So much has happened since my last post. My Moroccan family was so amazing. I went shopping quite a few times with my host sister Majda. I bought WAY too much stuff and now my suitcase will barely close! Leaving my host-family was really sad. It has been 5 days since we left Fez, and we have done SO much. Right after leaving Fez, we drove all day to the Sahara Desert. We were supposed to get there and take camels out into the desert in order to watch the sunset, but we didn't make it in time. We took 4 by 4 vehicles and raced through the desert (not the dunes part) in order to make it ontime, but we were about 20 minutes too late. Instead we sat on the hills by our camp and watched the sunset. We then had a great dinner and lots of fun dancing. Before we retired to our tents (that were practically suites) we sat out and watched the amazing constellations while singing disney songs. The next morning, we woke up at 4 something in the morning and rode camels out to the sand dunes to watch the sunrise. It was absolutely amazing and beautiful. Since then, we have been traveling around Morocco and are currently in Essaouria, a coastal town that is filled with seagulls. So far we have seen gorgeous scenery, as well as a really neat movie studio where gladiator and other films set in the Middle East were filmed. At one of our first hotels, the crew (and possibly the cast?) of Sex and the City Movie 2 were staying. Apparently they are filming the next movie in Morocco! It was pretty neat, though sadly I did not meet any famous people yet - I still have my fingers crossed.

I have a ton of homework to work on during excursion because it was extremely difficult to get work done while staying with my host family. It is shockingly difficult to write a well articulated essay while a three year old is jumping on your head and trying to steal your headband =).

We still have another week in Morocco, then it is off to Egypt - I can't wait!

Also, I think I enabled the comments section so anyone can now post a comment if you want to =)

My family

I have fallen in love with my family! My “dad”, Jamal, is 28 and my “mom”, Faduwa, is 25. Jamal’s sister, Majda, is 21 and really cool. She took us shopping yesterday around the medina and it was so much fun. We went to a traditional dress shop as well as a gorgeous tannery. Jamal would have taken us, but right before we got here he got into a car accident and is unable to do much of anything. He broke his right arm, his left leg and has at least one large laceration on his face. Because of his injury, we are living in the “big house” with his mom (who we call grandma) and Majda. It is so much fun. Jamal and Faduwa have two kids, Simo 6 and Zizu 3. They are absolutely adorable. I am SO glad that I finally get little siblings! I can’t believe how much energy they have all of the time, it is crazy.

So far, Arabic is a lot harder than Turkish. After one week, I only know about 3 words, none of which do me much good in real life. At home, grandma is constantly laughing at my awful attempts at Arabic. Shannon is my roommate for homestay, which is awesome because she is my roommate back home! It was really easy adjusting to life in a Moroccan home with Shannon.

There is not much else that I have to say today, hopefully I will soon!