My Moroccan experience

I just came back from Marrakesh 2 weeks ago. It was for an International Workshop of Optics and Photonics (IWOP) 2010 organised by the Optical Society of America (OSA). It was my first trip alone to foreign country. Before this, there were always somebody travelling with me when I was at conferences at different parts of the world. I wasn't quite confident initially but finally decided to go on with the trip and presented my poster there.

Let me share my trip with you. First was my 6 hrs flight with Emirates to Dubai, followed by an 8 hour trip to Casablanca. Dubai airport was marvelous..it was a shopping heaven..! With the ringgit going strong against the USD, I managed to spend my 3 hrs transit time shopping. I came up the flight to Casa with a bottle of Pleasure Bloom and a set of Lancome eyeshadow. Everything went well until I reached Casablanca where I needed to take a train to Marrakesh. So here began my journey of communicating with the locals, who actually speak the two languages that I did not...Arab and French, or a mixture of both (like our Manglish lah..!) Most of them did not speak English, but somehow I managed to put on my charms and get some men to help me carry my luggage and buy me a train ticket to L'Oasis, and then another train to Marrakesh.

The train trip was an interesting one. I have to go down in LÓasis to take the train to Marrakesh. Sitting at the station, I befriended a girl (about Kamar's age) who could speak English quite well and informed me that that announcement that we just heard (which was in French) was to inform us that the train will be delayed for about 1/2 an hour. So I sat at the station for 1/2hr (more actually)..enjoying the sensation of the cool Casablanca breeze flowing through my face.

In the train, I sat with 3 Moroccan ladies who looked suspiciously at me. Sitting down next to one of them, I clutched my luggage tightly , not knowing what to do with it. I was looking around and trying to figure out where I could put them when one lady sensed my discomfort and suggested that I put it at the shelf above us. Upon hearing her, an elderly man immediately came to me, took my luggage and put it on the shelf (the same man volunteered to bring down the luggage just before we reached Marrakech..!). About the ladies, after a few minutes of sitting, smiling and staring at each other, they decided to start a conversation. One of them asked me if I'm from the Philipines. I replied that I'm from Malaysia which triggered the next question. Muslim? Yes, I answered...so begin the excitement of meeting a sister in islam. However, the excitement was short lived when we realised that both parties did not understand each other. So..even thinking about it now make reminds me of how tiring it was to understand each other via sign languages and speaking to one other using different languages that neither of the other party could understand . Somehow, with my very limited Arabic, I managed to find out that one of them is getting down at the same station as me, but to different destination.

I reached Marrakech at about 7pm, lost and wandering..not sure of what I should do next. With the help of more courteous Marrakesh men, I somehow managed to get a taxi to the hotel. So I finally reached my destination..the Club de Vacances CNSS. I breathed a sigh of relief when I was greeted by my friends and other fellow physic educators. So thank you Khalid and the organizing committee for the invitation, warm welcome & definitely the grant..:)