On my own. And what am I most excited about? Eating lots of vegetables and going to bed early!

OK, finally up to what is happening now.

One component of my program is an independent research project, and the last month of the semester is set aside for completing this, and so for the next three weeks, I am on my own with no classes. I just moved out of my homestay on Sunday, and for the next two weeks I am sharing an apartment with my friend Erin and whoever happens to need a place to crash. The apartment consists of one bedroom, where we are storing all of our STUFF, two living rooms, where we actually sleep (like most Moroccan living rooms, they have couches all the way around the edges, which are converted to beds each night by removing the back pillows and putting on sheets), a kitchen (but no oven or refrigerator), and bathroom (but no shower or hot water). I had a realization yesterday of the extent of my perspective shift when Erin told this to her brother. He said “That’s ridiculous” and she replied “No, it’s normal.” Most urban Moroccan houses do have ovens, fridges and hot water, but their absence didn’t even phase us. We can heat water on the stove, we can go to the souk every day to buy what we need for the day (and store a few things outside the window at night). I think the lack of oven is the biggest disappointment, because we were really excited about baking, but we are improvising with the stove. We cooked nachos yesterday in a pan.

We ended up in Salé, the next town over from Rabat, and though the half-hour commute into Rabat is a bit of a hassle, it is so interesting to be in a place where there are NO foreigners. Rabat is not very touristy, but between study abroad students and a few tourists, there is always blond hair to be seen here and there. Here however, I am living in kind of a suburb, where no one has any reason to visit, and I can tell that everyone on the streets is baffled by the presence of three white girls. I’m really enjoying conducting daily life in this setting—to me, it’s actually way more interesting than visiting lots of different tourist destinations. Yesterday, I realized that I can conduct the necessities of daily life (greeting people, asking for directions, buying ingredients for dinner) almost entirely in Darija.

We all miss our host families (OK, Erin misses hers a lot, I miss mine a little but am also relieved to be out of it, and Megan is mostly just happy to leave—but we all miss Erin’s host family), but it is really nice to be on our own. It’s so nice to have our own space and to be in charge of our own meals and eating schedule. As I mentioned, we are so excited about cooking. We’ve basically been cooking and eating nonstop wince we got here. (Yeah, so much for a break from constantly overeating, and now I can’t even blame Moroccan hospitality.) We’ve enjoyed some missed comfort foods from home as well as trying a few of our favorite Moroccan recipes. So far, the list includes: grilled cheese with tomato soup, peanut-butter cups (well, balls, actually) chicken marsalla, orange-mango smoothies, Moroccan mint tea, peanut-butter banana sandwiches, nachos (we made tortilla chips, salsa, and guacamole all from scratch), burritos, sfoof (a Moroccan desert/snack that is basically a powder made with peanuts, almonds, sesame seeds, flour, cinnamon, anise, honey and oil) and avocado juice. Looking at that list, I don’t think I should have been allowed to eat all that food in less than 48 hours—no wonder I have a headache…

And there must be a bunch of other things that I should have written about between southern excursion and now. Erin told me to read her blog to figure out what I’ve done.