Settling In! By Natalie Hermance

STUDENT BLOG POST
By Natalie Hermance

On our second day of learning and our third day since our arrival to Morocco, I and the rest of the outdoor education students woke up bright and early, finally close to beating the jet lag,to a cool and breezy morning in Rabat. After a wonderful breakfast, we each commuted to the learning center either by tram or taxi.

After arriving at the center, we began our very long and exciting day with our first hour and a half of functional Arabic language class. In this class we were all very interested in the content and engaged with our wonderful instructor. Though confused at times, I and the rest of my peers were able to learn a lot of words and phrases that we’ve already been able to notice in conversation outside of class time. Part way through this block of class time we were given a chance to go out into the learning center and use our newly learned vocabulary with other instructors and individuals. Though this was quite daunting and somewhat nerve wracking, it gave us all the opportunity to learn how to use this language first hand. 

Following our language class, we were given a bus tour through the area, which was cleverly titled “Rabat, the Crossroads of Civilization Bus Tour.” This tour was not only very fun but was also extremely informational. We were able to visit or view some of the most renowned landmarks in the city. All throughout, our lovely tour guide explained the present, past, and future of the locations we were lucky enough to see. 

After the bus tour, we returned to the learning center and were encouraged to explore and interact outside of the center during lunch break. The entire group walked to a nearby cafe to order their meals and eat together. In this, we not only were able to make use of our language training but were also able to grow closer as a group. We closed out the day with discussion about what to expect for the rest of the program. We did this by going over the itinerary of the following week, chatting about what we learned from our adventure thus far, and asking and answering questions. So far, this has been more than exciting, enriching, and very outside of our comfort zones. (That is a good thing in my book!)