three weeks in

So, sorry I suck at blogging. My host family has internet, so I don't even have a good excuse.

I've been at my CBT site about two weeks now. It's incredibly posh. The town attracts a lot of tourists. I'll probably be really unprepared for my permanent site after swearing in 5my host family has a hot water tap, a dvd player, a western toilet and has even embraced toilet paper) but hey, one step at a time. swiyya bswiyya.

I spend most of the week at my LCF's (language and culture facilitator) house learning Darija. We have classes/training from 830 to 6 M thru F and 830 to 1230 Sat. When I'm not at school I try to find a balance between "me" time and "morocco" time. During "me" time I veg out and listen to my ipod or run occasionally and during "morocco" time i cultivate my lady skills. That sounds dirty, but what I mean is I try to act like a girl in Morocco should (I'm not a woman because I'm npt married. Also, when people ask me if I'm married I am supposed to stress that I'm simply not married yet). I do my maundry, help my mom set the table and clean up after meals, try to force myself into the kitchen, etc. My mom doesnt't really want my help cooking, though, because the last time was a disaster. I peeled one potato (poorly) in the time it took her to peel three and grate a few carrots. If I had the language capacity I would let her know that if she ever needs help impersonating robots, dinosaurs or zombies I'm totally down, but cooking has never been my strong suit. Just ask my real mom.

Things are going swimmingly with my CBT (community based training) group. We all have Arabic names now--Amal (me), Jamila, Nubna, Absalam; Tariq and Brahim. We have fun together... the other day our LCF qsked if we had any questions and Absalam shouted out "Would you rqther have crab hands or a tail?"

My host sisters are pretty col I guess. The littlest one cracks me up. She drew me this really pretty picture of a rainbow fish but instead of just giving it to me she followed me around for 20 minutes holding it. She even followed me outside while I took my laundry down from the line.

What else. Um... well we eat 'round the clock. Sunday I woke up at 10 am and had coffee (which in Morocco is a glass of warm milk with a splash of coffee and a cube of sugar) and a little pancake. Then around 1 pm we feasted on fish, beans and bread. I met some PCVs from the neighboring town for coffee at 3ish, then Brahim and I went to visit our fellow CBT mates, which meant another lunch at Lubna and Absalam's qnd tea and cookies at Jamila and Tariq's. I got home just in time for tea with my family, and then of course there's dinner. Sometimes I think I moved to the Shire, not Morocco, because my new diet is essentially that of a hobbit. Breakfast, second breakfast, elevensies, luncheon, afternoon tea, dinner, supper...

I have henna on my palms and its really exciting.

two days to staging

It's been awhile since my last post...this month has gone by really fast! I moved back to Houston in early August, then came back to DC a few weeks later to see all my friends one last time and go to a big music festival. It was so hard leaving the city the second time around...I was definitely that girl that cries in the airport (and cries like an idiot for like an hour before even leaving to go to the airport). First time for everything right? I will probably be that girl again come Tuesday morning when my dad drops me off for my trip to Philly.

I spent the past couple days in Houma, LA where my parents grew up and my pop still lives. I love going back there, and not just because Pop's house always smells like bacon in the morning and you can find absolutely delicious shrimp gumbo in most houses and restaurants. I love it because it just never changes, even when it does. For example, my pop took my dad and I to have lunch at the country club on Friday--a time-honored Houma tradition. However, when we pulled up, there was a lot of construction surrounding the entrance and there were big "no parking" signs where Pop usually parks his car. No matter; Pop just pulled up to one of the signs, drove a little past it and parked in the grass. He can do that, see, because he's been a member of the club pretty much since it started and everyone in town knows him, anyway. My goodness I want to be crazy like that when I'm old.

The other thing I love about Houma is watching my dad just be in Houma. He completely changes--he's more relaxed, his accent gets about 16 times stronger and he's funny as hell. His best friend Mr. Biff owns a paint shop that we always go visit when I get down there and every time we go I almost fall off my stool laughing. It's like a scene out of a movie. There are like seven employees that just hang around and never really do anything, stools set up in front of the pay counter so you can just come and hang out for a bit if you want (no pressure to buy any paint or anything) and every morning this random octogenarian named Al comes in, yells "Biffaroo and Tyler, Too!" in greeting to my dad's bff, then goes and sits in the break room and eats breakfast. I wish I had a transcript of everything my dad and Biff talked about, but one of the better conversations involved the Rock of Gibraltar.

They had been fighting over where the Rock of Gibraltar was and my dad was insisting how he saw it on a map once and part of it is in Morocco. Biff was telling me how he'd need video proof of this when I get there (on Thursday morning, eep) and yelled at my dad "Hey! I'm gonna need video proof of you holding that map!"

To which my dad shot back, without missing a beat, "Do you have video proof of you without a map?" Classic!

Some other stuff I'll miss about Houma/ my friends/ life here in general:
-feeding the fish and worrying about alligators attacking me
-ridiculous, bright yellow pants and how mad a certain person gets every time I take a crack at them
-secret recipe bratwursts
-drinking a bit too much and being an epic fail
-DQ blizzard excursions
-watching Mad Men and The Office in big groups
-watching movies outside in the summer
-everything about DC

fear and loathing

location: panera, soaking up the gloriously free wi-fi
current tunage: "slicker drips" by the white stripes

from clapclapclapclap deep in the heart of texas:



honestly, can you really expect to sustain 600 pounds of man on 12 oz. of sausage? it's ludicrous.

only a few weeks 'til staging! i feel so unprepared...i've only found 2 long skirts. i need to get on that. the gap has been great though, they have a ton of lightweight longsleeve shirts.

i'm already hankering for a change of scenery though. too many people around here that could very easily be the caller in that jimmy dean clip. there's a creeper at panera as we speak that probably filled up on his fried egg, steak and sausage before coming here to walk past my booth a bunch of times and leer at me. i should start wearing my conservative moroccan warddrobe now!

another thing to add to my list of things i'll miss: dim sum and bubble tea. sigh. oh and ballet classes.

on packing, unpacking, moving and air travel

today was my last day in my sublet...i packed up my life (and left large parts of it in the apartment building's loading dock, which i have decided to call "the island of misfit toys") and chucked most of my furniture last night in preparation for my journey back to texas today. almost all my furniture. i left my bed intact overnight so as to sleep in it, then got up early to make sure i had time to get it out of the apartment before my very generous friend picked me up to take me to the airport.

probably should have considered the fact that i don't own any tools and my bed frame is too big to get through my bedroom door in one piece.

i got the mattress off easily enough (i'm not retarded) but my brain sort of shut down after that, so i decided to take a few very important, very serious steps (ie go for coffee then get on gchat to whine to my boyfriend for 20 minutes about why i shouldn't even bother to take the bed apart since i never paid a security deposit). after that one of my roommates (ex-roommates?) supplied me with a screwdriver and a hammer. ah, primates and tool-using. managed to get these tricky metal things off the sides of the frame, but the majority of it was still boldly intact. so out of curiosity i just started wacking at it with the hammer. after making a small hole, i decided kicking was the way to go.

this is the part where i tell you that kicking a bed in is an awesome way to relieve possible stress/anxiety/nervousness one may be feeling when one is about to move to morocco for two years and barely knows any arabic.

may have gotten a little over-excited when the frame finally crashed down into four separate, easily manageable parts. may have yelled something like "IT IS FINISHED" and freaked out my classy British ex-roommates.

side note on the Brits...i keep catching myself saying "fairy lights" instead of "christmas lights."

anyway so that was the best part of my day i think--totally dominating a cumbersome piece of furniture i'm pretty sure weighed more than i do.

once my dear friend The Sticky Bandit picked me up we had a nice car ride to BWI, where i managed to get both checked bags in under-weight (had to move some stuff around and physically sit on my backpack in public in order to get everything that i took out of my suitcase in there). spent some quality time with a turkey club and a darija textbook i found cheap online, did two crossword puzzles (be jealous) and found myself safely in the hands of my daddy by 6 pm central time. Had dinner with the parents, enjoyed a few drunken phonecalls from Grover, unpacked my life and made a cvs run.

pretty solid day, i think. i just never feel like i'm doing enough to get myself prepared for this crazy journey taking place in less than a month...

we got no food! we got no jobs! our pets HEADS ARE FALLIN' OFF!

current location: atop my bed
currently listening to: "don't look back in anger" by oasis

the title of this post totally relates to my life right now, if you assume i'm using the royal "we," i actually am pretty well-fed and i don't have a pet. if i did, i bet it's head would be fallin' off though.

anyway what i'm trying to say is i am now unemployed! for most people this would not be a reason to do a jig, but in my case i am moving on from something with a clear path in front of me. as clear as peace corps can be, at least.

it was really bittersweet to leave my job on friday. i had such a great few years with everyone, but at the same time i really wasn't doing what i want to do with my life.

so now i'm looking forward! in one month i will be on a flight to morocco, hopefully not losing my shit and having a freak-out panic attack. until then i'm just packing in as much time with my friends as possible, trying to learn darija (slow-going, i'm getting pretty nervous about being able to communicate effectively) and buying stuff i need for the next two years.

thing i will miss: wearing shorts when it's hot out.

tidbit

current location: la lisner
currently listening to: "your touch" by the black keys

My last big project at work before Peace Corps is to re-organize and clean out all the boxes we have in this little make-shift storage closet. Sounds boring, yes, but actually it's become pretty fun sorting through boxes of REALLY old memos etc. My personal favorite so far is a proclamation from then-Mayor Marion Barry (shudder) that designated October 8, 1982 as "Dreamgirls Day" in DC. No, I'm not making that up.

And now I present a memo dated November 8, 1973 from GWU's Office of the Vice President and Treasurer. Methinks it's still relevant today:

Memorandum to: The University Community
Subject: The Energy Crisis and the University Community

After President Nixon's message, each of us may have questions about what we in the University can do about the energy crisis. This memorandum is being distributed to aid in answering these questions.

What has already been accomplished?

Our major buildings have been professionally surveyed to minimize wasteful energy practices. Actions resulting from these surveys were:

- Heating, cooling and ventilating services operated only when needed
- Lights turned off when not needed
- Temperature controls regulated
- Water systems modified to eliminate waste

Marvin Center has a commuter parking pool board to facilitate car pools.

What more can we do?

Our plant personnel are continuing to work on the major conservation programs, but you, as an individual, can help too.

-Some Suggestions-

1. Turn out unnecessary lights which can be individually controlled in offices, classrooms and residence hall rooms (including fluorescent lights).
2. Minimize wastage of hot water for showers and other uses.
3. Turn down individually controlled radiators or ventilating units when too warm. Don't just open the window.
4. Sign up at the parking pool board, Ground Floor, Marvin Center to form new commuter auto pools.

There are over 20,000 of us in the University community. A little action from each of us adds up to a significant result. Please join us in our energy conservation efforts. Working together, we can make a difference!

important phrases to have at the ready

current location: in my apaaaartment, the home where i hide
currently listening to: where boys fear to tread- smashing pumpkins

a couple very serious, important phrases i've learned so far from a darija textbook i picked up to help me learn:

ahem. i'll type these out as best as possible with my american keyboard.

had l-kurat dyalu.
translation: these balls are his.

was l-bakit dyalkom kbir bezzaf?
translation: is your package very big?

tehe.