First of all, I need to share one of the most amazing bathing experiences I have ever had in my life. Before leaving Fes last week, Alex, Danielle (a fellow student from ALIF), and I splurged and went to one of the Ville Nouvelle's ritziest hammams, Salon Nausikaa (http://www.nausikaa-spa.com/index.html). The site is in French but they have pictures. For those who are in the dark, a Moroccan hammam is a bathing house with a steam room, cold water bath, and women or men who are paid to scrub off all of your dead skin, and sometimes there is a massage. While the hammams in the old medina are ancient and more traditional (and a little less clean), the one in the VN was comparable to a fancy salon in the US (except for the cost). I was so happy to be in a warm room and acheieve a state of cleanliness that I didn't even know existed and it is now a cultural experience that is essential to my life for these next 5 months. Next time, I will have to venture into the old medina for the authentic 10th century Moroccan hammam experience...
On Thursday, after sad goodbyes at ALIF with our beloved teacher Younnis, Alex and I headed to the train station to meet up with the AUI van. The drive south to Ifrane was about an hour. Ifrane is in the Middle Atlas mountains and is currently covered by snow. Luckily, the rooms are heated so even though it is in the negatives outside (in celsius), it is semi-warm inside. The town of Ifrane is tiny but is only a 10 minute walk away. There are about 40 exchange students, all are American except for one Canadian. It has been nice to have fellow Americans here, especially to watch Obama's inaugaration (which we watched dubbed in French because the CNN was unavailable due to the blizzard). On the subject of Obama, everyone I have talked to here is excited for the US to have Obama as president but are very tuned in to his actions regarding Gaza. Regardless, being abroad with Bush out of the office is very reassurring.
The campus is absolutely beautiful. It was constructed by the same architect who built the King Hassan II mosque in Casablanca. The money to build the university came from the King of Saudi Arabia who gave the king of Morocco $50 million to help clean up an oil spill that had occured near the coast of Morocco. The spill, however, never caused any damage and since taking back a gift of that size is not acceptable, Hassan II convinced the King of Saudi Arabia to help him pay for AUI. That said, the dorms are segregated and the campus is fenced in, with security patrolling it 24/7.
The Academic Section of Campus:
The Mosque and the Library:
After some painful orientation days, we went to the local ski resort, Michiflen, on Tuesday. It is only 30 minutes away. The lifts werent operating and the ski equipment was a little shady so I paid my 10 Dh for a sled and had an amazing time sledding and building snowman in Africa! Unfortunately, on the bus trip back to campus, we were delayed a couple hours due to the blizzard which finally ended yesterday. We got back just in time for Obama's speech. To celebrate, I went to the bar in town and sampled some Moroccan wine with some exchanges and Moroccan roommates. Moroccan wine comes from Meknes (about an hour away) and is similar to if not worse than my dear friend Charles Shaw aka 2 buck chuck.
Classes began Wednesday. I am taking French, Comparative Religion, Islamic Art and Architecture, Political Anthropology, and Development Policy. Even though the registration process was excruciatingly inefficient and took a total of 4 hours to finalize my schedule, I am very excited about the academic aspect of this semester.
My roommate's name is Manelle and she is also in her third year of school. She is from Fes and is studying International Relations. She is incredibly sweet and is patient when I stumble through my French. She speaks English fluently, in addition to French and Moroccan Arabic. Almost everyone here is trilingual if not more. More motivation to practice my French! Since there is not much to do at night and its freezing, we have spent some good time watching the news, Friends, and bad American tv shows dubbed in French.
This weekend, I will go back into Fes to visit my host family and friends from ALIF. It will be nice to be back but I have high hopes for seeing Morocco these next 16 weekends. I miss you all bzzzef (a lot in Dirija). Love, christine
Glad to hear that you're doing so well. Hope classes are fun & good luck with your French! I'm way behind with my studying, and procrastinating way too much this morning. . . stay warm, and take care! As far as warm & sunny, it is in the 40s her (F, of course), and we had a spectacularly sunny day on Sunday! Mountains everywhere, blue water, etc. But it was cold that day, too (hardly reached above 32 F). Now that it is warmer, it is also greyer. Had more snow flurries earlier in the week . . . enjoy the snow, the blizzards, and snowmen in Africa!
ReplyDeleteI hope you will enjoy that 'cultural immersion' at hammam as often as possible before you depart Africa!! Though I know intellectually that the Atlast Mts are there somewhere and that they are high enough for snow, it's still startling to see the photos of Morocco with snow. Thanks for letting us enjoy this vicariously!
ReplyDeleteSeattle and Tacoma have finally emerged from days of fog; we have a bit of sun now, but not to worry--the rain will be back later today!
Have a good adventure!
Sharon at UWT
Your fans demand more posts!! More pictures!!
ReplyDelete