Ismi Maha wa ana waheeda

I was kind of wondering why the pile of garbage in front of my apartment building has been growing steadily each day. My question was answered, however, when a friend of mine mentioned that the garbage workers in Meknes have gone on strike. That would explain why the streets have been messier than usual. The strike appears to be widespread, though interestingly enough, the only people who seem to be covering it are whiny Americans studying abroad in Morocco (Wait, don't read their blog. It's better than mine).

My host parents are staying near Dar al-Bayda so I drove back yesterday with another splinter of my enormous Moroccan host family (my host dad's cousin, I think, along with his wife and kids). They are really nice people and absolutely refused to let me take a train back. We ate sea food before leaving the city, but it's not exactly like seafood in the US. To reproduce it, all you have to do is take a live fish and dunk it in a deep-fat fryer. I tend to be an adventurous eater, but it's hard to peel and eat a shrimp when it looks at you with those doe eyes (just kidding "DIE SHRIMP! NOM NOM NOM").

We stopped at a gas station on the way back so that my host dad's cousin could pray (they really do do it five times a day) and so the rest of us could use the mirhad ("toilet"). The gas station even played the call to prayer, though it wasn't as impressive as hearing it from the Hassan al-Tanee mosque in Dar al-Bayda.

I'm getting an early night tonight, and the house is quiet and peaceful. I think I'm starting to get ready to go back to the States, but before that I'm excited for Ramadan! A taxi driver today was telling me it's a great time of year in the Arab World. My host mom joked this weekend that I was becoming ever more Moroccan, and so I decided to finish off the immersion experience with a little experiment. I'm going to fast during Ramadan for a few days along with my host family just to see what it's like (though I'm not swearing off water like many Muslims do).

Leila sayeeda, guys.