Holy cow-- I mean, holy shit!

I try very hard not to be vulgar, but we learned this week that my LCF - our language and culture facilitator, i.e. our Tashlheit teacher - has two favorite English idioms: to catch a taxi and holy shit. So in our efforts to be the ideal training group for him, we try hard to encourage his use of American English by using these phrases whenever possible.

And before everyone gets all hot and bothered about our CBT teaching our LCF hashuma American English phrases, he knew both of those phrases before we met him, I promise!

Hashuma language aside, things are continuing to go well here in the mountains. I still do not know how high up we are, but our weather continues to be beautiful (even the rain storms here, which Ive seen two of now), are beautiful. There is still snow up on the highest mountains, but where we are, there isnt a flake of snow to be found.

Speaking of the weather, Ive acquired a nasty cold since I last spoke with you. My energy level is finally returning to normal, hamdullah, but Im still a slave to the but-hanut - the store owner - who sells me bakeet after bakeet of Kleenex. Hes very patient with my Tashlheit language skills, too, which makes me smile (even if Im feeling disgusting). While we do not know the true origin of this pesky bug, three of five of Taraboot Hussein have been infected, and we were all pretty miserable. Today we ran into a few trainees today during our Big City Outting (we spent a few hours in our provinces namesake today), and found out that our cold was mild compared to the dysentery that has been plaguing some of the others. So while I am still a fountain of germs, I will thank my lucky stars that Im only sick from the neck up.

Thats great, Nicole, but what does this all have to do with the weather?

Good question. My family thinks that Im sick because I dont wear enough clothing. And theyre serious about that.

Apparently a daily wardrobe of a fleece, a long-sleeved thermal shirt and a sweater, leggings and a skirt AND a scarf arent enough to keep me warm in this chilly 80° weather. If this is cold, I can only begin to imagine how hot their idea of a nice day is.

In order to save me some time in writing this (I still have to get to birthday emails! Thanks for all of those, by the way!), I will do the rest of this post in a less-fun-to-write-but-still-mildly-informative format.

Birthday/family day:
Tuesday was my birthday and since Moroccans dont celebrate birthdays, I didnt expect anything in the way of celebration. The day had been set aside as a day off for time with the family, so the village kids and the Americans went to the Shalalat, or the local waterfalls. Moroccans seem to love photo shoots, so our hike turned into taking posed photos of our host brothers for a few hours before they had to go back to school (French educational system means half day on Tuesdays for the kids here). Again, all of these photos will be posted after Im done with training.
After lunch and another dance party, a few other members of Taraboot Hussein showed up at my door with our teacher. He said that he wanted to go to the shalalat (hes from the desert and had never seen waterfalls!), and then we had to go to school for a brief exercise. I wasnt thrilled about this, but I need to take advantage of any and all opportunities to learn the language here, so I agreed. We gathered up the rest of the Taraboot and headed to the waterfalls, and then back down to school. On the way my brother called to wish me a happy birthday from waaaaay over in Alaska, and as soon as I let him go, I walked into the classroom and into my surprise birthday party! I cant lie, I teared up a bit -- and am doing so again just writing this! I have the best training group of all time. My parents and my wonderful boyfriend called also, later in the day, and life was good.

Hamaam day:
Last week, immediately after my last blog update, I went home and got to go to the hamaam! I have an aunt that has a personal hamaam, so I was treated like royalty in this two-person sauna. The hamaam itself was all that I could ask for and more, but the real treat was the aftermath. Because the weather here is so cold - ha! - I was put into two pairs of pants, three shirts, a scarf AND a towel held around me like a khimar, whisked back to my house and was immediately swaddled and put to bed. Like a small child. I was given a pot of tea and a bottle of water, and explicit instructions to not leave my bed until further notice. I loooooooove Morocco.

Languages a go-go:
Codeswitching, a linguistic term for when people switch comfortably between languages in a given sentence or conversation, is something that has been studied, analyzed and written about for years in the States. In Morocco, however, its just a way of life. Its completely normal to hear a sentence containing Tashlheit, Darija and French all said in the same breath. Conversations are even worse, where locals use any language they can pull from to communicate their idea. Its unbelieveable, and has been a driving force for my passion to really nail this Tashlheit, and then move on to improving my classical Arabic and learning to be comfortable with Darija and French. The only language that doesnt seem to get you much of anywhere is English. Hamdullah, an 18-word vocabulary -- six in French, Arabic and Tashlheit -- will get you places. Eemik seemik, I suppose.

Im Moroccan:
As I have told a few people now, I look very Moroccan. I dont get the ca va! Francais, madamoiselle? that my other Tarabooties seem to get. Im quite Moroccan before I open my mouth, which makes my experience here very different than that of the others (and Ill blog more about that later). In fact, I look so Moroccan that I was thought to be an LCF today by a volunteer serving in our province!
That doesnt bother me at all though... in fact, I relish the opportunity to truly fit in. The language is holding me back, however, and after I kick this cold, Tashlheit had better watch out.

Alright, guys and gals, its time to get to those emails and to head back to the village. Hope everyones healthy and happy back home!