Landed, and my internet is in French.

I am here! Yes I have already swum in a pool, it was FREEZING, but worth it J. We flew in from JFK to Casablanca on a red eye and arrived at 740 ish this morning. I had gotten little over 1 hour of sleep on the plane… exhausted! After going through customs we, all 70 of us, took a two hour bus ride to Marrakesh. We are staying on night here in a hotel and then we are heading out to Ouarzazate tomorrow morning at 7:30! So far it has been wonderful. It is an amazing region which we have landed, its very green, but it is because there has been excessive rains... which in addition to the luscious which I so love, also causes flooding. I feel like the next little bit (two months, and especially the next two weeks) are going to be a whirlwind! I am going to try my little darndest to keep you all updated, but it might be a while.

Baslama!

Basics of Peace Corps service

Country: Morocco
Departure Date: March 1, 2010
Length of Service: 27 months. The first three months is language training and two years of the assignment.
Language to be Learned: Arabic, possibly French and/or Berber, a local language.
Assignment: Environmental Education

For more info go to:
http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=learn.wherepc.northafr.morocco

General thoughts:
Well I applied for the Peace Corps in Sepember of 2008. I still had my whole senior year of college ahead of me. I was doing it basically because it sounded like something I would enjoy, but also partially as a back up plan, if I couldn't find something better. As the months progressed I realized that this was something that I really did want to do. I want to be completly engrossed in another culture. I want to question my country and lifestyle, but also gain perspective on my opinions of the world. This is not something to take lightly, it will be an experience which I will recall for the rest of my life, I am sure. In the phrasing of my ever more worriesome mother "So it looks like it will be hard when you get there, hard while you are there, and also hard when you come back." Yup I think that that will about cover it. I expect it to be hard. I like challenges. Not like a tough sudoku, but actual tough challenges. Things that will be general challenge of life and what I will make of it. I also feel like this is a excellent oportunity to share my knowledge about the environmental status of our world. It is important that people in developing countries know about the problems that the world faces as a community and how to help solve them. I am excited to start my journey!