A Brief Overview of my Adventures

Ok, so I've had many requests to start a blog for my adventures in Morocco and I figured I'd give it a shot. This whole blogging thing is new to me, so we'll see how it goes...

I am still currently in my hometown of Frederick, Maryland. In 20 days, I will be kissing my parents goodbye and flying to Rabat, Morocco for a study abroad excursion. I will be studying Arabic intensively for 7 weeks and I will be living with a family. I know nothing about them yet, only that I will be living in the medina, or old city. I requested a family that did not speak any English so that I could focus solely on speaking Arabic, or French if I needed to.

Why Morocco?
My parents bought me a book for my 8th birthday called "Children Just Like Me", a non-fiction book about children from all over the world and their lifestyles. The one that stood out the most to me was Houda from Morocco. I have no idea why I found her so interesting, but I did and knew from then on that I wanted to go to Morocco. About 10 years later, I started studying Arabic and wanted to study abroad in an Arabic-speaking country. I chose Morocco because it is a safer country for a walking snowball from the United States and because I could revert back to French if I was having trouble communicating in Arabic.

I am very excited about my trip! This will be my first time leaving the country and I am stoked! To me, this feels like the beginning of the rest of my life- traveling the world, studying cultures, and speaking a ton of languages.

My flight leaves out of Dulles on June 6 and I will be coming back on August 9. For 2 weeks after my studies in Morocco, I will FINALLY be going to France to visit my friends who live there. I will spend about a week or so in Paris, then go down to the South of France for a few days. That, too, should be awesome!

In the meantime, I've been doing a ton of stuff- getting things ready, making sure I have all sorts of necessities, reading a 400 page book that's mandatory for my program, and studying up on my Arabic to prepare for my placement exam. I've also been working at the Maryland Science Center (which is generally an all-day affair), AND volunteering at my mom's school, Spring Ridge, assisting the 2 new students from the Central African Republic who speak French, but absolutely NO English. And on top of that, I need to start searching for things for my apartment for next year. Needless to say, I am pretty busy.

More to come!