Today we had a LONG day of "meetings" at our hotel in Arlington, Va. From 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. It was painful to sit through. In a nutshell it was people from Legacy International (the organization that is sending us to Morocco) and foreign service officers from the State Department telling us how valuable Arabic is - which sounds useful and interesting until you realize that you have to listen to it for nine hours straight. On the other hand, we are going for free so I'll put up with whatever they want if it will get me there.
Before we came we all received an email telling us a little about the host families. They were all in the city except for one family on a farm, and all of them had students approximately our age learning Arabic. Okay, I thought, as long as I'm not on the farm that's outside the city I will be fine.
Guess who got stuck on the farm?
But actually it appears to be not as bad as I anticipated. My host parents are both doctors who own their own private practice, and they will structure their appointments around my school schedule. The American Language Center (ALC), where I will be taking my courses, is about 15 minutes from the "farm," which is really a few olive and orange trees. The parents have two daughters, 12 and 16, and I believe they have a guest house type situation where my roommate, Tamanna, and I will be staying. I think there is a Western seat toilet, not an Eastern squat toilet.
So that's been the main anxiety source, but after talking to our trip coordinator I am feeling much more confident about the "farm." Bonus.
As for everybody else, there are about twenty students on this trip. Most are entering their senior year of high school; myself and four others are entering college this fall (we are the oldest) at places like Georgia, Georgia Tech and Bennington (!). Most of the students are from the east - Connecticut, several from Atlanta - and then there's one from California, Wisconsin, Utah, St. Paul and a few other places. We have two adult chaperones, Ethan and Christine, and our coordinator, Hamza, going with us on the planes tomorrow. Royal Air Maroc has a reputation for "losing" (read: stealing) baggage, so I am a bit nervous about that. And our ten-hour layover in JFK Airport will be, obviously, long. However, I have brought my iPod speakers and am in the process of planning an airport dance party with some other students.
Lastly, for those not so technically apt, you can subcribe to this blog to make it easier to access by clicking on "Subscribe to: Posts" at the bottom of the page. If you have Gmail you can follow it with Google Reader, which is one of those links on the top left (next to Calendar, Documents, Photos, etc.). If not, you can follow it in your Internet browser. If this doesn't make sense it doesn't really matter, it might just be easier for some people. Ask your young friends.
Next post will actually be from Morocco - salaam!
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