- Sunday February 28th: Fly from Chattanooga to Philadelphia.
- Monday March 1st: Register for training, sign lots of paper, quick-and-dirty intro to the Peace Corps, chill with other trainees?
- Tuesday March 2nd: Bus from Philly to JFK, depart JFK for Morocco. Not sure why on earth we fly out of a different city than we stage, but I hope Peace Corps has a good reason – or at least some reason.
- (When I get more time and am feeling ambitious, I'll type up a psuedo-itinerary of my next two years.)
Also, thanks to Google and its pending takeover of the world, I just discovered that, as the crow flies, the distance between NYC and Casablanca is roughly only about 800ish miles more than the distance between NYC and San Francisco. So for my fans who are worried that you may never see me again, I'm really not going too far from home.
Also also, I need to start eating small bits of meat. Apparently, vegetarians/vegans are able to sustain healthy diets in Morocco, but many times, native Moroccans just don’t understand why one would forego some delicious, plump, ripe animal thigh. If Moroccans are anything like Egyptians when it comes to their meat intake, and I assume they are, life will be a lot easier if I just suck it up and eat a little meat. This is an incredibly daunting task. I ate a few meaty dishes the other day when my (wonderful) coworkers took me out for (delicious) dim sum. My stomach got a little gnarly later in the day, but that could have been caused by the oily foods and not the meat. Admittedly, meat can be entirely appealing when it’s concealed in dumpling form. Regardless, I’m not looking forward to the day when I’ll decide to chomp on a meat chunk in order not to offend my homestay family. Speaking of food… WILL THERE BE MAYONNAISE IN MOROCCO?!?! What will I do without it?!?!?! Some sources have predicted that yes, I'll have access to mayo. Others tell me no.
I feel like meat doesn't come in dumpling form in Morocco.
ReplyDeleteAlso, for what it's worth, I can find mayo -easily- in Egypt. Local stuff too, not ridiculously expensive imported mayo. Didn't know you're such a big fan of mayo either (ewwww).
Hi Adam,
ReplyDeleteI'm also heading to staging in Philly from Chattanooga on the 28th--didn't think it likely that any other trainees would be coming from there. Drop me a line if you want to compare itineraries or possibly meet up at one end or the other.
-Erik
Hey! Im out in florida and will be flying out march 1 at 8 am (ugh). I cant wait to meet u all in philly. Anyway im also a health volunteer (majored in microbiology and cell science " Go MICROBE!" yes im a geek and proud of it.lol.
ReplyDeleteBut, im curious, have u started to learn arabic or french? Also are u going to bring any games, movies, books.. so on?
Also, on facebook theres also a group for morocco peace corps volunteers. And if u want more knowledge on health in general http://www.globalhealthlearning.org/login.cfm is free and what u learn there may come in use *shrugs*. Also smart.fm (type smart.fm not smart.fm.com) and they have a program for learning the arabic alphabet and a speed game for it too (also free..lol).
cya in Philly!
sam
Oh and one more thing. Even if mayo is hard to find its crazy easy to make. Raw eggs, oil, lemon or vinegar , mustered.. maybe some salt. Look up a recipe on google.
ReplyDeletehere is a link for mayonnaise...thank you youtube!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3VX3I4n8LE
not you can use a whisk and armpower instead of a blender! Or you can ask for it at french grocery stores.
Est ce que vous avez du Mayonnaise? (phonetic: S keu vou zavay doo my-o-nez)