Top ways to die in Morocco

So fun fact- your tax dollars are paying for me to be here! How does that make you feel? How about after I send you thousands of pictures of me frollicking in the country side instead of in a library researching?? Well as for now you're lucky since I haven't actually taken any pictures yet. It's actually really nice that I"ve been here before because I don't feel deperate to take pictures and buy things since I've already done that... I can kinda just let it all sink in.

MOM STOP READING NOW

So for those of you who thought I was going to get blown up here by a terrorist, let me entertain you with way more likely ways that I am going to die here.
TOP FIVE WAYS LAURA WILL MEET HER DEATH IN MOROCCO
5. Brain explodes
4. Concrete building collapse
3. Asphyxiation by Boutagaz fumes
2. Hit by a little red Fiat
1. Actually just hit by any car really...

So explanation in order.

5. Yeah so I actually feel brain pain during my arabic class. It's an interesting phenomenon. My poor teacher is the nicest dude in the world (he says goodbye to every word as he erases it off the board) yet I am in so much pain for four hours every day. It's especially funny now that we're doing a unit on directions which I can't even do in English.

4. So the medina is really really old... like really old. And old things kinda fall apart sometimes... such is the case in Fes. Apparently one year ago a house just collapsed in the medina and killed ten people who were praying in the mosque next door. So now they have some scaffolding holding up the buildings with the biggest cracks... but can't say I'm confident in any of the gov't sponsored initiatives around here...

3. Ha, so all power here is from Boutagaz containers that look like they may have been new at the turn of the century... so one has to be VERY careful with how well ventilated their house is if they have any kind of power in use. Tragic (yet funny) story relayed by a Peace Corps dude here who shared that a girl during a romantic rendez-vous used her boutagaz to heat up a bath and didn't have enough ventilation and got CO2 poisoning when she was in the tub and could only wake up long enough to stumble out into the street butt naked before she collapsed. She made it to the hospital, is fine now, and got kicked out of the peace corps...

2. Taxis are red fiats and I'm not sure if it's more scary to be in a taxi while they drive or to be a pedestrian while taxis are driving by. I guess at least if you're on the sidewalk you have a little more control and can jump out of the way whereas inside the taxi you just have to pick a religion and start praying.

1. Ha, so last time I was here I was impressed at how few traffic rules there were, now I am impressed at how futile the traffic rules they have since instituted are. For instance, there are a few cross walks now... yet pedestrians don't actually have the right of way in them or anything... it's more like road art. Also, there are now 10 pedestrian walk lights (out of 300 intersections). But alas, they lack that critical feature of the red blinking hand that says 'hey, the cars are gonna come pretty soon'. Instead, you walk into the street when the little green man is glowing and then within a nanosecond, the cars floor it because the light instantly changed and it doesn't matter if there is a person in front of them. Currently using the buffer system wherein I keep at least one other pedestrian between me and the oncoming traffic. I get to walk through 2 major roundabouts, four times a day, so I'm sure I"ll have more near death experiences to share soon.

MOM START READING AGAIN.

Life with the host fam is fun. My host brother desperately wants me to teach him English slang and I am so tempted to mess with him... so far I've been very tame but if he annoys me... it's on. Open to any suggestions anyone has for words to teach him... Yesterday I was watching Moroccan music videos (which are amazing) and my host bro asked me if I watch "melody hits" in the US (ha, americans listening to foreign music... yeah right) and I said no, we have a channel called MTV. To which he replied "MTV won't let me be" yeah... had no idea what he was talking about... He kept saying "MTV won't let me be me let me be me be me" and I mentally rewound my brain to the three pictures of Eminem flipping me off that hang above my bed in the host fam until I realized he was throwing out his interpretation of Eminem lyrics... yeah. Apparently I have to brush up on my rap if I"m going to communicate with him in English.

So there is this cat that is taking arabic with me. It's really weird. It walks into the class room at 8, sits on the chair next to me, and then during the break it goes outside and comes back in for the second session until lunch. I don't feed it, touch it, like it, or give it any encouragement... so I can't quite figure out it's motivation.

Yesterday I was walking with two friends through a really conservative part of the medina in a big open square where men stand around and tell stories and as we were walking a gust of wind blew and my friends skirt flew all the way up... like above her head. It was phenomenal. What makes it better is that she had flesh colored underwear on... and instead of helping her, we just laughed a lot. It was pretty amazing.