Ssalamu Ealaykum (Peace be upon you) from Morocco!

Well I made it! That is I have survived my first 5 days in Rabat (the capitol city of Morocco) and the Hotel Oscar experience. It has been such a whirlwind adventure from day 1. So for a brief recap, I started in Philly on Monday, Jan. 13th with some brief training and knowledge gathering that Peace Corps refers to as "Staging", where we meet all the volunteers that are part of our group for Morocco, which was over 100 people! Talk about daunting numbers of new folks to introduce yourself too. Following this one day bonanza of sessions, get to know you activities, and team builders we departed early the next day for JFK airport, but of course not before one last hurrah in Philadelphia where a bunch of us went out for Karaoke in Chinatown. I can honestly say I've never had that much fun singing while sober in my life, Morocco Idol better watch out for this mutaTwie (volunteer)!

After what seemed like hours we all finally cleared security and had what must have been the toughest conversations with loved ones and friends in quite sometime. All around me people are saying their 'goodbyes and see you soons' to those who mattered most in life. It was a very somber scene.

Finally we board and my excitement is hard to contain. This is my first international flight and it's like an 8 hour flight so of course having watched tons of movies about transatlantic flights I think I have this part covered...nope! Watching Red Eye or Flight Plan or really any movie involving planes, besides Airplane is a lie. There was nothing nearly that exciting happening. Haha. It was a great time chatting with other PCTs (Peace Corps Trainees) and watching movies though and that suit me just fine until we landed in Morocco.

Now here on the ground things have been kinda  a blur, but it's been a ton of fun and man the food has been amazing. We are staying in Oscar Hotel in the capitol city of Rabat for about 10 days total before we all split up across the country to smaller communities were our language training will accelerate and we will be placed with out host families for the next three months #awesome! As of now we continue to learn about about Peace Corps policies, procedures and take intro language course. I am very proud to say that I have retained a good amount of Arabic in just a few brief lessons and feel fortunate that I have class with my roommate so I always have someone to practice with daily.

Well I'm sure there is so much more that I can write about, but I know everyone is really just here to see pictures so hope you enjoy and be your to follow my adventures here in the Morocco. Tell your friends and family too aka the more people who read my blog the more likely Google will pay me to have one. Haha. Don't you want to help your friend in a foreign country living off a small amount of Dirham (local currency) survive?  :)

bslama (goodbye)

View from the Rabat beach/Atlantic Ocean

My name in Arabic

Shopping at the Medina (market)

The beginning of an end for a beginning

Tonight (technically 12:06 am) I am chilling at my mom's place in what may be the last time for quite awhile : (   My time home has been bittersweet and full of awesome times with friends (still bummed I'm missing my bro Ricardo's wedding), family (seeing my kid brother for the first time in over a year), and food (goodness I think I ate pork in every variety I could find since it's readily not available Morocco). All in the all the time has been great and now I'm off to Philly to get ready to open the next chapter of my life, which is crazy exciting!!!!

Now Philly comes with it's own pros and cons. 

Pro: Get to see my girlfriend, Kristina again :). I love that girl and can't wait for one last hurrah 

Con: We are separating after two fun years together and who knows what life has in store for us next. However the cards may fall, I truly feel honored and grateful for the love and support she has shown me and truly teaching me how to be a better man and person in general. 

Pro:  Philly is one of my top 3 favorite U.S. city purely for history alone. 

Con: Freezing cold/Post snowmageddon. I'm not looking forward to my last time in a US city for awhile being a crappy weather one, but I'm sure I'll make the most of it along with all my fellow volunteers.

Pro: Get to meet all this new and exciting folks that will be apart of my Peace Corps Morocco group (96 strong, give or take a few). As a highly social person, I love meeting new people and I am excited about the prospect of leaving Morocco in two years with a plethora of good friends.

Con: What if all the new trainees that I will be with suck?! Lol kidding; they will all be awesome.

It's crazy how fast the time has flown since getting home and now leaving once more. This is the first time in 4 years that I have not been returning to my home/job at Penn State post break. This the first time in 4 years that I will not be supervising a staff of amazing RAs. This is the first time in 4 years that I have said goodbye to be people that I love and care about with no idea of when I will see them next. 

Wow! It's been such a strange feeling to have so much downtime to think about the random things like what I mentioned above, but those observations have really stood out for me over the last several weeks home (on top of selling out to the "man" and getting a northface bag, sobbing over all the cool movies I'll be missing, and how quickly I get things done when I'm are leaving the country).

As stated above this is the beginning of an end and my time in the US is slowly winding down. Though I've never considered myself overly patriotic, I find myself already missing the pleasures and greatness of being an American. In Morocco I still will be an American of course but there will not be the constant intentional or subliminal influences surrounding me, providing comfort and safety. I am hopeful that this cognitive dissonance will push and challenge me in ways I have yet to foresee and truly allow for me to explore a new beginning in Morocco. One that is full of mystery, growth, fun, and knowledge.