I’ve definitely broken my cardinal rule and let my feelings and insecurities go into my blog entries…I’ll try and stop that.

The biggest heartbreak of the last few days have happened a few thousand miles away and I’m not going to rant on them TOO much because I’m sure that you all know how I feel about the Cubs. I’m so embarrassed that I thought that we would actually do something with an amazing season. On one hand, I’m sure they only lost because they knew that I might have a panic attack if I missed the World Series because I was in Morocco, but, on the other, this is absolutely ridiculous. Swept by the Dodgers when you are, by far, first in the league. UGH!

Anywho, these last few days have been rather full. Friday night, we had “Morocco night” at our residence directors house complete with a Moroccan band, dancing, henna, and my entire program clad in djellabas, caftans, and any other sort of Moroccan clothing that we felt like buying. Personally, I bought a djellaba for about 35 dollars. It’s light blue with multi-colored embroidery on the hems. It’s made out of really good fabric and is a good quality one so I’m pretty happy with it. Unfortunately, I’m still undeniably white underneath it.

The party was a lot of fun. All of Madiha’s (our resident director)’s family was there and the entire program was there. I still don’t have much appreciation for Moroccan/Arab music, but I have hope that a tolerance will develop sometime soon. We must have danced for six hours and we ate SO much food (to the point where one of Madiha’s relatives told us that we were going to get chubby). There were cookies, tea, more cookies, couscous, and fruit salad. It was easily the best couscous that I’d had since I got here with some kind of heavier meat and figs. Now that Ramadan is over, Friday is couscous day and the world is a better place. I love couscous, it’s just good stuff.

I didn’t know what I was doing for the rest of the weekend until Saturday morning. I had plans with other people, but they all spaced on me or claimed that “they just decided to go on a small trip, but we really want to travel with you”. Thankfully, some people didn’t pull that crap on me and the medina girls (including me) went to El-Jadida about 4 hours away.

El-Jadida is a resort town right on the shore south of Casablanca. It’s not especially known for any crafts of sites (except for the beach), but it was totally worth it. We were planning on catching the 1:00 train from Rabat, but Suzanne’s host brother (who was coming with us) was late and we decided to just catch the 2:30. When we finally got to El-Jadida around 6:30 and got into a car (that was not marked as a taxi). It was very shady, but Zachariah (Suzanne’s host brother) started talking to the guy who was apparently not kidnapping us and he took us to this house that we could rent on the outskirts of El-Jadida towards Sidi Bouzid.

The house/apartment was amazing- it was two bedrooms, a kitchen, a balcony, a full bathroom, and two Moroccan sitting rooms. It was nice to not be staying in some shady hotel and it only cost 100 dirhams/night per person (about 14 dollars). Since we got in so late, we weren’t able to do any site-seeing that night. Instead, we caught a ride downtown and then we went to dinner and then began our epic search for a place that served alcohol. El-Jadida is a small resort town in its off-season so there were not a lot of affordable places that were licensed. We had a few beers at this tiny, smoky bar in a hotel and then (after dealing with Zachariah’s childish moods) ended up at this great club with a loud Moroccan band and over-priced alcohol. I had a lot of fun, but it would have been a ton better if we hadn’t been paying 7USD for a tiny baby beer. I miss logo night.

The next morning, we all slept in and had breakfast at home before heading over to the beach at Sidi Bouzid. One of the guys who we had met the night before told us that Sidi Bouzid was the most beautiful beach in Morocco and I think that might be true. It was deserted and stretched for miles in either direction. It was also, more or less, trash-free (a rarity for Moroccan beaches). We spent the day tanning, reading, and talking. I went into the water twice, but the waves were huge and would definitely had won in an epic battle between the two of us. Around 3:30, Zachariah left to go back to Rabat and we were free of dealing with his mood swings. In case you haven’t caught on, I really don’t like him, but there’s nothing that’s going to change him- he’s had 33 years of getting his way and being coddled by Moroccan society.

We were all pretty broke so we didn’t have any ambitious plans for Sunday night. We tried to make it to the Portuguese cistern, but had trouble catching cabs, some people insisted on showering/talking to Moroccan boys and we ended up getting there after it closed. Instead, we just grabbed some dinner at a snack bar (the Moroccan equivalent of a diner, fast food place, and Dennys all combined into one). We spent the rest of the evening walking around and taking in the sites.

We had a slightly Babel-esque moment when our train got stopped for about 40 minutes in the middle of nowhere. I’d never been on the train for quite so long and it was really shocking to see the disparity between people there. We passed by countless of people herding sheep and riding donkeys, lots of homes made out of old fences and aluminum sheets, but we also passed by some really nice buildings with gates and cars.

Next weekend, I’m going to Marrekesh for a class trip. All I’ve heard about Marrekesh is that it’s a total circus and not a super-safe place, but I’m really excited. Because we’re going with the program, it’s going to be cheap and fairly safe. They’ve got the hotel and the meals. If I had a cord for my camera, I’d promise pictures, but, unfortunately, I don’t.

- Brief update-

Last night proved that Morocco is a billion times better when it’s not Ramadan. It was Micah’s birthday so a group of 15 or so went out to a tapas and wine bar to celebrate. Half a bottle of wine and about 8 courses of tapas for less than 30 dollars. It was a lot more fun than anything I’ve done in awhile here.