I have
found the lounge. It’s on the third floor, and it has a TV, couches, and a
table. I am quite pleased by this.
I just got
back from a long conversation with my RA, Sanaa. She is bubbling over with ideas
for our building for the semester, and along with the Club Fair coming up on
Monday this has banished any visions of seclusion I had. Class is tomorrow, and
I can’t remember the last time I was this excited for class.
Today was
pretty much awesome. I woke up at ten, and had time to shower and have a
leisurely breakfast before meeting at the globe for the Couscous social in
Ifrane. Much to my surprise and delight, it was the freshmen and the international
students going. We took two buses, loaded beyond capacity (of course!). When we
got there, the couscous was still being prepared and we had about half an hour
of waiting.
The social
took place in a large building used for such activities, with a high ceiling
and a stage at one end. Men came in with various types of drums and two
ridiculously long brass instruments, like trumpets but simpler. They played
music with a strong beat and sang loudly. As the Moroccan students got up to
dance, I found myself pulled into the crowd by Sarah, one of the student
ambassadors (I think). They dance rhythmically, with much moving of the feet. You
either clap your hands to the beat or raise your hands in the air and swivel
them by the wrist. We danced twice over the course of the meal, and people were
shouting and trilling. A dance circle formed in the middle of the mass, and
some of the girls could move their hips in ways I didn’t know was possible!
I had such
a genuinely fun time, and some of the Moroccan students even recognized me. I’m
trying very hard not to hang out with only international students, though the
pull of familiarity is strong.
After the
social, some of us went to the marche to get our pictures taken for our
temporary residency papers. All of the walking from place to place took its
toll, and by the time I stumbled back to my room around 4, I took a forty
minute nap. When I woke up, my roommate was just walking in. She’s wonderfully
sweet, but very shy. She brought with her some cousins, younger siblings, her
father and her uncle. They brought her stuff in very quickly and left after
meeting me. I found out that she’s from Meknes and studying business.
Instead of
watching the movie they showed (the Hunger Games, projected on a wall
outdoors), a lot of us wound up hanging out with some of the student
ambassadors. It turns out they have a wickedly sharp sense of humor, and by the
time dinner had passed we were joking and swapping tales like old friends. They
have such great stories to tell, and I feel like they’ve lived so much more
than I have in the same amount of time. We sat around drinking coffee and tea
until eleven, when we all realized we actually had class in the morning and
should probably go to bed at a decent hour.
I’m going to
start carrying my camera around more often. There are so many wonderful things I’ve
seen, but I have very little evidence of it. I promise, more pictures are on
their way.
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