Pink Eye, Chocolate, and a Birthday!

So, you may or may not have noticed, but J and I haven’t posted for a little while. At least for me, I can assure you it isn’t because I stopped liking the sound of my own voice (in my head, as I type this).

Rather, class is keeping us on a punishing schedule. Well, the combination of class and distance anyway. You see, while J and I are thrilled to be settled in with our Moroccan family, the location isn’t as good as it might be. A trip to the grocery store is a thirty minute walk, which isn’t bad by itself. The real problem is that the trip to school involves thirty to forty minutes of walking each way. That takes a toll after a while.

Why we’re getting a bit run down can be better illustrated by running through our schedule. Our day starts at six or six-thirty (depending on whether we had shouldered through all our homework the night before). We leave to go to the taxi station at about seven-twenty, and arrive at eight-twenty (at least half of that time is on foot, with our books).  At eight-thirty, classes start. Imagine the next four hours being one long meeting that’s conducted in a foreign language, and you’ll have some idea of the mental drain it entails (and given how poor the chairs are, a physical drain as well).

We eat at the school, and after lunch we’ve started taking some optional tutoring. So we’re not back until three-thirty at the earliest, and by then we need to crash for a bit. After crashing, there’s a decent chance we need to run out to the grocery store or the pharmacy (more on that later). Homework hasn’t been too bad for J, but it takes me probably three hours a night, so between supper and other necessary breaks (necessary to keep my head from exploding), that’s my day.

The bright side is that class has picked up in a big way. Most of the problems I was having last month have been resolved and I’m progressing quickly. So basically I’m tired, but it’s worth it. I’m hoping to use this weekend to get ahead (I know my homework for the next three weeks), so hopefully next week I’ll be able to post more regularly.

In tragic news, J’s kindle busted about a week ago. I hadn’t realized how fully we relied on them until we started sharing the remaining one. They really are incredible little machines. I don’t think I ever posted about this, but when J and I were in transit between Morocco and Turkey, we used the 3G on them to send our parents regular updates. It’s so weird to think that ten years ago I had barely used the internet, and now I have access to it on this little slab of plastic.

Don’t get me wrong, I dream of library with book covered walls (and a fireplace) when I get older, but the kindle is just too useful not to love. I can get books more cheaply (many for free), search them by keyword, and take my entire library with me when I travel. J’s kindle breaking has forced me to realize that we both use them several times a day every day.

Speaking of convenient things (for lack of a better transition), I really like Moroccan medicine. Yesterday I woke up with one eye all pink and puffy looking. When it didn’t get better by lunch, I went to a pharmacy five minutes from our residence, pointed to my eye, and a small Moroccan man sat me down, used a dropper on my eye, and gave me some more medicine for about five dollars. As I write this, my eye is still a bit red, but it will probably be all better by tomorrow.

This is the third time J or I have had to use a pharmacy here. The other two times (in two different pharmacies) have been similarly efficient and cheap (and effective). And that’s just pretty cool.

Finally, I wanted to wish Grandma S a happy birthday from both J and I. In her honor, tonight we will celebrate the occasion with a piece of Pralinutta bread. Similar to Nutella, this chocolate/hazelnut spread lists sugar as its first ingredient, and will have to do in the absence of cake. We love you, Grandma!