I woke on the morning of November 27th excited for what the day would bring. I followed my usual morning routine: waking up around 10, snacking on Fitness (a delicious cereal found here), snuggling on the couch watching an episode of Grey’s Anatomy with my roommates, resisting the urge to watch a second episode, and legitimately beginning my day a little after 12. Yesterday, being Thanksgiving, a special day, we all decided to make a trip to the public showers. All six of us girls paraded through the medina to the public showers. The public showers are not the same thing as the public bath. The showers are simply lots of shower stalls, with unlimited hot water, in which you can bask quietly alone for as long as you please. So we all enjoyed a nice hot shower to start our day right.
After showering we all split up to accomplish our tasks for the day. The official start time for Thanksgiving was 3:30, so we all had to prepare our dishes. One group of girls had offered to host the festivities at their apartment and invited everyone from both programs. Of course everyone agreed to bring something to the table, in the true spirit of Thanksgiving. Elliott was at our house all day cooking lentil soup. Sela and Elana went to Jessy and Alice’s house to help them peel potatoes. Sara and Liz went to the store to get sugar for Sara’s glazed carrots and things for Liz’s mac and cheese. I was preparing a simple pasta and vegetable medley. Our apartment is located right off of vegetable street, so I ventured out and bought 3 zucchinis, an onion, an eggplant, 3 tomatoes, and 4 huge carrots- all totaling less than $1.50! I came home and entered our narrow kitchen and began my creation in tight quarters with Elliott and his soup and Nikki making balsamic strawberries, all to the tune of Girl Talk, a talented, crazy, techno mix artist. After finishing my pasta, I left for a morning skype date. When I returned to the house at about 4pm, Elana and Sela were scrambling in the kitchen to finish their dishes- fruit salad and Moroccan veggie salad. I helped cut some fruit while in the living room Sarah and Liz had returned from the store with a solid cone of sugar (the only way to buy sugar in Morocco). They were attempting to smash it with a glass, saw it with a knife, or just chip away at it slowly with a spoon. Sugar was everywhere, but eventually they got enough off to use for the carrots.
Finally, we had finished everything! Now we had to pack up and head to the other apartment. Luckily we didn’t have too far to go because they were living on vegetable street also, just at the very end. So we, again, paraded through the medina, down vegetable street, carrying our bounties. Elana, first, with her enormous fruit salad garnished with the top of the pineapple, me in the middle with my enormous pot of pasta, and Sela in the back with her overflowing bowl of chopped veggies. We looked ridiculous in the Moroccan setting. Especially entertaining was the fact that almost all of our ingredients had been purchased from the vendors on vegetable street- I wonder if they noticed. All of our food was very heavy and awkward to carry as we rushed to get there and set everything down. We came to the street we thought was right, stood there for a bit trying to decide which door was correct. Then a Moroccan woman comes down the street, saying something in Darija about keys and opening the door. Of course we had no idea who this woman was, but she unlocked the door and graciously invited us in. We all hoped she wasn’t expecting her own feast. When we walked in we heard English coming from upstairs and saw one of our friends peaking around the corner; we were in the right place!
We walked upstairs and entered the land of the feast! There were tables of food all ready to be devoured. Roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, stuffing, mac and cheese, soup, rice and beans, strawberries, fruit salad, grilled veggies, veggie salad, pasta, and, of course, my favorite, deviled eggs! For dessert we had apple pie, sweet potato pie, brownies, chocolate mousse cake, and rich hot chocolate. It was wonderful. Everyone from our programs who was in Rabat was invited, totaling somewhere around 30 people. It was such a wonderful reunion of friends after we’d been split up in our different apartments, busy with our projects. Friends, good food, and lots of love- that’s what Thanksgiving is all about (minus the family). It was definitely a memorable Thanksgiving and we were all so thankful that we could come together and have such a wonderful feast away from home. Now we are all worried about how old we are getting since we were able to all responsibly cook and pull off our own Thanksgiving without any other family members around. In other words, we’re all excited to enjoy a wonderful family-filled Thanksgiving next year to remind us we’re still young!
