I've passed the one month mark. I have 29 days until my departure for my pre-departure orientation in D.C. and I'll be leaving for Morocco immediately after the orientation. It's still not hitting me that soon enough I'll be in a completely different continent in a beautiful country and I'll be living a completely different life. This past week I volunteered at the YES arrivals orientation in D.C. Throughout the week you could sense the excitement of both the students and group leaders. As a group leader we were preparing these students for one of the best years of their lives. The students knew something big was coming and being D.C. meant it was a reality, but they still hadn't reached the stage of living with their host family or attending an American high school. On departure day the students were excited, nervous, and mainly tired because of their early flights (some had to be up at 2:00 a.m.) many had cried the previous night due to the realization that they were all going their separate ways and wouldn't be seeing each other again until June. Being surrounded by this wave of emotions made me start to think about my own departure and since getting home I've slowly been realizing that I'm going to be in the same position as them soon enough.
Even with these realizations I'm still not sure what to expect from Morocco. I met some Moroccans while volunteering at the orientation and they only made me more excited for my departure. I will definitely say that the first Moroccans I met have been some of the most welcoming and warm people I've met and they definitely fulfilled the positive image that I've always heard about Moroccans. I'm extremely grateful for the opportunity I had to once again volunteer at a YES orientation. I had an amazing group of kids that made it a great week and they're already making me proud by sending me messages telling me of their safe arrivals and one of them has already done volunteer work since arriving in his host community! I'm wishing all of the students a great year and I know that they're going to achieve many amazing things.
I have made a photo sharing site since I do plan on taking many pictures while I'm in Morocco and it gets difficult to upload more than five pictures. I have already uploaded pictures from the orientation and I hope this is a good format for pictures.
https://happinessiswayoftravel.shutterfly.com/pictures/8
Even with these realizations I'm still not sure what to expect from Morocco. I met some Moroccans while volunteering at the orientation and they only made me more excited for my departure. I will definitely say that the first Moroccans I met have been some of the most welcoming and warm people I've met and they definitely fulfilled the positive image that I've always heard about Moroccans. I'm extremely grateful for the opportunity I had to once again volunteer at a YES orientation. I had an amazing group of kids that made it a great week and they're already making me proud by sending me messages telling me of their safe arrivals and one of them has already done volunteer work since arriving in his host community! I'm wishing all of the students a great year and I know that they're going to achieve many amazing things.
I have made a photo sharing site since I do plan on taking many pictures while I'm in Morocco and it gets difficult to upload more than five pictures. I have already uploaded pictures from the orientation and I hope this is a good format for pictures.
https://happinessiswayoftravel.shutterfly.com/pictures/8
The students did have a talent show on the last night and it was absolutely incredible! I will be posting a video of the performances later on this week. Right now I will just post a video I took of a few of the Turkish students making music in the hallways.
One more thing! Although there are many students that have already arrived in the United States there are still many exchange students that haven't arrived and still need to be placed with host families. My host families are some of the most important people in my life and being an exchange student as well as hosting one is an amazing experience. Here's a video made at the YES arrivals! Give being an AFS host family a try!
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