Maya in MENA: Middle East Travel Blog

Chronicling my study abroad experience throughout the Middle East and North Africa. Morocco (Winter 2013-2014), Oman (Summer 2014), Jordan (Fall 2014), and Morocco again (Year 2016-2017). All views expressed on this blog are my own and do not represent the views of the US government or any programs in which I have participated.

[teekily]

[whackityshmackity]

this needs no context because it applies to almost everything

[whitepeopletwitter]

[socialistexan]

Senators:

Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)

David Purdue (R-GA)

Kelly Louffler (R-GA)

James Inhoff (R-OK)

Richard Burr (R-NC)

House Representatives:

Susan Davis (D-CA)

Scott Peters (D-CA)

Rob Wittman (R-VA)

Also some aides to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

And this is just the ones we have public reporting on, that’s not to say there isn’t more of them that did this.

[stream]

[andwhatexcellentboiledpotatoes]

And they say white people have no culture!

[mayainmena]

Favorite photos of 2017!

[mayainmena]

نهاية البرنامج

So as I write this I’m about 80% packed to come home!! It sounds really cliche but the last few months have really flown by.

During my last weekend trip, some friends and I went to Rabat and Casa to go to our favorite restaurants one last time. It was a great mix of eating, napping, and occasional studying for finals. After that trip it was time for finals week - we started off with 4.5 hours of proficiency testing on Thursday, then I had a day off on Friday before spending Saturday on a test for my direct enrollment class (which was a trip - it was mostly my professor lecturing us on the importance of learning ancient history) and my Moroccan Arabic interview. On Sunday I had my Egyptian Arabic interview and prepared for Monday’s internship presentation and OPI, after which I was finally done! 

I’ve spent the last few days trying to organize my room, putting things into piles of things to throw away, things to donate, and things to pack. Luckily it’s looking like I’ll be able to get away with only one checked bag so I can save the $100 I was planning on spending on a second bag!

I’ve honestly had really mixed feelings about the program ending. On one hand, I’m so excited to be back in America and to see my family and all my friends from home. I’m also super excited for the conveniences of life in America, like the availability of western toilets, understanding of vegetarianism, and a good restaurant culture. However, I’m pretty anxious to be moving to a different state from all my friends from the program who I’ve come to rely on a lot, and to finally be an adult with a job and no classes. Luckily I have a job lined up for the summer - I’m going to be working with Maryland’s Flagship Program at their summer language institute! I’m really excited to work with them while looking for a permanent job. Overall I’m a bit nervous about the changes coming up but excited for my next adventure!

5/17/2017

[mayainmena]

So as I near the end of the program, I wanted to briefly go over my personal thoughts on the best and worst parts of living in Morocco for a year.

I’ll start off with the bad parts of living here so we can end on a positive:

The street harassment is literally never-ending. I can’t walk down the street without getting a “bounjour” or a “mmm, so beautiful” or a “welcome to morocco,” and most of the time I’m used to it and it’s fine but there are days when I just want to be left alone and that’s never really an option when being a woman in a public space here. I’ve very rarely felt unsafe but have very often felt uncomfortable, and that gets tiring very quickly.

General cleanliness. Most Moroccan restaurants don’t follow the same sanitation standards as those in America, meaning that food poisoning is a common occurrence for all of us. Additionally, the streets of Meknes are covered with garbage and poop. The one upside of this is I’m always looking at the ground in front of me to avoid stepping in anything gross, and by doing that I manage to easily avoid eye contact with all of the gross harassers on the street!

Sharp economic divides are super clear here. It’s always uncomfortable to leave a relatively high-end store and see the other customers ignoring the homeless people sitting in the street. There are so many people here living in extreme poverty, from disabled Moroccans to Syrian and Congolese refugees. Many people do take the time to help when they can, but there seem to be no government programs to solve this issue and it can be hard to face society’s complacency. This exists in America too but the divide is even sharper here. 

The language barrier. I’ve gotten pretty ok at the Moroccan dialect of Arabic but there are still words in almost every conversation that I don’t know, and every interaction is harder than it would be in America. This means that every conversation is a learning experience, which is good, but it also means that I feel drained all the time.

Homesickness in general. Though I’ve lived away from my family for five years now, it’s still hard to live in another country and not be able to hang out with my parents, my sister, or my close friends on a regular basis. Although I’ve made fantastic friends here that I love, it can be hard to maintain all the relationships with people that I care about back in the states.

Now onto the positive sides of Moroccan life!

The cost of living here is so much lower than it is in America. My rent is less than half of what I would pay in DC for an apartment in the city center, and I can go out to eat for anywhere between 70 cents and $7 for an expensive meal out.

The relationships you form on a program like this are really amazing. I’ve had so many great teachers who have helped me in both language learning and life, and the friends I’ve made on this program are just such a cool group of people that I don’t know how I lived without before. The pressures of this program lead you to get close to people super quickly, which can be really cool.

Language opportunities. On this program I’ve picked up a dialect from scratch and finally learned how to differentiate my dialects. I learn new things every day and it seems to stick more than new vocab or grammar rules do in a US context. Even though I have days where I feel like I’m stuck on a plateau, in general I feel like I’m improving every day, which feels great.

The travel opportunities here are amazing. This year I’ve gotten to see a dozen different Moroccan cities, climb mountains, rappel through underground caves, ride a camel in the desert and climb to the top of a sand dune, learned how to surf, fed wild monkeys, seen the oldest library in the world, visited four countries, and had so many more adventures. I’ve had so many great, awkward, beautiful, strange, scary and wonderful experiences here that I couldn’t have had anywhere else, and I’ve gained more understanding of the world as well as having more stories to tell.

Overall, Morocco has been a difficult but rewarding experience. I haven’t always been happy here and have often wished I was back in America, but looking back on this year I have no regrets, and I’m so glad I’ve been able to explore this wonderful country for as long as I have. 

[mayainmena]

Packing Suggestions

So since some of the people reading this are incoming capstone students, I wanted to post some of my thoughts on what items are most important to bring to Morocco! This list is somewhat based on my friend Sarah’s list so check that one out too! Here goes:

Clothing:

Typical shirts/pants/skirts/underwear/bathing suit/workout clothes/pajamas

If you want an idea of how much to bring, here’s about how much stuff I brought (and I could have gotten away with a bit less): around 8 shirts, 2 pairs of jeans, 2 pairs of light pants, 2 skirts, all of my underwear, bras and socks, 2 bathing suits (1 more conservative, like a tank top and shorts basically), 3 workout outfits, and 3 pajama bottoms with like 5 tshirts to sleep in

Shoes: sneakers, flip flops, hardy sandals, rain boots (optional), fancier shoes (optional) 

Scarves and hats to cover up in the sun 

Potentially a coverup for the beach (but you can also buy a cheap gandora for $5 to use as a coverup) 

Potentially long underwear for the winter because there’s no central heating - but they also sell that here

A range of layers for the winter months - it only drops down to the 50′s outside but buildings are typically colder so you’ll want to bring winter clothes for sitting at home and in class (but you can also buy winter clothes here)

Girls may want to bring one less conservative outfit for trips to the north and to Europe - I personally got really tired of covering up all the time so when I went to Spain in August I was really glad to have a pair of shorts and a sundress to wear (guys can get away with wearing most things in Meknes so it’s not as much of an issue for them)

Long story short, all necessary clothing items are found in Morocco but they’re typically lower quality than those in America, so bring anything that’s important to you along. 

Medicine:

Basically Moroccan medicines don’t tend to work as well as American ones, so bring a decent amount of any medicines you use regularly in the US like:

Advil/Tylenol/painkillers in general

Sudafed/claritin/dayqtuil/nyquil 

Immodium (you will get diarrhea and want this. trust me.)

Pepto Bismol, tums

Dramamine - even if you don’t typically get motion sickness, the windy mountain roads on the Atlas trip in April make everyone a little woozy so bring these along

Try to get a prescription for cypro (a general antibiotic used to treat traveler’s diarrhea) so you don’t have to bother going to a pharmacy if you have a bad bug - I also got a prescription for a motion sickness patch that worked really well

Anything else you typically need in the US and wouldn’t want to go without

Toiletries:

Travel bottles with essentials for the first few days of the trip (deodorant, body wash, shampoo/conditioner, moisturizer) - these bottles will also come in handy for weekend trips

Any special items that you use regularly in America (like specific lotions, makeup, etc.)

Tampons if you use them (many of the girls here are not fans of the Moroccan brands)

School Supplies:

A lined notebook or two if it’s important for you to have one right away. They exist here but are hard to find - most notebooks here use graph paper.

Index cards if you use them

Planner - I’ve found mine incredible useful

Mechanical pencils, any specific brands of writing utensils you care about

There’s really no need to bring a Hans Wehr dictionary or any Al Kitaabs - there are plenty of resources at the AALIM center and online!

Electronics:

Definitely bring your laptop! Also the heat in the summer can be hard on them so I’d recommend bringing a backup hard drive and potentially an external laptop fan (I found mine really useful)

USB/flash drive to get documents and videos off of the center’s computers

A kindle if you like to read a lot - you won’t want to lug a ton of books around with you and kindles are the perfect choice for traveling (especially since there typically isn’t a wide selection of English books here), even if you’re like me and typically prefer paper books. 

Extra phone chargers and headphones - the ones you’ll buy here will likely break a week later.

Plug adaptors and converters

Portable charger - I brought one that holds 4 full charges and it’s saved my life on 10-hour bus rides on group trips

Small fan - I brought a battery-powered fan that I could use in the summer without feeling bad about using up my host family’s electricity. It really helped me during nights when the temperature stayed above 90 degrees.

Food:

This is a very individual decision and you basically just want to bring anything that you would have trouble living without in the US. For me it was kashi and luna bars as well as pop tarts. Here are a few things that are harder to find in Morocco:

Candy: Reeses, York Peppermint Patties, Swedish Fish, Sour Patch Kids

Snacks: this is where I’d recommend filling up any space you have left over because Moroccan snacks are basically all cookies and cakes. I’d recommend bringing granola bars, protein bars, and things like that that you eat a lot. Less healthy snack foods that aren’t found here include: hot cheetos, cheezits, pop tarts

Cooking ingredients: vanilla extract, brown sugar, baking powder and baking soda, cocoa powder

If you like American coffee, you may want to consider bringing a french press - you can get coffee beans around town but most Moroccans use Nescafe so a french press will give you more options. 

Misc: 

Travel towel (many cheap hotels and airbnbs here don’t provide towels so it’s easiest to bring your own)

Kleenex and hand sanitizer - many public bathrooms don’t have toilet paper or soap. Kleenex is easy to find here but you’ll want some for your first few days.

My personal favorite place for hand sanitizer is bath and body works where you can get 5 scented ones for $6. Basically just pick a place and buy a few things of it - I brought 5 little things of sanitizer with me and had to buy more when I was home for break.

Water bottle (get a brita one if you’re planning to transition to tap water) and travel mug if you want one

If you’re planning on living in an apartment: measuring cups

Small suitcase/duffel bag for weekend trips

That’s all I can think of off the top of my head but I may update this later with more recommendations!

4/27/2017

[mayainmena]

الرباط والدار البيضاء

This weekend some friends and I went to Rabat to see Mashrou’ Leila, a Lebanese band that I’ve been listening to on and off for a few years. I got to see them in DC right before Flagship orientation, so it was really interesting to see the differences between the shows they put on in the US vs Morocco. Most of the graphics they used and the songs they chose to perform were similar; the main difference was that in the US, the lead singer talked openly about being gay, whereas in Morocco that wasn’t really an acceptable topic of conversation. All in all we had a great time at the concert - unfortunately I didn’t get to see a lot of what was happening since we didn’t get there early enough to stand in the front, but I really enjoyed listening to the music and getting Syrian food for dinner afterwards.

The next morning we woke up early to go to Casablanca, where Catherine had an appointment to get a small tattoo and get her nose pierced. The place we had looked up for tattoos had seemed online to be a legit tattoo parlor, but when we showed up we realized the parlor was just a room in this guy’s house. Luckily everything still seemed sterile and safe, so we went along as planned. Caroline I got to play with the tattoo artist’s adorable puppy, and after Catherine’s procedures were done I got a second piercing in my left ear to match my right, something I’d been meaning to do for a few years but hadn’t gotten around to yet.

We celebrated with delicious tofu stir fry from Wok to Walk and then chilled out in our hotel room for the afternoon. We were still a bit tired by the time that we had planned to go out to dinner, so we decided to get takeout to eat in our hotel room, which was the perfect way to end the trip. After sleeping in Sunday we grabbed a midday train back to Meknes and spent the rest of the weekend resting and catching up on homework. We only have two more weeks of class before finals week starts so I’m trying to make sure I keep my energy levels up and focus on schoolwork as we enter the final stretch!

4/24/2017

[mayainmena]

الرحلة الى الأطلس

Just returned from our final program trip to the Atlas Mountains!

First, a quick recap of our second-to-last program trip. Two weekends before the Atlas trip, we took a weekend group trip to Taza, a national park about 4 hours away from Meknes. We were able to check out some beautiful views and go spelunking in an underground cave. Unfortunately, I was super sick during this entire trip (I came back and realized I had a 101 degree fever) so I wasn’t able to enjoy much of it. Luckily after taking a few days off from classes and resting during a free weekend I had plenty of energy heading into the Atlas trip!

We began the trip on Saturday by driving to the small town of Ouzoud, where we’d be staying two nights. Our hotel was super cute and was a 5 minute walk to the town’s main draw, its waterfalls:

The only downside of the hotel was the fact that there was no barrier of any kind between the sleeping area and the bathroom:

Despite that weirdness, I had a really nice time in Ouzoud. There was a group hike organized for Sunday but because I wanted more flexibility, I went on an independent hike with a few friends and got to climb a mountain and swim in a valley for a bit.

The other nice surprise of Ouzoud was the puppy we found hiding in the gardens. He was super cute, but after playing with him for a little while we realized that he had fleas and was really suffering. Even though there weren’t any vets in town who could give us flea shampoo, we used some regular shampoo and did the best we could to get rid of most of his fleas as well as the ticks in his ear. It was super sad to have to hold him down as he was crying during his bath, but I knew he would be better off in the long run if we could get him through that discomfort. 

On Monday, we headed to our next stop - a small village called Ait Bougemaz. I spent Tuesday morning wandering around the village by myself to get away from the group for a bit, and that afternoon Catherine and I made friends with some local girls who spent about an hour showing us around and asking about our lives. It was nice to spend time with some cute kids but it made me sad to think about the fact that they had never left their town and likely never would.

I also was really curious about why they wanted to take photos with us (we spent most of the time posing together around town, and they kept pointing out new places to take pictures together). On one hand, the girls had a lot of fun playing with my phone and seeing pictures of themselves, but I couldn’t help but wonder if they genuinely wanted to take these photos or if they had already dealt with so many tourists wanting photographs of locals that they had just turned it into a game. But in any case, we had a nice time hanging out for a bit and learning more about each other’s lives. 

Our next stop was Ouarzazate, a town that many Moroccan and international film crews use to shoot in. I missed the tour of the town’s film studio on Thursday morning with a minor bout of food poisoning, but luckily by that afternoon I was feeling well enough to visit the kasbah of Ait Ben Hadou, where they filmed the Yunkai scenes for Game of Thrones:

On Friday we headed to our last stop, a gorge that many tour groups stop at on their way to Merzouga in the Sahara Desert. This was mostly to get a bit of driving out of the way on Friday so that traveling back to Meknes on Saturday wouldn’t be unbearable, but we had a nice time walking around in a stream by our hotel and hanging out with cute local dogs.

Saturday was purely a travel day; we left our hotel at 9:30 and got back to Meknes a little before 8 pm. Catherine and I crashed early and spent Sunday catching up on some much-needed quiet time after a week with a loud group of 30-odd students and teachers. 

We started classes again today - it’s crazy to think that we only have three more weeks of classes, then two weeks of finals, then the end of the program! With less than 5 weeks to go, I’m planning on traveling a bit less and focusing on preparing for our final exams as well as making time to say goodbye to friends. However, this coming weekend I’m going to Rabat and Casablanca to see a Mashrou’ Leila concert (a Lebanese band that I’m a big fan of) and sit with my friend as she gets a tattoo in Casa. So in the next few weeks I’ll try to update on that as well as posting some advice for incoming capstone students and some general reflections on this year!

4/17/2017

[mayainmena]

عطلة الربيع: بريطانيا

Apologies for the long delay! Between midterms, traveling and getting sick keeping up with this blog slipped between the cracks for a few weeks. But I’m finally posting about the second half of my spring break when we went to London!

As much as I loved seeing Rome and Pompeii, London was by far my favorite part of the trip. It was my first time traveling in a foreign country where English was the main language, and that made everything feel so much more comfortable and familiar to me. It was almost like I was in a new American city (except for the cars moving the wrong way) where I didn’t know much about how to get around but was able to figure it out super easily. 

We started our trip to the Sky Gardens, a free public area on the top of skyscraper that gives great views of the city:

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the financial district and Soho before going to an awesome Indian restaurant for dinner. Before going back to our hotel we stopped to see the parliament building and Big Ben, which was super touristy and fun.

The next day was my favorite because that’s when Catherine and I got to go see the Harry Potter film studios and check out a bunch of the sets and costumes from the movies!

The best part of the studio tour was the last room where, after checking out a bunch of sets including the great hall, the burrow, Hagrid’s hut, and Diagon Alley, we got to see a huge model of Hogwarts castle that was used for exterior shots throughout the film series. It was incredibly beautiful and it was also super cool to finally be able to see how all the parts of the castle fit together since you never see the entire grounds at any one time in the movies. 

The next day, we went to see the Rosetta Stone in the British Museum and then went to Shake Shack for lunch (which I wasn’t super excited about but my friends really wanted burgers, so I grabbed food from an au bon pain next door and got a shake with them). That afternoon I met up with one of my favorite high school teachers who’s currently working in London - it was great to catch up with him and see where he worked, especially because it was just a block away from Abbey Road studios! After we grabbed drinks at a nearby pub, he walked me back to meet my friends at the crosswalk and take pictures of us walking across it.

Sadly that was our last full day in London - we finished up the trip with an amazing brunch and then we were on our way to an afternoon flight to Rabat. It was a bit hard coming back to Morocco after the trip because everything was so convenient and nice in London, but ultimately the break gave me enough energy to push through these final few weeks and get the most out of my last two months in Morocco!

4/4/2017

[mayainmena]

عطلة الربيع: اطاليا

Just got back from spring break in Europe! It was an amazing break and exactly what I needed to energize myself before pushing through the last two and a half months here in Morocco. We got a week and a half off from classes so we were able to see Rome, Naples, and London and feel like we were able to stay long enough in each city to get a solid sense of it. 

We began our trip with almost a full week in Rome, where we broke up the classic sightseeing with many gelato breaks and strolls through town. We started off our first morning with a trip to the Trevi Fountain where Jaime and I got to have our Lizzie Mcguire moment before moving on to check out the Pantheon and the rest of the downtown area. 

Later in the week, we spent some of our time relaxing in our beautiful airbnb just outside of the city center (it took us about 20 minutes to get in, which was just enough distance to be in a quieter neighborhood without super long travel times every day) and the rest checking out the tourist sights that we were excited about like the Vatican Museums (seeing the School of Athens was definitely the highlight for me!) and the Colosseum.

By Monday morning we had seen most of what we wanted to in Rome so it was time to catch our train to Naples! Naples wasn’t nearly as pretty as Rome and didn’t have the same level of historical sights downtown, but it did offer great food and proximity to Pompeii, which we had a lot of fun checking out. I loved being able to walk through the streets of the ancient city and check out the less-advertised areas of the city like a creepy backyard forest that we stumbled into and ended up hanging out in for awhile.  

These were €4 “individual” sized pizzas!

Our personal creepy forest

Views of Mt. Vesuvius! 

After checking out Pompeii on Monday afternoon, we spent Tuesday morning wandering around downtown Naples before catching our afternoon train to London.

I had a great time seeing more of Italy despite not speaking the language - I managed to get by on my few Italian phrases and hand gestures and it was super fun despite the typical language stressors that I’m all too used to in Morocco. In the next few days I’ll post about the last few days of the trip that we spent in London, which ended up being my favorite part of the break by far!

3/13/2017

[mayainmena]

زيارة ماما وبابا

Last week I was finally able to show my parents around Morocco! I began the week with an 8 am train to Rabat to pick them up at the airport; the train itself was pretty easy but getting to the airport was a little more complicated because the bus schedule had apparently been stolen so I had no idea when the next shuttle bus was showing up. The bus attendant ended up telling me to essentially hitchhike with a group of Portuguese tourists and I ended up getting to the airport for only $5 and plenty of time to spare. I got to show them around for the next day and a half, taking them to my favorite restaurants in the city and helping barter for a few souvenirs. For the next few days, I tried to catch up on schoolwork back in Meknes while they explored Fes on their own. 

The later half of the week was probably my favorite part of the trip because I got to show them around Meknes! I spent the first day taking them to some of the main tourist sites, and on Thursday I took them to the AALIM center where I have all my classes:

After stopping by the center I helped them buy a few souvenirs and then got to take them to meet my host family, which was a bit difficult since they don’t have a shared language (luckily I was able to translate fairly successfully) but super fun overall!

On Friday, we were off to our last leg of the trip, Chefchaouen. It was my second time in the city and I loved it just as much.

View from our hotel’s terrace!

The city is small but super beautiful, and because our hotel was also a spa I was able to take a break from walking around to get a super nice facial while my mom did a fancier-than-usual “hamam” (Moroccan traditional bath) experience. We had a great time exploring on Saturday, and I was able to eat a quick breakfast with them before heading back to Meknes on Sunday morning - unfortunately the afternoon bus I wanted to take was already sold out by the time we arrived in the city. Saying goodbye that morning was a bit sad but luckily I’ll be home in less than three months so it won’t be a long goodbye! Plus I’m writing this post from Rome (which I’ll write more about soon inchallah), so being able to explore Europe with some of my best friends has made that a lot easier!

3./4/2017

[mayainmena]

مغامرات مع صاحب الشقة

ِApologies for the delay! The last few weeks have been hectic with midterm projects so I haven’t had much time to write or anything interesting to write about. I’m currently sitting in the airport waiting for my parents to land - I’m super excited to show them around Morocco this coming week! Until I have more to write about taking them around the country, I wanted to talk a bit about apartment living in Morocco. For those of you starting your capstone year soon, or others that are just curious, I wanted to talk a bit about issues with Moroccan apartments and landlords. 

In general, I love apartment living in Morocco. As much as I loved life with my host family, I’m more comfortable with my Moroccan life now that I have more responsibilities and feel like an adult again. However, dealing with Moroccan landlords can be a bit of a nightmare. For example, our washing machine wasn’t working properly when we first moved in in November (it didn’t drain properly so our clothes were completely soaked coming out) - we told our landlord and ended up waiting in the house an entire day for a repairman that didn’t show up. This happened two more times before we left for winter break, and when we came back we found the machine detached from the wall and not working at all. Our landlord sent another repairman who just laughed at how old our machine was and said it wasn’t fixable, so for the first month back I ended up doing all my laundry either by hand or at a friend’s house. Luckily about a week ago he finally sent a repairman that made the washing machine run again, though it’s still a 2-3 hour process to go through a full cycle. We also had a part of our living room window fall off during a storm which brought freezing air into our apartment; we managed to put it back but it seemed really unstable so we asked our landlord to fix it. He ended up sending his brother who looked at the window and just said that we should keep putting it back up if it falls down again. So that’s currently being held together with duct tape, as is our kitchen sink pipes that have been leaking since we moved in (an issue that the landlord clearly knew about even though he didn’t disclose it, as there was a bucket under the pipe that had been left for us). We also have our water turned off every night at midnight, which he also doesn’t seem to think is an issue worth fixing. 

All things considered, we’ve been relatively lucky compared to some of our classmates - one friend got a 2nd-degree burn from her shower (that problem was bad enough that our director helped them change apartments) and another hasn’t had hot water for over a month. Even our director apparently lost running water for 2 weeks before his building did anything about the problem.

So Moroccan apartments can be a pain, and it’s definitely been a lesson in patience and accepting more inconveniences than would be acceptable in America. But at the same time there are upsides compared to apartment living in America: I rent a huge apartment downtown with beautiful views and only pay $300/month, I only have to walk 15 minutes to school in the morning or 10 minutes to the gym in the afternoon, and I’m able to a create a comfortable space for my friends and I to hang out when we need to get away from the stresses of Morocco. So for incoming capstone students: stay with your host family for as long as you’re comfortable there because it’s a great cultural and linguistic experience, but consider all your options once things open up in the fall. There are definitely benefits and challenges to both situations, so no choice is bad!

Hoping to update soon on my parent’s visit and then on spring break!!

2/18/2017

[mayainmena]

الشاطئ والثلج

This last week I’ve gotten to see somewhat opposite ends of Morocco within a few days - I spent the weekend in the beach town of Assilah, which is about 10-20 degrees warmer than Meknes, and Thursday on a program trip to Ifrane, a mountain town that’s typically about 10-20 degrees colder than Meknes. 

Our trip to Assilah started off with some confusion and frustration; Federico and I planned to meet Diana in Assilah on Friday night since she was returning from a solo trip to the desert, so we got to the train station in time for the 5:30 train. After buying our tickets, we looked at the board to see that our train had been delayed until 6:24, and since it was super cold outside we decided to get coffee while we waited. However, when we turned back up at 6:10 the conductor told us the train had already left - apparently the signs with estimated departure times are not a guarantee of when the trains will actually leave :/ I’ve always had problems here with transport showing up late but never thought I’d have to deal with it leaving earlier than it was supposed to! Unfortunately that was the last train of the night to Assilah, so we returned to my apartment to sleep there before taking an 8 am train. Luckily the host of our airbnb was helpful in getting Diana to the apartment on her own, so she was able to have a good time exploring the city while waiting for us.

Once we actually showed up midday Saturday, we had a great weekend - while Assilah doesn’t have a lot of specific attractions worth writing about, we had a great time wandering around town, enjoying the warmer weather and the views from our apartment’s terrace. 

After a sad goodbye to Diana on Monday, I only had a few days of classes before it was time for another trip, this time a short day-trip to Ifrane to see the snow. We left Meknes at 9 am and headed south, where we first stopped at a small snow-covered hill where they were renting small sleds and skis:

It was super fun to be able to play in snow again and feel more at home in Morocco, even after my sled hit a rough patch of snow and completely flipped me over, sending me headfirst into a snow bank. Next we went to a fish farm where they focused on protecting local trout and we got to see their breeding process, which was really interesting. 

Our last stop was the city of Ifrane itself, where we had a late lunch and then had a little over an hour to wander around the city. I got an awesome creme brulee and then walked around the town center with friends for a bit before meeting back at the bus to head back to Meknes in time for us to work on homework for the next day.

It was a really nice day trip and we all appreciated classes being cancelled so that we could have time to go see the snow. But at the same time I’m super excited that I don’t have any trips planned this weekend - I haven’t had a relaxing weekend in Meknes since returning for the spring semester, so I’m looking forward to sleeping in, catching up on homework, school projects and job searching, and doing more planning for my parents’ visit and for spring break!

1/27/2017

[mayainmena]

برنامج الربيع

So things have finally settled down a bit here in Meknes - Diana returned to America on Monday and the schedule of classes is (almost) finalized, so I’m starting to get used to my new routine. My new schedule until March, when direct-enrollment university classes start up again, looks basically like this:

Mondays: Moroccan Arabic and Contemporary Issues in the Arab World

Tuesdays: Egyptian Arabic and Translation, then Internship

Wednesdays: Modern Standard Arabic Club (and I’ll probably be meeting with my new language partner these days once we work out our scheduling conflicts)

Thursdays: Moroccan Arabic and Contemporary Issues in the Arab World, then Internship

Fridays: Egyptian Arabic and Translation

The great thing about not having any official classes on Wednesday is that all of our classes that assign homework are always at least three days apart, giving us a lot of flexibility to handle the workload. 

One major change that’s hopefully coming up this semester involves my internship - although I’ve really been enjoying my time at the traditional music club, I’ve been feeling like I haven’t been gaining as many concrete skills as I’d like to while there, so while I continue waiting to hear back about prices for Oud lessons, I’m also going to visit the local music conservatory to talk about the possibility of my teaching there (I’d likely go there once a week and continue going to my current internship location, just less often). Everything’s still a bit up in the air on that front but hopefully I’ll have it all figured out within the next few weeks!

In other news, my friends and I have finally solidified our spring break plans - I’ll be spending a week in Italy and then four days in London! I loved Italy when I saw Florence with my sister in May, so I’m really excited to see more of the country. Then in London, as the major Harry Potter nerd I am, I’m most excited to go on a tour of the Warner Brothers studio where they’ve kept many of the sets and props from the movies that I loved as a kid and still watch to cheer me up when I’m sad. Being able to look forward to this trip, as well as my parents’ visit in a few weeks, is really helping me get through the stressful moments at school since I have so much to look forward to in the next two months (even though I sometimes find myself planning for Europe instead of doing homework...)! 

During these next few weeks, I’m planning on staying in Meknes since I’ve been traveling a lot while Diana’s been visiting - I’ve had an amazing time exploring the country with her but I’m also excited to chill at home for a few weekends, especially because after the next two weekends my life’s going to get really hectic (in a good way) again - my weekends for the next month and a half look like this:

1/28-1/29 and 2/4-2/5: relaxing in Meknes, getting caught up on homework and starting my job search

2/11-2/12: program trip to Rabat and Casablanca 

2/18-2/19 and 2/25-2/26: traveling with my parents around Morocco

3/4-3/5 to 3/11-3/12: spring break in Europe

3/18-3/19: finally another weekend of rest, only 5 weeks later!

In the next day or two I’m planning on posting about my trip to Assilah with Diana and Federico and about today’s program trip to Ifrane - after that my blog may go quiet for a few weeks until the travel starts up again but I’ll try to post some random updates!

1/26/2017

[mayainmena]

أول سمانات ديال الربيع

So I’m about to start my second full week of classes for my final semester in Morocco! Apologies for the delay in posting - my best friend from high school, Diana, is visiting for a few weeks which is super exciting but also means I've had less free time to update my blog. From here on I’m going to try my best to continue posting at least every 2 weeks!

I had an amazing time going home for winter break - I got to spend a lot of time with family and friends, and I loved having access to comforts like central heating and nice restaurants. It was a bit sad to have to leave again after only 13 days but with Diana visiting I had a lot to look forward to!

So on to the recap of my first few weeks back. Diana and I landed on a Monday and spent the next two days wandering around Meknes and Fes before my classes started on Thursday. For our first free weekend, the two of us travelled to Rabat for a night where saw a few tourist sites and went surfing - although surfing again was super fun, I realized that I may have spoiled myself by having my first surfing experience be in a town famous for its waves. I felt a bit disappointed since the waves weren’t as big or constant as they were in Essaouira, but overall I still had a great time.

The next week I settled into my classes as Diana wandered more around the area. This semester I’m still in a Moroccan Arabic class and an Egyptian Arabic class, but we’ve finished classes for Modern Standard Arabic and now take two electives, so I’m taking one class on contemporary issues in the Arab World and another on Arabic to English translation, which has been super fun so far. 

On Wednesday we had no classes because our mandatory MSA club doesn’t start until next week, so Diana, Dana, Caroline and I took a day trip to Azrou to see the monkeys that live there:

This past weekend, Diana, Caroline and I went to Chefchaouen - it was my first time in the city and it might be my favorite city in Morocco so far. Chefchaouen is famous for being blue and beautiful, but I didn’t fully appreciate how pretty it was until I got to see it in person. The city’s super walkable and friendly and I felt comfortable there right away. The three of us spent the whole weekend wandering around, taking pictures, and impulse buying souvenirs:

This week I’ll just be focusing on classes because Diana's taking a solo trip to the desert, but next weekend we’re doing a final trip to Asilah before she heads back to the US! Soon I’m hoping to post about that trip as well as more details on my current schedule.

1/15/2017

[mayainmena]

Favorite 2016 Pictures