Welcome to the kingdom of Morocco
Dear Fellow Travelers,
Today is Sunday, November 5. It is 12:20 p.m. our time, which is 7:20 a.m. Sunday morning your time! Time to wake up! :)
This is the first time we have been able to write to you on our blog, so we will try to fill you in on our experiences and impressions so far!
We got on the airplane in Boston on Wednesday evening at 6 pm and arrived in London 6 1/2 hours later, but it was already Thursday morning at 5:30 a.m.! London England is 5 hours ahead of us in time! After walking around the airport we had to take a bus to get to the terminal for our next airplane to fly to Marrakech. The flight was only 3 1/2 hours, and we landed in Marrakech at 12:30 in the afternoon - no time change this time!
As we descended into Marrakech, we could see mountains from the plane. We could see fields of greenery, but we didn't know what it was. Later we learned these are groves of olive trees!
The land surrounding the olives groves was brown and sandy looking, like terra cotta.
As soon as we stepped out of the airplane, we noticed the colors of the buildings. They are the same terra cotta color, matching the land, and the doors are turquoise color - beautiful.
We expected the air to feel like a warm fall day, in the 70s, but we were surprised that it was much warmer, in the 80s. We had to go through passport control where they checked our passports and stamped them, and then we had to go through Customs, where they ask you if you are bringing anything to selll into the country. We told them, no, we're not selling anything, we're teachers, and we're visiting Morocco to present at the Fulbright conference, and to visit schools and learn about education here!
Assignment: Morocco recently won an award from UNESCO for their literacy programs (teaching more people to read). Look up UNESCO on the internet and find out who they are, and what they do. Can you find information about the award they gave to Morocco?
The hotel was a short taxi ride away from the airport, and on the way we saw many things that are new to us. We saw lots of busses, cars, people riding on motorbikes. The main streets were lined with roses of all colors - red, white, orange, peach, yellow. We saw lots of orange trees, and we saw lots of olive trees - this is when we learned what we had seen from the airplane. It turned out we were passing Menara Gardens, a garden and olive grove built by the Almodads, a ruling dynasty in the 1100s and 1200s.
It's now time for us to go to the conference lunch. The Speaker is Alex Counts, the President of the Grameen Foundation. He went to Bangladesh in 1988 with the Fulbright grant, and is now president of the Grameen Bank.
Later on, the Honorable Thomas T. Riley, the U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Morocco will be speaking. It's full day, and we'll write much much more in a few hours! So check back with us!
Love,
Alicia and Lucy
Today is Sunday, November 5. It is 12:20 p.m. our time, which is 7:20 a.m. Sunday morning your time! Time to wake up! :)
This is the first time we have been able to write to you on our blog, so we will try to fill you in on our experiences and impressions so far!
We got on the airplane in Boston on Wednesday evening at 6 pm and arrived in London 6 1/2 hours later, but it was already Thursday morning at 5:30 a.m.! London England is 5 hours ahead of us in time! After walking around the airport we had to take a bus to get to the terminal for our next airplane to fly to Marrakech. The flight was only 3 1/2 hours, and we landed in Marrakech at 12:30 in the afternoon - no time change this time!
As we descended into Marrakech, we could see mountains from the plane. We could see fields of greenery, but we didn't know what it was. Later we learned these are groves of olive trees!
The land surrounding the olives groves was brown and sandy looking, like terra cotta.
As soon as we stepped out of the airplane, we noticed the colors of the buildings. They are the same terra cotta color, matching the land, and the doors are turquoise color - beautiful.
We expected the air to feel like a warm fall day, in the 70s, but we were surprised that it was much warmer, in the 80s. We had to go through passport control where they checked our passports and stamped them, and then we had to go through Customs, where they ask you if you are bringing anything to selll into the country. We told them, no, we're not selling anything, we're teachers, and we're visiting Morocco to present at the Fulbright conference, and to visit schools and learn about education here!
Assignment: Morocco recently won an award from UNESCO for their literacy programs (teaching more people to read). Look up UNESCO on the internet and find out who they are, and what they do. Can you find information about the award they gave to Morocco?
The hotel was a short taxi ride away from the airport, and on the way we saw many things that are new to us. We saw lots of busses, cars, people riding on motorbikes. The main streets were lined with roses of all colors - red, white, orange, peach, yellow. We saw lots of orange trees, and we saw lots of olive trees - this is when we learned what we had seen from the airplane. It turned out we were passing Menara Gardens, a garden and olive grove built by the Almodads, a ruling dynasty in the 1100s and 1200s.
It's now time for us to go to the conference lunch. The Speaker is Alex Counts, the President of the Grameen Foundation. He went to Bangladesh in 1988 with the Fulbright grant, and is now president of the Grameen Bank.
Later on, the Honorable Thomas T. Riley, the U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Morocco will be speaking. It's full day, and we'll write much much more in a few hours! So check back with us!
Love,
Alicia and Lucy
posted by Alicia Carroll and Lucy Montgomery | 4:22 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home