These past two days in Rabat have consisted of sitting and listening to lectures all day, delivered by professors from a few universities here in Morocco, in addition to a number of people from the US Embassy. To give a few examples of subject matter, we’ve listened to lectures titled Current Political Issues in Morocco, Higher Education in Morocco, and Human Rights in Morocco.

Then by night, it has been nothing but eating, eating, eating. This is the last week of Ramadan, and though I (and most of the other people in the Fulbright group) am not fasting, I still have been fed a sumptuous and traditional iftaar dinner every night after dusk to break the fast. Traditionally, after the evening call to prayer, the iftaar begins with the breaking of the fast with dates and fresh milk and a delicious soup that is called harira, which is a tomato based soup with noodles and a few vegetables. Usually there are sweet fried dough bits covered in honey and sesame seeds around the table, and spongy, buttery, flaky pancake-like bread with a sauce of honey and butter to drizzle over. An entrée usually follows that, like a chicken or fish dish. Dessert is fruit and mint tea or coffee. Delicious beyond description.

I whipped my flip video camera out while walking around Rabat last night. I pieced the clips together into one continuous video, but other than that, it is completely unedited. With time, I will hopefully learn how to hold the video camera still while walking and be able to spend more time editing.