Blogging
From Abroad

Greetings from Rabat, Morocco! Right now we’re staying with Youseff’s family in an apartment in the downtown area of the city. Sarah and I met Youseff when he studied at WVU for the spring 2005 semester. We continued to keep in touch through the years via facebook and he was one of the first to open up his home to us.

Once we arrived at his parents apartment (keep in mind that we’ve never met his parents and Youseff is currently in London finishing up his grad school) they drove us around the city, paying for our entrances into museums, and fed us this MASSIVE Moroccan meal. Later in the evening we went on a walk through the city with them.

I’ll be bragging about this hospitality for years to come!

Sadly we only have 3 more days in Morocco then Michelle and I head to Spain while Sarah heads back to England for May Ball week.

ps- sorry for not posting pictures. I forgot my camera cord. Go me.

Another reason for you bloggers to make your way to Morocco: the attractive locals.

On our train ride from Fez to Tangier Sarah gave us a briefing on Alex. “Alex and I played on the bball team and he helped take me to my physical therapy appointments when I sprained my ankle. I think he is majoring in business. To be honest, I don’t know much about him except that he has an obsession over basketball.”

But when we saw Alex for the first time at the station my jaw dropped, OH HOLY MOROCCAN MAN. HE IS SO FINE!

I’ve never been so thankful that we kiss cheeks as a greeting in Morocco. Here is Alex’s theme music:

I later joked with Sarah, umm I think you left the minor detail of the fact that he is incredibly attractive out of your debriefing. You might have added, oh and by the way he could be a model.

Staying with locals is 100x’s better then walking around aimlessly on your own. We enjoyed the massive plate of homemade cous cous and sleeping on the sofas that line the tile decorated walls. Staying with a family in Fez was just what we needed and we wanted to keep the “crash with locals” train in motion. Our next town- Tangier.

Sarah was stressing about housing in Tangier because she hadn’t heard back from her friend who originally volunteered to host. Due to time pressure we had to either find a hotel or find another contact willing to open their home for two nights. Luckily a classmate of Sarah’s had the phone number of Alex, a distant connection who lived in Tangier who Sarah vaguely knew because she played basketball with him when she studied here in 2005.

She was nervous about calling him after not speaking for 2 years, but desperate times call for desperate measures. We needed housing ASAP.

Sarah works up the nerve to call him, “Hey Alex, this is Sarah from the 2005 AUI basketball team. How are you?”
“(pause) Sarah -wow- I sort of forgot about you. (joking voice) What are you doing?”
“Well I’m actually in Morocco and coming to visit Tangier tomorrow and I heard that you’re living in the area.”

By the time she got off the phone, we had free housing with he and his family. Score!

But Michelle and I weren’t expecting much. After all, he is a single guy and in his 20’s. How good of a host could he be?!

Our stereotypes of guys were quickly proven wrong during our stay. Alex set a new record for hospitality. He not only picked us up from the train station, he took us to the ferry to pick up our cousin, fed us at this posh Japanese restaurant, drove us around the city, took us to the beach area and introduced us to his friends later that evening. Here is my favorite part: when we were talking in the car he said, “The only problem is that we have a French pastry chief.” ha! We first laughed at his comment, but 5 free pastries later we started to understand how French desserts could be a problem. I’m sure I’m adding on the pounds. Oh well- it’s worth it.

Moroccan hospitality puts us all to shame. Alex, who received a call from my sister the night before canceled his schedule for the next two days just to make sure we had a good time in Tangier. amazing.

Today was overwhelming. Go figure- yesterday was perfect.

For starters, I woke up in the Sahara desert with a layer of sand caked all over me, even in weird places too, like behind my ears and ingrained in my eyebrows. Maybe sleeping outside wasn’t such a great idea. We arrive at our bus station around 10am after our two hour camel ride back to civilization and a 1 hour taxi ride. At the station we learn that our bus that was supposed to “run every two hours” actually only runs once at 8pm and is 10 hours long, not an estimated 5 like our receptionist told us.

Leaving at 8 wasn’t an option because we scheduled to meet Sarah’s friend at 7 so we opt for a shared taxi ride. After an hour of waiting we finally get our bargained price of choice (only about 7 USD more than the bus ticket would have cost- go us) but then learn that before our taxi arrives we first must visit a shop for tea (translation: go into this shop and if you’re dumb buy overpriced items especially for tourists)

Why we voluntarily get in an illegal taxi with complete strangers AND visit their shop still floors me. Why do we not listen to fundamental rules our parents gave us as children?

Oh well, we lived.
The drive across Morocco was stunning. Really- you need to see this. We started in a desert then ended up in a forest like area of Ifrane. Amazing.

Everything was going well till our taxi driver decided to play some CDs. Goodness it was horrible.
I’m all about playing Moroccan music while roadtriping it through the countryside but really, do we need it on maximum volume for over 5 hours? I think not. The worst was that his cds would skip. You couldn’t help but laugh when they would skip when a woman was screaming I I I I I I I….skip….I I I I. I have never in my life wanted a cd player to erupt into flames so badly.

Ugh. Plus our driver who continually promised us to arrive at 7, dropped us off at 8:30. We’re still unsure why he purposefully took the road to Ifrane and not directly to Fez, even after we pointed it out to him that he was going in the wrong direction. “No problem- be there by 7”

We finally made it to Fez, ears buzzing, and were greeting by the drivers who wanted to take us to Sarah’s friends apartment for 40 DH, “good price” The rate her friend quoted to ask for was 5DH. After 4 drivers refused to go for 5 DH we gave up and walked, maybe 70 yards after asking for directions. It would have been a 2 minute drive and they wanted to charge us 40 DH (about 7 USD). wow. I’m so tired of being labeled a tourist and getting ripped off. I’m fed up with strangers approaching us, pretending to be friends and helpful, only to be asked to purchase something from them.

When I saw Sarah’s friend I wanted to bow down and kiss her feet.

PRAISE THE LORD WE’RE FINALLY WITH LOCALS! No more being ripped off and treated like a tourist.

Day 1 in Morocco was spent in Marrakesh, home of worlds best orange juice. When you blog readers come to visit, check out OJ stand number 23. Trust me- it is worth it.

I enjoyed walking through the market areas and just taking it all in, the sights, the smells, the norms of the locals. It’s days like today that makes me love being in a new culture. Everything is new and exciting.

Day 2 we spent in a mid-way town between Marrakesh and the desert that is pronounced “or-za-zat” which we quickly nicknamed “where it’s at” because this town was really neat and we felt like the only locals visiting the city. We took an overpriced tour of a Moroccan film studio where scenes from movies like the Mummy Returns, Babel, and Kingdom of Heaven were shot.

Day 3 was spent in a taxi (common means of transport here) heading to the Sahara desert.

On the night of day 3 we spend camped out in the middle of the Sahara. Evidently the month of June is the off season so not only did we get a good price on our tour, we were literally the only group present at 5pm when our camels left.

Picture the three of us, riding a camel for 2 hours in the deserted Sahara desert. Incredible.
Then we camp out in the middle of the Sahara. We were supposed to sleep in tents, but how could you stay inside when the stars are breathtaking? We opt to camp outside and stay awake as long as possible just taking in the views.

In the middle of the Sahara, camped out under the stars, I say constant prayers of thanksgiving. I’m so happy to be here and experiencing this.

Sarah, Michelle, and I leave for Morocco at 6am from the Luton airport to start our YEAR OF THE HIPPIE TOUR across Europe + N. Africa. We’re PUMPED and can’t believe that a trip we’ve been planning for months is actually starting.

Here is a picture of my sister and I doing our I can’t believe we’re going to Morocco today dance:

I had high hopes of blogging about my wonderful stay in Utopia (aka Cambridge) but due to time pressure (it’s nearly 2am and our bus is at 3 and DUH I’m not packed yet) I’ll have to breeze through with picture highlights:

Going to formal hall at Peterhouse with a WVU grad who recently enrolled at Cambridge:

Letting Elizabeth pick out what she wants to wear to formal hall:

Getting a tour of Cambridge with visiting WVU friends:

Going punting along the river with my cousin:

You can check out the rest of the photos here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2208393&l=f7c7b&id=25807013

My last week in Hungary was perfect. I had no classes left so the only “to-do” on my agenda was to meet with friends before I left and write my final paper for an online class back home. With so much free time I was able to:

Have dinner with locals:

Play soccer (aka football) with the Italians:

Attend the Bridge and Wine festivals in the city:

Welcome 14 wvu students to Szeged:

Visit a museum:

What breaks my heart is that I want to elaborate on all 5 of these memories. Each of them had such a positive impact on me. I want the blog readers to experience it too.

STUDY ABROAD!

Not only does WVU offer semester long study abroad options, it has a wide range of summer school stints too. Before I left Hungary I met a group of about 14 WVU students and professors who were on a 3 week summer school session that traveled around E. Europe while having class lectures along the way. The WVU course was titled The History, Religion and Culture of Eastern Europe and it “investigates the multi ethnic history of Hungary, Romania, and Serbia.” The summer school class was taught by Professor Kathleen Naglee, Robert Blobaum, and Daniel Borsay. Two out of the three professors spoke Hungarian and had spent a substantial amount of their life in E. Europe. Go WVU!

Here is a picture of when I met the group in Budapest:

I have a cousin through my dads side of the family who is a hardcore soccer (aka football) fan and invited my sister and I to go to the USA vs. England match on Wednesday. You bet we took her up on her offer! To make things ever better, we scored two extra tickets because my aunt pitched in and bought 2 tickets (one for her daughter Elizabeth and one for us to give a friend) and Amy’s friend backed out at the last minute.

Luckily we had WVU connections in the area who we could invite. I brought my roommate Emma who lived in the WVU International House with me last semester who is a native London’EER and Sarah was able to invite her friend Arwin who is backpacking around the UK for 3 months.

Even though USA lost 2-0, we had a good time.
I breathed the same air as DAVID BECKHAM! (insert like! oh my gosh! like! like! it was awesome! like! like!)

Below are pictures of the game:

On the upside of things, I have enjoyed being with my sister and cousin.

It’s scary what you start thinking is funny after hanging around a 7-year-old for an extended period of time. Yesterday Elizabeth was reading a book on Abraham Lincoln and Sarah asked her what the book was about. Her reply: “It’s about Abraham Lincoln. He like fought during the civil war and stuff.” But my sister thought she said, “It’s about Abraham Lincoln who farted during the civil war and stuff.”

For some unknown reason when we pictured Abraham Lincoln farting in the “civil war and stuff” it was hilarious. All three of us were hysterical. I’m not sure what has gotten into us.

Another inside joke with Elizabeth is that she brought an “emergency cat babysitting string” with her to England. I’m not kidding. It’s a 6 foot piece of yarn that would be used to leash a cat in just in case she needs to babysit one. It’s quite responsible actually. But since she hasn’t been called into duty yet here in Cambridge, she has to use the string for other purposes like holding the gift wrap up while she cuts it or trying to pick up flowers. But yesterday she asked me to tie a knot on one end of the rope so that it looks similar to a lasso with a loop on one end. Then she held one end of the string and threw the loop out of my sisters dorm window. When I asked her why she asked me to tie the knot, she nonchalantly responded, “Because I want to be a fisher of men.”

After I settled down from the roars of laughter I tried to explain to her that I don’t think that literally fishing for men outside of a college dorm window is what your Sunday School class teacher meant.