Rabat in the Rain

We had another four day weekend!!

Wanting time to relax and do some work in my classroom, the roommates and I decided a day trip would be best. Rabat is Morocco's capital, it is an hour away (by train), and it has a zoo! (It also has many other things/places we were hoping to visit)

Thursday was a busy day! We went grocery shopping at the Morocco Mall. We haven't shopped in almost two weeks, meaning we had a huge list and lots to get. Thankfully, we are getting better and still had time to fun shop while the others finished getting their groceries. After a morning at the mall we went to a friend's house-warming party and to a few other stores. The laid back and chill weekend I anticipated was not so laid back!

Friday, we got up (EARLY) and it was raining. Real, big drops of rain. Megan didn't feel well and chose to stay home but Cherith and I braved the weather and her dad drove us to the train station. We met Jasmine and Jon there and caught the 8.30 train to Rabat!!

Notice the small lakes we walked thorough

Jasmine has some awesome Arabic skills and was able to negotiate a taxi ride to the zoo for us! He even agreed to meet us later and bring us back into town! The zoo opened at 10...we got there at 10:04. No one else was there. Apparently, no one else wanted to do the zoo in the rain! That meant we had the whole place to ourselves! Except for the MANY guards and cleaners we encountered hiding from the rain.


Within 5 minutes we were pretty well soaked. Things here are designed to stop sun, not rain. The paths also hold water like a jug! I had puddles in my shoes!!! Thankfully, it wasn't a cold rain and it seemed to bring the animals out.


We saw all kinds of fun creatures- lions, zebras, monkeys, rhinos, hippos, bright pink flamingos, and many more! Sadly, we did not see the giraffe or elephant...we are also not really sure how you would hide those two animals.

Warthogs hiding from the rain. They smelled AWFUL!

Jasmine and I hiding under the umbrella (and still getting wet!)

 

 

 

After an hour or so we climbed back into the cab with our soaking wet clothes! The driver took us back in town and recommended a place for lunch. We went somewhere else, because we are cheap! 7 rounds of tea, some couscous, tagine, pizza, panini, and frites later we took our still wet clothes and headed for the train station. (sidenote: 36+ hours later my boots and purse are still drying out) We even got home in time for a good ole fashion barbeque! AND a movie night with the super cool neighbor kids!

There is plenty we would love to see in Rabat...but we can save that for a not so rainy day!

The best kind of Lazy!

We don't really have a curriculum to follow for many things. The curriculum we do have is not great. (and can I say, as a first year teacher, it really stinks to not have those guides!) This has resulted in me spending a lot of time creating units and making resources. Our social studies curriculum is the worst...mainly because we don't have one. We also don't have a strong set of standards to follow. We have nothing.

Our plan as a second grade team has been to create units about each continent and connect with the Magic TreeHouse books. (Of course, half of my kids have already read all of those!) The current unit is Asia. I got a little lazy with this unit/short on time and decided it was going to be more of an 'arts-and-crafts' unit.  We looked at maps and named some countries, talked about capitals, and landmarks. We looked at some famous landmarks and what not too. And instead of doing any real research, I found a few art projects and articles on 'games played in Asia.' I'm pretty sure this has been their favorite unit!

I have a little girl who was born in Russia and spent the last few years living in/traveling around Eastern Asia. I also have a little girl who is Indian. They have both brought in lots of real artifacts for us to look at. The first one was perfect...she brought in a Matryoshka Doll (Russian Nested Doll). The kids were amazed at how many different pieces there were and at how small they got (I was impressed too!). That was the day we made our own Matryoshka Dolls. I found a pattern online and they colored them while I read stories from/about Russia. Perfect! And cute! After that, we played games and did crafts from China, Korea, and India.

Today, was Japan! We did origami (obviously!). They loved it! Writing time was silent as they worked quickly knowing what was to come once they all finished! I had three patterns and 60 sheets for us to use. Apparently, 60 sheets for 19 kids to do 3 patterns each is not enough! They were begging for more! They did so great with it, too. They followed all the directions and made creases as tight as they could (since their motor skills are not so great, the creases weren't either!).

We made the dog first. Then an angel fish. And we ended with the Samurai Hat! Then they got to decorate them- which was my favorite part. I love when they get creative and make the work their own! (this was a struggle at the beginning of the year- they always want to be 'right'). Here are some photos from our Origami Extravaganza!

 Omar LOVED the samurai hat! He came over to me, waited patiently to get my attention, and then said "Miss, can you look just for one second? WAHHH!" Until the crazy karate pose, I almost didn't recognize the kid!

Neil sporting his awesome hat! With his dog and fish friends!

 SERIOUS work time! These are my non-stop chatters...please note that None of them are chatting!

 Decorating the dog face! I put a nose and eyes on mine. They totally kicked it up a notch and added spots, pink under the ears, and tongues!

SAMURAI DOG!
They're so clever!



 I guess my "lazy"lesson plans were a total hit!!

They know Japan is in Asia, it is an island, and origami is part of their culture.
Safi.

Ay Ay Ay!!

For our long holiday break, I escaped to Seville in Southern Spain with some other ladies from the school. It felt really nice to get out of Morocco for a while! My Spanish is nothing to brag about, but it is certainly better than my French and Arabic.

We stayed in a cute little apartment in Triana. The city was decorated with Christmas lights and holiday garb everywhere!!! It was wonderful!


We spent our time exploring, shopping, being tourists, eating tapas and churros, and simply relaxing!  Seville has many, many sites to see! We explored the palace, gardens, various plazas and squares, multiple bridges, and even took a carriage ride around the city! We also went in Giralda- the largest Gothic style cathedral in the world. It was overwhelmingly large! The best part was climbing up the bell tower (which was once a minaret for the mosque). The view was amazing!!!

 Our apartment wasn't far from the skyscraper being built...which served as a perfect directional tool for finding home! You can also see a little bit of the bull ring in this picture.

We celebrated Christmas with another family from the school. They came to our apartment for a 'Christmas feast'.  One of the girls has been to Seville a few times and has some friends there. A few of us went to celebrate with his family! They had heaping plates of seafood! I am pretty sure I am not allergic to seafood like half of my family is, but if there was ever something to set that allergy off, it would be a plate like that! I ate 'carne' like the kids :) Watching Kris and Shay try to de-shell, de-tail, and de-head their food was plenty of entertainment!! After lunch we went in the backyard and set off a bunch of fire crackers! We blasted oranges out of the pool, off the ground, even some out of the tree! Someone suggested placing one in the dead palm tree...but we decided that wasn't a good idea! Oh yea, and all of this was in Spanish...so I really only understood about half of everything going on! Still tons of fun!

The New Year tradition in Spain is to eat 12 grapes during the 12 strikes of midnight...if you succeed it's 12 months of good luck. If you can't do it, you have bad luck! So we got our grapes and gathered with Tons of other people in the plaza to ring in the new year!  By the way, eating 12 grapes in seconds is very similar to Chubby Bunny and quite difficult to accomplish! Especially, when the grapes have seeds...that adds an extra surprise and challenge!

Other things we really enjoyed included the Christmas video they projected onto city hall each night. It was the same video but we watched is at least 7 times! It even had fake snow (soap bubbles) that shot out over the audience. It was really cool!

 Churro Time. I don't feel an explanation is necessary for this, but if you haven't had a churro...your life is not complete! Around 5pm (Churro Time) each day a lot of the cafes and bars would fill up with people enjoying hot chocolate and churros! A churro is fried dough- kind of like an elephant ear with out all the sugar on it. So delicious!



Italica. Its a huge area of Roman ruins not too far out of Seville. We walked though the amphitheater, saw where the beasts were kept, tons of mosaics, remains of house, and a few other ruins left to explore. It was really beautiful and amazing to explore.

Flamenco. We went to a flamenco show one night and it was awesome. The dancers have a true talent! I know this because the next day we took Flamenco and Salsa lessons. We did both styles one day and then went back the next day to focus on Flamenco. I lack all rhythm and dance skill, so I was more the comic relief in the class! Moving my hands and feet at the same time was never something I excelled at! ;)  It was really fun though and we had a blast!


I really enjoyed exploring a little bit of Spain and loved my time out of Morocco. It made me excited to travel and see more of Europe! Six more weeks until Winter Break....where should I go then?