Email at ESI

As the second week "off" comes to a close, it occurs to me that I'd really like to send my 16 3rd year students an email about the presentations they'll do the week that classes resume. Unfortunately, I can't. Students don't have email accounts at ESI, making mass communication more than a little difficult.

The last week of January was our winter vacation and we did not meet for classes. The first week of February was our exam prep period; also, no classes. Exams begin next week (on Feb. 9) but I was convinced not to give either of the exams to the classes that I teach alone. Therefore, I am off next week, too. As such, my 3rd years will present their wikis the week of the 16th (although the day that class meets is still unsure), and the masters students will meet with me one last time in February, and then sit their exam toward the end of the month.

With the masters students, there are only 4 in the cohort. They took the initaiative to create an email account to which they all have the password. I can send them information (and ppt slides from class) very easily. But communication with the 3rd years isn't as easy. As a student, I had an email account issued to me when I began UMKC in 1991 (I was an honors student and I had to go though some hoops to request it based on my honors status). That makes ESI about 20 years behind in terms of email communication. Luckily the students are clever enough to open their own accounts and to devise short-term solutions.

Obama's inaugration

For the historic inaugration earlier this week, I went with a friend to a Spanish club (looked like a country club) and convinced them to change the channel from the soccer game to the news channel in the bar.

Folks who came in after us were respectful of us and went into the adajcent room to socialize. One man sat down at the neighboring table and watched along with us.

No one asked to change the channel even though we were there for quite a few hours. This was especially nice, because, these were some of the proudest hours I've had in a long, long time and I was glad to celebrate them in public.

Salads

A special meal
Originally uploaded by Born2fly

Here's a better view of the salads we ate as the entree.

And I've now successfully posted a photo from Flickr using the Flickr tool!

Nadia's cooking

This is the meal that Nadia made during Eric's visit. There was a salad in each of the round salad dishes. She also prepared a chicken for him and French (Moroccan?) fries for both of us. What a feast! It took her all day to make it, and the flavors were outstanding.

Yes, BTW, that is my living room. It's a very typical (and well-executed) "salon marocain" if I must say so myself.

Blogué avec le Navigateur Flock

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Kudos to Moroccan Peace Corps Volunteers

More and more, as I talk to educated people here, it becomes clear that a lot of Moroccans' first expericences with meeting Americans come from meeting Peace Corps Volunteers. It's also remarkable that everyone who tells me about a Peace Corps Volunteer talks about 1) what a great person s/he was and 2) how gifted the person was in languages.

My landlady's husband: "Yes, they just send them into the mountains and they come back in three months speaking fluent Berber. It's amazing."

On a train from Fès: "My buddy (a Peace Corps volunteer) spoke Arabic like I do -- and it was Moroccan Arabic. Not Classical!"

Before I came to Morocco, I met with one of these former miracle workers, Kay Cassell who'd been a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco some time ago. We're fortunate to have Kay as a lecturer at Rutgers, and she was a very giving and knowledgable resource person for me. Kay was familiar not only with life in Morocco from a Volunteer's perspective, but also from a librarian's. She was the first to tell me about the founding of ESI and to explain the involvement of UNESCO and of the American library school at Pratt.

It's good that I have knowledge about the founding of ESI, because references to Nasser Sharify, then Dean at Pratt and frequent visitor to Morocco, are not sparse around ESI. I hope to meet Mr. Sharify on one of his trips to Morocco before this year is out. I'd also love to run into some Peace Corps folks, but I don't know how likely that really is, since Agdal isn't one of the remote places where many of these folks seem to like to work.

Indoor temperature and ESI

The weather has been consistently cold and rainy since the beginning of the new year. Normally to avoid cold temperatures at home, I'd be tempted to go somewhere: my place of work, office at school, shopping, the car, the gym, a coffee shop, etc.

Here in Morocco, though, none of these are warming options, and folks just keep their coats on indoors and buck up. However, it's been recognized by a few of the ESI instructors that it's simply too cold to work in our offices; my neighbor professor brought a heater from home and blew a fuse last week. I, like the other profs, was without a computer or printer for quite a few days. Now the computer works, but my small wall space-heater is on the blink. At least now I, unlike the students in the lab where I took this photo, can "chatter" online if I want.

The temperature problems are a shame, because I would like to work at school. It would be nice to talk to M. Alli about our Cataloging classes next semester, for example.

In the mean time, at home, I use the two space heaters that I have and I wear gloves that Kirstin brought (I cut off the fingers so that I can type). My favorite way to combat the cold is by taking a bath in my jumbo bathtub. The hot water heater turns off about three times per bath, and the water in the tub is usually cold by the time it warms the porcelain. However, it's by far the warmest things get in my house, and I love it.

In fact, of the things/people I'd like to bring back to the States with me, the bathtub ranks way up there. Maybe Nadia and the pharmacist can carry it onto the plane... and perhaps they can fill it with the delicious Moroccan yogurt that I just love!