MONDAY: Internship in AM, institute classes in PM
TUESDAY: University class in AM, institute classes in PM
WEDNESDAY: Internship in AM, institute clubs in PM, Egyptian speaking partner Skype date at night
THURSDAY: Institute classes in PM
FRIDAY: Institute classes in AM
SATURDAY: Moroccan speaking partner in PM
SUNDAY: Egyptian speaking partner Skype date at night
I also try to go to the gym three times a week and, of course, there is lots and lots of homework to be done ... yet to be added is my academic partner meeting, which will be with someone I've picked to work with from my university class to make sure I'm understanding the material. To say that the program is intense is somewhat of an understatement!
My university class is on language acquisition - I picked this topic because I had a class on the topic back at UMD as well as conducted research in both first and second language acquisition previously! We spent the first class going over the definitions of "language" and "acquisition", both of which are crucial to our future understanding of the subject as a whole. The class is pretty small - only 10-15 people, all Moroccans with the exception of us 4 Americans from the program - and the professor seems very nice. I think I probably understand between 60 and 70 percent of the first lecture, which isn't too bad for the first day!
At my internship, we are still doing lots of practice in wood painting. It involves a lot of technique in order to keep the design itself thin and the painting smooth, and although knowing what to paint/outline seems intuitive to the workers there we still need a lot of input from them! I've finished one complete practice painting - the one with my name that Mustafa (my supervisor) drew for me - and right now I'm working on a box to hopefully bring home later. I wish we were more involved in working on real projects, but I understand that we are definitely not skilled enough yet.
The week before this past one was the beginning of midterms for institute classes, all of which are pretty spread out between the past two weeks and the next two weeks. So far I only know that I did pretty well in my MSA exams! The hardest one will be a 1500 word essay for my Arab Literature class - it might be the longest paper I've written to date.
It's been hard to get out of Meknes with everything that's going on, but last weekend I planned a day trip to Fez with Anna, Cat, and Stephanie. As I may have mentioned before, the city is only 45 minutes outside of Meknes so it makes for a good getaway! We started the day at Cafe Clock, where we finally found iced coffee (which doesn't really exist in Morocco). I tried their famous camel burger, which was good - it kinda tastes like beef but not quite ... still in a good way though. We visited Medersa Bou Inania (14th century Islamic studies school + mosque with beautiful Moroccan traditional craftsmanship) before we voluntarily enlisted a guide to go see a tannery since this was Anna and Cat's first time in Fez. I think it actually might have been the same one I visited last year! Of course all of the goods were very overpriced, but I ended up buying a purse when the owners relented and gave me the price I wanted. The guide was kind enough to then take us to see Moulay Idriss' son's tomb (which we couldn't enter as non-Muslims) as well as the outside of the Al-Qarawayyn mosque (which was once a part of the oldest university in the world). We returned to Cafe Clock for mid-afternoon dessert and walked around the market a bit before heading home to a giant rain/hailstorm (!!!) in Meknes. I'm sad to say that the storm didn't bring fall weather with it!
Islamic New Year or the first day of Muharram was last week, and tomorrow is Achoura or the 10th day of Muharram. Since Morocco is pretty much all Sunni, the celebrations are happier as they are related to the freeing of the Israelites from the Pharaoh (in comparison to the Shias' mourning of the death of Hussein, Mohammed's grandson) - new toys and musical instruments are bought for children and families celebrate together with couscous. I am looking forward to celebrating another holiday with Loubna, my speaking partner, although it'll be on a smaller scale this time.
Please send me good luck for my exams and good vibes to keep my morale up for rest of the semester!!