7/1 Blogs like this are why I retain vocab like a retarded sea-monkey

Today’s class is basically a crash course for everything we mentioned in the program-checkup yesterday. We cover weather and seasons, as well as add the corresponding nous, vous, and ils form (for all non-francophones that’s the we, y’all / you(formal), and they (masc.) forms). For some reason we don’t get the they (fem.) form until ch. 19; but don’t worry, as Molly points out, the book makes up for it by teaching you how to say “My father works at the United Nations,” first thing. Whew, I’m sure glad they go straight to the survival vocab. We review possessives for our test Friday, and she lets us do the vocabulary words at home (my suggestion, as its basically just memorization). Finally the class is moving more at my pace. We also cover some outside the book knowledge, like ‘this’ verse ‘that,’ etc.
Lunch at the center today, but because of the long trip and recent sickwave hitting the students, our lecture is canceled. That meant time for priceless sleep, or in my case, the bollocks with sleep I want to go surfing. We can’t get our lesson scheduled until 6, so I decide to stop by the tutoring time (first time it was offered) where Hanan helps me with oral and tells me to slow down and annunciate in my reading. When it comes to learning languages one can never do enough reading, though according to Hanan our class can’t do enough reading. I exaggerate, but we are all over the dart board in our reading levels. Still waiting for the surf, I do the usual Yay-I-have-internet routine: check email, facebook, talk to however is on the previous, sign on to skype, see that no one’s on skype so sign off of skype, check MCAT scores, you know, the usual.
So on to surfing, today is mediocre at best. But I can work with mediocre. For instance, I can now almost sit perfectly still on my board in a rolling ocean. In other words, the waves sucked. The beach was packed and the baby waves that actually broke were breaking close to shore, so not only was I playing Liquid Pacman© dodging divers, I also had about a half second to get up to ride the wave before my fins stuck into the sand. But the sucky-waves backfired, actually pushing me to improve my getting-up speed and style. Not bad for a bad day.
On the way back to the house I run into Shae, who lets me know its Kass’ birthday, so I grab some cash and double back for the only birthday gift I can figure works for such an occasion, Nougat Wonder! Nuts and sugar in the perfect combination, now with 6 flavors, and bought by the kilo. I figure I can’t go wrong and buy half of one. At the house Ameena has returned from her exams for today. She is in the retaking portion of the BAC (think SAT’s with a vengeance): today was Arabic and English, tomorrow is philosophy, and the next day is geography. I take some pictures of the family and our “Macoroni and Cheese.” Afterwards we play and watch Zahira climb over Nezha like a monkey, it was the second cutest thing I’ve seen yet (the first being a Kristen’s neighbor girl maybe 2 years old who came up to her, Modolu and I, and just looked up with lips pursed, not moving and waiting patiently, unwaveringly for a kiss [greeting style].) Unfortunately, I couldn’t take a candid shot of the mother-daughter teasing, as Nezha has to make sure she is presentable before every picture (not in a narcissistic manner, rather in a cultural one).
Shae and I talk about politics and harassment in Morocco, as well as projections for the future. Apparently, even though the recently changed family code has roots in the Koran, it is flexible in comparison to the criminal law of Morocco, which is extremely strict. Unlike American judges, Moroccan judges don’t have any margin in their punishments. Queerly enough, this strict criminal code trumps the family law in practice, so while the newly progressed family law allows more a equal status of wives that includes the ability to disobey their husband, the criminal code still makes it illegal for women to leave their husbands in abusive relationships against the male’s will. This is why women’s shelters are rare here, though they do exist. Kassie comes in and enjoys the gift, and then it’s back to واجب (homework) for me.
It’s very late now, but for those of you dying to know my MCAT score… it’s good to want things. But it does seem like I’m going to medical school, and I don’t have to retake it (studying here would have been an impossible necessity). A trillion thanks again to all the MCAT prayers for me and my friends.