Morocco Adventures

This was by far the most fascinating, fun, unique days I have had in months. I spent the ENTIRE day at a picnic for polyglots (those that speak multiple language and want to interact with others fluent in multiple languages). I met people from Turkey, Iran, China, Germany, Latvia, South Korea and of course France. I dont know how it happened but the transition from stranger to long-lost friend happened so seamlessly I didnt realize it hqd hqppened until I was on the metro heading to one of the French guy’s appartment with Vincent and the guy from South Korea (Kyungbung) in tow. Continue Reading »

Woke up late, again (this has been a theme during my stay here, lol) and rushed to meet the Swehla family for lunch. They said I could bring Vincent along which turned out to be great and he got to meet an American family while they got to meet a Parisien that wasnt trying to sell them something Continue Reading »

A relatively slow day to start with, I woke up late and had lunch with my host and one of his friends – some girl that spoke wayyyyy too fast for me to understand. After, I spent some time in a park near the Eiffel Tower until I met up with my host at his place. Vincent turned out to be a great host and we spent the next 3 days together, basically 24/7. Continue Reading »

Having slept only 2 hours on the plane I was in something of a daze when I stepped off into France. That and I was still catching my breath from the all out sprint I had to make between planes in Dublin because my flight had been delayed 1.5 hours before a connecting flight with a 1.5 hour lay over. Nice. Continue Reading »

The trick to packing for a trip that could last up to a year or longer is knowing that you WILL, undoubtedly, be buying supplies in the host country. Now, if your target country happens to be part of the third world then you’ll have to anticipate what will and won’t be available – then bring more of what’s difficult to find (important note, nothing is “impossible” to find in this global economy). My theories on travel have been influenced by both my scouting background and the inspiration of Mr. Timothy Ferris. Coincidentally, he has his own blog post on the idea of traveling light. He advocates the BIT philosophy – Buy It There. I never travel with more than I need for about a week at a time, especially if I know that I’ll be settling down somewhere. Invariably there will be some walmart spin off (in the case of Morocco I hear it is called “Marjane”) that’ll have anything I could possibly want. And, if that store doesn’t happen to carry my favorite brands (i.e. over-priced American advertising) I do something a little outrageous… buy LOCAL products. It’s all made in the same factory anway.

Here is a master list that I tend to pull from while planning for a trip. I don’t necessarily pack ALL of these things, but it gives me a chance to consider the kinds of needs I may have abroad and plan accordingly: Continue Reading »

I realize most of you are probably wondering how I ended up going to Morocco after making so many Korea plans. It’s not really a glorious story, but in the process of looking up which countries spoke arabic I ran across Morocco, which I new to be a French colony. I thought it’d be a great chance to practice my french as well as learn Arabic. It’s also comparatively safer a country than any other Arabic speaking country (although, quite a bit more dangerous than South Korea). Anyhow, since making the decision to move to Morocco I’ve felt better about the choice of country than I did in all the months of preparation for Korea.

My primary focus will be language learning. The first month I will be in a language school in Rabat, Morocco and doing a home stay with one of the families through the program. After the first month I will start looking for a job in addition to school (and adjust hours as necessary). I am going to focus on trying to get a job in either French or Arabic (so, preferably not teaching English) but I’ll take whatever I can get at first.

Also, to those of you heading over to Europe anytime soon, remember, Morocco is only a $50 plane flight away! Come see me! Come see the first country to recognize the US as a country after our Revolutionary War! Come ride a camel!