Nontraditional but worth it!

My summer semester in Meknes, Morocco was nothing short of spectacular. Morocco is an Islamic country so my family had hesitations of the safety for a young American woman. Not once did I feel unsafe. I lived in an apartment with five other girls from my program in the modern part of the city. We lived right next to three cafes and spent the evening there watching the World Cup or drinking Moroccan tea, coffee, and practicing our language with the locals. I spent a 5 weeks there volunteering at a local orphanage and created long lasting friendships with many of the kids there. I would then return back to the apartment for lunch that out house mom (she came 6 days a week and cleaned and prepared lunch and dinner). We would then go out. I spent the other six weeks taking classes at the ISA study center. It would have been incredible to take classes with locals, but the city is just not large enough to offer a variety of classes in English. I took beginning Arabic and Islamic Society and Politics. I loved my Arabic class and professor and everything I learned was reinforced everyday through living there. My professor would invite us to cafes after class, and even to his home during Ramadan. It was totally normal. My Islamic Society Professor was kind of a snob and there were people in my class with a wide knowledge base. Never having studied that before, I sometimes had to work a lot harder but my friends in class felt like everything wasn't challenging at all. We would travel all over the country on the weekends via train or grand taxi. The support staff was awesome in terms of helping us set things up that weren't included excursions. One complaint is that there was a lot wrong with out apartment. Our washing machine electrically shocked us so I hand washed my clothes for almost three months and we had a lot of plumbing issues. However I had the time of my life, discovered so much about my self, and have some incredible memories and new found friendships.