At the beginning of this year, our Director of Studies over the last two years got itchy feet and took off for Morocco! She has been keeping us in touch with her impressions of the new country and her experiences in starting up all over again as English teacher in a new country. We are delighted that Natalie has given us permission to reproduce her e-mails here. We hope you enjoy reading these and that you will feel free to send in your comments and perhaps your own experiences of arriving to live or work in another country.
Subject: Week 1 - Roaming in Rabat
Dear all,
Happy New Year 2009!!!
So I arrived on Sunday to be greeted by a British Council manager at the airport and several other HEM teachers (HEM is the project that I am working on for the next 7 weeks) and whisked off to a rather nice hotel in Casablanca ! The room was very luxurious and after all the stresses of packing before I left the UK , I slept like a baby in a warm, large double bed!
Having arrived in the dark on Sunday evening, I really had no idea of what was waiting for me outside my hotel room but that was soon revealed as I opened the curtains: rooftops filled with satellite dishes, a few mosque towers and on ground level, rush hour in Casablanca !!! There were cars beeping their horns, bikes as old as some of their owners, donkey carts and men in what can only be described as Merlin the Wizard capes walking in the road!!!
After an Arabic breakfast, I was driven one and a half hours north to Rabat which will be “home” for the next 7 weeks of my life and taken straight to the British Council office. After passing through the strict security procedure: please open all your bags so we can inspect them, walk through the metal detector and let us wave the magic wand over your body to ensure that you are not carrying anything dangerous, I had arrived at my new place of work!
But not for long, shortly after arriving, I was taken by the landlady with another teacher called Angela to visit the flat that had been pre-selected for us. On first viewing, it was all good. A spacious lounge, bathroom with guest toilet, kitchen, external utility area, 2 bedrooms and 3 balconies!! Unfortunately, I drew the short straw on the bedrooms and have the small one with NO heating! I didn’t think this would be a particular problem having lived in Barcelona for over 2 years with limited heating but I was sooooooo wrong. It’s FREEZING! I bought a hot water bottle today in the market and will be demanding a heater from the British Council if I am no warmer this evening.
This week I have been on induction for my new job that starts next week. It has certainly been information overload and I am shattered already. Monday is D-Day and I have been allocated an Upper Intermediate class of 17 students!!!! Eeek! The students are 2nd year University students who are studying business management at a private institution. I have no idea what to expect so I guess I will have to wait and see what happens at 9am on Monday. Today I received Interactive Whiteboard Training and I have to say that I think I am now more confused. What happened to the chalk boards??
This week, I’ve already managed to spend over £100 to my suprise and I’ve been shocked at the price for some basic items such as toilet roll!! (nearly £4.50 for 12 rolls of anything decent)... My new flatmate and I ventured to the Marjane supermarket last night and it was certainly an adventure. We paid 6Dhs to get there and once armed with a few shopping bags and some water, were quoted 40Dhs for the return journey! We decided to walk although we won’t be doing that again. The walk involved crossing very busy roads and very sore hands from the cheap plastic bags. From now on all shopping will be done in the Medina (local market)!!
The food is good but limited in variety. It’s either Tagines, chicken and chips, skewers (beef, chicken or turkey) with rice, pizza or pasta!! I’ve told my housemate that we desperately need to sort ourselves out and buy a blender so we can make a selection of homemade soups!
Tomorrow will be a day full of planning for next weeks’ lessons and on Saturday and Sunday I plan to be a complete tourist and get out there and discover the city! I saw the Atlantic today and a large cemetery but there’s a lot more to Rabat than that!
I’m glad I’m here in Morocco despite the cold weather and I will certainly be making the most of my weekends to see as much of the country as I possibly can!
Anyway, I had best be going as I need to go out in search for something to eat that hopefully doesn’t include any of the previously mentioned items. Apparently Friday is Cous Cous day!!! YAY!
Please stay in touch and I will do my best to respond individually to your messages. I have an Internet cafe next door to my apartment block but the keyboard is a challenge (Arabic layout). Hope you are all well and not too cold in the UK . I look forward to hearing from you all soon.
Natalie x x
Subject: Week 2 - Coffee in Casablanca..
Salut mes amis!!
Thanks very much for all of your emails. I welcome the messages in my Inbox although I do apologise for the speed at which I am replying to you at the moment. I have access to my emails at work but after 5 hours a day of teaching, I don’t like to spend too much time in the staff room if I can help it! I also have an internet cafe next door to where I live but it’s so cold in there that I can only cope with an hour at a time!! The alternative is to shell out nearly £70 for two months’ worth of wireless internet connection! I am very tempted....believe me!
All good intentions to send regular updates by email were rapidly abandoned last week when I started teaching so I will try and squeeze all of my news into this message! If you are still awake at the end of my ramblings, congratulations!
So... where did I leave you last? Oh yes..... roaming in Rabat for the weekend! So after my first week of orientation at work and my local area, the weekend arrived and I was finally free to explore and make the most of why I really came here! Unfortunately, it was raining on the Saturday but undeterred by a few drops of water, I headed to the Tour Hassan which forms part of the Hassan Mosque and the nearby Mohammed V Mausoleum (less than a 5 min walk from my flat). I also visited the Kasbah, the Chellah and the medina where I stumbled across a fresh food market which was very exciting as this is where the majority of my shopping will be done from now on! It’s much cheaper than the supermarkets and the food looks a lot fresher too! I promise to post some photos on Facebook soon! For those of you who know me well, I have hundreds to choose from already so it may take a while for me to sort through them!
Rabat is the capital of Morocco and I’ve very quickly realised that it’s actually quite a pleasant place to live. It’s easy to navigate your way around in a relatively hassle-free fashion (even as a woman) and I have yet to be an unfortunate victim of stone throwing or kerb crawling (apparently both have happened to other teachers)!! People do not depend on tourist money here as much as in other cities in Morocco so although you may still be charged elevated prices for some things, the mark up is considerably lower when compared to other places such as Casablanca, Fes and Marrakech!!
So after two busy days of sight-seeing in Rabat, it was time to relax and what a better place to go than the British Councils’ Country Directors’ mansion/villa in the leafy suburbs, with a free buffet and wine thrown in for good measure! It was a welcome relief after the overload of chicken and chips in week one and although hard to believe, I have pretty much been a “mint” tea-totaller since I arrived in Morocco over 2 weeks ago, so it was a real treat to have a glass of imported French red wine! Most of the restaurants are unlicensed and in those that are, alcohol is VERY expensive! In some places you will pay more for the wine than the food! Some of the supermarkets sell alcohol until about 6 or 7pm every day but we’ve been advised not to go at the end of the day unless you want to meet every alcoholic in town!!
The teaching started last Monday and it was a great relief to get the first day out of the way! It’s always a little nerve racking before you meet a new group of students as you never really know what to expect and no amount of planning can fully prepare you!! I have a group of 17 students aged 18 – 20 years old and they are all from very privileged backgrounds. I am enjoying the teaching and I’m having fun getting to grips with the Interactive Whiteboard! The other teachers who are working on the same project are good fun and everyone in the school is really friendly!
Food - last week, Nick (another teacher) and I discovered a bar that sells beer at reasonable prices as well as homemade Lasagne! I can’t tell you how excited we were at the prospect of something with cheese on and we weren’t disappointed! I went back two nights later and was feeling a little adventurous so I ordered a “tagine au queue de boeuf”!!! I wasn’t so delighted with my choice when I realised what I was eating and the thick rich gravy didn’t help the taste or disguise the consistency of the fatty offerings on my plate! You live and learn!
Transport - I’ve been taking a taxi to the school every day as it costs less than a £1 and my flatmate and I split the cost over the week. The taxis here are blue and they’re usually old Fiat Unos or something just as pokey! They are brilliant though. They have a “taxi share” system here whereby you can flag down a taxi even if there’s someone already in it, and if you are going in a similar direction then the taxi driver will drop off the other person and then take you to your destination! At first, the concept of having a complete stranger jumping in your cab was a slightly worrying one, but now it all seems like rather normal behaviour!
I’ve already managed to build up a few good taxi stories:
1. Mr “I feel the need for speed” had me pretty scared as he overtook 2 lanes of traffic on the wrong side of the road and beeped at every car that he passed! The horn here is used to let the car in front of you know that you are almost kissing the bumper and that you would like to overtake so basically get out of the bloody way!
2. I’ve also met Mr. “Honest” who asked me how much I usually pay for the fare. When I quoted him a price of 20Dhs, he told me that was too much and I should only pay 15Dhs for a night time fare!
3. Unfortunately last Sunday, I met Mr. “I’m going to fleece you because you’re a tourist”. With some other teachers in Casablanca, we flagged a “grand taxi” to take us on a 10 min journey to a medina for some breakfast. We hadn’t agreed a price beforehand (big mistake) and so he had the audacity to try and charge us 200Dhs (approx. £16). We point blank refused and walked away in total shock! He followed us and threatened to call the police at which we called his bluff. Magically a semi smart guy appeared and presented himself as a police officer. He was unable to produce a badge when I asked him but he somehow managed to negotiate that we pay only 50Dhs for the fare (which was still way OTT for the distance we’d travelled). My French was certainly put into good use during that conversation!
Last weekend, I decided to head to Casablanca to visit a couple of the other teachers (there are 7 of us in total spread over 2 centres) and I’m glad that I made the one hour train journey. Other teachers had been quite negative about the city so I had to go and see it for myself. It’s definitely a lot noisier, dirtier, more hectic and populated than Rabat but it has a certain charm about the place even though it has been compared to Marseille!!
The first stop after a quick snack from the local baker’s, was the Hassan II Mosque which is the only one open to non-Muslims in Morocco and is the second in size only to Mecca. I was quietly impressed at the sheer size of the place and the decoration inside. There will be photos to follow, I promise!
Next we headed to the medina which makes the Rabat equivalent look like a tranquil market! The streets twisted one way and then the next that we were soon pretty lost and found ourselves, after over an hour of walking, back in the place we’d started! It was time for a “noous noous” coffee (cortado / maciatto) and another quick snack. We found bananas, muffins and strawberry tarts in the market and that kept us going until dinner. After a delicious fish dinner, we made our way to a Spanish bar which really was a crazy place. The beers were nothing short of extortionate (at over £6 each) and the music was a random mix of salsa, Spanish chart music followed by a few Arab hits and dance music. Needless to say, we didn’t stay for long!
The gap between rich and poor in Casablanca is more evident than in Rabat and the presence of the shanty towns on the outskirts of the city was an eye-opener to some of the social problems that the city encounters on a daily basis.
On Sunday we started the day rowing with Mr. “I’m going to fleece you because you’re a tourist” taxi driver, although to make up for the overpriced journey, we managed to eat pancakes and drink mint tea for breakfast for less than 50p/€0.50 each! We then went over to another part of town for a coffee and ran into a large demonstration against Israel so after seeing burning flags and lots of people, we hot stepped it to another part of town. We’ve been told by the British Council to steer well clear of any types of demonstrations so we didn’t hang around!
This week I went with my students to visit a company called Crystal Martin. They produce clothes for Debenhams and M&S so it was kind of strange seeing a “per una” bra on the production line! It was an interesting visit and I think there will be more in the next four weeks.
Today is Friday and I am so pleased that it’s the end of the week. It’s been a long one and I only have 3 hours to get through and then it’s the weekend. I am off to Fes this afternoon until Sunday and I’m looking forward to seeing another city in this wonderful country! Fes is the most ancient of the Imperial capitals and the most complete medieval city of the Arab world so I think I’m in for a treat!
If you are still reading, well done! I will try to send another “shorter” update sooner. Hope you are all well and I look forward to hearing your news.
Au revoir et Ă bientĂ´t!
Natalie xx
Hello once again,
Sadly, this will be the last update email that you receive from me for a little while as my contract has now ended with the British Council and I’m flying back to Barcelona tomorrow! Time really does fly when you’re having fun. So let me fill you in on the last couple of weeks....
So, I left you in the last email on my way to Meknes which is a lovely little town. I actually think I prefer it to Fez as there is a lot less hassle in the medinas and things are generally a lot cheaper and deliberating about whether I could face another weekend away with bad weather, I was pleasantly surprised when the sun started to shine about 20 min into the journey. Obviously the coastal location really does affect the weather in Rabat!
I travelled with Nick, a fellow colleague of mine, and we managed to find a nice hotel by the train station, believe it or not. Our pre-illusions of grotty train station hotels were shattered when we looked inside to find en suite rooms, mosaic tiled interiors and a roof terrace!!!!!
After checking in, I set off with Nick for a wander through part of the medina and got hideously lost. I only started to lose my cool when my belly started rumbling and my feet began to hurt! After 6 weeks of meandering in little alleys of medinas, you’d have thought that I would have mastered the art of getting lost and finding your way again! No chance!!
Where was my compass when I needed it most???
Finally, we found our way out of the labyrinth of streets and rewarded ourselves with a glass of mint tea followed by a taxi ride back to the hotel. I was leaving no room for error, I was too hungry! It was Friday so cous cous was on the menu and it was a good one. The restaurant we chose for dinner had a “man bar” and nightclub attached although all three establishments had separate entrances even though they were all interlinked inside! Most bizarre but it seems to be the system out here! Alcohol consumption is VERY taboo here and if you do find a bar or restaurant that serves it then you can never see into them from the street. Needless to say that I never just walk into a bar with females only as you really never know what you will find behind the blacked out windows!
The hotel that evening, unfortunately, did live up to the reputation of grotty train station hotel on the noise level front! I was woken several times during the night to screaming women on the street and at one point it really did sound as if someone was being massacred. I was too scared to look out of the window and by the lack of police investigations the following morning, I rest assured that it was maybe my mind playing tricks on me as it sometimes does when sleeping in a different bed in a foreign town! One general observation I’ve made since being in Morocco is that the locals really do shout at each other quite a lot and appear most aggressive towards each other over the most minor of things! Maybe I should learn some Arabic!
After a well earned lie-in and breakfast at the hotel, I was on my way to a town called Moulay Idriss, just outside of Meknes. Nick and I decided to travel with the locals in a shared taxi. Let me explain – these taxis are old Mercedes that usually carry 6 passengers and this journey was no exception. There were 4 of us on the back seat and 2 on the passenger seat but the 30 min journey cost us 10dhs each (less than a £1/€1) and the trip was lovely as we travelled through verdant countryside.
After arriving, we shortly found ourselves lost in another town but this time we decided to enlist the help of a young boy who showed us the town for 10dh which was well worth it for all concerned. Having worked up quite an appetite, we stopped at the first place we saw for lunch. There were locals sitting around tucking into barbecued meat and we wanted some of the same. Foolishly, we forgot to ask the price beforehand and we were subsequently ripped off when we asked for the bill. Clearly, neither of us has learnt to check before you buy anything in this country! Grrrrr!
The next stop was the ruins of Volubius and this was a nice side track to the hectic medinas and towns we’ve visited so far. We hired a taxi to take us there, wait for us and then take us back to Meknes where we finished off the afternoon with coffee and cakes. This seems to have become a common afternoon pastime here! I can’t remember a period in my life when I ate so much cake on a regular basis! I guess a girl needs at least one vice in life at any one time and at the moment mine is CAKE!
Nick and I met up with another HEM teacher on the Saturday night and we treated ourselves to a gorgeous meal in a Riad. It was a three course affair which started with a selection of Moroccan salads (aubergines, chick peas, lentils, tomatoes....), followed by the best lamb tagine that I’ve had since my arrival in Morocco. Desert was a selection of Moroccan sweets and mint tea. The food here is mostly of good quality although a little repetitive to say the least so I will definitely be ready to eat some different food in the next couple of weeks.
My last week of teaching was quite emotional really. After spending so much time with my students, I realised that I was actually going to miss them really! The feeling was mutual I think and confirmed when on my last day, I received a gorgeous bouquet of flowers, some Moroccan slippers and lots of kisses from the students!
The last weekend was spent with 3 colleagues, Nick, Rob and Laurie, and we hired a car and drove to Chefchaouen! This town is in the north of the country in the Rif Mountains and it’s quite possibly the most beautiful town I have visited so far. It’s renowned for it’s high volume of Kif production and that was pretty evident when we had all been offered some hashish within about 5 mins after getting out of the car. They didn’t waste any time in trying to sell us their supplies to which we politely always refused!
The drive up to little Chef was pretty hairy at times. The local roads are pot-holed beyond recognition of what you might call a road in some parts and the local driving just has to be seen to be believed! You are faced with a constant fear of not really knowing what the car, van, truck, donkey cart front of you might do next. We witnessed, overtaking on dangerous bends, things flying off trucks, a woman lying in the middle of the road (I joke not) and lots of police checks on the way!
There’s not too much to report on the weekend other than it was very relaxing and chilled which is just what we all needed after 7 gruelling weeks of work! We ate good food, drank no booze (everyone in this town is stoned 24/7 – why would they need alcohol??), went on long hill walks, saw snow on the Rif Mountains and watched the stars on the roof terrace by night! It was the perfect end to my experiences and adventures here!
So......what next??? I finished work on Tuesday 24th February and I changed my flight and decided to head to Marrakech for one last weekend away which has been great! I am now on a train on my way back to Casablanca for one last night before I fly back to Barcelona tomorrow.
I haven’t said anything before now, but there have been developments taking place at the British Council over the last 4 weeks and the long and short of it is that I have been offered a 2 year contract job and I’ve accepted it. The job starts on 31st March. The terms and conditions are right for me at the moment and I have already found a place to live. I know this may come as a bit of a shock to some of you but I have enjoyed the quieter side of life that Rabat has to offer and I guess I’ve come to realise that the party can’t go on forever. I have plans to do some more studying in September although I need to look into that a little more.
Hope you've enjoyed the emails. Take care and hopefully see most of you over the next month either in Spain or the UK.
Natalie Drake
1) WHAT BOOK WOULD YOU TAKE ALONG?