Justin Bieber wa al-ihbat

Today was the first day in Morocco that I felt real frustration for the language barrier here. Mostly I have gotten by fine with my limited Arabic, but today I understood the limits of my knowledge. I met a Moroccan high school student today, let's call him Sharif, who is related to the head of our program. Sharif is 15 years old, and I met him while interviewing Moroccans for a homework assignment. He ended up helping me with my homework, and we compared our favorite American musicians and walked around the Hamariya. He spoke quickly and it felt like every other sentence I had to respond with Aasif, me fahamtish (I'm sorry, I don't understand). This meant our conversation was somewhat slow and stumbling, but in the end, I reminded myself that I have only just started learning Moroccan Arabic and I had managed to keep the conversation going.

I mentioned that we compared our favorite music, and unfortunately, MTV has a long, long reach throughout the world. I asked the girl at my home stay who her favorite artists were and she rattled off a laundry list of cringe-worthy names. "Ajebni Britney Spears wa Miley Cyrus wa Eminem wa Taylor Swift wa Shakira wa Rihanna wa Kesha wa Justin Bieber wa Lady Gaga..." When I asked Sharif, the only difference in his answer was that he subtracted Justin Bieber and added 50 Cent. When I asked both who they're favorite Arab musicians were, they said they didn't really like Arab music. I'm not really sure whether this should make me feel proud or sad.

This picture has been up for a while, but I wanted to point it out because it so perfectly captures the spirit of Meknes. Meknes is a very old city with beautiful architecture and a historic, genuinely Moroccan vibe. But it's also filthy. You can walk across the city without seeing a trash can so trash lines the streets and is littered all over the public parks. People pee in the street and cars belch clouds of black and blue smoke as they lurch along. Donkeys defecate in the street and no one picks it up. Street cats are everywhere, like pigeons in New York City, and children who should be in school instead run around with no shoes selling gum or tissues.

I took this picture nearby the language center. The rubble, one man explained, is from a building that collapsed about a year ago. He insists the mess will be cleaned up soon, in sha'allah.