Trip Home

   I got to Casablanca a day before my flight, so I got a hotel room with shuttle service to the airport. The hotel was nice, and there was a pool, so I went swimming and then went up and had a nap. Then I went for supper and slept till it was time to leave for the plane.

   I arrived in Montreal first. I went through customs in Montreal, and I did not take my luggage through. My luggage was not put on the plane because I forgot it at customs, but they FedExed it to me anyways. In Montreal, I went and got a poutine at the Montreal Canadiens pub. It was a pretty great poutine.

  It was then mostly uneventful till Saskatoon when I learned my luggage did not make the flight. I was not too concerned because I did not leave anything essential in there. Then they said it would be mailed so I had no worries at all.


This is the last of my blog posts for Morocco. Thanks for reading.

Riding a Donkey and Visiting a Mosque

    The interfaith club organized an event were a bunch of us went out to a small co-operative outside of the city. Most of us rode a donkey they had there. I have been told that the donkey must have been tired after because from the pictures it looks like the donkey and I are about the same size.

   They also had a bunch of rugs that we could buy for 300 dirhams (about $30). I bought a nice blue one that I have at home now, and plan to use as a beach blanket. A picture and a short biography of the woman who made it is attached to the blanket as well, which I think is cool.

   After everyone got their donkey ride and bought their rug the people at the co-operative made us tea. It was good tea, and it was really nice of them to make it. After that, we all went back to the university.

   The same group organized a chance for us to visit the mosque at the university. We got to observe during prayer time, and then after we had tea and cookies. After the tea and cookies, we all sat in a circle, and the Imam said a few words. The Imam then answered a few questions that people had about Islam and anything else that was relevant. I really enjoyed this experience, and I am glad I took the opportunity to visit.


These were just a couple of things I did that were just a couple hours, but I thought were worth mentioning.

Thanks for reading,

Stuff at the University

This post will be about the stuff I did while at the University.

My Classes:

• Thermodynamics
• This class is one offered by the engineering department at the Al Akhawayn, and it covers the same material as a physics course I need to take at the U of R. Unfortunately the Al Akhawayn version of the course doesn't have a lab component, so I will have to take the U of R course later anyways.
• The professor of this course taught in Alberta for a while
• Beginning Arabic 1
• This course covers the basics of Arabic like the alphabet and simple phrases.
• I was disappointed in my progress in Arabic, and I think I will have to try harder to learn it next time I have a chance.
• Data Structures
• This is a Compter Science course, and it transfers to my degree as a CS elective.
• It is classified as an elective, but almost all other CS courses have it as a pre-requisite, so it is basically required. 
• The professor of this course taught in the northern mid-west of the USA.
• Engineering Statistics
• This course transfers over as my basic statistics course.
• The professor of this course taught in Quebec, and her son was born when she was in Quebec, so he is Canadian.

Exercise Clubs and Swimming:

• Extreme Sports
• I went to one training with them, and it was fun, but I got busy with the other clubs
• This was probably the most extreme workout I have had up to this point.
• Kick-Boxing
• This was another club I participated in
• It taught the martial art kickboxing and some other martial arts.
• It was also a pretty good workout.
• Quankido
• This was a club I went to once
• It was also martial arts, but I decided to do kickboxing instead.
• Swimming
• This is the activity that took over all the others 
• After awhile I was swimming so much that I stopped going to kickboxing as well because my muscles were sore from swimming.

I lost around 60lbs during my time in Morocco, and the main reason would be these workouts. 

Clubs:

• Computer Science for Innovation
• This was a club dedicated to computers, programming and other stuff like that.
• They also did some unrelated stuff that is also fun.
• I spent the most time with this group
• Mechatronics Club
• This club did a lot of work with engineering stuff, and it was very fun.
• Because of this club, I started learning more about Arduino and such which is a very fun thing to do
• Wikipedia Club
• This is a club that works to create more interest in Wikipedia and to help around the community.
• The people in this club were very fun to be around.

This sums up most of my on campus life. Thanks for reading

Trip to Agadir

    Leo, Katie, Anna, and I had gone on a trip to Agadir before I went to Essaouira. Agadir is a lot like Essaouria, but a little bit bigger and more things to do.

    We took the night bus in, so we arrived in the morning and saw some sights. The one museum had was dedicated to the indigenous people of Morroco, and the other was about an earthquake. We also saw gardens. After that, we went to the beach. The beach was really nice, but it was busy. Then we went and found our hostel.

   At this hostel, there were not as many people as the one at Essaouria, but it was still nice. The next morning the owners of the hostel did make an awesome breakfast for us. There were a couple interesting people at breakfast, and they were nice to talk to.

   After breakfast, we went for a hike to what is called 'Paradise Valley.' There was a place to jump into the water, but I didn't bring my swimsuit, so I didn't jump in. After awhile I was going to jump in with my shorts, but then someone got injured at one of the bottom cliffs. We all wanted to help but thought we would just get in the way since there were already so many people trying to help. We turned back.

   When we got back, we went to this other beach right beside the hostel. The other beach was better just because it was bigger and easier to find a place to sit. This beach was still nice to swim in though. After the beach, we went back to the hostel. Katie ended up making us supper with the cooking stuff that the owners of the hostel have for customers to use.

   The next day Leo, Anna, and I went to the other beach while Katie went surfing. We had lunch at a place which served beer, and that was my first beer in Morocco. When it became to go back to the bus station to leave Katie was not back yet, so we assumed she had just gone straight to the bus station. We then left for the bus station as well, and we met her at the station. That was the end of the Agadir trip.


Thanks for reading.

Trip To Essaouria

    When I arrived at Essaouira I went and checked into my hostel. I then went for a walk along the beach, but I didn't go too far. I had lunch at a restaurant on the beach. There was not many places that served Morrocan food, so that was dissapointing. When I got back to the hostel I went up to the roof and socialized with some of the workers and other people staying there. Staying at the hostel was a few Canadians, Europeans, Morrocans, and people from a few other places. A group of us went out to a local pub nearby, and then I went to bed. 

    The next day I went back to the beach and walked for hours looking for an end to it. I walked for around 2 or 3 hours in one direction and still could see no end, so I concluded that there mustn't be an end to it. I then started back, and when I got back to the hostel I had a nap because I was so tired from the walk. When I woke up I went and socialized a bit, and then we had supper at the hostel.

   The workers at the hostel make a Morrocan supper for 60 dirham ($6) when there is a few new guests. It was a great supper and it was nice to meet all the people staying at the hostel (some were not on the roof before). After this I went up to the roof again for a couple of hours, and then I went to bed.

   On my last day, I went back to the beach and read on my Kindle or slept till I had to leave. After that relaxing trip, I went back to the University for finals.

Sorry for not making these posts sooner. There is at least two left and then that is the end for my Morrocan blog.

Trip to Tangier

   For the second half of my break, I traveled to Tangier with some friends. These friends were Leo, Thomas, Nat, Jessa, Josh, Sam, and Louise. Louise was staying at a different hotel than the rest of us.

   The first night Sam, Thomas, Leo, and I got supper at this fancy place. We had to pay roughly the price you would expect to pay when eating in Canada. It is at least double to what I am used to. Then we joined the rest at the hotel and got settled in.

   The second day we walked around some and saw some things. We saw a bookstore, a museum, and got some ice cream. The bookstore is apparently very famous. It was an excellent bookstore and had some books in English. It also had books in many other languages as well.

    We went to the beach and Hercules cave one day. The beach was very nice, and of course, I went swimming. After swimming, I stood in the wind reading my book until I dried off because I did not bring a towel. The cave was cool. It was dark in places, but there were lights built into the cave in most places. I found the cave to be very touristy, so it was not as cool as it could be.

   The next day we left to go back to the university. Leo, Thomas, Nat, and I went to Fes to meet a taxi, and the others went to Meknes for a bit. Those of us who went to Fes took the luggage of the others. When the others got back, we took them their luggage.

That was my spring break.

Trip to Dahkla

    To get to Dakhla, the group took a plane from Casablanca. To get to Casablanca, I took a bus and then a train to the airport. My friend Leo, who has actually planned and booked hotels for most of the place I have been, gave me some rough directions to how to get to the train station from the bus station. The directions were completely wrong, and after a while, of following them, I decided to start asking random people where the train station was. When I arrived at the station, I phoned Leo, and he was happy that I found my way because he realized he gave me the wrong directions. Leo is very nice, and he would have felt bad if I did not get to the train station.

   At the airport, there was trouble with some of our bookings. We had to wait for an extra half hour-ish before we got our tickets.

   We then got on the plane to Dakhla. When we arrived, we checked into the hotel and got settled. Then most people went to sleep to get ready for the next day.

  On the second day, we took a bunch of SUVs to a place located quite a ways from the hotel. It was a beautiful beach. It was part of a lagoon so the water was very calm and it did not get very deep fast. It was a very nice place to go swimming. Some people went over to a big white dune. Myself and others did not get to see it close up because we spent too much time swimming. I was fine with that because I really like swimming. Some of us got a water massage from hot spring water. The massage was fun. Everyone then went to get some stuff to eat. The was fish, oysters, and other seafood. My roommate for the trip, Caleb, got a really bad sunburn that day.

   The next day we did lots of interesting stuff. We got a fish pedicure. A fish pedicure is when you stick your feet in a pond and fish nibble at them to get the crap off your feet. We had to go to the middle of the desert get this. Our drivers made us southern tea to try before we left to the next activity. The tea was much more to my liking than the tea made in the north, because it was a lot stronger tasting. 

   The next activity was the ostrich farm. The was a bunch of ostriches, and they would bite fingers when fingers were close enough. It felt really weird when they bit them. The mouth would scrape against the finger as they tried to swallow it. I thought it felt really cool. 

   We also went to a different beach. This beach was a lot more volatile, and it was windy that day. I went swimming for a bit, but most people did not. For lunch, we went to this subpar place to eat. I ordered a pizza that had almost no cheese, and it took forever to come out. I would not recommend it (the restaurant). 

  Caleb left the following morning to go to London.

  We spent the last day at a nice resort relaxing. There was some swimming. The tide had to come in before to go swimming. It took about two hours for it to come in and then it was good for swimming. I went swimming with a couple of people (Mika and Katherin). Katherin has been to Brasil too, so I got to talk to her about that.

The next morning we left to go back to Casablanca.

    I went to Ifrane and had supper with Leo and Thomas. Thomas is a French guy who has been on most trips with me. They had been on the university campus while I was at Dahkla. I spent the second part of my break with them and others in Tangier. My next post will be about Tangier.

3 Times of Stupidity, and Ben's Computer'

The first part of this post is about 3 times Ben and myself were not thinking right.

1. When we left the marche (shopping center) to go to the grand taxi station Ben, and I messed up big time. Instead of going to the taxi station we did a walk around the marche completely oblivious to what we were doing and then wondering how we got lost. After walking in a complete circle, we found the correct road and got to the grand taxi station.

2. When I got lunch the main brought out a sandwich and water. I thought the sandwich just looked like bread and left it waiting for my lunch to come out. After one hour I decided to start eating the bread, and then I realized it was, in fact, my sandwich.

3. We were looking for the grand taxi station in Azrou and asked someone. The person we asked promptly pointed to the sign right in front of eyes, and kind of looked at us funny.


That was the first part. The second part is about what happened with Ben's computer.

   So Ben took it back to the IT people and told them what the person in Azrou told us. The IT people tried to restore the windows system. The system still did not boot, and they told him it was a serious hardware problem.

   I asked Ben if I could try booting it from an USB. It worked, and then I copied and pasted all his files onto an USB of mine. He now is just using the live ubuntu USB to do web browsing. I am going to email him his files.

Back to Meknes and Azrou

   A relatively large group of people, including me, went to Meknes to go see the sites there. Unlike the last time, the entire day was spent going around and seeing different tourist sites.

   The first place we saw was an old underground jail. We got to walk around the prison and see where prisoners were chained up. It was cool to see how little light got into a few places. It was almost pitch black in those locations.

   After the jail, we went to see the Royal Stables. The Stables had collapsed in places, but most of it was still standing. They were enormous. I kept on thinking that I must have reached the end, but then it ended up there was still more. It made an interesting site when the end was reached. You could see the repeating archways, and it was a good reminder how big the place was.

    We also went to a museum and an old school place. The old school place was interesting. The young students had small rooms, and the older ones had slightly larger ones. The professors, of course, had colossal rooms compared to the students.

   The next day my friend Ben and I went to Azrou to see if his computer is fixable. Ben has been on most of the trips that I have written about in this blog. His computer was crashing randomly and did not seem to work well for a while, and eventually, he could not get it to turn on. The IT people on campus said it was a hard drive issue, and told him he had to get a new hard drive.

   The guy in Azrou said it was a corrupted OS and the hard drive was fine. He did not charge Ben anything, and we left.

   We then went climbing the rock that Azrou was named after. It was a short climb, but it was pretty steep. The top had a beautiful view.

  We then went for lunch and headed back to the university.

The next post will be related to Azrou, and will be titled '3 Times of Stupidity, and Ben's Computer'.

Chefchaouen: The Blue City

    This past weekend I went to the city known as the Blue City. It is called this because a lot of the buildings, staircases, and other structures are blue. It is known to be a breathtaking, and quiet city. It is also known for other things such as availability of drugs. There are people in the streets always asking if you want to buy marijuana. They always leave you only after you tell them no. The other thing interesting about the city is that they speak Spanish more often than French. This made me better at communicating than usual.

    The drive there was long. It was about 4 and a half hours, and the taxis are pretty cramped. The one guy I was with is 6 foot 5, so he had an even worse time than I did. We got there in one piece, so I am happy.

   When we arrived, we checked into the hotel and met the hotel manager. The hotel manager was this funny, rambunctious old man. He was hilarious and was an excellent form of entertainment throughout the trip. After checking into the hotel, we went to the city. A group of us left the other group to go look for some light thing. After we had found it, we joined the other part of the group and had supper. We then went back to the hotel to sleep.

   The next day we did a hike to a big waterfall. It took a while to get there and then we took pictures and started back to the start of the hike. On the way back we met a member of the group that had given up but now wanted to complete the hike. We walked all the way back to the waterfall just for him. We then got lunch at the waterfall. It took an hour for the man to prepare our tajines. I spent a good portion of this time talking with our taxi driver that only speaks Arabic and some French. It took almost the whole hour for us to communicate what should take only 5 minutes, but we had fun doing it. On the way back our taxi driver challenged one of our group to race back.

    He ended up getting so far ahead that he was able to hide behind a bush so that he could scare her. When we reached them neither would say who won so we could not settle our bets. Katie (the one who was in the race) told us what happened after.

   When we got back, we toured the medina more.

   The next day a few of us got up before the others and did this nature walk thing. It followed a man-made river through a treed area in the city. It also gave a good view of the city. We then joined the others to tour a castle that is in the middle of the city. It is pretty much a museum now. It had a prison, an overview of work being done, an excellent view of the city, and a garden in the middle. After touring the castle, we headed back to the hotel to check out, and leave.

The next post I write is going to be about computer science workshops I am involved with at the University.

 

 

Meknes, Volubilis, and Moulay Idress

    On Saturday myself and Katie (she is somebody who has been on most of these trips) went to Meknes. The others did not really want to do anything on Saturday, so it was only us. We toured the medina and then found the mausoleum of Moulay Ismail, but it is being restored. We then went for lunch. We had lunch at a rooftop restaurant, and the food was a Moroccan dish. I forget the name of the dish. There are many different museums to see in Meknes so I will have to go back there sometime.

   On Sunday many people went to Volubilis and Moulay Idriss. Volubilis is a Roman ruin, and it is was a complete city, so it is pretty significant. There were many cool monuments and houses to tour. Some of the buildings were massive, and others crumbled. There was a restored olive press. In the museum that is currently under construction had explanations of many things, and there was also a review of the history of the city. We left sooner than I would have liked because everyone was hungry.

   Moulay Idriss was a good place to walk around. We got lunch at a hotel type thing. I had a tajine, and it was excellent. There was a mausoleum that we could not enter because it is reserved for Muslims. We then went to go see a Roman aqueduct.

   The aqueduct was quite impressive. It was gigantic, and the fact it still stands is amazing to me. We took a group photo, and our driver joined us for the picture. The driver is a very cool guy, and I will talk about in the next post too.

   This post is not for last weekend but the one before that. This weekend's post will be next.

Fes and Azrou

    To get to Azrou, we first walked to the grand taxi station to get a couple taxis. It ended up that we all piled into two regular sized cars (5 in one and 6 in another). We drove through the town and to the place where people usually start their hike. We hiked for a couple hours and even climbed a huge hill to get a good view of the other hills. We then hiked back to our starting point and climbed back into the cab. The cab driver stopped for us so that we could get out and take pictures with monkeys. There were many monkeys, and it was easy to get pictures with them because other tourists were feeding them. We then headed back to Ifrane and got supper at the market.

    There was originally 12 people who were to going to go Fes, but when we left, only 5 came. Since the was only 5 of us instead of 12 we had to send one of the cab drivers away. I felt terrible for the cab driver, but there was not much we could do. When we got to Fes, we took two cabs to the medina.

    The medina was really nice except for all the scam artists who kept trying to let them give us a tour. Eventually one of them showed us to the tanneries, and when he was done of course he wanted a tip, so we gave him some money, but he wanted more. I was not going give him any more than I did, but others in the group gave him more. What I learned from that experience is to ignore those people and if they keep insisting on showing you places to ask them to show you to the police station.

    The tannery was great. It was cool to see people treating animal hides in the way they did it in the old days. The salesperson that showed us to the top and explained the whole process to us was excellent. When we were done looking at the tannery, we went down into the store, and a salesperson showed us how to check and make sure something is leather. He held a lighter to a bag for at least a minute while explaining if you buy leather in the medina to try and burn the leather to be sure it is real. This salesperson was the one that I bartered for my jacket with.

   He started the bartering at 3500 dirhams, and I eventually got it for 2600 dirhams. 2600 dirhams is roughly $350 Canadian, and that makes this jacket the third most expensive thing I have ever bought (excluding school expenses). I still do not know how much of a premium I paid, but I am researching it.

   After the tannery, we went out to a couple museums and a garden. The first museum was okay, but not too terribly exciting. We then went to this impressive garden and took pictures with the bamboo forest, and some other unusual plants. The next thing we did was go to an armament museum. It had weapons from all ages and countries. There were guns taller than me and swords that were also taller than me. Overall I'd say the last museum was one of the best sites.

   We then went for supper at a restaurant in the medina called Dar Tajine. It was good food, but we did not have tajine.

  This weekend I will be going to some other sites close by.

 

Trip to Rabat

    The first thing that happened when the group got to Rabat was that we went into the medina to find our hotel. Finding the hotel was harder than we anticipated, and we ended up walking around the medina for about an hour. It was nice to see a lot of the main part of the medina during this hour, but it might have been funner if I did not have my bag still with me. A member of the group who speaks French eventually started asking people for directions, and we finally found our hotel. After we had been settled two people stayed to wait for the other two people to arrive (they took a bus separately from us), and the rest of us walked around the medina more.

    The medina is an excellent place to walk around. There are many different shops all selling interesting items. There is more stuff to choose from in the medina than there is in regular stores in cities. The feel of the medina is great, and that makes it an awesome place to walk around. The medina was definitely one of the highlights of the trip.

    When the rest of the crew arrived, we all went out for dinner. After supper, we went to see the ocean. The ocean was great to watch as it had the waves crashing on the jagged coast spraying water everywhere, but it was hard to see at night when we first saw it. The next another of the group and I went to watch the waves during the daylight. It was a lot better seeing them in the day.

    We also went to the place were one of the former Kings are resting. It was cool, and there were beautiful views of the city. There is also a guy who reads from the Quran all day, but I did not get to see that.

    We explored different sites around the coast for the rest of the day and then walked around the medina some more. For supper, we ended up eating at an Italian restaurant, and it was good.

   The next day we saw a couple of protests but did not participate. Then we went to the Royal Palace and walked around its courtyard area. All we had to do to enter the Royal Palace was hand the guard our passports, and then we got to walk around. We could not get too close to the actual palace because the guard stopped us. There was almost no one there, so it was nice to explore in peace.

   Then everyone went to some mall for lunch, and the main group left. Then one other person and I left on the train to Fes. When we got to Fes, we took a grand taxi back to the university, and we got ripped off. We paid waaaaay to much for that grand taxi.

    That was the trip to Rabat!!!

First Two Weeks

     I missed a flight in Toronto on my way to Morocco, and I stay the night at my cousin Cam Nelson's house. I had to wait a whole 24 hours for the next flight. Since I had an entire day, I decided to make the best of it, and I went to the Hockey Hall of Fame during the day. The Hall of Fame was way more extensive than I at first imagined it would be. There were lots of exhibits detailing almost everything about hockey history, and there were all the trophies. I had my picture take with the Stanley Cup, and then I left. My cousin made me an excellent meal at the restaurant that he is the chef at, and then he took me to the airport. I got to the airport very early, but I did not want to take any chances after missing my first flight. Thankfully the second try at getting to Morocco was largely uneventful.

    The first few days in Morocco were not very exciting. It was orientation about the regular things they talk about when you go on an exchange to a different country for an extended period of time. There were a few things unique to Ifrane and Morocco. One of the things unique to Ifrane is that it gets cold here when compared to other places in Morocco. These "cold" temperatures were demonstrated early on, as it got down to -12 degrees celsius during the night a couple times in the first week. There was also quite a lot of snow that fell during this period too, but most of it is gone at the writing of this post. Classes also started at this time.

    

    The classes that I am taking are Beginning Arabic 1, Engineering Statistics, Thermodynamics, and Data Structures. The Arabic class is the most fun in class because it is a very interactive class, but I think the thermodynamic material will be the most interesting. The statistics class seems fine, and the data structures class is good too. Computer science classes here use C instead of C++ which is a bit weird, but it is manageable. I have learned how to introduce myself in formal Arabic in the Arabic class. Outside of class, I have also picked up on some useful phrases. 

    The town of Ifrane is interesting. There is a farmers market that pops up every weekend, and it was fun to walk around. I bought carrots at it, and they were good. The market in the city that is open all the time is nice as well. There is a place where great milkshakes are sold. 

    I have joined some clubs. The Extreme Sports Club is a club that does hiking, camping, rock climbing, and more adventurous things if there is enough interest. They also have training sessions for people who are not in good shape (like me), and still want to try and participate in these events. I will definitely be participating in the training sessions. The Compter Science for Innovation Club is another club I joined. They do computer science related events. Explorers Club does trips around Morocco to go and explore. The Mechatronics Club is new and organizes workshops that are mechatronics related. The Wikipedia Club is another club I joined. I also joined TEDx, but I missed their first meeting, so I have to figure that out. I want to join the Kick Boxing club, but I missed their meeting too. I hope to participate in these clubs, but there is a lot, so I'll see how that goes.

I will be posting a separate post about my trip to Rabat later.