Morocco: Rabat

Of my time in Morocco, about half of it was spent in Rabat.
Rabat is the capital city and, after traveling around within the country, I've come to realize that it's probably my favorite city as well - not as touristy as Marrakech or Fes, and much cleaner because it houses all the official embassies and international buildings.

All the students were paired off and placed in homestays within the medina (the old, walled in part of the city). My roommate Katie and I wound up living with a retired banker, his wife, and their 29 year old daughter Aasmae (pronounced like asthma) who works as a nurse. We didn't spend a lot of quality time with them, aside from watching Turkish soap operas dubbed in Arabic over lunch every afternoon. But, in many ways, we really lucked out - every family member spoke French as well as Arabic, so even if our French wasn't perfect, we could at least communicate the essentials. We also had a full roof on the house (not all homestays did), a western toilet, and a shower-head with a drain and squeegee next to the toilet. So luckily we could rinse off with a shower next to the toilet seat, rather than use a bucket shower (which some students had to do!) But either way, water is a valuable resource in Morocco and bathing was a pretty infrequent luxury for us during those two weeks...

Our front door

The main sitting room (where Katie and I also slept)

Walking through the medina

My roommate Katie and our host mom

We had classes (but not with a lot of frequency!) at the Center for Cross-Cultural Learning in Rabat. It was such a pretty building, but then again every doorway, building, and staircase in Morocco was always gorgeous. I'd never seen so many intricately colored tiles in one place.

The CCCL school

And the rooftop view of Rabat from the top

We had very little class time in that building though, because our program is all about "experiential learning." Instead, we spent our days visiting different organizations and universities in the city. For instance, we attended lectures at:

• The Public Maternity of Rabat
• Le Conseils National des Droits Des Hommes (the National Human Rights Center)
• The Faculté du Medecin (medical school)
• Grain du Sésame - a nonprofit that employs local women in crafts projects to empower them and make them more self-sufficient

The Human Rights Center

And its beautiful interior

The Rabat medical and pharmacy school campus

Lab rats in the medical school

Most of these excursions were only in the morning though, so we had plenty of free time to wander. I made sure to hit up all of the main sites and attractions, which you can see below (thankfully most things are within walking distance and if not, taxis are dirt cheap with the conversion rate!):

The Kasbah des Oudayas, a famous neighborhood with beautiful blue walls

The Place des Oudayas

The Mausoleum of Mohammed V

Tour Hassan (Hassan Tower)

The Roman ruins at Chellah

And of course, the beach at sunset

These are the just the bare-bones of what I did in Morocco though. I'll post plenty more on the culture and my crazy bathhouse experiences later on... Got to keep you all in suspense a little longer!