2 months left

Yup. 2 months. 60 days. until i'm home
The only things I can say right now are: I'm super excited, but I'm also super sad. I have come to love Morocco, and more specifically Marrakech. It's going to be difficult to say goodbye, but it will also be the appropriate time to do so.
In these last 2 months, I will make the most out of my Morocco experience.

That's all I have to say right now, also because I have to go meet a friend because we're going to see the Marrakech Biennale.
Until next time

Feminism.

"I am tired of playing the role of the Approachable Feminist - the woman expected to hold the hand of all those people who still, in the year 2014, claim not to understand what it is that causes women's oppression; who demand to be convinced even of its existence and who then, when you cite fact after statistic after anecdotal report after reality, still use diversions and hypotheticals to try to prove you wrong."
-http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-07/ford-dont-get-even-ladies-get-mad/5304704

I am tired, I am tired of having to justify my reasoning behind being a feminist. I'm tired of hearing other women say that females are the enemy. I'm tired of hearing excuses for every single thing a man does, mostly attributing it to the fact that he is a "boy" and "boys will be boys". This is not an excuse, this is nowhere near ok.
In this day and age, you would think that everyone would be a feminist, but there is still so much stigma against the word feminist. No, we are not bra-burning women who believe in the castration of men, no we do not want to destroy the institution of marriage and live on free love communes, no we are not all hippies prancing in meadows. We are students, we are mothers, we are your sisters and your daughters. We want the playing field to be leveled. We want to be able to compete with our brothers in a manner that doesn't always have to bring our gender into question. We want to work in STEM related fields. We want to make one dollar to every mans dollar. Enough with this 77 cent bullshit.
Being a feminist only means believing that men and women are equal, and should be equal in the eyes of society.
Do you believe in the complete equality of men and women?
If you answered yes to that question, you are a feminist. BE PROUD.
SURPRISE.

Being a vegetarian in Morocco

It's impossible. You can't do it. These aren't things that people just say, this is reality. It's impossible to be a vegetarian in Morocco. Not because you can't find dishes without meat, but because the dishes with meat are too good to turn down.

1. Treed/Rfissa

 For example. My favorite moroccan dish is called Treed (interesting fact: in the south of Morocco it's called Treed, in the north it's called Rfissa). It's a labour intensive dish which includes msimmon, chicken tajine, and many hours of labour. You essentially cut up and re-fry the msimmon (a delicious Moroccan snack that you can eat with cheese or Amlou or you can often find it stuffed with onions and veggies)

Misimmon

After re-frying the msimmon, you put it under the chicken tajine, and let the sauce soak into the msimmon. 

Moroccan Chicken tajine. 

After all of this, you serve the delicious treed. The part that makes this dish so labour intensive is the fact that the msimmon is usually made on the spot, as well as the tajine. And I can tell you from personal experience that msimmon is not easy to make. 

2. Seffa

Seffa is also a delicious Moroccan dish. It's essentially broken vermicelli noodles steamed 5-7 times (on the last time you add the raisins) and then the preparing of the chicken. The chicken should be mixed with saffron (essential in Moroccan dishes) onion, spices, and butter. You MUST cook it until it is very tender, and then you take it out of the liquid (which should be a thick sauce). 

You then take the Vermicelli noodles and toss them with butter and powdered sugar. You place the meat and sauce under the pile of noodles, and arrange the noodles appropriately. Afterwards you create lines of cinnamon and powdered sugar (as in the picture) and you can also add crushed almonds, if you so desire. and voila! You have a DELICIOUS Moroccan dish (please dont use my instructions search better and more detailed ones online) but yes, this is my second favorite dish, Seffa. 

3. Mrouzia

I have no idea how to make Mrouzia, but I think this was the first dish I ate in Morocco. It is a sweet and salty meat tajine (usually made with lamb) with honey, spices and very often times prunes. We ate it during the time period of Eid el Adha (the sacrificing of the sheep). It is so yummy. 

4. Pastilla

Pastilla is essentially a meat pie, although it can be stuffed with many different things. My favorite one is pastilla with pigeon. I know that sounds strange for many people, but it's delicious. The pigeon can be substituted with chicken (although it's not the same). The one with pigeon (or chicken) is then coated with powdered sugar and cinnamon, only adding to the already wonderful taste. 

5. Couscous

This is what I eat every friday for lunch. My host mother (and basically all other mothers in Morocco) prepare this dish on fridays. It is couscous with steamed vegetables and oftentimes either lamb or chicken. After Eid el-Adha, we had lamb couscous for about three months afterwards. The couscous that my host mother makes is so good, with pumpkin, cabbage, eggplants, carrots, fava beans, zucchini, potatoes and other vegetables. Everyone is assigned to a "lane" (lanes are often separated by a zucchini or eggplant in my family) and you must stay in your assigned lane. My host mother always throws the meat into my lane and tells me to eat it. She has made it very clear that this is a gesture of love; guests are often showered with meat in their couscous lane, it gets to be overwhelming. In the beginning of my stay in Morocco, it was hard for me to clear out my entire lane. But now, it's so easy to eat all of the couscous. I guess its a question of getting used to it. 

So yea, these are a few of the many reasons why being a vegetarian in Morocco is impossible. Also this is a list of my favorite foods. This list will be updated since it hasn't even begun to cover a third of my favorites in Morocco. 

It's 1.30 am and my stomach is growling since I've been looking a pictures of food for so long...so

Bsalama for now!

Video!!!

Get EXCITEDDDD
I just put together the footage I took of the north of Morocco, enjoy!

On: North of Morocco

On Sunday night we got back from our trip to Tangier, Tetouan and Chefchaouen. I absolutely LOVED Tangier. I have to say that after Marrakech (home will always be home) it is my favorite city in Morocco. What I found most interesting, however, was the significant differences between the faces of Moroccans from the South and Moroccans from the North. The people in the North are lighter (probably from mixed European background) and there just isn't this distinct "Morccan shab" face that I am so used to seeing in Marrakech.
The North ( I have no idea if I should be capitalizing the N in north but oh well) is alot greener. As in there are actual trees, as opposed to the few orange trees ever so present in Marrakech. There are actual pine trees and so many eucalyptus trees. I enjoy the fact that the North looks alot more like the rolling hills where the happy Californian cows live than the South. Morocco is a very diverse country, not only in people but also in the topography and geography of the country. That is one thing that I absolutely love about Morocco.

Lets seee...more about the trip. The drive was very very long, and in Tangier we went and visited the only piece of American land overseas! It's called the American Legation Museum. It was very interesting, and we were actually on American soil, which was interesting to think about.

As of this friday, we will only have three months left. I am both excited by this number and terrified. Today my host sister came back from an interview in Rabat and we had a wonderful talk in which we really connected. This reminded me how hard it will be to leave this country, more than the country it will be hard to leave this family. They have accepted me as one of their own, and I love them to death for it. When I came back from the North, I was greeted by an extensive amount of hugs from my youngest host sister and host mother. My youngest host sister actually ran down the stairs to say hi to me and hugged me for quite a while. I was also quite happy to be back home.
I may have mentioned this previously, but I feel like I can truly call my house here my home. Today I tried to explain the concept of a "home" to my host mother, with the help of my host sister. For me, home means where I feel completely at ease with the people. I feel completely at ease in my host family, I don't feel awkward at all. Writing this is also helping me process what leaving will mean. I will, however, cross that bridge when it comes.

Bsalama for now!
(Also clarification about the last post: the events mentioned didn't directly affect me. Sorry about that confusion.)

Honestly

Trust is something I've always held dear to me. When the State Department chose me as a candidate for the NSLI-Y scholarship, I assumed this meant they trusted me. They trusted me enough to be a language scholar and to uphold the rules set in place by them. This I have done, but what frustrates me the most about this program is the lack of trust between the smaller players. Between the implenting facility in country and the students. Between the individuals that are responsible for the students and the students. One would think that they would trust us enough to believe us when we make certain claims. The complete and utter lack of trust infuriates me. The simple fact of the matter is that one should just listen and take into consideration what we are saying. If someone simply ignores what we, the students HAND PICKED by the State Department, have to say it not only demonstrates a childish attitude, but also a lack of maturity. Of course, one doesn't have to believe what we have to say on the spot, but I thought it was common courtesy to just listen. 

I guess I never expected to not be trusted; I never expected that my actions would be questioned. I would expect the trust from the State Department to be carried on by the resident director and the place of learning in country. 

As much as the State Department tries to make your stay a most pleasurable and hospitable one (which they have done and I am very grateful), it is oftentimes the indivduals not affiliated with the State Department that make you question whether you really want to be here or not. 

Bsalama for now (and insha'allah, the next post will be more upbeat. I just felt that this was in issue I wanted to address. Hopefully this doesn't cause any further issues, I'm just glad this is out in the open now). 

It's been a while

Oh hello, blog, almost didn't see you there.
So what exactly has been going on in Ariel's life? Well first things first, I went skiing in Morocco!! Now let me clear some things up, when I say skiing, I mean rented some ratty (probably) 30 year old skis from a man on the side of the road in Oukaimeden, walked to the ski life, got on, after abut 15 minutes got off the ski lift, and proceeded to attempt to ski down. Now, I know how to ski. I've been skiing since I was a young child, and I can ski pretty decently (aka I don't fall on every run I do). Well this run was quite different. First off, the skis were old. Every time we tried to turn, the skis would pop off and proceed to slide to the bottom of the hill. I guess that was a small problem. Secondly, the run wasn't snow, it was ice. I don't think it had ever been smoothed out so as a result, there were small bumps along the way, plants and rocks sticking out, as well as ice...EVERYWHERE. I fell approximately a bajillion times, and even earned myself some cuts from it. Eventually, my friends and I gave up, got to the halfway point and took the ski lift back down. We spent 3 hours on this hill..it was most definitely the worst skiing experience I had ever had. Then again, how many people can say they've been skiing in Morocco?

As for the rest, school has really been busy lately. Not only because of the pace we're going (which I am extremley content with) but also due to our extra curricular activities. On Mondays, I have woodworking for about three hours outside of Marrakech. On Tuesdays, our group has a cultural discussion with one of the directors of our school. On Wednesdays I teach English for two hours. Every other Thursday we have two hour Arabic enrichment classes--one in Darija and one in Fus7a (Classical Arabic)-- and every Thursday I meet with my speaking partner for an hour. Essentially my speaking partner and I speak in Fus7a for about 45 minutes and then switch to English..it's really difficult. Fridays I have couscous (trust me that is an extra curricular activity in and of itself) and then I go to a school near my house and attend a high school Fus7a class. The Fus7a we're learning right now is essentially what a elementary school kid would be learning...so attending a high school class is kind of intimidating (my first one is this friday, aka tomorrow).
So as you can probably imagine, in addition to this wonderful schedule and homework, my days are quite full. Not to say I don't enjoy it, I really do, but it also makes time pass a lot quicker. I love everything I'm doing right now, but boy am I tired by the end of the day.

Next week, however, we are travelling to Tangier, Tetuoan and Chefchaouen. I am very excited (not for the seven hour bus trip up to Tangier) and it will be a nice break from the grind of school. I'm going to check in early tonight, since I won't be able to take my traditional post couscous nap tomorrow since I have to attend that class. But hopefully I will have another blog post up detailing the wonderful final project we have to do soon, insha'allah.

Bsalama for now!!