Moroccan Adventures Begin

A Salam Alaikum! (May Peace Be Upon You)

Sorry I haven't quite figured out the Arabic keyboard as of yet!  

The pre-departure meetings are over and now its time to depart for Morocco! And so my adventures begin! I am traveling through Morocco as one of 12 pre-service and practicing teachers, and two professors, as a part of a Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad called Morocco's Bountiful Perspectives: Global Classrooms and Cultural Connections for the 21st Century Learners.  Although this is a fun adventure for me this also means work and I am in the process of developing a culturally responsive curriculum for use when I teach, but more on that later.

Morocco will be my 23rd country visited, and I will be there to celebrate my 23rd birthday! I am very excited to learn more about the history and culture of the MENA (Middle East and North Africa, basically most of what we consider to be the Arab world) region.  This will be my first time on the African continent and also my first time in an Islamic country, right in the heart of Ramadan!

Day one: After more than 24 hours of travel we arrived at destination Al-Akhawayan University in Ifrane.   

2 hours-drive from CT to JFK
4.5 hours-Lunch, check in, and wait for flight (and watch the painful destruction of Brazil by Germany in the World Cup Semi-Finals at the bar across from my gate)
7.5 Hours-Flight from John F. Kennedy Airport in Jamaica, NY to Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris France
4 hours-Layover in Paris
3.5 hours-Flight to Casablanca, Collect Luggage, etc.
5.5 hours-Bus Ride from Casablanca to Ifrane (Which could have been cut in half had we flown into the airport in Rabat, but we made it anyways!)

The grand total is...about 27 hours of travel, I would say that's a new record but I think my trip to India may have been more).  Yah I'm a math teacher sue me.  As much as I love traveling that first day was a struggle and to think at the end of this trip I'm making the same commute back to New York then continuing on all the way back to Hawaii! Insha'Allah (God willing) I will still be functional when I get there!

Wish me Luck!