It’s currently 7pm on Monday night and I’m finally ready to leave. Tomorrow’s the big day! Also someone named Mindy is doing something…. I dunno it’s not important (sorry Jorie).

For the longest time I’ve had impeccable luck with travel; (almost) never been stopped at security and never had a flight cancelled. Today my luck ran out. Air France pilots have gone on strike THIS WEEK protesting the airlines decision to use a low-cost carrier for some of their flights. As such, my flights have all been cancelled. Luckily my dad is super smart and managed to get us entirely rerouted. Instead of flying via Montreal and Paris, we are now on the 0600 flight to Chicago then an afternoon flight to Amsterdam getting in the next morning, followed by an afternoon flight to Madrid, then an evening flight to Casablanca and then a night flight to Rabat arriving at around 10pm. On the one hand, it means...

Ten more days till I arrive in Rabat. That’s it. It still seems so far away, but looking back on this blog, this summer has really flown by. Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been making last minute preparations to leave. These include dealing with banking, cancelling my cell phone plan, making a budget (ugh), and trying to pack, which I’ll talk about in another post.

One of the things I’ve been trying to do this summer is enjoy all the uniquely Calgarian things, which I won’t have in Morocco. For the first time in a few years, I took my roommate from Kingston to the Calgary Stampede which was an absolute blast. We both dressed up in cowboy gear and spent the day at the festival grounds checking out the fair and eating mini donuts.

Additionally, I’ve tried to go to all my favourite restaurants and coffee shops. My favourite of which is Safari Grill, a local indian-African restaurant...

Exchange is one of the many options universities offer, but surprisingly few people take advantage of it. This really baffles me because the process is so straightforward, thanks to the great folks at the Queen’s University International Programs Office (IPO).

The process starts early in second year when I had to start looking at schools and countries in which I wanted to study. I chose to go on exchange because I knew this would be the only time I’d have to live abroad and explore before I started working. Additionally, I thought it would be interesting to study politics from a non-Canadian perspective. I also decided to step out of my comfort zone and study somewhere that wasn’t Western Europe. This left me with East Asia or Turkey or Morocco. I found the school in Morocco was more focused on politics in the Middle East and was a much smaller school than any of the others. I decided...

I’m officially 4 weeks away from leaving on exchange (fingers crossed nothing changes). We leave in the morning of the 16th to Montreal, then fly overnight to Paris, and finally fly to Rabat to arrive at about noon the next day. I am so excited but there is so much to deal with now.

As it stands now, I have ten days between when we get there to when “orientation week” starts. In that time, the biggest thing is getting a visa. Being Canadian, I get an automatic visa for 90 days, but that doesn’t cover the entire time I’ll be there (obvi). The process to get a longer visa is an absolute pain. Firstly, the government needed to make sure I’m actually a student, so I had to send the university my HIGH SCHOOL transcript and diploma as well as Queen’s transcripts to make sure I’m legit a student (weird right?!). The Moroccan Government also needs NINE passport pictures (selfies do not count… I...

My really good friend Jorie and I were talking about seeing the world when you’re young and she said,

*“[T]here’s a brief window of time between being too young to actually do things for yourself, and being too old to get away from responsibilities wherein exploring the world is an option”

I feel that university is the period which many of us leave home for the first times and are forced to take care of ourselves. Additionally, it is one of the only times in which we have some freedom to explore the world and are given the choice to travel for longer times. I have been lucky enough to travel throughout my life, but it has always been on a predetermined vacation with family. Exchange is the first opportunity I have to travel the way I want to. I have been given the freedom to see a remote part of the world and really try to understand a new culture. This is truly a blessing, but it will...

There are so many things to do in Morocco but these are the 10 things I really want to do/see/experience over the next nine months

1: Sleep in the desert under the stars

2: Ride a camel (read: take a selfie on a camel)

3: Get totally lost in a Medina (the old part of a Moroccan city with winding streets and lots of street vendors) and find my way back out again

4: Go see the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, one of the largest mosques in the world.

5: Learn to surf! Part of my curriculum requirements are learning a sport and surfing is one that is offered. Why not!

6: Learn to cook Moroccan Tagine

7: Buy a Djellaba

8:Go to Chefchaouen, near Tangier. The picture says it all

9: Go hiking in the High Atlas mountains

10: Spend an evening at the Djemaa El-Fna in Marrakech, a large square which turns into a night market with street entertainment and wicked food

Hassan Tower. The only minaret built of an unfinished mosque from the 12th century

Mausoleum of King Mohammed V

Skyline of Rabat. Not a skyscraper in sight :)

Rabat Medina: the old part of the city

View of the city and the water

Getting more and more excited to leave!

Making a playlist that has songs that remind me of Morocco. Check it out!

Knee Deep- Zac Brown Band

C'est La Vie- Khaled

Aicha- Khaled

Ana Wiyak- Amine

Habibi I love You- Ahmed Chawki

Encore Une Fois- Khaled

On Se Connait- Youssoupha

Zina- Babylone

Papaoutai- Stromae

Hey Pols friends, this one’s for you!

This is a pretty simple summary of how the government works. Executively, the country is ruled by King Mohammed VI. He has been in power since 1999 when his father passed away. The King holds both religious power, as a descendent of the Prophet, and political power, commander of the Armed Forces and able to determine foreign policy. Since his coronation, he has been especially focused on fighting corruption and improving human rights. In 2011 when the Arab Spring protests started, the King made a number of concessions including:
1: Being obliged to appoint the Prime Minister from the party with the most seats.
2: Guaranteeing women social, civil, and political equality to men
3: Making the Berber language a national language, and protecting the Berber culture , and
4: Giving the Prime Minister the power to dissolve parliament, and the ability to...

My parents and I went for dinner last night and we talked about this trip and what I should watch for and what scared them most for me. My parents are worried that the logistics will not work out; my place might fall through, I might have troubles with visas or travel etc. Personally, I am more afraid of coming back.

My don from first year posted a really interesting article about travel which posits that the hardest part about travelling is coming home. (link: http://thoughtcatalog.com/kellie-donnelly/2014/07/the-hardest-part-about-traveling-no-one-talks-about/ ) Basically that once you get back from spending time abroad, you realize how much you have changed, while most things at home seem to be the same.

This is what scares me the most. I am afraid not to go away, but to come home. I feel like going on exchange is probably one of the greatest experiences I will ever have. I have...