Reporting FROM AFRICA

I am currently sitting in the Hotel Olympique with the sounds of car alarms, honking, tinny Arab pop music, and a whole lot of voices coming in through the balcony doors. I MADE IT to Morocco! Tomorrow I move out of the hotel and join my homestay family. All I know about them right now is that they live in the medina (old city - this is good) and the lively woman who accepted my tuition check doesn't want them to speak French or English. This could be interesting.

My adventure began earlier than anticipated. I had a four hour layover in JFK, so it made sense to me and the airline people I asked that my flight information wouldn't be on the displays yet. I could've sworn they told me it would fly out of GATE 1, so I moseyed on down. Forty five minutes before the flight was to depart, when the Gate 1 waiting area was still stubbornly empty, I finally asked someone what was going on. WELL. Turns out the flight was going out of TERMINAL 1. I got lost on the way there, of course, so by the time I got there I had twenty minutes to check in, go through security, and find the gate. The guy checking me in earnestly chided me to "Go now!", as if I had planned on buying a few duty-free items first. I did indeed go then; I ran from security to the gate with my shoelaces flying free. And I made it.

What followed was a whole day of trains and meeting friendly people. The scenery in Morocco is gorgeous, though usually in a stark way. As we got closer to Fes the mostly flat landscape gave way to rolling, sand-colored hills and eventually huge slaps of mountains (the lower Atlas, to be exact). The grain of the stone suggested that these things had shot out of the earth at a slant during some prehistoric earthquake that I'm glad I missed.

The people here are, almost without exception, incredibly helpful and accommodating. I had to find a three-prong adapter today for my computer (the one necessary thing I forgot to pack!) and, after shuffling through three languages with the guys behind the counter, was told to take three adapter options back with me to see which would work. On the train, a couple of women repeatedly tried to feed me. Before that, a man helped me get my bag into the train, helped find me a compartment, AND put my bag up in the overhead storage area. After reading so many guidebooks warning about this kind of thing, I expected him to ask for either a tip or my hand in marriage, but neither occurred, and I thanked him heartily for his help.

Unfortunately, it is still completely clear to just about everyone that I am an English speaker. Will work on this.