Bon Voyage

It’s still so mindboggling to me that my suitcase is actually all packed and ready to go and that I am leaving for Morocco tomorrow.
 It's quite surprising how there is less in my suitcase for this three week trip than I have ever packed for a one week vacation. I am a huge overpacker and I am quite impressed that my suitcase is not bulging at this point and I have managed to stick to the packing list (for the most part). But hey I have to leave room for all the souvenirs I have to bring home. 
I also just wanted to say thank you all for reading my blog and supporting me as I prepare for my trip, it really means a lot to me. I can’t wait to keep you all updated with my travels while I’m in Morocco and share pictures when I return.

Only 1 more day!

Only one week to go?

After all the time I have spent thinking about Morocco and what it will be like, it is hard to believe that I will be heading off on a plane one week from today. It still seems so strange to me that I won’t be traveling with my family and that I will be experiencing something completely new with my classmates.  Little things will be so different such as not having my sister acting as my “plane buddy” for the eight hour plane ride to Paris and then some to Morocco (tear tear) but I’m sure I will manage. I am looking forward to having  this trip  push me to stand on my own two feet in so many ways. I will have to figure out how to check in at the Air France stand without my mom taking care of it for me (she insists it won’t be that difficult but I’m I will find a way to make it difficult) and how to cram as much of Paris as possible into three days without my Aunt leading us every which direction. But I feel like experiences such as these will be new for so many of my classmates too, which will serve as a great bonding experience. I am so anxious for what this trip holds that I keep imagining so many different scenarios in my head and I cannot wait to actually live it for real!

Only 7 more days...meaning I should actually start figuring out how I am going to cram in 3 weeks worth of stuff into a tiny suitcase!!

The Final Stretch

As finals are approaching, my last assignment for my travel writing class has required me to find a picture of somewhere I am going in Morocco and what I am envisioning and expecting of this destination. My professor suggested that we chose a picture that "speaks to us" and embodies why we wanted to go to Morocco. I personally think this picture had some pretty big shoes to fill and it became quite hard to pick a single picture. There are so many different parts of Morocco I am excited to see and experience; such as wandering through the Medina, camping out in the Sahara desert, to seeing the ruins of volubilis. And being the indecisive person I am I just had to basically do the eeny meeny miny mo trick and go with a picture of the Medina in Fez. The small maze like streets and countless Moroccan people that make the Medina their second home seems so quintessential Moroccan to me. And it is furthermore a place where I can not wait to interact with local people and attempt to bargain for that one thing I just have to have. And so may of the travel pieces I have read in  class have focused on this location and its unique and exotic nature which tells me that there must be something about it that can "speak" to so many different kinds of people . Even though I am excited to visit so many different places I am most anxious to see if the Medina lives up to the ideas that so many travel pieces have painted for me.

What's the Deal on Gender Divide?

In the midst of working on my research paper on gender division through space, I have come to wonder as my date of departure becomes more and more real, how this division will affect women in their day to day lives, and how it will affect me, as a female traveler…not a tourist of course.  

Before beginning my research paper I had just assumed that religion is the reason that the people of Islamic countries are brought up to believe that men have different rights than women. As I picked my paper topic because I myself had so many misconceptions about this issue, I have come across so many interesting arguments as to why males and females are not viewed as “equal.” With ideas ranging from of course, religion, to social class, to location, to external influences, the one thing I have learned through all these different arguments is that there is no straight forward answer saying “this is the GRAND reason why women and men have different roles”…and believe me this would be extremely nice to have for my research paper! All these different factors in a way truly create a melting pot in the way social division is seen.

And as I and my other female classmates have been forewarned about the importance of traveling in groups, to tying our hair back so men won’t touch our hair, to just how to ignore catcalls; I have become a little anxious as to how I will adjust to this way of life for three weeks. But after these three weeks I will go home and everything will be back to normal. I won’t have to worry about these issues that Moroccan women face on a day to day basis. And although many Moroccans don’t see their gendered differences to be an issue like we would in America, I want to remind myself to be an open traveler and not judge so much when I am feeling frustrated, but rather try to learn and take something new from their cultural ways.

27 days to go!