My first blog. I leave in eight days to Meknes to study at AALIM for two months. Since it will be an intensive program aimed at teaching me Darija (the Moroccan dialect) and improving my FusHa I will be (or I like to think of myself as) more of a full-time student than a tourist, but I still hope to visit different cities on the weekends. I am planning trips to Al-Hoceima, Chefchaouen, and Merzouga for the beach, scenery, and sand dunes, respectively.
Looking through the guidebooks, I realize I have less interest in spending time in the major cities of Casablanca and Marrakesh. There is so much to see there but the tourism and the traffic seem overwhelming. Every block is said to exude different European flavors-- there are areas reminiscent of Switzerland and houses that make you feel like you are in an Italian villa. So many Moroccan streets are compared favorably to those of Greece and Spain and it just reminds me of  all the reassurances I have heard about my trip: "Oh, you'll love Morocco. It's very European!" Of course, that must be why I am studying Arabic, so I can be in "European" countries.

ساكتب بالعربية ايضاً و ساستخدم هذا الblog كمورد للدارجة التي اتعلمها و اذا كان عندكم اي اقتراحات أو معلومات عن أي شيء مغربي (اماكن و أشخاص و السياسة إلخ.) خبرني لو سمحتوا!