Hey
everyone! This blog post is long overdue as it has been over a month since my
last blog post. A lot has happened since July; for one thing I am now in
Morocco!!!
On
Saturday, August 31st, I said "See you later" to my family and
friends in the United States to head for the Kingdom of Morocco. I met the 7
other YES Abroad students going to Morocco with me at Dulles International and
together we headed off on our year long journey. After flying for what seemed
like forever, actually only about 7 hours, we landed in Frankfurt, Germany for
a 6 hour layover. Our layover in Frankfurt was pretty pleasant as we spent the
time learning more about each other, discussing our fears and expectations for
the upcoming year, and exploring the German airport which was full of wonders.
Next stop on our journey was boarding Royal Air Maroc to head for Casablanca,
Morocco. I can quite fondly recall all the jitters and thrills I experienced
boarding the flight. All the fears of the unknown: a new country, a new city, a
new family, a new school, a new language, the crazy adventures awaiting us.
The
second flight seemed to be the longest flight in history, probably because I
became pretty nauseous after takeoff. I couldn't wait to land breathe in the
Moroccan air and walk on Moroccan soil. As you can imagine after landing I was
on cloud 9; nothing could bring me down, not even nausea! Everything I saw was
amazing and different: the streets, the toilets, the hand dryers, the people,
and the languages! After touching down and making it through customs and
baggage claim, we met our phenomenal in-country coordinator Sarah. We then
drove for about an hour and a half from Casablanca to Rabat. We got to our
hotel after midnight but nevertheless we were excited. That first night after
Face Timing with my family back home, I didn't get much sleep; I could not
contain the excitement running through my veins.
The
next morning, we gathered up our belongings to head over to the AMIDEAST
center, our headquarters for the year. We spent the morning doing some
in-country orientation before heading out to lunch. For our first official meal
in Morocco, Sarah; our fantastic coordinator, took us to this awesome
restaurant called Babylon where we were stuffed to the brim with deliciousness.
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| Grilled Chicken with Fries and Bread. Deliciousness.
|
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| First Meal in Morocco. |
After
lunch we got to meet our host families!!!! Usually, this is not the norm as
most exchange students only get to meet their families after enduring days of
orientation. Within less of 24 hours of landing in the Kingdom of Morocco, we walked
into a room to meet our host families; the people that have graciously and
willing invited us into their homes, families, and lives.
Our
in-country organization, AMIDEAST, prefers to pair up students together when it
comes to host families. My partner/ roommate/ friend is Charis Ramsing (you can
find her blog on my blog list!). Our host family is amazing, everything and
more! They could not be any more welcoming, kind, and courteous. From day one
they have accepted us as their own children, a fact they remind us of quite
often. We have a mother, a father, an older sister who is 24, a sister who is
16, and a little brother who is 10. I've been in Morocco for almost 3 weeks now
so far everything has been going great. The first week we mainly spent doing
orientation and exploring Rabat, it still has not sunken in that I now live in
Morocco!!! There is so much more to blog and talk about but until next time!
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| Belinda in Arabic!!! Gift from Sarah. |
