Weeks 12, 13, and 14: My Birthday and a Trip to the Desert

Hello all! Long time, no see. Things got very busy over here very quickly so the frequency of my blogs diminished quite a bit but I'm back and have plenty to talk about. My Birthweek was incredible and filled with many well wishes, lots of singing, cakes, and topped off with a trip to the desert, which I will talk about in detail in a bit. Classes are now in full swing and this week is actually the first week that we will be attending our direct enrollment classes. I will be attending a Social and Psycholinguistics class as well as a Semiotics class and will choose one to attend regularly. The college experience here as you can imagine is quite different from my personal experience at UMD. For one, there is essentially no interaction between the professors and the students during class. The professor shows up, lectures, and leaves. No discussion. No clickers. None of that. Additionally, the entirety of your grade is the final exam and as a result apparently some Moroccans don't really go to lectures. Ok, so maybe its not super different from some stereotypes of US college classes but it was a little shocking for me to hear.

I also finally have gotten my Community Service position up and running. I am working in a Community center essentially as a librarian for the time being. There are some PhD Linguistics students coming to the center in October to work on some sort of long term project for the semester so I am going to dialogue with them and determine if we can collaborate on a project. But until then, I will be categorizing the brand new library using the Dewey Decimal System and helping kids find books whenever they show up.

And finally, the desert. Without a doubt, it was one of the most breathtaking and surreal places I have ever visited. I didn't really know what to expect with regards to our accommodations but if you can imagine taking a pretty chic European hotel and plopping it in the middle of the Sahara desert (which literally means "desert" desert btw as "Sahara" means desert in Arabic) that's basically where I stayed. The first evening, I walked out back of the hotel which lets you out immediately to the Sahara and the dunes to do some stargazing until my wonderful Resident Director pointed me toward a dune far enough away that my view was not polluted by light if I laid down. It was simply incredible. The next day we went on a tour of the desert in 4x4s and that we took an obligatory uncomfortable camel ride to a camp in the desert. The next morning, some of us got up bright and early to climb an 800 meter dune to watch the sunrise over the Sahara. Many pictures can be found on Facebook and I highly recommend all of them. Sometimes, when I look at them it's hard to believe I was there. I would highly recommend Merzouga to any fellow Morocco travelers. It is well worth the fact that it is quite off the beaten path!

All for now,

Johnny M.