I met a lovely Moroccan woman on the flight from SFO to NY (and on to Casablanca). Actually, I met her son who asked me if I could look out for her since it was her first trip to the US and she didn't speak English. Ok, no problem...she's Moroccan and I would get to use my French. I was excited. Only problem was that she didn't speak French, she spoke Spanish! That was good when we got to NY and she needed to transfer terminals and pick up her bags and run them back through security, but didn't help our many hours of time together. But we persevered and with her little bit of French (I got to be the expert on this one...what a thrill) we found out a lot about each other's lives. Anyway, we traveled together across the continent of the US and the Atlantic and arrived in Casablanca (otherwise known as Casa here) where her other son picked her up.
When I landed in Casablanca I was so happy to be back. I knew the airport and jumped right into speaking French and they actually seemed to be understanding me. I am getting pretty adept at explaining what I am doing here.
Highlights of today:
- Slept on both planes and then for a few hours in Rabat. I am good to go!
- Negotiated the train from Casablanca to Rabat easily even with two "grands baggages" and a bag and a backpack. For anyone considering this, the train was every bit as easy as I was told. And the people....how kind and helpful they were...One woman even thought I was French!
- My French is holding up. Had a long conversation with a man in a store who is a professor of Pedagogy at the University here and he gave me all the reasons why I should be studying Arabic instead of French and why the educational system in Morroco is poor because they try and teach too many languages. He also took the opportunity to tell me that the rest of the world is suffering economically and politically because of the policies of George Bush. Ofcourse I told him we were kindred spirits on this one.
- Bought a Moroccan cell phone (see note below) and had a wonderful conversation with the store owner about Barack Obama. Do I have political liberal written on my forehead (in French)...I think so.
- My hotel in Rabat is very nice and is a section of Rabat that I had not visited last year. It is very neighborhoody (I'll take pictures tomorrow) but still walking distance to the medina. Hotel is empty and I had the whole restaurant to myself for lunch. There is an OAT tour group here and I actually met some of the people at JFK but I haven't seen them.
- The weather is magnificent. Sunny and warm. Just like the weather I left.
Negatives:
- My US cell phone isn't getting or receiving calls or texts. Ofcourse the Verizon site doesn't address this, it just gives a US # to call. Will address this issue tomorrow I guess.
- The instructions for my Moroccan cell are available in French (good) but on the phone all the things like Options etc are in Arabic. You can't even guess with Arabic...it just looks like it is from some alien world.
- Although the French has been great, I sure could use some Arabic (see above). Guess that guy was right....listening to the TV or trying to figure out signs is a bit intimidating.
- The guy at the front desk in the hotel is a bit overly flirtatious. This could be a good thing if I was interested which I am not. Anyway, not offensive, just difficult to read. Moroccan friendliness and sense of humor or.........
- Always a negative is negotiating dinners by myself...room service or venture outdoors from my warm comfortable bed....ah, such questions
- No call to prayer...guess that I am too far from the nearest mosque. I miss that. It would have truly felt like I was back.
Anyway, sorry this is so long. Others will be shorter and with more pictures, inshallah. If you get bored you can just shut off your computer. Wouldn't it be nice if everything was so easy?
This was SO not too long. I could have read twice as much! It sounds like your adventure is starting off well. I wish I were there too!
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