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.