This day has come so quickly! I am currently sitting in a hotel room in Rabat, Morocco, unable to sleep because where I live it is 5:30 PM, not 10:30 PM, despite the fact that I got about 4 hours of sleep last night. Well I think it was last night.. All of this jet-lag is making us all a little crazy. Where do I begin?
On Sunday afternoon, I flew to Washington to DC for our pre-departure orientation, which consisted of our group and leaders sitting in a sweltering conference room at AMIDEAST discussing what we would be doing, cultural differences, culture shock, and most excitingly - Arabic! We had amazing speakers from the State Department talk to us about future careers, and received some really wonderful lectures on Islam and the significance of Ramadan. We got to visit the Moroccan cultural center and the Moroccan embassy, and were offered the famous, delicious Moroccan Mint tea for the first time! The PDO was really well done and definitely got our group ready and excited to begin the REAL part of the journey -- living abroad.
Traveling in airports is always miserable, and something always has to go wrong of course. Despite the fact that I was almost charged $100 for my suitcase being 5 lbs. overweight (due to over packing, as usual) and frantically trying to reorganize, being patted down and hand swiped because they "detected" nonexistent metal (I am obviously an extremely suspicious looking person), being yelled at by a man for turning on a light to read my book, having my checked bag rummaged through twice, and, in the process, having them spill my shampoo and belongings, and other mishaps - I made it to Morocco in one piece! Can you believe it? I don't even care at this point that I got 4 hours of sleep, because I am actually here! Rabat is SO beautiful, and I have even been able to say a few, choppy, basic Arabic phrases to people with them actually understanding me. The man next to me on the plane even attempted to have a small conversation with me, and the people I have encountered thus far have been so hospitable and wonderful. The food tonight was scrumptious, the weather is perfect, the city is terrific. It looks a bit like the desert, though it's the coast, and the slight breeze is enough to keep you cool but not to blow you over. I haven't exchanged my USD for any dirhams yet, but I'll do that tomorrow. I love Morocco!
Tomorrow I meet my host family, and from tomorrow on I will be staying with them and my room mate, Kshama. She, as well as all of the other people on the trip, is awesome, funny, and has a similar personality to me. Meeting my host family is a really big deal because they will be my family for the next six weeks, and I hope they are as excited to meet me as I am to meet them. Insh'Allah!
Now, my Moroccan journey really begins.
Love, Marg
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