04/14/2014

Lindsey;

We had our first class in Bridges yesterday. At 10, we had an orientation where they quizzed us on Morocco. They told us little facts about Morocco like how Mohammad the Sixth (the king) was the first king to publicize his marriage. People in Morocco today know the name of his wife, while beforehand she was nameless and anonymous. We also learned that the Hollywood of Morocco is Ouarzazat. After the orientation, we had our first Arabic class. At the beginning, we introduced ourselves. We told each other what we did and didn’t like, where we lived, who our parents are and what they do. After that, we played charades completely in Arabic. We couldn’t speak any English. I was the first one to go. Taufik showed everyone else a picture and I had to ask questions in Arabic and my classmates had to answer me in Arabic. The person in my picture was Angelina Jolie. It took me a while to guess her. I guessed Angelina Jolie only after someone said that she had many children and was married to Brad Pitt. The picture that Nadia had to guess was Adele. We said that her songs were very sad and that she was British. Nadia couldn’t guess Adele because we didn’t know what else to say. Eventually, we tried to say one of her song titles in Arabic. The song we were trying to translate was Someone Like You. We ended up translating the song title word for word (a word for some, another for one, a word for like, and a word for you). Then she guessed Adele. Isabel had Obama. We were joking earlier that Oprah Winfrey was the real president and not Obama. We said that in Arabic and Isabel immediately got it. After the class, we went on a guided tour of Rabat. On the tour, we went to Roman ruins and our guide showed us a few of the structures and told us what they were used for. We also went to the place that was supposed to be the biggest mosque, but the king died before it could be completed. Our guide showed us the place where the current king’s father and uncle were buried. There was a lot of detail on the walls around them and there were even guards out front (which Johnna, Isabel, and Nadia took a picture with). After that, we went to the old medina and went shopping a little bit. The medina was very busy and there were even a few people riding around on a motorcycle. I enjoyed the tour a lot. I even got to see a few places that I didn’t get to last year.