One week away!

One week from today, I will be getting onto a plane headed to Rabat, Morocco. I’ll be flying through New York and Paris to get there. I’m a little nervous but mostly excited. The last month I have spent preparing for my trip by reading several books, teaching myself the Arabic alphabet, picking out gifts for my host family, and beginning my packing. The books I’ve read have given me a deeper insight into Moroccan culture and history and now I’m very excited to experience the culture firsthand. Learning the Arabic alphabet, however, has made me very nervous about communicating there. I have a feeling Arabic is going to be more difficult to learn than German! Fortunately, I will receive plenty of classroom instruction – 3 hours every day, 5 days a week. Additionally, my host family may not know any English which will force me to use what little Arabic I know. I imagine I will be playing a constant game of Charades for the first few weeks. I still need to finish packing but it shouldn’t take too long. I’ll try my best to update this blog as often as possible. Thanks for reading and feel free to leave comments or questions!