مع السلامة المغرب

My last post seems like it was a million years ago and yet it was only 11 days ago. The last week of classes went by fast and I didn't do much else besides visiting the weekend souk and loading up on delicious popcorn, drinking all the soda I could that they don't have in the States. taking a trip with my "class" (all three of us) to Azrou for last minute shopping, finishing watching Grace and Frankie, raiding the campus store to use up the rest of the money on our ID cards, and spending our last night in town with my friends eating ice cream and buying matching rings. :)

At the end of the week, we talked with our professors about our improvement. The second four weeks were more frustrating and it felt like I wasn't learning and absorbing as much material and vocab. One professor explained that you learn 90-95% of things in the first semester and after that the learning curve slows down. This helped because we felt like we were somehow getting worse!

It was weird packing up all my things and everything just barely fit in my bags. We had our final test on Friday and then the graduation ceremony. Every class did some sort of performance at that and Kevin and I did a play and then sang the chorus of a song. Hoping to find a video of that but it seemed to be well liked by everyone watching. Our play was changed three times and I think the final product showed how much we have learned as well as incorporating humor that everyone could appreciate. We had to leave graduation early because we had a taxi scheduled to come and bring us to Casablanca. We had received our certificates earlier that day.

I rode with three friends to Casablanca Friday night even though my flight was on Saturday afternoon. There was no one leaving at the same time as me so I decided to ride with some friends! I stayed at a Moroccan friend's house which was really nice although I was not a very good guest and didn't eat as much food as I should have. :) I also got to explore Casablanca a little bit. There was some beautiful architecture and I was so happy that I got to see Hassan II Mosque, it was breathtaking!

My friend took me to the train station and that's when things started to get interesting...

I bought my ticket (first class this time... going up in the world. It was only $2 extra...) and threw something in the trash and managed to lose my ticket. I checked everywhere and I couldn't find it so I just said, whatever, I'll buy another one. My friend was really concerned and tried to get the guy print me another one. He wouldn't so I bought one and proceeded to go to my platform - down and up a few flights of stairs. Luckily Amina was there to help me with my luggage. She then asked the conductor about getting a refund and I think they had found my lost ticket so I ran back to the ticket desk to get a refund. Meanwhile, my train is due to arrive any minute. Finally, I get money back and run back to my luggage and Amina who is telling me to hurry. I get on the train and plop my stuff down. I was sweating profusely. Sorry, girls don't sweat - I was glowing. I sure got an exercise.

I get to the airport and this is the beginning of my traveling where I have to carry all of my things. And everything is heavy. Casablanca had many checkpoint security lines but none of them were very thorough. I show my passport and travel itinerary to an officer to get into the airport and then put my luggage through a screening machine and I walked through a metal detector. I checked in and got rid of my luggage (which bounced between 22.9 and 23kg :) ). I started to go to the security and passport control line and I spotted a scale with a man checking people's luggage. There was no why he was checking the weight of my bags! If he took one look at my trembling shoulders he would know that they were way too heavy. Luckily, he was busy doing something so I buzzed past him. Went through security but took nothing out of my backpack and realized later that I had coins in my back pocket. Swiftly continued on... Got through passport control and onto my gate. There was another screening before getting to my gate. Somehow my name was on a list and I got to go in a faster line. They searched my bags and only questioned my Saharan sand. Was pat down and then was able to stand in a line for the shuttle to bring us to the plane. Finally got on the plane and ended up moving twice for a family to sit together. From there, I was able to relax and sleep occasionally, whenever there wasn't a screaming child.

It feels weird to be home and not have a lot to do. There are lots of things I could be doing but relaxing has been good too. It has been nice knowing that there will always be toilet paper everywhere, drinking tap water, using a normal sized shower, speaking to employees in English (I was in a daze in Starbucks when I was having a conversation with the barista in English), having air conditioning, not standing out as a foreigner, being able to text and call people even when I'm not home, and sleeping in my own bed.

There are things that I miss though... Like good quality coca cola, non humid weather that's cooler at night, all the friends I made both American/Canadian and Moroccan, guaranteed coffee breaks at 10am every day, using words like mumkin, mescine, mumtaz, ayna, and fii haqeeqa every day, and getting lovely tan lines.

There is a place in my heart for Morocco and I am grateful for all that I did while I was there and all that I have learned both in class and in immersing in the culture.

Fun fact: The root of the word for Morocco in Arabic, المغرب (Almaghrib), means sunset. Almaghrib got its name because it is the farthest west Arab country and so it is the last to see the sun go down. There is also the Maghrib prayer that takes place at sunset.