Wrong Neighborhood

 

Have you ever had a moment where you’ve taken a wrong turn and ended up in an unsavory place where you weren’t supposed to be? Maybe, for instance, you live on the north side of Olympus Cove, and you need to exit I-215 at 3900 S to get home, but you’re distracted by the new Porsche dealership they’re building just off the freeway, and you blow right by the exit. Suddenly, you’re forced to get off on 45th and enter the south side of the Cove—enemy territory. Now, you’re rolling up your windows at stop signs, checking your gat to make sure there’s one in the chamber, and wondering why so many people are street parking their Range Rovers. I’ve been there, and I’m there again now. Yeah, I’ve ended up on Writer’s block, so I really have no idea what I’m going to talk about today. In fact, it’s taken me 45 minutes to compose this opener—no lie. Still, I’ve got a fully charged tablet and a Spotify subscription I really should get my money’s worth from, so I’m motivated to come up with something. C’mon, let’s go before we get shot. 

The week after the first trip we took was a bit of a tough one for me. I’d just had the opportunity to take five days off school and explore a bunch of new places in this fascinating country, only to be brought jarringly back down to earth with the realization that there was still more than half the semester to go. Don’t get me wrong, this study abroad is a great experience for me, but it’s a great experience that comes with a heavy workload and rigorous academic, social, and emotional demands. However, this most recent trip is having almost the opposite effect because we are now down to only three weeks, one of which has already expired. In fact, I’m writing this on the evening of our penultimate Sunday here in Rabat because we fly out early in the morning exactly two weeks from now. So, all this time I felt I had to work, accomplish goals, and experience Morocco is rapidly and frightfully diminishing—slipping like smoke through my fingers. I guess this is just a long-winded way of saying that time is short, but I’m glad I can add this lesson to the long list of ones I’ve learned here. 

Moving quickly on, I want to share one of the more fun experiences I had this week. Truthfully, there wasn’t much to this week that warrants a lengthy retelling, but I’ll do my best to provide something of value. The highlight of my week was easily traveling to the neighboring city of Sale to visit a local artisan’s market. This market specializes primarily in pottery, but they also sell woodcrafts, furniture, lamps, and other knickknacks. I’ve wanted to go here for several weeks, and this week I finally was able to organize a small group to go check it out. We headed out Saturday morning, riding the tram to the end of the line and then walking the rest of the way. Typically, the market is located in a cute little village built just for the purpose of selling the crafts, but the city is currently in the process of renovating it, so the whole thing was in a sort of convention center instead. In a surprising turn of events, the market wasn’t packed with people, and the vendors weren’t aggressive in shilling their wares. Actually, now that I think about it, most shopkeepers I’ve come across in Morocco are pretty docile—or, at least, the ones in Rabat are. Regardless, after we’d shopped ‘til we dropped, we headed back home and went our separate ways. It was a fun excursion, and I’m glad to have checked it off my list. 

All too soon, this brings me to the end of another week and another blog post. I apologize that this one doesn’t have the breadth of content that some of the others have had, but this week really wasn’t anything special. Truthfully, I think the remainder of my time here in Morocco will be more low-key as I prepare for my final exams and make sure I stay (somewhat) on top of my work through the end of the semester. However, we have been talking about our upcoming field study trips to the Arabian Peninsula and Turkey a little bit in class, and I’m very confident that there will be some remarkable and dazzling things to write about before my adventure concludes for good. With that being said, it’s time to wind down the blog and gear up for another week of Arabic. I wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving (hard to believe it’s this week) and ask that you don’t judge me too harshly for breaking my rule and listening to Christmas music before dining on turkey (it turns out that you can get tired of Metallica). Have a good one!