Today, October 8th, marks one month that I have been in Rabat! I can't believe how fast this month has gone by already! Here are some photos from the past few weeks: View of the Atlantic Ocean just a few blocks away from where I live. The shoreline here is epic! Sunset over the Atlantic. An amazing mural in my neighborhood, L'Ocean.
1 Comment
After lots of preparation and traveling, I have finally made it to Morocco! On September 5th I said goodbye to Wisconsin and arrived in Washington, DC where I met the 12 other students on the same program as me. We learned lots at our PDO and had a fun time getting to know each other. One of the coolest things we did was visit the Moroccan Embassy and have some representatives speak to us, and we were also able to see some monuments! I have no idea why, but I think my roommate and I got the nicest room in the hotel! This photo was taken from our balcony. Exploring DC! On September 7th, we left the States and headed for Morocco! Our flight to Paris was delayed multiple times, and when we got to Paris we literally had to run in order to not miss our connecting flight to Rabat! Ahumdullah, we didn't miss our flight and nobody lost their luggage! At the airport we met our Local Coodinator, Colleen, and from there we went to another hotel near our school to unpack and refresh ourselves after having flown for I don't even know how long. Colleen took us to a café where I had some amazing atay bna'na' (mint tea). She showed us around Agdal, the neighborhood where our school is located. It's a very cool area!
On Sunday we took a train to a town called Bouznika to go to Plage David with our language partners (Moroccan college students who help us learn Arabic and find our way around Morocco). It's hard to believe, but in just 12 days I will be arriving in Rabat, Morocco where I will be living for 9 months! But before that happens, I will be flying to D.C. on Monday (September 5) where I will finally get to meet the other 12 students that I will be going to Morocco with! Up until this point we've only been able to communicate through Messenger on Facebook. In D.C. we will have our PDO, or Pre-Departure Orientation. I'm guessing we'll go through the handbooks we were given earlier and just learn lots so that we are prepared and all set to go! After our few days in D.C. we'll be off to Rabat on September 7th! Additionally, I also have found out about my host family! I will be living with a single mother, her 2 daughters/my 2 host sisters, and my roommate, Clay! I will be living in a neighborhood called Quartier de L'Ocean, or The Ocean Neighborhood. And as the name might suggest, I'll be just a couple blocks from the Atlantic Ocean! I cannot wait to arrive and meet my host family in person! Photo of Quartier de L'Ocean Courtesy of TripAdvisor In the next few days I'll be packing (and hopefully not forgetting to bring anything), learning as much Arabic as I can, and even brushing up on my French since French is also a very common language in Morocco.
I'm not quite sure what else to write, but I can't even express how excited I am for this adventure to begin! Blog posts from Morocco are very soon to come! I am so incredibly excited and proud to say that I will be living in Rabat, Morocco from early September 2017 until late May 2018! I will be going to Morocco because I am a recipient of an NSLI-Y scholarship. NSLI-Y is a program run by the US Department of State which awards scholarships to a select number of students each year to go abroad to study a foreign language. The goal of the program is essentially to get young people to learn "critical" foreign languages and to gain a better understanding of other cultures. (For more information on NSLI-Y, click here)
My NSLI-Y journey started way back in October 2016 when I submitted my application. I had always thought that it would be cool to study abroad, so when I found about NSLI-Y through my Spanish teacher, I decided I would submit an application because "why not" but also because I had always wanted to learn Arabic. A couple months later in December I got an email saying that I had been selected as a "semi-finalist" for the program and I really started thinking that I actually had a chance at receiving a scholarship. After finding that out, some of things I had to do were: be interview by an AFS volunteer, complete a medical evaluation and get my passport. After waiting for what felt like an eternity, I finally got an email on April 7th whose subject line read "NSLI-Y 2017-18 Application Status" and my heart started racing. I opened it, and read the following: "Dear Hunter, we are pleased to inform you that you have been selected to receive a 2017-18 NSLI-Y scholarship!...Your scholarship is for the Arabic Year language program." I couldn't believe it. I had actually been selected! Words cannot describe how happy, excited and grateful I felt when I read that. I feel so blessed and truly honored to be one out of the only 13 students in America chosen for this specific opportunity and I cannot wait for it to begin! Here are some basic details about my upcoming adventure: -I leave on September 5th to go to Washington, D.C. There, we will have our pre-departure orientation and I will finally be able to meet the other students that I will be going with! -On September 7th, we depart D.C. and head for Morocco! -While in Morocco we will be paired with another student to live with a Moroccan host family. A typical school week: We will have 3 hours of Arabic language instruction every day and 1.5 hours of cultural class a few times per week. In addition to that, we will participate in various cultural and community activities and even have outings where we visit other parts of Morocco! Thanks for reading and stay tuned! |
AuthorMy name is Hunter and this is my blog about my academic year in Morocco! |