Rain, rain, go away...

Rain, while a blessing to our provinces farming industry, makes life pretty boring. It also turns everything to mud (though, for the record, its a beautiful shade of red!), which makes travel much, much harder. Please forgive my lack of updates -- nothing in my life is under control right now, including my decision to head to the cyber (pronounced see-ber).

Oh, goodness -- have I mentioned that our province is known for its fresh almonds and olives (and therefore olive oil)? The almonds here, called lus, are the most incredible thing Ive ever eaten. This might be vague and will NOT do these justice, but Ima try it anyway: the almonds here taste like taste like almond extract smells. I have never had an almond like this before, and now all store-bought almonds are ruined for me.

Rain and fresh produce aside, things have been very up and down lately. I wont get into the details here, in public, but this new training layout -- living with a host family for a solid two months, with occassional hub days-- has had some unique challenges. Things are looking up, however, and were all looking forward to swearing-in, provided we all pass the language assessment. :)

Helping that process along is this weekend: our second (of three) out-of-community weekend. Were back in our provinces namesake, and its been refreshing experience. We met an Englishman while in a hilwa store last night, whose suave opening line of, hey, guys! earned him 5 new friends and a spot at our dinner table. Hes a university student outside of London, and when when the wanderlust gets bad, he books flights to random cities. Marrakesh was at the top of his list this time, and we met him here in the mountains. We were also graced by the presence of some Spanish tourists -- complete with an American studying abroad! -- in our hotel. After breaking the ice by asking about the papier hygenic for a member of our training group (TP is a precious commodity in Morocco), we chatted for a while about why we were all in Morocco, and why out of all of the Americans, I -- the girl in the scarf! -- spoke the best Spanish. Muchisimas gracias, Senora Bryan!

Let me tell you, folks, speaking Spanish, while having been immersed in Berber/Moroccan Arabic/French for so long, was hard. However, I miss and love Spanish dearly, and all of those feelings were resurrected last night. I hope that after my two years in the bled, that Ill be lucky enough to spend time in the Spanish-influenced north of Morocco. Enough of this French-as-our-only-option-other-than-Tashlheit nonsense! :)

On a random note -- as if everything in this entry hasnt already been random -- I cooked, and secured the recipie for, Moroccan lubya with chicken yesterday. Also, I made an excellent pot of Moroccan mint tea to go with it. Kul shi ihla bzzef!

Finally, I feel that my writing skills have taken an abrupt turn for the worse. If these posts become illegible at any point, please let me know. The Arabic language believes more in conjunctions than in punctuation, and Tashlheit isnt a written language at all... so really, this blog and my journal are the only things keeping me from forgetting entirely how to write in English. Please dont judge too harshly.