Last week went by pretty fast since I really only had three days of school. Wednesday night we had a thanksgiving potluck dinner at our IES center. We were all supposed to make something but since I don’t know how to cook in America, let alone in a foreign country, LUCKILY my aunt just happened to have brought two loaves of pumpkin bread from home that she made for Jeremy and I and she let me bring those to our big dinner. They were a huge hit, seeing as we did not have much that was really “thanksgiving-esc”. We did, however, have a Turkey and mashed potatoes (thank god!). Other people tried to get creative and brought fruit salad, chocolate covered strawberries and apricots, chips, guacamole and salsa, cheese and crackers, attempted sweet potatoes and pumpkin cheesecakes (which were really sweetened-potatoes and squash cheesecake) and some wine and champagne. Although we missed out on some stuffing, gravy, etc, it was still a really fun night and some of our teachers and host family members even came to celebrate with us!
The next morning I went in to take my Arabic test and then I took a train to Marrakesh to meet back up with my family! The train ride took most of the day but I had almost the whole first class compartment to myself and I just relaxed, listened to my ipod and read my book. At around 4:30 I arrived in Marrakesh and aunty Beth had asked the bus driver to come get me. As I was walking out of the train station I was attacked by taxi drivers begging me to get into their taxi, one guy made eye contact with me so I thought it was our driver, Alall, but it turns out he was just trying to get me into his cab. I saw the tour bus out of the corner of my eye down the street and briskly walked toward it. I noticed a man was following me so I kept turning around and saying “la shukran” (no thank you), when I reached the bus, the man finally had caught up to me, held out his hand and said “Salam, Alall”. I felt so bad and had to explain to him that I thought he was just another one of the annoying taxi drivers! Once I got in our bus, he took me to the gardens to meet the rest of the family. Vikki and Matt had arrived earlier that morning and it was great to see everyone all together. That night we went to our tour guide Jamal’s house for “thanksgiving dinner”. The night before (while I was having my potluck dinner) the rest of my family decided to take “Eid” to a new level and bought a live turkey…and slaughtered it. Then they cooked it the next day at Jamal’s house, along with stuffing and mashed potatoes. They showed Jamal’s wife how to make American food and she showed them how to make couscous and tagine. That night, for Thanksgiving, we ate the turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes as our appetizer, and then had lamb couscous and chicken tagine right afterwards for dinner! Although it wasn’t thanksgiving at home, between the IES potluck with my friends and dinner at Jamal’s with my family, it turned out to be a pretty good thanksgiving after all!
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| marakesh synagogue |
The next day we visited lots of Jewish sights in Marrakesh. We walked around the Mellah (Jewish quarter) and saw a synagogue and cemetery. We also went to the Bahia Palace and then on the way home stopped at this extremely fancy hotel called La Mamounia (which had the pool where Sex and the City II was filmed!) and got lunch. That night we went to a different Jewish synagogue for Friday night services. It was an orthodox temple (there are really only two kinds of Jews in Morocco: Orthodox, or non-practicing) so the women had to set separate. This was my first time experiencing this and it felt a little weird. There was only one other women there, from Paris, and we felt very excluded and could barely see what was going on. After services, we went to a Jewish family’s home for Shabbat dinner. The family was a man, Yitzchak, his wife Gloria and their 6-year-old daughter. They had 5 other kids but they were all grown and married. The man, Yitzchak, was a character. Although he did not speak English, between me and Jeremy’s Arabic and Jeremy and Adam’s Hebrew, we managed to communicate throughout the night. We started and ended the night singing and it was a lot of fun. The one thing that shocked me, however, was his view on Jews and Muslims in Morocco. They do not really feel that Jews are ever safe here and have a place to go in Israel for if/when things get rough. They also do not let Muslims eat in there house and do not let their children eat food cooked by non-Jews. The six year old goes to an Arab school with Muslims but is not allowed to go over to eat at anyone else’s house and therefore she does not leave the house except to go to school. Both Yitzchak and Gloria were shocked to learn that Jeremy and I lived with (and ate at/with) Muslim families, they told us “shame on you”. Other than that, he had some pretty strong views about Jews and Israel and it was very interesting to hear his opinion and about their way of life. The food, during all this, was of course delicious: a Shabbat dinner with a Moroccan-flare, just the way I like it. On the way home, however, right after we were told that the Jews were not particularly well liked in Morocco (by Yitzchak- who had is own opinions about everything) we heard what sounded like gunshots. Marissa freaked out and got on the floor of the bus. It turns out it was just a bunch of punk-kids throwing rocks at the bus but Marissa screamed “it’s cause they know we’re Jewish!” She was just joking and apparently stuff like this happens all the time, but it was kind of funny and kind of not funny at all at the same time. The bus driver got out to assess the damage, which wasn’t too bad, and we called the bus company to make sure our poor bus driver did not get blamed for the incident.
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| berber home |
Saturday morning was raining, which put a damper on things, but we set off to see a Berber village in the mountains. We first went to a Berber house, much like the one I stayed at back in October. There we met the family, and were served tea and bread with homemade butter (from their cows), olive oil and honey. They had a cow, rabbits, chickens and a few other animals around the house and it reminded me (and showed everyone else) how the Berber people live. The house was built of clay and buried deep in the High Atlas Mountains. Then we went into an herbalist corporative and were probably scammed but bought tons of Argan Oil and other “Berber” herbs and oils that are said to cure anything and everything. We did, however, each get a 3-minute massage with argan oil, which was fantastic! Jamal took us to a tomb where a the only Jewish man left in the mountains lives taking care of this tomb where a famous rabbi was buried. We went in and turned on the lights (we forgot that it was Shabbat) and this old 79 year old man came in and started SCREAMING at us in Arabic. After Jamal calmed him down and apologized profusely for us, he insisted on “blessing” Jeremy and then Adam. We felt pretty bad and were about to leave when Jamal put some money in his hand as a donation. The man, again, began to scream at us in Arabic. Aunty Beth immediately assumed that he was upset we were trying to give him money on Shabbat and told Jamal to quickly take it back. Jamal, however, told us that no, this man did not care about money on Shabbat, he did not think we had given him enough and was demanding more! Aunty Beth, along with most of us, were pretty appalled and upset by the situation. If he couldn’t turn on the lights, then he definitely couldn’t take money. In hindsight, however, I realize that that is just the “Moroccan way”. That type of situation has happened to me dozens of times before with Moroccans, and it was only the fact that he was Jewish that gave everyone a bad feeling about it. This is Morocco, not America; things like this happen all the time and its just something you learn to deal with. We then went to see another Berber home and then had lunch in a tourist trap in the mountains. Despite the fact that our tour guide continued to take us to the most expensive restaurants (because that was where he got a cut), in this one the food was pretty decent and at least we got an incredible view out of it!
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| getting argan oil massages in the mountains! |
Later that day we came home and went shopping in the rain. I bought some scarves and a tea set and was satisfied with the day. The haggling was mildly entertaining but got kind of annoying after the millionth time going:
Store Owner: 800 dirham
Jeremy or Me (in Arabic): No, no, no that is ridiculous! Very expensive! 100
Store Owner: 100?! That is insulting, what’s your real offer?
Jeremy or Me(in Arabic): 100!
Store Owner: Okay, Okay, 700, final offer.
Jeremy or Me (in Arabic): That’s too much, I’m leaving. (start to walk away.. wait 3 seconds…)
Store Owner: (comes running after us) Okay, Okay, 400 final price
Jeremy or Me (in Arabic): 120!
Store Owner: okay, okay 200, here (starts packing up the stuff)
Jeremy or Me (in Arabic): nope, sorry 120
Store Owner: Give me a little more, come on, I’m a poor store owner, I need some profit..
Jeremy or Me (in Arabic): I’m a poor student from Rabat, I need money to take the train home, 120 – final offer
Store Owner: 150, sold
Jeremy or Me (in Arabic): 130
Store Owner: Fine, here! (this is just an example, sometimes it takes much longer)
…and that is how it is done ladies and gentlemen!
On our way home, I was feeling very successful when it was pouring rain and the worst happened: I GOT RUN OVER BY A MOTOR BIKE. There are motorbikes everywhere is Morocco and they speed by you like it is nobody’s business. My friends and I always joke that we don’t know how none of us have ever gotten run over by one, and that was the first thing aunty Beth said when she got to Morocco, but oh, wait, it happened to me. I have a bruise on my leg and my arm but otherwise I’m fine and was really lucky I wasn’t seriously injured. Those things are dangerous!
That night was our last night in Marrakesh and we had a lovely dinner at the hotel. Each night we ended the night on the terrace with some wine (we rented out the whole riad) and played Banana-Grams (my new favorite game). It was a lot of fun to spend time with my cousins and experience Morocco with them.
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| Casablanca Synagogue - 1 out of 28 |
Sunday, Marissa, Adam, Vikki and Matt all left early in the morning to go back home. Aunty Beth, Uncle Michael, Jeremy and I went to Casablanca on our way back from Rabat. We got a tour of Jewish Casablanca (there are 28 synagogues and 6 Kosher butcher’s in Casa!) and even ate at Jewish Club (which was essentially like Willowbend in New Seabury). We had a great meal and got a real feel for the Casa Jewish life. It was a great end to the week and I am sad to be back at home working on research papers and studying for Arabic quizzes!!
Last week went by pretty fast since I really only had three days of school. Wednesday night we had a thanksgiving potluck dinner at our IES center. We were all supposed to make something but since I don’t know how to cook in America, let alone in a foreign country, LUCKILY my aunt just happened to have brought two loaves of pumpkin bread from home that she made for Jeremy and I and she let me bring those to our big dinner. They were a huge hit, seeing as we did not have much that was really “thanksgiving-esc”. We did, however, have a Turkey and mashed potatoes (thank god!). Other people tried to get creative and brought fruit salad, chocolate covered strawberries and apricots, chips, guacamole and salsa, cheese and crackers, attempted sweet potatoes and pumpkin cheesecakes (which were really sweetened-potatoes and squash cheesecake) and some wine and champagne. Although we missed out on some stuffing, gravy, etc, it was still a really fun night and some of our teachers and host family members even came to celebrate with us!
The next morning I went in to take my Arabic test and then I took a train to Marrakesh to meet back up with my family! The train ride took most of the day but I had almost the whole first class compartment to myself and I just relaxed, listened to my ipod and read my book. At around 4:30 I arrived in Marrakesh and aunty Beth had asked the bus driver to come get me. As I was walking out of the train station I was attacked by taxi drivers begging me to get into their taxi, one guy made eye contact with me so I thought it was our driver, Alall, but it turns out he was just trying to get me into his cab. I saw the tour bus out of the corner of my eye down the street and briskly walked toward it. I noticed a man was following me so I kept turning around and saying “la shukran” (no thank you), when I reached the bus, the man finally had caught up to me, held out his hand and said “Salam, Alall”. I felt so bad and had to explain to him that I thought he was just another one of the annoying taxi drivers! Once I got in our bus, he took me to the gardens to meet the rest of the family. Vikki and Matt had arrived earlier that morning and it was great to see everyone all together. That night we went to our tour guide Jamal’s house for “thanksgiving dinner”. The night before (while I was having my potluck dinner) the rest of my family decided to take “Eid” to a new level and bought a live turkey…and slaughtered it. Then they cooked it the next day at Jamal’s house, along with stuffing and mashed potatoes. They showed Jamal’s wife how to make American food and she showed them how to make couscous and tagine. That night, for Thanksgiving, we ate the turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes as our appetizer, and then had lamb couscous and chicken tagine right afterwards for dinner! Although it wasn’t thanksgiving at home, between the IES potluck with my friends and dinner at Jamal’s with my family, it turned out to be a pretty good thanksgiving after all! 
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