In traveling to both El Salvador and Morocco this year, I’ve there is a universal language, and it’s none of that cliché bullshit like smiles. It’s soccer (football). Today, Jake, who speaks no Arabic, and our taxi driver, who spoke no English, held a conversation for the entire ride by enthusiastically naming soccer players and nodding. Today was also the first match the Moroccan team played in the World Cup, a thrilling 0-0 match against Ukraine. However, I learned that the entire Moroccan team was fasting during the game, so I feel like we should give them the win.
I finally got my Alif library card today, and I’m pretty excited because I’m lame. They have a decent collection of books in English, French, and Arabic, a couple of Arabic films, and a very impression collection of American movies.
There’s a stereotype in the US that Arabic is a scary-sounding language, and I think that stems from the fact that the only time you really hear Arabic on television is in terrorist hostage videos. Today my host mom’s friend came over to gossip in rapid-fire darija for an hour and a half, and without understanding a word of what was happening, this was the funniest conversation I’ve ever listened in on. The throat vocalizations mixed with thick consonant clusters really add an extra layer of emotion and intensity to even the most mundane subjects. I was trying not to laugh out loud listening to them in the next room over.
Iftar had French fries tonight, which I’m pretty sure is not a traditional Ramadan food.
There was supposed to be a calligraphy class at the riad tonight, but there wasn’t. I’m wondering if I read the flyer wrong.
Class is an hour earlier tomorrow, and there’s a quiz (I’m not worried about it, but still…), so I’m going to cut this one short tonight. I’ll be back.
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