Trip to independence, WI
I was lucky to find some girls at the Winter Conference driving to Minneapolis, after driving for 8 hours I got to a small town in Wisconsin, about three hours drive from Madison, where Melissa picked me up। It was really great to see Melissa again and this time in her home town. Independence, WI is a town of 1024 population; it is surrounded by many small towns probably with same size of population. Once you are there you can feel the country side, the woods, the fresh air and can see horizon few miles away. This was great to feeling specially that living in New York City doesn’t give you that opportunity to can of expand you view and enjoy the nature. We went to a bar and Melissa’s mom and her friend was waiting for us there, I wasn’t sure what to expect exactly but I can tell you that stepping in that bar was such an experience for me, everybody know each other and people where very open to talk to me, get to know me and I always enjoy the random conversation I can have with people but there was something different, if felt that I was friend with everyone and we just didn’t see each other for a long time. During the weekend I get to do some great things like, going in a road trip in the woods with the boys and watching Deer running round, ride a horst at Melissa’s parents farm and get to drive for the first time Melissa’s car. I think on the way back, I was thinking a lot about this weekend and one of the great things is I learned that even in the smallest town in the US, people are still open to learn about who you are and where are you coming from. Thanks to Melissa for having such a great time.
Saint Louis, Missouri
Our winter natioanl conference is from December 30th to January 3rd. It has been great to be able to see everyone again and had some fun. Christina and Allen (for the one who doesn't know them, they did an internship in Rabat Summer 2007) organized an Arabian night and a lot of people where dressing up like Arabs, kind of tried to :) it was a lot of fun to hear all this music and see people doing belly dancing, kind if fun. I am so looking for tonight, we are all celebrating New year together. I ll keep you updated.
Dubai, UAE
Well, I am kind of running late on this. My Dubai trip happen couple weeks ago but still want you to get some insight about my experience there. I spent one week most of if was in the hotel having meetings but I had the chance to stay there couple days after the meetings and I get to discover Dubai. My first impression was, did I really left New York, I spent about 24 hours to flight there but it doesn't feel different. But the heat, the humidity, the people made it different. After a long day of meeting we decided to go out and have dinner somewhere one of the option was going to Madinat Jumeirah ( see picture above). As you might know Dubai doesn't really have a public transportation or let see it is almost inexistent. We wanted to order a cab from the hotel and the guy goes "Sir, there is no Taxis at this time" it was 8pm. We went on the road and try to catch one; it took us a while to get one. Heading to Madinat Jumeirah, it is a souk (Market). If you are familiar what a souk means, I am sure you will have the same thoughts I had at that time. We get front of it and I am totally surprise the see such a beautiful place, I was thinking, is that really a souk, you gotta be kidding me; this looks like a mall to me. It is a great place to be, restaurant by the water, people smoking shisha and enjoying the nice weather.
After the meetings, I stayed at the AIESEC house, I think this is the great things being an AIESECer is you don’t have to worry about where to stay or how much it costs; you always have a home somewhere. I was wondering what to do; and I can figure out the best things to do is to go to malls. I went to the Mall of Emirat is the one with the skiing court and Mall of Ibn Battouta is divided to different sections that represent a culture so you got Chinese, Indian, Persian, Tunisian and Andalucía. Let me tell you there are the biggest malls I ever being in, huge, crowded and a lot of shopping going on.
One of the things that made those couple days great was meeting some old Moroccan friends smoking shisha by the water and enjoying the warm weather.
I want to save this to the end but one of the things I was always dreaming of doing was to go to Burg Al Arab and we actually managed to have a dinner down there. It is a gorgeous hotel with yami food and great view from the swimming pool restaurant. The bar was on the 27th floor and you get pretty awesome view on Dubai.
Muscat, Oman Trip
I went to Oman with Missy (the President of AIESEC US) from November 15th to 20th, we technically spent four days in the country and the rest was travel. It is a long way from NY to Muscat, we spent about 19hours to get there, only three hours were a layover and the rest was on the plane. I am not sure what I was thinking before I get there; it was my first experience in the Middle East. Muscat is a nice city, our first night we went to an outdoor café, smoked some Shisha and eat hummus and Chawarma. I could feel the heat of the city, the nice breeze, it felt familiar, it felt like home. On our first day, we had few meetings at the house were David, Lynn and Brett live. I know Lynn and Brett from the apartment in Rabat, we lived together for sometime. We went for an Omani lunch and it was the first time I see a restaurant that has different rooms where you can sit and eat, it was very private. There is a buzzer if you want to call the waited. We all ate from the same plate, it was rise and chicken and some fish. During the afternoon, we had our meeting at the beach, in the water. It was great.
On the second day, we decided to take a trip out of the city and go too a small town to experience more the country and see more of Muscat. We spent a great day, did some sight seeing as well. The third we had a dinner in a Moroccan restaurant, it was amazing food, obviously it is Moroccans food and it is the best. Last day was mostly finishing up our meetings and we went round the city and made everyone to go to a mall and enjoy a dinner at KFC
Labels: Travel
Experiencing life in the US
I had two major cultural events living in the US, Halloween and Thanksgiving.
Halloween is on October 31st, it was amazing to see the city turning into a play ground. Everybody in the city dresses up and enjoys the night. I went to see the Halloween Parade, the line start from the east village on Broom and spring street and goes until 23rd street and 6 avenue. Yes, I know what you thinking it is pretty long walk and it is a great parade. There were all this people in funny and interesting costumes and others were playing music and singing. You could see the joy the happiness that this parade brought to people.
Thanksgiving is on the last Thursday of November. I think I really like this event not just because it is less crazy than Halloween, don’t get me wrong, I still love it. There is something I found about Thanksgiving, I think it is the family gathering, the tasty food, the love you can feel in the room. I spend it with friends and Sarah’s house (Sarah works with me in NY office) all cooked different food, we even get a Turkey, that was Carly’s (CarlyC work with us in NY office) surprise to us since we were planning not to have one. I cooked Moroccan meat balls, I think they were tasty according to people’s feedback, I had so much food, I think I was stuffed and this point I though I will never eat again
Labels: Cultural events
New life, new perspectives
Well, I know it has been too long that I didn't wrote on my blog but I think it is time to keep me updat about what is going with me in New York and around the world. It is more than three months that I moved to the US, to New York city where life doesn't stop. During my first three weeks I felt like in a movie, everything was familliare but at the same time new to me. I lived in Brooklyn for little while and after couple months of searching for an apartment, I finally moved to Jersey city. It is about 40min to work and I think I start to like living there, to be honest I ony been in the apatme for one night and few times in the city itself.
Labels: New life, new perspectives
Global Village
Global Village
Originally uploaded by naoufelt.Global Village is one the events that make me feel the power of AIESEC. At every global village I just look around and I am amazed by the diversity of our network. It is great how it feel when you get the opportunity to talk to different people from all over the world, gaining perspective and challenging my world view.
All the group at the castel
All the group at the castel
Originally uploaded by naoufelt.
me at the chapel of the castel
me at the chapel of the castel
Originally uploaded by naoufelt.
Pope City
Pope City
Originally uploaded by naoufelt.
Zakopane city
Zakopane city
Originally uploaded by naoufelt.
Pope City
Pope City
Originally uploaded by naoufelt.
New Journey is starting
After disapearing for a long time, I am back again with a new journey, today I am heading to Poland a country that I heard so much about it and I am so looking to discover. Once landing in Warsaw we will be going to Krakow for a tour. I will keep you updated about my Poland journey
Exciting month
I didn’t write on my blog for a long time but here is an update for my side :
In February I went to the Netherlands for AIESEC International president meeting, it was a very exciting conference for me; I liked a lot the Netherlands with all this water in the cities and I was very surprise to see how diverse Rotterdam was and how different Amsterdam is from the other European cities I was in, it is just amazing. The weather wasn’t the best I can of felt the sky gonna fall on my head, it is just grey all the time.
After 20 days in the Netherlands it was enough for me and I was so excited to come back to Morocco and see again my friends and family.
March pretty hectic month for me, I had to give back many projects for my school and start prepare for my exams and the national elections for AIESEC, where I applied for President again, so now I am president of AIESEC in Morocco till June 2007 I am so excited for that I am looking to leave a big legacy with the help of my team :)
In April 1st I went to Cairo with Melissa for the Salaam Program meeting and then I had the MENA (Middle East North Africa) Presidents meeting. After 10 days in Cairo I went with Melissa to ROMA that was great trip, we went to the Vatican city where we had to stand in the longest line I ever been to, we spent an hour and a half to get into it, it was a fast moving line but quit long. I was amaze to see how rich was the church and how beautiful was the museum of the Vatican, we went to the chapel it was huge the biggest one I ever been to :)
Roma is such a great city I hope we had a lot of time to spend there eating Pizza and Gelato (it is an ice cream) so goooooood J
In the last two week of April I had a transition week with my elect team and we were very busy preparing for the National Leadership Development Seminar that was a big success I am very proud of my team, they are the best.
I will do my best to keep you guys inform more about what is going on with me :)
