After traversing the Atlantic yesterday, I arrived in Rabat with the whole day ahead of me. Unfortunately, I was too delirious to seize the daylight, but I did buy shampoo and Oulmès (Moroccan fizzy water) after lunching with my two new roommates at Salés Sucrés. I woke up today with ease at 7.40 AM (oh that waking at that hour were always so easy) and spent much of the morning trolling the internet for information. I have also acquired a sim card for my well traveled Jordanian Nokia.
This morning, I found this advice, which I will try to follow:
In learning Arabic: “Our goal cannot be to sound Moroccan, but it can be to sound "neutral foreign".”
Thus my mantra is “neutral foreign” instead of “specific foreign.” In addition, the same text conveyed this useful tidbit:
“In Morocco there are also books made for illiterate adults, which is exactly what we are.”
Today was a wonderful day in every way. My new friend, Hind, allowed me to tag along on her errands. We dined at Dar Naji just outside the Kasbah. On her recommendation we had salad Zaalouk
with bread and Chicken Rfissa Medhoussa (trid au poulet). 
She took hers with white meat and I with dark. You can take a look at both the process of preparing the dish here and the delicious finished product here. The hosting institution of my internship expects me tomorrow, and I begin my Arabic and Moroccan classes on Monday!
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