It's been awhile, so I just wanted to share some photos from the past two-ish months! I've been extremely busy lately with life here, especially with working on my Capstone project which is due in about 2 weeks. (It's really stressing me out!!) But anyway, here are some pictures that I hope are interesting!
2 Comments
Two weekends ago we took a short weekend long trip to Ifrane. Ifrane is a city located about 2.5 hours to the east of Rabat in the Atlas Mountains. It's a very unique city because of its architecture, as it was built to look European and is called "Morocco's Switzerland." In addition to that, it also snows quite a bit during winter! We had originally planned to travel there during Christmas, but decided to wait until snow was in the forecast.
During our fall break that we had a couple weeks ago, we had our first week long excursion!
We first went to a town about 30 minutes outside of Fes called Ain Cheggag (about 4 hours from Rabat). I'm not sure what the best term would be, but Ain Cheggag is a lot more rural. It's a small town with about 20,000 people living there. When I say it's more rural, I mean that there aren't some modern amenities like running hot water, showers, or "normal" toilets (just squat toilets, but the people there seem to prefer squat toilets over what I and most people of the Western world would consider a "normal" toilet). There, in groups of 3 we were placed with host families. I, along with 2 other students, lived with a boy my age and his family. They were incredibly friendly and welcoming and I am so lucky to have gotten the opportunity to stay with them for the 4 days that we were in Ain Cheggag! Each day in Ain Cheggag we participated in different activities. Our first morning there we went to the Dar Shebab, which translates to something like "House for Young People." It's were the local youth can go to spend time with friends, play games, and participate in various activities. When we were there, we sang traditional Moroccan songs, both the Moroccans and Americans sung our national anthems, and we gave short, informal presentations about cultural diversity in both of our countries. It was a really cool exchange for all of us! Other things we did in Ain Cheggag included getting a tour of the town (which is actually quite large size-wise), picking olives at an olive grove, and going to a nearby nature area! While it was a little bit rough being out of my element in a place like Ain Cheggag, it was also really cool and I enjoyed my time there! Below are some pictures from Ain Cheggag! So I know I'm really late to make a post about this, but better late than never! Over a month ago already, my program took a trip to Casablanca. There, we visited Hassan II Mosque, The Mall of Morocco, and Sidi Moumen. Hassan II Mosque: Hassan II is located along the Atlantic Ocean in Casablanca and is the largest mosque in Morocco and the 13th largest in the world! It was completed in 1993 under the leadership of King Hassan II and only uses materials from Morocco (except the chandeliers and some columns). The capacity of this mosque is 105,000 people in total, 25,000 inside and 80,000 outside! When I was thinking of ideas for my next post, I thought it might be interesting to share what an "average" day for me looks like. No two days are the same of course, but each day goes a little something like this: I first wake up at around 7/7:15 and take a shower. After that, I eat breakfast which our host mom prepares for us. The food's always zween bzef! For breakfast we usually have baghrir (almost like a crêpe with holes on the top of it), m'smen (somewhat similar to a crêpe but with more layers), toasted bread with La Vache qui rit, fruit, and sometimes even cake! To drink, I either have coffee or milk.
[Above is a photo taken from the rooftop terrace and below is an example of breakfast!] |
AuthorMy name is Hunter and this is my blog about my academic year in Morocco! |