Salam wa aleikum!
So today was orientation, which actually was kind of fun. At
the very least, I got some awesome sayings from Anne Marie, our RD. I’ll put
them at the end of the post so that you can share in the joy of her wisdom.
Anyway, we started out the morning at around 8:00, although
I actually woke up earlier due to the parrot making noise. That’s right, the
parrot. Jacqou is his name and definitely spelled it incorrectly. If anyone can
figure out the right spelling, feel free to tell me. But he started making
noise pretty early so I was awake a little
bit before I wanted to be.
But we had breakfast (jam and bread and orange juice and
bread and dates and bread and you see where I’m going with this?) and then
stopped by the café next door so that Elizabeth could get her coffee. Plus the
place has Wifi, so if we want, we can just walk next door to do emails and
Skype and all that good stuff. Plus, the city itself is pretty entertaining.
Street.
We walked to the AALIM center (first ones there!) and then
waited around for people to show up who were late (there were actually quite a
few of them), after which we went and had our actual orientation. Here is a
quick rundown of how it went: Don’t be stupid, don’t drink tap water, sassy
comment, don’t touch the feral animals, don’t be stupid. Hopefully we will be
able to follow these relatively simple rules, but you never know. After
orientation we walked to the market (which is a strict left-right-left-right
directions. I had at least one helpful landmark though.
Aww, it's so sweet!
All the pictures I took at the market were hip shots,
because if someone sees you taking a picture that they’re in, they’ll often ask
for payment. And I don’t want to pay to take your picture. As my sister would
say, ‘Sorry, not sorry.’
After I beat everyone back to the AALIM center (with my amazing
sense of direction), we chilled for a little bit, then went home for lunch
(which was super late! Like at 3:30!).
We did our homework (yes, we were assigned homework. No, classes have
not started) and took a small nap, then headed out to the market. Which was
awesome.
Pots au naturale.
After the market, we headed home for dinner (at 10:30, no
lie) and then got ready for bed. I’m pretty sure there’s no such thing as a
short day here. We’ll see how exhausted I am by the end of two months. I’m sure
it’ll be entertaining for everyone involved.
Words of wisdom from Ann Marie:
- “God gave it this life. Let it live its kitty life. That means letting it catch its rats, and prowl its city, and die if it needs to.”
- “You’d think because I’m over 50 and gray that I’d be off the market. No, I’m a breathing, walking, living woman, and therefore available.”
- And then there was this little jewel in the orientation slides.
...I don't know what this means.
Ma’a salama!
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