Musings From Morocco: A Canadian in Casa

I have now been in Casablanca for almost three weeks and am finally getting around to starting up my blog! This will hopefully significantly reduce the number of individual messages and emails I have been spamming friends and family with for the past couple of weeks as I have been trying to keep everyone up to date on my adventures.

Since I have been here I have:

found a wonderful apartment with a French roommate; it has a beautiful view of the ocean and the Hassan II Mosque
met a bunch of great people on the MEDA Maroc team both in Casablanca and Oujda
took an overnight train to Oujda (15 km from the Algerian border) to attend a Train the Trainer session (in Arabic of course...thankfully there were many kind people who translated most of it into French for me). The training was for pre-selected participants hoping to receive a position as a MEDA Maroc Extension Officer. Extension officers train youth in things like business skills, computer literacy, financial literacy etc.
attended a Moroccan wedding to which I wore a traditional Moroccan 'keftan' (formal dress), ate approximately 7 courses of food (no cutlery included, and communal plates and glasses of course) and entertained wedding attendants as I attempted to learn how to dance the Ragada until 4.30am (the slogan for Moroccan weddings should be 'go big or go home'
taken many trips to Souks and have started learning the ways of Moroccan bargaining
started learning Moroccan Arabic (known as Darija)...wahead, juge, kleta...1, 2, 3...that's a start right?
almost died several times in the crazy little red taxis that swerve like madmen through Casa traffic. They are the main method of transportation here and they can take up to three people, so it's very unlikely that you make it to your destination without several other people being picked up and dropped off along the way.
and best of all: ate a ton of delicious Moroccan food! (I now have a gym membership starting October 1st which is crucial due to the fact that bread is pretty much the base of every meal here...and I like bread...a lot).

So that's my life in Casa in a nutshell. I'll make sure to start posting some more specific stories now that I've got the blog running...because as my friends that I have been keeping up to date in a Facebook thread know...there have been quite a few interesting adventures here so far...

More to come soon :)