I made it to Rabat. I have moved here to teach English for a year, maybe longer. I'm not going to name the school so I don't get in trouble in case I need to complain about it. Classes don't start until Oct. 19 so I have plenty of time to settle in. So far I've purchased a stove top (the "kitchen" of my studio has only a sink and cabinets), won a battle with a street merchant who sold me a broken (i.e. stolen) phone, and learned how to say "the water is not hot". Still to do: get a real fridge to replace the "Ice Cream/Snacks" freezer that is currently turning my beets into beetcicles.
Aside from some bad advice on the freezer and phone, my host family is awesome. I am living in a studio within the walls of their family home, which is pretty fancy compared to most, I think. The neighborhood is called Les Orangers and is a 20 minute walk to the school. The house has a nice garden and terrace where Molly and I ate a pasta dinner last night. Molly is another American girl living next to me. We do most of our exploring together. She just spent a year teaching English in Russia. She also once had pink hair like mine.
The mom in our family, Nazha, is the best. She sneaks cigarettes even though women aren't supposed to smoke. She pretended like she was buying the cigarettes for us. She came by our room last night to chat for 2 hours. She is quite smart and opinionated. She really enjoyed my pictures of maple trees from Virginia.
Her daughter Zineb is 19 and very smart as well. Her English is good and she wants to practice with us. Otherwise, we speak mostly French with the family, though we are trying to learn some Moroccan Arabic from them. Their maid, Fatma, only speaks Moroccan so that is a good motivator. She is a sweetheart.
Best of all, they have a dog! This is very rare in Muslim society, as they are considered filthy animals. But they love this dog and are happy to have me walk him every day. His name is Billy, for some reason.
Hopefully next week I will do some site-seeing and check out the beach. Stay tuned...
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