On having an accent

One of my English students, Khalid, has excellent pronunciation (which, I should mention, isn't entirely unusual for Moroccans speaking English even as their third or fourth language). Still, his pronunciation is impressive considering that he is a "high beginner" and that he generally doesn't talk.

Today in class, we listened to a short conversation from the CD that comes with our textbook. The people having the conversation were Scottish and, thus, spoke with a Scottish accent. When I asked the students to repeat and practice the conversation, Khalid immediately adopted a Scottish accent.

I was a little jealous of his ability.

Rough start

Last Monday was a "little" eid, and T had the day off from teaching. Weeks before, we had decided that we wanted to go to Melilla or Ceuta for the long weekend. We asked our friends Sarah and Terry if they wanted to rent a car and go with us. We decided we would go to Ceuta since none of us had spent much time there before.

For a full week, I could think of almost nothing else. I was desperate to get out of Morocco at the same time that I had a very fuzzy sense of why or of what I wanted to do in Ceuta.

And so, as is too often the case when we want something very badly, it seemed that the forces of the universe were conspiring against our planned European getaway.

First, Sarah and Terry spent the entire week leading up to our trip making phone calls to a car rental agency, and each time, the exchange went something like this:

Terry: "We want to rent a car for Friday."
Car rental representative: "Okay, we'll call you back in 10 minutes."
(Sarah and Terry wait a few hours, then call the agency back.)

Terry: "We want to rent a car for Friday."
Car rental representative: "Okay, we'll call you back in 10 minutes."

This went on over and over again until Thursday night (the night before we were scheduled to leave) when our friends enlisted the help of a Moroccan friend, who finally lined up a car for us – at twice the price it should've been. At about 7:00 that night, then, we were desperately calling other car rental agencies to try to get ourselves a better deal.

We found a car at a better price, but the company required a 20,000 dirham deposit (that's "only" about $2500, an obscene amount of money here in Morocco that none of us would be able to get our hands on with such short notice).

About an hour later, we got in touch with a car rental company in Azrou (about 20 km away) that was willing to rent us a Kia Picanto for a good price. They even said they would deliver it to us here in Ifrane for a reasonable delivery fee.

It was a little stressful not knowing less than 24 hours before we were leaving how we would get to Ceuta, but I thought things were okay.

Can and Can't

What you can't (or, at least, often don't) get at the University health center:

     -A urine test
     -Blood drawn
     -Blood tests
     -Any other kind of test, really
     -Long-handled cotton swabs (apparently, they don't exist in Morocco) 
     -Routine blood pressure, temperature, or weight checks
     -Thorough physical examination
     -Questions about any allergies you might have
     -Explanations of medications being prescribed to you
     -Explanations of anything in fluent English
    

What you can get at the University health center:

     -A box of surgical gloves, for free
     -Several tongue depressors, also for free
     -A laryngeal mirror, again at no cost! (or is a dental mirror? I'm not sure on the difference)
     -A signature and stamp on a form indicating that you are healthy, after a very cursory physical examination
     -A signature and stamp on a form indicating that you have tested negative for tuberculosis without taking any test (don't worry, I didn't do this)
     -A signature and stamp on anything, really
     -A variety of medications for treating all kinds of stomach and intestinal discomfort and distress
     -Explanations of many things in fluent French