Christopher Richards, this post is dedicated to you.

Dear Christopher Richards! I dedicate this post to you in order to thank you for your gift! Your gift made today so bright! Chris sent me a beautiful little day planner that's so helpful! You can see it in the picture below. 

Thank you all friends and family for being so kind to me! Thanks for not forgetting me!

Packages are like inexplicable boxes of utter happiness. :)

I also had a fantastic time this Christmas weekend, hanging out with friends. We used my really sad little Christmas tree for a white elephant gift giving game! I got a camel puzzle! Thanks Rachel! But basically, we just ran around all weekend on a shopping spree so that we could decorate our soon-to-be houses with useful  items. I even managed to lose and find my debit card all in the same weekend! So much fun. I'm actually more impressed that I stayed calm and didn't freak out as I would have in the states. It's enormously empowering moving to a foreign country. I am also becoming more accustomed to just being here in general. Every day is a little easier. I notice that I can exude calm occasionally, and for me, that is an entirely new characteristic.

I'm also going to start reading, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. I love that satisfying feeling of finishing a book. Now, on to the next!

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Today Show Book Club #13) by Mark Haddon http://www.amazon.com/Curious-Incident-Night-Time-Today-Show/dp/0385512104

I lost my keys, oh wait, I didn’t, oh but they don't work in the door.

What a day.

My host mom asked me if I wanted to walk to one of the satellite towns. Of course I want to go! So off we went! On the way, there was a house with all of the stuff left by the PCV who I replaced. I wanted to stop by and check on the stuff he left me. So I opened the envelope he had left me that had two keys in it. I thought I dropped something but then thought nothing of it. I get to the door, open it, go to another locked door and realize I have only one key. I DID drop something! Egads! So I go searching out in this field for the key. Soon, I was aided by my PCV’s former neighbors, who were combing the ground. Thankfully, my thoughtful host mom asked me to look through the bags I was carrying. Lo and behold! It was in my bag!

So everything was hunky dory after that. I even found a Christmas tree! Total bonus! Thank you former PCV!!! Upon walking out, I got my key out to lock the door, and it wouldn’t lock. At all. My host mom was telling me, I was going to have to spend the night here in the satellite town until I could figure out the lock. I was bound and determined to make this door work! Work evil door, work! So the neighbor comes over to try to get the door to bend to my will. Then another neighbor joins, then another, until there’s at least 5 women standing around this door, trying to make the lock work. Finally, after a half an hour, the door’s lock budged and I was able to shut the door. (Such a group effort for such a simple task!)

Happily after that, we did make it to our final destination, which is a town very close to a castle (called a qasbah)! I will post a little video I took of the land around the castle soon on my facebook page.

After a quick visit to Qasbah town, I was off to my Dar Shebab to teach my students “Jingle Bells!” Happy Christmas everybody!

Look! The Christmas tree that could!

Hark! Is that a donkey I hear?

Hey all!

Amazing news! I found a house! I can't wait to put up pictures of before and after photos (that is, after I decorate...with what exactly, I don't know yet.) But anyhow, I'm going to live there in little under two weeks! Hoorah! I call it my early Christmas gift to myself. 

(As a complete aside-the power goes off often here, and every time it does, my host father goes, "Ooh la la!" and every time he does it, it makes me giggle and I have to work to stifle it.)

Also, it's Christmas time and I am more than prepared to start listening to all of my Christmas music that exists on my computer. I was listening to "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" and tears came to my eyes. I was briefly overwhelmed by that sudden, 'O my gosh, I'm in Morocco and why doesn't my house smell like pine and chex mix?, home sick feeling.' I suspect that I'll be a little weird on Christmas day. However! I have plans with some really lively people who are going to spend Christmas day with me. 

For those of you wondering what the cake is about, I still hang out with a baker who dotes on me. She asked if she could make me a Christmas cake. Therefore, you all, Happy Christmas! Let us celebrate the holiday joy wherever we are!

learning the Alphabet

Today I decided that I should put on my investigation glasses and go searching for an apartment myself. I did this because I was somewhat curious and somewhat wondering what the response to my question would be. I did this because I was somewhat curious and interested in what people I just talked to would say. Anyhow, I asked around and to my delight I got some answers and so tomorrow, I may see another apartment. I have to continually remind myself to be really patient with everything. My inner mantra is thrumming away to the lines of, "Everything is going to be okay."

I also decided today that since I speak a dialect of Arabic, maybe I should learn how to read it. . So, I took it upon myself to start copying things from my English-Darija workbook. Then after a session with my tutor, I found that I can vaguely muddle my way through words. I feel elated. I also feel like I have a new and fun superpower.

I wanted you to enjoy the fruits of my labor! This page says really fun things like, “Where is the post office?” and my personal favorite, “What is the name of the chief doctor at the hospital?”

As of late.

Hey guys,

Sorry I haven’t been writing too much. I’ve been preoccupied with being a smidgen sick with the world's best cold. I was even really thoughtful and gave it to my host mom. Poor thing. Thankfully, I feel as though I’m beginning to recoup and my host mom isn't as bad as I am, so we're going to make it. I even made it all the way to my Nedi Neswy (Women’s club) to tell them this fun fact: "hey I’m alive but sick. I’ll be back on Wednesday!" They took the news well, so all is good there.

I’ve found an apartment and I think I’ll make two years there without going insane. Hooray. The bathroom’s a bit small but I’m pretty sure I can install a shower in there. Things are looking up. When I move in, I really want to put up pictures of fun things. I'm also really looking forward to being able to control food intake a bit more. I'm glad i'm not starving, I'm just looking forward to cooking for myself in smaller portions. 

On another subject, I want you to enjoy pictures of henna! I got some really spectacular wedding henna done on me, courtesy of my old host family. 

A place of my own.

Finding a house in a small dusty town can be….in a word, overwhelming. It doesn’t help that I hate searching for a place to live anyways, but I needed to share this with you because obviously, dear reader, you care.

I was fortunate enough to spend the early hours of this morning invested in watching the television show “Dexter.” Trust me, it provides loads of entertainment for the slightly morose.  Anyhow, I decided today was a good day to go look for a house. I’m really glad I brought a book to the office where I went to try and search for a house because I was there for three hours. Thankfully though, no one let me down on actually finding a place!

After five minutes of walking around an apartment, I have decided I may just keep mine eyes peeled.  As much as I loathe looking for a house, it is rather exciting to see a brand new place and dreaming about whether or not I might decorate those barren walls. I’ve heard from other volunteers that some of the happiest times they have had have been when they first moved into their own house. I’m really excited that for the first time ever, I will have a place all my own.

I'm attempting to keep a log about what books I'm reading.

But mostly I'm doing this because it's of my own egocentric interest.
As of now, I'm reading Stephen King's, The Stand. Until I get better about managing my time, it may take me a while to get through it. Hoorah. I will definitely be adding the new books I'm reading and attempting to make a bigger list of what books that I have remembered reading.

In case you forgot what this big, thick book looks like, here you are:

The Stand: Expanded Edition: For the First Time Complete and Uncut (Signet) by Stephen King

Fun with food

I got tricked into eating stomach! ACH! I was eating couscous like it was all hunky dory and then the meat that sits in the middle of the great dish of grains was cut and a piece was handed to me. I cut a smaller piece, eyed it suspiciously and then just said, heck, I'll just eat it because I don't know what it is. Then I put it in my mouth. I give myself 100 points of awesome for swallowing it. Although, I did feel like an idiot because the reception that this poor Moroccan family who was so kind to invite me for dinner was watching me attempt to masticate this piece of stomach. But still! This time I didn't even run to the bathroom. Stomach may get easier to eat but the taste still hasn't left my mouth yet.

Anyhow, enough about that. I've recently had the good luck to make friends with the local baker. She invites me over to her shop during closing. Then she lets me help make the rest of the cookies she's currently making and hands me cookie after delicious cookie. Today I had a coconut macaroon that tasted like...well I don't know what it tasted like, something like crunchy happiness in sugary bread form? The slight downside of this interaction is that eventually I will become (the appropriate Arabic word here is: glida, don't you think that's the most appropriate word for fat?) more rubenesque by the time I leave Morocco. This is a serious food culture. Even when I came home after eating dinner with some really nice people, my host family was like, "WHAT? I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU ATE! YOU WILL EAT SPAGHETTI NOW." (slightly exaggerated)

But they were cool with me making a weak attempt at me eating. Sometimes unspecified people (to protect those who have been kind enough to invite me over) rate me on how much I've eaten at meals. For instance, if I don't clear the food triangle designated for me (since usually we eat meals communally out of one plate) they tell me I haven't eaten well. So I have tried to come up with fun ways of counteracting this behavior. I like saying things like: "I have a small stomach. I will get a food baby. I will get sick if I eat more. I eat slowly because that's how I eat in America.(that one is a last ditch effort trying to get the people serving me not to notice if I'm scraping food into other triangles so I don't have to eat it all). 

Now I want you to take the time to notice that I don't look sickly or pale in this picture. I even feel slightly elated in this because my host fam just gave me this beautiful bag. Even my real dad said I didn't look too bad. Bssha people, bssha (to your health).

So I bought a modem. This modem allows me to have the internet at my fingertips! Oh the power! My need for internet is finally sated.

On a different note, I'd just like to say that while I write this, my host father is watching a television show from Egypt where this man is helping students by phone with their algebra homework. I am deeply amused.
But aside from that, I am a real Peace Corps Volunteer now! I'm sworn in and at my permanent site. Things are good. I have been in site for one full week and it has flown by.

I'm still figuring things out here in town and although it's small, I get turned around because there are still streets I don't know etc. I'm really fortunate that I found a tutor so fast. You can tell he loves to teach and hopefully within a few months I'll be able to say more exciting sentences than, "This is a wall." and "I like soup," and my personal favorite, "gosh it's cold."

My host family spoils me tons. Everyday my host mom wakes up and makes me french toast and coffee. I am sorely tempted to live my two years with them. I really like having a family that I can communicate decently with and that watch out for my safety. I'm really relieved that I've such an awesome host family. But alas, I should really move out on my own and grow up. I hope all is well with ya'll!

For your enjoyment, here's a picture of cookies I made with my first host family.