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Morocco - EWeek 2024

Added Sep 27, 2023 •

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you knew he was going to show up but you know he's going to say something all right now we are recording folks just so you know if you don't want your face to be on you are welcome to remove your face well I go through are slides here I'll start with introductions will do a little trip overview talk about what you need to know about the trip to Morocco and then some specifics on Transportation food and lodging and yes I do like this image of Casablanca tonight there I think it's gorgeous all right so as I said a moment ago I miss panlilio the director School counseling and academic support great I've been at St Mary's for 13 years and he week has always been one of the main things that I've Loved I love travel and I love teenagers but I never thought I wanted to put the two together and for many years I did for most of my until last year when I told me smile and I think I want to do something different than what I've been doing for a week and she asked if I wanted to go to Italy and it was one of the most amazing experiences I've had I know that doctor loves to travel with students and having travel last year with them I can see the appeal that experience of seeing the world through their eyes and just that energy that teenagers bring to travel is really quite wonderful so as an educator it's something that I'm excited about and excited to have the opportunity to share this this trip with your children should they choose to participate in the Morocco trip dr. You want to say anything as I admit more folks sure if you attended the turkey one already I apologize for talking more but Andre is making me do this is her fault this is the trip that I designed originally for I have I've been to her to Morocco twice both times with kids and that sounded more and more interesting with each passing time my wife went to Casablanca and as of Aria back in May and and she was was excited about it too this is a different trip than where I've been before my I have been the first trip was just a trip in and you're Across The Straits of Gibraltar but I've been down to Fez and shallan and the City of meknes up in the north prevention that the high Atlas Mountains this trip is different this trip while starting it it starts by flying into Casablanca right Andrea yes and I can get to the itinerary here if you want to talk a little bit about the locations God more than turkey this this is otherworldly I mean to talk like Hollywood anytime you you you you turn on one of these Star Wars movies or or Dune and others this is where they film cuz it it did it could be it could be Mars in in in in the landscape we fly into Casablanca on this trip and then you can see the the cities they want something they were that done too fast which is an absolutely remarkable the oldest Medina in largest in the end of the world I told Andrea today that our tour guide in Medina when I asked him how long did it take you to memorize the streets in Medina he said working there continuously stuck in the five years and it really I'm in amazing place and then from there going out there are food the dunes if any movie if you seen Sandy chances are that they've either been Wadi Rum in Jordan where we went last year or two are food and then while looking at through some of the almoravid ruins llamarada Dynasty what you may or may not have ever heard of really powerful Dynasty among the berbers in North Africa and end in South and it lasted for centuries that the tour ends up in Marrakesh Marrakesh which is really where I wanted to go most of all these places is just otherworldly I know that in between the kids are going to spend the night sleeping in a in a in a Berber tent that is more glamping than it is like camping and there will be opportunities to ride the dromedaries and show up and please you know what the difference between a mammal and a Dromedary is thank you, Darius have one hump camels have two humps in Egypt you have camels in Morocco you have dromedaries the tour will combine the ancient and the modern and one I figure we're going to have the kids do is reread some of the chapters from their sophomore summer reading book age of walls which Morocco you might know has the longest continual barrier wall in the world a rebellious population in the deep deep deep south far away from where we're going and it's been it's one of the places where the world but the kids were Explorer cities that are by the Casablanca has nothing to do with Kathy America Rick's Cafe Americana there is no Rick's Cafe Americana in Casablanca Humphrey Bogart is not there it is its own City it does have the largest mosque in the world now we're 20,000 people can go to pray it is only built in the last 25-30 years my Brian tells me that it was absolutely stunning the blending of technology and end classic Islamic architecture for a little while she was studying that but they'll bill look at the medinas and then again I Medina's were if you've been to Europe and other places than the the the Narrow Street built for animals to walk but not Cars Sony's Medina's you can't bring cars you walk everywhere and it and they follow the animal Trails so and then you'll look at the various Dynasty that ruled Morocco remember these are the people who invaded Spain Across The Straits of Gibraltar and occupied the Iberian Peninsula for eight centuries until 4 Isabella forbetterorforworse all right I'm done with my history talked to Andrea back to you thank you as far as what you'll need to know for the trip in my research preparation for this I discovered that Morocco is the westernmost country of the most World there's that the cost of the trip there for you to see which covers the flight and lodging and two meals a day are the other male students are responsible for on their own because of the recent earthquake they are and I did do some research we did talk to our TSA representative who have been in touch with their folk in Morocco the areas where we're going are completely safe and no major damage from the earthquake we're going to essentially be north of the epicenter so it's it's a we live in earthquake country already right in the San Francisco Bay area so there is a a chance of an earthquake happening here while we're there as much as there was an earthquake there recently so obviously that's one of those things we cannot predict but I just wanted to mention it because I know as a parent myself that would be something that I would be thinking about we will have 80s a tour career with us the entire time these are highly vetted well traveled and amazing folks I actually still keep in touch with the career that we had this past spring the in Italy you really are just wonderful human beings and people that I feel incredibly safe with Morocco they speak Moroccan Arabic which is apparently a little bit different than other are back because of the French influence which I thought that was kind of an interesting Tibet to pass along as far as currency to my understanding and Dr Imperial you can correct me if I'm wrong but it is very difficult to get currency here so we're better off doing exchanging while we are there is that what correctly you could get him in the airport so we can wait till you get to the hotels in in in Casablanca thank you and then as far as the weather goes I just noted a couple of the locations where we will be visiting with Lowe's in the high 40s and highs in the mid the mid-sixties are high 60s so you know and also knowing that we are going to be spending the night in a tent at one point during our trip and making sure that students are well prepared for that we did this last year in Jordan and a place called Wadi Rum and it was I will tell you in all of my travels and all of my life the single most extraordinary night I've ever had sleeping out it is the deserts are amazing Stars jump out at you in ways I've not seen in North America and I've done some camping in North America and then as far as to lodging and I don't know what happened to my little a Santan there flying out of SFO into Casablanca and then Casablanca back to s f o r hotels will be centrally located in the city centre where we are staying obviously the night we were out in the Dune students will be rooming with at least one other person and some cases it might be a triple as I mentioned before breakfast and dinner is provided and students are on their own for most of the lunch meals out we'd already talked about our overnight and the bird tents will be taking 4 by 4 to get out to the tents and the itinerary I received did say camel dr. Not Dromedary just want to mention that cuz I did I was torn between the two terms but I went with what TSA put on their documentation for us though they said camel rides and then just exposure to you no new opportunities new foods new culture for for many of our students and bringing that positive attitude and energy and I'm a lot of this we will be discussing with the students in the next couple of a blocks coming up tomorrow in the following day which students are required to attend if they plan to travel so we'll be talkin about our expectations of the students what that looks like when we are leaving the country in that we are not bringing you know the United States to wherever we are traveling we are there to experience the culture and really kind of blend in and be flies on the wall and not you know bringing all of our American Energy to the places where we're staying that's kind of the gist of the Morocco trip I'm open to q-and-a at this point and Dr Imperial can certainly answer some questions having travel to Morocco before no questions safety of somebody asked about safety let me get to that one and it down or some of the the question was Will students be able to score the city free time yeah. That's question it comes up it depends but I will tell you my first night in Fez I went out to explore the city and when I walked and we walked into the four-star hotel they have a metal detector in this is infest and I walked around that and I and I watched drug deal go down and I thought to myself when here's an old white guy standing on the street corner and midnight watching a drug deal and everybody every bellhop suddenly was turning Havanese pointing at these guys were selling drugs that was the only action on the street what it told me was don't go where you don't know it's safe so the answer is it'll be up to the tour guide to go these areas are safe now to Crime frankly in in Islamic is lower than it is an American city that being said we don't know where we're going to we're going to depend heavily on what the tour guides say is okay to walk around there are places where it's completely safe but the further off the beaten path I've gone the more careful I am and Andre is going to be the same way because we want we want  near all your children to come back so you pretty much I personally want all of them to come back please thank you there's a question about non-stop flights the information I have now is that it is a direct flight but that that could change my Smiley do you know anything about that we have all the flights I don't know if that yours is a very few were direct and bull the very very few more direct Israelis know they will be a flight in the Madrid probably and then Madrid to Casablanca cuz again Morocco was a Spanish colony for a while question next question where did it go how did it get from one city to the next so TSA tours has a bus for us so we will be traveling by a bus and there is usually a speaker system in the bus so as we're passing by different points of interest our guy can point things out to us along the way how many students do you anticipate that just depends on how many students are interested and put a down payment and continue to make their payments towards the trip I think the max is 30 is that right if only my magic numbers 32 is would be the biggest we're trying to see if you saw on the Range it all depends on the number of kids that more kids that the cheaper the price and if you were so that's why we have that range there around 30 somebody asked about how many adults will be on the trip if we have 30 kids will have three adults on the trip definitely 3 definitely 3 see how much do they usually bring to buy lunch I know for Italy it was usually like 10 to 15 bucks you can get a fairly decent meal or some heavy snacks depending on how hungry the students are at because of the time travel sometimes our body clocks are thrown off a tiny bit as far as when we're hungry 10 to $15 is usually a decent amount to get a good meal can sophomores go yeah I got it all depends on the people the number of applications of France and Italy trips are very popular with the Juniors and seniors and those words went and so really it's all comes down to numbers and we do even though I'll tell the kids tomorrow that the seniors don't have priorities but it kind of do you know so sophomores can wait a little bit if we need be you can look in the chat at Jack Morris to come at the bus in a pervert at it so you can enjoy that that that makes the trip even better for the most part yes if they have meetings prior to settling my situation and then we have a roommate meeting prior to departure just to clarify any concerns you noticed somebody sleepwalking somebody Night Owl morning bird showers in the morning showers at night somebody who's tidy somebody who's messy like we have that conversation ahead of time so that hopefully there are rooming with somebody that they're comfortable with and we've kind of work through some of those kings before we even leave the country when is the down payment do that there is actually we're not taking any in the past we would do deposits move gone away from that so it's just the application and the first payment once we have the the trip set then a parent will can pay in three installments October November December that'll be on the application is also on the website encourage everybody to go to the website there's all kinds of information on there and then nfyi did they fly in the Paris and then Paris at Casablanca on the way to the next flight back to Paris and then I can stop in Boston and then go home and lay back to know thank you last question is when is it vision for selecting the the top three choices so we'll give the applications out so students cannot get an application until they come to a mandatory meeting those meetings it's been advertised in the email that I sent to all the families but it's and it's also in the announcements so there be a meeting tomorrow during a block and another meeting on Thursday during a block students will have to pick one of those times I mean it'll be about 10 or 15 minutes or we're going to go over expectations Behavior expectations in the process the process literally is sign a pic your pic your courses sign the parent student contract get those back to me by next Tuesday October 3rd so hopefully within about 10 days after mid October we will have the preliminary rosters and I will email you all once those are set thank you, I don't see any further questions thank you for joining this evening and I'll hang back for a bit in case there's any final questions but I know there are other sections to attend and this is a good time for a bathroom break in between thank you for everybody and as you leave I don't think we'll be staying Andre odds although if you look up CBS Sunday Morning about six weeks ago they did a piece on Riyadh in in in Marrakesh which is extraordinary but they're probably little pricier than than your hotels I love to stay in Riyadh I think you're going to have a trip to Morocco soon Pete sounds like a you still want to oh yeah second did a couple of their wives Niger stop recording now

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Morocco - EWeek 2024

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