MY VISIT TO WASHINGTON 2O-03-208

After a five week stay in Arizona, I headed towards Washington. The plane was two hours late at the airport in Arizona. I was worried because I had to change the plane in Cincinnati and feared missing the other plane. Besides I had a lot of luggage with me. I did not have to pay anything. Even if I had some overweight, the people in charge were so nice and did not ask me to pay anything. “I am a lucky girl” this is what some people would tell me; well, I am so happy I am “aini l7assoud fiha 3oud”.

As soon as I got to Cincinnati, I ran as fast as I could; I had to change the terminal. But I was again lucky, the plane was waiting for some late comers.

At the Reagan airport in Washington, I got my luggage and asked a porter to help me with it. He did not take any money from me, he was from Somalia and said he was glad to help me. He called a taxi for me and the taxi driver was also Somalian. When I arrived to Holiday Inn, he carried all the luggage inside the hotel. I tried to tip him but he said no. so I had a lot of money still with me.

Once in the hotel, one of the Fulbright staff was there waiting for me as I was the latest to arrive. I was told to ask for room service to have dinner.

I met my other colleagues and everybody was so glad. However, I had to have dinner by myself as everybody had already had their dinner. I asked for a salad, a piece of pizza and a cheese cake. I was so surprised when they brought me a very big plate of a rich salad, a whole big size pizza and a piece of cheese cake.  I invited my friends to eat with me, but we left most of the pizza in the room’s fridge.

21-03-2008

The day started with a delicious breakfast among the other Moroccan grantees. It is amazing how before this program the Moroccan teachers did not use to know each other and how we became friends thank to the Fulbright teacher exchange program.

Later we met with the American Fulbright staff to talk about our experiences. We shared a lot about our cultural, professional and personal exchanges.

We, then went to a very nice restaurant for lunch. The food was excellent. I had a calamari salad and fish again for the main course.

Just near the restaurant, there was the newseum ; it is a museum of news and press. It is not completely open, but we were ones of the first to visit it. That is a privilege I guess. It is a very interesting place. However, what I really liked there was the place where a visitor would go and play the role of a reporter. I did it, and I was given the link to see myself in front of the capitol giving some news from Washington. Well, teachers can be anything as all of us played the role very well.

The Fulbright staff in Washington were very nice to take me to the White House since I missed that at the beginning of the exchange. We walked a little there and took some pictures and went back to the hotel.

We had dinner in a Moroccan restaurant. The food was good but a belly dancer was kind of out of place there. First because belly dancing is not at all Moroccan dancing, and second because the staff did not expect to see such things. Anyway, we laughed a lot and enjoyed ourselves greatly. The restaurant was surely trying to attract more costumers. We had, Moroccan soup, couscous, salads, chicken with lemon, pastilla, mint tea with Moroccan cookies and other things. The Fulbright staff told us they wanted to reintroduce us to Moroccan dishes just before going back to our country Morocco.

22-03-2008

Our last day in Washington was a free one. We had all the morning to go sightseeing. We were four to go to the Pentagon mall. We took the metro and went there to do some final shopping. We did not find what we were looking for, so we walked and bought only some lotions and got back to the hotel just on time to check out.

We had lunch together for the last time and bid farewell to our hosts. The Dulles Airport was very busy as it was spring break. And again, I did not have to pay even if I had more bags than I should. One of my friends took one bag for me, which was very kind of her. And in Paris, my carryon was too big to go in the plane, so they just took it and put it with my other bags. Yes, lucky again.

In Casablanca, my family was waiting for me and I went directly to Tangier; I was so happy to meet my family after a month and a half.