Ash Khbarek?

Well, the news from Rabat is that it has been raining cats and dogs and any other animals you please, with lots of wind that makes for huge waves and sad fisherman - as well as sad Naima, since yesterday she didn't hear the rain start and a bunch of laundry drying outside got wet again.

Tomorrow, however, we go to Marrakech! The south, inshallah, will be sunnier, and the Monday update will be epic.

And in case you were wondering, Naima made pasta for dinner last night, with home made marinara sauce. This was after whipping up what she called an "appetizer", a delicious as well as attractive turkey-ham omelette (no actual ham in this country, that is one thing that has been very consistent).

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In Irkutsk

Привет!

I have finally arrived safely in Irkutsk. Friday night, I left the O'Hare airport and flew into Moscow. I tried to sleep on the plane but that didn't really work out. In Moscow, I had fun with Russian passport control, but no huge problems, and was met by the site director for SRAS's Moscow program. She showed me around so I was able to see the Armoury, the Kremlin, Red Square, and GUM (A big department store). We ate dinner at a vegetarian restaurant named "Avocado" where we both had burritos just to see what they were like. I had a lovely time with her, and I really appreciated being able to see the city instead of staring at the inside of an airport for 9 hours.

My flight from Mosow to Irkutsk was delayed 45 minutes, but nothing too terrible. I was able to sleep on that flight just fine and arrived in Irkutsk around 8am. I was met there by the director of the international faculty of IGLU. She was very kind and showed me my dorm, made sure it was all in order, and helped me buy a Russian cellphone. She left me telling me to come to the university tomorrow and gave me a bus number. I wasn't so sure about that.

Anyway, after she left me I went to unpack my belongings and use my new international calling card to call my mom and Mark on my cellphone. Hooray for technology! It's a very clear connection and it's just like I was calling from Wesleyan. I talked as I unpacked, and once I was finished I went to a nearby supermarket to get a few groceries. When you enter my dorm, it's very drab and frightening looking on the outside; however, I live on a renovated floor. I have a one room double with two beds, a huge armoir, a large shelf, a desk with two chairs, a tv, and a fridge. Then I share a bathroom and a kitchen with 4 other people. I'm the first one here, so it was quiet.

After my grocery-run I decided to go wandering around. I found an open-air market, a larger supermarket, and plenty of other stores, including a nice women's clothing store. I came back and bonded with the woman who takes our keys when we enter/leave the dorm. She was asleep and I tapped on the glass to wake her. She was startled and dropped my key when she reached for it. It went behind her chair and she had a hard time getting it out. After that, she asked me my name and I asked hers. Her name is Ludmila--the same as my mom. So I have a Ludmila watching over me.

Well, now I'm at the internet cafe in my university. I have a limit of 30 minutes, which I have definitely used up. I have a class to go to today, but my schedule isn't set. I'm a little confused about what I need to do, but I'm sure it will work out.

More to come, for sure, including the beautiful ice sculptures on my way to IGLU.

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Systems

A brief portrait of Rabat transportation systems:

As a New Yorker, I don't bat an eye at the fact that the Rabat bus system does not run on a schedule. This is actually more familiar to me than having to show up at the stop at a particular time. Rabat, however, seems to be even worse than the M4 as far as gaps between service. You miss a bus at the wrong time of day, well, good luck. (There was also a strike last week - the Moroccan way of celebrating French colonial roots.)
The buses themselves are all metal on the outside, a steep climb to get in, a couple incandescent bulbs inside for light. You board at any door, and once inside the ticket agent comes to take your 4dh (fifty US cents!) and hands you a little slip of paper that says RAHA BUS Rabat - not valid until scribbled on in the agent's ballpoint pen. To signal your stop, you stand up. And if the driver doesn't see you stand up, he may go right past your stop (bus stops are sometimes hard to find - there are no shelters, just a single sign). If the driver does miss your stop, you go over to the door and bang on the metal box above it. Not kidding.

Of course, if the timing isn't right or the buses or mobbed you can take a petit taxi, little blue hatchbacks of various marks and ages (usually Renault, I think). Half the time, the meter inside is analog and not digital, fifties vintage, and is labelled either in Italian or Spanish. You can hail them down wherever and pay metered fare.
There are also taxi stands, and the fare from taxi stand to taxi stand is 4dh flat per person. The trick is that 3 people going the same way get into one cab. How, you might ask, does that work?
The taxi stand next to the train station (where I go in the morning) is a small triangular parking lot formed by two forking streets. Taxis pull in and park. There are two attendants - one is a tall youngish man in jeans, the other is grandfather aged, has a beard and wears a djellaba. As people walk up they find out where they're going, and sort them into cabs. Once there are three people, you go - but not before the driver tips the attendant (1dh, I think), usually by handing it through the window.
The thing about the whole system is that it's not exactly transparent - the attendant's not in uniform, there's no signage... for a week and a half I was going to Jam'aa Badr (Badr Mosque) as my destination until my sister told me to ask for Sharia Franca (Avenue de la France) which is much closer to Amideast but I had no idea it was a taxi stop. I've also seen people get a few extra blocks out of their driver, still on flat fare.

So far, understanding the taxis and buses is one of my few resident-creds. Not much, but it's a start.

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