respect your zone

So you know about my newfound love affair with bread already, but I bet you are still curious, eh? Bread is anathema in the US, but here bread is life. Bread is at every meal, in fact, it is the entire meal of breakfast unless I can beg an orange or a banana from Hajja. More often than not I get fresh-squeezed orange juice…Since many Moroccans eat with their hands, bread is used as a utensil to scoop the tasty food up. In the Raissi house we have small forks for most meals so this isn’t necessary. Even so, bread is used to mop up tasty sauces.

Another thing you should know about Moroccan table etiquette: RESPECT YOUR ZONE. Many meals for a single family are served in one large dish in the center of the table, and you are armed with a large spoon, if there are any utensils at all. At a round table, in a round dish, everyone has their own wedge of space from which they can eat. You must eat only the food within this zone, unless a zealous host deposits other choice tidbits in it. This practice results more often than not in the creation of walls between the zones. This phenomenon is especially prevalent on Fridays, as Fridays are the day of couscous, a slightly sticky dish that holds together well. I guess it doesn’t really matter in the end because AL-Hajj just eats the rest when we’re done. OK, maybe not all the time, but I think it happened last Friday.

Side dishes, or salads, are served in individual plates for each diner. Hajja favors cabbage and cucumbers, or beets and potatoes. These are eaten with the minuscule forks I mentioned earlier.
I don’t know what the deal with meat is, but perhaps it is relatively expensive, because we don’t have it often.

In academic affairs, today was our first day of FusHa (standard classical Arabic), and we reviewed grammatical delicacies such as the idafa (possessive), question words, masdar (the gerund, a.k.a. nouns ending in –ing), and the several ways to say “because”.

This afternoon’s lecture was on Moroccan politics, which I enjoyed more than I thought I would. The addition of a cappuccino to my afternoon schedule may have had something to do with that.

I spent the afternoon messing about on the internet, applying for another summer internship (At Mesa Verde!) and trying to Skype with my dad, except the internet cut out about 10 minutes in (Sorry dad!) and I couldn’t reconnect. Balls.

It also had been raining all day, so evening plans to go out with some friends and Amine got cancelled. I did, however, have a pleasant experience with my French this evening, when I skipped English in my thought process and went directly from idea to French. If only my Arabic would do the same…

I think I am pretty much better after the great Weekend of Stomach Badness, but my tummy still aches. Perhaps I could tell my family that it only tolerates vegetables.