Hiking in the mountains!

Yesterday was a five hour orientation into the school...awful...they basically told us to wash our hands, dress modestly, and study hard. After I went to one of the TA's offices to ask about some hiking trails I had heard about in the city. Maryam (a grad student here) gave me the name of a local campsite that is about six miles from campus--Ain Vitel. The director heard us chatting and ran out of her office and told me that I shouldn't go unless the hiking club went with me (there is EVERY type of club you can imagine here) and the Moroccan students won't be here until the middle of this week. I was craving and adventure and Maryam winked at me--so I grabbed a few people and went ahead. One guy, Jacob from Harvard, hunted down a map and found the way for us, and off we went!
IT WAS TOTALLY WORTH IT! The waterfalls that were promised weren't what I expected, but to get to Ain Vitel you have to hike up a rocky mountain. It was amazing. We decided the fastest way was to forgo the path and cut through the moutaintop. Agan, TOTALLY WORTH IT! The views were amazing--we saw farmers tilling with their donkeys and two little boys ran up to us asking for dirham in exchange for donkey rides. A few guys took them up on their offers. At Ain Vitel there were Moroccans bathing in the water and children playing in the falls. A few guys were riding their horses, which looked like they couldn't have been more than two, through the water and tried to get us to ride with them--again, for a few dirham. None of us though riding off into the sunset on an unknown horse with a peddling Moroccan should be in the day's schedule, so we passed up that offer.
At the top of the mountain I got to use my French skills when we came across another farmers bee hives. His angry donkey tried to neighed (is that what they do?) at us and almost charged, then he came from nowhere and saved the day.
Today I started my Arabic class. Although it's a beginners course, in two weeks we aren't allowed to use English on campus. I thought it was in class only, but it's throughout campus. I guess that's a good thing in the long run--but I'm the only one without an Arabic background, so I'm TERRIFIED! I'm guessing my French will be improving significantly.
I'm signing up for another class tomorrow which starts Thursday. The instructor promises the work load won't interfere with my Arabic because it's mostly done in class and on field excursions. Every weekend the class goes to different locations throughout Morocco and all travel expenses are included in the course load. There is an option (course D) that combines Arabic and North African Contemporary Issues that makes the course less than $500 more expensive--I would have spend that traveling independently throughout Morocco anyway. PLUS the course goes to some of the more remote areas of the country that I wouldn't have had the chance to see as opposed to the more touristy areas. There are two open weekends that I can still travel independently or stay on campus.
I still haven't met my roommate. She's supposed to get here tomorrow.
Here's some picture of campus and Ain Vitel! More to come! Miss you all!

Made it to Fez!

Made it to Fes by way of flight from Dublin, Madrid, and Casablanca then a train to Fes. (im done capitalizing and using any grammar of punctuation now... im using an french stlye keyboard and all of the keys are out of order. imagine throwing all your keys in a sack, dumping them on the ground, then trying to type. forgive me until my computer is fixed.
i decided to take a train to fez instead of the flight because i ran into a group of students in madrid from yale going to a school called Alif. i had a strong gut feeling that i should travel with them instead of taking my flight... good thing i did... still today there is a group of 15+ students missing because of cancelled flights (including mine).
the night in fes we accidently did something stupid. we were coaxed into a diner to have dinner... turned out to be a brothel. DONT WORRY. im alive to tell about it. they applauded when we left. the back room was guarded and had masked belly dancers/strippers going in and out. needless to say ive been ,ore careful about dining since then.
the food is certainly....different. last night in Ifrane we had *chicken* (im not sure how to describe it other than i dont think it was clean and thank you Mom for forcing that Hep A).
the university is GORGEOUS and very very modern. its in the middle of the atlas mountains, dry air and very cool at night. the villager of ifrane has its safe and sketchy areas. the village itself is rustic and serene. today we are going on a hike to the waterfalls that we saw in a postcard. ill posts pictures as soon as my computer situation is figured out. IT opens on Monday.
for now all i can say is i love it here and im having the time of my life!

a note__im a little nervous because the group im with is comprised of yale, harvard, and brown students. all of them have at leqst 1 year of arabic background and some have three.

more to come!

Copies, Copy, and make a COPY!

Taking care of everything for my trip today. I planned my itinerary a few days ago. I'm flying into Dublin where I leave immediately for Madrid. I'll spend the night in Madrid (in the closest Hostel--the airport keeps my bags). Then off to Casablanca for a day and night. THEN straight to Fez and Ifrane for two months.
On the way back, the flight takes me back through Casablanca and Madrid--THEN I get to stay for four days in Dublin!!! I can't wait for that. I've been looking at the safest hostels and they're pretty affordable. I can't wait for my adventure!!! I'll admit it's a bit nerve racking that I'm going alone, but that's part of the adventure (and part of what makes it so exciting).

Back again

I did a horrible job keeping up with this thing the first time, but let's try again.

I'm leaving for Morocco in roughly two and a half weeks to attend an intensive language study program. I know absolutely no Arabic, so this should be interesting. Dad gave me a book about a month ago that he used when he was working overseas (Arabic Language for Foreigners ).
Everyone keeps asking me what made me choose Morocco, so I suppose I'll explain myself.

What's funny is this is the short version of how it happened.
When I went into the Study Abroad Office, I was interested in doing my student teaching abroad. I came to find out that only a few countries were offered, it would be an expensive process because I would have to do it through an outside institution, and I was worried it would hurt my chances of getting a job as a teacher if that's what I choose to do. I was shown the popular choices for students of study abroad and I talked to a girl who was in the office that went to Greece. The director, Janis Halpern, asked me what the focus of my education was and where I saw myself in the job market. I explained to her what I liked about my internship these past summer and winter breaks at RW Armstrong--the logistics, the organization, and mostly the constant influence of a variety of cultures constantly being shown to me. I told her that I am interested in the structures of language; Dr. Latta's English 310 and 410 focused on the history, grammar and technicalities of English, and were two of my hardest and most rewarding classes because they forced me to address the hardest parts of the English language--the parts that didn't come naturally to us as native speakers. Then Janis showed me information on Morocco and a language study program. On the application, I wrote exactly what I told Janis. I'm the first student from ISU to go to Morocco, but Janis has been to the actual school and I'm excited to meet with her next week and see all of her souvenirs.

I got a scholarship for the program, so it's helping with the cost--nowhere nearly covering it, unfortunately. I'll fly home the first of August and then move to Indianapolis for my student teaching at Lawrence Central and Belzer Middle School. Off to the real world, I suppose.

*Does anyone know if you can carry on a hard guitar case or if you have to check it? I would assume check it, but that would mean I need a harder shell case.
*Facebook message me or leave a comment on here with your email address, PLEASE! I'll try to send out a ton of emails.
*Keep me updated on you, too!

I wanted to warn everyone that there wouldn't be loads of phone-call communication while I'm gone. I can call through Sype to landlines, but I'm budgeting every penny.

Ahh..writing this just made me so nervous!