In which Alisa drove through a cloud (THROUGH A CLOUD):

Site visit has been completed and it was a crazy week. CRAZY. I'm not even sure where to begin...

So my site is in the south of Morocco but on a mountain in the Anti-Atlas, so we get the best of everything? Like crazy hot summer weather and crazy cold winter weather (SNOW even). Also, hence the title of this post: I'm like 90% sure I drove through a cloud coming down the mountain on my way out of site to come back to Oz. 

I like making lists, so here's the good and the bad of my site:

GOOD:

-It's really, really pretty on top of the mountain.

-There is a mini super market in my town, which is probably where the majority of my money where will be spent. 

-There's already a ton of work for me to do. 

-The town officials are nice and I have good connections already in place.

-My site-mates are super nice and I couldn't be more psyched to actually have site-mates. I couldn't imagine being on top of that mountain by myself.  

-My host mom might be the nicest Moroccan I've met so far. I LOVE her, even if she calls me Elise.

-I learned I can travel to Portugal for about the equivalent of $8 USD. EIGHT DOLLARS. EIGHT DOLLARS!!!

-I'm about 4 hours from Agadir, the best place I've been to so far in Morocco. I ate McDonald's, chilled on the beach, had Indian food, and went to French Target all in one day there. 

BAD:

-I'm in a pretty remote location which I'm honestly not that psyched about. 

-There is no internet in my site. I know this is Peace Corps and all but when fellow volunteers have DSL in their houses and I have to take a scary souk bus to a town 45 kms away just to check my email, I can't help but complain a little.  

-There are known scorpions, snakes, and camel spiders (!!!!!!) in my area or at least that is what I was told. 

-I'm about 4 hours from Agadir, why can't I be cloooooser???

-There may be no available housing in my site, but this needs to be investigated a little more. 

-For some reason transportation always seems to go horribly awry when trying to travel out of the Tiznit province. 

-And my town is pretty conservative. The women almost never go "downtown" and my host mom and her daughter-in-law won't leave their house. 

So all in all, my site is pretty good and I'm excited for June. Also, I now have an address. You guys can send me things! I'll be emailing it out soon. And I think that's it...

In which Alisa moves back to the dirrrty south:

Disclaimer: Okay, so Tennessee isn't technically the dirty south and I don't think my permanent site is dirty (in case PC is reading this), but I like my title for this post and I'm keeping it.

Anyway, May 26thish I'm moving to Ait Ouafqa, a small town of about 4500. I'm about 45 minutes from Tafraoute (which you can actually find on google maps) in the Tiznit province. All this means I'm in the Anti-Atlas mountains next to the Sahara. So I can look forward to 125 degree weather in the summer and below freezing weather in the winter. Also, I'm in one of the more conservative areas in Morocco and according to wikipedia the residents are not known for their hospitality. I'm going on a one week site visit on Monday, so I'll let you know how it really is when I get back. Fingers waaaaay crossed.

Ait Ouafqa (according to google images)

My home for the next two years...

In which Alisa is officially in Morocco:

Hey.... so I realize it's been like a month and half since I last wrote in this and I had good intentions, I really did. But then I got to Morocco and things have been go, go, go the entire time. So let me set some realistic expectations. This thing will probably only be updated once every month or so until I get to my final site at the end of May. Maybe even until July when I can finally get my own place. OMG my own place. If I can just make it until then I think I might just survive this PC craziness.

So I should probably fill you all in on what happened since the last time I wrote... ummm... lots of stuff? I honestly don't even know where to begin. Maybe highlights, lowlights (gotta keep it real) and what my timeline will be for the next few months? I'm being lazy, so yeah, that sounds good.

Highlights!
-Police escort through the Atlas Mountains (so b.a.)
-The views. Of pretty much everything.
-Holding a baby lamb
-Conquering the Turkish Toilet
-Coming to hub once a week or so to shower. I think I might see god when this happens.
-Learning a new language (Tashelheit!) and sometimes even having people understand what I say
-Getting a host family with a super nice, clean house
-Meeting some amazing fellow volunteers
-And of course, living in MOROCCO.

Lowlights :( 
-Conquering the Turkish Toilet
-Dragging my 100+ (counting carry-ons) lbs of luggage through JFK and half of Morocco
-Shots. So very many shots.
-Moroccan doors
-Getting harassed by a Moroccan soccer team. I really need to learn some Tash curse words.
-All the bread and sugar. Seriously all meals consist of bread and sweet tea.
-Getting a host family that doesn't really talk. Kinda weird here in Morocco.
-The PC stomach issues presentation: giardia and pinworms. Enough said.

So all in all, the experience has been pretty even so far and I think that's about as much as I could ask for.

My schedule for the next few months looks like the below:

• In my wee little village of Amerzgane until May 20ish
• I'll only have internet access when I'm at our hub site (Ouarzazate - aka Oz, the land of showers and internet), which is once every 7 or 8 days.
• Find out my final site on April 16, but don't travel there until the end of May
• Live in final site (tbd) with another host family (lets keep our fingers crossed for a better one) from end of May until mid-Julyish.
• Mid-Julyish: I get my own place and can receive packages!!! Internet access should also be pretty regular or at least on a regular schedule
• September 1st, I can travel and get visitors!
• May 2013 - I come home! Just saying...

Also, so many of you have been extremely thoughtful and asked for my address so you can send me stuff. Trust me, I would LOVE to take you up on it, but there's no way for me to receive packages until at least July this year. What you can do though is get dropbox (www.dropbox.com and you can find me there using my email address) and send me music you think I might like, or movies, or tv shows you have downloaded. It's free and it would me make love you forever and ever, not that I don't already, of course.

And lastly, but not leastly: I MISS YOU ALL SO FREAKING BAD. EMAIL ME EVEN THOUGH I WILL BE SLOW TO WRITE BACK. AND SEND ME PICTURES OF YOUR FACES, PLEASE. I MISS THEM.

Oh, and have some pics too (the majority are on fb though):

Oz (Ouarzazate)

Amerzgane (my home for the next two months)

My CBT (language training) group minus our one guy

In which Alisa writes a love letter of sorts (to DC, chill):

DC is not my town and it never has been. If you know me you've definitely heard me complain about the weather (seriously, there's only like two good weeks a year; the rest is crazy humid, stupid cold/windy, or cherry blossoms-which I'm allergic to), the drivers and traffic, the metro (my god, there are no words for the amount of fail that seems to go into metro), and the people (who I think are generally self-involved, self-entitled, and political about things that aren't even remotely political). So with that in mind, I thought leaving DC would be the easiest, most freeing thing ever. I mean I've been here almost nine years, that's a long time for my DC hate to fester. But somehow this stupid city and a handful of its people managed to grow like a fungus on me.

I'm going to miss the food like woah! And I know DC is not known for being a culinary town, but you try growing up in Bristol and you'd miss the plethora of non-chains DC's got going too. I'm going to miss walking downtown on my way to work and thinking, "Holy crap, how the hell did I get here and where are all the cows, and pick-up trucks, and tractors!?" And I'm going to miss the fact that there's public transportation and cabs!, real museums and culture, and you know, POTUS just chilling down the street. For all of DC's flaws, I guess it is occasionally kind of a cool city.

But most of all, I'm going to miss all you fungus people. And you know who you are, so I'm not going into a big listing thing. Just assume that if you're reading this and in the DC area, you're probably fungusy to me.

I'm not sure what my town will end up being but I'm pretty sure of a few of things: it won't be Bristol, it won't be DC (but that definitely doesn't mean I won't be seeing you all), and I promise you guys, it won't be somewhere in Morocco. I guess like the rest of my life post-Peace Corps, I'll just slap a big TBD on it and hope I figure it out along the way.

Much love and warm fuzzies,
Alisa

PS-
I won't have a cell phone starting Friday (Feb 25) so it's gmail and facebook from here on out, folks.
Also, last day in DC: Feb 27, last day in Bristol: March 13, last day in the US: March 15. AHHHHHH!!!

In which Alisa finds her spirit rapper (instead of animal- shut up and just go with it, okay?):

So I haven't updated this thing in a while and that's for several reasons. One, there hasn't been that much to update on. Two, I've been a little busy. And three, I'm freaking out hardcore.

Now that Morocco is only a mere 32 days away, it's pretty much all anyone talks to me about and that's totally understandable. My reaction of, "Morocco! I know! So exciting! I have to go over here for a minute! Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!", is not however. Let me preface this by saying I am not backing out of Peace Corps or even seriously considering it (I maybe occasionally have fantasies of running away to Texas, pretending I did Peace Corps, faking some pictures of camels, and telling no one but Britany what really happened), I'm just having a standard Alisa freak out, but on a much, much larger scale. I don't really like change, but sometimes I become a little masochistic and decide I need to shake things up and in a big way. So I move to DC for school instead of going to Tech like all my friends, and I shoot for a job that let me travel all over the place for a bunch of crazy Saudis instead of playing it safe at the bank, and now I'm doing Peace Corps. In case you didn't notice, the biggest, craziest change of the above three? It's Peace Corps. Hence the epic Alisa freak out. Honestly, I'm sure I'll be fine in Morocco and it'll end up being the best thing I've ever done, but right now I can't even think about it lest I induce cardiac arrest.

And now we get to the point of the title of this entry. I've discovered a wonderful, wonderful coping mechanism and his name is Biggie Smalls. When I start freaking out about whether or not I can actually handle Peace Corps and Morocco and all that they'll entail, I just put on some Biggie ("grab your **censored, so I don't offend my poor Mother** if you love hip-hop, rub your **censored again!** if you love Big Poppa") and I instantly become the most badass version of myself possible (admittedly that's still not very b.a., but it's an improvement, all right?). So if I start sounding like a deceased (RIP) New York rapper, don't judge. I'm just coping, okay?

And now some random stuff. Below is a picture of my luggage. I've had some serious buyer's remorse (also part of the epic Alisa freak out) about if I bought the right type of duffel, but I think it's going to be okay.

You can't tell from the above picture, but it also has pop-out straps so I can carry it on my back. It's also almost as tall as me, so that's going to be fun, and funny.

And just FYI everyone, I'll be in DC until the 27th-ish and then back in Bristol until March 13th.

So, Morocco! I know! So exciting! I have to go over here for a minute! Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!