4 weeks already?

You got a bit of an update yesterday, but considering that I wrote it 2 weeks ago I'm not sure it counts. So here's some more! It is almost the end of Ramadan. I've had four Moroccans tell me that "there's none of it left." Eïd dates are determined by citing of the moon with the naked eye, so at this point we know it's probably Thursday or Friday. Probably. But I'm hoping for Wednesday, haha. 

Last weekend I went to Tangiers with my host mom to visit her sister. It's different because it is really RIGHT next to Spain, and on the Atlantic/Mediterranean. Pretty cool location. There are ferries to Spain that apparently take about 45 minutes. there is a very nice beach there, and I walked along in the water holding up my skirt so I could really be in the surf. Before going I decided against taking my swimsuit because I wasn't going with anyone else who was going to swim, and that made it sound like less fun. I think it would have been nice, for a few minutes, but overall it would have been awkward. Normally the beach is really crowded, but because it was Ramadan it was mostly just kids. All of the adults are fasting (food and water) during the day, so they don't want to be really active or out in the sun. That was on Sunday.

On Saturday, the day we got there, we mostly stayed inside with the fasting family during the hot part of the day. There was a lovely two year old who was slightly sick and.... anyone who has been around a two year old who is sick enough to feel bad, but not enough to just sleep and cry will know how much fun that is. She is also the least communicative kid I've met that age. I don't know if it was b/c there were two weird girls in her house or what, but she said very little and when she did talk it was mostly "mama." She made some yelly sounds, too, and laughed. (Side note: All little kids I've been around here are seriously confused by me. Not sure if it's looks, accent, or both. Probably both.)

A couple of hours before dinner, we went out with my host mom and a third sister and walked through the city, saw a popular street market, and then my host mom made sure we had written down the name of the street we were staying on and told us how to get to the old city. I had brought my camera to Tangiers, but NOT out that day. Oops. The old city was really different, it looks like it was much more updated after the Moorish/Jewish expulsion from Spain. The Fes medina is super traditional with really narrow 'streets' and basic buildings. I think there are laws that make it have to stay the same, since it's a UNESCO world heritage site. But in Tangiers there were lots of balconies, white-washed buildings, and much wider streets. The stores were bigger, too, and I have no idea how to explain that one! After dinner we went out again to see the streets at night. They were very crowded, and EVERYTHING was open. We actually went down the the beach, too, which was cool to see at night. Of course I didn't have my camera because in crowded streets at night where I already stand out... I don't want to have anything that looks interesting. But there is one picture of it! In my host mom's phone...

It was a nice city, and nice to see, but I don't feel the urge to go back. We'll see. There are so many other parts of this country that I haven't been to yet!!

I guess the last thing is that my language class is ok, For the first three weeks I had one teacher who was new to it all, but did well with what she was given. It was ok, but we really stuck to the lesson plans, which are made to be approachable to first year students. Meaning that we went through about 10 pages an hour. I mean, I got a good bit out of it because I have some idea how to learn a language. Then this last week I got two more teachers added to the mix, since they had finished up their own classes (the students went back home) which was helpful but a little disorganized. And then on Friday I found out that my original teacher was temporary and that I will just have the other two for the last two weeks. Pretty nice because they are good teachers, but they were also both in Austin with me this year, lol.