Al-Youm Al-Thamin (اليوم الثامن)

 :)

B'salamah,
  ناهد  (Naheed) 

Al-Youm As-Sadis

Salam,

 Excuse my awkward hijab style! And the type of dress I'm trying to say in the video is Kifthaan :) , not Kifnaan.

My shawarma with fries, fettucine and fries and Coke at Cafe Jahawara. It all cost less than $5 :) !

Me in a kifthaan (I think it was made for a taller woman, but it's beautiful!)

My host mom and I eating some sandwiches at her salon.

Al-Youm Al-Khamseen

An old picture -- but me at ALIF  (my school) :) !

Al-Youm Al-Arb3aeen

Enjoy!!

Roman princesses at the Roman ruins :) !

Panoramic view. Pictures don't do it justice sA.

Grainery!

B'salamah!

-Naheed

Al-Youm Al-Thlatheen

I'm not sure if the video upload will work today, so I'm going to write another entry today.

Today is Saturday, so we didn't have any ALIF related activities, even though my host siblings went to school. Instead, we went on a tour of the Medina of Fez (Medieval City). It was amazing and so much better than New Fez. I was expecting more people to be bothersome to us, but in general, Moroccan people are quite respectful.

The shops are beautiful. Moroccan goods are exquisite and pretty cheap. There were beautiful paintings, lanterns and jewelry. Right outside my house is a hijab store, dentist :), purse store and jewelry store. Waash hadi janaat ("Is this heaven in Moroccan?" Arabic.) 

We also saw a tannery, which is in all the Morocco tourist guides. It was such a unique place with such a unique smell that they gave us mint leaves to tolerate the smell. But the leather products were beautiful. I might buy a carry on from there so I can buy more things and take them home!

We saw beautiful medresas (religious schools) which were founded before Oxford was as well as a place where they make scarfs by hand and we tried on turbans! 

I feel more comfortable communicating in Arabic with my family and my ability to do so has definitely increased. InshAllah by the end I'll be able to surpass my expectation!

We're probably going to explore the bazaar later tonight; hopefully we don't get lost!

Blue Gate -- "Bab Bou Jeloud"

Tannery -- "مدبغة"

B'salamah,

Naheed

Al-Youm Al-Thwaney

Welllll it's taking forever to upload the video I made with this WiFi, so I'll just type out this blog entry :)!

Okay, so our day started with a crash course in Moroccan Arabic. It's so interesting to see how different the language is from Modern Standard Arabic. I'm taking classes at Arabic Language Institute in Fez (ALIF) and it's beautiful, just like all of Morocco. After that we took a tour of the Villa Nouveua (New City) of Fez, which is where wealthier Moroccans live. I was surprised at how Western the Moroccans there dressed! I looked more traditional Moroccan with my long blue skirt. We had amazing ice cream and saw the tourist-y parts of the New City. We didn't get a chance to see the royal palace, but it's 15 minutes from ALIF! Our lunch was Tajine with Couscous and it was delicious. There are so many cute cats who ask for food, but I've been told they can hurt me so I can't feed them :( . Afterwards we learned about Moroccan customs and manners, which are very similar to Indian manners.

I met my host family. They are sooo nice! I also think they're pretty wealthy, because they have WiFi. Speaking Arabic spontaneously is harder then I thought. Luckily, my homestay mom knows Spanish, so it's the best of both worlds. Also, our parents speak Modern Standard Arabic as well as Moroccan Arabic so that makes things easier. We had delicious chicken and french fries (batatas frites) for dinner. And Moroccan Sprite, which tastes like Indian Sprite. I have three homestay brothers and one homestay sister. The oldest one is at a University and speaks English well, but he will be back in two weeks. They take care of my roommate, Erin and I so well. Erin and I are a good pair, because I start spontaneous conversation and she's my go to Spanish translator!

                                                 Tajine with Couscous!!

ICE CREAM ICE CREAM ICE CREAM

Our beautiful classroom at ALIF!

Alhamdulillah I can hear the adhaan and nasheeds from outside the window of my bedroom.

Morocco, Alhamdulillah <3

Salam!

-Naheed

Al-Youm Al-Awal

My mom suggested that I do videoblogs, so I'm going to try that out :) !

Burberry in London!!

Turkey pizza!

View from my hotel balcony!!

Also, everything Google related (including Blogger) shows up in French! :)

Bselma,

Naheed

1 MORE NIGHT !!

Less than a day less than a day less than a day LEFT!!!

I have been saying my goodbyes and I'm [almost] done packing! I'm not sure if I want to bring an extra suitcase because we all know that I have somewhat of a shopping problem :-) .

But I found out who my host family is! They are a large family with 4 kids and I will be living in the medieval part of Fez. I got some Moroccan Arabic books for the airplane, because Moroccan Arabic is waaay different from Modern Standard Arabic.

Tomorrow I'm leaving around 4 to London's Heathrow airport and then I will be off to Casablanca, from where I will be driven to a hotel in Fez.

Bon voyage to me!!

(My [almost] packed luggage.)

6 Days Until Take Off!

AAAhh! Morocco is less than one week away!! I can’t believe that this is actually happening; sometimes life is simply dream-like.

 Preparations are coming along though! I’ve been scrambling all over Facebook to get everyone’s Skype information.  I just got my typhoid shot (I didn’t freak out at the doctor’s office this time – I’m very proud of myself). I got information on what to do once I leave from the airport and I’m getting info about where I am staying very soon! I realized that I almost got sunburnt when I was   running outside this morning, so I guess I’m going to have to buy some sun screen. And bug repellent. Lots and lots of sun screen and bug repellent.

I still have to pack everything though! Funny thing  -- I just felt like I unpacked everything when I moved back from school a week ago. Unpacking just to pack again. Meh.

This is the hotel I’m staying in for the first three days that I’m going to be in Morocco! More pictures  to come very soon; I promise J!