Hammam - or - How to Get to Know Your Roommates Really Well

Today was probably one the most cultural, strange, confusing, and hilarious days I’ve ever had. Get ready to laugh at me – you have my full permission.

So, first thing this morning, my housemate Katie (who is super awesome and lives in Ohio) and I went to le supermarché to try and find the ingredients for my cooking class tomorrow. The women asked me to teach them how to make American cookies. I was not entirely aware that the United States had its own type of cookies, but I couldn’t think of anything much more American than buttery chocolate chip cookies and that’s what I went with. First mistake – choosing a cookie type with more than four ingredients. Second mistake – assuming that it would be easy to find all of said ingredients in a foreign grocery store. It was not easy, nor was it even quite possible. Sugar was easy. Flour, no problem. Eggs, cool. Everything else? Forget it. I must have read the back of every box in the store trying to find baking soda or powder. Then we almost bought condensed syrup instead of vanilla extract. Also, turns out chocolate chips don’t actually exist in this country, which would have made logical sense if I had actually thought any of this through beforehand. So, after about an hour of looking creepy and confused, we found at least some form of or substitute for all the ingredients and prayed for the best. If it all goes south, we can always blame it on the fact that I was the worst possible person to be asked to teach a cooking class. (All my friends just nodded and laughed reading that. I know it.)

For my placement this afternoon I went back to the Jasmine women’s co-op. The class of the day was French, and the teacher seemed really excited to have me there. Little did she know I was about to become the worst student she’s ever had. Things I’m not particularly good at: learning languages. Things I’m particularly terrible at: learning a language in another language. This two hour class was the closest to a scene from a comedy Blockbuster I think I’ll ever get to be in. Here’s the breakdown: it was a French class being taught in Arabic by a teacher who also spoke Spanish and was trying to explain things to me in all three languages while I was trying to take notes in English. It was absolutely hilarious. And, believe it or not, I actually learned a lot of French. My brain was completely overwhelmed though, as was evidenced by the fact that when I tried to say goodbye and thank the teacher my sentence came out in English, French and Spanish. I think if I try to understand any more languages at once, I might just lose the ability to speak.

Final event of the day: hammam. How do I sum up the hammam…? On one hand, I will say it was the most cultural experience I’ve had here. On the other hand, I can also say it was absolutely the weirdest thing I have ever done. Hammam is essentially a public bath – one for women and one for men. It’s a social but also intimate experience that most Moroccan people take part in for their whole lives. For Americans, however, it’s… different. In short, you go with a group of friends, strip down to just your underwear (no bras either), go into a really hot steam room with some spigots in the wall, sit on the floor and take a glorified bath together. Oh, and then a topless Moroccan woman scrubs your whole body with olive soap and a glove that is a close cousin to the Brillo pad. And that’s the hammam.

I wasn’t really thrilled about going and actually almost talked myself out of it. But I promised that I wouldn’t deny myself any adventures out of fear, so I didn’t. It was still really hard for me to be comfortable with the whole thing, but I did it, and that’s what counts. And it did end up being pretty great as far as the actual cleansing factor. I feel like I have brand new skin that is healthy and soft, which is a pretty big draw to the whole hammam deal I suppose. No promises that I’m ever doing it again, but that wasn’t part of the deal. I’m calling my cultural immersion officially achieved.

And that’s all! Tomorrow is a busy day with lots of things in store, including my first class as an English teacher. I really appreciate all the prayers people can send my way while I keep stretching my comfort zone and trying to keep my energy up. I’ve been having a lot of trouble eating the food here because everything is so rich in spices and my stomach is a big baby that likes boring food. Heartburn is not exactly conducive to an adventurous lifestyle. So, all well-wishes and happy thoughts are welcomed.

Salaam!