!!!أنا في مغرب

Today is our first day in Morocco. Also, due to the flight schedule, I have not slept in a very long time, close to two days (We'll be fixing that shortly...) Right now I am sitting in a hotel room in Casablanca listening through the wide open window to the traffic at 9pm. The hotel room is wonderful, one of the nicest I've been in, possibly because I'm exhausted but I think a lot because of the way it is arranged. Needless to say, I'm going to sleep very well tonight!

We arrived at the hotel around 1pm local time today. Before that we spent over 24 hours in airports and airplanes, which, despite my love of flying, just about wore me and everyone else out. I didn't sleep at all on the way over to Spain (which is a gorgeous country) but on the way to Morocco I fell asleep before we took off and woke up as we rolled into the gate. 

After we got to the hotel everyone took a long nap, then we took a drive too the beach in a bus. We passed the Hasan II Mosque, which we shall visit later in the trip. It is the 3rd biggest Mosque in the world, and home to the largest Minaret in the world. The pictures that I took do not do it justice, especially at night when it is lit up. The beach was interesting, very few people were in the water because it was so cold, but everyoneeee had a soccer ball... I'm going to have to practice up while I am here. 

You'll all be interested to know that we got a cell phone today! The numerals are the same as in the states, but I can officially text in Arabic! Don't even think about calling or texting from the states though, calls are 50 cents a minute IN MOROCCO, without even bringing anything outside of the country into the picture. 

Tomorrow we travel to Rabat after a meeting with the consulate in Casablanca. I am very excited to meet my host family. Classes start Wednesday. I hope that all is going well over there!

مع سلامة

Drivers in Morocco pretty much do whatever they want. This is out of our hotel room window. 

View from the roof of the hotel