Remember that time I suck at blogging?

Yes, I do realize that it has been almost an entire month. I've been busy, I live in Morocco. Deal with it. :)

A lot has been happening!! I went to Fez :
Saw some beautiful pottery,loud metalworking,

a smelly leather tannery,

and colorful fabrics.

The medina in Fez is really cool. There are some amaaazing artisans there, and really good shopping. A couple of us bought some paintings from a studio there, and I really enjoyed talking with their painters.

The following week I got suuuuuper sick....all I did for about 5 days was sleep. And I missed our ISA trip to go hiking in the mountains around Ifrane and Azrou. That was a bummer.

That weekend there was also a BIG futbol game (Morocco vs Tanzania) on Sunday night. I was feeling better by then so we all went with some of our Moroccan friends to a cafe to watch, then after the game ended and we won there were instantly HUNDREDS of people in the streets!! Dancing, singing, chanting, hanging from car windows, waving flags..we even saw one guy doing push-ups on the roof of a moving car. It was craziness!! We ended up joining in on a parade, dancing and chanting "Ole ole ole ole, MAGHREB MAGHREB" and such in the streets for an hour! They were still partying when we left at one, but we figured we should get some sleep before 8am classes! :)

Here's some video!

The next weekend we went to Casablanca and Rabat! Casa was pretty cool, we got to visit the Hassan II Mosque, which is the 3rd largest in the world..and understandably GIGANTIC.

Some of the girls jumped off the wall of the mosque into the ocean with some Moroccans!! It looked like sooo much fun! I'm a teeerrrrible swimmer, though..so if I'd tried it would've gone really badly.

I actually liked Rabat a lot better than Casa. It's a beautiful city. It's the capital, so super clean..and just has a really nice, chill, seaside vibe. I want to go back. Actually, I really want to live there. I mean, someday :)

We saw some more ruins, and then Mohammad V's mausoleum.
We also got some reeeally good Chinese food, then walked down this beautifully clean street to the medina.



Other than that I've just been insanely busy with schoolwork, stuff for the Intercultural University Forum, and various scholarship applications and grad school research. You know, all the stuff you forget actually still exists when you "study" abroad. Sometimes I wish I could just be on vacation all the time.

Forum is going really well though!! It's interesting seeing the dynamics that spring up between the Moroccan and American students. I have reeeally enjoyed working with the Moroccans, though! I'm working on the artistic aspect of our presentation and we are going to have a spoken word piece, a skit, a dance, and I'm also working on a collaborative painting to hang and finish during our presentation!
We've created a website to get input on cultural diversity and globalization from people all over the world. Anyone reading this should go answer some questions right now!! (http://culturaldiversity-globalization.weebly.com/) We'd love input from anyone, anywhere! The more the merrier :)


Next weekend, I'm going to hang out in the desert...WITH ELYSE APPELGATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited!!!!!! I miss her. Hanging out in the desert with Weesey and camels is going to be sooooooooooooo much fun.
Yeah, can you feel my excitement much??

Oh by the way, I LIVE HERE..YEAH:
:)

I miss everyone back in the States a whole lot. Hope that home is treating you well.

Love,
Rubea