Were finally in Morocco!

After much anticipation and a whole lot of tiresome travelling, Emily and I have made it to Morocco; Rabat specifically!! We arrived in Casablanca early on Tuesday morning. Here's the first picture that Emily took in Morocco:



Once in our bus, all 58 of us trainees we bussed over to Rabat, where we stopped to visit the Peace Corps Morocco headquarters. We also visited the Peace Corps Morocco Training staff, who gave us our first taste of Moroccan mint tea! It tastes just like spearmint gum, I swear!

We walked around the grounds, admiring the library and the other resources that will be available to us over the next 27 months! It's a beautiful setting with lush vegetation and gorgeous architecture. See for yourself!







After that, we arrived at our hotel in Rabat, where we ate, relaxed, and went on the rooftop to admire the view and send some emails! I've included a few pictures of that awesome space...I think we'll begin to miss it once we're in Azrou this Friday.







We've been attending training sessions during the day and socializing in our time off at night.

Today, we actually got a "walk around" allowance (400 Dirhams, which equals about US$ 12.50) and were set loose to explore the city of Rabat, if only for a few hours. We saw a bunch of stores closing, maybe because of the evening prayer, or maybe in anticipation of breaking their fasts (we're in the midst of Ramadan, where
muslims fast during the daylight hours). Emily and I searched for an adapter for our computer, but couldn't find a merchant with the right wares...Better luck next time!

Tomorrow is our last day of orientation before we're off to another hotel in Azrou. From what I have gathered, we'll be doing 1 more week of training in Azrou before we are relocated to live with our host family!

We all are taking it little by little, slowly gaining experience that will help us all in a very short amount of time!

-Jon


A random Ps...: French people love Morocco!!! They're everywhere (at least in our hotel...)!!!


Pps. This post should have been posted Tuesday, but the wireless internet has been pretty flaky and I haven't been able to upload images. Hopefully this does not continue...