The first four days in morocco have seemed at once extremely busy and somewhat solitary. I arrived in Marrakesh no problem and spent the night at a hostel (which i never would've found if somebody hadn't guided me). I randomly ran into a girl from Haverford i didn't recognize, and ate snails in the djemma el-fna. the next day i took the train to fes, but the university van that was supposed to pick me up there never showed up, so i ended up taking a taxi to ifrane (the town in the atlas mountains where al-akhawayn is). that whole experience was at once kinda sketchy (the taxi had no seatbelt or meter), but also exciting: the scenery as we were driving into the mountains was breathtaking.

at al-akhawayn, they don't house the international students together (there are about 50). in fact, i am the only one on my floor, and there are only two other americans in my building. i know its meant so that we get to know moroccans, but i have to say that i have been meeting so, so many these past three days, whom are all just so friendly (and talkative :) ... so i do wish they housed us with other americans, i mean i have barely been in my room anyways.

right now, hours after obama has been sworn in as #44, i've taken part in an exhausting treasure hunt, my first kareoke night (i sung two songs, one with a group of moroccan friends and the other as a duet with another american), discussed forming an american-moroccan student discussion group, decided to join the table tennis team (and other intramurals, probably), and gone sledding on a mountain. this skiing trip happened today, actually, and oh my god on the way back the four buses got snowed in several times. but the crazy, crazy thing happened to our bus. after we hit a couple cars that were too close, we started skidding and ended up on the edge of the cliff, nearly at the point where the back wheels were off entirely. still, for some reason we stayed in the bus for an hour- the moroccans all joking and laughing, and the americans extremely tense. i'll admit i've kind of been acting the interpreter between the two groups, and it was definitely interesting because i could see firsthand the completely different mindsets here. anyways, we eventually evacuated that bus and finally made it back home- about 4 hours in all for a 2o min. drive.

classes start tomorrow, but i wanted to get these past few days down on this blog. oh, i have no pics yet because i have to admit i'm really not in the practice of carrying my camera around. there are a bunch of pics and videos of me singing, sledding, and with people, but i have no idea what cameras they are on, or remember who even took them. hopefully they'll show up at soe point. peace :)