Tuesday, August 29, 2006

I went into Ifrane again today. I wish I had more time to spend there. It's such a beautiful town. Here's a little bit about Ifrane.
It's a resort town about the size of Williston. It's a vacation spot for a number of Moroccans and during the summer months it is PACKED with people. The road into Ifrane is curvey, and when you get to the edge of town there's a lake on one side of the road. There are quite a few people playing games, chatting, and just hanging out there all the time. After a couple blocks you get to one of the shopping districts. One side of the road is lined with little shops and a couple restaurants. The other side has a small pond with a fountain in the middle. Both sides of the road are completely lined with people...walking, sitting, chatting. People everywhere. It's really cool to see so many people just hanging out outside in a town this small. I've eaten at a few places in town and can say that the food is good. It's hard to order though because everything is in French. So I just order pizzas because, well, pizza is pizza in French.
I've been assured that in a couple weeks there will be virtually no one in Ifrane. It will become almost deserted.
Anyway, that's enough rambling for now. Here's some more pictures.

These first couple are just of houses and a business in Ifrane. I've never been to Europe, but this is what I imagine a European town to look like, which isn't too surprising because there is a strong French influence in the area.



If you look closely at this picture, on the top of the house on both sides, you'll see a couple brown spots on the red-tile roof. You can't really tell by this picture, but those are HUGE bird nests. I'm not sure what kind of bird, but it's unmistakable from the ground.



More houses. It seems that all houses in Ifrane have a gate and a brick or cement fence in front of it.



These next two are of the people and park/fountain on the opposite side of the road from the shops. This picture doesn't do justice to exactly how many people are on the street, but it show how people are just hanging out. Behind the people sitting on the ledge is the pond with the fountain which will appear.....




...here. This seems to be the central meeting point of people. The first time I came to town the park around the pond was packed with people and there was loud music playing.



The people here wear such different, colorful clothes. And I don't mean different as in different from you and I. I mean different as in different from each other. I never see more than one person wearing the same shorts, or same pink polo shirt with their worn-out baseball caps cocked to one side. The people are pretty much all unique from what I've seen.

Anyway, that's it for now. Classes start tomorrow so I don't know when I'll be able to take/post more pics. I think some of us are going to travel to Fez this weekend. Fez is supposed to be pretty amazing. It's a lot bigger than Ifrane and it's not a tourist town. So don't exepct too much more from me this week.

Monday, August 28, 2006

Here's the first set of pictures I've taken so far. A friend let me borrow a cord to connect my camera and computer, so you all can thank Brian.

These first couple pictures are just some shots of my dorm. So they're pretty boring, but you get to have a visual of where I will be spending most of my time. The first two are just pics of my room We have a big window that stays open most of the time. Even though it's quite warm here, there is almost always a cool breeze, and at night it even gets almost too cold to have the window open.




Now, those of you who know me know that I've never lived in the dorms. You also know that I don't like to share my bathroom, and you unfortunately know why. When I first decided to come here I knew I'd be sharing a bathroom AND have small living quarters with whomever gets assigned to be my roommate. Also, those of you who know me well enough know my sense of humor.

Having said that, I love the bathroom. It's the coolest bathroom I've ever had. Maybe I'm so excited because I came into this living situation under the impression that I'd be sharing a bathroom with the entire floor. So when I got to my dorm and saw that I had my own "cleaning area", I was ecstatic. So, having my own bathroom quite simply made my day. And here it is...



It's great. The shower is a little small, but then again I'm a little big, so what else can I expect. But, I hope you noticed the toilet at the right of the picture, because this is the absolute best part of the whole dorm. I HAVE A POOP ROOM! This is utterly amazing to me. It's a tiny room, with a toilet, a bidet, and a door that locks. So I can poop with the utmost privacy. You all have no idea how excited I am about this.


POOP ROOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is also proof to all of you nay-sayers who said I will have to poop in a hole in the ground. Pllllllllllllll............

I have some more pics I'm going to post soon. There a couple shots of campus and the area surrounding campus. I'm going into Ifrane again tomorrow with some friends and we're going to be the typical, annoying, stupid tourists and take a bunch of pictures of the town. Really guys, Ifrane is beautiful. I love it so much. So keep coming back to see more pics.
Doug

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

I just met with Shura, my old Arabic instructor. She has a way of making me feel better about the decisions I make. I think it's that she genuinely believes in me and knows me, which is strange since I have only known her for a year.
I won't be returning to the United States over the winter break. At least I don't plan to. This means that I'll have three weeks to kill in a foreign country and I'm assuming not too many people will be sticking around campus over the break. This means that I will have the opportunity to do some traveling. I really want to see Spain and I have some friends and friends of the family who will be in Germany. The University may even the capabiliy of placing me with a family in Morocco during the vacation. Today, Shura offered to have me at her home in Egypt with her family. This is the type of kind gesture I've come expect from her. She will be back in Egypt for a few weeks over the break and her son is getting married while she's going to be home. This is honestly where I'd like to be over the break. Shura is certain that her sons (she has 3) would be more than happy to give me a tour of Cairo. This is probably going to be the most exciting part of the trip.

Thursday, August 10, 2006

If I were scared sh*tless, I'd have much cleaner shorts......

So today all the buzz has been about the foiled terrorist plots in London. This has me a little rattled, since I plan on flying into and out of London in two weeks from today. Is it an omen? A sign? Should I not go?
Well, me being stubborn me, I'm still going. But I am worried and a little scared. As if I wasn't nervous enough about have a panic attack miles above the ocean, now I have to worry about some jerk with nitrous in his/her nalgene bottle.
Today's events got me to thinking:

I promised myself that I wouldn't turn this blog into a forum for my typical political rants, but I have to get a couple things off my chest.
I think I'm becoming conservative. At least more than I was. This might just be the "growing up" process, but I find myself agreeing more and more with the republican foreign policy. While the better half of me is fighting this transition tooth and nail, I think my liberal side is losing.

1. Terrorism is a terrible thing. While the terrorists haven't had any successful attacks in the US since 9/11 they have been very accomplished at annoying the shit out of it. Their victories, while seemingly insignificant, have been great. Think about it. We have to take our shoes off before getting on an airplane. We can't take our water or toothpaste in our carry-ons. The lines at the airports are LONG, and we all know how we Americans hate standing in line. They have interrupted the flight plans of thousands of American travelers on more than one occasion. Airports are now MORE confusing and time consuming, and we Americans LOVE our time.

Which leads me to:

2. Wire taps? Racial profiling? Phone records? Secret surveillance? Go for it! Do whatever you have to do to make me safe. As a liberal I know the importance of our privacy and fully comprehend the potential repercussions of allowing our government to have Orwellianesque spying capabilities, but I want to live! I want to make it to Morocco and back alive. I want the only thing that I have to worry about on my flight to be whether or not the last mechanic to check over the plane I am on was competent or stoned. I hate to admit it, but G.W. is right. We are living in dangerous times and the government needs to have the tools to do whatever it needs to make us as safe as possible. However, there should be a committee set up to ensure that these powers are not being abused. (I don't trust the power elite THAT much). I'd rather have withering civil liberties than none because I'm f-ing dead. If and when the terrorist threat is gone, then things can be returned to normal. But as for now, protect my ass G.W. and house dems, get out of his way.

I need to wash myself now.

Sunday, August 06, 2006

Procrastination Pays Off...sorta.

It's been a while since I've posted anything on here, and I'm seriously past due (50 points to anyone who can tell me which of my favorite bands has a song called Past Due). I really hope that while I'm away I don't fall into the same lack-of-motivation-funk that I have found myself in while in Williston. Maybe I'm just talking to myself. Does anyone read this?

Anyway, here's another stateside update:
I still don't have my tickets for my trip, but I ATTEMPTED to get them tonight. My earlier searches showed plane tickets priced at around three-thousand dollars. That's a lot of money. More than I could ever hope to make during one summer. So I put off purchasing tickets in hopes that as time went on, prices would fall (kinda like Wall Street). Well tonight I tried to get me some areo-plane tickets. I called Northwest to see what they could do for me, and they could get me to Casablanca for just over three-thousand bones. I gave them my mommies credit card money, ready to bite the bullet, and her card (luckily) wasn't valid for that amount. So we had the nice lady on the phone hold the reservation for 24 hours so we could make a phone call to the bank. In the meantime my mother and I decided to look on Orbitz again, because I was finding flights for half as much. And much to our surprise, not only were they much cheaper, but I can also fly out of Fargo instead of Minneapolis for not much more money, AND I can even get to Fez (which is where someone from the university will pick me up and drive me to Ifrane...where the university is).

So yea. That's it. Tomorrow my mommy and myself will buy me some tickets for my trip, thus making it official. I'm fucking going to Morocco.

The End?