Blogging
From Abroad

Day 4 consisted of orientation and form filling; I ended up crashing around 7:30 PM and slept until this morning..

I have found it difficult to bring along the higher resolution Panasonic camera, therefore the videos below are of decent quality. I plan on using the video camera after I am more proficient at speaking Arabic and French so that I may explain why I am making a documentary.

Classes start tomorrow! I am pumped. I have been asking everyone how to say words and phrases in Arabic and formal instruction will be very welcome, given the difficulty in pronouncing particular letters and sounds.

Today, I enjoyed a very rich experience. We began traveling through a wooded area inhabited by monkeys and sheep. It was strange seeing hundreds of people making a trek through the forest, it felt like we were a tribe in exodus. Eventually, our group reached a vast clearing beside two large tents. Pine trees surrounded the expanse of red dirt and monkey poop (good thing I wore my open-toed sandals today!). The orientation leaders attempted to organize us into a circle, but with hundreds of people this proved a time-intensive enterprise. Eventually, it collapsed and ropes appeared out of nowhere. So we jumped rope, of course. I’ve got skills. After wearing myself out jumping rope in the middle of the woods in North Africa, we moseyed on over to the tents to sit around a table. I must have jumped rope for too long, as there were no tables left by the time I arrived. Therefore, I sat down with five Moroccan girls, my Italian buddy, Nerry, a German student named Hagan, and Slick Gagundo. We talked for a while about languages and I bugged the girls to teach me some more Arabic phrases. My French is rapidly improving and I hope to be somewhat conversable by the end of the semester.

Relaxing after the rigors of the double dutch, I developed quite the appetite. For entertainment while the food was cooking over a fire pit, eight men donning traditional Berber clothing sang and danced to the hypnotic beat of their drums. Many of the international students and Moroccans joined in the festivities, attempting to mimic the same Berber dance. I can’t dance to anything, so I just performed my usual ‘make-an-ass-out-of-myself’ jig. It was a blast. I rejoined my cohort under the tent and drank some Moroccan tea?although this one was without mint. By the time I had finished drinking, I realized how severe my thirst had become. Dancing in the arid mountains of Africa most certainly dehydrates, and I was craving water. However, the water that was available was pumped from some random tank pulled by an antiquated tractor. I am no germophobe, but I felt it best to see if there was bottled water in the area. We were also distributed four glasses for the eight of us, which also struck me as bizarre. I started to see bottles of water being passed around, but I found that these were being borrowed from individuals who personally brought them, filled with water from the tank, and then passing them out to all the students. After already feeling the effects of strange bugs introduced into my system, I was extremely hesitant to drink any of this water. Yet after our full chickens (heads and all!) were brought to us on a communal platter and after we communally tore the chickens apart with our hands, I felt that I might as well down the water as well. I needed it?I drank more than a liter. This change in hygienic practice was a bit of a shock to me, but it was likewise exhilarating. The experience also made me think about water resources in Africa. Morocco is ranked 124th under the UN’s Human Development Index, principally due to its lack of clean water and infant mortality. The AUI officials have claimed that we, as exchange students, will be able to work with NGOs throughout Morocco so I hope to work on such an issue.

Around 3 P.M., Morocco’s almost routine thunderstorm rolled through, dropping, as usual, a minimal amount of rain (it also seems that it is always sunny when it is raining). Yet the Berber came back with another song and dance to entertain us all. A few acquaintances and I decided to walk off towards an overlook of the valley, but as we reached the cliff our group was departing for AUI.

After walking essentially barefoot through red dirt, showering was a necessity. When I entered into my room, I found a note under the door advising me to meet with the housing director. I recently decided to switch roommates?my current roommate, Nick Blood, is from my same hometown and we both attended Fairmont Senior High School. This being the case, I decided that it would be best to go for the full experience and live with someone native to this region. Yet over the last few days, I have found it comforting to come back to my room and be able to talk with Nick about politics, adjusting to AUI, and life in general. Therefore, I was torn between living with a friend and gambling for a Moroccan roommate. I decided to go out on a limb and see what that experience will entail and tomorrow I will be moving upstairs.

• Check out the Berber! V I D E O