Oh, College

This past weekend was the stuff college is supposed to be made of. Friday involved a lot of doing nothing, and then a lot of silly things. Twas fun.

Saturday... was made of epic. Left the building at 2 to go get lunch. It was chilly and cloudy, but not too cold. Started raining lightly as I was walking to the cafeteria. Got a sammich with Ally. It was disappointing, so we went to the restaurant for french fries. Ran into Andrew there. After lamenting the sad, soggy, cold state of the fries, Ally went back to her room and Andrew and I went to get coffee. The coffee was neither sad nor cold; it was quite the opposite. While we were partaking of delicious black gold, the sky opened up. It straight poured. So we opted to stay in the cafe...

...for 3.5 hours. Oh yeah.

During this time, a bunch of international kids came in and out. Andrew and I were there the entire time, joined at different points by Bernardo, Simone, Eric, Lily, Annemarie, Kai... fail, I forget who else. I think at one point there were at least seven of us together. We made a tower of at least 13 cups: 1 orange juice, a few hot chocolate, some cafe au lait, and a few espresso + hot water. And a box of orange juice and some food wrappers. There would have been more but some people threw out their trash when they left.

The original plan had been for Andrew to go to the library and do work after we finishecd our initial coffee, and I would go back to my room and do the same. Instead, we stayed in the cafe til 6, stood outside for a while (it had gotten a lot colder but was only misty at this point), collected more people outside got food from the restaurant somewhere between 630-7, and then came back to the lobby of my building. I played Trivial Pursuit with Lily, Andrew, and Eric. I cam super close to winning, and then failed. And in the process I learned that I can't count to save my life, and I can't speak French. Also, gerbils are Mongolian and guys in Georgia are named either Bubba or Lester. Who knew? [Not Lily.] Poor German Lily kept getting American history/culture questions. It was sad but hilarious.

Yesterday I woke up for breakfast with Laura, but we didn't go. Instead I did homework with Jon and Liz. We went to lunch Charlotte and Eric and Lily and played Trivial Pursuit again. We played in teams of two, but Lily had to leave before it was over. Thus I was a lonely kitty. But I/we ultimately won, which was epic. Huzzah. I did some homework, ate some dinner, got more coffee, and then watche Moulin Rouge with Lily. And quoted it way too often. It was sweet.

I think I kinda like Morocco. =D

Fes

Last weekend I went to Fes/Fez with a bunch of people. The name of this city will forever bother me. In Arabic it's spelled with an "s" sound, not a "z." But I've seen it as both "Fes" and "Fez" on signs. Make up your minds, guys. Thanks.

Anyway. Friday was extremely eventful. We left at 430, right after my last class got out. And it was pouring. Hard. We took taxis from school to the grand taxi station. (There are two kinds of taxis here. Petit taxis only run within city limits. Grand taxis run between cities.) Six of us crammed into one car for the hour-long ride down the mountain to Fes. Did I mention it was pouring? At one point you couldn't see the road and you could barely see the headlights of oncoming cars. And the windows kept fogging up. It was fun. But people here are used to it, so we kept driving. Oi.

Once we got to Fes we wandered around a little trying to find a hotel. Gave up and had dinner. The coffee here is so good. *-* (I would still kill for a Dunkins or Starbucks or some other to-go coffee place.) Found a hotel. Wandered around Fes. Met up with Jonathan and Richard who, due to miscommunication (or total lack thereof) wound up with no place to stay. We had two extra spaces, so they stayed with us. We got really disappointing ice cream and went to the medina to meet up with a bunch of other AUI students who were there. After wandering around in an unsuccessful attempt to find a particular café, a bunch of us wound up at this one restaurant and basically just sat there for a while. It was funnn. Before going back to the hotel, Lena, Ally, and I went to a restaurant to get food. At like 1 am. More fun.

Saturday morning we went to a different café in the medina and had coffee. Mmm. Wandered a little, went to a drum and pottery shop, went to a brass and jewelry store, wound up going back to the same café for more coffee and a crepe-like thing. They have something here that's half-Nutella, half-vanilla spread. It was SO GOOD. From there, more wandering. Went to a tannery. It smelled funny. I got a wallet that I overpaid for. It still smells funny. Wandered even more. Wound up at a cafe. Took a taxi ride back to the other side of the medina, almost hitting a rogue donkey on the way. That was fun. >> Spent two hours at a restaurant just sitting and doing nothing. I don't think the guy liked us very much, but we bought food, so there. And since it was Ramadan it's not like anyone else was waiting to eat there. Some of the most ridiculous conversations ever were born during that meal. It was great.

From there: chilled at a hotel room some of the guys were sharing. Went to yet another café, but we didn't get anything. I definitely need to go back, though, because they have camel burgers. I am dead serious about trying one. From there we went to another restaurant for a joint birthday party; one girl's birthday was Saturday, the other's Sunday. The group I was with didn't stay too long though, because we wanted to get back to Ifrane that night and we kept getting conflicting reports of when the grand taxis stop running. Needless to say, we got back in time. I fell asleep for most of the ride and woke up just in time to ask the driver to leave us at school instead of taking us all the way to the marché. Got some seriously un-tasty dinner at the cafeteria, came back, went to bed. Huzzah, fun trip to Fes. The end.

Morocco pictures!

Lazy Cat is Lazy.

I know, I fail at updating this thing. Sorreh. But pretty much all I've done for two weeks is go to class, so there's not a whole lot to say.

However. Going to Fes today and coming back tomorrow night. Huzzah, touristy things. There will be photos eventually, depending on how long it takes to upload them here.

You Mean I Have to Do HOMEWORK?

So France this is not. Last semester I had 13 classes that met once a week for two hours each. This semester, 5 classes 2-3 times a week for 50 or 80 minutes. The classes are actually interactive. And they assign homework and take attendance, as opposed to last semester where, if you were so inclined, all you had to do was show up to the exam. It's a little weird readjusting. Obviously I'm used to it, as this is what I've done all my life, but after having gotten accustomed to sitting around doing nothing of import all day and not worrying about skipping the occasional lecture, I'm kind of like, "Waaaiiit... what am I doing now?"

Arabic: MWF, 8 am. Not a fan. It's not as easy as I had anticipated, mainly because I forgot we have to learn the alphabet before we can move on to actual language things. The more letters we learn, the better it's getting, so while after the first class I was like "OMG what am I doing?" I'm feeling pretty good about it now. The hardest part is the sounds; you can transliterate it using our alphabet, but you have to remember that an "a" doesn't make our "a" sound. And you have to remember that sounds are written differently anyway. I hear what I think is an "e" and get confused because that letter doesn't exist in Arabic. But hey, it will come with time. We've only had three classes so far.

Contemporary World History: MWF. Not really a fan. It's history from 1500 on. I hate history, but this classes fulfills one of my gen ed requirements at VCU and nothing else that I needed would fit my schedule, so there we are. It shouldn't be too bad because I've already studied the Renaissance and the Reformation and Industrial Revolution and all that a million and one times. We'll probably focus more on this region than my previous courses have, but I'm not worried. My prof is less concerned with our memorizing names and dates than our being able to analyze and explain things.

Comparative Political Systems: MWF. Intro-level Poli Sci. There's me, an American grad student, a German grad student, and a bunch of Moroccan undergrads. This class is amusing. I do a lot of just sitting there and listening because when he asks questions about Moroccan politics I obviously can't answer. Have I mentioned this class is amusing? The students especially.

Economic Development in the Middle East and North Africa: TR. Not a whole lot to say about this one. It should count for my degree, which is really all I care about. With any luck it will surprise me and I'll like it.

Women and Economic Development: TR. See above. Not really a fan of the prof, but hey, what can you do?

Such is my life at the moment. I can say chicken, rice, and yes in darija (literally "dialect," but also the name of the Moroccan dialect. Clever.) Progress is progress, right?

This Post is Not Interesting.

I am really not a fan of the school's internet. And by really not, I mean I want to kill it. It's way too slow. I can't use Skype or Magic Jack to call anyone, which is fantastic. The call goes through, but the video lags and freezes, if there's video at all, and the audio constantly breaks up and makes people sound like the teacher from Charlie Brown. Unfortunately there's nothing that can be done about it, because this is just how the network is. Everyone is having trouble, and when I asked my roommate about it, she called a friend who said he never uses Skype here because the connection is so bad. Right now I'm thinking that maybe, if I'm lucky, I'll be able to try it this weekend since a lot of people are gone. Selwa, my roommate, said that a lot of people normally go home on weekends, moreso right now because it's Ramadan.

Anyway, backing up.

My luggage finally appeared last Friday! I had been expecting it, but didn't want to say anything in my last post and jinx it. I'd called the airport Thursday morning to check on my bags, and was told they were supposed to land in Fes that night and to call back Friday morning to make sure they were there. I had to argue with the woman in French, which was fun of course. People from the school's Office of International Programs were making a trip to the Fes airport that night to pick up a student around midnight and to pick up bags belonging to at least 8 people. They were all on the same flight from Casablanca to Fes and apparently someone decided the plane was too heavy so they took bags off at random. I gave them my claim ticket and whatever and they said I'd get a phone call when my stuff was dropped off at the dorm. I was awake for a while and there was no phone call. Every time I heard a car or a suitcase outside I'd get up and check, and I saw nothing. When I woke up in the morning I went downstairs and didn't see any luggage, so I wanted to kill something. There was also no one at the desk. When I came down 45 minutes later to leave for breakfast I discovered it was hiding on the other side of the desk. Huzzah. Turns out they never called anyone about it; a girl whose bags were in that group said she was walking back to the dorm around 12:30 and they were just unloading the suitcases at that point, and they must have just kept them chilling there all night. Needless to say, I was super happy to have clean clothes and shampoo and all that fun stuff.

Weekend consisted of more orientating. Most of it was actually a waste of time because things didn't go as planned, weren't ready on time, etc. Sunday I went to the marché (market) in town with Laura because we needed ID photos for our residency cards. I got a Moroccan SIM card there, but it's not working in my phone. I haven't had the chance to go back and switch it out or something, because things have crazy hours because of Ramadan. They close mid-afternoon and open back up some time after F'tor, the huge meal for breaking the fast. I'm going to try to go up tomorrow. If I can't get it to work I may just buy a pre-paid Moroccan phone because they're pretty cheap. We'll see how it goes.

First week of classes went pretty well. There were a few hiccups along the way. For one, my 8am Arabic class was changed to 9am, then changed back to 8am but no one told us. So all but one person missed the first class, because she didn't know it was changed in the first place.

URRRRGH.

28 hour trip = made of epic fail.

Tuesday, just after noon: After getting lost in the parking deck at Logan, we get into the terminal so I can check in. We took our time because, hey, my flight didn'tlleave for another two hours. We stand in line to check my bags and suddenly the woman is changing my flight to the one that's currently boarding and leaves in less than half an hour. This, of course, leaves me with all of five seconds to say goodbye to my parents as I run to security and then to the gate. In tears, mind you. I'm sure I looked pretty awesome. I was a wreck the entire flight to Newark.

The flight to Newark was scheduled to be 1 hour and 50 minutes. The flying itself took about 46, and the rest was spent chilling on the runway in Logan and circling above Newark. Jeez. The Newark airport is a gigantic pain in the butt, and it took the opportunity to let me know I had blisters from my sneakers. Awesome. Luckily I had my flip flops in my carryon and I was able to squish the sneakers in. The flight to Rome wasn't so awful. I watched Star Wars (even though I almost fell asleep by the end). [EDIT: Wow I'm dumb. I watched Star Trek, not Star Wars.] I didn't have anyone next to me. There was a guy I wanted to punch in the face because he threw a hissy fit over not getting to sit with his friends. By "guy" I mean he had to be at least 40 and by "hissy fit" I mean he was yelling and swearing at not only the flight attendants but also at other passengers. Yeah. Awesome. Oh, and the little kid in the row behind me kept throwing up.

The airport in Rome was also a huge pain in the butt. Getting through security was ridiculous. The airport itself was yucky. And I was one of those annoying people they have to page because the aircraft was almost done boarding. I'd been standing at the gate the whole time, but the woman had announced that business and first class passengers would board first, then economy class. So naturally I'm waiting for her to announce, "Okay, economy class now." There were still plenty of people sitting in the waiting area so I didn't think anything of it. Then she announced my name and two others. Whoops. And of course this is one of those crazy European airports where you have to take a bus from the gate to the acutual plane. But people still hadn't finished boarding by the time we got there, so it was okay. That doesn't mean I didn't feel like an idiot anyway. The plane was almost half empty, so I got my own row. I slept most of the flight. The food was awful. I think I got maybe 5 hours of sleep total between the two flights.

When I got to Casablanca, SURPRISE my luggage didn't get there. Not just mine, but half the people on the flight. They didn't explain why, just took a ridiculously long time to fill out claim forms. And they don't deliver luggage here like they do in other countries. I was ready to kill something because I did NOT want to make the 5 hour trip again (each way) to get my bags. But when I told the guy where I was going he said they'd send them to Fes, which is about an hour away from here.

As a result of my bags being lost, I had about three minutes to get to the train. I decided to forgo stopping at an ATM for cash because I didn't want to waste time. Oh surprise, they don't take credit cards. So by the time I went back through security, went back up to the ATM, and came back down, the train was gone. Which means I had to wait an hour for the next one and miss the connecting train I wanted, meaning I'd get into Fes an hour and a half after I was supposed to. Oops. Called the school to change my pickup time. And cried again out of sheer frustration. Because I am that awesome.

So there I am, silly white girl sitting on the floor in the middle of the train station, crying, on the phone. And then on the train. At no point was I ever sobbing or anything, not even leaving Boston, but I was sniffly and teary and obviously upset. An older woman and her adult son sat across from me and offered me a kleenex. Aww. We talked in French for a little while (why was I upset? Did my boyfriend leave me? [HA.] Was I crying just because I was in Morocco?). It was hard to understand the woman because the train was super loud and she had a bit of an accent. They were nice though, so I appreciated it.

That train ride was 35 minutes. They don't announce the stops like they to in the US and Europe, you just have to hope you can see the sign for the station from where you're sitting. I managed to get off at the right stop, though, and find my next train (4 hours!!). It was a little awkward at first because it was a train with compartments like in Harry Potter, and apparently you just go and sit in whatever compartment you can find space in. I stood in the hallway for a little, amazed by a sketchball who didn't understand that my pointedly ignoring him meant "go away plzkthx." One guy getting off the train was like "Hey you can sit in there where I was." So I did. And then even though I was pretty sure my stop was the last one of the train but I was afraid to fall asleep anyway. I wound up sleeping for like 10 minutes at a time before jolting awake thinking I'd missed something. Not fun.

Finally at Fes, I met up with the Student Ambassador who was picking me up, and happily ran into Laura, the other girl who's here on the Boren Scholarship, and a guy named Steve. Hour long ride from Fes to Ifrane. They drive CRAZY here. Not as bad as Turkey, I don't think, but still pretty bad. Or at least there are fewer cars on the road so it doesn't seem so bad. Got to campus. Laura and I are in the same building, yay! The rooms are HUGE, even for two people. We have a milion and a half drawers, and an actual closet, and our own bathroom! For the two people. I'm kind of excited, because I was expecting to share with a lot more. I guess we lucked out being in the newest dorm. I haven't met my roommate yet because continuing students haven't moved in, but I hope things work out. The longest I've had a roommate was 10 weeks, I think? But we had an entire apartment and Renée is pretty awesome anyway, so that was a leeetle bit different from being here for a year. Pictures will come soon, anyway.

So dinner yesterday was a little disappointing. We can't tell yet if the food is always like that or not because it's Ramadan so the vast majority of people on campus aren't actually eating when we are. Between last night and today I met so many people though. I can't remember names or anything, but hey. So far everyone has been really nice and awesome. Orientation today was boring, as orientations tend to be. Only three more days of it, yay! We get to register in the morning, huzzah. I need to try to change one of my classes. More on that later.

So the travelling here was miserable, but the being here so far is pretty awesome. Turning out different from my trip to France, but I'm totally okay with that. I broke six nails during my travels, and normally I wouldn't care except they're all broken at crazy angles and both my nail clipper and nail file are safely packed away in my suitcases. Typing is actually difficult as a result. Awesome.

No pictures yet. Maybe later. Maybe when I have clean clothes and don't think I smell funny when I go out in public.

No comprendo :(

Wahoo! Only a month after the fact, I'm finally posting about my trip to Barcelona. Better last than never, right? Right.

The trip started off swimmingly. Courtney, Tristan, and I went to the train station around noon to get a train to Geneva, from where our flight was leaving at... 6 something? [Can I say "from where" in English? It works in French.] We found out there was no train, only a series of buses making random stops because they were working on the tracks on that specific route. Three days out of the whole month they were working on it, and we picked one of those days. So we got on the bus, got to where it stopped (an hour from Geneva), and were told we had to wait something like an hour and a half for the next bus. Which would take us somewhere else, where we could get a new bus that would take us to Geneva... buuuut we wouldn't get there in time for our flight. Awesome! So after I talked to the train info lady, we wound up taking a cab. To Geneva. For a grand total of 100 euro. Aaaand Tristan lost her keys somewhere between Chambéry and wherever the heck we were. Culoz?

After the cab ride, we suddenly have plenty of time to spare at the airport. This involved wandering around doing a whole lot of nothing. Whee. The flight to Barcelona was uneventful. After a train ride from the airport and a few changes on the subway, we found our hostel. The directions on the website lied, of course, so we walked by it a few times before we found the right street. Went back to the main part of the city but couldn't find Cori. Nobody's French phone wanted to work in Spain. :( Thus mine was rendered useless as well; I could call and text, but it didn't do any good since no one could answer. Fail. Had really expensive tapas. I tried crocodile & cheese. It was actually pretty good.

I may be slightly crazy, but when the guy said crocodile I was like "Must. Try." If only to say that I have.

Best part of the night:
In a train station. I freaked out a little. It was awesome. Even though it was closed.

Sunday we went to see la Sagrada Familia. It's pretty much the most ridiculous church I've ever seen. They've been building it since the late 1800's and at this point the projected finish date is like 2030. Yeah. Not going to post any of the 200 photos I took because you can't see half of it in any of them. You can see them on my Photobucket.

From there we went to lunch, met Cori, and went up to this old castle-fort-thing. It was interesting. La Sagrada Familia stood out from the Barcelona skyline. It reminds me of a giant spider creature, like something you'd see in Harry Potter or LotR. Go figure. We wandered around Barcelona a bit, then went to dinner at a place called Les Quinze Nits. Super cheap, really awesome. Super long line always starts in Plaça Reial, but it's so worth it. Went back to the hostel that night, talked to one of the guys at the check in desk, watched part of Iron Man with him and an Egyptian guy at the hostel. Hostels are cool for meeting people. :)

Next day we did a walking tour of Barcelona (it was free! I love Europe). It rained a little. Sad face. Wandered down to the harbor but didn't go to the beach. Had dinner at a place called Travel Bar, which was just that; little hideaway place for tourists. The dinner was only a euro with the purchase of a drink; we split a pitcher of sangria four ways, which meant 4 euro dinner. Epic win? Yes indeed. Wandered a bit, went back to the hostel, went to a club. I was in a fantastic mood the entire time because my wrist had decided it hated me again.

Tuesday was our last day in Barcelona. Slept late, went to Park Guell, which is this ridiculous park that Antonio Gaudi designed; he's also responsible for a lot of the ridiculousness in la Sagrada Familia. Went to the beach for a little while (sunburn fail!). I didn't go in the water, but I'd been in the Mediterranean twice before so whatever. Cold water is cold. Went back to Travel Bar to meet up for a cooking class they offered at their sister bar near the waterfront. Cooking class was less "class" than "sit here and watch me explain how to make paella." Also learned how to make sangria. That went over well. Seafood paella was pretty good, though having to peel the heads and legs off the shrimp wasn't fun. From there we went with a couple people from the cooking class to a little shot bar called Espit Chupitos. Chupito means shot. How clever. This place has over 500 shots and it was pretty awesome. They don't tell you what's in them, but some of them are fun. Some of them were scary (like the one called "diarrhea." No thank you.). There was a Harry Potter one that sparkled (by lighting the bar on fire and throwing sugar in it). Bob Marley one was layered green, yellow, and red. Etc. They were pretty clever. Went back to the hostel after a little while, got packed, and went to sleeeeep. Got up super early the next day to get to the airport, flew back to Geneva, killed a few hours there before catching a train back to Chambéry.

Overall, Barcelona was probably my least favorite place. There wasn't a whole lot to do or see. The stupid church is its biggest draw, I think, except maybe for the beaches. I did really like the old city and the few Roman things we saw, but that was really it. The city also reeked of urine, which was less than pleasant.

When it comes down to it, I prefer historical things to big cities, I guess. Paris and London and Istanbul all worked because they've merged the old and the new. Maybe I'd have liked Barcelona if I'd had more time to spend in the old city, I don't know. If nothing else, I can say I've been to Spain woo.