Morocco: Every shade of green, EVER Past Review
By Julia H (Geosciences/Anthropology, Trinity University) for
SIT Study Abroad: Morocco - Human Rights, Social Justice, and Cultural Transformation
Why does this question even exist? It was incredibly hard, incredibly exhilarating, and incredibly worthwhile.
Review Your Program
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* Overall educational experience
Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc. |
The workload is much lighter than Trinity's as is the grading standard. |
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* Host Country Program Administration
On-site administration of your program |
Things don't get done very quickly - but it doesn't feel like a problem. There is always someone available whenever we needed help and they took care of us really well. |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
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| * Food: |
The food is absolutely amazing - but Moroccan food doesn't accommodate vegetarians very well. The program does really well to have a vegetarian option anytime we go on excursions or are eating at The Center, but when you go out to eat on your own, it's more difficult to find the option. So, if you're a vegetarian and want to go to Morocco, get used to eating meat (I travelled with a vegetarian who was open to eating meat and it made the trip a lot easier). They also have strange things like avocado yogurt, which is worth trying. I also had liver and some other internal organs, as well as bull genitals on one occasion. |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
Most of the trips we go on are still education based - but they're really exciting nonetheless. |
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* Health Care:
How well were health issues addressed during the program? |
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| * Safety: |
The only time I really didn't feel that safe was in the Medinas after 10:30/11ish. Most of the women have gone inside by then. In the Western Sahara though, women stay out as late as midnight, but I also never felt unsafe there either. |
| If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program? |
Yes
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Finances
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* Money: How easily were you able to live on a student's budget?
(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost) |
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| Do you have any general money-saving tips for future study abroad participants? | Depending on where you go, cabs are around 20ish dh (divide by 8 for USD). Hotels (in off season) are 50 dh a night (in the medina, and they're not very good hotels, plus a 5 dh charge if you want to take a warm shower). Train tickets are more expensive but everything is still really cheap. |
Language
| * Did your program have a foreign language component? | Yes |
| How would you rate your language skills at the beginning of the program? | None |
| What was the highest level language course you had completed prior to departure? | None |
| Language acquisition improvement? |
The language teaching staff was great - they really wanted us to learn the arabic, and learn it well. Everyone was extremely helpful and more than willing to work with us outside of classtime. |
Other Program Information
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* Where did you live?
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* Who did you live with?
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* Who did you take classes with?
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A Look Back
| * What do you know now that you wish you knew before going on this program? | It's a really great opportunity to go and do your own independent research. |
