Today I woke up and got ready to meet Saad, the director of Projects Abroad, at 9:30 to get oriented with the program and meet my teacher.My roommate showed me how to fine Bab Shalla, where we were supposed to meet, and we took a taxi to the office.The taxis are old American cars and they put two people in the front with the driver and four in the back.A whole taxi costs 40 dihams, which is about the equivalence of 5 dollars, I think.We had tea and talked about plans for my Arabic lessons, which will be from 9 to 12 each morning.I am glad, because that means I will have the afternoons free to explore for the first month I am here.We tried to get my phone working, but it refused so I had to buy a Moroccan one for while I am here.That explains why no one will be able to get in touch with me with my old one for the next two months.I was also able to finally exchange my American money for Dirhams.Saad took me and Meriem, my touter, to get ice cream, which was delicious and so refreshing- it was an extremely hot day today.Then my touter walked with me home.Kemi my roommate from the UK has her mother in town to visit this week and so when I came home I was able to meet her mother and brother.We all sat and ate lunch together.It was and incredible Moroccan spiced chicken!Delicious, I am pretty sure I will never want to come home if all the food is this good.Afterward Susanne, the roommate from Germany, asked me if I would like to go with her to see some of Rabat.We spent three hours this afternoon walking around Rabat!It was amazing!We went so many wonderful places.The beautiful, tall, orange, Almohad walls, some of which date back to the 1100s surround the medina.There were lots of shops along the narrow avenues of the medina and at one point we even wondered if we had stumbled upon the famous black market!Many of the walls in the Medina and Kasbah- the area where the house we are staying is- are line-washed half blue and half white and were built by the Alaouite rulers of the late 17th and 18th centuries.We walked to a beautiful area where you could look out and see the Mediterranean Sea and Sale.From looking at my guidebook, I think this was the platform of the Former Oudaia Signal Station from the 18th century.It was built by the Sultan Sidi Muhammed ben Abdallah and defended the Bou Regreg estuary.We watched the great deal of people who were swimming, surfing and walking on the beach.I say people, but really there were only one or two women, and they were covered head to toe.It looks like it is not very culturally excepted or common for women to be at the beach.Near this spot was the Café Maure- a very popular and gorgeous little place where we got tea and sprite J It has a blue over-hang, small tiled walls and little tables with stools.The views were amazing.Through a doorway there is a breathtaking Moorish garden from the beginning of the 20th century called the Andalusian Garden.One of the best parts is that this was only about 10 minutes away by foot- so I will be spending a lot of time there, when I can, reading and relaxing.After walking around the garden and relaxing in the café for a bit, we headed to see the Mausoleum of Mohammed V and the Hassan Tower.It took us another 10 or 15 minutes to get there and on the way we saw a building that said it was an artisan's house of Morocco.Thinking it was a gallery or something we went inside, saying hello to the guard standing at the door.A little after, when I was taking pictures of the very pretty little garden in the courtyard, the guard told us that it was a private residence and that we would have to leave!It was very funny to Susanne and me that he did not mention that when we went in.Finally we reached the Tower.The Hassan Tower was built in honor of Mohammed V, who is said to have been the father of Moroccan independence.Hassan II was his son, and commissioned it.It was designed by Vo Toan, a Vietnamese architect and it took 400 Moroccan craftsmen to build.The mausoleum is made of Italian white marble and is on an 11.5 ft. platform.Slender columns of Carrara marble front the doorways on all four sides of the mausoleum and at the top is calligraphy of a song of holy praise in Maghrabi script.The ceiling is a twelve-sided dome wit painted mahogany muqarnas and stained glass windows from France.And on the outside at the very top of the building there are three brass spheres to symbolize a holy building.Directly beneath the dome is the sarcophagus of Mohammed V, carved from a single black of marble.It faces the quibla, which denotes Mecca.Other members of the royal family are buried beneath the mausoleum.There were guards outside all in white and beautiful fountains with zellij tile-work in the Moorish style.At the bottom of the great stairs leading up to the mausoleum, there are Candelabras made of pieced and engraved copper.The Hassan Tower is over eight centuries old and overlooks Wadi Bou Regreg.It is one of the city's most prestigious monuments and a great emblem of Rabat.There seemed to be many tourists there walking around while we were there.It was built by Yacoub el-Mansour around 1196, but when he died in 1199 it was left unfinished and fell into disrepair.The rest of the mosque was destroyed by an earthquake in 1755.It had been the largest religious building in the Muslim West, aside from the mosque of Samarra in Iraq.The tower is 144ft high and 52ft wide, and if it had been finished it would have been 262ft!This tower is where Mohammed V conducted the first Friday prayers after independence was declared.There is a massive and beautifully green courtyard at the foot of the tower.It has lots of fountains and trees and flowers that are just gorgeous.Cats and kittens roam free here in Morocco and there was an adorable little girls chasing after one of these cats in the courtyard, it was so cute!After we rested for a bit, we returned home and ate dinner before bed.It was such a wonderful time for my first real day in Rabat, to have a chance to see such beautiful places!