عيد مبارك سعيد

مرحبا بكم. كيف الحال؟

I won't blog in Arabic but that's mostly because I can't. 

EID MUBARAK SAEED EVERYONE.

Today is Eid Fitr, the holiday after Ramadan. They thought it was gonna be today, but there was a slight chance that it could've been tomorrow because it's all based on the moon. But it was, indeed, today. 

First things first, we ate breakfast. I ate food with my family in the daylight. There was a lot of food. My host dad joked that they were making up for the past month. 

Every Eid I learn that Americans are missing out on amazing inventions of food. During Eid el-Adha, I discovered French Fru Sandwiches in Egypt. This Eid, my mom made a sauce for breakfast that was just honey and melted butter. Both of these things are simple, but America did not think of them (as far as I know). 

After breakfast, I donned one of my host mom's djellabas and we went to visit my host father's family...'s graves. It sounds sad and not like something you'd want to do on a holiday. But it was surprisingly fun and enlightening. 

Djellaba twinning

The cemetery was massive and full. There were tens of thousands of tombs and graves. It is literally full, like no one can be buried there anymore. 

So we managed to find my host grandma in the maze of tombs. Two cemetery workers came with us. One of them cleaned the grave and picked weeds from the tiny garden on her tomb. The other sang verses from the Quran. My host father also bought a bottle of flower water to pour over the grave. That's what I'm holding in the picture. I promise I'm not getting drunk with my late host grandma (رحمها الله). 

They did the same thing for my host uncle (رحمه الله). The cemetery is so big, we literally could not find him for like ten minutes. 

After this, we went back home to rest. Then we went to the beach. Now that Ramadan is over, I can swim! It was fun and relaxing. We went to a town called Kenitra. This was a town that was famous for housing a huge American military base. 

What's an Eid without camels?

We stopped by a café for some beignets and tea. It was wonderful. 

On the way back to Rabat, we drove through a part of Morocco I hadn't seen before. It was completely different from my westernized neighborhood. It was run-down, people seemed poorer, it was more rural. I saw so many horses and so many goats. It looked like a different Morocco. 

To finish off the night, I tried escargot. My (natural) mom, a decent picky eater, loves escargot. I, on the other hand, did not enjoy the eating the slimy shelled creature. But I tried it. That's all that matters. 

Tomorrow, I will be travel king to other cities in Morocco with my fellow Americans. I look forward to seeing even more of this wonderful country. 

Though I didn't have a traditional Eid with many different distant relatives, I had a culturally enlightening day and I am very grateful. 

Eid Mubarak Saeed. 

Learn something today. 

Byeeee

Corie.