My First Entry from Morocco

Day 1:

I am writing this a week after it actually happened, which is probably a good thing or it would seem I was an angry, uptight traveler. What seemed at the time like a terrible cab ride/ country/ decision to ever come here, was actually just one very long day of travelling. This was my first time travelling abroad and being in an international airport. It started off with a delayed flight in Columbus, then running through the New York air port to make it just as they were about to close the doors. Luckily I made it on the plane and had a good flight to Lisbon. Once in Lisbon however things slowly went downhill. With no euros and no wifi, I was unable to get a hold of my program. This was a problem because the lovely staff at the connection refused to give me my boarding pass because I did not have a visa. Even though I explained multiple times that Morocco does not require visas for US citizens one particularly salty man was not going to budge. After about three hours of arguing, waiting, and confusion one of the workers help me devise a plan which involved leaving the airport and coming back in to check in at the main desk for my airline, not the connection desk. To my surprise this worked out perfectly. With boarding pass in hand, I headed to my gate for a 5 hours wait until my flight. The flight was quite the experience and definitely not an American airline. For a 1 hour flight we received a full meal and complimentary wine. After having a few glasses I was feeling pretty good and the views flying in to Casablanca were amazing. However, once I landed I went through the overwhelming process of actually entering a foreign country, including customs, exchanging money, etc. My program had arranged transportation which coming from the US my cab driver seemed a little more than sketchy. The whole experience was very isolating, between the 24 hours of travel and not really speaking the language I felt alone. Upon arriving at the hotel the best part was the CNN english channel, and then later the arrival of my roommate Caity. Who talks a lot but that was the best thing that could have happened.  

P.S. Reading this now I seemed super down about my trip, but that was just the first night and the weeks to come after were an amazing experience.

Day 2: Orientation

            Main point> No Drinking and Take a Cab home at Night