Morocco Journal - Part 3: The Classes

So,  some of you must've figured out if not heard from me directly that I'm in Morocco for studying Arabic. People be like, "Moroccan Arabic is so different from the rest, how can you study Arabic there?" Silly you, spoken Arabic is different all over (my favorite is the Shami dialect, which I've carried with me all the way to Morocco, too, and some people think that's my native dialect. YAYY!! :D Progress so far! Well, yes, there's quite a difference between spoken Arabic anywhere (darijah) and formal Arabic, (Fus'ha, or Modern Standard Arabic (MSA)). You can't go to an Arabic-speaking country knowing only formal Arabic and thinking that people will actually understand. Only those who are educated or have learned fus'ha will understand. In Jordan, if people would understand what we were saying, they'd nod and then teach us how to say that phrase or word or sentence in dialect so that people can actually understand what we want to say. Here, I got lucky that my host family knows fus'ha--and they even speak it with me :D Love it!

So, here's how my day in Morocco is like:

7:30-7:45am - wake up
7:45-8:10-ish - eat breakfast with the family and roommate
8:20-8:30 - leave for the bus
8:40-ish - arrive to the center where classes are held
9-11 - first class

11:10 - tea break
11:10 - 1pm - second class
1-3 - lunch break
3-4  - darija (Moroccan dialect) class

But we have darija classes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays only, not every day.

Free after 4pm to do whatever we want, which usually ends up being homework. Roommie and I return for home around 6 or 7pm. The place isn't far from the center; takes about 10 mins on the bus.

Lemme show you some pics of how the center and my classes look.

The entrance.

Then something like this, but instead of going up the stairs, we head straight towards the lobby/courtyard.

Now the lobby/courtyard.

The ceiling!

Ceiling + classrooms

The beautiful walls

A portion of the courtyard at the center

Now to my class. Kindly note the stairs!

Ta-daaaa! My classroom :D It's small, since we're only 2 students in there.

So, folks, that's my story.
Oh, and the stairs ... omg! Totally new for me! You walk up about 3 small stairs, and then make a circle and 3+ more stairs, and so on until you reach your floor or class. I always have to have water with me using the stairs, and feeling dizzy while walking up the stairs is totally normal. I expect my body to get used to it in the next week or so.

That's all for now, I suppose. Coming up, though, I've got some pics of the bus we use and the way the roads and other buses and automobiles look, the FOOD (!!!), and some random stuff. So Stay Tuned, pretty folks!

Previously from my Morocco Journals:


- Journal 1 - intro, etc.
- Journal 2 - the women-only public baths (hammaams)