Irrigation, Fossil Hunting, and Camel Riding

Ramadan ended last week, yayyy!!! That means restaurants on campus and in town are open for regular hours, it isn't considered rude to eat in public anymore, and everything is in stock and fresh. We found out it was over on Wednesday morning as we were getting ready to leave for our trip to Erfoud and we immediately went to our favorite cafe in town to find it packed with tour buses & people. Ifrane is busy again like it was when we first arrived here!

Our trip to Erfoud was amazing. We were there for 5 days and got to see a lot. The first trip we did was a tour of different irrigations systems within the area. I'm going to sound very nerdy when I say this, but I'm actually interested in irrigation systems. Three months ago, before arriving in Morocco or doing any serious work on our project, I really couldn't have cared less about irrigation. But after spending countless hours researching it my opinions have changed and it was really cool to see how irrigation has developed over time in the region. We also went to a fossil museum. Erfoud is the "Fossil Capital of Morocco" so there were vendors

 everywhere trying to sell us fossils. At our hotel the countertops and floors had fossil pieces and at the fossil museum they had all kinds of things you could buy. It was pretty cool!

Now for my absolute favorite part of the trip. I'll start out with a little background... our wake up call Saturday morning was at 4am... now think about that, what normal college student would willingly wake up at 4am on a Saturday?? Well 11 of us did! We were up at 4 and out of the hotel by 4:30 for a half hour car ride to the desert. Our van pulled up in a dirt lot and when I looked to my left I saw them... the CAMELS! There were tons and tons of them all lined up and ready for us to ride out into the desert. It was a little bit intimidating walking up to this huge animal that kept making a weird grumbling noise(I won't explain that part, it's kind of gross) and actually getting on the camel and having it stand up is quite the experience. First their back legs go up so you're launched forward(thankfully there were handle bars) then the front legs go up pushing you back a bit. Once you're actually going, camel riding is a piece of cake, it's not as smooth as riding a horse, but the fact that I got to ride a camel in the desert was totally worth it. So you're probably wondering why we would wake up so early just to ride camels... 

Well, after a 20 minute ride we stopped and hiked up one of the hundreds of sand dunes surrounding us. At the top we sat down and waited. Within a matter of minutes the sky went from pitch black to a pinkish color off to my right. The sunrise in the desert is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen! The sun went from a little sliver, barely peaking over the dunes to a full, glowing orb in the sky within 5 minutes. As much as I love my sleep, this was worth waking up for at 4am. After watching the sunrise we headed back through the dunes to the camels.

 There were three of us, including myself, with one guide and he was great. As we were walking back he wrote something in the sand in arabic. We know all of the letters from our class so we read it out loud but didn't know what it meant. We sat there looking confused for a minute and then he pointed to himself, it was his name! In the little english he knew he asked us to write our names in arabic in the sand. We each did this and he read our names perfectly... my arabic writing is apparently a little better than I thought!

We then hopped on our camels and headed back to the dirt lot to go back to the hotel. So far, this has been my absolute favorite thing we've done, if you ever get the chance to see a sunrise in the desert take it! Even if it means losing a few precious hours of sleep!

My project is also progressing. I have a week left to finish (Ahhhh!!) but I think it'll be a good project once we're done. We have all the data and research we need so now it's all about writing, an engineer's least favorite subject. We also have a presentation on Tuesday to show everyone what we've done. Our Peace Corps Volunteer, some Adghagh villagers, AUI employees, and others will be in attendance. The presentation itself is coming along well, after a few minor edits we'll be ready to present. I really do like the project I've been working on. It's not related to my major at all so it's been interesting to "get out of my comfort zone". As much as I love it, I am really excited to be done with the project, just because it's really stressful right now and it'll be nice to be home!

I'm off to Marrakech for my last weekend here. I'm really excited for this trip. Hopefully I'll come back with a lot of pictures and a stress-free attitude to wrap up my IQP!

Crunch time!

Three weeks from today I'll be on a flight from Casablanca to Madrid. Where have the last 5 weeks gone??? So technically I still have a good amount of time left to complete my project but it doesn't seem that way. Here's the breakdown of the next three weeks:

Week of 9/28

-class/project work on campus Monday & Tuesday

-Wednesday morning we leave for a 5 day "working vacation" to the Tafilalet Oasis because classes are cancelled from Wed. to Fri. for the end of Ramadan

-Return home Sunday night

Week of 10/5

-class Monday-Friday

-Keep working on IQP

-Visit to the Water Offices

-Work on final presentation

-Marrakech Friday-Sunday

Week of 10/12

-Final Presentation- 10/14

-Arabic final- 10/17

-Finish IQP paper by 10/17

-Leave Ifrane- 10/18

So I have 8 days on campus(16 days total) to finish the presentation for our project and 11 days on campus(19 days total) to finish the entire project. Eeekk! Good thing Al Akhawayn has a nice, quiet library!

Fes and a riddle for you...

So I have two weeks worth of excitement for you to read about...

Two weekends ago we took a trip to the city of Fes, about an hour away from Ifrane. We started the day by visiting a pottery and tile making shop. It was one of my favorite stops of the entire trip so far. We went through the entire process of making the dishes, bowls, and tiles the artisans make. From the initial steps of shaping the clay to the individual chipping of each and every tile for a huge fountain, the work these men put into each piece was amazing. There were huge tables, probably about 7 or 8 feet long, that were completely mosaic. Watching the men make the tables was really interesting because they lay all of the tile piece up-side-down and then cement them in place in a frame. They know exactly where each piece goes to make some of the most gorgeous mosaic pieces I've ever seen. Look at the picture of it... I don't think I would ever have the patience for that! Luckily, we got to shop for pottery afterwards and they even gave us a student discount! After we left the shop, we got a guided tour of the Fes medina. The hustle and bustle of all of the medinas is pretty cool, they're always busy with people shopping or trying to sell things. The Fes medina made me feel like I was playing Frogger and I was the frog. Every other minute a horse, donkey, or mule was coming down the walkway carrying goods to a shop. We weaved our way through all of the back alleys and passages to finally make our way to a leather tannery. In the shop they had everything from jackets, to belts, to purses (don't worry Mom, I didn't buy another purse!). We also got to see how the leather is made... I probably would've been alright with skipping this part. Let me tell you, if you ever plan on going to a tannery DO NOT eat beforehand and you better have a strong stomach. First there are obviously animal skins everywhere, I was ready for that part, but little did I know the methods that go into making leather. The skins are all cured in the most awful smelling mixture of things. I give the men that work there sooo much credit for working there all day in the hot sun. For now I think I'll stick with engineering. We finished up the day in Fes with a restaurant overlooking the entire city.

Now for the riddle... How is it possible to be in Spain and Africa at the same time?? Well, let me explain! On the northern coast of Africa there is a Spanish enclave, Moroccans

 refer to it as Sebta and the Spanish call it Cueta. No matter what you call it, a couple of my friends and I decided to head up that way last weekend. The trip begins with a taxi ride to Meknes, then a train ride up to Tangier, and another taxi ride to the border where you get dropped off and have to walk through the border. The view from the taxi on the way to Sebta/Cueta was amazing. Our taxi driver would slow down and we had clear views of the

 Mediterranean and straight across to mainland Spain. When you step across the boarder it's a completely different world. Literally in less than a 20 foot walk you go from hearing the mix of

french and arabic I've sort of gotten used to hearing to completely spanish. It was really refreshing to hear spanish because I speak and understand spanish pretty well. I did an exchange trip to Spain while in high school, so within a few minutes of hearing it I was having very little trouble communicating with the people around me (VERY different from being back in Ifrane where charades is my main form of communication). All day Saturday we stayed on the beach and I took my first dip in the Mediterranean which was one of my goals for this trip. I got a pretty good tan, everyone at home is going to be jealous when I come back nice and tan at the end of October! Unfortunately we had to head home on Sunday, I would've loved to have a few extra days of vacation.

Now you're probably wondering how on earth do I have all this free time when I'm supposed to be completing one of the biggest parts of my WPI curriculum. Well we weren't able to go out to Adghagh for the past few weeks because our sponsor was out of town. So we've been doing a lot of research on our own and setting up ways to get the rest of the data we need. Yesterday we visited the village again to use GPS to help us map out the village. We looked at all of the springs that used to provide water the the village as well as the faucets where people used to get drinking water. Starting tomorrow we'll be surveying all of the families with a set of questions we think will be valuable to our project.

We only have 3 weeks left here, which shocks me when I think about it. It feels like yesterday that I was saying goodbye to my family and friends (I do miss you all and can't wait to see you!). Hopefully everything comes together for my project and I can still squeeze in all of the cities I want to go to, who knows when I'll be in Morocco again, right?

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, the past week has been very busy. I've visited Adghagh, Meknes, and Volubilis, gotten more information about my project, and learned some basic arabic. 

As far as my project goes, we've visited the site again to meet with some of the leaders of the community. Meeting with the people of the village is probably one of the most important aspects of our project. The first reason for this is that it gives us a clearer picture of the problem, but the more valuable reason for these meetings is to find out what the village actually wants from us. This is a key aspect to our project because no matter how many suggestions we make that may seem logical from an engineer's perspective, if the village can't or isn't willing to use our ideas then the project isn't really valuable at all. That's one of the main things I'm learning from IQP. There are a few ways that solve the villages water problems, but these solutions are either not financially feasible or the village simply isn't interested in them. It's frustrating at times, but it's definitely something we have to learn as engineers. You could create the most phenomenal device in the world, but if the intended user can't or isn't willing to use it then it won't be successful. We'll be going back to Adghagh next week hopefully to begin mapping the current canal system to see if it will be something we're interested in using in our proposed water delivery system. 

As for my travels, they've been a lot of fun. Last Saturday I went to Volubilis, the former home to the Berber capital. I'm not going to lie, when I heard we were walking around ancient ruins for a few hours on a Saturday morning in the hot sun, I was less than excited (history has never been "my thing"). But Volubilis was actually really pretty and interesting. 

Before the downfall of the city, somewhere between 30,000 and 40,000 people lived there. The most visible layers of the ruins are from the 1st-3rd centuries AD, but there are layers that date back to as early as 8,000 to 6,000 BC. While walking around we saw olive presses that are still pretty intact, bathhouses, and some gorgeous mosaic floors that are still in good shape. It was weird to imagine that at one point all the stones around us were the walls of someone's house and the roads we walked down used to be filled with townspeople going about their day-to-day lives. On our day trip we also stopped in the city of Meknes which is about an hour away from Ifrane. 

We visited the Moulay Ismail Mausoleum and then went shopping in the medina. The picture to the left is from the Mausoleum and is one of the more famous subjects for pictures in Morocco. The interesting thing about these doorways is that they're intentionally off center because it adds a lot of depth to the rooms when you look through them both at the same time! Tomorrow we're off to the city of Fes for the day.

I'm definitely starting to get used to living over here, but I miss home at times too. Over the past week I found two things to cure my homesickness. The first being peanut butter. I never thought I would miss something silly like that, but not being able to have it for a few weeks was giving all of us cravings. We finally found it in a little shop in town, and this might just be because it's a little piece of home, but it's the best peanut butter ever! The other thing I've found that makes me more at home here in Morocco is the rugby team! Rugby is a huge part of my life back home, and with matches coming up this weekend for both the teams I play for(Good Luck Ladies!!!), I was missing it more than ever. Luckily, I just happened to find a poster for rugby practice so I went. I learned that "knock on" and "forward pass" are the same no matter where you're playing. It's interesting because as different as Morocco is from the US, there are a lot more similarities than any of us were expecting!

Wait, I'm living in Morocco??

International Student Orientation is officially over! Thursday and Friday were full of presentations about living in Morocco, traveling, and classes. They were two very long days filled with a lot of info but I'm happy to be done. By the end of Orientation I was really excited to start my project and my class. I want to integrate into Campus Life and try to learn about the Moroccan culture through experience.

Al-Akhawayn Campus

On Saturday my IQP group left Ifrane for the day to go visit the village of Adghagh where we will be doing our project. For our first visit we were able to use a car to get to the village but normally we'll be taking a taxi. The village is about a 15 or 20 minute drive from campus and starts out on nice paved roads but for the last 2km or so there is just a rocky dirt road. We met up with the Peace Corps. Volunteer, Josh, in the village and walked around for a bit to get a feel for where we'll be working. Let me tell you, the contrast between the green grounds of campus and the barren area of Adghagh was obvious right away. There is a deep hole behind the dam, or barrage, where a lake used to be and the canals that run through the village are completely dry. As we were talking about the possibilities associated with our project a man came over and told Josh that his family would like to invite us over for tea. 

Tea with one of the families in Adghagh

The green tea in Morocco is so good! One thing I definitely miss from the US is my daily Dunkin Donuts stop, but this tea will fill the coffee void. The family was so nice! They prepared two teapots worth of tea for us and then brought out Moroccan pancakes. To be received so well in the village already was really exciting and will hopefully help in the weeks to come while we're working there. 

Two other exciting events happened this week. Monday marked the first day of classes. The only actual class I'll be taking while I'm here is an Arabic Language course. Even though it's only the basics of the language I think it'll be very helpful. So far we've learned some letters and phrases. My favorite thing we've learned was how to write our names. The other event of the week is the start of the month of Ramadan. This Muslim holiday lasts an entire month and, from my understanding, is meant to offer a time to purify oneself through self-restraint and prayer. The one thing I knew about Ramadan before it began is that during this month Muslims will fast from dawn to dusk. This fasting includes a lot of things such as food, drinks(including water), and smoking. I had heard from a couple of people that it is a good experience to try this fasting even though I'm not religiously obligated to, so for the past few days I tried it. I woke up early to eat a good breakfast before the sun rises and literally break the fast with a meal called Ftour as soon as the sun sets(just before 7pm). The traditional Ftour we've had consists of dates, either moroccan pancakes or croissants, a hard hardboiled egg, soup, and these very rich cookies. I can't even begin to explain how good the meal is after an entire day of fasting! 

This weekend we'll be taking a trip to Volubilis, which is an ancient site of both the old Berber capital(Mauritania) and then a part of the Roman Empire. 

I finally have internet!

Hi everyone! I haven't had too much time to write an entry, but I've been in Morocco since Monday night so I have a lot to say. I should probably start with the actual reason I'll be spending the first part of my junior year across the Atlantic. WPI has a pretty cool project system that consists of three projects. I'll be working on my IQP(Interactive Qualifying Project) while I'm over here. The basic idea of this project is to present a problem in society to a team of WPI students, we then take what we've learned in our science and technology curriculum to try to solve this problem. This project is awesome for most people because we get to apply what we know and help people at the same time(and a lot of students choose to go abroad, who can complain about 7 weeks in a foreign country?). My project will focus on researching efficient water delivery systems for the small village of Adghagh. The village is about 12km north of Ifrane and consists of three families. I'll be working with Andrea Bisson(junior, Bio./Biotech. & Writing major) and Dan Hassett(junior, Mech. Engineering major). We'll also be working with a Moroccan student and a Peace Corps. Volunteer who has been living in the village for over a year now. We'll be working on the project throughout our time here so I'll let you know more about it as I get more info and have a clearer understanding of what the village is looking for.

Now to get down to the start the journey... it starts with the trip from the States to Morocco. Along with 3 other WPI students I flew out of JFK last Sunday night at around 7:30 for the flight across the Atlantic to Brussels. Not a bad flight, some typical airplane food and we got to watch "21" which is a good movie. We were supposed to have a 7 hour layover in Brussels but that turned into about 10 hours so we played a million rounds of the card game Hearts and spent way too much money on airport food. We finally boarded our flight to Casablanca and arrived there late Monday night. One of the best things about going away for IQP is the traveling. For the first two night we spent in Morocco we were in Casablanca. Tuesday morning we woke up early and started the day by visiting the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca. To call it gorgeous would honestly be an understatement. The Mosque has room for up to 25,000 worshippers and also has the tallest religious minaret(tall tower in the pic. below) in the world at 200 meters tall. 

Also, just to prove how awesome engineers around the world are, the green roof on the top is actually retractable, as we were leaving they began to open the roof... go engineers! 

Tuesday afternoon we went to Rabat, Morocco's capital city. Casablanca was a pretty city but Rabat was so much nicer. One of our advisors grew up in Rabat so after touring the town a bit we went to his family's house for lunch. I had my first authentic Moroccan couscous and it was sooo good! Everyone was completely stuffed when we left to continue touring the city. We went through the medina and visited a few typical tourist spots then hopped on the train back to Casablanca(or Casa as I've learned it's called often). The next day a van came to pick us up and bring us to Al Akhawayn University where we'll be spending the next 7 weeks. It was a long drive to get here and the contrast between some of the barren lands we passed along the way to the grassy, beautiful campus here was amazing. International Student Orientation began yesterday and lasts for 4 days so I've been very busy with presentations and just taking in all of the new info and culture. So that's about it for my adventures in Morocco so far. I'll actually be missing orientation tomorrow to go visit Agdhagh and meet the people in the village I'll be working with while I'm here. I'll let you know more about the village after my visit and post some pics of the Al Akhawayn campus because, like most things I've seen here so far, is really pretty.