Asilah and Tangier

Been a while... too long. A lot has happened. Too much for me to write about in proper detail.

Asilah - few weekends ago. The weekend I had food poisoning, I was supposed to go to Chefchaouen with a group of international students. So the week afterward, I went with the same group to Asilah. Its still my favorite place in Morocco. We took the train, just like last summer when I went, and we stayed at the same place Friday night that I did last summer.

Saturday was a different story. We went to the beach, but this tie we took a horse cart instead of a taxi, and it was a hell of a lot more fun. We stayed on the beach all Saturday. Our plan all along had been to camp on the beach Saturday night. After dinner, we asked if the owners knew of any place we could camp. They said we could stay in their restaurant, which was a little shack on the beach. All went well, until the Moroccan MPs that were guarding the beach at night began to bug us. Apparently we didn't have the proper paperwork to be staying where we were. The police didn't make us leave, but being bugged by soldiers with loaded automatic weapons was somewhere between stressful and interesting.

The guys we stayed with were really cool. Im friends with a few of them on Facebook now. We stayed up really late, playing guitar and talking with them in Spanish.

Tangier was nice also. I went there with a different group two weeks after Asilah. Definitely had the best medina I have been in, and the beach was pretty nice too, although Asilah had bigger waves. Tangier was more expensive too, although the squid and octopus there was definitely worth the extra couple dollars. I also went into a Moroccan nightclub for the first time. Nothing much to write about there.

Two weeks after Tangier (this weekend), we were going to go to Al Hoceima, a town a little like Asilah on the Mediterranean. Unfortunately, when we got to the bus station in Fes, the bus to Al Hoceima was sold out. So I was here all weekend. Good thing it was a good weekend for watching football.

Other than that, I've spent most of my time on campus. Rugby is going well, and it gives me a good opportunity to practice my French and Arabic. Classes going well, but midterms are coming up...

AUI Week 1 - Photos

Got it to work!

This is the mosque in the center of campus. Thank God (actually thank Allah, I guess) that it doesn't blare the call to prayer tornado siren that every mosque in Fes does at sunrise. Although it was nice to hear that again in Fes yesterday.

AUI Week 1

Well, I'm finally here and not too busy or too sick to do this. I arrived in Morocco eleven days ago (does NOT feel like it has been that long). I took the same travel route as last time, by air to Casablanca, then a train the Fes. This time, I actually enjoyed the train ride because I wasn't lost or relying on someone else to guide me. At least I enjoyed the parts I was awake for, which wasn't much because I wasn't able to sleep much on the planes. Once in Fes, I was met by Anas, one of the AUI student ambassadors, and we drove the fifty minutes or so into the Mountains to Iraine and Al Akhawayn (holy shit, I spelled that right without checking) University.

Its an incredibly beautiful campus. Im having trouble getting the images off my iPod, so I'll try and post them later. The town is very pretty too. All of us international student have been enjoying the few bars in town, especially one that everyone calls "Aggies". No one is sure what the real name is. Aggamem? Aggamemnon? Apparently theres also a club in town that has "Ladies night" thats very popular with the students, but I didn't go.

So after I got here, I had a day to sleep in, adjust, and get my bearings. After that, 4 days of orientation. After that, classes started. And the night before classes started, I got violently ill for about 24 hours, followed by three days of horrible indigestion and stomach cramps. So I only made it to three out of five classes this week. But I did finally get to experience nationalized healthcare firsthand! I went to the Health Center on Campus with my RA, who translated, explained my issues, saw a doctor in 20 minutes, got medicine, and left. It was almost too fast. Its like my brain thinks the medicine I got isn't real medicine because it didn't involve a huge hassle and a copay.

I barely got well in time enough to go to Fes yesterday. Same city I lived in a year ago. I even recognized a vendor or two on the streets. Went back to Cafe Clock. One thing that had changed was the number of tourists. I saw almost a dozen people walking around with the Lonely Planet Morocco books in hand. I was always surprised when I saw a tourist last year. Not the same yesterday.

Ive written a lot here and I need to finish my horribly boring reading for State and Society Europe. Im going to try and do this to least once a week. Later!

P.S. I know someone will ask, so FYI: "Another Station, Another Mile" is a line from a Rise Against song called "The Dirt Whispered". Jeff knows what I'm talking about.