Arrival in imperial Rabat
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!
Friday I woke leisurely, keeping an eye on my email for messages from my internship and prospective language school. After receiving a message with great directions to ADFM, along with a lunch invitation, I prepared myself for the day. The taxi ride was a dream (I even got change back without asking!!)
and I found rue Ibn Mokla without any problems. I got a tour of the office from my new boss and lunched with the staff. Afterward I fulfilled my first duty of helping to prepare for the press conference on the liberalization of the communal land law. The beneficiaries, the women of Soulaliyates, were invited to attend the press conference and ask questions. You can read about here (it is only available in French). I decided to walk home, which was delightful and uncomplicated. Saturday I was able to move into my room in the apartment and even did a little grocery shopping where I picked up my beloved yoghurt with cereals in it 
and mortadelle aux olives. 
Today the perfect loveliness continued as I rejoined dear Hind, who taught me the Moroccan words for pillows, shower curtain, toothbrush and other useful darija.
