After our visit to the Sahara, I was feeling pretty disgusting. We had sat on wet camels and endured a 10 hour bus ride back to Rabat, and through the entire weekend showers were limited. My friend and I decided that it was time to hit up the Hammam, (public bath). My host mom was excited to take us to our first Hammam experience. She filled a basket with my shampoo and soap and took us through the winding roads of the old Medina to a traditional Hammam.
This is how the Hammam works: you pay to go in, (about 10-20 Dirhams), and then you can pay extra to get some magical brown soap, and extra to have somebody personally scrub you all the way down. My friend Cassidy and I opted to just pay to get in and scrub ourselves, but it only took 5 minutes for my host mom to call in some ladies to scrub us down. Meanwhile dirt was falling off everywhere. They basically scrubbed a layer of skin off, and then they washed our hair for us. I swear I've never felt so clean in my life, especially because my regular shower situation at my house in Rabat is a bucket of water. (Not complaining).
Definitely contemplating going there every week. That's 4 more trips to the Hammam!
Anyway, so thankful for my host mom for bringing us to the Hammam, because without her we would have no idea what to do within the different chambers. Plus everybody knew that we were foreign so it was already awkward.
What else?
Well, traveling to Agdal, my friends and I had a lovely conversation in Arabic with our taxi driver about himself and sister. I gotta say I was feeling pretty accomplished about what we've learned in the past two weeks. Well, I was feeling accomplished until we had our first "small quiz" today that was actually 9 pages long. The struggle was real.
Either way, classes are moving along. We've been keeping up with classes in the local dialect, calligraphy, and cooking! This week we also visited the Chellah, an ancient Roman settlement on the outskirts of Rabat, a school in the neighboring city, Sale, and the Bibliotheque National. (The new national library in Rabat).
I need to find a time to sleep between now and tomorrow. I forget that I actually need to sleep because I have school, but then again all I want to do is go out and experience life in Rabat, but then I come home and we don't eat dinner until 11 pm. (This is completely normal for Moroccans).
What's keeping me going is "cahua" (coffee), and "chobtz" (bread). Moroccans love their chobtz.
This weekend:
A trip to Tangier and Chefchaouen, both cities in the North of Morocco. Tangier is on the Mediterranean.
BELOW:
to clarify, that's not my house, it's my friend Zach's host family house. But it's beautiful.
& we have the lighthouse/cliffs that are a ten minute walk from my house.
This is how the Hammam works: you pay to go in, (about 10-20 Dirhams), and then you can pay extra to get some magical brown soap, and extra to have somebody personally scrub you all the way down. My friend Cassidy and I opted to just pay to get in and scrub ourselves, but it only took 5 minutes for my host mom to call in some ladies to scrub us down. Meanwhile dirt was falling off everywhere. They basically scrubbed a layer of skin off, and then they washed our hair for us. I swear I've never felt so clean in my life, especially because my regular shower situation at my house in Rabat is a bucket of water. (Not complaining).
Definitely contemplating going there every week. That's 4 more trips to the Hammam!
Anyway, so thankful for my host mom for bringing us to the Hammam, because without her we would have no idea what to do within the different chambers. Plus everybody knew that we were foreign so it was already awkward.
What else?
Well, traveling to Agdal, my friends and I had a lovely conversation in Arabic with our taxi driver about himself and sister. I gotta say I was feeling pretty accomplished about what we've learned in the past two weeks. Well, I was feeling accomplished until we had our first "small quiz" today that was actually 9 pages long. The struggle was real.
Either way, classes are moving along. We've been keeping up with classes in the local dialect, calligraphy, and cooking! This week we also visited the Chellah, an ancient Roman settlement on the outskirts of Rabat, a school in the neighboring city, Sale, and the Bibliotheque National. (The new national library in Rabat).
I need to find a time to sleep between now and tomorrow. I forget that I actually need to sleep because I have school, but then again all I want to do is go out and experience life in Rabat, but then I come home and we don't eat dinner until 11 pm. (This is completely normal for Moroccans).
What's keeping me going is "cahua" (coffee), and "chobtz" (bread). Moroccans love their chobtz.
This weekend:
A trip to Tangier and Chefchaouen, both cities in the North of Morocco. Tangier is on the Mediterranean.
BELOW:
to clarify, that's not my house, it's my friend Zach's host family house. But it's beautiful.
& we have the lighthouse/cliffs that are a ten minute walk from my house.
