seeing the HR Staff doing right now and thinking, ok this will be me next year! But these guys drive... yeah so driving, california drivers have NOTHING on Casa drivers, cars share lanes, people use horns as a greeting to let people know you're there, and using the road is an option (saw a Bus using the ditch when traffic was backed up...) so the motorcycles ride the lines or in between the cars, along with the pedal bikes, and rolar bladers, and the pedestrians constantly walk into traffic, I personally think they have esphixiation issues. Oh and they pile up on the left hand turn sometimes 5 cars and then all turn all at the same time... and it works however there are a few accidents, I've seen 5 since I've been here 3 days! We went to the beach today, and someone brought a bikini berka, what's that you want to know? well it's like a moomoo but it has embroadery and this one was sleaveless and had slits up the sides to the knee hence the "bikini" part. Since there was no one on the beach in a western style swimsuit over the age of 4, I just waded in the water, Marc our lucky English (from Whales) man of the day got to escort us, yes we were chaporoned. I've had to check my ego and realize that in order to make a difference here I'm going to have to be approachable and that changes my strong independance just while I'm here, besides it keeps us safe. I started orientation today too, so my goal is to write some each day and each person can read when they like... So since I've had you waiting to hear about the non-alcoholic drink thing from the plane... Moroccians aren't supposed to drink alcohol, so the aisle of shame (as it is being refered to) is an aisle that has a guard, and roll up door, you go in unescorted, they close the door behind you (but you have to show your passport to buy wine since they don't want natives drinking it) and they don't turn on the light so you have to bring your own light source to see the labels. So Ramadan started today, the chanting across the street was about an hour long, kinda pretty, but I've heard having a good voice is not a prerequeset, and that one isn't so good... I'll let you know.... More soon! see pictures at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=69762&id=1020933390&l=0c2f374890
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