Getting close to launch

We have had an ever-changing itinerary for the Morocco trip up to this point.  I think we've lost count to the number of revisions.  In fact, I am leary of actually printing it up, since it will probably just change tomorrow.  Maybe I'll just write it in ballpoint on the palm of my hand.

Don't get me wrong.  The changes are good, as Dr. Rachdi has gotten us meet-and-greets with a couple more businesses there, such as Coca Cola and Unilever.  Perhaps we'll get lucky and they will load us up with some product samples.  Like Ben and Jerry's or Wish-Bone dressing.  Mostly the Ben and Jerry's, though.  I don't even know if they distribute that there, but if there can be a Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen in Istanbul, I figure anything can happen.

We'll be spending five nights in Ifrane--which sits about a mile high in the Middle Atlas mountains and has *maybe* just 15,000 residents.  This portion of the trip involves some lectures, marketing work, and interaction with students at the Al Akhawayn University.  I feel like my mediocre beer pong and flip cup skills will not really be very useful in this college setting.  But who knows?  If I've learned anything in my travels, it's that no matter where you go, people really aren't all that different.

The following six nights will be spent in Casablanca.  Many of you may remember Casablanca as this fictional place in a movie starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman.  Turns out, the place was real and the movie is fictional.  In fact, the movie never got close to filming in Casablanca  It was shot almost exclusively at the Warner Bros. Pictures studio.

So, we are going to be checking out this very real place, meeting some marketing teams from the aforementioned companies, and talking with the managing director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Morocco.

Mixed in with all of this is plenty of free time to see some sights and do whatever.  I know that an actual Rick's Cafe opened in Casablanca almost 10 years ago and has been incredibly popular, so Dr. Rachdi wants to take us there.  We will be hitting the medinas (old parts w/ the markets) of the towns we'll be spending some time in (Fes, Meknes, Rabat, Casablanca, Ifrane) to do some marketing work, but also just to walk around and "take it all in".  Ugh, what a cliché.

So, there's the simplified version of my itinerary.  We leave in three days, and Dr. Rachdi has already been over there for a week.  Traveling as our faculty leaders will be Dr. (Myeong) Kim and Dr. Kathy (Pollock).  We had to promise them we'd show up by 10am at the airport for our flight out-- I imagine so they weren't left a worrying, frantic wreck.

Since I'll have hours sitting around the airport in Fort Wayne, I'm sure I'll fill some of the time writing something.  The rest of the time will be spent wishing there was more to do at the airport.