Siobhan McDonough, Writer
I’m no expert on the two most-visited Imperial Cities in Morocco, but here are some recommendations from my whirlwind weekends in both*. (Both highly recommended). Fes: Lodging: We stayed in Funky Fes, recommended. It’s not far from Place R’cif, located in a beautiful riad. Plus, they made spooky cakes for us to celebrate Halloween! The…
Over the past few weeks, I’ve ostensibly being doing research, and thus have been mostly engaged in that most excellent of past-times: sitting around and writing (not blog posts, obviously) or reading. Or lying around and sleeping. Or standing around and cooking. Or walking around and looking at cats. These may sound like complete wastes…
Once you start getting to know a place, you start becoming fiercely protective of “your places”, regardless of if they’re actually the best at what they do. Without further ado (as always, some of these you can find if you can internet; others you can’t) here are my one-month-in recommendations: Note on prices: I’m putting…
Sorry for the delay in updates! The “study” part of study abroad has been slowly taking over our lives, though certainly not to Harvard extent.* Last last weekend, we took our final class trip, mislabeled the “village stay”. Sidi Hajjaj, far from being a village, is a bustling town-city of 70,000 people in the middle…
This has been on my computer for a long while now, but as my views have not changed in the past few months, there’s no time like the present to publish. I said in one of my first posts that I hadn’t gotten much in the way of gendered street harassment because I’m Chinese. This…
This week, my entire program took a trip to the Rif, on the Mediterranean coast of Morocco. Due to the rather unconventional itinerary (the Rif isn’t a heavily touristed place), we had a charter bus, so no public transportation adventures were to be had. Plus, there was air conditioning, and the bus was automatic. Uncannily…
It’s an odd feeling, coming back after time away. I’ve been back for five hours, and five days in Amsterdam already feels like a dream (helped, I’d imagine, by my sickness for the entire second half). I was surprised, after a few days away, to be missing my home in Rabat. Amsterdam was homey. As…
I’m writing while sick, which is hopefully only my body telling me “eating a bunch of different foods in 5 hours that you haven’t eaten in a month and a half wasn’t your best idea”, and not something more insidious.* As with the Paris post, there are a lot of things to cover for a…
For the uninitiated, as I was a mere month ago, Eid al-Adha is a Muslim holiday commemorating the sacrifice of Abraham. What is the sacrifice of Abraham? For those of you who haven’t read the Bible, Torah, or Qur’an, it’s part of the history of each of the Abrahamic traditions. In short, God tells Abraham…
Sorry, this one isn’t very travel-bloggy and again for a (different) semi-specific audience. Please read if concerned relative or Harvard (or other, possibly) student considering studying abroad. Scheduled programming returns next time I travel or learn something useful. “Siobhan”, you might be asking, “What are you doing in Morocco at the beginning of the school…