Couscous has many facets

On Thursday I went to a Couscous dinner organized by the student group SIFE. First of all, thank you SIFE it was magnificent. It was a three course 5-6 hour event, with music, and very well dressed people.
We thought we were going to be late, so we arrived at 8:15. Instead we were the early birds. The presentation just started at 9:15, the music went from then until 10:30 when the food finally arrived. It was a gigantic platter with a lot of couscous, some meat, and vegetables. I know that this will outrage my meat eating companions as much as it outraged me, but therefore the meat was tenderlicious (yes, I am making up words). The dessert was even greater. We had couscous with almonds, powdered sugar, and cinnamon. It was warm, it was sweet, it was extremely satisfying. I did not let the waiter take the platter away, because I was eating it the whole time. In between the second and third course. The singer came around and made my American comrades dance. He thought I was Moroccan (SCORE!), and did not count Vya as American. The rest of the group was basically forced to put up a very weak performance of line dancing. I believe he gave up on us being as alive as Moroccans, and just left.
Then it was time for the last round of food. Bread, amazing butter, and date-almond jam. We bolted immediately afterwards, in fear of having to perform again.
The musical quality at the even was great. We had a quite famous singer and his band performing. I did not really understand diddly, but it sounded beautiful. Right before the food came out, a traditional Moroccan group performed. They had trumpets that were at least some 3 meters long, a lot of tambourines, and some other percussion instruments. The leader of the group was this old man, who was only skipping around, I assume that he was dancing. Then they brought the women in to do the world famous Arabic screaming. They were so good at it.
One thing this dinner showed me was that there are three things Moroccans like. They like music and everything that comes with it, they like to dress up (gosh they were looking great), and they L.O.V.E. food. I might have to consider changing nationalities, because I love the same stuff. Anyway, it supposedly was almost like a wedding, which I have yet to witness.

Ma Salama from Maghrib,

Diogo

Aiwa is Jordanian as well.....

،بسم الله
another week has gone by. There weren't too many interesting things going on this week. I opted to pass on a trip to Chefchaouen. A city known for three things, it is the holy city, the blue city, and the hash capital of the world. Instead I went to Azrou, a city that has many members of the Peace Corps there. While I was there with my friend Mounir, he told my quite some things about Morocco.
This country is split in two like most countries. On the one hand side you have the beautiful and rich big cities like Rabat, Casablanca, and Marrakech; but on the other side there is the country side, which many times still needs a lot of work. These areas are the places, where one might not find running water, or high literacy rates. But to my surprise there is another problem that cuts through society here. Only the minority actually speaks classical Arabic here. Most of the Moroccans speak derija, and only the educated elite knows how to express themselves in MSA. More people possess a high degree of French knowledge. Clearly to be associated with French colonialism. What baffled me was that the newspapers and eveyrhting in print is in Modern Standard Arabic nonetheless.
Another thing this country inherited from the French, is a law that prohibits non-Muslims to enter Mosques. The French enforced this law in order to prevent its soldiers from converting to Islam. But somehow this law infiltrated the consciousness of the people, which now believes that the Qur'an says that non-Muslims are not allowed in Mosques. A quite interesting phenomenon.

This weekend will be amazing though. I will be going to either Tangier, Chefchaouen, or Rabat.

Ma Salama

YOGA YOGI DEH!!

Salaam Aleikum,
so I started to do yoga. I am in pain. The sun salutation is amazing at first but painful in its aftermath. Anyway today is Valentine's Day, and guess what folks, Moroccan girls love it as much as Americans. Flowers raining from everywhere, dried flowers, chocolate, and cake. I did not participate, I was an even bigger ass and left the posse behind being an old man. Damn age....

Otherwise today was quite interesting, I had a lengthy conversation with my roommate about different cultures. It is rude to keep your distance from people when talking to them. One might see it as saying the person smells bad. Another that he informed me off is that here you always need to watch what is coming behind you in the medinas. You might have an awkward encounter with donkeys, mules, or horses.

In the past days I have learned a lot about the Israel-Palestinian conflict. It is not necessarily that all Palestinians hate Jews. The reality is that they hate the Israeli government. They hate the fact that for them Israel, no matter why or how, is "occupying" their land Palestine. Palestinian hatred is geared at Jews partially because Israel itself defines itself as Jewish state. Obviously this not the whole explanation of the problem but it covers a part of it.

This weekend I might actually try to read the Qur'an to see what is in it.

Tallah!

Volubilis and more

On Saturday we visited Volubilis. The city is located in the area between Meknes and Moulay Idriss. The city used to be Roman and was inhabited until the 4th century AD. It is located close to some beautiful olive fields and wheat farms. In general that area was quite different from the relatively barren lands surrounding Ifrane and Fes. Volubilis (or ulili in Arabic) is located in gorgeous green hills, in a very rural area mostly untouched by tourism. The constructions are very well preserved, and quite imposing when one thinks of its age.
After Volubilis, we engaged in some real young Moroccan entertainment. It is the same as in the USA. It differs from American juvenile entertainment, because here it is not the majority that drinks it is more split down evenly in the middle. Well I guess compared to Oxford, alcoholic beverages are not ready available. The deeply rooted Muslim culture is seen in this. Even though alcoholic beverages are legal here, they are mostly sold in the bigger cities or large supermarkets (Marjen Moroccan Wal-Mart).
Most of the people I talked about the reasons for their lifestyle choices make it a point that Islam did not dictate their choices, but they admit that due to its characteristic of some sort of foundation, it influences their choices.

Interesting day!

Maa Salama' min Maghrib

Diogo

Oy va voy

In this world there's probably only one thing that can make me miserable, and that is food poisoning. I got it WOOOOOOHHHOOOOOOO I joined this selective club of misery. Basically it forces me to be disgusted by meat, and have absolutely no desire to eat anything. I believe I got it from the ice cream I ate the margen. Since there's nothing else that is really interesting to tell, I will stop here.

Love you all!

Mek~snorrrrr~Nes

Hello Everyone,
Today we went to Meknes. We were extremely hyped, excited and ready to go. But once we got there and decided to not use a map, we got lost. In the midst of our unguided lost tour, one guy tried to force a carpet down my throat for 500 Dirhams (50€). I somehow feel somewhat abused by them. They, on the other hand side, felt completely assed because I shook hands on the deal and just walked out. Then we landed in some extremely suspicious areas, out which we got out with a lot of nice help by some Amazighs (Berbers), thank God. Amazigh women especially are quite cool, they have tattoos over their faces, not the whole face covered but some on the forehead, cheeks, and chin.
The real disappointment came when we realized that there's not really anything to do in Meknes. SUPRISE every Moroccan will say. We kept on going on our journey, trying to find the Mausoleum of Moulay Ismail. At alst we found it. After a quite tasty, filling, and bit dangerous lunch, we decided to go to that mausoleum. We didn't find it. On we go to walk in circles, while the sky was clearing up, we delve even deeper into this culture finding nice police officers, random sheep, a fluffy donkey, and a giant picture of King Mohammed VI, may Allah give him strengths.
At some point we realized that the mausoleum is next to the restaurant, damn! A beautiful place full of marble, carpets, gorgeous tile work, bright, and a cool dude that guided us around and explained a lot about the place. We left the mausoleum, walked around, and I almost got arrested!! At least that's what I thought, but the police officer was just pulling a prank, it still was quite an experience. We asked another cop where the Jewish Quarter is, and it turns out that we land in the ghetto again (awesome, explorers).
We left Meknes in the afternoon with this driver named Nasser. Nasser was so kind to invite us to his mother's house to eat real couscous. He even gave me his phone number.

I think the word of the day was shady!! This trip was pure shady mcshades.

Ma Salama min al Maghrib