Caroline Russell
Spending 6 weeks studying Arabic in Meknes, Morocco. CarolinefeMeknes
Travel Blog Posts
June 12th 2011
This past weekend was our last empty weekend, where there was nothing scheduled by the program, so we took the initiative and asked the program to set us up on a trip to Merzouga, which is about 40 kilometers from the Algerian border. Because of the distance from Meknes, which we originally thought was about 5 hours by car, we left from the medina at 6 am on Saturday morning. One of the administrators, Taha, from AALIM came with us since none of us had any experience in organizing camel safaris. We stopped at about 7:30 in Azrou for a quick breakfast. And then got back in the car. We stopped randomly on the side of the road to take pictures from the mountain, and then continued on our way. Stopping at a roadside hotel for ... read more
June 6th 2011
We had a free weekend this past week, and so seven of us from the group decided to go to Tangiers for a short relaxed vacation from Meknes. Tangiers is the most international part of Morocco, with influences from many parts of Europe and Africa, and is a vacation destination for many Europeans. We arrived in Tangiers around five o'clock in the afternoon and went directly to our hotel. We stayed outside the city because most of our group was interested more in the pool and sun than the city itself. And the hotel proved to be a lovely break from the riad in Meknes. We spent Friday evening at the pool and then had small dinner at the hotel. Because we knew the hotel would be expensive we also brought Nutella and peanut butter among ... read more
June 5th 2011
This past week we had two cultural programs. One was a workshop with a calligrapher who showed us several different types of arabic calligraphy. The only one that we could come close to reading was a very simple one. Some of the types of calligraphy that the artist showed us were in specific shapes, and he had several examples of the words "allahu akbar," praise to god, in calligraphy. We all chose a style of calligraphy that we wanted to try to learn, and the calligrapher wrote each of our names in the script. We tried to emulate his writing using the calligraphy markers he gave us, but it was really hard. Even my Arabic name, Najma, barely resembled the normal Arabic writing. We all tried really hard to so well, but when our professor Driss, ... read more
May 30th 2011
Having been in Meknes for a week now, and having received so many requests for updates, I decided to be that person and start a blog...I know, but isn't it better than tons of facebook updates that don't have the whole story attached? So here it is! My six weeks here are primarily to study arabic, and so despite adventures and traveling, we spend most of the week doing the same thing. Arabic class is every day from 9-1, with classmates from Arabic at William & Mary. Then lunch at the riad where we are staying. The riad is more of a guesthouse than a hotel, and we are provided with either "crepe" bread with butter and jam, or olives and olive oil, with coffee every morning. The coffee is SO good! We also get Moroccan ... read more
Tot: 0.048s; Tpl: 0.002s; cc: 7; qc: 53; dbt: 0.0313s; 1; s:notus w:www (50.28.61.183); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.4mb
