"Get up as soon as you wake up. If you lie in bed, you may use up as much nervous energy living your day in advance as you would in actual accomplishment of the day's work."
That quote came from some self help book on how to stress less.. and NO I have not resorted to reading a self help book about stress... yet. I just stumbled across it in during a meander through the internet looking for good quotes (You'll come to see that I love quotes by the amount that will covering the walls of my blog).
So I'm down to a MONTH until I leave and of course I've begun to get nervous. I'm a little less stressed because my courses, credits, school programs are all starting to fall into place and make sense *insert HUGE sigh of relief*. Now the main worry is time because in the time I have left I have quite a few lengthy 'to do' lists. But enough with that boring stuff. Let me give you a quick outline of what I'm doing over in Morocco land!
The first four weeks I'll be interning and volunteering with CCS (Cross Cultural Solutions), a non-profit organization. Cross Cultural Solutions Volunteers in Rabat, Morocco <-- Check out the link for extra details on the volunteering part of the program! I won't get my placement (work assignment) until about a week before I leave because they evaluate the skills of the group of volunteers going and what the community most needs at the time. This process seems to be very effective but I'm extremely anxious to find out what I'll be doing! I would prefer to work in community development programs with women because it would really tie into my research goals and I'm extremely interested in the women's rights situation over there. However, I think wherever they place me will be an amazing experience and I'll have LOTS to write about ;D
The six weeks following my stay with CCS I'll move in with a local family in Rabat and start taking Arabic at a language school called Qalam Wa Lawh (which means pen and white board I think... YAY! Arabic 101 is paying off!). Amerispan Study Abroad in Rabat, Morocco <-- Check out this link to see a few details on this program! I'll be studying Beginner-Intermediate (Arabic 102 according to Grand Valley) for about five hours daily - Monday through Friday. I'm excited for this program because I'll meet a whole new group of people from the ones I'll be working with at CCS and to be completely honest... I'll get to be more of a 'kid' in this program I think :)
After I finish at the language school I'll bid Au Revoir to my host family and fly to Paris to begin what I sincerely hope to be a fabulous adventure. I have no hotel, no reservations, nothing! I'll be wandering around Europe or wherever the wind takes me for the last two weeks. This is the scariest part, but I really want to leave it open in order to be able to make the most of opportunities I may not think of until I've been there. But more on this later!
That's about all I have time for now so I'll leave you with a video posted on YouTube by a former CCS volunteer of Khadijah (one of the on site staff working for CCS) giving a tour of where all the volunteers stay. Get ready to be pleasantly surprised.. I was!! Cross Cultural Solutions Home Base - Morocco <-- Blogger wouldn't let me post it as a video (..or maybe I just suck at HTML) so just follow the link if you're interested!
Peace, Love, GO PONIES!! (or.. uh LAKERS!!!)
-Sarah-
Peace, Love, GO PONIES!! (or.. uh LAKERS!!!)
-Sarah-
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| Rabat- Morocco <3 |
