In case, you feel you want to write to me a real mail or by any chance, you are in Rabat here is my postal address:
2, Rue Al Mariniyine, App n°6
10000 Rabat, Hassan
Maroc
Waiting for lots of mails and tons of parcels ;)
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Monday, June 25, 2007
What I don’t like about Morocco
Ok, now after posts full of excitement, it’s time to admit that not everything here in Morocco is so cool. I hope you expected that not all is great when you go to a different culture. I expected that but it’s always different when you finally face it.
There is actually one thing that makes me really pissed off – language. My French is not good enough to have a conservation and I still don’t understand a lot when listening to people speaking this language. When you want to go out on your own, take a taxi, go shopping and do all these everyday little things it’s really tiring to communicate with people who don’t speak any language you do. Moreover, speaking English all the time is also tiring since it is not my native language and although I’m fluent there are lots of things I cannot express easily.
Actually, this is not the worst thing here. People here are not willing to use English (I think it’s not only about Moroccans but any other nations who simply prefers to speak their native language). If you spend time with one person only and s / he speaks English, there is no problem. If there are 2 people speaking fluent English, most of time they will communicate between each other in Arabic and in English with you. The more people in the group is the less English they want to use. And then you become the only who doesn’t understand anything (if they at least spoke French, you would be able to learn it by listening but they it’s usually Arabic). You become bored and you feel you waste your time since you are not the part of the conversation. You don’t feel needed there. Even if you ask them to speak English they usually admit that you’re right to ask them for it but it doesn’t make them implement it. Actually, I’ve noticed how I have changed here since I arrived – I tend to say what I don’t like and what pisses me off instead of keeping this inside of me as I used to before. It’s good to be honest.
But don’t worry. I still enjoy Morocco and I am sure that I want to live here for the next 12 months despite all these challenges. And I do feel that my French gets better and better. I extremely enjoy studying it!
À la prochaine! (see you next time!:)
There is actually one thing that makes me really pissed off – language. My French is not good enough to have a conservation and I still don’t understand a lot when listening to people speaking this language. When you want to go out on your own, take a taxi, go shopping and do all these everyday little things it’s really tiring to communicate with people who don’t speak any language you do. Moreover, speaking English all the time is also tiring since it is not my native language and although I’m fluent there are lots of things I cannot express easily.
Actually, this is not the worst thing here. People here are not willing to use English (I think it’s not only about Moroccans but any other nations who simply prefers to speak their native language). If you spend time with one person only and s / he speaks English, there is no problem. If there are 2 people speaking fluent English, most of time they will communicate between each other in Arabic and in English with you. The more people in the group is the less English they want to use. And then you become the only who doesn’t understand anything (if they at least spoke French, you would be able to learn it by listening but they it’s usually Arabic). You become bored and you feel you waste your time since you are not the part of the conversation. You don’t feel needed there. Even if you ask them to speak English they usually admit that you’re right to ask them for it but it doesn’t make them implement it. Actually, I’ve noticed how I have changed here since I arrived – I tend to say what I don’t like and what pisses me off instead of keeping this inside of me as I used to before. It’s good to be honest.
But don’t worry. I still enjoy Morocco and I am sure that I want to live here for the next 12 months despite all these challenges. And I do feel that my French gets better and better. I extremely enjoy studying it!
À la prochaine! (see you next time!:)
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
See Marrakesh and die
Don't worry - I'm ok! :) I was just amazed by my weekend trip to the heart of Morocco - Marrakesh. By the way, the expression that I used as title of this post (See Marrakesh and die) is suitable for most of the places here.
On Saturday, after a transition and some deep talks about finance in AIESEC in Morocco we decided to chill out and go to Marrakesh (by car, about 300 km from Rabat). "We" means me, two AIESECers and our two non-AIESEC friends. It was really spontanous and after 20 minutes I was sitting in a car heading for The Red City in the centre of country that stole my heart :)
Morocco is the second country (after Romania) where one of the first things that I saw after my arrival were highways (barely seen in Poland:). There are highways from Fes to Rabat and on the route Tanger-Rabat-Casa-Marrakesh. So the most important cities are connected and you can easily go from one to another by car. My impressions from highway are here. Maybe the pics of the desert will seem indentical for you and boring to watch after a few minutes but I just want to make sure you have a glimpse of every aspect of Morroco.
Last trip to Fes was much different than visiting The Red City. In Fes, I explored the old city, its past and history. In Marrakash, I tried some nightlife and entertainment. Surprised? What are your first thoughts about Morocco? Let me guess - Africa, black people, camels, desert, poverty and so on... Although I would lie if I told you that you wouldn't find these aspects here but there is much more what you should associate with this country. Morocco is developing quite fast (you can find all international brands here - it may sound stupid but I felt sort of safe and secure when I saw some of them during my first shopping:). Lifestyle is often a mixture of European influences and Arabic-Muslim backgrounds. It's what we call diversity! If you feel like touching some culture you can just go to the medina (the old city). But if you're tired of people encouraging to you to buy and bargain, feel free to go to a shopping mall (same as we have in Europe).
But coming back to Marrakesh. After 3 hours we reached the city. It's easy to notice that architecture is different here. Rabat, Casablanca (spanish, casa - house, blanca - white) and Fes are white and Marrakesh is red. It's because of the substance (like sand) of which bricks and then houses are bulit. But the legends say that Marrakesh is red because of wars and blood.
After, check-in in our hotel we went to the city to find some place to eat. What we found was amazing. An Indian restaurant with delicious food, cute male and female dancers and charming waitresses. The decorations of the restaurant were breathe-taking too!
Then, around midnight we went to our hotel and had some drinks. I was very tired but my friends insisted on me going to a nightclub with them. I didn't want to join them but they made me go. God, thank you for making me too tired to refuse! The place was so awesome. I haven't had such an amazing party since last summer in Poznan, I guess. The place was incredible. The decorations, the music, the people, the atmosphere! - Theathro nightclub in the basements of Casino de Marrakech & Hotel Es Saadi. Although, I didn't take my camera I managed to find some photos online. See them here! In a few days there should be more pictures (usually, during such parties there are some people taking pics and then uploading them online - I hope to be at least on one of them :) We left the party, before 5 AM but I could stay there longer.
On Sunday, we woke up before 1PM, had some "breakfast" and then left The Red City. I also took some pictures of Rabat just after we arrived.
If you're disappointed after not seeing some cultural and historical aspects of Marrakesh but only random photos taken from car, don't worry. I'll definetely visit the city again. I'm here for one year :)
Just to sum up. Repeat the sentence - clubbing in Marrakesh, doesn't it sound awesome? One more time - clubbing in Marrakesh :)
I hope you envy me! I know - I'm so vain! :)
On Saturday, after a transition and some deep talks about finance in AIESEC in Morocco we decided to chill out and go to Marrakesh (by car, about 300 km from Rabat). "We" means me, two AIESECers and our two non-AIESEC friends. It was really spontanous and after 20 minutes I was sitting in a car heading for The Red City in the centre of country that stole my heart :)
Morocco is the second country (after Romania) where one of the first things that I saw after my arrival were highways (barely seen in Poland:). There are highways from Fes to Rabat and on the route Tanger-Rabat-Casa-Marrakesh. So the most important cities are connected and you can easily go from one to another by car. My impressions from highway are here. Maybe the pics of the desert will seem indentical for you and boring to watch after a few minutes but I just want to make sure you have a glimpse of every aspect of Morroco.
Last trip to Fes was much different than visiting The Red City. In Fes, I explored the old city, its past and history. In Marrakash, I tried some nightlife and entertainment. Surprised? What are your first thoughts about Morocco? Let me guess - Africa, black people, camels, desert, poverty and so on... Although I would lie if I told you that you wouldn't find these aspects here but there is much more what you should associate with this country. Morocco is developing quite fast (you can find all international brands here - it may sound stupid but I felt sort of safe and secure when I saw some of them during my first shopping:). Lifestyle is often a mixture of European influences and Arabic-Muslim backgrounds. It's what we call diversity! If you feel like touching some culture you can just go to the medina (the old city). But if you're tired of people encouraging to you to buy and bargain, feel free to go to a shopping mall (same as we have in Europe).
But coming back to Marrakesh. After 3 hours we reached the city. It's easy to notice that architecture is different here. Rabat, Casablanca (spanish, casa - house, blanca - white) and Fes are white and Marrakesh is red. It's because of the substance (like sand) of which bricks and then houses are bulit. But the legends say that Marrakesh is red because of wars and blood.
After, check-in in our hotel we went to the city to find some place to eat. What we found was amazing. An Indian restaurant with delicious food, cute male and female dancers and charming waitresses. The decorations of the restaurant were breathe-taking too!
Then, around midnight we went to our hotel and had some drinks. I was very tired but my friends insisted on me going to a nightclub with them. I didn't want to join them but they made me go. God, thank you for making me too tired to refuse! The place was so awesome. I haven't had such an amazing party since last summer in Poznan, I guess. The place was incredible. The decorations, the music, the people, the atmosphere! - Theathro nightclub in the basements of Casino de Marrakech & Hotel Es Saadi. Although, I didn't take my camera I managed to find some photos online. See them here! In a few days there should be more pictures (usually, during such parties there are some people taking pics and then uploading them online - I hope to be at least on one of them :) We left the party, before 5 AM but I could stay there longer.
On Sunday, we woke up before 1PM, had some "breakfast" and then left The Red City. I also took some pictures of Rabat just after we arrived.
If you're disappointed after not seeing some cultural and historical aspects of Marrakesh but only random photos taken from car, don't worry. I'll definetely visit the city again. I'm here for one year :)
Just to sum up. Repeat the sentence - clubbing in Marrakesh, doesn't it sound awesome? One more time - clubbing in Marrakesh :)
I hope you envy me! I know - I'm so vain! :)
New room
I changed my room! For a much better one! Now, I share it with current MCP but as he leaves in the end of June, it will soon be only my room with my own balcony (at least, that's the plan). It is much more quite because the windon is not on the side of the main street. Just a few minutes ago I took pictures from it. They are here . Watch and envy me! :p
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Trip to Fes
This weekend me and my flatmates (Daisy, Ida and Kojo from US, Thess from Canada and Saida from the Netherlands) decided to visit one of the most beautiful cities in Morocco – Fes. This used to be a Moroccan capital some centuries ago. It has a really huge medina where you can easily get lost within all the narrow and noisy streets.
But let's start from the beginning! We took a train from Rabat just after 8AM on Saturday and about 3 hours later we were in Fes. The first thing that I saw was this orange tree (with real oranges!) on the platform. Then we took a bus and went to the heart of Fes - the medina. We spent a lot of hours there. It's very huge and you would need days to explore everything. Also you can buy literally EVERYTHING there.
After dealing with some problems at the police station (hotels didn't want to check us in without passports so we had to go to the police station to get some papers) we (Kojo, Ida, Daisy and me) found a really cheap and nice hotel with a marvellous view on the roof (only some pictures under this link are taken from this roof). Thess and Sadia preferred another one. The police station was situated in the new districts of Fes, built during French times - first half of XX century.
The most interesting places that I saw in the medina (old part of city) was Bou Inania Medersa - the oldest university in the world. It was also a place to pray and there were also some rooms for students (dormitory). Another thing was a huge shop with carpets where we also saw the process of manufacturing them. Then we went to tannery (garbarnia in Polish) to see how leather is made. The smell was awful but the place was worth seeing it.
Besides medina we were walking on the hills around the centre and were taking great pictures of remains of some awesome plants as well as walls, towers and cementery! The view from the hill on the medina was really breathe-taking!Now, I really advise you to see all of pics that I took (it's almost 450!!). When you see all of them just tell me ;)
But let's start from the beginning! We took a train from Rabat just after 8AM on Saturday and about 3 hours later we were in Fes. The first thing that I saw was this orange tree (with real oranges!) on the platform. Then we took a bus and went to the heart of Fes - the medina. We spent a lot of hours there. It's very huge and you would need days to explore everything. Also you can buy literally EVERYTHING there.
After dealing with some problems at the police station (hotels didn't want to check us in without passports so we had to go to the police station to get some papers) we (Kojo, Ida, Daisy and me) found a really cheap and nice hotel with a marvellous view on the roof (only some pictures under this link are taken from this roof). Thess and Sadia preferred another one. The police station was situated in the new districts of Fes, built during French times - first half of XX century.
The most interesting places that I saw in the medina (old part of city) was Bou Inania Medersa - the oldest university in the world. It was also a place to pray and there were also some rooms for students (dormitory). Another thing was a huge shop with carpets where we also saw the process of manufacturing them. Then we went to tannery (garbarnia in Polish) to see how leather is made. The smell was awful but the place was worth seeing it.
Besides medina we were walking on the hills around the centre and were taking great pictures of remains of some awesome plants as well as walls, towers and cementery! The view from the hill on the medina was really breathe-taking!Now, I really advise you to see all of pics that I took (it's almost 450!!). When you see all of them just tell me ;)
Enjoy it!
First taste of Morocco
It’s more than one week that I’m in Morocco and still I cannot believe that I’m here. Everything is just so amazing and different. Just see the pictures!
So far, I haven’t started my work and transition yet. I feel a bit weird because it’s strange feeling for me not to have much to do :) I’m just reading some stuff and adjusting myself to Morocco, getting to know country. Most of my teammates have exams now so they are studying hard and can’t go out. Fortunately, they will finish it soon so we’ll start work and getting to know each other more. For the past few days I was sightseeing in Rabat, watching movies and had a meeting with my MCP. I also repaired a kitchen sink in our flat. It was stuck because of too much pasta, rice and other food in the pipes. That was a huge challenge :) I also started learning French. Although I feel some progress I still feel that I could do more. I hope that by the end of my stay here I will have spoken French fluently. I’ll be doing my best! Please, kick my ass if I don’t learn it!!! :)
Generally speaking, I like Morocco very much and enjoy every minute here. I didn’t have any breakdown, homesickness or depression. Today, after coming back from trip to Fes (exciting and exhausting – see the next post), when I entered my flat I just felt like at home. It’s my new home for now :)
So far, I haven’t started my work and transition yet. I feel a bit weird because it’s strange feeling for me not to have much to do :) I’m just reading some stuff and adjusting myself to Morocco, getting to know country. Most of my teammates have exams now so they are studying hard and can’t go out. Fortunately, they will finish it soon so we’ll start work and getting to know each other more. For the past few days I was sightseeing in Rabat, watching movies and had a meeting with my MCP. I also repaired a kitchen sink in our flat. It was stuck because of too much pasta, rice and other food in the pipes. That was a huge challenge :) I also started learning French. Although I feel some progress I still feel that I could do more. I hope that by the end of my stay here I will have spoken French fluently. I’ll be doing my best! Please, kick my ass if I don’t learn it!!! :)
Generally speaking, I like Morocco very much and enjoy every minute here. I didn’t have any breakdown, homesickness or depression. Today, after coming back from trip to Fes (exciting and exhausting – see the next post), when I entered my flat I just felt like at home. It’s my new home for now :)
Monday, June 4, 2007
Sunday, June 3, 2007
a journey to Morocco - minute by minute
So let me tell you my journey from the beginning...
On Wednesday, I went to Sztutowo to say goodbye to my parents. I was not packed at all! I came back to Gdynia on Friday morning after having been to City Halls of Gdansk, Sopot and Gdynia where I received a cool stuff (promotional materials) about these cities. Then I started to pack things, went to cut my hair, went back to Gdynia again to say goodbye to one special person :)
It was a crazy day! Then my parents came and took me to the airport. It was my first trip by plane and I must admit that the moment when plane takes off or lands is quite interesting. I was both stressed and excited leaving or hitting the ground.
When I arrived in Frankfurt at 11 PM on Friday I wasn't happy because I knew that I would have to spend almost 18 hours waiting for the plane to Morocco. At first, I was just walking in the airport and looking for some place to sleep. I found it! My 'bedroom' turned out to be a toilet... You may think that I was crazy choosing a toilet to sleep but it was the only place where I could lock myself in safely. I was sleeping on my bags. It was quite clean there especially after 2 AM when cleaning lady cleaned it :)
At about 2 PM on Saturday, when I was waiting for the check in I met a Polish girl, her Moroccan boyfriend and his brother. They are students in Germany. They were really nice and later I was even invited by their mother for a coffee in Fez (the city where I arrived). I hope to meet them in Rabat in a few days.
When I was chosen for MCVP Finance in the end of April I was extremely excited. But the closer my departure date was the more stressed and scared I felt. All these negative feelings just disappeared when I looked through the window in the plane and saw Morroco. Then the plane landed and I saw palms and the airport building. I left the plane and walked on the runway and felt this extreme hot. I just thought: “I’m here, my story has started” This was so an incredible moment. I felt so happy!
I was picked up by three AIESECers with whom I will be working were closely next year (Youssef – my MCP (=boss) :), Faycal, MCVPOGXe and Simo, NSTe Exchange). Then after a short trip through streets of Fez we went by car to Rabat – Morrocan capital and my home city for the next year. They took my to my apartment located near the Hassan Tower (a landmark of Rabat) and quite near from the downtown. I will live in an interns’ flat so at first I felt like an intern :)
In the morning, we went for a breakfast to a restaurant and to exchange money.
In the evening, I plan to take some walk and see the city. They say that the best way to explore the city is to get lost in it – I don’t know if it’s a good idea for first day in a new country but maybe :)
See you!
On Wednesday, I went to Sztutowo to say goodbye to my parents. I was not packed at all! I came back to Gdynia on Friday morning after having been to City Halls of Gdansk, Sopot and Gdynia where I received a cool stuff (promotional materials) about these cities. Then I started to pack things, went to cut my hair, went back to Gdynia again to say goodbye to one special person :)
It was a crazy day! Then my parents came and took me to the airport. It was my first trip by plane and I must admit that the moment when plane takes off or lands is quite interesting. I was both stressed and excited leaving or hitting the ground.
When I arrived in Frankfurt at 11 PM on Friday I wasn't happy because I knew that I would have to spend almost 18 hours waiting for the plane to Morocco. At first, I was just walking in the airport and looking for some place to sleep. I found it! My 'bedroom' turned out to be a toilet... You may think that I was crazy choosing a toilet to sleep but it was the only place where I could lock myself in safely. I was sleeping on my bags. It was quite clean there especially after 2 AM when cleaning lady cleaned it :)
At about 2 PM on Saturday, when I was waiting for the check in I met a Polish girl, her Moroccan boyfriend and his brother. They are students in Germany. They were really nice and later I was even invited by their mother for a coffee in Fez (the city where I arrived). I hope to meet them in Rabat in a few days.
When I was chosen for MCVP Finance in the end of April I was extremely excited. But the closer my departure date was the more stressed and scared I felt. All these negative feelings just disappeared when I looked through the window in the plane and saw Morroco. Then the plane landed and I saw palms and the airport building. I left the plane and walked on the runway and felt this extreme hot. I just thought: “I’m here, my story has started” This was so an incredible moment. I felt so happy!
I was picked up by three AIESECers with whom I will be working were closely next year (Youssef – my MCP (=boss) :), Faycal, MCVPOGXe and Simo, NSTe Exchange). Then after a short trip through streets of Fez we went by car to Rabat – Morrocan capital and my home city for the next year. They took my to my apartment located near the Hassan Tower (a landmark of Rabat) and quite near from the downtown. I will live in an interns’ flat so at first I felt like an intern :)
In the morning, we went for a breakfast to a restaurant and to exchange money.
In the evening, I plan to take some walk and see the city. They say that the best way to explore the city is to get lost in it – I don’t know if it’s a good idea for first day in a new country but maybe :)
See you!
Saturday, June 2, 2007
I am here!!!
I have just arrived to Rabat in Morocco! I'm alive and I'm really ok:) I like everything here very much!
Tommorow, I'll write more and put first pics!
See you!
Tommorow, I'll write more and put first pics!
See you!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
