Where am I?

I am finally in Africa. A bunch of the PCTs (Peace Corps Trainees) went for a walk on the beach today and it was incredibly surreal. The mere fact that I was walking around in Africa, in Morocco no less seemed like a dream. I suppose I have come to terms with this and have moved on to accepting this surreal reality as something that exists.

Anyhow, while I was taking a shower this evening, I heard quite a hullabaloo downstairs. So I quickly clothed and went downstairs to check out the noise. The teachers who are going to teach our group Darija (Moroccan Arabic) and tamazight (a Berber dialect) had all gathered around a man playing the oud in the Salon. There were quite a few other PCTs who came down to listen to the music. I felt like I wanted to sing with their songs and understand what they were singing. So I asked to sit down next to one of the teachers and she explained to me quietly what the songs were about. Eventually she had me dancing a new dance and sort of humming and bobbing along with the rest of the musicians/vocalists/teachers. Everyone was drumming on the table, dancing, gesturing, and singing. How ridiculously blessed am I? Almost all the other PCTs are asleep now, but I felt that I needed to be around the music. After all, I can't speak Darija yet, but music is something I can understand.

Someone hijacked my sleep.

So, it's 5:46am my time, which my computer tells me is 2:55am Pacific time and I am wide awake. VERY awake. After getting sick of tossing and turning I waved the white flag. Now I'm sitting in the bathroom so as not to disturb my roommate. Wait, roommate? What roommate? Ah yes, I didn't tell you.

Yesterday, I took my flight from Seattle to Philadelphia. Thank goodness that this girl approached me and asked my final destination, and lo and behold she too was going to Morocco for Peace Corps. After an uneventful flight, my friend and I made the choice of attempting to get to the hotel we had our reservations at. My initial ineptitude made getting a shuttle difficult on account of I had totally forgotten what street the hotel was on. The poor transportation man looked at me like I was some sort of strange alien, and I don't blame him much because I sort of am.

Thankfully we made it to the hotel where the entire third floor is full of Peace Corps trainees who came running with open arms to the new arrivals and invited us to dinner. After a bunch of appetizers and discussion topics such as, "why are you here, what drew you to the Peace Corps, and where have you traveled to?" we finally decided it had been a long traveling day and we should settle down.

Which leads me to now: In a bathroom at 6:03am. Hooray early mornings!