Day 3

Weeeelll then. Long day. Wet, tired, sore but couldn't be happier to be here. Today we woke up around 7:30 and ate breakfast with our host family, then we walked to meet up with the rest of the group. We left Rabat and went to Sale` (No, not the animal and economical exchange, both cities) to talk to some Moroccan students about the media's influence on our opinion of Morocco and vis-versa. We met a guy there also who helped make the documentary Crossing Boarders and has coached us about what is acceptable in terms of filming people etc...Everyone has been so amazingly open minded it has blown me away-nothing like any of the other places i have been. Not one person has judged us as americans, they simply are curious as to what we think about different political issue's and understand that not all americans feel the same way that our govn't does. The conversation did get a little heated when 911 came up but it wasn't anything that was too extreme, just a touchy subject.

After that we drove back toward Rabat stopping at some ancient Roman ruins called Chellah. To see parts of buildings and walls from thousands of years ago still standing was truly remarkable, gave a crazy feeling of walking into the past. Leaving there we stopped one last time before Rabat at the Maousoleum, which is a mosque and shrine like thing for the previous 2 kings (Mohamed the 4th and 5th). Interesting little tid-bit...it's illegal to speak ill of the king and can get you put in jail...Also illegal to try and convert any Moroccan to any religion other than Islam.

We ate lunch in Rabat with our host families, and was probably the single most delicious meal I have had in my life. Chicken meatball like things with spices and traditional Moroccan bread. Found out that the son of the host family is on the national moroccan volleyball team, unfortunately his next game is on friday and we leave then.

Other than that, we walked around with different moroccan students in the afternoon checking out the Madina or market in Rabat. Other than the fact that it poured the whole time and I decided to wear sandals it was a great time. We got to talk more politics and just gain more of an understanding of how society works here in morocco. Its very reserved and there is almost no contact between woman and men. not even holding hands in public is acceptable...Looked for gifts for people in the market but couldn't take money out of the atm so i gotta wait until we go to Fes tomorrow.

At night we talked with some peace-core volunteers and a couple people from whats call Full Brite (organization out of the us. congress) about their work in Morocco and how we can continue our interest in cultural exchange beyond what we are doing now...over-all kinda a boring talk but was good in terms of finding something other than the peace core i might be interested in after graduating...Now, Jon and Matt and I are chilling back at the host family brainstorming ideas for the documentary...I love hearing about how much they have already shifted their views on life in general and how they both will come out of this changed completely.

Glad to be here and super excited for the rest of the trip...Feeling very privileged to be apart of this experience, its been too long since Ive had something like this to bring me back to reality...which america is not.