Business Casablanca

Casablanca combines modern city with ancient city. The modern part is full of live and has a wide business district to cope with the industrial part of the country. Bu then you meet the artistic and cultural Casablanca. For example visiting the Royal Palace from outside of course it gives you an idea of the fastous monarchy of the morrocan royal family. The Palace is ...

... pick it up on my layover en route to London.  So it's all good, as long as I have the time between flights to pick it up on the 6th.  I've been working on my classes for 1 week by borrowing other people's computers.  PAIN IN THE ASS.  But that's the story, that's main reason I haven't been writing the blog like I wanted to.  But I have also been pretty busy with classes.  Marrakech came and went because we had class every day and many organized events (city tour, business tour ...

Well, I'm finally here and it's been quite an exciting couple of days. Let's start in Casablanca. I managed all my times correctly and actually made it into the city when I was supposed to. Then I had to deal with the taxi drivers. I hate the taxi drivers. They always rip me off no matter what, and I just take it. I'd say what they'd resemble in the US is probably, the devil. I feel ...

... itself into a serious thunderstorm.  We took off for the airport early, since we had our fill of Casablanca.  But as a parting gift we took a taxi to the train station which had a cockroach for a mascot.  Lovely!  We hung out in the Mohammed V Airport (Mohammed V is a popular guy in Morocco if you can't tell) for 7.5 hours waiting for our 2:45am flight to Rome.  Ugh.

... conversational skills. We looked around with interest, passing by a lot of countryside before hitting the outskirts of the city. The first thing that jumped out with the distant city view was that the tallest building was barely taller than my 4th floor brownstone. We speculated plenty but never ended up figuring out whether this was a zoning issue or any other reason, but it was quite surprising. The traffic was as we expected, and the billboards ...

... market, with grubby cobbled paths, filthy water running down the streets, donkeys, bikes, poverty, it was the heart and soul of the area. A local man named Hammad started a conversation with us talking about Argan Oil, a local produce that is used for beauty and eating. He suggested a store to by the product and against our better judgment followed him through the market, to a spice shop. Argan Oil is extracted from an inedible nut and is used in beauty products ...

... Spain and the period during which Morocco was a French Protectorate (1912-1956). The National Language is Arabic, but the vast majority of locals are also fluent in French. Many also speak one of the Berber dialects, while some of the pure Berbers only speak the Berber language. In Casablanca, we visited the Hassan II Mosque, a modern Mosque built by the father of the current King. The Mosque was quite ...

... and got off on the train stop!), and navigated ourselves around Casablanca. We found the mosque, took the bus like the locals, saw the old and new Medina and bought meals using our very limited Arabic and French. It was a really fun day but it was definitely exhausting! Here are some pictures from my house (with more to come) and a few from Casablanca, I still need to upload more to my computer but I wanted to share at least a few with you. I really miss you all!

... pleasant. The landscapes were all lush and the poverty of the shantytowns on the outskirts of Casablanca was expansive. We stayed at a hotel ...

... part... a donkey-park instead of a carpark! We lazed about in the sun, with the most amazing backdrop of the atlas mountains, and the immediate countryside, we ate (pasta.. damn i was greatful for something other than couscous vegetarien and tagine vegetarien) got sunburned, and rode Jamal's mule. wandered thru the countryside thru villages, and bought myself a rosewater bottle. Unforgetable. Headed over to Madrid that evening, where we met up with Sarah, a ...