Last minute details...

29 Jan 09
Well, I can pretty much guarantee you that this will be one of the most uneventful posts; sadly, I'm not in Morocco yet...but I will be on Sunday! I flew into London two weeks ago to meet my mom. We spent a few days there and wandered the city (and saw a musical and drank copious amounts of tea) before heading back to Brussels.
I've spent the last week and a half getting ready for my séjour, if you will and now that it's down to the wire, there's not much else to do but wait. Belgium has a very high Moroccan population, so most everyone that I run into has some sort of advice to give me. Said, at the gym, insisted that my mother teach me how to say "I don't have time for you!" in Arabic so that I can shoo random men away like a local; Ahmed at the NATO Clinic told me that I should have gotten a perscription for Ciprofloxacin because he's certain I'm going to catch the bacterial infection Pseudomonas (and die. No just kidding, he didn't really say that. At least not outright)...he then proceeded to give me 3 tubes of bacatracin, 3 packs of sudafed, 2 packs of cough drops, 2 bottles of cough syrup, 2 bottles of ibuprofen, normal tylenol, tylenol cold, tums, eyedrops, hydrocortisone cream, etc. (going through customs should be interesting); and the woman at the Shopette had no advice to give me, but she does deserve special mention because she was the first person to card me since I've been 21 (I had to have the travel bottles of rum, tequila, and vodka...). I have no doubt that I'm more than prepared for this adventure, and now I'm just sitting around twiddling my thumbs (not really considering my suitcases are still empty).
My dad and I are going to head out for Paris tomorrow morning where, on Sunday I'll be meeting up with the group flying in from JFK and going on to Rabat. After that, I'll start a week-long orientation, and then move in with my host family to hopefully start up some sort of routine. I'm not really sure what to expect as of right now, but I can assure you that as I find stuff out I'll be sure to let you know. I know for a fact that I will be living in the medina in Rabat, only minutes away from the Cross-Cultural Learning Center where I will be taking my classes.
The next time I write, I'll be in Morocco so be sure to check back for a new post on Sunday or Monday. I hope everything's going great with all of you, and be sure to keep me updated!
p.s. not sure what's up with the date stamp on this thing...it's not really cooperating.