My Fes Family

I have now been living with my host family for two days now. I was so nervous to meet them at first. I didnt want to do the wrong thing and hug them ...which is definitely not a social norm here. But when I calmed myself down and followed their lead I simply shook their hands.
My host mom and dad dont speak any english so it has been a challenge. They have four kids; two little ones, I would guess are around 9 and 2 older daughters.Luckily the daughter who is my age speaks pretty good english! We talked about how she loves facebook, twilight (she is on team edward) and  even lady gaga. The first night my host mom made the biggest dinner I have ever seen. It consisted of pancakes, moroccan soup, and spaghetti. While I could hardly put a dent in my plate it was all so delicious. I could definitely get used to all these amazing home cooked meals (no offense mom). And while spending time with my family Ive definitely noticed that they looooove their tv. Every night thats where we congregate to eat dinner. They like to watch some pretty bad soap operas I will say; but they also enjoy their american movies. The first night we all sat around the tv and watched titanic. I found it pretty funny that I was sitting in someone elses living room half way across the world and watching a movie Ive seen probably ten times.
Overall I feel like I got really lucky with my host family and I cant wait to get to know them better over these next 5 days.

Excitement and Stress

I am typing this post from my iPod so don't mind my spelling. But anyways...morocco has become a place of many firsts for me and that has come with a lot of excitement and stress. Seeing a place so visually different has made me camera happy here. I feel like there is so many things I want to capture (so glad I bought that 8GB memory card. And everytime I feel like I've seen something that is so different such as a morocccan mosque something else comes along and I really feel like I'm in a dream. When we went to Sale the town next to Rabat and saw the HUGE ancient graveyard by the ocean I couldn't believe my eyes.I even saw a prayer service going on and it amazed me that these people live the way they do and how extremely different it is.
As far as stressets I've has I would definitely say that the gender division has put me on edge. Walking down the street it is completely normal for a guy to try and be flirty to see if you'll respond. And simple eye contact here honestly is a way of signaling interest. It has become such a hard norm to break because at home male and female strangers make eye contact all the time. I guess I am trying to worm at not judging so much but just understand it is a different lifestyle. The culture is not going to change but the way I respond definitely can. I wish I could write so much more but computers have been hard to come by. I am in meknes now and I will be leaving for Fes tomorrow. I'll be staying with my host family there so I can't wait to tell u all about it!

I have arrived!

After over 24 hours of traveling I can now say I am in Rabat. Just sitting at this internet cafe everything is different from the people the computer and even the keyboqrd which is making it quite difficult to type. Over these past two days I feel like Ive been transported to another world. This is definitely not a tourist place. I saw the atlantic ocean yesterday which was beautiful. I took two three hour survival arabic classes and it was pretty difficult but I have the basic frases down...i think. The medina aka market is truly intense but it is so exciting to be in a place unlike anywhere else and I am going to attempt to bargain tonight so wish me luck. Hopefully I can update you all soon!