the world from different perspectives

A few days ago I got a mail that really pissed me off. As many things nowadays in the world this mail showed the truth. But... unfortunately, it only showed a small part of it. It showed something black and white, forgetting that there is way more colors on the palette...

The mail showed some pictures and comments relating to Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It showed Israeli soldiers killing Palestinians, destroying their houses etc

First of all, I am sure that these are true pictures. I don't question that. But why the hell showing only one side of the tragedy? People suffer on the both sides... Such pictures are rather meant to escalate the violence and deepen hate between people!

The other thing, is showing the violence, war and nothing else. I know people who lived/went for a long while in this part of the world and their stories were way different that what we usually think (and what is based on the news from TV/Internet). There are people there who live normal lives like us.

When I was the extra in the movie I met other extras who were real soldiers. One of them served in Iraq and he said that there were a lot of people there just wanting to live normally. Is it surprising? I think it's common that people want to live normal lives. So why the hell do we always think only of terrorists, war and violence when saying the word "Iraq" or "Palestine"? It's because we have to watch what is shown. And second thing what he told me was that the situation there is getting better. Would you say that watching the news?

God, thanks for this amazing experience in Morocco. Not only professional development, parties and a lot of other cool stuff but also eye-opening picture of this part of the world. It's so great to live in a Muslim country and get those insights into people, culture, mentality here...

next country, next year, next everything

My 300th day in Morocco gave me a huge gift - the news of the year in my life.

My next employer will be... PwC Brussels !! A great job description, great working conditions, a French speaking country !! I will work in System and Process Assurance Department - something I already have some experience in, something that I like and something I want to pursue my career in.

I'm starting in September which means I have a summer (Jul & Aug) where I don't have to work (the first such summer since the summer of 1998 - I'm not kidding). I will either go back to Poland, either stay a bit in Morocco and then in Poland, either a bit in Morocco, then a bit in Poland and then maybe I will apply for AIESEC International Congress in Brazil !! So many possibilities !!

I will have to finish my studies along with the job in Belgium. It'll be hard but of course manageable.

I think I was accepted not only because I fit the profile. I did my best to prepare myself for all the interviews (taking a lot of learnings from other interviews for other job posts as well). Secondly, I had really positive attitude and I (almost all the time:) believed that I could get it - according to "the secret" attitude that turned out to be working out again !!

Isn't it fabulous ?!?! I am so happy !!

trips to Madrid & the Middle Atlas

It’s been a while since I last wrote anything – more than 10 days I guess which is quite a lot in my case. Sorry for that:)

So within this time I was in Madrid and in Azrou (and its neighborhood) – a small city in Middle Atlas around 1 hour drive from Meknes or Fez (which are respectively 2,5 and 3,5 hours by train from Rabat).

Trip to Spain was awesome! I met my ex flat mates from AIESEC apartment in Rabat – Verena and Cynthia! It was great to have this Moroccan reunion more than half a year after living together.

I arrived in Madrid on Friday (14th) and quite soon after my arrival we went to a Tapas bar where I had some food and drank 2 glasses of delicious sangria. In the mean time I was having a conversation with 50 something year old German women (later she turned out to be hiding some bread from the bar in her pockets…). It was kind of surreal but it’s actually what I really enjoy (however weird it sounds!). Then we went to some night club. The music was unbelievably nice. Some famous hits (to which you can actually dance) and flamenco shows in the middle. On Saturday, I did some sightseeing with my Polish friends who were in Morocco for a week staying at my place. The rest of my stay (until Tuesday, 18th) I spent hanging out in a cafes, drinking in the urban park or at home, going to bed at dawn and sleeping until noon. It was a cool time of total relax. See more at picasa.

Last Friday (21st), me and my Swiss flat mate Antje, decided to go somewhere for the weekend. I wanted to go to the south (the city of Essaouira) and she wanted to go the north (Chefchaouen). We ended up in the Middle Atlas in the small town of Azrou. Because we were almost in the mountains it was unbelievably freezing! On Saturday we went to the waterfall around 70 km from Azrou. What I like the most was the dining places (hard to call it the restaurants) by the streams. It was very picturesque. Then we decided to walk back and hitchhike to the closest village (33 km far). We walked around 2 hours taking pictures of fabulous mountainous landscapes. Then we caught a car, then another one and then a grand taxi and ended up back in Azrou. On Sunday morning, we were supposed to go to the cedar forests where you can see a lot of monkeys in their natural habitat. Unfortunately, the weather was extremely crappy. It was raining and snowing!!! The kind of weather I normally hate in Poland. It caught me in Morocco!! We came back to Rabat (which has been quite cold recently). See more at picasa. You will see different Morocco – without sun, palms and swimming pools. But still beautiful and charming!

Bienvenida a Madrid – part trois

So, on Friday I am flying to Madrid for a few days (for the unbelievable price of 42,67 € round trip Casablanca-Madrid, Madrid-Casablanca, booked 2 months in advance; to compare – the price of the train ticket between Rabat and the Mohammed V airport in Casablanca will cost me around 12 € round trip – God bless EasyJet!). I will meet Cynthia (my American-Chinese summer flat mate) and Verena (my German summer flat mate).

My plan for this trip is to have a lot of fun and not to be robbed again :)

Await pictures and stories exclusively from the heart of Spain!

experience restarted – part deux

A room in the new house by the ocean in the magical neighborhood of Moroccan casbah, playing in the Hollywood movie, liking my work, having bright future of my professional life, traveling within Morocco and in neighboring countries, spending time with great people of more than 10 nationalities with whom I can have ridiculous sense of humor with whom I can drink and party with whom I can talk about love, sex, relationships, cultural differences, professional development, politics, concept of alleged conflict of Arab vs. Western worlds etc, finally earning much more money within a few days than ever before in my life, enjoying cosmopolitan and internationalized life in Rabat, spending a weekend with the pool, the palms, the sun and the drinks, benefiting of the fabulous weather – all these things make me feel that I have never enjoyed my life as I do right now! The presence is fabulous, the future is bright!

However, life is brutal. The more happy you are at some point, the more you will suffer when you lose certain things. The more happy you are today, the more probably that you will be less happy tomorrow (it’s the same concept as the one saying that the higher you are the more it will hurt when you fall down). What will be my life like in the next few months after I leave Morocco? Will I keep in touch with my friends met here (at least those that are the most valuable)? Will I meet so great people again? Will I have all these amazing surprises? Will it be so internationalized (which is so much enjoyable for me)? That makes me think that thanks to Morocco I enjoy my life so much. Should I then stay here? Should I return here after a few months/years and live here forever? Yes, I started considering that. But, will it be again as it is right now? Will be able to repeat what I experienced here? Well, stupid questions. How should I know that? The only solution is to start thinking about the right things and thus they will make happen (according to “the secret” concept that as I found out has worked out just recently).

And for now, let me just follow Sheryl Crow who sings “all I wanna do is have a little fun before I die”

:) J’adore ma vie!

the secret – part deux

The secret works!!! After seeing this movie I followed its instructions and I decided to start thinking deeply about certain amount of money that I would like to get until the end of March 2008 (among all other stuff that I deeply started to wish to come true). This was the double of my monthly AIESEC salary and I wished that it had to be an extra amount of money (earned not through AIESEC). So my dream came true! The money is earned through a movie of which I vaguely knew when I started thinking of the wish (I heard I might participate in it but nothing was confirmed and I took into account that it already didn’t work out the last time so nothing was sure with the second movie).

Actually, it did not work out as I planned. The difference is that the eventual amount that I will receive is more than I dreamt about :)

life is a movie – part deux

Once again, I just can’t believe that certain things are really happening in my life. This feeling has been accompanying me here in Morocco since the very beginning and it’s been happening over and over again within my stay here. Once again, I got an unbelievable surprise from the faith or from whoever / whatever. I’ve been repeating many times recently that my life is a movie. Just read my blog deeply or go through my pictures to make sure that my life is indeed recently as a movie. But during the last week it was literally a movie because I actually did play in a movie! I already wrote you some months ago about me playing in the movie with Russel Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio directed by Ridley Scott. That thing unfortunately did not work out. However, another chance popped up in February. I didn’t want to blog about it straight away (as I did last time) as nothing was sure. But this time it did happen and it is still happening. I already spent three days on the movie set and I did play in a movie. Its name is “Green Zone” and it is a Hollywood production directed by Peter Greengrass with Matt Damon starring (I saw Matt Damon and someone took a group picture with him – as soon as I get it I will for sure publish it here). The movie deals with Iraq war and weapons of mass destruction supposedly owned by this country. The Green Zone is the compound in Baghdad with all the occidental (mainly American) offices, embassies and officials. It is a very luxury place surrounded by huge wall and guarded by tight security and military placed in the city where bomb blasts happen every day.

I am an extra which means that I am not in the middle of the action or in the spotlight (no, I am not a Hollywood star (yet) :P ). First two days (last Monday and Tuesday), I was an American civilian walking on the runway of a military airport in Iraq (of course, it was shot in Morocco). I must admit that it is very cool to see the film making process at the very time of its production. Most of you must think that it is also very exciting but to some extent I have to disappoint you. Filming movie is sometimes very boring. You just keep repeating the same scene over and over again. The first day I was just standing and supposed to be talking to the soldiers. It took us a few hours to finish this scene. In the meantime (between filming) we were just standing and waiting. The second day was much more interesting because I had to walk (the same walk for a few hours repeated over and over again – at least I was moving). On the other hand, it is so incredible to see the amount of work, efforts, people, facilities, devices and all different kind of things that are sacrificed in order to shoot the movie and at the end, the two days of filming I described above will be around 3 minutes in the movie (if not cut at all). The third day was the most exciting. I was a jogger. Again, if the scene is not cut and showed from the beginning till the end you should see me quite well with 3 other joggers running among the villas and palms of the titled Green Zone in Baghdad (originally filmed in the district of Rabat called Les Ambassadeurs very close to my office).

My other flat mates will join me on Monday (Mar 10) and we’ll go on the set again to film the scene by the swimming pool. Probably we’ll just have to lie, have some drinks and enjoy the sun. I will spend another week being very busy with my life as in a movie :)

I got to know about this opportunity through a friend of mine (an AIESEC alumni) who works in a media agency. May these networks last forever!

And last but not the least the money I am earning is unbelievably great. I will not be a millionaire but for sure my budget will be greatly impacted (for a few days on the set I will get more that what I earned in AIESEC over a few months) and I will spend the money for travels, clothes and overall enjoyment of my life in Morocco :)

Life is a movie!

new home

So I changed my flat again! The reason is here. I don’t have proofs but it’s just so uncomfortable to live with someone when you are not sure about such person and when there is substantial lack of trust. Anyway, let’s not look back on the past. Let’s enjoy the moment because it’s really worth enjoying! Just see all the pics of my new location here.

Right now, I live in the oldest part of the city called Casbah des Oudayas (casbah means castle in Arabic). It’s actually a small city inside a fortress / castle on a hill by the ocean (it sounds so romantic, doesn’t it?). I have a very small room in a very huge house. The size of the room doesn’t matter that much though. I am rewarded with a gorgeous and picturesque view from the terrace on the roof of our house. You can see the whole down town of Rabat, my old district Hassan (with the famous brown Hassan Tower next to which I used to live), Sale (the neighboring city just across the river), the roofs of casbah and… the ocean! It’s so breathe-taking! Just imagine a party on the roof at night – some drinks, shisha and the deep conversations with the right people… what else do you need?? Right now, I live with 5 other people (3 Americans, the Swiss and the Turkish) so I feel pretty much as if it was summer 2007 in the AIESEC apartment in Hassan. Even right now, I’m sitting in the living room and hearing my flat mates speaking to their families or friends. Turkish coming from the left and the Swiss-German coming from the right. Life in an international house again (as my mum called it – the Babel Tower) – exciting!

J’adore le Maroc!

the entrance door:


the back street along our house:


the kitchen:


the living room:


the view from the roof: