nimames – Page 2 – Postcards from GW

1 Month, 4 weeks, 28 Days and 672 Hours

AdminFebruary 11, 2014

I knew that time is a hot commodity nowadays and everyone is running around the clock to get things done. What I hadn’t realized is how quickly it passes by. It’s already been four weeks that we are in the U.S. It seems to me that just yesterday, I landed in Dulles International airport setting foot in U.S soil for the first time, having trouble with my suitcase and having to use U.S dollars for the first time to pay the exorbitant taxi fair from the airport to campus. At the same time, and as weird as it might sound, I feel like I have been here for longer than a mere 4 weeks. Maybe because I had to adjust to so many different things so fast; adjust to an entirely new city thousands of kilometers away from home, trying and failing at converting temperature from Fahrenheit to Celsius. However, the aspect of my exchange I dreaded more was making new friends. I am not a particularly shy person but I am the type of person who likes the comfort and the predictability of my routine. When I received my acceptance letter to GWU I was thrilled of course but I couldn’t help the weird feeling that was grappling my gut. I was scared, weary of the process of starting all over again, introducing myself, making new friends etc... The reality was nowhere near what I had expected, or feared for that matter. In fact, befriending other people in the U.S. be it my fellow exchange students or anyone else, was really easy. I felt really at ease with my new group of friends as we were slowly but in the same time rapidly, exploring DC and the U.S.

So it’s no surprise when everything I experience while on my exchange, I share with this group of people. And with Valentine’s Day around the corner, I am dedicating this blogpost to the wonderful people that I had the pleasure of meeting during this past month. People with whom I shared wonderful moments, mostly in restaurants gushing over how great the food is, but also in museums, parties, in the street between class, the multiple basketball we’ve been to, celebrating George Washington’s birthday and more to come !

Das Weekend.

AdminFebruary 5, 2014

By nimames

I have been feeling lately that all my blogposts revolve around food and I would like to point out that I do not have a relationship solely with food and I do in fact have friends; people that I have met only 3 weeks ago but proud to call my friends.

This week has been one full of excitement to say the least! I got to celebrate my birthday with wonderful people in three folds. First there was a get together Thursday at my place. Although it wasn’t technically my birthday (my actual birthday was on February 1s), my lovely roommate suggested throwing a party because she wasn’t going to be in town for my birthday weekend. I was really happy to introduce the diversified group of the spring 2014 exchange people to both of my lovely roommates. In the end, the evening was full of excitement and joy and I was really happy and touched to see everyone again.

It also happened that the following day, was the Chinese new year and what a better way to celebrate it than to go to nice Asian restaurant. We promptly headed to Nooshi and had really amazing Asian food. I ordered noodles with chicken, caramelized onions, peppers and pineapples. The salty of the chicken and the sweet and sour of the onions and pineapples elevated the dish to a whole new level. In other words, it was heavenly. Once our tummies were full, we were all craving ice cream so we decided to walk to Georgetown and get some delicious ice cream at Ben and Jerry’s.

I’ve been in the US for over 3 weeks now and I’m always amazed at the array of choices you can get; either at the grocery strode, the coffee shop down the street, and the ice cream parlor. It ranged from cookie dough; berries, vanilla and Oreos, to chubby hubby and scotch scotch scotch. We then walked to the notorious DC cupcakes from which my friend Zenia got me these mouth-watering cupcakes.

Although I vowed not to talk about food anymore, I keep reverting back to my food experience in DC. I guess it’s because food is a huge part of my experience here and it’s even more worthwhile when I get to share it with the lovely people I meet !

This weekend has been a great weekend not because it was my birthday and I turned 21 but it’s because I got to share precious moments with people I love and appreciate. And I hope that next weekend will be as fun and rich in emotion as this one had been, and I’m sure it will because although we come from different places, we speak different languages and we have various customs and habits, we still are in this together and this is what ultimately unites us !

Fish, seafood, and some more fish !

AdminJanuary 28, 2014

By nimames

With the cold weather that has decided to settle in Washington, three friends, Marlitt, Steph, Zenia and I decided to go away for a day and visit the city of Baltimore. I was really excited by the prospects of visiting another city close by because that’s why I applied for the exchange program in the first place: seeing as much of the U.S as possible and I certainly wasn’t disappointed by my first visit: Baltimore.

We woke up at 7 am and braved the cold weather and headed to Union Station. I haven’t been to union station before and I was glad I did. I never though a train station could have shopping centers what with Moroccan stations having a coffee shop or two and couple of restaurants here and there. I was surprised to see an H&M store and a food court !

We got in the train and the landscape was something akin to the Twilight set except that it was covered with snow. After a mere 40 min we arrived at Baltimore welcomed by a chilly weather and snow falling. The adventurous, and prepared girls that we were, we had looked up nice places to visit in Baltimore: the Baltimore Harbor , the National Aquarium, the Baltimore Observation Deck and the Cheesecake Factory (of course !). We quickly hopped in a bus that took to the National Aquarium in which we spend 2 hours looking at funny-looking fish, dangerous sharks and extremely rare and deadly poisonous albeit tiny frogs!

The visit ended with a tour of the loud and humid rainforest of Australia where we got to see birds, parrots, snakes, tarantulas and different kinds of trees and plant, our tummies screamed for some good seafood. We asked around for nice seafood restaurant nearby and we ended up in Mo’s Seafood Restaurant. After being welcomed by the nicest waiter I ever had the pleasure of meeting, we ordered quite a lot of food including the notorious Mo’s Crab Cake and a platter of fresh and oh-so-delicious oysters.

After having a delicious meal, we headed to the observation deck of Baltimore. When we entered the building, we met a nice guy at the entrance with whom with played a little guessing game. Each of us being from a different continent (Staph was from Australia, Zenia from Singapore and Marlitt from Germany), I guess it would have been difficult though interesting to see if he’d get our nationalities right. We asked him to guess our nationalities and boy was it difficult. When he tried to guess where I’m from, he thought I was from South America which I get all the time! But then when I told him I was from Africa, he got the right answer from the first try and I must admit that I was surprised. I honestly would have never thought that people would know such a tiny country that Morocco is but it warmed my heart nevertheless.

Upon getting to the 27^th floor, we had the most amazing panoramic view of Baltimore. The room was a 360 degrees glass window that allowed us to have a view of all the snow covered surrounding which was truly an amazing sight! We took tons of pictures and I even go a souvenir . I decided to collect fridge magnets from all the places I may visit in the U.S and hopefully my fridge would be full of magnets from all over the country !

After the observation deck, we had a little time to kill before our train back to DC, we decided to go to the famous cheesecake factory (no Penny there !). We got a lemon and raspberry cheesecake and it was heaven on earth. I can’t express how much food is important for me and although I did mention it in my last post, I think reiterate it would be appropriate. The culinary part of my experience in the U.S is both important and present in my new every daily life and I really hope it will not end anytime soon.

Thank you Baltimore for a wonderful day, to you I say <3

Exchange Rates, Kimchi, and Michelle’s Garden

AdminJanuary 22, 2014

By nimames

Orientation week. Check. Meeting everybody. Check. Trying to remember everybody’s name. Check. First week of classes. Check.

This first week of classes seemed surreal to me maybe because I’ve been so engrossed by all the activities that were planned. But the first week was almost as entertaining as the previous one. Granted, classes and professors and syllabi meant the end of an era and the beginning of endless readings, assignments and papers. However, the first week of classes was as interesting as it was entertaining.

On Tuesday, a friend and I had the immense pleasure of going to the concert of Jay-Z. For someone who has not been to many concerts, being to the Verizon center was really impressive. First, the stadium was huge; I’d never seen so many people squeeze in in one closed space before. Second, the sheer diversity of people that attended and the uniqueness of characters that I’ve seen was something new. Weird haircuts, huge high heels, colorful outfits and much more made the first concert I attended in the U.S. much more than just a musical event.

The next day was the day I met the coolest professor to ever grace the face of the planet: my political economy professor. Although the class is rather challenging and was all about fixed exchange rates, debt ceiling, and congress bills, I can say that Pr. Kaplan is by far one of the best professor I ever had. He’s the type of professor who has Simpson characters up on his slides and who uses Hunger Games and Twilight analogies to explain theories of international relations and principles of economy.

The following day; Thursday, was the busiest day. We decided to treat ourselves and go to Korean BBQ in Annandale (Kogiya Korean BBQ). I already had Korean back home but Korean BBQ was new to me. The meat was cooked in front of us, on round small burners that were built in the table. Rice and spicy soup was served with it in addition to the most delicious and perfectly cooked egg I ever had the pleasure of tasting.

Friday came and having only one morning class, a friend and I decided to walk down the White House. It was something I wanted to do for a long time but haven’t got around doing it what with all the activities we had. To be honest, the white house wasn’t as I had imagined it. It was just a house that happened to be white and it wasn’t that big even! However, when we turned around the block to the backside of the house, BAM, that was the White House I imagined, with the domes, the balcony and the ivory white, the big not so green lawn and Michelle’s garden of course.

Saturday came and it was the yet another day of culinary discover. Since it was restaurant week in DC, fancy restaurants offered a 3 course meal with only 20 dollars. We went to a great Spanish restaurant called La Taberna del Albardero that served the most amazing food ever. My first doubts were confirmed: DC was definitely a culinary city where one could experience the most amazing dishes from all over the world and I couldn’t wait to taste new, exotic and foreign flavors. Although I’m most certainly going to put on a few pounds but if that’s the price to pay for culinary heaven then so be it !

E Pluribus Unum

AdminJanuary 14, 2014

By nimames

My arriving to the United States, a country I’ve never been to before, was not smooth to say the least. I flew a total of 11 hours in one single day, waited almost 2 hours for my luggage only to find it open and broken. So the only way for me to move my suitcase was to tape it. The next bad surprise was the lovely DC weather. Although I did take my precautions and packed warm clothes, I certainly did not expect the chilly -14°C that welcomed me to the DC. Luckily, the orientation week made up for all the hassle of my flight and my deep dislike of the weather.

Orientation week was exhausting but ultimately fun. We got to meet students from literally the 4 corners of the world: Korea, Singapore, France, Australia, Brazil, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, Germany and many. This reminded me why I participated to the exchange program in the first place: to explore the diversities the world had to offer and to be exposed and part of such diversity was a delight as it is always interesting to find out more about other countries.

This week will most definitely go down in my “history” as one of the best weeks of my life and it would have happened without the continuous help of Shawna and Hilary as well as the EXO Leaders who were always (I mean always) so cheerful and friendly and did an amazing job showing us around and giving us helpful tips. They did a marvelous job guiding us, giving us advice, making sure we make it to all our appointment and we don’t get lost but ultimately they brought us all together in an atmosphere of laughter and joy. At first, people, me included were hesitant but after each day, we all became more comfortable with each other.

The first two days were intense; we split up into small groups with two EXO leaders who helped us with our visa and bank appointments. I personally had to adjust to walking because boy did we walk a lot!

The third day, we took the metro to visit the Newseum and I have to admit that the DC metro is … weird. Not that I haven’t been to a metro station before. But being in the DC Metro stations is like being in a huge concrete alien spaceship. It was interesting to compare the DC metro stations with the ones I had previously been to but they were ultimately the same: busy.

The Newseum was really interesting for me especially for someone minoring in communication. We had the opportunity to explore 6 floors worth of media coverage of major events. The balcony on the 6^th floor offered a magnificent view of DC. In the afternoon of the same day, we had a tour of campus and later the famous scavenger hunt. I absolutely loved the game. Basically, we had a list of locations we had to find and take funny pictures with. There is a Frensh saying roughly translated in English as “Ridicule does not kill” and as a ferm believer in that, the game was tremendously entertaining for me! Although the weather did not help us, the hunt proved to be rather fun and brought our group, the SanFransisco Smarties closer.

Saturday was the last day of orientation and what a better way to end an amazing week than a visit of the Capitol and then a nice dinner. The visit to the capitol was insightful and I could feel the weight of history and the power it stands for. Later the same day, we all met at this really nice hotel where we had a great dinner. The formal dinner was a chance for us to be gathered together around a meal and get to know each other in a more relaxed fashion. We then took pictures to commemorate the moments we have spent together this week.

Saturday came and although orientation was over, I found myself up by 9am ready to meet my group. Even in one week’s time and although it doesn’t seem like a lot, I got used to seeing the warm faces of everyone.

To everyone that I met this week, I say thank you because I spent great moments with you guys ! I really hope we keep in touch !

Brace yourself America, I’m coming !

AdminJanuary 2, 2014

By nimames

Our planet houses, feeds and keeps alive 7 billion people. It has 6 continents, almost 200 countries and a variety of peoples and ethnicities. There are over 27 million flight hours each year. Almost 3 million Moroccans live outside of their home country, 20 000 of which live in France only. An even greater number of people travelling aboard can be counted each year. One of them is me, Nîma Mesbahi, a 20 year old Moroccan going to Washington DC for a semester.

I have been to a traditional Moroccan school, a French high school and I am now studying at an American style liberal arts university. I can speak Arabic, French, English and dabble in Spanish. Sometimes, I think about identity and what makes us who we really are. Is it our color, language, nationality, religion? Or is what music we listen to or what books we read ? Or maybe is it everything. But when I really think about it language, identity and nationally may diverge but cultures meet, overlap and converge. There is no such thing as a unique culture as every nation has been influenced by another one at some point; forever graving a mark, an imprint that would later become its official seal. Morocco for example, is most famous for its exquisite mint tea served in silver teapots with almond pastry. Little do people know that the tea used to make the renowned atay originally comes from Mainland China and the teapot was designed and manufactured in Manchester, England. There are endless examples of how habits and cultural specificities that we think of as being unique to one particular country are in reality the result of a boiling melting pot that dates way before the Internet.

One must admit however that the handy little invention called the Internet has enabled each and every one of us to become connected and wired to each other. Bound by the age of technology, we have become one; sharing a common quotidian, and a common life. Nevertheless, and as much as the various interactions we are part of seem important to us, a hardware computer stands between the real experience and us. Living in DC for a semester would most definitely be the real thing: an opportunity for me, a young Moroccan to experience a whole new life. It is something akin to taking a veil off, a veil separating us from experiencing true cultural interaction.

This process of taking the veil off and embracing, even for a semester’s time, a whole new life is quite frightening to say the least. I have never left home for more that a month and to be frank, going on exchange to the United States would most definitely be one of the scariest moments of my life. When I first go accepted to university and had to move out to another city leaving everything that I had carefully built around me over the years, was truly intimidating. But, I survived; I adapted to my environment and managed to get myself a bunch of crazy people I call my friends. To say that I'm going to miss them would be, well, kind of cheesy, but true nonetheless. I have grown accused to each and everyone of them, with their quirks, weird habits, incredibly loud laughs and what not.

The idea of having to do it all over again, in a new city, a new country is nerve wracking, but when I come to think of it, one cannot live a full life without taking risks, and I feel ready to leave the cocoon that my life currently is and delve into the depth of the unknown. I would expect this particular experience to be fruitful and enriching. Living in a country thousand of kilometers away from home, meeting new people, sharing cultures and ultimately growing up. Growth is what I expect and look forward to the most. Maturing and flourishing into a more confident, self-assure and determined young Moroccan student who has been fortunate enough to fully live this experience. Making new friends, tasting the famous American food (hot dogs !!), seeing news landscapes and making forever-lasting memories.