صباح الخير من تطوان!

I've nearly made it to the end of my first week, and boy is there a lot I want to share. First of all, the institute where I'm studying is fabulous. I'm blown away by the quality of instruction and attention to the needs of students here. True, I've only been here five days, but already I've spent many happy hours discussing the history and development of Moroccan literary theory with my ever so gentle professor, Mohammed. In addition to his ridiculously thorough knowledge of Andalusian history and his PhD in mysticism, he is just the nicest teacher I could hope for. Just yesterday, midway though one of our marathon reading sessions, he helped me grasp what التوشيح means by breaking into a quiet verse of the popular Andalusian poetry.

I spend the other half of my class time with Jemaal, struggling through the vowel-free syllables that are Moroccan dialect. والحمد لله الدارجة المغربية كتعجبني بزاف even if I stumble through and occasionally (في الحقيقة بزاف د مرات) insert a bit of Syrian to grease my sentences as they form in my mouth. But for the most part, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the accessibility of Darija, despite all the scary stories of how different it is from other dialects.