An update.

I don't know why, but this road just looks like I expected "Peace Corps" morocco to look like.


This is the beautiful window in my room at my host families. I just love the colors :)


This great little Catholic Church in Agadir. It is so beautiful and they offer mass in French (which I dont understand) but last week they had this West African gospel choir and it was AMAZING.


Everyone pitching in to clean up my new home after the painters were done :)


Yes even the littlest girls (Shamea is only 3) are helping me clean :) Sisters hard at work!

So the big news this week is that I am moving into my very own place sometime early this week :) I have been preparing, cleaning, packing and buying lots of stuff for this new house. The painting is all done and it looks pretty! Today i am buying my fridge and hopefully can start cooking/ eating non-moroccan food ASAP :)

Love you all.

Happy Father's Day!

Hello Blog-o-sphere:

I just wanted to wish my Dad a very Happy Father's Day! I am very sorry I cannot be there to celebrate with him so I hope this makes up for it.

For your enjoyment!

My dad and I at Harpos watching a Tiger's football game!


He used to be a farmer.


He can fit lots of stick on earrings on his ear.


His 2nd grade confirmation.


He is the "Fence King".


He likes boating (that is me, by the way.)


Finally, hes a goof ball.


On a related note, I was not nearly as organized during Mother's Day and did not get a post up about my Mom. Sorry Mom. Happy Belated Mother's Day.


My mom at a South Carolina plantation when she came and visited me!


My mom and I at Mom's Weekend.

Make Danielle MTV's FIRST Twitter Jockey!

For those of you who are confused about a "Twitter Jockey", one of my closest friends, fellow Mizzou Alumnus and a co-founder of the President's Club, Danielle Hohmeier, was handpicked as one of only 20 people that will compete to be MTV's FIRST ever Twitter Jockey. Shes addicted to TV, she LOVES social media, Twitter, Facebooking and blogging and shes REALLY great at it. Lets help her win her dream job!

The voting does not start until July 7th (zync.mtv.com), but you can start helping her gain a following by following her @daniellesmyname on Twitter!

I am just so happy that she is getting this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity so help her win her DREAM job, a $100,000 salary and a life changing year in NYC!

Yeah Danielle :) I'm so proud of you.


Heres some of her sites/ blogs and articles on her:

http://tj.mtv.com/2010/06/09/tj-bio-danielle
http://twitter.com/daniellesmyname
http://www.facebook.com/daniellehohmeier
http://girlsguidetothegalaxy.com/2010/06/17/danielle-for-mtvtj/
http://daniellesotherblog.blogspot.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/daniellesmyname/
http://interact.stltoday.com/blogzone/deb-petersons-breaking-schmooze/uncategorized/2010/06/local-young-lady-among-20-candidates-to-become-mtvs-first-tj-that-would-be-twitter-jockey/
http://daniellestvaddiction.blogspot.com/

A new layout :)

Friends, when I logged onto Blogger today and started exploring my thousands of new options for blog backgrounds and layouts I found a MOROCCAN background. Yes, Blogger has included a Moroccan tradition in the "Travel" section! How exciting.

What you are looking at as my background is known as a Tajine. It is a special Berber dish used to cook a variety of dishes also called Tajines.

I am so excited!

Below are some photos for your viewing pleasure!


A view from the bus. It runs about every hour from my village to Tiznit. It takes twice as long as the cab but you get your OWN seat and it costs 1/2 as much (only 8.5dh or about a dollar).


A view of my new house from the back door of the Zawid. The co-op and my house are the red building. The smaller rock rooms in front are where they cook the bread in these clay ovens. We also have lots of trash, its number one on the list of things to help with once I move in!


My house is the door on the left and the co-op door is on the right. I will live next door to work (aka 2 steps away).


My friend Maria and my new window that will lead from the kitchen into the courtyard.


My new kitchen as its getting built :)


We have not had rain/ fog any day since I moved to post and then this happened before sunset. It was quite cool actually.

Is there "beera" in your water bottle?

So one of my most prized possesions in Morocco is my lime green Nalgene bottle I have had as my friend and companion for many years now. It is so hot all of the time and life is just much better knowing I will not get dehydrated as long as I have my trusty green Nalgene. I carry this bottle with me everywhere I go and generally try and drink out of it instead of the water pitchers given to me at other people's houses because I know the water in my bottle wont make me sick (my body has gotten used to the well water in my house).

As it turns out this is a somewhat rare occurance in Morocco. I feel like lots of people carry water bottles or cups of something in America, this is just not common practice around here. Turns out that my entire village thinks I am drinking "beeara" or beer/ alcohol out of my bottle. I can understand why they think this weird American that they dont know much about only drinks out of her own special bottle. After all, all of the American movies they watch have people drinking in them, so why wouldnt this American drink too? The problem is that it is very "hshumma" or shameful to be drinking in Morocco, so this is not good PR for me.

I learned about this today when my 87 year old host grandmother asked me why I was drinking beer at lunch time. I was a little confused and laughed it off, but she was serious. I had to explain to her that its just water. (On a side note, it is common practice for everyone to drink out of one cup at the table and frankly I never end up getting my thirst quenched when everyone is drinking all the water out of the cup and I would just rather drink from my own bottle). She still didnt understand. My host sister then went into a whole long story about how I drink lots of water and its just easier if I have my own bottle to drink from. Thats when my host sister told me that lots of people in the village have been asking about what is in my water bottle. I am glad I have her there to stick up for me.

The greatest part of this story is not that my entire village thinks I drink alcohol out of my waterbottle (this is NOT college anymore afterall) but that my grandma thinks I am drinking green water. She kept asking where I was getting green water and why I wanted green water. I even did a little demonstration to show her that the water wasnt green by pouring it into a clear glass, but she didnt understand.

Needless to say this 87 year old woman thinks I am drinking beer and green water. What a crazy day.