First day of Homestay

First day of home stay. Here are some details and my first impressions. I am staying with the El Bahouli family. The mother’s name is Zouhra and the father is Abdelgani. They are basically the exact opposites of each other. The father is wizened and skinny as a bone, seriously he looks like he could have been in Auschwitz. The mother on the other hand is plump and full of energy. The son who I have the most contact with is named Yessine and he is an interesting character. I think he is stoned a lot, due to his blood shot eyes. This evidence has been backed up by two other students that are staying in the house. Yessine is the only one who speaks English, but not much; he is a good backboard to practice my Arabic on though. I’ll be staying with the family for five weeks I think it will be a great experience. Both to practice my Arabic and to learn about Muslim/Arab culture. I feel like this family is not all that religious since I have been around them all day and have not observed any religious observances. It seems fairly relaxed. I’m sleeping in the salon for now, which is a kind of family room. So I’ll have to keep my stuff tight and fairly secure. I think the language barrier will be fairly severe for a while, if not the entire trip. I need to figure out how to ask for things. I’ve got water down which is good since it is fairly important. I can always just ask Yessine too if I need something badly. There is a great view from the roof too.