6/20 "It's not like Pimp-my-Ride"

We’re catching up in school, and now moving at a more appropriate pace. Also, because we focused more on the letters and sounds, I notice our class has better pronunciation and faster letter recognition than the “fast-beg. class.” Before our afternoon lecture, we had an hour free to explore the Center. I took advantage of this, after talking to Austin and Molly on skype. In the center we found the kitchen, and living quarters (which are super nice) as well as the main office. Probably the coolest thing was a small peeping hole, used by the women to look at visitors, back when showing their face to the visitors (aka potentials) was forbidden. Steph and I took a couple pictures of this before heading off to ‘The Role of Muslim Religious Council in Morocco’ lecture.

We went to a talk by the Head of Religious Affairs, who gave us a quick breakdown of religious affairs in Morocco, which are very much intertwined with the political sphere. After his summary Dr. Ahmed Abbadi took questions, which he then “answered.” Probably the most memorable moment of the experience was when he compared how religion in Morocco gives more fundamental purpose to civilian life, as well as beauty. Apparently this differed from ‘Pimp-My-Ride’ which only provided the latter. I also enjoyed how the entire talk was very political and obviously vague, however, he made a point to speak of how wonderful things are when they are clear, "because you don’t want confusion when someone explains something to you." Everyone was really friendly; we took tea and snacks while we were with him, and he even spoke favorably of someday having a comparative religion class in lycee’s someday, however I got the feeling he mainly said that because he knew it was what we wanted to hear.

Surfing was extremely rough afterwards. Julia felt sick, but Josh took her spot for today. Whitney was late and ended up spending the day with one of her friends while we drove over to ‘Hawaii,’ with another American group who is here to study French. We crossed our path of broken glass again, and the waves were the highest they’ve ever been so far. Unfortunately, I was still dead tired from yesterday’s paddling excursion. I had enough energy to catch the waves, but I only got up on a couple because the push up was too taxing. I again had the shortboard, which didn’t help, but I definitely am getting more comfortable on it. After once again surfing to the sunset, we danced on the car ride back.