football matches and footsore

i saw my first moroccan football match the other day. the africa cup of nations is currently underway, and the day before yesterday the campus was abuzz with red and green as the moroccan team geared up to face namibia at the stadium in ghana. one of the academic buildings (where many of the orientation lectures were held) was opened up, and the large screen and projector were put to good use as over a hundred students crammed in to the auditorium to cheer on their team. i've never experienced anything like it, and let's just say i absolutely cannot wait until the next football match in a few days' time. i'm not sure who we'll (because obviously i'm rooting for morocco) be playing - but it's bound to be an intensely energetic experience. from everyone jumping up and cheering wildly at every goal, to yelling shuk-pa (essentially "in the net" or "goal") repeatedly as the players neared their target. i'll definitely have to get in on all of the various songs for each of the players, most definitely upheld as prominent social figures - today i even saw a young student here whose hair had been cut to mimic one of the more prominent players, chamarkh. get excited...

last night, the orientation leaders had organized a sort of treasure hunt that would let the new students not only mix and mingle but also learn their way around campus. a hint given by one of the leaders would take you to a building where you would have to answer a questions about the university correctly before receiving another hint that would take you to another location, twelve steps in all. two other international students and myself joined up with three moroccan freshman girls: selma, nahjwa, and sahfa. what basically ensued was about an hour of running pell-mell all over campus, becoming completely winded on more than one occasion, and me really regretting my choice of black flats for shoes. but it really was so much fun, and although we missed winning by legitimately five seconds, it was well worth it.

today there was a group outing organized to take all the new students to michlifen, a ski area about an hour or so away from her, higher up in the middle atlas. it hasn't snowed here in a few weeks, so there was basically only a few patches of ice - probably not the best conditions for me to learn downhill skiing for the first time! i opted for a nice hike instead - heading up one of the dry ski slopes with a few of the international students. really gorgeous views. not having spent a whole lot of time in mountainous areas before, i still can't get over how absolutely clear the sky is, and the air in general, for that matter.

i've put the first of my pictures (all essentially from the trip today) up on picasa. the link is:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lauren.fadely in the album titled asalaam alaykum - check it out!

looking forward to the next few days, and my first travel adventure this weekend...