Are you sure this place is honest?

I have felt tremendously welcome in Morocco.  So welcome, in fact, that I became a little too comfortable.

I left my friend's apartment at 10:30pm in order to grab a cab home.  While it's highly recommended (especially for a girl) to be with another person at all times, I decided that since I would be in front of the apartment under a street lamp in the safest neighborhood, I could walk out alone.

.... I was wrong.  As soon as I stepped outside, I heard my friend's mom yelling from the 5th floor out the window "ELLE", I looked up and waved thinking she was saying goodbye.  In that moment, a man came up on my side, ripped my purse from my shoulder, scooped it up from the ground and ran away in the night.

I started screaming "ARRETE" (stop) and ran about four steps after him before the panic hit.  And then I promptly turned back and ran into the apartment.

Luckily, before leaving for my friend's house I had misplaced my passport and wallet in my own room.  All that was in my purse was my iPhone and taxi money.  The best of a bad situation.

Unfortunately though, I now know how I react in pressure situations.  I scream, run, cry, and then call my parents.  This shouldn't surprise me, as this is how I deal with all stress in my life (my parents can testify).


BUT, I fortunately have the beautiful city of Paris to distract me from that.

We kicked off our journey with a 1.5 hour bus from the suburban airport in the center of Paris.  I started talking to a French couple on the bus, explaining to them that I choose to study in Morocco because (direct quote from me) "no Moroccans speak english."  At which point, a plethora of voices on the bus pipped indignantly and said "I'm Moroccan and I speak English."

Thank goodness Jeff, Logan, and I are very social and friendly people.  We came back from that one and ended up becoming great friends with them.

Now, we are staying a beautiful flat in the up-and-coming hipster 13th district.  We spent yesterday on a walking tour of the city and ate ourselves sick on macaroons.  Last night, we met up with my french exchange students from 10th grade in high school (!!) Flore and Margot!  They took us to a wonderfully cheap and delicious dinner, and then we did the french pub crawl.  Which ended with us crawling into bed at 3am...

More adventures to come!