Getting lost (again)

As many of you know, I have no sense of direction whatsoever (I also didn't realize that that was all one word... spell check may be lying to me... I've always gotten the feeling that it would like to make me look stupid.)

Aaaaaaaanyways.

When I first got to Meknes I was convinced that I would never be able to find my way around because it was "such a big city."  This is patently untrue.  Meknes, especially the area I live in (the Ville Nouvelle or Hamria), is actually pretty small.  For instance, it takes me about 45 minutes to walk to school.  This is one of the furthest journeys I can take and still be in Meknes, the trip goes almost from one side to the other.  Therefore, I have come to a startling conclusion.

It is actually very difficult to get lost in Meknes.

(At least in Hamria.)

((The Medina is another beast entirely.  You will most likely be eaten by Faux Guides who will try to sell you a toothpick for $50 or something like that.))

This would be great, if I didn't really want to get lost.  In fact, I set out today to do just that.  My Arabic class was cancelled (for the second time!  Yayyyy!)  and I wanted to explore the sights.  Unfortunately I seemed to keep ending up in the same place, or at least in a place I recognized.  I'm not sure what I was looking for, but I did stumble upon several things.

1) A playground/park that had no children in it.  It was entirely populated with couples.  Who all glared at me (except some of the guys who made the stupid ssssst sssssst sound... Having an actual, live girl sitting next to you is obviously not enough here.)

2)  Many fine examples of Morocco's favorite substitute for barbed wire, which is putting pieces of broken bottles into the plaster that covers the tops of the walls surrounding houses/schools/etc.  It makes them look like they have bottle green teeth.  I chalk this up to either Perrier or Heineken (although I've seen more Heineken bottles than anything else.  Anything you want to talk about, Morocco?)

3) Lots and lots of wildflowers I'd never seen before.  Next time I go wandering I'll have to be sure to bring my camera and document.  The flowers take over any spot that doesn't have active construction or a building on it.  It's also nice because the flowers conceal holes.  I Morocco, I believe the standard response to seeing a hole is, "Oh, we should fill it with trash! It looks so lonely all empty like that..."  What a sweet gesture.

4)  Lots of guard dogs.  Including one missing a large portion of its face.  Yuck.  This makes up for the fact that I saw the cutest little, fat puppy the other day.  It was so young it didn't really know what it's legs were for and kept falling over itself.  I'm going to keep imagining that one...

5) I can't really think of a #5 except that the sun was out today and that's the first time in a while.  I think spring might actually be coming!  I certainly hope so.

Zwina

Zwina (or Zwine if you're a guy) means beautiful in Darija.  It's also one of the words I hear the most on the streets of Meknes.  Unlike in the US where the phrase "cat calling" is an idiom, Moroccan boys/men actually yell at women the way they call cats.  It's mostly a hissing noise, "Tssssst, tsssssst, tsssssst."  Also kissing noises.  I've honestly heard people try and get cats' attention the same way. Sometimes walking down the street sounds like being surrounded by snakes and fish.  It's honestly kind of amusing.  But also gross.  Especially when they have almost no teeth and they follow you down the street.  (This happened to my friend and I yesterday... Super fun!)

You also get some very amusing pick up lines.  As one of my professors here noted, many boys only learn English from American TV and movies.  This means that they often say the stupidest things to you on the streets. So here, for your viewing pleasure, are some of the most amusing pick-up lines I've heard on my trip so far.

"Are you looking for me?  Because here I am!"

"Hello, I speak English very good.  Nice ass."

"Hey girl, it's your birthday."

"Have we met before?  Somewhere on the planet Mars?"  (I'm not really sure what was up with this guy, but the line seemed very practiced... Maybe it's worked before?)

(Something involving Barack Obama.  Sometimes just "Barack Obama!" yelled in a wannabe seductive voice.  It's quite disturbing...)

"You're starving?  You're starving for me!"
(after my friend mentioned that she was really hungry while we were walking.)

"Punch me in the face, you're beautiful!"  (After a conversation between my friend and I about how street harassment makes us want to punch people.)

"Very nice, I like."  (Ironically, Moroccan accents can sometimes sound very much like Borat, making this line extra amusing."

"Setta"  (Some more explanation for this.  Setta is the word for six in Darija.  This lovely gentleman was offering me 6 Dirhams (approximately 75 cents) because he hoped I was a prostitute.  Aren't guys sweet?)

"Ca va?"  (Which really just means "how are you doing" in French, but it now means "I'm an annoying boy, you should hit me")

After all this, I've decided that the only men worth bringing home from Morocco are under the age of 6 (because Moroccan children are the cutest.  Hands down.)

I accidentally ate liver today.

It was unpleasant.  I hope to never do that again.
               (The restaurant sneaked it in with my all carbohydrate meal, because they couldn't get my order right even after several promptings.  Oh well, there were some tasty, non-liver covered fries.)

I also got to play with chameleons and boxes of turtles.
               (You can buy all kinds of things in the medina or Rabat including, on the animal front, hamsters, guinea pigs, and fish.)

What else have I done recently... Let me think...
1) I finished my first Arabic course, which went very well.  Now I'm moving into Arabic 102, which will be a lot harder... Uh-oh.
2) I went to the hammam (Turkish bath where naked old women scrape off your skin for you) again with my family and didn't burn myself this time! Score for me!  (Also, my previous hammam burn is healing up nicely. It should be totally gone in week or two.)
3) I saw a double rainbow while it was raining over the mountains behind my house.  The sky was also grey and gold.  I was pretty sure the world was going to end/it was going to rain on me as I walked to school, but it didn't.
4) I have played with many cute children.  It's totally acceptable to play with strangers' children here in Morocco.  After playing peekaboo the parents will often bring the child over so you can kiss it.  I'm going to develop some bad habits that will make me seem really creepy back in the states... Fortunately, American children are far less cute than Moroccan children.  Thank goodness for small blessings.
5) I might bring a Moroccan child back with me
6) I bought bracelets with little bells and eye-balls on them.  I don't think they're a very popular item here in Meknes, since the shopkeeper gave them to me for almost nothing.  I think they're super awesome though... I'm not sure what that says about me...
7) I found out that "Al Manbat" is actually a private high school, which means that you can learn how to be batman.  Why didn't I go there?
8) Every time I think my French is improving, I have a conversation with someone and they flat out tell me that I can't speak French... Apparently some terrible non-language is coming out of my mouth... Oops.
9) About a week ago, I was trying to get into my apt. and the door was sticking. Pushed harder and finally got in and saw that the reason the door wasn't opening was because there was a woman passed out on the lobby floor.  There was no one around and I couldn't get her to wake up.  Finally a maid from another apt. came down and we moved her off the floor onto a couch and got her to wake up and drink some water.  All this was done with me speaking no Arabic/Darija and both the maid and the sick lady not speaking any English.  That is the scary story from my trip so far.  I now understand what Clara was talking about when she said that I put her into "emergency mode."  I'm sorry about that, Clara.  At least you have some form of first aid training (unlike me.  My response was to try and wake her up by yelling at her in English.  Not helpful.)
10) On a lighter note, here are some random pictures from my trip!

Me with the columns in Rabat that were stolen from Volubilis (Roman ruins near Meknes)

Roman ruins - Grainery

Roman ruins turned field.  Waste not, want not.

The sky full of birds over the ocean in Rabat.  Those of us who had never seen Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" were very excited about this.  Those who had were less so.

This is the castle I go to school in.  Parts of it are much pinker than this.

This is my Arabic professor and the drawing of a mouse he made for us.

I wasn't lying about Al Manbat.  Also, you all probably care a lot less than I do.  So be it.

Pottery at a ceramic house in Fez.  The entire room was packed with thousands of different pieces.

AJ, Karissa, and I in our beautiful djellebas AKA most comfortable articles of clothing on earth.

I hope everyone is having a happy March!