American Pharaoh

 

My name is an English one; this is true. Though, I typically run the narrative that it’s an Irish name—mostly because people assume I’m Irish anyway. So, yes, my name is English, or Irish, or Scottish, or something along those lines. My name is also, in fact, Arabic, believe it or not. Actually, it’s not that unbelievable, since one of the most powerful pharaohs Egypt has ever seen, Ozymandias, also went by the name Ramesses II (by the way, if you’re looking to kill a minute of your life, the poem Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley has a great reading done by Bryan Cranston for the show Breaking Bad—it’s one of my favorites). So, I guess in a way I’m some sort of American pharaoh, though don’t expect me to be winning any Triple Crowns. I first learned about my name being an Arab one back in Arabic 102 but never really imagined the type of star power this would carry once I actually arrived in an Arab country. Well, maybe I’m not Umm Kulthum, but it is refreshing not to have to repeat my name when I’m meeting someone for the very first time. Though, this problem has been replaced with a new one, which is that I now must explain to every Moroccan I meet that my name is supposed to be an English one, that I am not a Muslim, and that neither of my parents is an Arab. My life is so hard. And I’m sure you’re desperate to find out what my name actually means in Arabic, so now I will attempt a (hopefully) brief and totally meaningless language lesson. 

Every word in Arabic (apart from prepositions) began its life as a verb. These verbs are divided up into different forms, with the first form being the base verb composed of three root letters, called the triliteral root system. As you move up through the different verb forms, their aspects change, with letters, vowels, and pronunciation being altered depending on the form to create nouns, adjectives, etc., but the three root letters forming the basic verb always remain the same. This process is what helps create the vast vocabulary of the Arabic language because you can take pretty much any root, plug it into one of the forms, and make a word. You can also, in theory, use this pattern system to break words down and deduce the meaning of new words you’ve never seen as long as you know the meaning of the root verb and the pattern construction that particular word has (hopefully that makes some sense). My name consists of the root letters ر (r), م (m), and ز (z), which, put together in Arabic writing, looks like this: رمز (Read right-to-left and in cursive because if the letters aren’t connected, it doesn’t form a word). So, if I were to transliterate this word to English, it would be spelled something like ramaza (the vowels are typically invisible when writing). Its meaning in Arabic is both “to symbolize” and “symbol,” but you might have noticed that the final vowel of my name (ey) is missing from the word. The letter that makes this sound is (ي), which serves as both a vowel (sometimes) and a possessive pronoun marker. So, adding the “-ey” sound to the end of the word using this letter gives it both the vowe it needs for the correct sound of my name and makes the word “symbol” possessive, meaning that my name in Arabic means “my symbol.” 

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about what I actually did this week. Actually, I guess it’s technically what I did last week because I’m writing this almost a full week later than when it’s normally posted. In fact, I’m having a hard time remembering what I did last week. Well, I guess it was Halloween! That holiday isn’t really celebrated as much here as it is in America, but there were still some opportunities to feel a little spooky. For class on Halloween, our entire cohort attempted to dress up like our professor and surprise him. Some costumes were better than others, but it was fun for everyone to be in on the joke. The title picture is (almost) all of us together. Some of us have adopted poses he often strikes, hence why I’m standing like I am. He’s in the center with his hand over his heart. On Halloween night, an American family we know from the embassy invited our cohort over to their enormous, tax-funded house for a Halloween party. This was my first time being over in the diplomatic neighborhood of Rabat, and, unsurprisingly, it’s a very nice part of town. Some of the students (not me) dressed up the best they could, and the rest of us just showed up in our regular clothes. The party was low-key, and we just spent a few hours hanging out and eating food while talking. There wasn’t a lot of nutritious food to go around, but there were plenty of desserts and treats, so it was a pretty accurate Halloween. While we were at the party, the United Nations voted on a resolution supporting Morocco’s claim to the Western Sahara, so the streets were rowdy on the drive home. This development is a really big deal for Morocco, so much so that October 31 is now a new national holiday celebrating this resolution—I’m very happy for my Moroccan friends, but I can’t speak for the Great Pumpkin. Friday night continued well into Saturday for me as I stayed up until after 4:00 watching baseball, which probably would have been fine if I hadn’t done the same thing on Saturday night. By the time Sunday rolled around I was pretty much a zombie, but it was totally worth it! Going back a touch, Saturday afternoon I spent with my friends shopping in the medina and eating some really good Indian food. After dinner, we decided to go see a movie at the movie theater in the mall. Actually, the women I was with had already decided they wanted to see the new rom-dram Regretting You and just decided to drag me along (ugh, twist my arm). I went willingly, but after the movie we saw, I wish I had done literally anything else. Dear reader, when I say this film was atrocious, I cannot be any more plain. It was far and away the worst movie I have ever seen. Do not go see it. There, that’s this week’s movie reference and a public service announcement combined. Nothing like getting two birds stoned at once. 

With that, I guess we’ve reached the end of another blog post. This one was pretty short, but inshallah there will be another one tomorrow for the regular schedule. Honestly, it was a pretty normal week up until Halloween, so I just didn’t have the breadth of content to provide for this write-up. We’ve got one more multi-day trip coming up soon, so that’ll be a fun post, and after that point I’ll be strikingly close to the end of the program. I hope wherever you are, November is treating you well. Take care, and I’ll talk to you all soon (tomorrow, I hope).