Day 3

Today was our first day of Arabic class with Dr. Ali Azeriah.  Our group did not waste any time getting settled in...though I will be the first to admit I am not on Moroccan time yet. We will spend the next three weeks studying Arabic on the campus at Al Alkawayn University. The Campus is set in the Moroccan resort town of Ifrane, located in the middle Atlas Mountain region.  First impressions this area reminds me of a town in the Swiss Alps. This not what I pictured Morocco to look like, it has a mountain climate and does not seem to fit the Hollywood version of Morocco that I have seen on TV.  Yesterday as we made the five hour bus trek across the country from Casablanca. We passed through a variety of landscapes, like flat coastal plains with olive groves and rolling hills with herds of sheep.

Without wasting any time we dove right into learning Moroccan Arabic.  This is merely to help us adapt to the country and to be able to communicate locally.  The majority of our learning will be in Modern Standard Arabic.  Our prior learning in CT included speaking and writing the Arabic alphabet; we have come to Morocco with some foundation for the language.  First impressions: Arabic is a very guttural language.  When spoken Arabic requires a lot of throat clearing sounds (it sort of sounds like barfing). I worry I will have trouble with this language, as it is different than the Romance languages I took in grade school. Dr. Ali is a great teacher, he is very passionate about his content and he made class time fly by!

Massalama!

The Traveling Educator