So, I have tried to update my blog several times in the
past week. And every time I start to type a new entry, something changed.
Thing number one: finding an apartment. We moved out of
our host families today. (Of which, I had mixed feelings) Some friends and I
have been looking for an apartment. First off it’s really hard to find an
apartment because there’s no centralized listing center. Finally, we found a
place. We got a good price, in a pretty good neighborhood, our landlord was
really nice and showing us around to gyms in the area and all sorts of stuff.
We even had the keys.
Friday rolls around and we were actually going to start
moving stuff in early. Leah (who is fabulous enough to handle the phone calls
since she speaks French) gets a call from our landlord saying he needs the
apartment for his son and friends, so we can’t live there anymore.
This is when I stop and asked, “Is this real life?!”
So, we now have two and a half days to find a place to
live.
We start asking everyone we know, to find us leads. After
some less than wonderful online leads, we get two. One in the same neighborhood
as the first apartment, and one is at the beach.
We go to see the one in L’Ocean and we end up getting
followed my an incredibly creepy sixteen year old boy for like ten or fifteen
minutes. Now, we’re used to being followed at this point, but usually it’s only
for a block or two and they break off. This kid started following us in the
Medina and then followed us well outside the Medina. He also had crazy eyes. Okay,
so we stop next to a little store where there are a few people thinking Oh,
he’ll realize we know he’s following us and he’ll leave us alone. (This usually
works) Well, it didn’t. Crazy-eye boy stops and starts waiting for us to start
moving again. This is now a mushkil (This means problem in Arabic). We are now
concerned because A) we have a crazy kid following us, and B) we’re walking
towards where we could potentially live…so we don’t want crazy kid knowing
where we live. So our solution is asking one of the men in the store to make
the kid go away. We explained that he had been following us for a while and
that we were uncomfortable. This lovely man understood and said “Wait here.
Stay with me.” Put us in his delivery van, and he and the store owner yelled at
the kid and made him leave. We were then driven to the potential apartment and
told that if we need anything to call him.
We
also had a run in with a strange cabdriver who took the longest route possible
to get us back from showing us an apartment. He started singing and reading
signs out loud and reciting the Qur’an. It was just an interesting week.
Well,
we finally found a place to live. Through a friend of a friend of a friend of a
guy who teaches some of our friends surfing. (Literally, this is the only way
to find a place to live here.) The apartment is in the Kasbah and it’s a
traditional house. It’s cozy and has a lot of character. We’re all really happy
with it.
So, ISP has officially started. I’m out of my homestay,
which is good and bad. I did enjoy my host family so I’ll miss them. But I’m
also really glad to have some freedom back. Mostly the freedom to cook what I
want/control the portions and amount of bread they serve.
I have a month left in Morocco. I just want to reflect how
my mind is blown that I only have a month left here. I can remember getting off
the plane and being like, Oh my God, I’m in Morocco. This can’t be real life.
It was already sad to see my friends moving to different parts of the country
to do their projects, so I can’t imagine how sad it’ll be when it’s time to
head home. I have also grown attached to Morocco in a lot of ways. Although I
have come to several conclusions, (I’m still figuring them out, so I’m sure
there will be a post to come about them) I really do enjoy it here.
Time has gone by so quickly here and I’m so glad to have
met the people that I have.
Pictures will come of the house. I just wanted to give a
quick update now that things have hopefully settled down. J
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