On the road again

Yesterday we lost a couple of friends from our crew. Lukash, our seemingly perpetual couch-surfer who stayed with us for over 2 weeks in exchange for cooking and cleaning, continued on his 10-month bicycle trek. He went on to Casablanca, and once he receives his visa confirmation, will pedal on to Mauritania. Even though the lack of meat, eggs, and dairy in my diet seemed to lack luster, I'm going to miss that guy. He definitely brought a different opinion to the table, and opened my eyes to a few things in this world that I hadn't thought about before.

Roman the Swiss guy left us as well. Even though his stay was shorter, I really enjoyed his stay. We knew him but a few hours before he was invited to join us on our journey to the top of Toubkal. He is also traveling to Mauritania, and then to Senegal. We will miss him dearly, and I plan to visit him in Switzerland so he can teach me a 1080 on my snowboard ASAP.

On the way out, both Roman and Lukash commented on the drama that exists in the household. There are differing opinions, disagreements, invasions on personal space, and (un)wanted situations on almost a daily basis. Don't get me wrong. It's led to many a laugh the next morning. But, I think something needs to be fixed - whether it be attitudes or actions. Lukash made an excellent point on his departure -

"You're all here to 'Bridge the Gap'," he said, "but you can't even bridge the gaps in your house."

Ouch. But true.

Next week, Olga, Monica, and Nadia move out. Hicham, Gabriel, and Romain are moving in. At the end of the month, Kamil leaves as well. Meanwhile, 5 more trainees will be arriving from the U.S. before the middle of June, and moving in with me and Kate across the street. Confused yet? Because I definitely am.
Note: Since this plan seems to change by the hour, by the time you read this it may no longer be true. Just a warning, ha.

It's been a fun, drama-filled couple of days. Parties continue with the guys every night. Tonight, we're planning a huge welcome dinner for Kate (ravioli, wine, soup, etc). We'll be breaking in the oven at my house. This morning we woke up at 6:30am to go to the souq so that Nu, Lindsay's drum instructor, could get a horse skin for his drum. Olga, Gabriel, Lindsay and I followed Nu to the bus stop. We took an hour bus ride to bumfuck Morocco. He took us to where he gets his skins, and it was legit, a slaughterhouse. The first thing I saw was severed hooves. And then, a cow head. And then, intestines sitting on a table. We walked between two buildings, and looked in to see sliced open cow corpses. And then I realized I was walking (in flip flops) on blood. And the wheelbarrows people were pushing around were filled with blood and guts. Oh, and the smell...needless to say, I almost passed out/puked. Every so often a man walked by dragging the skin of a cow on the ground, and threw it onto the already lofty pile of cow skins.

I won't be eating red meat for a while.

All in all, it was a good trip though. We ended up doing some shopping in the rest of the souq and bought some super sweet outfits for the Roaring 20's Going Away Party for Kamil in a week. Once we returned we walked through the medina, and I did more shopping. Yay shopping, and how it makes me forget about animal corpses.

Solidarity

In a rare move, 3 candidates join in pledge on Darfur.

Sputnik and stuff

Today at work I sat in on an English class to see how other teachers do their job. We were learning about the word "to disappear". The instructor asked if I knew of any celebrities that had disappeared.

My answer: Amelia Earhart

They asked who Amelia Earhart is. I had to explain her story. Sometimes, I forget I'm in Morocco.

On the other hand, on the way home from work I saw a taxi driver wearing a Columbus Crew hat.

Rachid and Romain just came over with a large bottle of vodka. I'm going to do my best to not have a repeat of last night. Although, (and I left this out of my last entry), the argument about the Cold War with Rachid which had to be translated because he was yelling in Russian and I was yelling in English. Entertaining as hell.

Note: It is now the next morning, and I just realized that this entry wasn't posted last night as I thought it was. My fears were realized and there was a very real repeat of the night before. Now, there is drama with two boys who I've had to let down (gently) over the last couple days. On the bright side, I taught everyone how to waltz last night. Good times.

Pony!

Yesterday I took the bus to work with Simo. He showed me where the bus stop was, and we got on. The bus went through some of the poorer neighborhoods of Rabat. Simo said that they are destroying the slums to create nice, expensive apartments. I wish they would have created low-income housing instead, but what can you do. It's Morocco.

Again, I only spent about 15 mins at work. I talked to my boss Aziz again, and I'm going to go in for the rest of this week and do some training. Since I have no language teaching experience, they're going to show me the ins and outs of it.

When I got back, Kamil, Olga and I watched South Park for a bit on the laptop. There was a scene we particularly enjoyed that involved a pony and a carrot on a scare crow. Thus began an inside joke that ended up lasting for the remainder of the night.

Everyone returned from an info session, and we went to lunch at a cafe that had extremely disappointing chawarma, but extremely awesome juice. Kamil's computer crashed so he needed some software that Hisham had at his house in Kenitra. Also, we had to return the rental car from the weekend, so off we went. On the way, we stopped at the beach and played in the sand and water, and took pictures. Once in Kenitra, we went to Hisham's house and met his cat, Puma, and his mom, who is the cutest lady ever. While we were returning the car, Hisham scraped up against the curb. After all the driving through mountains, Marrakesh, Rabat, and Kenitra, we got in an accident at the very last possible second. Afterwards, we walked to the train station, stopped for coffee and a lovely little piece of chocolate cake at a cafe, and waited for the train.

Once at the train station we realized that we had about 45 mins until the train came. We spent the time taking "pony pictures." It started raining so we sat in the stairwell. There were two stairs you could go up, and when people tried to come up our side (which was all the time, since our side was more convenient), we yelled and pointed to the other stairs in Arabic. We would congratulate them with cherries when they went by. We almost gave one woman a heart attack, and I think we pissed off a few people.

Once we were back at the house, we found Romain and Rashid already drunk. I made myself a Coke and vodka, which Romain took away from me. He then made me do an extremely large shot of vodka. I went downstairs to get orange juice and Sprite to make drinks, and I'm pretty sure the vendor ripped me off because those two items cost 19 dirhams! Unfortunately I don't know how to bargain in Arabic yet, so there wasn't much I could do. The night got ridiculous pretty quickly, and soon enough, we were doing AIESEC dances and teaching them to the non-AIESECers and newbies. A ridiculous evening, but a fun one :)

The Great Toubkal-ian Adventure

The most random, awesome, emotional, breath-taking weekend of my life. Prepare yourself, because I definitely didn't.

So back to the car vs. train vs. who all's going on this trip debacle. When Hisham, Rashid, and Lindsay went to the rental place to find cars, they figured out we under-estimated the number of people who can drive manual through the mountains. So, Lindsay called me and asked that 5 of us take the train. Gabriel, Lucas, Sarah, Roman, and me booked it to the train station and got on the 5:45 to Marrakesh. About 3/4 of the way through the 5 hour trip, in the middle of nowhere, the stars came out and I spent my time staring out the window at the stars and listening to music.

At 10pm, Marrakesh appeared out of nowhere - a stretch of lights and sounds in the middle of a desert. We rounded a hill and suddenly it was there. We got out, and were immediately assaulted by a couple dozen taxi drivers, fighting each other to see who would rip us off first. Taxis in Marrakesh are like that - if they see that you're a tourist, they charge 10 times higher than they would any local. We first looked for food, and settled for a small vendor. I bought a large bar of chocolate that really came in handy later in the trip. We took a small taxi to the Grand Taxi stand, which brought us to this small city. Sarah did most of the bargaining for taxis since she speaks French and had been to Marrakesh before, and got us a decent price for the situation we were in. The Grand Taxi had a door through which we could feel the breeze, and Sarah and I cuddled both because of the cold, and because if the door flew open, I wouldn't have wanted her to fall out.

Around midnight we rolled into this small village on a mountain road. There were street dogs and cats running around everywhere, fighting each other. Some of the locals were awake, and they gave us some tea and watermelon at a table in a small cafe. The dogs kept coming up to us, and since there was a cat under the table we had to keep shooing them away so we weren't killed by the animal fight that would have resulted. Lucas wanted to play with the dogs, claiming he wouldn't be bitten because they looked nice. We didn't trust it so much though, so we asked the locals to keep the dogs away, saying Sarah had a phobia. We spent the next 3 hours playing Uno, and waiting for the others to come in the car, since there were no more taxis to Imlil, where a hostel was waiting for us. We spoke to some of the locals. The best part was when Lucas misspoke in French, and said that he "slept with an entire Berber village." We had to explain why that didn't translate correctly.

The others arrived, and Hashim drove Sarah, Gabriel, Rashid, Roman and me as far up the mountain to Imlil as he could until we got stuck. He was driving like a crazy person around the corners (no guard rails, 50 meter drop if we would have slipped over the side). I swore under my breath the entire time, and closed my eyes around every corner. When we got stuck, we all got out and started walking towards Imlil. Since it was about 3:30am, dark, and cold, it took us about an hour to get to the village. At one point, we heard the Call to Prayer, which was amazing to hear echoing through the valleys and hills. We wandered around for a while, looking for a hostel until a man in a hooded robe came up to us. I swear, he looked exactly like Obi Wan Kenobi. He found a hostel that was not only very cheap (40 dirhams!) but very comfortable - minus the fact that it didn't have blankets. I put on all the clothes that I had brought and tried to sleep.

Around 9:30 we got up and Gabriel, Sarah and I began the trek up the mountain. It was beautiful. We took our time observing the sites, taking pictures, talking to passers-by, etc. We stopped around noon for lunch at this little village. Never before has bread and cheese tasted so good. We continued walking. It seemed that there was a fog chasing us the way up the mountain. It caught up with us a couple times, but always it lifted so we could see the sights below. There were goats and sheep, wildflowers everywhere. Some people went up on donkeys, so we let them pass us. The conversation was awesome, and we talked about things from "If you could be anywhere with anyone right now, where and who?" (At the top of this mountain with our best friend) or drinking habits at our schools. At the village they told us that it was about an hour and a half to the refuge, where we would sleep the night. After about 2 hours we hadn't arrived, so we asked a passer-by how long it would take. She said about 1 and a half to 2 hours. After walking for so long, it was hard to hear that, so we looked for a second opinion. Another man who I don't think understood our question said 2 and a half days. We took a rest to eat a little, and then continued.

About half an hour from there, Sarah started feeling very ill. We tried to continue, but she had to stop about every half hour to rest. Her stomach hurt from the altitude and she couldn't breathe very well. The other group passed and went on to the refuge. The sun was going down, and it started getting very cold. A mist rolled in and the dampness made it even colder. I shared some bread and chocolate (yay!) with Gabriel and we tried to keep each other warm. Sarah had to decide whether she wanted to continue or go back down the mountain, but we decided to continue up, since going down meant 4 hours of hiking in the dark. Roman came back and helped us through the dark. It was only about 45 minutes to the refuge.

Once we got there, the others had been there for a while and the others had settled. They were making food and talking. There was some tension from the separation, some confusion about certain events and certain people's involvement and understanding of said events, and even some things that had happened before the mountain. Emotion and being 3000 meters up made things a little emotional for a little while, but then we shared a meal and things improved a bit. We decided to get up at 6am and start up the last part of the mountain, which was going to be a great deal more difficult and take 3-5 hours.

The next morning around 8am we were all up and ready to go. We started our climb, led by Hisham. It was very difficult. He had climbed the mountain before, and because he has long legs and is very athletic, the climb was easy for him, but very difficult for me. About 1/4 of the way up, I found it very difficult to breathe, and couldn't take more than 5 steps without becoming short of breath. Olga had similar problems, so she and I joined a guide back down the mountain. He took us down a very obvious path that seemed so much easier than the path Hisham was leading us on. We decided that in a year, we will come back and make it to the top of Toubkal - and be a little more prepared this time! We got the information of the guide who brought us back down the mountain and promised to notify him when we came back. Olga and I relaxed and talked while we waited for the others to return. I didn't feel very well, so I went to sleep for a little while.

Eventually, Olga, Gabriel, Roman, Romain, and I decided to go since that would allow for the rest, who, excluding Sarah, were still up on the mountain, to rest for a night and take the car back the next morning. Romain had to be back the next morning for work, so we had to get back. We started our trek down at about 4, which took about 4 hours. Gabriel stubbed his toe and you could see a bruise forming under his toenail. Gross. So, since he was walking slowly and we knew it would be difficult to get a car from Imlil to Marrakesh (about 60 km!), Roman and Olga all but ran down to see what they could figure out. When we all met in Imlil, Roman told us that he had found a man who was willing to drive us halfway to Marrakesh, and his son would take us the other half of the way for 500 dirham. We all piled into the cars and dozed through the trip. When we arrived in Marrakesh, we found that there were no trains back to Rabat. So, we got a taxi to take us back for 1000 dinars. Even though this was a lot, we agreed because we just wanted to get back. We parted ways with Roman, who wanted to see Marrakesh for the day. The taxi didn't take highways so it took him forever to get back to Rabat (300 km). When we finally returned to the Oudaya it was about 3am, and I forced myself to change out of the clothes I had been wearing for 3 days straight and got into bed.

This morning (ahem...afternoon at 2pm) I woke up smelly and sore, having not showered for 3 days. I'm back at the trainee house relaxing and thinking about the last 3 days and how amazing, crazy, and awesome they were. Today I don't go to work - probably for the best, because I am so physically and emotionally exhausted from the trip. Grey's is downloading and there's tea on the stove that Olga is brewing.

Life is good. :)

Love, Matts, and Mountains

Last night a bunch of us stayed in and drank a cheap bottle of champagne (sound familiar, anyone??) because the cheap bottle of vodka that we got froze. Yes. Froze. That's how cheap it was. Lindsay and Sarah had met a Swiss man named Roman at their surf lessons, and he joined us to drink. After a deep conversation about love, morals and religion, we went to the last 10 minutes of the Mawazine concert. Roman and I share a deep love of snowboarding and water sports. I agreed to teach him how to slalom ski if he taught me how to do a 1080 on my snowboard. I think the alcohol had a lot to do with the reality of either of those things happening. We went back to the guys' house, and I ended up having another deep conversation about Love and Matts with Hisham at the beach. If I ever write an autobiography, one of the working titles may be "Love and Matts."Others include "Assholes I Have Known", and "The Cheese Stands Alone."

This weekend me, Olga, Lindsay and Sarah planned to climb to the top of Toubkal, the tallest mountain in North Africa. A 4-person trip has turned into a huge debacle. The plan was to take the train to Marrakesh, stay in a hostel, and begin our ascent tomorrow. But more and more people wanted to go, so now we're renting cars, and my 150 dirham train ticket has turned into having to pay 600 dirhams to pay for a car and hotel rooms. Rawr. At least I'll have yesterday's episode of Grey's Anatomy waiting for me when I get home on iTunes, inshallah.

Matt and Adrienne are going to Thailand on Sunday. I'm incredibly jealous of the amazing experience they're going to have over 10 days. Ha, look at me. Here I am, having the experience of my life, jealous of other people's experiences. But I'm very excited for them, and I know they're going to have a great time.

Do you hear me,
I'm talking to you
Across the water across the deep blue ocean
Under the open sky, oh my, baby I'm trying
Boy I hear you in my dreams
I feel your whisper across the sea
I keep you with me in my heart
You make it easier when life gets hard
-Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat, "Lucky"

Stay posted for a very interesting entry after the adventure that is sure to be this weekend...

Proof that history repeats itself

2008: The new '70s!

First, the "New Vietnam" in Iraq...

Now, The Economist editor John Micklethwait says 2/3 of the entire world's population will soon be experiencing extreme stagflation - inflation mixed with unemployment, for those non-economist readers of mine. So much for the Phillips Curve.

Read here about how emerging economies are experiencing this phenomena. The picture that goes along with the article is a man in China "inflating" balloons. HAHA! Oh Economist, you pun me so...

Before we know it, people are going to be wearing mini-dresses, platform shoes, and big Farah Fawcett hair. Oh wait...

Why am I suddenly getting so political in my bloggage from Morocco?

is it worth the sacrifice?

I just read an awesome opinion article in the New York Times by Timothy Egan - The Invisible War.

A war...
-longer than any other American Conflict besides Vietnam - 5 years in March
-costing more than any other conflict besides WWII - could reach $3 trillion - twice as much as WWI, and 10 times as much as the Persian conflict
-4,000 lives lost and 30,000 wounded
-leaves returning veterans with higher suicide rates than ever - over 1000 attempted suicides per month

and yet, for the most part, we as Americans, are to carry on as if nothing is happening. We make no sacrifices.

As his own personal sacrifice, President Bush has given up golf. "I think playing golf during a war sends the wrong signal," he said in an interview.

Over the last couple days, I've started to fall into a routine. Wake up in the Oudaya in a beautiful house filled with wonderful trainees who I'm growing to love. Sounds from the street echo into the house as if the children are actually playing and screaming within our walls. Go upstairs, grab a couple things, and go back over to my empty house to have a cold shower, get dressed, and make my way up to the roof to read my book in the warmth of the sun. I'm often distracted by the panorama of the beautiful blue ocean view. At some point, my landlord or his wife, Amina, comes up and demands that I take coffee or tea. Around noon I go back to the trainees house where everyone is getting ready for whatever activities the day has to bring. This morning, after a day and a half, the newest episode of Grey's Anatomy was finally downloaded on iTunes so I watched it. Today, Monica, Nadia and I are going to go shopping for thing that I've been needing for a week.

So, a few of the trainees in the other house are here to work on a PBOX called Bridging the Gap. (The website will change soon, so I will post the new one) It's main goal is to break stereotypes, learn about cultural acceptance, etc. It has been frustrating because they all came here (and I did, as well) to learn about the Moroccan culture, and to meet and hang out with all the AIESECers here, but they haven't made much of an effort to get to know us. Yesterday at the BTG session, the trainees talked about that, and how BTG might actually be failing if we are not actually getting to know the culture. I had learned more about Candian, Singaporean, Polish, and Mexican culture from the other trainees living in the house than Moroccan culture. We split everyone up into 4 groups, and gave them all rules to Asshole (the card game). They were to play without speaking. Each group had a slight variation. In the middle of the game, we switch people around. They got confused, and couldn't speak or communicate at all with each other. It was to simulate going to another culture and not understanding the customs. And to the groups that existed, it was frustrating to have newcomers who didn't understand the rules. I think the point got across to them, because afterwards, a few of them came up and asked us to hang out with them. Lindsay and I have plans to take couscous on Friday with a girl and her family.

I wish I could upload pictures but it takes forever. They will come soon, I promise :)

It's the end of the world as we know it

US Republican presidential hopeful John McCain has said that, if elected, he would aim to remove most US troops from Iraq by 2013.
He also predicted that the U.S. will be able to capture al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden by 2013.

Conveniently for him, the Mayans predicted that the world will end during the Winter Solstice on December 21, 2012.

Today was my "first day of work." I went to the school and met my boss. It took about 15 mins. He told me that I should come back in 2 or 3 days, after which I will go through training. I start teaching on June 1, when Kate gets here.

Today was a fantastic day. By far, the best day I've had. It was gorgeous out. I went with Lindsay and Sarah, two of the other trainees, and a few guys from the Oudaya to some ruins to have a picnic and explore. I took about a gazillion pictures. I love all the trainees that I've met, and today I've really started to feel at home. I can't wait for the day when I wake up, open my eyes, and don't think OMFG WHERE THE F' AM I????!??!?!

Then I'm really home.

Hello, world. I'm ok!

Thought I can't go as far to say that everything is better, things took a definitely leap towards good today. I was able to Skype home to mom, Matt, and friends. I was reassured by many. After spending a significant amount of time cooped up in the internet cafe waiting for a certain someone to turn on his phone, I went to a cafe and ate an entire pizza by myself. Slowly. As in, it took me an hour. Even though I was starving and wanted to wolf it down. Sometimes, exercising constraint can give me a sense of control when all seems lost.

Soon after, I was called and told to pack my bags - I was moving to my new house! I'm staying across the street from the other trainees, in a big traditional Moroccan house from the 13th century. I will take pictures and post them later, but it's beautiful...in a very rustic, old, somewhat musky-smelling way. But I love it. The owner lives below with his wife and two children. Every time I've walked through the door, they've made me sit down and drink tea. They don't really take no for an answer.

I spent all evening with the other trainees across the street. They're amazing, and we ranted for an hour about the frustrations we were having with similar people and situations (among other less depressing and more interesting conversation). Later on, a bunch of friends of theirs came over. We turned on Eastern European music, ate vegan banana pancakes, beans and tomatoes on flat bread, and of course, cheap liquor, and enjoyed each other's company. At any given time, French, Polish, English, and Arabic could be heard spoken at the dinner table. I was happy to finally have a welcome dinner, and everyone toasted to a good experience for me. Now THAT'S what I'm talking about!

I posted earlier that I was worried I wasn't having the AIESEC traineeship experience. Worry not, good friends. It just happened.

Fabulous.

On top of everything, I have these guys as neighbors.

RABAT, Morocco - Moroccan security services have arrested 11 people accused of plotting attacks in Morocco and Belgium and having links to Iraq's insurgency, the Moroccan state news agency reported Monday.

Things arent going as well as I would like. After leaving a solid social network, comfortable home, and a sense of control of the important parts of my life, I feel utterly friendless, helpless, and homeless. Im doing my best to be strong, remember what AIESEC stands for, and keep my head above the water so I can breathe, but I cant help but wonder if Im just slowly drowning. Where is the traineeship experience that everyone raves about at all the conferences Ive been to?

I'm sitting in a cafe with Catarina and the rest of AIESEC Hassan's ICX team. They're speaking French so I only understand every 5th word, but it's very interesting to see ICX another AIESEC country. I see very familiar pieces of paper floating around. Acceptance notes, Job descriptions, etc. I hear common words in their speech. I wish I understood more of what they were saying. Visa, TN...it's all very familiar, yet I feel quite detached. Their activity level seems very high though. I'm mad jeal.

Yesterday I think I hit rock bottom. I was sitting at an Cyber Cafe, and couldn't find the @ on the keyboard. I had to Google "at", go to the Wikipedia site for "at", and copy and paste the "@". God love technology. Anyways, on Moroccan keyboards, the z, w, and a are all mixed up. I was losing my mind. Also, my Skype is being stupid. I kinda freaked out because I hadn't talked to friends or family in so long. Everything was starting to build up. I've been here for 4 days, and I'm still living out of my suitcases at Hayat and Catarina's. I start work on Monday and I don't know my way around yet. I'd love to go explore, but the language barriers are a problem. I can't wait to meet more people, and for Kate and the rest of the American trainees to get here.

On the way back from the internet cafe, I heard "Sex Bomb" playing down the street, and felt much better. Geez, AIESEC has a way of playing with my emotions sometimes.

Last night I also ate my first Moroccan pizza. They were amazed that I've never had tuna on my pizza. Go figure. It was very good though. The pizza is huge, like Brooklyn-style, but not nearly as much grease. I think I could get used to this :)

Stateside

Oops, forgot to share about this. But it's completely unrelated to the last post, so whatever.

Three months ago I attended a rally led by Kal Penn and Nick Cannon. A lot has changed since then. Nick Cannon is now happily married to Mariah Carey. Good for them. The writers strike ended and Kal Penn released a wonderful feature film called "Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay" and is once again starring on House. All is well in the world.

Kal Penn recently wrote a letter to the superdelegates, which appeared in a political editorial blog in the New York Times, in which he rallied all superdelegates to send their support to Barack Obama. In this letter, he cites his experience AT MY SCHOOL!!!

Young voters are mobilized for Barack in some of the most unlikely places. I’m reminded of a very moving event at the largely conservative Miami University of Ohio several weeks back; Ranked as the 4th least diverse school in the nation by the Princeton Review, our surrogate rally drew 500 students – a large number of whom showed up with handmade “Obama ‘08″ signs. The College Democrats on campus were blown away, having never seen more than small double-digit attendance at any of their general meetings. These several hundred students, a great many of whom were conservative Republicans, came to learn more about Barack Obama and left that night as supporters. I ask you not to deny them the opportunity to support the Democratic Party.

Yessiree, I was one of these who showed up with a home-made Obama '08 sign :) Aside from that though, with all the work I've been doing to figure out how to make Miami a more diverse and accepting school, this is definitely a step in the right direction.

Yay internet...AND MOROCCO!

Three days into Morocco! Since the place I'm staying at doesn't have internet, I have to go to cafe's to access it, and this is my 2nd time online. Thus the lack of blogging thusfar. I was a smart thinker and bought a little journal that I've been carrying around and jotting things down in. I'm going to do my best to summarize my thoughts over the last few days. They've been running rambid (is that a word? I think so...) so try to bear with me while I write the most confusing, sporadic blog entry of all time.

I'm gonna get the complaints out of the way before I rave about how much I love it here.
1. I don't speak French or Arabic. It makes it very difficult to communicate. I'm trying to listen and learn. It's going to be a long process.
2. Lack de internet and suckiness of computadora. Turns out my computer doesn't register sound from a microphone. Horray! I'm going to have to find another way to Skype. Also, I'm having trouble adjusting to the lack of internet. I guess there's some sort of internet key you can get and have internet everywhere. It sounds intriguing.

Yep, that's about it. Now onto the good stuff...
1. Food. Muy good. Lots of eating with hands, and messiness which I enjoy.
2. People. Everyone I've met so far has been so nice. Simo took me around the city on the first day, even though I was exhausted from the trip. I don't think he would have let me lay down and rest if I asked, but it was good because I got a lot of stuff done - got a phone to use in Morocco for $35 (very nice!), met lots of people, etc. I'm staying with Catalina and Hayat right now while we wait for AIESEC U.S. to give us money for the apartment we found. Catalina has been showing me around the city for the most part over the last couple days. I also met a bunch of people on the MC. I've met so many people that I don't even remember their names.
3. Medina. Walked through it for a little bit yesterday, and it was awesome. Lots of colors, carpets, shoes, fun stuff for sale. Obvi I had to buy something, and Catalina did the bargining for a pair of really cute orange shoes.
4. Sights. Yesterday Catalina and I walked to the Mausoleum, where King Hassan II is buried. There are lots of ruins there too, of a mosque that was destroyed in an earthquake. We saw gardens, and walked around. Good times.
5. Parties. Last night we went to a nightclub where they were playing house music. The DJ was very good, and from Portugal. There were, legit, girls in small, small skirts and gold tube tops and knee-high boots dancing on little blocks like crazy people. It was insane. "Freed from Desire" played and it made me really happy.

Anyways, that's my summary of the last three days. It's been a whirlwind, for sure. Once I am able to blog more, I will write things in a less general way. I'm taking lots of pictures so hopefully I'll be able to share those soon, when I find a way to get my pictures from camera to computer (I left the connector at home...damnit)

More later, I promise

The rest is still unwritten

As I write this, I'm sitting in the Dayton Airport waiting for my flight to Atlanta, which will bring me to Paris, and then to Rabat in the next 20 hours (God willing). CNN plays on the TV screens around me, blasting news of devastation around the world, election results, and local headlines. News, for the most part, of pessimism, when all I feel is optimism. The terminal smells oddly of my ballet studio from childhood, bringing me back to an awkward time when I thought I could dance. Around me are people in business suits (who else travels on a Tuesday)? My phone rings every 5 minutes with people who have read my Facebook status (Caitie is leaving for Morocco TODAY!) and want to see if they can catch me before I take off. My legs are cramping because in order for my feet to touch the ground, I have to point my toes. Why doesn't the world cater to those who are 5'2"?

Behind me are 3 years of "adult memories" (if that's what you want to call my college experience). Friends and family. A boy I love who's being very generous an understanding of the fact that I want to leave for 3 months. Seven months of work for AIESEC U.S. that was just starting to take off. Indecisive superdelegates. My friend Mike, who yelled my name from behind security, because he was dropping his brother off at the airport and happened to spot me. A mother who doesn't completely agree with my decision to jet off for the summer, but supports me anyways. A father who doesn't speak to me because of decisions I make like this. On the way to my gate, I stopped at the "Welcome to Ohio" gift shop. Surrounded by Ohio State gear, Ohio Pride tshirts, and Birthplace of Flight shot glasses, I try to feel emotional about leaving this grand old state. Nope. Not yet, anyways.

Before me is a summer. A clean slate to fill with memories and experiences. God only knows what will come of it, but I can't wait to find out.

My next post will be from Rabat, Morocco (unless I get restless in Atlanta or Paris...)

Drama, drama, drama

Note to self: Next time, don't make snap judgments around career decisions and sign up for professional exams the Tuesday after exam week. Especially because you know you'll change your mind about what you want to be when you grow up a week later.

Another Note to self: Don't trust 25-year-old immature alcoholics who still haven't graduated from college, take on full-time jobs that pay $8, and date ugly boyfriend-stealing skanks. Don't trust the ugly boyfriend-stealing skanks either.

In 24 hours I'll be on a plane that's taking me away from all of this for 3 months. Let's hope my problems stay in Ohio where they belong. I'm looking forward to a drama-free summer!

be my escape

There are times in my life when I wish I was stronger. Now is one of those times. But when someone threatens my pride, threatens my relationships and friendships, threatens everything that I hold dear and near to my heart, I can't help but be weak. Break down, reach out to those who I think care about me, only to have them smash my heart into pieces.

It would figure that this year would end like this. In shambles, questioning many friendships.

Why can't I be one of those people when a random girl comes up to me in a bar, hits me, and tells me to stop talking shit about her sister, strikes back? Why did I have to take it, listen to her berade me and my spirit for 10 mins, with friends listening?

I guess I'll never know...

Of all the times to leave the states, this would probably be it...

tell me sweet little lies

I ask of you .... how am I expected to study when I know that tonight is Oxford Exodus? (formally known as Red Brick Rasta) Possibly the last time I will see many of my friends. On a lighter note, I am told that Oxford Police turn their heads to the open container law for this evening. Also, Jason Gentile, Soundscape, and Cavashawn will be entertaining us with their soulful sounds. Rock on.

CONFESSION: I have told several people in the last week, "Yes, I will see you before I leave for Morocco/you leave Oxford" just so I don't have to say goodbye.

GT is ok!

Yesterday, AIESEC Georgia Tech graced us with their presence. Preston, Thomas, Kyle, and Nate arrived just as I was walking back from my Abstract Algebra exam. Which, by the way, was HELL. We spent the day enjoying beverages, bagels and Skippers, walking around Uptown and campus, showing them our office, playing ultimate and in the Shriver fountain, napping, and having a great time :)

AIESEC Miami made a great showing despite our exams being this week, and welcomed our visitors by joining in the fun at various times.

"Here's to keeping up the ratio that Miami and Georgia Tech enjoy" - Preston Rhea

The boys leaving this morning was painful, because now I have to return to real life where I have a looming Optimization and Actuarial Exam. Not to mention, I'm leaving for Morocco in 6 days and I haven't even thought about packing. The next week will prove to the quite interesting...hopefully in a good way!

Karma's a bitch

Ronaldo transvestite scandal

This is too entertaining not to post, even during exam week.

"Having dropped off his girlfriend at her house in Rio de Janeiro on Monday night, the 2002 World Cup winner picked up three prostitutes.

When they all booked into a motel, the AC Milan striker discovered that the prostitutes were in fact men."