The Sisters on Rue Siaghene

Emma, Molly, and Taylor, three students in Tangier, left the Grand Socco, the old market, and entered the Medina through the large white gate. Passing Berber women selling vegetables from…

Naked and Afraid

I sat in the cafeteria, peeling back the buttery layers of my croissant and laughing with my friends about the previous night’s antics when Douaa, our campus coordinator and a…

Fellow UNE student Emma Chabot

The Stranger

The brisk, crisp morning air left me seeking warmth and comfort as we stepped off the train and into our new adventure.  I didn’t know what the weekend would bring…

The Medina Meat Market

From the uneven cobblestone to the bartering butchers and the vast selection of goat heads, the chaos was overwhelming. I’d never seen so much raw meat, and I’d never smelled…

Life Beyond the Gates

I approached the blue metal gate separating our campus from the outside, and hesitated as the guard pushed down the handle and swung open the door. My eyes darted in…

“Sweet Caroline” in the Atlas

I gazed out at the snow-covered peaks as our bus rumbled along the twists and turns of the bumpy road carved into the Atlas Mountains. We had just reached 7,200…

UNE students at the necropolis

Walking in a Necropolis

My imagination soared as I thought about the lives of those who, centuries ago, lived within the walls of the necropolis. The ancient Chellah ruins were serene, beautiful, and uncanny….

A Night in the Sahara

Riding on the back of a camel under the bright sun of the Sahara, I looked around me, surprised to see so many trees and bushes. All I had was…

Student reading from Si Yussef in Smara

A Love Letter to Tangier

The mist began to dampen my face as we began on our walk to Café Smara, a Tangier café made famous by the novel Si Yussef. We walked down what…

An American Historian in Tangier

There’s a gesture that sums up the people of Tangier. When responding to a compliment or expressing an earnest emotion, the Tangerois tap their palms against their upper chests, right…

 

Morocco, Interrupted

When University of New England students embarked, in January 2020, on the journey of their college life in Morocco, they had only a vague idea of what was awaiting them. They had heard about the life-changing experiences from their peers and through word-of-mouth on campus, but they could not have expected the true effect of the journey until they lived it in the concrete.

Read the letters

Morocco Interrupted