Travel Diary - A semester in Morocco: Saying goodbye
NL
I will start by explaining why I will be leaving for Morocco for a semester, and what I will be doing there. In the third year of university there is a so called discretionary space. This is a semester where you can choose to do a minor, study abroad or to do an internship. I decided I wanted to study abroad and after two rounds of selections, I got selected to do a research minor in Rabat, Morocco. I chose to sign up for this minor in Morocco, because I am already specialized on the Middle East in my studies of International Studies. The minor is called ‘Moroccan culture and society’ and is given by the NIMAR (The Dutch institute in Morocco). In the first half of the minor I will be getting Moroccan Arabic classes and I will be learning how to do qualitative research. In the second half of the minor I will have to do actual qualitative research on the Moroccan culture and society. The first month in Morocco I will be staying at a host family, and after that I will just rent my own apartment.
I will start by explaining why I will be leaving for Morocco for a semester, and what I will be doing there. In the third year of university there is a so called discretionary space. This is a semester where you can choose to do a minor, study abroad or to do an internship. I decided I wanted to study abroad and after two rounds of selections, I got selected to do a research minor in Rabat, Morocco. I chose to sign up for this minor in Morocco, because I am already specialized on the Middle East in my studies of International Studies. The minor is called ‘Moroccan culture and society’ and is given by the NIMAR (The Dutch institute in Morocco). In the first half of the minor I will be getting Moroccan Arabic classes and I will be learning how to do qualitative research. In the second half of the minor I will have to do actual qualitative research on the Moroccan culture and society. The first month in Morocco I will be staying at a host family, and after that I will just rent my own apartment.
A big surprise
The real goodbye
On Thursday 7th of
September it was finally time. I woke up at 03.15 in order to be on time at the
airport. The goodbye went bye pretty fast because it was very very busy. I
arrived at the airport 2,5 hours in advance and after 1,5 hours waiting for
luggage check-in, 30 minutes waiting for security check and a €70,- fine
because my suitcase was too heavy, I made it to the plane 10 minutes before the
gate closed. In the plane I sat next to a guy who was born in the village next
to the one I live in, but he moved to France 12 years ago. Such a coincidence. Also
the lady sitting next to him lives in France for the biggest part of the year. After
1,5 hours I made it to Marseille where I had to switch planes. I had 4 hours
but the airport was so small that I got very bored. To make matters worse, I
also had a 30 minute delay. Again, I had to pay a €20,- fine for my heavy
suitcase. 2,5 hours later I landed at the airport of Rabat, Morocco. After
landing I had to go through security checks. The lady behind the desk asked me
for my address in Morocco, but I did not have one yet.. She said that I really
needed an address to enter the country. Luckily she was also fine with me
writing down the name of the Nimar. I also got a stamp in my passport (which
made me very happy). Outside the airport Rachid of the Nimar waited for me. He
only spoke French and Arabic so communicating was rather hard. But soon we had
a conversation because he was wearing an Ajax watch (my favourite football club
from Amsterdam). Out of nowhere Rachid stopped the car in the middle of a busy
road and he got out to grab my suitcases. A bit startled I also got out of the
car. Was I going to live on this busy road? But luckily not, the host family
where he was taking me to lives in the middle of the old medina of Rabat, and
getting there by car was not possible. And so it happened, that we walked with
a big pink and a white suitcase through the narrow alleys of the medina of
Rabat, while we were sweating like crazy, our noses filled with hundreds of
different scents (from mint and spiced, to rotten rats), on our way to the
Moroccan family where I will be spending the next month. 
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