If You Can't Stand the Heat...

Sitting on the back stairway of our apartment.

I have 30 days left in Morocco and it feels as if everything is coming down to the wire.  I have two weeks to write my final papers, go on two more weekend trips, read our final French novel, study for final exams, accumulate Moroccan souvenirs, and wrap up my bucket list of Moroccan adventures.  On top of this it is finally getting hot.  Each day it reaches 85 degrees and it will only get hotter.  This means style of dress and frequency of showering is changing for all of us who had acclimated to the local regulations.  God willing, we will make it out alive.

Little girl roller-blading in the courtyard.  So many kids play out here every day and it makes me anxious to be back in my parent's yard, playing "ghost in the graveyard" with the Silvers boys...

At the top of my Morocco Bucket List is "leeching all possible knowledge from my host family".  This means forcing my way into the family by leaving my door open while studying, appearing in the kitchen at times other than meal times, and asking my sister to come out with me to cafes.  Last weekend this led to an afternoon of Friends dubbed in French, ice cream at the beach, and Leah and me teaching our sister how to bake brownies and pancakes, (which ended up being dinner for the whole family).  Last night this meant a goofy run in with my host brother where I thought he called me fat, preparing peanut butter cookies and fajitas with Leah, a long heart to heart with my host mom on the stairs at sunset, and an invitation to meet my host sister's secret "friend" at a trendy bar on Saturday.  I must say, a little goes a long way and I feel a little guilty for not giving my family more attention early on.

Our makeshift cookie tray.

On a side note, out of boredom and homesickness last week, I began following quite a few food blogs from the States.  This probably led to our whole cooking extravaganza this week, or possibly it is just the call to the kitchen in my blood.  I would like to say that the warm weather just draws me to the kitchen, but I can't say for sure.  Regardless, my new food blog obsession is driving me to report on cuisine observations from Morocco.

First things first: it is difficult to bake when there are limited baking supplies in a house.  We were able to find all of our ingredients for cookies except for brown sugar, however the dough turned out spectacularly.  We even substituted squares of chocolate for Hershey's kisses without a mess.  The trouble was, there were no cookie sheets.  Or large pans.  Or anything remotely similar to what we bake cookies on.  So instead we used tin foil on a metal spill tray right in the oven.  Risky, I know.  However, the cookies were a success and we have been asked for a recipe.  Bless Leah's little heart for creaming the butter into the batter.  I miss electronics!!

Oh, veggies.  How Leah and I have missed you.

Secondly, I am incredibly proud of myself to figuring out how to order shirt steak on the spot with a butcher through a little circum-elocution and a lot of gesturing.  Only $8 for two pounds of steak.  Not bad, Caity.  Also, I had my first experience handmixing a marinade with delicious results.

A salad with lettuce?  Unheard of.

Finally, I am inexpressibility impressed by the power of food and sharing.  Fajitas are simple to make, a joy to eat, and a really great way of sharing a joint passion of Leah and mine with our family.   Even though we basically prepared the meal three times because the family kept disappearing for night classes and activities, we ended up with everyone at the table.  Afterward my mom insisted on my translation of both recipes EXACTLY as I had prepared them and she taught me how to make traditional Moroccan mint tea.  I was so glad to give her a night off from dinner duty, as it was her first day back at work in two weeks.  She went out and had her hair colored and styled instead.  In gratitude she offered to teach me how to cook all of my favorite meals, and promised to knock on my door each evening to let me know when she would be in the kitchen.

Little slug I found in the lettuce.

They say that friends come and go, but family will always remain.  I have a feeling that is true in this semester abroad.  I have had new friends come and go, but I will always have people to fall back on in this family and back at home.