Morocco!

Hello from Morocco! Sorry its been so long since I've given an update - I have been busy busy busy. Classes are going well, arabic is going well...just slowly. I can't really say much is modern standard arabic, but I know almost all the letters of the alphabet! Moroccan arabic is going a little faster, probably beacuse I practice it more. Writing is my favorite part of arabic, most of the time I don't know what words I'm writing, but its pretty! My other classes are going well, I'm learning alot about Morocco and Islam. I like it. I'm in the process of setting up and independent study of the health care system here. I am super excited about this. I'm going to focus on rural verses urban health care and looking at homeopathic and religious traditions. Hopefully this will start soon.
This past weekend three other girls and myself went on a adventure to the middle atlas moutains. We went to a little town called Azrou. It was beautiful. Everyone in the town was very friendly and helpful. We chose this town because of the Cedar Forest, which is the home to Barbary Apes. We did infact find the monkeys and we fed them apples that an old man gave us. On our hike through the forest we saw more monkeys that were not used to people, so they didnt approach us looking for food. This was really neat because we got to watch them in their normal activities, foraging for foos and playing. The forest itself was beautiful, the trees were all very old and so tall. It was so nice to get out of the city and get some fresh air. On our way down from the forest we were stopped by a carpet vender. He invited us into his shop and taught us all about the different types of carpets and the symbols on them. He insisted that he just wanted to teach us and show us the carpets...but we ended up buying carpets anyway. They were too tempting and absolutly beautiful.
This week is the last week of Ramadan, so things will be returning to normal soon - which will be all new to us. Our class schedule is being all changed for after Ramadan, which is going to take some getting used to - but hey, im being flexable.
Anyway...I'm off to class! I'm going to try to post some pictures at some point, when I figure it out! Love and Best wishes.