Hello again. I'm writing during our break between classes in the morning and intercultural dialogues in the afternoon - our last one is today, the one I have been in hasn't been that great but hopefully it will pick up today. Yesterday we had a really interesting guest speaker here who is the grandson of a former slave. He talked about the history of Morocco and the ethnic and cultural divisions between Berbers and Arabs here. He speaks seven Moroccan languages (variations of Berber and Arabic dialects) in addition to English and maybe some other ones.

On Thursday night we had an evening of gnaoua music, which actually originated from slaves in Ghana. It's about 80 percent percussion, and there's also a guitar-ish instrument that I forgot the name of. We had giant dance circles and lots of fun with the band.

Tonight is a birthday party at a Moroccan restaurant and I will be sleeping over at another student's house. Tomorrow we go to Mhammid, a village in the Atlas mountains, to do some community service (I think we are painting a school) and then hiking and a picnic in the mountains - no class! Monday is a regular day of class in the morning but I think we will be visiting a woman's coop in the afternoon, which should be really interesting. Then Tuesday morning we leave for Essaouira.

Yesterday I finished "A Street in Marrakech" after eating some delicious cous-cous (although my host mother always complains that I don't eat enough of it). Several chapters were on festivals and museums that I unfortunately won't be able to visit. A lot of the rest of the book chronicled the author's relationship with the other women on her street. So now I will resume my pursuit of "A People's History of the United States" and also "The Arab-American Handbook." For example, did you know that neither Iran nor Afghanistan are technically Arab countries?

Well, I don't have a lot more to write about. Tonight should be fun, tomorrow should be interesting. It is still very hot, obviously - I can't wait for that cool Essouira Atlantic ocean breeze. Our hotel is right on the beach!