I am now writing from my dorm room at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco...safe and sound, with all my baggage in tow! Sweet, huh?!?!
I arrived yesterday after 24+ hours of traveling and delays EVERY STEP OF THE WAY. Oy vey, but it wasn't too bad. I left Indy and arrived in Chicago after I thought my flight had already left, but instead saw the lovely DELAY on the monitor and went running from terminal to terminal. It was cute. (And by cute, I mean not cool). Then I arrived in JFK where I met up with 8 of my compatriots also going to AUI this semester (they go to a variety of schools - Stockton, GWU, Butler, Villanova, etc) and embarked after another couple of hours to Casablanca. Unfortunately I finished my book before we even left the airport area...and no movies...but either way Air Maroc got us to Casablanca at about 8am, or 3am my time. I made it through customs easily and then we waited in the waiting room...and waited...and waited...played a few card games...and waited...they told us they didn't know where our plane was...and we continued to wait...4 or 5 groups of other travelers came and went from the same waiting room...and we waited...finally the 9 of us and about 6 other poeple were told that our flight was there!!! So we got on a teeny-tiny plane and we were off to Fez.
The flight was pretty sweet because we were flying so low that we could just watch Morocco go by - lots of squat little mountains which look like God reached down and just had fun poking and mashing hills and mountains as far as the eye could see...until he slacked off for awhile and gave some space for uneven patchworks of farms, and then just sort of forgot and there's some rocky desert...and then back to fertile land - about 45 minutes later we arrived in Fez! Yay!
Got to Al Akhawayn by about 4:30ish (its about an hour outside of Fez), got our rooms, dinner and all moved in! My room is very nice, no roommate yet, but unfortunately very chilly.
Today has been orientation, which has been good. But more about that some other time, because I'm off to dinner!
All is well! :-)
2 comments:
Hi Hannah bug,
It was great to read your blog. How many people could ride on that little plane? It was fun to "talk" to you this morning, too. Love you lots, Mom
Helloooooo! Glad you made it safe and sound! I can't belive you're 1/2 way around the world! Sheesh.
Debate topics this spring:
1) US should repeal India nuclear treaty
2) No renewal or revision of No Child Left Behind
3) Indiana should adopt hate crime legislation
4)VU should raise tuition 10% to fund need-based scholarships.
No REALLY good stories from this week I don't think. MLK day went well, although the main speaker made some people angry (reportedly a CORE freshman called Rush Limbuagh on-air to complain). Dr. Hare (speaker) at one point was praising women because they give life to everything, and then said something to the effect of "and we love our babies and try to influence them, even if we sometimes mess up (it's not always our fault) with folks like Rumsfeld, GW, etc." Yeah. :)
Andy and Lora are engaged!
Uhm, I guess that's it. :)
Talk to you soon!!
Post a Comment