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| First light little dusting: Still beautiful |
Okay, so who in the world would guess that a country in Africa had the capability to get three feet of snow in one week? Anyone? No? Cool. What about a country in North Africa? Still no one? Awesome. How about Morocco? Not a single person right?! Well let me be the first to tell you: YOU'RE ALL WRONG!
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| First day at Al Akhawayn: Beautiful right? |
There is so much snow here that I can't even begin to describe how awestruck I am by its beauty and surreal-ness. No picture will ever do it justice, but I can tell you that their is snow up to my waist on some parts of campus. RIDICULOUS!
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| That's about 1 1/2 feet |
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| Over 2 feet: pretty freaking cold! |
As there is so much snow...the worst snow Ifrane (pronounced Ifrahn) has seen in fifteen years mind you...you would think that there would be lots of salt on the ground to prevent ice and slippery paths. Again, WRONG. They don't use salt. They just shovel the snow, leave a bit of slush on the ground, and let it ice over at night so that all the students can bust it on their way to class. OUCH! I'll be the first to say that I have indeed fallen into the snow at least once...maybe twice...since the snow hit us. Not a fun time.
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| My saving graces: Sofia and Columbia |
Also, the roofs of the buildings are sloped in order for the snow to easily fall off the building and so that the weight of the snow doesn't cave in the roofs. That sounds like a good idea until you're walking next to a building and all this snow just tumbles off into your jacket or on your head. Luckily, this hasn't happened to me yet, but I've seen it happen, and it looks SOO COLD!
I'm telling you all this because I've never been so cold in my life. The walks across campus are MISERABLE. Al Akhawayn is a quite a bit bigger than MC, and my dorm (yes, the say dorm here; people give me weird looks when I say residence hall) is on one side of campus and everything else is on the completely opposite side. Not cool. Freezing cold really. I drink lots of coffee and tea to stay warm because my clothes just aren't warm enough. My saving grace is my Columbia jacket that I love and my friend Katelyn who gave me an ear warmer after I lost mine the first day of snow. YAY for coats and friends!
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| This is Katelyn, she gave me the ear warmer! |
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| My Arabic Books....we'll see how this goes! |
One more quick topic: I know NOTHING about Africa: it's history, culture, languages, geography, etc. I thought I had a pretty good grasp....WRONG. It seems as though I need a pretty good background in all that in order to even understand what the hell is going on in my classes. Oops. Guess I'll just have to fake it 'til I make it right? Wish me luck!