I'm Coming Home

I'm coming home!

In a few hours I will be leaving this place that has been my home for the last 2 months. It's been such a fun time, and I'm very grateful to have had this opportunity. If you are in college and want something amazing to do next summer, I highly recommend applying for the Critical Language Scholarship program from the US Department of State.

I will miss all the people I have met, I will miss seeing little lizards in the bathroom while I'm taking showers, I will miss getting sandwiches from the "melbana," I will miss having freshly squeezed orange juice for breakfast every morning, and so many other things. Morocco has been a wonderful country to live in for the summer.

But I am ready to get back. I can't wait to see my family and friends, I can't wait to eat some of Mama Stirgwolt's cooking (peach cobbler, please, Mom!), I can't wait to drive a car again, I can't wait to get back to Purdue and graduate and see what lies ahead...

Yesterday we had our final party. The guest of honor at our party was Mohammad from the melbana. He has got to be one of the most genuinely friendly people I have ever met. He has been incredibly nice to us all summer, so we invited him to the party. After the party ended, a few of us went to the melbana to buy some juice. Mohammad told us, completely honestly and graciously, that it was the best night of his life. I will miss him a lot.

Nina, Mohammad, and me at the melbana.

This is the melbana where I bought a majority of my food this summer.

Well, once again, this is the last blog post that I will be putting up for awhile. I had no idea that this blog would have even been resurrected this summer, and I really don't know when it will come back again. Let's hope that it's soon...

I wonder what the what will be in the blank: Ben's _______ Adventure...

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope that I will see you soon!!!

The End is Near

Only a few more days left in Morocco. That's really hard to believe. This summer has gone by so quickly. I am ready to get back to Purdue for my last semester and to find out what's going to happen in the next phase of my life. Right now I really have no idea--which is exciting and scary at the same time.

As I mentioned last post, this week we studied terrorism, which was actually pretty interesting. However, for my research paper I decided to do something totally different, so I wrote about the future of space exploration and the importance of the private space companies. If your interested and able to read Arabic, then here's the link to my paper.

I really don't have much to report because nothing too exciting has happened here recently. So, in order to make this post worthwhile, I decided that I could upload some photos. I realized that I never took pictures of the campus where I spend 85% of my time. So here are my photos:

On the path to the pool.

The dormitory. My room is the furthest to the right.

The BEAUTIFUL pool. I've spent many hours here...

My room.

I expect to put up another post before I leave on Thursday night, but I wanted to mention that I will be getting into Columbus at midnight on Friday, then will be at Josh & Rebecca's wedding on Saturday in Wadsworth, and then will be leaving for Purdue on Sunday, with school starting on Monday. That's the plan at least...

Have a good Sunday!

Spies, Drugs (again) and Sheep Feet

How could you resist a blog post with a title like that? I guess I'll start with the first word...

Johan came to visit me in Tangier this weekend since he is working on his graduate research. We didn't do anything too exciting, just walked around the city and spent a long time catching up. As we were walking to (attempt) to get lunch, we walked into a restaurant and I asked the two men sitting in the restaurant if they had any food or not because it is Ramadan and a lot of places don't have food. One of the men said, "No....and I wouldn't give food to Israeli spies anyway." I told him that we were Americans (Johan is Norwegian, but that's almost America, right?) and that we are not spies. But I was angry because of his comment, so we left, looking for a new place.

As a rule of thumb, I won't go to a place that has people out in the streets trying to get more people to come to their restaurant. You've just got to assume that there is something wrong with that restaurant if there's people fishing for you. Anyway, we ran into a man who wanted us to go to his restaurant. We told him that we were not interested (I only used Moroccan Arabic here just so the idea would click with him), but he became very hostile quickly. He said some very derogatory things and then accused us of being Israeli spies.

I'm very curious as to why we were called spies twice within 20 minutes. I have a feeling that it is because Johan was wearing what I call "FBI sunglasses." I don't know. Where do these people get these ideas that Israeli spies are infiltrating their country?

And moving onto the second word--drugs.

This is really a non-story because it happens so often, but to some of us who come from Wadsworth, Ohio, this isn't exactly an every-day experience. It's not uncommon to be walking down the street and have some creepy man come up to you and say in English, "Hey, do you want some hasheesh?" He may even then whip out a sample for you to see. Just like when you're accused of being a spy, this is another time when you just have to pretend like you only speak Japanese and you have no idea what he's saying (have I written about how I've had to explain to so many people that neither my mom nor my dad are from Japan?).

And sheep feet...

Yeah, I ate one. I wasn't really sure at the time. I had a suspicion, but I wasn't really sure. The meat was just in a strange shape and there were a lot of bones. It was kind of like leather. It wasn't very good. I probably won't eat it again...but it was a good experience...I think.

That's all for now. I have a lot of homework to do--write about some terrorist organization in Algeria and about the future of space exploration. Guess which one I'm really excited about...

Have a happy Monday!

Just Like Home

I realized that I forgot to mention something amazing that happens every week here in Tangier. At the school we have the nicest ladies who clean our dorm and our rooms and do our laundry for us. They fold everything, too. It's a wonderful thing that happens every Thursday, and I'm going to miss it a lot when I return to America. It's so nice that I can't believe I forgot to mention this earlier...

This week we have been discussing the economy, which includes a whole new set of vocabulary for me. I really don't care for economics all that much, but it's such an improvement over poetry, where we're essentially given a line of poetry (maybe 15 words, only 3 of which I knew) and are asked to explain it. That was the worst week ever. But this week has been better. It was interesting to present on the economies of different countries. I chose Iraq for my presentation and actually learned a lot from doing the research for it.

And even better than learning about economics was our discussion about renewable energy. This was the best class we've had by far. We even watched a clip about renewable energy used in aviation. There was even a solar-powered airplane. I think our teachers were definitely catering to my interests, since this is also what I wrote my research paper on.

This weekend Johan (my Norwegian friend from Egypt) is coming to Tangier to visit/continue with his research. It will be an awesome reunion! When I left Johan in Cairo I never would have thought that I would meet him in Morocco. It's funny how things like this happen...

Have a good Thursday!

Waiting for Ramadan

We've been waiting for several weeks now for Ramadan to get here, and it's so close that we can almost taste it. Over the last few days I've noticed several telltale signs of the month of Ramadan--the bakeries have huge platters of sweets, lights are strung from houses, flags adorn the parks...and the Moroccan King reset the clock (thanks for the extra hour of sleep)! I wouldn't have known about the time change had it not been posted by one of my friends on Facebook. Google was also aware of the time change. I see how it is...Now we're just waiting for the official announcement of when Ramadan actually starts.

This weekend we made another trip to the beach, which is where these pictures are from. This was our first free weekend this summer, which was really nice to be able to relax a little bit. Besides having 7 people squeezed into a car for an hour, the entire trip was great.

As we were leaving, we stopped by a bookstore just to see what they had. I ended up buying 4 small books about the Wright brothers, space & artificial satellites, and Galileo. As I was about to pay for my books, I was explaining to the owner that I focus on astronautical engineering in my university and that I was really excited to buy books in Arabic on this topic. He then began to enlighten me on how, in reality, it is not the Earth that revolves around the sun, but actually the sun revolves around the earth. I didn't want to get into an argument, though, and plus I haven't taken AAE 532--Orbit Mechanics, so I probably wouldn't know anyway...

Low tide at Asilah.

Artist's depiction of immigration (remember the video I posted awhile ago?).

Our group.

There's really not much to report here, just a lot of studying. Last week the subject was Arabic literature, and this week we're discussing economics. It's hard to believe that I'll be headed back to the US in 2.5 weeks and will be starting school shortly after that. The summer has really gone by quickly!

Have a good Sunday!

Another Weekend, Another Vacation

I don't know how it's been almost a week since I last posted anything. Perhaps it's because the weekends always go by so quickly. This last weekend we went on another trip, this time to Chefchauen and Tetwan, which are about 2 hours away from Tangier.

There's a lot of blue decoration in Chefchauen.

Chefchauen is probably my favorite city that we have visited so far. It's beautiful. It's a rather small city, settled into the mountains. There are also waterfalls nearby, but I didn't have time to hike to them. However, I might go back during one of our upcoming free weekends. I took a lot of pictures, which you can view here (28 new ones at the end of the current album).

View of the mountains from our hotel.

The city is very laid back. The weekend essentially consisted of shopping, eating, hiking, and swimming. Not too bad at all. The city is especially known for it's wool and its artwork. It was warm trying on wool clothing, but I did make some purchases.

One of the things that I've noticed is how the articles that we are reading in class are affecting the way that I look at things in Moroccan society. For example, we spent a bit of time reading about drugs and begging in Morocco. For the first (and second time) this weekend, I was asked if I wanted to smoke hasheesh, which apparently is pretty popular here...not to mention the marijuana farm that was just off our hiking trail...

Mosque on top of the peak near our hotel.

But what really is bothering me is the people who beg on the streets. There are a lot of them, and I always feel so badly when I pass by them, especially if they are holding a child. We read an article about how these people will purposely use children as part of an act to get more sympathy and more money. So whenever I see beggars, I wonder if they are really as bad off as they appear...and then the thought that I am even considering this makes me angry at myself. So usually I just walk by them, struggling with understanding them...

Hanging out under a tree during our hike.

The most unique thing that happened in the other city we visited (Tetwan) was when we were walking through the medina and saw two WHOLE (yes, everything), skinned cows on a cart, on the way to the butcher's store. It was totally gross. Give me camel hooves hanging on a hook any day...

Oh, and the king was in town that day, but we unfortunately didn't get to see him, just the opening of one of the huge doors to one of his palaces.

Happy Monday!

Halfway Done

It's hard to believe that we're already about halfway done with the program. In about a month I will be back in Ohio for about 36 hours (for Josh & Rebecca's wedding) before returning to Purdue for my last semester. I'd imagine that the remainder of the summer will go by just as quickly as the first half has.

This last weekend we went on a trip to a small city called Asilah, which is about 45 minutes away from Tangier. We were supposed to see the annual arts festival, but that was essentially non-existant. Instead we wandered around the city, saw some of the murals from the previous year's art festival, and went to the beach.

In order to get to the beach, we could either ride in a taxi or take a horse and "carriage," which was more like a horse and a board with 2 wheels. I decided to take the horse. The trip itself was not too exciting, and it was nice to be able to slowly see the city until we got to the poor part of the city.

As we rode through the slums, we saw a group of young boys gathered in the street. After we had passed them, we noticed that they had begun to throw rocks at us. I was surprised at the distance they were capable of launching their rocks. I'm not sure why they decided to throw them, but fortunately it didn't last for too long and they decided not to chase after us because another horse-drawn cart was coming their way.

Right next to the slums are probably some of the nicest buildings in the city. These buildings are brand new (built by rich Middle Easterners) and were a stark contrast to the poorest part of the city right beside it. It was very sad.

The beach itself was really nice. You can see my pictures here. We had a lot of fun, and the waves were huge.

Friday is my birthday, which is hard to believe, but we're going on another trip this weekend, so that will be my birthday celebration.

Have a good Tuesday!

Drugs, Immigration, and Port Tangier

We've been covering some not-so-fun topics in our class, like homelessness, drugs, and begging in Morocco. Specifically we've talked a lot about homeless children who are addicted to drugs. Usually this takes the form of sniffing glue. The reasons that they do it are varied, but today our teacher explained to us that one of the main reasons is so that these kids can get used to breathing fumes. Let me explain.

Tangier, and Morocco as a whole, is located in strategic location where there are a lot of ships coming and going. A lot of times the ships carry trucks back and forth across the Mediterranean with the goods already loaded. These glue-sniffing kids latch themselves onto the bottoms of the trucks before the trucks enter the port in hopes of making it out of Morocco. With the "practice" of sniffing glue, they hope that they can withstand the fumes of the trucks.

Of course, all of this was said in Arabic, and I could have misunderstood somethings, but I'm pretty sure this is what our teacher said.

Yesterday for homework we had to watch a video addressing illegal immigration of Moroccans attempting to enter Spain. The video is in a mix of Darija (Moroccan) and Spanish, but you don't really need to understand either to get the gist of the video.

About an hour ago I got back from my Moroccan family visit. They took us to a restaurant in the port at Tangier. We literally saw them carrying the fish from the ocean into the restaurant and then onto our table. It was really good, too. First they bring a platter of shrimp, which we all eat from using our hands, of course. This ain't Red Lobster. Then they bring a huge platter of fish, topped with calamari (delicious). I'm not sure what all I ate, but it was really good, even though I'm pretty sure I ate a head of some sort of fish. Believe it or not, it's much easier to eat fish with your hands than with a fork and knife...

We then took a road trip to a city about an hour away in my family's new van. As we drove along the Atlantic coast listening to a very loud mix of Italian, Spanish, American, Egyptian, and Moroccan music, I had one of those "I can't believe I'm in Morocco right now" experiences. It was so neat to see the beautiful ocean shining in the sun and the clear beaches without any form of commercialization around.

Tomorrow we're going back to the same city for an arts festival. On Sunday I have to whip out a 3-5 page paper about energy & electricity in Morocco. I was so glad that we were able to choose our own topics...

Have a good Friday!

Trip to the Imperial Cities

This weekend was our whirlwind tour of 3 Moroccan cities--Meknes, Fes, and Rabat. I won't go into all the details because I think the trip can best be described through pictures, which you can find by clicking here (same album as before; new pictures are at the end).

Fes was by far my favorite city. It's narrow roads in the old medina (city) are overwhelmingly full of smells, sounds, and sights. Though cars aren't allowed, or capable, of travelling on these streets, you have to be careful of the mules that haul vendors' goods to their shops. At one point we saw a man get his foot stepped on by one of the mules. He wasn't too happy...

The items in the souk change depending on where you are. There's a fruit and vegetable section, a clothing section, a shoe section, a meat section, and leather section, etc. Probably the most memorable thing I saw was in the meat section--goat heads and camel (?) feet. As appetizing at they looked, I decided not to buy them. However, later for lunch I had probably the best meal that I've had yet in Morocco...but it was chicken; nothing too exotic.

If it wasn't for the heat, our time in Fes would have been perfect. I especially had a good time at night when things cooled off a little bit and we were able to explore the city and sit in the park for awhile and just chat or drink lemon juice.

It's another week of classes this week. Friday I'm going back to my Moroccan family's house and then on the weekend we're going to a music festival. Right now I really need to get some sleep...

Have a good Monday!

Moroccan Beaches & Moroccan Cooking

I have a test tomorrow that I need to study for, but what a better way to procrastinate than to put up a new blog post?!

Last weekend we made a trip to the Atlantic to visit the supposed cave where Hercules slept as he was completing his 12 tasks. Then we made our way to our "private beach" for an afternoon of swimming. I think just about all of us were expecting an exclusive beach with nice sand rest on. Well, it was beautiful, but we had to hike down a mountain with some seriously steep slopes, and our private beach was more of a random house built on some rocks that just so happened to have a ladder screwed into them. It just wasn't what I was expecting, but it was fun. I jumped into the water from the "cliff," and swam for a total of about 10 seconds before I decided that I wanted to avoid hypothermia. As one person described the water, "It's cold, but at least you don't sieze up." Yeah, that's a good way to describe it...

Yesterday we did our "community service" project, which consisted of us going to a program that teaches women how to cook nutritious meals. We baked cookies, which were delicious.

This weekend we're going on a trip to the Imperial Cities. I don't know about my internet connect while we're away, so pictures might have to wait for several days.

Overall, things are going well here. I'd like to think that I'm getting better at Arabic. Today when I sat down with my conversation partner, she started the conversation by talking about circumcision and why it is good. I thought it was really random, but perhaps that shows that I'm moving past the basic topics of talking about my major and my hometown. Perhaps we could talk about something slightly different, though...

Have a good Thursday!

The rocks where we went swimming.

There was some pretty scenery as we tried to figure out where the beach is.

"Little boy, do you know if there is a private beach down this path for the American School in Tangier?"

Cute puppy.

Opening of cave shaped like Africa? Yes.

My Moroccan Family

It's the weekend--what a welcomed break after a very busy first week in Morocco!

Yesterday, after taking our first round of exams, we met with our Moroccan families for Couscous Fridays. My family is very, very nice. There are 2 sons and 1 daughter in the family. When we (me and 1 other person in the program) got to their house we sat on the balcony for awhile and played with their little kitten. Soon afterwards the seven of us sat down around a small table and began to eat from a huge platter of couscous, vegetables, and turkey. It was delicious. I wish I hadn't eaten shortly before going to my family's house, however. They kept telling me "kol," meaning "eat." I'd stop and they'd say "Ben, kol." So I just kept "kol"-ing away...

For a long time we just sat around the living room just talking about anything and everything. We looked through some textbooks that my older Moroccan brother uses. I looked through his Arabic textbook, which was very difficult for me to read. Then I looked through his math book. Even though all the explanation was in Arabic, I understood each lesson since math is a universal language: f '(x) = 3x^2 + 4x +1 is the same in English as it is in Arabic. Beautiful.

In the evening we drove outside of the city to Cap Spartel and the surrounding area. It was beautiful. You can see some of my pictures by clicking here.

One of the highlights, in addition to the beautiful scenery, was eating escargot (snails) for the first time. It was actually really good--just pull it out with a toothpick and pop the whole thing in your mouth. Fun, fun times. It was awesome to chat with our family as we sat near the Atlantic Ocean.

As my Moroccan family dropped us off at the school around midnight (we spent 10 hours with them; pretty short visit, right?) they told me that I should consider them just as my own mom and dad. They gave me a tiny Qur'an that I am supposed to take with me wherever I go (it is less than 1" x 1"). They were very, very nice and generous to us.

Today is a day to rest and to explore. Tomorrow we are going swimming in the ocean!!! I can't wait!

Have a great Saturday, everyone.

And to those in America: Happy Independence Day weekend

And to my grandpa: Happy 90th birthday!!!

The Butcher, the Baker, and the Candlestick Maker

Well I really didn't talk to a butcher or a candlestick maker, but yesterday we did get to go out into the community surrounding the school and talk to the owners of local businesses, like small grocery stores, a shoe repairman, and a worker at the hammam. It was incredibly difficult to understand what most of them were saying (they mostly use Moroccan Arabic, which I know very little of), but generally we were able to get the information that we were looking for. Hopefully practice makes perfect, eventually.

In the souk. The fruit is wonderful.

(Grandma, if you click on the picture it will get bigger.)

Boys working in the wood shop. The owner was talking to us.

The man who fixes shoes.

Today we went on a trip to the new port (building began in 2003) just outside of Tangier. It is the largest in Africa. I learned some new vocabulary, and it was neat to see all the ships and the beautiful landscape along the way. The photo below shows the port with the words "God", "Country", "The King" written on the mountain.

Port Tangier

The countryside outside of the city.

I think tomorrow is a relatively calm day without any additional Arabic-related activities--just 4 hours of classwork. On Friday one other student and I will be going to our Moroccan family for a few hours to eat with them and get to know them. Then during the weekend we're going on an excursion to a beach and a private nature reserve--pretty exclusive, right?

I've been able to go swimming in our pool a couple of times, and it has been so refreshing. It gets very warm here in the afternoons.

I hope you are having a good Wednesday!

Life in Tangier

One of the things that I like best about this program is that we get to use the Arabic that we learn in our classes on the streets of Tangier. Yesterday we had a class about asking for directions. After the class we divided into small groups and took to the streets on a scavenger hunt of famous places in Tangier, asking the locals for the location of each place. It was a really good exercise to solidify the vocabulary that we had learned, and it was fun to see the city.

The goal was to take pictures of each of these locations. The final thing we had to do was take a picture of something strange. As we were trying to figure out what to do, we noticed a policeman directing traffic so we decided to ask him if he could take a picture with me pretending like he was arresting me and me looking sad. He told us that he probably would, but he was afraid since the Moroccans are voting on their new constitution in a few days, he thought if the picture somehow got to the press, it would be very damaging having a police officer arresting a foreigner. So we didn't get the picture. It was still fun.

Afterwards we went to a restaurant and got dinner (this was around 10:00 pm). Like in Egypt, there is some really good fruit juice; last night I had peach juice, which was heavenly.

In the medina.

On the first day that we were here we visited the American Legation Museum, which is the oldest piece of American property outside of the United States. It was beautiful. This is a picture of it below. From what I understood, it seems like they do a lot of research here. I remember reading in my orientation materials that some of us may have to write a research paper (in Arabic, of course) using some of the resources from this center. I wouldn't mind spending some time there...

American Legation Museum

Today I'm going to return to downtown Tangier and do some more exploring and maybe have give bartering a shot, though I still don't know much Moroccan Arabic, it is still so much fun to speak to the locals in Arabic, and they love it too (one man said in Arabic "God bless you for speaking Arabic" when I spoke to him at a cafe).

The days have really been full of things for us to do. Formal classes start tomorrow, which probably means that life will get even crazier, but that's okay.

Happy Sunday!

But I Don't Speak French!

I don't know how it's Tuesday evening already! Earlier today as I was waiting my turn to go through security (yes, full-body scan) for a few seconds I forgot what city I was in and a few hours later I had no idea what day it was. I guess that's what you get for going to 6 airports in 6 days...

When I arrived in DC, my friend from Purdue, Kathy Brumbaugh, picked me up from the airport and we did a car tour of the greater DC area. That afternoon we had a meet and greet at our hotel so that we could get to know the other participants in the program. There are about 30 of us, most of whom are studying international relations/political science/Middle Eastern studies. I'm the sole engineer. It's kind of strange to me because I'm not used to having so many conversations that are about democracy and Middle Eastern issues. Needless to say, I spend a lot of time listening; definitely no conversations about herpolhodes or space cones...

However, we did make it to the National Air and Space museum today, so I had my chance to point out the Bell X-1 and explain some of the parts of a rocket engine.

Yesterday was a full day of guest speakers including a diplomat who was evacuated from Yemen within the last several weeks, several people who have worked as analysts at the CIA, and someone who works at the Christian non-profit organization World Vision. They were are very interesting.

And of course, if you're in DC you have to see all of the monuments, so we did that as well. (The internet at the airport is very slow, so pictures will have to wait a bit)

Right now I'm waiting for our flight to Paris. We were originally scheduled to make a quick connection in Paris to Casablanca, but our plane got delayed, so now we will be spending 24 hours in Paris, so we're going to do a whirlwind tour. And I'm going to eat a croissant.

I'm very tired, but hopefully I will be able to sleep on the plane. I don't know when I'll be able to post another update, but most likely it will be when I have arrived in Morocco!

So, as always, have a good Tuesday evening.

The Adventure Begins, Part II

I noted in my last blog post of "Ben's Egyptian Adventure" from Fall 2009 - Spring 2010 that there would quite possibly be a new "Ben's _________ Adventure" site in the future. I had no idea where that adventure would be or the reason why I would be going, but I had a suspicion that I would be travelling somewhere, sometime in the future.

I wasn't expecting this opportunity at all. I applied for the U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship program at the behest of my Arabic professor, who told me about the program 2 days before the scholarship deadline. In one night I scrambled to put together 3 short essays, letters of recommendation, and the rest of the application. I submitted everything and then waited 6 months to find out that I was selected to spend 2 months in Morocco in an intensive Arabic program during the summer.

Here are two pictures of where Morocco is. I will be staying in Tangier, which is in northern Morocco, as seen in the second picture. (Pictures are public domain from www.cia.gov)

If you're interested in the program, here is a media note regarding some of the details. Even though I haven't even started the program, I have a feeling that I will end up recommending it to anyone who is interested in learning a foreign language and spending the summer in another country (but I'll write my review of the program at the end of the summer).

For now, I'm headed to Washington D.C tomorrow (Sunday--Father's Day) morning for a couple of days of orientation speakers, panels, etc. until we depart as a group on Tuesday evening.

One thing I've learned already--it's MUCH easier to pack for 2 months than it is for 9 months. I have quite a bit of room left in my suitcase (more room for souvenirs?).

Happy Saturday!

Beginning of the Moroccan Adventure

I will resume my blogging activities a few days before I leave for Morocco, so maybe around June 15th-ish. Stay tuned...