nearing the end

I finished my last class of Arabic this morning. We had a final exam followed by a cooking lesson on how to make couscous. Don’t get too excited…my lack of finesse in the kitchen doesn’t change from one continent to the other. I will return from Morocco without the slightest clue how to knead dough or use a tajine. A disappointment, now, to multiple families and multiple mothers.

This weekend is officially the end of our homestay and the beginning of the independent study project (ISP) portion of the program. For the next three weeks we’re all supposed to be conducting independent field research on a topic of our choice and then at the end of the program, our last week here, we present our findings and hand in our final papers. Unofficially, even though I’m supposed to leave home tomorrow, I’ll be staying with the ElMoudden family a little longer. Well, technically, I’ll only be here in Rabat a few days at the beginning and then a few at the end of our ISP, but since it’s a question of me avoiding saying goodbye, I am giving my homestay an extended deadline.

So, here’s the plan for my next three weeks…in Rabat for a few days, day trip to Casablanca, travel down to Laayoune (city in the deep south of Morocco, a region formerly known as the Western Sahara), in Laayoune for a week or so, make my way back north hopefully stopping in Marrakech and Essaouiara, in Rabat for the last few days.

Boy does time fly. ;)

By the way, the bus ride to Laayoune is about twenty two hours. Be ready for some great bus stories next week.