AUI and Ifrane

So I realized that even though I have spent almost all of my time at the University and in the city of Ifrane, I had never posted information about it.  For living situations we started of in apartments in the Best Western Farah Inn.  We took a half hour bus ride every day to get to AUI but we had kitchens (minus utensils and cooking supplies) and living rooms.  The problem with these apartments was that everything broke easily in them.  Light fixtures or light bulbs would crash to the floor, toilets stopped flushing, and fuse switches would break.  It wouldn't quite say they were the safest residences I've ever stayed in.  Then they moved us to other apartments in the hotel, which had utensils and kitchen supplies, but in our apartment the stove didn't work.  An electrician stopped by to fix it.  He left and then an hour later I tried it and it didn't work.  Oh well, cause that day I also found out they were moving us onto campus after the weekend even though we had just moved the previous night.  So now most of us live with Moroccan roommates which is cool and fun.
Ifrane itself is fairly boring unfortunately.  It is called the mini-Switzerland because it is very peaceful and beautiful.  People aren't allowed to interact with it much though.  For example, you are not allowed to play or sit on the grass in the dozen parks that are around.  Grass is very difficult to grow in such a hot and dry climate and so they have sprinklers running seemingly 24/7 in order to maintain it.  If people use the grass then they are afraid it will go away so police kick you off of it and you can even be fined.  My idea of a park is a place for people to play, run around, and have fun.  The trees are all perfectly trimmed, the grass always cut, the fountains always running.  It's beautiful, but very fake.  The other part of this town that bothers me is the dozens of houses that are empty of furniture and even walls, windows, and doors.  The outside of the house is nice but it is just a face for being empty inside, and they all look the same.  It's like living in a town filled with dollhouses.  For entertainment here there are only a few clubs, restaurants, and activities at AUI.  I think that part of the reason parents want to send their children here, is because they honestly can't get  into a great deal of trouble. Moroccan students have told me Ifrane is the safest city in Morocco, and I have gone on one or two walks by myself to the marche without any problem.  One time on the way back from getting fruit I even met a nice gentlemen who walked me back most of the way while talking to me in a mix of Arabic, French, and English.  It was very interesting, educational, and I met someone new.  At the end he said, Ciao, I will see you tomorrow inshallah. I didn't see him the next day but I also don't ever remember agreeing to that so it was fine.  Oops.
AUI is very pretty, just like the town is.  They are very strict about not stepping on the grass and will make you pay about a $12 USD fine, but it is more interesting there.  There are more people to talk to and they set up events every week.  This picture is of the sunset behind the gymnasium.  I had never seen the sky look like it was on fire so I needed a picture of it.  The classes I am taking at AUI are Islamic Civilization and Beginning Arabic II.  In Islamic Civilization the teacher speaks almost perfect English.  He is very enthusiastic about his subject and does a very good job of separating his religious beliefs from scholarly facts.  It is also very interesting because there are both Moroccan and international students, and Muslim and non-Muslim students.  It makes for diverse questions and discussions in class.  My other class is Beginning Arabic II which is entirely international students.  We all had taken a placement test but there is a wide range of experience.  We have one student who hasn't taken any formal classes but knows the Arabic alphabet, and then some students that have taken three years of Arabic.  I have taken a year and a half worth of classes but they were crammed into 3 quarters so while it is review for me, I never learned it in depth anyways.  The class is very difficult anyways.  My teacher only knows basic English so he speaks almost entirely in Arabic.  This makes learning fast but takes a lot of mental energy.  At first I always left the class feeling like my brain was mush cause I was concentrating so hard.  I thoroughly enjoy both my classes though and almost wish I could continue for the full semester.
Today, Molly and I decided to go on a hike on the edge of Ifrane to a set of small waterfalls called Source Vitel.  According to google maps it only takes about an hour and a half round trip but we actually got back three hours later.  The first half of the river had water in it, but because Morocco is in a drought, and they just barely had the first decent rainfall since we've been here a few days ago, it wasn't high enough to reach the waterfalls.  We could still imagine the place filled with water though like it would be later in the month and it was beautiful.  It wasn't as helpful for Molly's project as we had hoped it would be but it was a great
 experience.  There was lots of natural grass along the hike and it didn't feel like the fakeness that the rest of Ifrane has.  We saw some farmers and had to ignore some children that came running up to us.  They were cute but we weren't really in the mood to deal with them following us the entire way.  When we got to the park area there were people trying to sell us things that we definitely didn't want.  We told them la shokran, which means no thanks and is usually a polite way to refuse these people, but they just seemed like we were being rude.  Oh well, what can you do? Overall, it was a great hike and escape from the city and people.


Ifrane definitely isn't my favorite city here, but it is pretty and the people are very nice so it is a good place to keep as a home base.  We even are allowed to pretty much wear whatever we want.  Some of the girls here wear clothes that I was surprised by because I would think it embarrassing even in the United States because they are so revealing.  This is most of their first times away from home though, so they can finally break out from their normal lives and figure out who they are.  In this way, Ifrane is an interesting view into how Morocco is changing from traditional to modern and how the country is coping with it.