Orientation was a bitch. Entirely.
I can't even begin to recount how much conflicting information we've all be given, but I guess that's like that like from the first Men in Black movie... "You're everything we've come to expect from years of government service."
Our program director is a 24 year old person with no government service at all, who's a year post peace corps in Morocco. At least she knows Darija.
Our academic director is a guy from California somewhere that they flew out, and at least he seems to know what he's doing. It's stressful to see what class I'm going to be in! I have an email from my professor at GT though telling me what I need to have done for 3001 in the fall. So I should be able to make sure that I at least get that work done.
Our other program coordinator at AmidEast is a Moroccan woman who seems to be good and competent. I've heard horror stories about AmidEast from kids at my university, who now refuses to work with them, so I'm just keeping my guard up to make sure I get done what I need to academically. I think our excursions are planned through DC not AmidEast, which I've also heard was a problem, so that's good.
I had my first taste of Moroccan food at Dar Naji, an authentic (obviously...) Moroccan restaurant. Seats low to the ground, servers wore traditional fancy dress, it was really quite lovely. The food was better than I was expecting, and I was full by the time my main dish came around. Lots of bread. I need to watch that! Being vegetarian seems like it's going to be some work but not the nightmare I was expecting.
We had a welcome reception at the Head Director's house as well in the evening. All of us were full from lunch and the only goal was to keep us awake. It was painful! His wife served us some sweets though but I have yet to see any hummus or baklava, both of which I was very much looking forward to seeing.
Tomorrow we have some more orientation (orientation on orientation on orientation) and then we get our host families!
I can't even begin to recount how much conflicting information we've all be given, but I guess that's like that like from the first Men in Black movie... "You're everything we've come to expect from years of government service."
Our program director is a 24 year old person with no government service at all, who's a year post peace corps in Morocco. At least she knows Darija.
Our academic director is a guy from California somewhere that they flew out, and at least he seems to know what he's doing. It's stressful to see what class I'm going to be in! I have an email from my professor at GT though telling me what I need to have done for 3001 in the fall. So I should be able to make sure that I at least get that work done.
Our other program coordinator at AmidEast is a Moroccan woman who seems to be good and competent. I've heard horror stories about AmidEast from kids at my university, who now refuses to work with them, so I'm just keeping my guard up to make sure I get done what I need to academically. I think our excursions are planned through DC not AmidEast, which I've also heard was a problem, so that's good.
I had my first taste of Moroccan food at Dar Naji, an authentic (obviously...) Moroccan restaurant. Seats low to the ground, servers wore traditional fancy dress, it was really quite lovely. The food was better than I was expecting, and I was full by the time my main dish came around. Lots of bread. I need to watch that! Being vegetarian seems like it's going to be some work but not the nightmare I was expecting.
We had a welcome reception at the Head Director's house as well in the evening. All of us were full from lunch and the only goal was to keep us awake. It was painful! His wife served us some sweets though but I have yet to see any hummus or baklava, both of which I was very much looking forward to seeing.
Tomorrow we have some more orientation (orientation on orientation on orientation) and then we get our host families!
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