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Archive for the ‘Personal’ Category

Getting Ready (Ana Mashi Muzhjuda!)

24 Aug

Lately, I’ve been (sort of) studying to get a head start on my first MSA class at Ohio State. I’m ok with the alphabet (thanks to my excellent teacher at the CCCL, Samir Azzibou), but this book is showing me all kinds of new things – like what happens to “?” when it’s in front of ?. Crazy things, let me tell you, it’s like T jumped on J and decided to do a little samba.

I also applied for a student membership to the American Institute for Maghrib Studies (AIMS). It makes me feel terribly official, but I’m afraid the resident Berber is not too impressed. “Why do you want to study about Morocco?” You know what I say? “Libitibitou!”

 

There and Back Again

29 Jul

I went off on a little holiday to San Diego – actually, we only spent the last day in San Diego. We drove out to Palm Springs on the first day, and liked it so much that we just stayed. I think being in that kind of weather (hot but dry), in a palm tree-filled oasis surrounded by mountains – well, it was almost like home. The pool was about 85 degrees, I loved it. San Diego was great, too, but it was kind of a whirlwind, since we packed a bunch of stuff into one day. I got a GPS from the rental car company, and my Berber navigator (I use that term very tongue in cheek, he’s horrible with maps) was just astounded. He was also unimpressed with fish tacos, another black mark against him – I think I could have eaten a million of them, easy. One of the funniest parts was hearing people talk about the “hot” weather in San Diego that makes everyone head to the beach. Hot? I could have worn a sweater and felt fine. Sheesh. We were out at Silver Strand Beach, and the water was about -100, but the locals were splashing around like it was a hot tub. Obviously, our internal thermometers are permanently set to “South of Morocco.”

Now I’m trying to catch up, since the boss has gone on his own holiday out to Las Vegas, and left me in charge. (!)

I see that there are still a few comments flying back and forth about evangelists etc…, I may have run out of patience on this, finally. Maybe I’ll start acting like the Lounsbury and close comments down when things get irritating.

 
 

Who ARE you people?

27 Jun

Here’s the top ten keywords/phrases since Sunday. Draw your own conclusions.

1. najat el wafi
2. yassin ahjam
3. nigerians hardly get the visa
4. andrew davies brideshead revisited
5. jet4you.com
6. temporary jobs for english morocco
7. morocco clothes designs
8. yassin ahjam ma vie
9. moroccan clothes
10. jeremy brock brideshead revisited

 

I Am a Goomba

24 Jun

Well, some of you may have noticed that there was a notice up for a bit stating that this website was over its bandwidth limit. Sadly, it’s true – though I am hardly popular enough to ever dream that would happen. What caused it was that nifty little plugin that allowed me to stream songs – it turns out that Skinny Puppy and Marcy Playground are extremely popular, who knew?

Having said that, I’m still getting more traffic every month, so I’ve had to switch hosting providers to get more bandwidth – though I still love you, Heather! Anyone who wants great and inexpensive hosting with excellent personal service should contact her right this minute.

Luckily, I make regular backups of my WordPress database, so I just re-loaded it – but now I have to go find a cool WordPress template again. Ah well, I like changing it anyway.

 

??? ??????? or, Do You Know Jesus?

22 Apr

I’ve had several prior entries about how much I detest missionaries. Another thing that infuriates me has occurred about four out of the five times we’ve met Moroccans here in the States…one of their first questions is
"??? ???????"

When the answer is “no” – my husband is a bit lax on observing the 2nd pillar – they don’t stop there. They continue to push and pry, asking “When will we go to jemaa together?” I’ve met them, and told them I’m Catholic, and they try to convince me that converting would be in my husband’s best interests. These people know little more than our names, and they’re trying to interfere in both our marriage and our relationship with God.

And that’s where my annoyance with religion lies. If the missionaries were in Morocco simply to set a good example, that would be fine by me – but their goal (as much as they try to disguise it with “good works”) is to convert others to their own religion. The same with the Moroccan Muslims we’ve met here, they consider it their spiritual duty to bother my husband – even though he probably has a much higher moral standard than they do.

I’m going to have a t-shirt made that says:


???? ??? ???????
?????
???? ???