summary of last days

A lot was happening. Yes, it was! Last, week was again full of MC meetings, French classes (they're over ! :( ) and a lot of random stuff to do. On Thursday and Friday, we went to Alex for his goodbye party in the villa where he lived. For the last time, I was jumping on the trampoline in his garden. I was extremely exhausted afterwards and I don't think my heart has ever been beating so fast.

Saturday morning, it finally happened. I went to Casablanca (aka. Casa). It is the biggest city in Morocco, 90km, 32dirhams (=3euro) and 1 hour from Rabat. I went there with my MC team for a team day - to spend some time together and have fun. The train was 30 minutes late. They are more often late than in Poland but generally train system is better here than in Poland (I'll desribe you Moroccan transportation in a separate post). After one hour we arrived in Gare de Casa Port (Casa Port station). After a 20 minutes walk we reached Hassan II mosque (to read more about 3rd sacral building in the world click here). It was really astonishing.



After this, we took cabs and went to Mc Donalds and then to a cafe where we had that amazing ice-creams They were delicious and they reminded me about ice-creams in Sztutowo (my home town). It was the first time that I found these taste in other place than Sztutowo. It was amazing. I was also surprised seeing those hotels almost on the beach. They had their private beaches and what was the most funny for me - swimming pools 2 meters from the concrete fence being constantly hit by the ocean waves!



Afterwards, everyone had to leave to Rabat but I didn't feel like going back home so I decided to stay and do so random sightseeing. I didn't mind staying on my own as sometimes it's nice to walk alone without convincing and negotiating which route to choose. After walking I felt a bit tired so I sat and then lay on the grass in a city park / garden. I fell a sleep for a few minutes even. I also met my friend in a cafe and we drank some water because it was really hot!

At 7pm, I took the train to Rabat. After I arrived I got to know that we were going to a French restaurant for a dinner. It was extremely nice to have discussions about US intervention in Iraq, social welfare and drink glasses of wine at the same time. Afterwards, we went to Cabane Bambou - a pub where we took part in Congolese night (Congo with capital in Brazzaville - an African state). We met there a few Moroccans who invited me to smoke shisha next day. They were really cool, funny, crazy and put a lot of efforts to teach me some Arabic words. I enjoyed it a lot. The next day - Sunday, as promised I went to meet my new friends again. We were supposed to meet at 8pm but it turned out to be 9pm eventually (Morrocan timing :). We went to Agdal (cool district in Rabat where I've had my MC meetings and French classes lately) to a restaurant with shishas. After this, someone spontanously suggested going to the beach. We did it and we had a really great time, lying on the sand, playing guitar, singing and smoking shisha. Me and people whom I had known for about 24 hours. Crazy but extremely cool! I was at home around... 6am :) I woke up at 11am to start working. I'm still figthing with accounting but I'm much further and I will finish tommorow.

To summarize everything, I must admit that those last days were really great. I feel that I both had a lot of rest and did some great job. If you look at the previous posts, you usually will have the feeling that I'm happy here. That's not always truth. I seem to be happy because I enjoy sightseeing, getting to know the country and experiencing all that entertainment. But some things make me sad or pissed off here. Today, I swear that I feel really happy ;)

looking for small signs of Poland in Morocco

Out of all things that I don’t write about, one is aspect of homesickness and missing home, family and my country. In my case – the answer is simple. I don’t have problems with this. Although it would be nice to see my family (my parents will visit me in September by the way), home etc I don’t need it very badly. I’m more afraid of coming back to Poland next summer and readjusting to reality there. However, it doesn’t mean that things here I great. There are some moments when I’m really pissed off and I feel like leaving it all – AIESEC, my flat, problems and people here (you can also refer to previous post). Things are sometimes really bad here. Both previous observations (that I don’t want to leave Morocco and that things are sometimes bad here) have recently led me (after discussing with my friend Daisy) to one conclusion – in my case Morocco works as a drug. I’m addicted to the country and I don’t want to leave it even though I am aware that sometimes it is not ok here at all. Addiction? – another thing that I didn’t expect before coming here. There is more and more of them every day…

But coming back to nostalgia about my lovely Poland – I’ve noticed that every little small Polish aspect here makes extremely excited. It was like this when I first spoke Polish after 1 month of being here (you can refer to post “Exciting day” from July, 2nd). It was the same when I was in Polish consulate in Rabat or when I called Polish embassy in Casablanca. Finally, I was really excited when I watched Polsat or TV Polonia (Polish TV channels). The same happened when I saw a word “Polish” on a truck that we were just passing on the way to Shrate Beach (about trip to this beach, refer to “life goes on in Morocco” post – I didn’t mention that truck though). It was exactly “Polish shoe”. I started to scream to others “Look, guys!!! A car from Poland!!! Whoooohoooo!!”. I looked on the car to know from which city it was, what kind of shoes they produced and other information that in Poland would be totally irrelevant. I didn’t see anything Polish besides the word itself. At that moment a horrible thing occurred to me. It was not a “Polish shoe”. It was “polish shoe”. The difference is more than the initial letter. A polish shoe is a waxy cream or paste used for shoes (PL – pasta do butow). I stopped my happy laughter. I was speechless. My mouth was open and I had this dumb expression on my face. I was starring at the truck that we had just passed. Then I sat instead of moving in the back seat like a 9-year-old kid. My excitement just disappeared. “Well” I thought “at least I’ll have a funny story to tell when I’m back in Poland :)”

people

The most valuable aspect of international experience is of course getting to know new people. Since I got here I've met a lot of interesting individuals and a few people whom I will extremely miss when they or me leave Morocco.

The relations between different people or different people and me here turned out to be something that I could NEVER expect in my life. Don't misunderstand me - I don't want to change anything but the relations are sometimes extremely weird. In some particular cases there are a lot of tensions, unclear thoughts, silent moments that scream, these deep looks from people’s eyes, beating hearts or unspoken words. However, when things get more weird than they actually are, you can always count on someone smart, intelligent, nostalgic and emphatic who can listen to you and share his / her uncommon experiences with you. Although sometimes it’s too tiring I will miss these relations and people when they’re gone.

Everything is more complicated (or maybe complex) than it is usually between people. I bet I could earn a lot if I decided to write a book about it! If only walls could speak… you would be amazed what you would hear from them! We will see how it is going to proceed. Believe me! One can expect everything here! Ohh.... Morocco!

I wish I could write you more!

7 weeks have passed

I can’t believe how fast the time goes by. I’ve been here for almost two months and it even seems more to me. Last week was quite hectic. Everyday an MC meeting (to finish planning process), everyday French lessons and everyday a lot of new things to do. There were a few parties in different places but I even didn’t feel like going. I’m still fighting with accounting of Morocco and luckily I’m more and more successful. Next week, I’ll probably have a meeting with Moroccan accountant who will give me feedbacks to my solutions. On Saturday, to summarize planning process in the country, we had an MC-LCs meeting to present each others our plans and give feedbacks. Part of the meeting was in French. Although it was hard for me to understand at least I treated this as chance to improve my French. From time to time I managed to get the point and besides I also understood some words.

In the evening, we went for a party. It was hosted by friend of my friend in his fabulous villa. To get there we paid 70 dh (around 7 euro) for taxi which is extremely a lot here. First of all it was really far from my flat and secondly we were not sure how to get there and we were wandering a bit (which costed us a lot!). But my God – what a party it was! A lot of interesting people, variety of drinks to choose, good music and… a swimming pool. Actually, it was forbidden to swim there because of too much chlorine but… just imagine such a pool with this shining blue water. It was just asking people to swim in it. Of course me and a few other people just couldn’r resist :) It was fabulous.

Today (Sunday) was a really lazy day as we woke up really late (1 PM :). Nothing special happened besides the fact that I went to Medina (the oldest part of city where you can buy literally everything) to buy power cord for my laptop. In the evening, we went to a Mexican restaurant to celebrate Catarina’s (my Portuguese flat mate) birthday.

And that’s how my 7th week in Morocco finished. Next one starts tomorrow. Can’t wait too see it :)

life goes on in Morocco

Another exciting weekend in Morocco is almost finished.

First of all, my French classes are awesome! I love it very much and I'm looking forward to each lesson. In September / October I plan to subscribe for another course for whole year or semester. We'll see what interesting I will find. My French is definitely improving. Today, I was sitting in my room and working and suddenly friend of my room mate entered my room. I guess she wanted to get to know me better. She barely spoke English so I had to speak French. She was very supportive and thanks to efforts of both sides we managed to have a small conversation. It wasn't easy to speak French but it was exciting to see my progress and practice more. This French course gives me a lot of power and motivation. I even start to think in French. Whenever I want to say something in English I think how I should say it in French. I have even happened to name one of my pics album on Picasa in French - La Plage Shrate instead of The Beach Shrate.

My week was of course not only French classes. I had 4 planning meetings with my MC team (each at least 3 hour long) so all my evenings were busy with work. Of course, I had to work on my own on other stuff and besides that I also had a meeting with my VPs Finance and LCPs (Local Committee Presidents).

The most challenging issue for this and next week will be to implement accounting system. For now, I will only implement excel sheets (no software until we find something cool and someone cool who will help us in starting it). The most crazy thing is that I need to establish chart of accounts (PL - zakladowy plan kont) which is in French of course. I think I will not have problems with translating it into English and then Polish. The thing is that accounting is sometimes a bit complicated if you study it on your own and you can expect to have some problems even if it's in Polish (I wish it was in Polish - not French:)

On Thursday, we had Tracy's farewell dinner. We went to the Syrian restuarant. The food was delicious. The dinner was on Thursday but Tracy will leave today (unfortunately :( ). I really have to get used to saying goodbye. In my flat, people come and go and I'm the only one who will stay here so long. I will be getting attached to people and after a few months will have to say goodbye. Well, but for those cool moments with such cool people it's really worth to experience all these sad goodbye.


Photo - a sign with my street name on a wall near to our apartment


Photo - 4 crazy Americans during farewell party (from the left - Allen, Christina from Ohio, Tracy from Minnesota and Daisy from New Mexico / Connecticut)

On Friday, we (MC) were invited for dinner / cocktail organized by MEPI - Middle East Partnership Initiative - a grant founded by US to strengthen relations between US and MENA countries. One of the guests was US Ambassador in Morocco - Thomas Riley. The event took place in Hilton Hotel in Rabat. Everything (food, place, people etc) was as posh and sophisticated as possible. I had a few interesting chats with a few interesting people. I had to take the role of Ambassador of AIESEC and of Poland. E.g. I explained that Helsinki is not the capital of Poland :)

The same Friday night, we had a crazy clubbing in Rabat - first in a pub with some tequila shots then in Amnesia (a nightclub). The most craziest part of the night was our way back home. Details not to publish - amnesia :)

And of course today. My first time on a Moroccan beach (swimming and sunbathing of course). First impressions - different sand, huge waves. The water of Atlantic was not very warm. I expected more from Africa. But the waves were so big that no one cared about temperature and everyone just had fun. But the biggest shock for me was taste of the ocean water. I didn't drink it on purpose but when you swim in the sea / ocean it's hard not to taste it. It was extremely SALTY! At some point I even felt pain in my mouth and eyes! I didn't expect it. Actually, it was my first swimming in other sea than Baltic which is the least salty sea in the world. I'm still shocked.


Photo - Kamil and Atlantic

My blog has brand new stuff - it shows countries and cities of my visitors. I sometimes wonder how some of you find this blog. If you have some time, please let me know. I am really willing to hear it.

And if you managed to read this long post until the end, just let me know. See you next time!

1st French Lesson

You probably know from the previous posts that today I started my French lessons. It was awesome! My teacher speaks English, the group is only 7 people and the most unexpected thing is that my Polish friend (Kasia – CEEDer in LC Hassan) is in the same group with me :) Just imagine how surprised I was when I entered the class and saw her there. Actually, it was me who told her about this school but I didn’t expect that we would be in the same group. The classes are exactly 2 hours = 120 minutes (in Poland, 2 hours of classes mean 2x45 minutes). I will have them every day except weekends until 27th of July.

I have to admit that before I knew I would go to Morocco, I didn’t plan to start taking any classes of new language in my life. I just didn’t expect that I would start learning another language from the very beginning at the age of 23. Going for these lessons makes me feel younger :) It is so exciting and I do promise that when I leave Morocco I will be a fluent French speaker! :)

5th week finished

Time goes by so fast! I have been here for 5 weeks already. And still almost 12 months ahead.

This week was quite cool (as every week here:) - I had a few AIESEC meetings, I started and finished working on budget templates and other AIESEC related stuff. Next week, we are going to start MC planning. It’s very late comparing to Polish reality but it is just one of many differences between AIESEC here and in Poland. Tommorow, I am also going to start my French classes! I'm so excited :)

Besides working, last week was full of parties. On 4th of July, our ex-flat mate Alex invited us for US Independence Day party. The party took place in a really cool and fancy villa somewhere in Rabat. There was a lot of AIESECers and other people whom we didn't know. We had a lot of fun especially because of the trampoline in the garden. We were jumping like crazy until we couldn't breathe.

Next two parties took place in Rabat on Thursday and Saturday. We (flat crew) went to the nightclubes where we had a crazy time again. We took a lot of pics but they are not to publish :)

On Sunday morning me and my Canadian flat mate Tess went to catholic church. Unfortunately, it was closed so we headed for protestant one. The mess was in English and as you may guess it was much more different that in Poland. People were singing, playing different instruments, clapping hands etc. One of few common things
was collecting money :)

In the early afternoon, we (Daisy and Alex from US, Mehdi from Morocco, Catarina from Portugal and of course Kamil from Poland) went to Chellah - a ruins of an old fortress. The birds that you can see there are of course storks (bociany) that actually should be in Poland right now. But maybe like me they chose Morocco instead of Poland. It's not surprising for me at all.

Then Daisy and me went at the Atlantic Ocean near the Kazba Fortress and took a lot of awesome pictures. We also spent some time in a cafe in Kazba with marvelous view on river and the Ocean. After that, extremely tired we went home. On the way back we took some pictures of our flat seen from the street.

Exciting day!

Today was a really crazy but exciting day. In the early afternoon, I subscribed for French course which will start next week. I will go for this course everyday for two hours for 3 weeks (Monday till Friday - exactly 15 days). The price is really good (around 4 euro per hour) especially regarding the fact that it's hard to find a course of French as foreign language. I'm so excited :)

Then, I went back home. When we (me and Fati - ex MCVPPD at AIESEC in Morocco) were sitting in the kitchen we suddenly saw a lizard (PL - jaszczurka) walking / running on the walls. I ran to the room for my camera but when I was back the lizard was already behind the fridge. We were trying to scare it by camera flash or by shaking the fridge but this damn lizard wasn't afraid at all. After some time, it went out and ran away through window. Luckily, I managed to take pics! Please, enlarge them to see lizard really well.

After lizard case, there was the most exciting part of the day. I could speak Polish for the first time since I arrived here (excluding skype or mobile - but it's never the same as face to face contact). I was speaking with Kasia from Warsaw - CEEDer in LC Hassan (CEED - AIESEC's internal exchange programme). I must admit that I felt extremely weird to speak Polish in the flat. It's not because I forgot Polish or sth. I'm just not used to talking it. It's so weird when you find it weird to speak your native language :)

A weekend trip in the Rif mountains and at the Mediterranean coast

It was my fourth weekend in Morocco and it was as exciting as three previous ones. This time me, my flat mates and others friends of mine went to Chefchaouen – a little charming town somewhere in Rif mountains in the north of the country. It was full of shops with almost everything and had this fabulous white and blue houses. One of them was our place to stay – Hotel Valencia from which the city panorama was marvelous. Just see the pics!

On Saturday morning we went to the mountains and were swimming in an extremely cold mountain stream. If you don’t have time to see all the pics I beg you to see these ones! It was like a paradise. It was not easy to get there though. We had to drive through curvy road on the steep hills – sometimes just next to the edge from which we could see the bottom of the hill maaaany meters below. It was really scary.

Then we went to the weed farm located very high in the mountains next to a small village. I bet none of you have ever been in such a place. I was there yesterday and I even took pictures :) But the road to this farm was much worse! After coming back from mountains I thought that this scary roads and curves were already behind us. It was nothing comparing with road that we took to get to the farm. That one was a dirt road and it was much more narrow, steep and the cliffs and edges were much more terrifying. The car even hit a sharp stone on the road but luckily it wasn’t broken. To make it more exciting I will tell you that there were 7 people in the car (instead of 5 which is maximum:). Some pictures from both roads are in Rif mountains album.

Before, I came here I had never supposed what kind of places I would be able to see. For the second time in my life (first one was my internship in Poznan, Poland last summer) I realized that if you want to make your life incredible and surprising just move to another city or country for a while and keep discovering it and its people!

Later, we were exploring the town, its cafes, restaurants, Kazba (an old city wall with a garden; also a fortress) and places where people could smoke not only cigarettes :)

On Sunday morning, we had a breakfast and then we went back to Rabat. However, because of the fact that we are very spontaneous people, we decided to change our plans and drove to the Mediterranean coast in the very north of country. It was actually the first time that I got wet in a different sea than Baltic. We had a really cool lunch that included fish and sea fruits.

Then, we took the highway to Rabat and arrived extremely exhausted but full of impressions of this amazing country.

Although, I am staying here for one year I cannot imagine leaving El-Maghrib, people here and my flat at Rue Al Mariniyine. Hopefully, it's next year and I still have 365 days!

365 days ahead!

Today, my term officially started! From this day (July, 1st), I’m Member Committee Vice President Finance at AIESEC in Morocco. Doesn’t it sound nice? :) My term started when I was in Chefchaouen (see the next post) and I already had some AIESEC-related confusions after coming back to flat. But who said it would be easy? I was aware that it would be difficult but it’s always different when you finally face it. What won’t kill you will make you stronger. I hope it will be the second :)

Will this year be as great as exactly 2 years ago when I started my EB term at AIESEC Gdansk UG? It’s gonna be definitely better and more exciting. I’m absolutely sure about that. A year full of challenges and experiences has officially started!