CGS Morocci and Qatar 2018

On the second day in Morocco, we started the day off with Arabic classes. After stuffing our faces, we went on a guided tour of Rabat stopping at many historical sites. These places included the Hassan Tower and the Old Medina. After a long, exciting day we returned to our host families, which was my favorite part of the day. The ride home was a hilarious one considering the driver spoke no English and we had no address. Fatima and I live on a very busy street filled with markets and local shops so I was very excited to be able to experience night life in Rabat! When we reached our house, we were greeted with fresh donuts and other pastries and then we took a walk through the town. Our hosts made us try their favorite delicacy... snails! We were given the snail broth to wash down the taste of snail.  As a treat they bought us flowers from the cactus plant which surprisingly don’t taste bad. These foods are definitely an acquired taste but I am grateful for the expe...

Today we woke up early to get on a bus for Fes, one of the most culturally significant places in Morocco. We said goodbye to our host families and buckled in for the three-hour long trip. When we finally arrived at Fes, we checked into our hotel and quickly headed across the street to a restaurant for lunch. They served us a delicious bean soup, followed up with the main course. I ordered kebabs, and while they were amazing, there were so many that I couldn’t finish them all before we had to leave.     Our tour guide then led us through some of the oldest streets in Fes; some were barely wide enough to walk through in a single-file line. They were also dark. Without our guide, we would have been lost in minutes, as Fes is practically a maze for an outsider.     After that, our guide led us into the old medina, built in the seventh century. There, the streets were full of people shopping and vendors selling goods, as well as lots of stray cats, waiting ...

The flight to Madrid was not up to most people’s standards but overall I thought it was a good flight. When we got to Madrid we got some food at the convenience store and explored all the expensive stores that were everywhere in that terminal. The wait for our flight was kind of long but we had Bitlife, so we were fine. I slept so well on that flight. Arriving in Casablanca made the trip feel so real and a wave of happiness struck me. We went through customs and went outside. It was so warm and all the signs were written in Arabic.   We waited at the corner of the street for a van to get a ride to Rabat, where we would be staying. The drive was really long. But all of the scenery was so cool. Not to be compared to what we would see later, which was so much cooler. We arrived first at the Bridges Cultural Center where we met the teachers and administrators.  Their English was so good. They had lunch prepared for us and we were served this amazing Moroccan chicken with...