Today is New Year's Day and the day of my first of three flights to end up in Casablanca, Morocco.
To introduce myself, my name is James Celli, and I am a junior from Stoneham, MA. My majors are International Business and Supply Chain with a minor in Spanish, and I am spending the next three months studying in Casablanca. I do not speak any Arabic or French, so this will be a challenge! I am currently at Boston Logan International Airport typing this, and for my first blog post, I wanted to share some of my preparation for this new chapter of my life.
Visa Preparation: The United States are one of the countries that Morocco lets visitors stay for 90 days without a Visa. I will be in Morocco from January 2 - March 30, so I luckily do not need a Visa for my time studying. However, say the semester was longer than 90 days, there is a loophole that allows you to stay longer. If you leave the country and come back, your 90 days restart over again, allowing tourists/students to stay in Morocco for pretty much as long as you want. My semester ends on March 29, so it will not be necessary for me to leave.
Living Arrangements: I will be studying at ESCA Ecole de Management which is solely a business school that has only 1100 students. Therefore, there are no dorms for students. At the beginning of December, I was put in a WhatsApp group chat with all of the international students studying abroad at ESCA. I was able to meet all of my classmates and see where everyone was from. I was surprised, and kind of excited to see that I am the only American studying at ESCA for this semester. This ensures that I will most definitely be getting a different and enriching experience in Casablanca. After talking to all the students, I arranged to stay in a long-term Airbnb with a student from Germany named Jameela. We’ve only texted over the phone, so fingers crossed we get along, but I am really excited to be living with someone from another country. The cost of living is very cheap in Casablanca, as I will only be paying about $450 a month for an apartment with a washer, dryer, my own bedroom and bathroom. It’s about a 15-minute walk to my school, so I’m very pleased with that as well.
Packing: In total, I have a checked bag, a carry-on bag, a really cool expandable duffel bag (definitely recommend, was able to pack a suit, tons of clothes, shoes, and more) and a backpack. I packed mostly clothes, all my toiletries, a lot of over-the-counter medications like Tylenol, Ibuprofen, Benadryl, and some of my favorite snacks as well. I will be traveling with Azores Airlines for all my flights which, after some research, allows students who are studying abroad to check two bags for free. All I had to do was show my ESCA acceptance letter when checking in my bag and they let me check two bags for free. Not sure if other airlines do that, but definitely worth a look before traveling.
With all that being said, I can’t wait to be in Casablanca. Hopefully I will be posting multiple times a week. I have a cross-country road-trip planned for later in January that I can’t wait for, and a trip to Marrakesh in just over a week. My classes start on January 6th, so I will be sure to post about those as well.
Good-bye for now.
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