I fell back onto the bench lining the lime green walls of the terrace; post tea - before dinner - no homework done yet. I'm staring at the sky. Sparrows flutter above our heads.
Out on the terrace, we'll sit down to dinner around a circular table.
Advice: you put your right hand in and your left hand out...and you keep it that way. Use some bread to gather the meat and vegetables on the large plate being shared amongst the family. Speak Arabic. Learn Arabic. Don't forget to use your right hand.
So far I've said "new teacher" instead of "good teacher", "prayer" instead of "honey", heard "fruit table" when my host father, or sidi, said something about breakfast, which, fi arabee, is fudur. Brad, my roommate and partner for this Moroccan adventure sits there and does one of two things. Either he lets me make a fool of myself or acts as my dictionary, providing answers to questions that let me structure my sentences correctly and use the proper vocabulary.
I am beginning to like it here. I used to associate Arabic with something dreadfully difficult but now have formed a different association. I am reinforcing it daily in my Arabic classes and every evening around the dinner table. The association is with a conversation I had with a taxi driver in Amman. He and I spoke only Arabic on a 15-minute taxi ride from from the 7th Circle to AMIDEAST in Wadi Abdoun. It was my first Arabic conversation. Here, I feel like I've already had many more. They aren't perfect and they never will be but after nearly two years of studying the language, I'm happy to see it start paying off.
Tomorrow we (Brad, some folks from AMIDEAST, and I) head to Fez by train. Fez - where the fez hats are from.
Out on the terrace, we'll sit down to dinner around a circular table.
Advice: you put your right hand in and your left hand out...and you keep it that way. Use some bread to gather the meat and vegetables on the large plate being shared amongst the family. Speak Arabic. Learn Arabic. Don't forget to use your right hand.
So far I've said "new teacher" instead of "good teacher", "prayer" instead of "honey", heard "fruit table" when my host father, or sidi, said something about breakfast, which, fi arabee, is fudur. Brad, my roommate and partner for this Moroccan adventure sits there and does one of two things. Either he lets me make a fool of myself or acts as my dictionary, providing answers to questions that let me structure my sentences correctly and use the proper vocabulary.
I am beginning to like it here. I used to associate Arabic with something dreadfully difficult but now have formed a different association. I am reinforcing it daily in my Arabic classes and every evening around the dinner table. The association is with a conversation I had with a taxi driver in Amman. He and I spoke only Arabic on a 15-minute taxi ride from from the 7th Circle to AMIDEAST in Wadi Abdoun. It was my first Arabic conversation. Here, I feel like I've already had many more. They aren't perfect and they never will be but after nearly two years of studying the language, I'm happy to see it start paying off.
Tomorrow we (Brad, some folks from AMIDEAST, and I) head to Fez by train. Fez - where the fez hats are from.
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