First impressions

When I first left home a week ago, I decided that I did not want to keep a blog. I find typing  impersonal in comparison to sitting curled up in bed at night with a leather-bound journal and pen. However, as a student with cramped hands from writing all day and a chronic case of bad handwriting, I decided recently that blogging was the best way to keep a record of my travels this year and hopefully be able to share my experiences with my friends and family at home. Furthermore, I hope that this blog can help other students interested in NSLI-y, as I know travel blogs helped me, as they make their decisions to apply in the months to come.

So much in my life has changed in the past 8 days that I do not know where to begin. Last Thursday, I said my last goodbyes to my mom and dad in Boston and flew to Washington D.C. for orientation. We spent three days talking to Margaret, our resident director, about life in Morocco and exploring the city. On our last night in the United States, we all scrambled to find cooking materials and made pasta and brownies in my hotel room for one last "home-cooked" American meal (picture below). There are 10 NSLI-y students on my trip, from various parts of the country and from very different background. Most of them have done really incredible things with their lives so far -- one girl was a youth Senate representative last year, another lived in France for a year, another is very active with youth from Palestine, one boy lived in Austria for a year... Basically, I am studying with some very interesting and accomplished people on this trip. As someone with a fairly "normal" background -- my high school years were spent playing sports, writing for my school newspaper, and spending most of my time in my hometown with my friends, not exactly building up my resume like many of the others -- it is an interesting change to be surrounded by so many people who have accomplished so many things so far outside the realm of what I know. I think that the specific ways all of us have chosen to live our lives thus far will lead us all to find very diverse opportunities in Marrakesh.

We arrived in Marrakesh on Monday night after encountering some difficulties (a pilot strike in Paris and the resulting problems). We were all exhausted, and luckily we spent the night in a beautiful hotel with a large swimming pool. The next day, we went to the Center for Language and Culture, the school where we will be studying this year. The CLC is the most beautiful school I have ever seen. The complex is comprised of a winding network of buildings interspersed with tiled courtyards. You walk in through a large carved wooden door surrounded by mosaics and enter a small oasis from the bustling neighborhood of Gueliz. My classroom is in the main building across from a smaller building that contains a kitchen and a beautiful salon.  Colorful embroidered sofas and tables ring the room, and the walls are covered with beautiful painted woodwork and intricate mosaics.  The CLC's normal term for English students has not started yet, so we are the only students there in the mornings. In the afternoon, the CLC fills up with young Moroccans taking the intensive summer Arabic courses.

After my first class on Tuesday, I met my host family. The Ibarkis are some of the friendliest, kindest, and most welcoming people I have ever had the good fortune to meet. They live in a beautiful house on the outskirts of Marrakesh far from the hustle of the city. At night before I fall asleep, I hear the low natural hum of birds and insects in the warm desert night. Their house is ringed by a large rose-colored wall and gate. Behind the gate, a beautiful tiled driveway forks to leads up their front step and curve around the house. As you walk down the path, the space opens up into a tiled courtyard. A fountain covered in colorful mosaics catches your eye from the corner, and an ornately tiled outdoor table sits in the middle. There is ample room to play basketball and soccer, and the table has quickly become my favorite study spot in the evenings when the desert air cools down. Inside, the house has two floors. I live in my own room on the bottom floor next to my host sisters Zineb and Oumaima. The kitchen and living room are also downstairs. My host brother Yassir and his parents sleep upstairs in rooms that open up into a beautiful traditional Moroccan salon complete with a space for them to pray when the call to prayer rings out over the city five times a day.

My host mother and father do not speak English very well, but with our varying degrees of proficiency in Arabic, Spanish, French, and English we have managed to cobble together a language we can all understand. Zineb, who is 21, has very good English. I am helping her improve her English while she helps me with my Arabic. She is so open and friendly and kind, and I am so lucky to have been placed in her home and have made a friend like her.  Oumaima and Yassir, who are 16 and 8, also speak good English and they hope to learn more from me while I am here. Oumaima is so funny and nice, and I can't wait to get to know her better. Yassir is so funny and has this amazing energy and humor about everything he encounters. I love playing with him and I am excited to spend lots of time with him this year. Today, he tried to charge me 4 dirhams an hour to play basketball with him -- he constantly plays little jokes like that on me and I love having a little brother in my home. Their house is always full of friendly visitors who come in and out without the formality we require in the United States. Their neighbors are incredibly nice and I love meeting all of their family friends. Within the family unit, at least with the Ibarkis, life here is truly collective.

I was incredibly nervous about my choice to come here for 8 months before I left, but everything here feels comfortable yet exciting and new. I went for a run through a beautiful park this morning with my American friends and I am joining the gym next to my house tomorrow, so I am already getting into a daily routine. The city, people, and cuisine is very similar to that of Andalusia in many ways (although obviously also dissimilar in many ways), and I already feel so comfortable at school and in my host family's house. I was worried I would feel alone while I was here, but the Ibarkis have welcomed me so completely into their close-knit family unit that my life here already feels very full. This country and way of living is very different from my life in Sudbury in many ways, but so far I have loved the vast majority of the differences. Insh'allah (an Arabic word meaning literally"if God wills it" and used to express "hopefully") I will continue to love life here in the coming days and weeks and months!