breakfast

breakfast
Originally uploaded by danaisanevilchip.

Our Moroccan breakfast in Marrakesh. My orange juice -- fresh, amazing! Sarah's mint tea, and these crepe-like bread things, with a cream cheese inside. A-frikin-mazing

Learning to love life by living through loss and mistakes,
Lessons learned and gradually surfacing
Lletting go, striping naked to scream.
I am not perfect nor do I strive to be.
I am alive in this world of face first falls and public breakdowns.

So, maybe I fucked up a little this weekend. or a lot. I got my test back -- 84. I wanted higher, but the reading comprehension got me. I did really awesome on the rest of it though. At least relatively speaking, compared to Russian.

About the weekend. Too little sleep leads to one giant "Dana Bitch" really. And it's not an excuse. But I choose to be happy now. And I do believe this happiness to be a choice.

Narrative? Friday, A couple of friends had plane ticket problems, like the tickets were in Fez and the people were in Ifrane. So we went to Fez to get them. And in the process: halal McDonalds, People! Saturday, I slept late and my friends left before I got up. Jason, a group of new people, and I went down to Azrou. I bought an owl for one of my old people, and still owe Jason 40 dirham, I believe. Drank qahua WAY too late, was on a caffeine buzz and then test stress until about 7:30. got about three hours of sleep, was extremely rude to some friends, broke down emotionally and went to bed at 10. The current roommate came in at eleven and turned on the television. Thought I would kill her, but left the room instead, sat in the "auditorium" that's outdoors and faces the Mosque. Uhib al-jaamia'. i love the mosque.

this week i have:

0) Called my parents for the first time since i was out of the country. It was good. I was really homesick all week. It was bad. But I think I'm getting better.
1) Went to Fez and ate at McDonald's again. We wanted Pizza Hut, but alas, there seems to be none in Fez.
2) Took my midterm, which was really bad. I hope it wasn't as bad as I think it might have been though.
3) Had to say goodbye to my best friend up here. She was here for just four weeks.
4) Began meeting some of the people here for the second four weeks.
5) Celebrated Laundry Day. I miss my US version of Laundry Day.
6) Called my sister. It was good to talk to her, even though I got cut off.
7) Went to Azrou again.

So it was a mundane week, with lots of stress & sadness. This is a nice weekend to just chill out and catch up on some sleep. And I think it's time to do that again.

out. ~dana.

So, after a really horrible couple of days, I went running with a friend and was able to release quite a bit of frustration. Yet Arabic keeps adding more pressure. We have a HUGE ASS test on Friday that I'm really nervous about because I'm still really really bad with memorization. Which is kinda a huge part of learning any language.

The people that are here for just the first four weeks are leaving this weekend, which makes me sad because I have a couple of good friends in that group.

got it be all right...

antum jameelun

you all are beautiful. and i need to speak more in class. but i don't have anything to say. i think i'm in the middle of "culture shock" or whatever. i'm quasi depressed and i really just think that everyone hates me. I mean, why would anyone want to talk to me i'm ugly and stupid. (and i truly believe that. )

i felt really really ignored for parts of this weekend.

in short: i hate you dearly but love me, love me, say that you love me.

I'm beginning to think about what i can throw away before I leave here. Because if I buy stuff... yeah there's no way it'll all fit in my luggage.

Just got done with my third Arabic quiz. This one was really important. Lots of grammer stuff, broken and regular plurals, nisba adjectives, question words... I really hope I did well. The thing is, I think I did. And if it turns out that I didn't, well, i'll be crushed. I should have spent more time on plurals and less time on the other vocab, because there was no direct translation. Our first "test" midterm whatever is next friday. The syllabus is allowing us Four Hours. arba HOURS!

weekend desert trip

So, this weekend we went down to Efroud, which is about six hours south of where I am now, and stayed in a really nice hotel there. I roomed with Arann which was fun. We were going to visit Abdella and Elias, but Abdella gave us bad instructions to his room, on purpose of course, and we ended up on the roof of the hotel. Down below us, you could hear the live band playing faintly from the pool. The city lay in front of us, with the Mosque jutting up in the sky line. As we are standing there, the athan starts. I couldn't think of a more perfect Maghrib experience.

Then the next day we traveled south for another hour and a half or so to the Saharah desert. As we are wandering around the sand dunes, a sandstorm falls upon us. Arann & I are slightly separated from the group, but find our way back to them. We all end up making it back safely to the camp, but it was a surreal experience. Amazing.

At the camp, I begin to realize how tired and hungry I am. Dinner was amazing. Not really for the food, because I didn't really eat much, but there was live music, my professor started dancing. And later they had belly dancers. After most of the people had cleared out, the Americans took over with the dancing. Moroccan music is great to dance to, especially when you're in a tent in the desert.

I stayed up too late and couldn't fall asleep when I did go to bed, but it was hella fun, and I was plenty awake at 4:30 for the camel ride into the desert to watch the sun rise. We sat on a high dune, I was next to one of our guides and we talked a bit in arabic, (greetings and nicities, because that's all I know) and then he told me we were about 50 kilometers from Algeria. Totally not telling my parents that one. The sunrise was less than spectacular because it was foggy, but it was lots of fun.

The bus ride back kinda sucked. And sometimes I hate people.

However, I moved in with a Moroccan student, and she is really nice. That's all.

VOCAB MEMORIZATION!!1!

So, all of my friends are sick, but I generally feel fine. I have some stomach problems, but not like throwing up or diarrhea or anything... So I'm pretty lucky, I think. (knock on wood) I have a lot of vocab to learn for tomorrow. silly stuff. big, small, how are you? good, hellow. ect. good words to know, but frustrating because ... well, they're just difficult to learn, ya know?

We're going out to the desert this weekend. Last weekend we went to Volubilus which was really hot. And I took a picture of a stone penis. It was hott. or something.

I personally prefer Ain Saiss to Sidi Ali. But that's my personal preference. The fruit here still fucking rocks. Although I'm getting sick of chicken. I could go for a good cheeseburger. More for the cheese than the burger though. Serious cheese withdrawl.

slightly frustrated.

mmm. fez medina: 350,000 people croweded into a 14x14 Km walled in area with 14 gates. It was absolutely amazing. even if we had too many people in our group. I don't understand some of the people here. I don't understand complaining. not right now. we're in FUCKING MOROCCO. why the hell are you complaining? maybe it's because i've been wanting to come here for over a year. maybe it's because i've wanted to learn arabic for four or so. but this is the most amazing place. sure, it's hot. sure, there were too many people on the trips for them to be completely wonderful, but we're in Morocco. Get over it.

Volubilus: absolutely amazing again. got a sight sunburn. don't really give a damn. I have now a picture of a penis carved into a rock from like the first century AD. morocco rawks.

talked to Jason all the way from Volubilus to Meknes about food we missed. Apparently I miss cheese. But today, today I ate cheese. and it was good.

another positive: I got my first quiz back from Friday. I kicked some Arabic Alphabet Ass. Some AAA, if you will. 96.5 % Arabic is looking up. espeically from Russian.

i'm surrounded by beautiful people, and it's having a negative impact on my self-esteem.

reasons why this picture rocks.

sign
Originally uploaded by danaisanevilchip.

(by josh-ooh!-ahh!)

but I think this is an awesome sign for several reasons.. and perfect for right now.
1) You took it in Morocco
2) It's in three awesome languages
3) I like JUST learned Charger and Decharger like a month ago
4) As senators, we get to tell people where they can park and give them a 30 minute timelimit when freshmen move in in August

my reason: i like the angle, and i can pick out a lot of the letters on the top half.

Moroccan View

view along road
Originally uploaded by danaisanevilchip.

So, on the way to Azrou we stopped at a roadside stop. Ifrane is up in the mountains, and so there are mountains. It is beautiful, no?