So, I got tired of sitting around doing nothing so I thought I would have a mini adventure today. Well, I did..it wasn't all that exciting. I intended to go to Khan al-Khalili, which is the most famous (and touristy) souq in Cairo.. I thought I would be bold and take the metro and then walk down the giant main street until I got there..well, that turned out to be a bit of a failure. Because of course once I got out of the metro I had no clue where I was and the streets weren't marked. So..haha..I ended up wandering [View Full Entry]

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Well,thanksgiving in Morocco... I was sad to be spending the holiday away from my family for the first time ever..but honestly, this turned out to be one of my favorite thanksgivings ever. we had a dinner with basically all of the American students and staff as well as some Moroccan guests,of course. The food was great..and we had a muliti-denominational blessing..which included a bit from the Imam (which was beautiful..I love listening to Qur'an), and then a reading from both the old and new testaments as well as a secular song. I had a great time. Today I went to Sidi [View Full Entry]

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So, I've officially been here over a month. It's so hard to believe that a month ago I was just meeting all of these people..going through orientation trying to make friends with Moroccans..and exchange students..and getting used to the Ifrane area...and then of course, Ramadan. It feels like this month has gone by so quickly but I also feel as though I've been here forever. It's a weird feeling. And not that Ramadan is almost over I'll have to adjust again to a new schedule. Well, anyway..Saturday Kelly, Marybeth, and I went to Meknes..sadly, our goal was to go to McDonald's [View Full Entry]

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Well, I don't know..that was Kelly's insight on going all day without eating. she might have a point. Anyway..yesterday was a pretty decent day. We had Asian dinner in Yesenia's room. I brought Maha and I'm really glad she came. I love our thursday night group dinners. I also had my first Moroccan soccer game. There was a men's IM tournament for Ramadan and before the final last night we had a scrimmage of the girls soccer team. It was quite interesting. I give the Moroccan girls a lot of credit for trying and some of them really weren't all that [View Full Entry]

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yesterday was actually somewhat interesting..I mean, most of the day was the same old routine. But we had a nice ftour with all the study abroad/exchange/international students + all the Moroccan students who went abroad last spring and the AUI president and several deans at AUI. It was really good. It was kind of awkward because they gave us assigned seats and my table was basically all Moroccans and so I didn't really talk a lot but I did listen..as always... Afterward I hung out with Marybeth, Yesenia, and Maryam for a while. It felt good to be outside and with [View Full Entry]

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so let's see. I missed the midnight curfew on campus for the first time...5 minutes, seriously! It was annoying. They took our names and id numbers..I'm not really sure what is going to actually happen because of this..but..whatever. stupid AUI rules. yesterday was quite boring. today was also quite boring. this school is boring. Morocco is not boring but I'm not getting to see much of it right now :( and now I have to attend class on SATURDAY....yeah,it gives us a niiice long weekend in november, but..geez. today a bird flew into my window..I didn't know what to do, I [View Full Entry]

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I'm not going to lie..AUI is really a pretty dull place. I feel like I'm just spending my whole day waiting for night...although this is mostly due to Ramadan. life will be much better when I can eat regularly again.. Otherwise..it's kinda blah..I wait for Ftour,which is hopefully with some of my friends or else with Zakk. and then...back to my room to do homework...which I've usually finished most of during the day anyway. There just isn't a lot to do here. Ifrane is a nice town but...yeah.. again, I think a lot of this is Ramadan and I expect it [View Full Entry]

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whoever designed the dorm buildings should be shot for the fact that I can hear every breath my neighbors take..this person also did not seem to realise the Moroccan girls like loud shoes and also talking at the top of their lungs..and somebody on my hall laughs like a monkey. on the bright side, I think I'm going to the beach this weekend..... [View Full Entry]

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I'm not going to lie, I'm getting a little frustrated with Ramadan scheduling. I'm still doing the fast and all, but it's hard to operate when the country is following this for a whole month..sometimes I want things and I just can't have them....like yesterday I reaaaaaaaaallly didn't want ftour food. As I said, I was still fasting but I wanted a MEAL. and they wouldn't let me..I had to wait until 10.00 to get a pizza.. so I got free harira and went back to my room to wait..I feel like I do a lot of that during Ramadan... to [View Full Entry]

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Ramadan round 2... was slightly harder today, probably because I was less busy and had a lot more time to think about my empty stomach while I slowly counted the hours until ftor.. and it came! I went to the marche with some of my fellow study abroad students and we had a nice ftor of shabakia, dates, harera, bread (oh what is the name!) and of course, the famous Moroccan mint tea. Afterwards we returned to school to find that there was a concert of chaabi music, preformed by Moroccan singer Khalid Bennani. It was amazing. I am 100% in [View Full Entry]

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