Travelling abroad... Germany!

Our Journey in Germany

Frankfurt Airport, 12 o’clock: A group of teenagers looking sad and disappointed to go home again was saying goodbye to their new foreign friends. It was the end of an amazing journey which made us discover new cultures, new traditions and which created strong links between pupils who one week ago were totally strangers.
Each one of us was plunged into the daily life of a German family. We had the opportunity to get to know how a local teenager spends his day including school, and various activities.
In the morning, we participated to courses in order to discover another education system.
For the afternoon, our teacher prepared us an amazing cultural program including a visit of the city, museums…
In the evening, our exchange partners made us discover Frankfurt “by night”: It was an occasion to know more about each other.

This will be an unforgetable exchange, which is not over at all, because all our new friends will join us here, in Casablanca, starting a new page of this journey.

Written by Ana-Isabella Tanase, Karim Bennani, Chayanne Laghdir 1°S1

A Romanian in Morocco...

Hello, I’m Ana-Isabella, and I study at The Lycee Lyautey, in Casablanca.

I live in Morocco since my birth, but I’m Romanian.

I consider that I am very lucky to live in such a multicultural background, and that my roots are a real wealth.
Through this article, I would like to make you discover my country’s culture, by exposing its colorful traditions.
Romania is a Latin country, situated in the Eastern Europe, bordering on the Black Sea. It is a country full of history, with wonderful landscapes, crossed by the Carpathian Mountains and by the Danube, which gives to Romania its green and thick forests, its lakes and rivers;

The Music
For hundreds of years, music has played an important part in Romania.
The music is different from the other countries in Eastern Europe, because Romania is a Latin country, and not a Slavic one.
Today, Romania is divided into many counties, and each region has its own specific traditional music.
They differ by the rhythm, the instruments, depending on the influences of the region.
The best known form is The Doina, a poetic and melancholic music, played against a fast accompaniment pattern.
Gheorghe Zamfir is a Romanian pan flute musician, one of the most famous pan flutists in the world, if not the most.
Zamfir is known for playing an expanded version of the traditional Romanian-style pan flute.

Dances:
Just like the different music forms, the dances also represent a wide range of styles.
The dancers wear traditional costumes, according to the county. They are usually colorful, and each one represents an important artistic work.

Legend…
Romania is also well-known because of the vampire legend: Dracula
How would you react if I told you it is not totally wrong?
Well, obviously Dracula didn’t use to drink blood, or to follow other fanciful vampire traditions.
His real name is Vlad III Basarab, and he used to be called Vlad Tepes, which means “impaler”, in reference to his favorite way of executing his enemies.
He was born in Transylvania, and became prince of Valachia, a region of the medieval Romania, He was a tyrannical governor, according to the writings of that period. But this reputation could have been made up by the other kings and foes, who were trying to justify their hatred against this powerful prince.

The legend has been amplified by the tale of Bram Stoker, based on his life, and which gives him the “Dracula” denomination.
In final, though the Dracula story was above all a legend made up over time, no one really knows were stops the tale and where begins the reality…

Bran castle… It is known as Dracula's castle :

Many other castles are hidden in the mountains of Romania:
-Corvin castle is one of the most important monument of Gothic architecture in Transylvania.

-Peles Castle, with unique character, was built at the wish of King Carol I of Romania between 1873 and 1914.

Culture:
Romania has a unique culture, which is the product of its geography and of its distinct historical evolution. Like Romanians themselves, it is fundamentally defined as the meeting point of three regions: Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and the Balkans, but cannot be truly included in any of them.
Constantin Brancusi, Mircea Eliade, Mihai Eminescu, Eugen Ionesco, George Enescu are only a few names of Romanian artists who made their talent shining all over the world.

From Mohamed.

Hi everybody
I’m Mohamed; people calll me SIMO, I’m sixteen years old. I study in the “Lycée Lyautey” which is a French school. This year I’m in level named “premiere S” that is the scientific class where my classmate are between sixteen and eighteen years old. We have nine subjects to study in the week:
-FRENCH (4 hours)
-ENGLISH (2 hours)
-ARABIC (4 hours)
-BIOLOGY/GEOLOGY (4 hours)
-PHYSICS/CHEMISTERY (4hours and half)
-MATHEMATHICS (5 hours)
-HISTORY/GEOGRAPHY (2 hours and half)
-PHYSICAL EDUCATION (2 hours)
-ECJS (an hour all the two weeks)
Lycée Lyautey is one of the biggest French schools abroad. We are 3,400 students and 600 teachers. The school is located in Casablanca, the economical capital but I don’t live at Casablanca, I live in the road of Tamaris. I get up at 6:45 s to arrive at school at about7:45. My typical school day begins at this time for finishing about at 6:00pm with three breaks. The first at 9: 45 which lasts fifteen minutes, the second which is the lunch break and which lasts an hours, the third is a break of fifteen minutes at 4:00pm. After I will present you the subject BIOLOGY/GEOLOGY which is the English for SVT.

SVT

Hi everybody,

We are four students from the Lycée Lyautey : AÏda, Ghita, Fatem and Kenza.
Today we wanted to present you another important subject as “1ere S” : S.V.T which stands for Science de la Vie et de la Terre (science of life and earth) It’s a subject who encompasses biology and geology: it takes 4 hours a week. Although most students don’t like geology that is why our teacher started with it in order to finish it as quickly as possible. We started with the composition and the structure of the earth and it actually sounds as boring as it is, even if we learn lots of things about what is going on below us! So we are thrilled to start the biological part where we will study the nervous system but also the genotype and phenotype (DNA). It is probably the hardest part but also the most interesting one, especially for the people who want to study medicine (just like Aida does!!). Every week we have T.P. which means Travaux Pratiques. That is when we practice in a lab, where we are able to dissect, manipulate and observe with microscopes pretty performant…

A month ago we went for a field trip in a geological site next to Casablanca (it was actually more two hours of going round and round in the mountains) to see rocks, faults, fossils, etc …
Our teacher tries very hard to make geology sounds funny and pleasant !! These are some pictures of our trip:

We had so much fun all together the teachers were cooler than usual and it was a really good way to get to know each other.
Actually we have amazing teacher this year in all the subjects!
Our S.V.T. teacher is also our “principal teacher”: she is the one who tries to make life easier and listens to our problem with other teacher but she also tries to solve disagreements between two students.
We have a very good relationship with teachers, we even communicate with them thanks to facebook and we are planning on going to a restaurant before Christmas’ holydays!

P.E.

This year, physical education subjects are different, we had to choose what we wanted to do .The teacher told us to choose one of the five different menus. On each menu, there are three subjects like volleyball, basketball, handball ... We have chosen menu number 4, because we like to play badmington, we are keen on rugby and 2x40 (that's athletism).
Our teacher is the best, he is Mr. Baptiste, we love how he teaches us, he is the coolest guy ever, and sometimes he plays with us. And the most important thing is that he doesn't scream on us !

History & Geography.

History and Geography.


Hello we're students in "Première s" in the Lycée Lyautey. Today, we wanted to speak about the subject that we study here, so we decided to tell you about one we study 2 hours and a half a week : History and Geography. It is a really import subject in our opinion because it let you know and understand your past so you can also better underwand today's world, how it works and why, how the society work in every country. This subject taught us how big and complex is the world and we can distinguish each nation according to its specificities.


In History this year, we study the lattest part of the History (two last centuries), we already saw that before but go over it again to deepen the topic.
In Geography, we studied the Europe and the European Union but the program in Geography is very varied so it does not make sense to sum up the whole thing in only few sentences unlike we did for History where it was possible.
Moreover, we can say that we also and mainly study the method : how to look into a document, how to do an analysis, how to take an exam or how to make Geography sketches for example.

This year, our teacher is a woman and she's also our TPE and ECJS teacher. She is young, dynamic and interesting teacher. We're glad we've got this teacher because it makes what we study even more interesting and we also think that this teacher helps us a lot to focus on the lesson.

At the moment, we study History : the 2nd industrialization, from 1850 to 1939, in France, Germany, UK and the USA. It's a quite attractive topic which also pretty deals with economics.

This is actually what we wanted to tell you this time, and now we'd like to discover how stuffs go on for you !

Spanish at Lyautey...

A bit of our school-life ...

In Spanish class, our professor, who's a woman, teaches us how to speak, to write, to understand and to be understood in the Spanish language. Morrocco is the closest African country to Spain, and in the north, lots of Morrocans speak spanish like they speak Arabic. In our high school, teachers have classical methods like reading texts and answering written questions, but sometimes some of the Spanish teachers like ours adopt new methods : listening to Spanish songs, called "canciones" or watching Spanish movies or "peliculas" like the one we watch : "te de mis ojos" that stands for "I give you my eyes".In Spanish class, the students sit all around the teacher, whose desk is in the middle of the class. The teacher stands up to speak to us or to write on the board, which is white in our class .

Biology!

Well, we are going to present you what we are doing in biology. In fact, the real name of this subject is SVT (It stand for ‘Life and Earth Science’ in French), that includes Biology and Geology. The Name of our professor is Mister Benvel. He’s the best geologist teacher of ‘Lycée Lyautey’, even if there is a lot of Geologist teacher. In one week, we have four hours of SVT, which contains two hours of TP (Practical Work) and two hours of lesson. In class, we studied different types of rocks in many continents and also in oceans. Recently, we went outside near a little village named ‘Romani’ in Morocco, we saw a lot of things with Biology and Geology, but more for Geology than Biology because we were studying it in class. We saw rocks, we studied more things about it, and a little bit of vegetal Biology.
At the moment, we are studying something more general. It deals more with the earth and its formation. It also deals with the fact that continents are separated. We have just finished this part of the lesson and we are going to have a test soon…

Maths again...

Hi everybody,
We are going to talk about one of the most important subjects in our class of “première S”. It’s Mathematics. It’s more difficult this year than last year. We have 6 hours per week and we study big lessons like Barycenter, Derivative, and Algebraic equation etc…
Our teacher’s name is Mr. ElHraichi.
To start a new lesson, we do activities to introduce the lesson, after we write the lesson with explanations. After, we do a lot of exercise. At the end we have an exam on this lesson and others that we've done before. The exam takes 1 to 2 hours.
For a new lesson, we take 2 weeks with the test and we have 1 exam by 3 weeks so we can progress,

Maths

Hi , we are Karim Kharchafi and Kenza El Khadir , students in Lyautey high school in "1ère S" (S for scientifique) We have a full time table and our curricular is really complicated. Actually , we're studying maths 6 hours a week and it's very difficult.

Here area picture of Karim with our math teacher for this year, every year we have a new teacher and we change the method of work because every teacher has a different way to work with us.

This year for exemple we start with the lesson and we are making applications to understand them, then we do exercises to train before having test. Generaly, the exams are very hard and we have to practice a lot . We all find that the first S is a stressing class.
At the beggining of this year, we started by a very difficult lesson, wich was among the last ones in the curricular , the lesson is " The barycenter" and it's a very difficult one, then we followed up with the second degree polynomials and the abolute value. The exams are so hard and we are trying to cope with it .
What about you ?

My school

Hi, my name’s Amine and I’m 16. I’m Moroccan and I live in Mohammedia, a small town 30 km from Casablanca. I’m in Première S, which mean the scientific branch at the “Lycee Lyautey” high school in Casablanca. Lycee Lyautey is the largest French high school abroad in the world. There are more than 3000 pupils from different nationalities. The high school is divided into two parts. The First part:

It contains hundreds of classes restricted to the scientific, economic and social, and literary branches, but also for the college.
The second part:

It is situated 5 minutes walk of the high school. All the physical education lessons take place there. There are 6 handball playgrounds, 8 basketball courts, 9 volleyball playgrounds, 10 climbing walls and a big grassy soccer field. There are also some classes for the other branches (the technologic and the professional branches).

French at Lycée Lyautey.

Hi everybody ! We are 3 students "Maria Tahri" "Kenza Bennis" Julien Sebag" and we decided to talk you about the French subject which is a core subjet very important for us even if we are in a scientifist class.
In fact, like the 2 others classes, at the end of this year, we'll have to take a very important exam : the French Baccalauréat which is shared in 2 parts : The written and the spoken.
So, to be ready to take this exam, we have four hours of French class per week where we study theater, argumentation, poetry and also novel. We spend our lessons trying to read between the lines, to understand what the writter wanted to mean and why he wanted to mean it.

We began this year working on poetry, and more preciesly on writters like Rimbaud, Verlaine or Baudelaire. These poets revolutionized the poetic art so it's very interesting and rewarding to know how they were thinking. Now, we're starting a new sequence which is theater by reading a Racine's French very famous play called "Britannicus", it's a little bit boring but it's probably for a real reason that is a French classic so we encourages you to read it and compare it with what you do.
This subject is also very important because we are in a french high school, so all of our subjects are taught in french, and most of the morrocan students speak French better than Arabic. In fact, french is the second language spoken in morroco, as Spanish in your town.

Our French teacher's name is Mr Neiger. He's a young, funny, open minded and very cultivated teacher who can fascinate and captivate us by the way he teaches. He loves what he does so much that when he talk about it, it seems that his words are alive so it's very easy for us to understand and to spend our French lessons' hours very quickly.

Chemistry...

Hello everyone,

We will show you one of the most important subjects in the “premiére S”, Chemistry. In fact, we have got to get good marks in this subject to succeed our BAC and to join well-known universities.

We study chemistry five hours in the week, indeed, we study three hours of lessons and two hours of lab work.
In chemistry, we study amount of substance, is a standards-defined quantity that measures the size of an ensemble of elementary entities, such as atoms, molecules, electrons, and other particles.
It’s very interesting especially in lab work’s sessions when we where we do a lot of manipulations as experiments with beakers and ionic solutions; it is very informative.
We have an excellent chemistry teacher, we understand everything with him, and he has a very good informative approach, we believe that this is one of the most experienced teachers in this field.

From Anas NEBA, Younes MATROUGI and Abdellah GOUTLINE.

Bonjour Americans,

We're going to talk to you about one of our subjects in our high school " LYCEE LYAUTEY ". It's Arabic, and it's the second language in education here. We think that it's kind of easy subject because we talk Arabic everyday with our friends and our families so we don't have a lot of difficulties to be keen on it . Despite this, it's a very interesting subject. We study how to understand a text, to see how it's interesting because we have an important writing exam in the BAC ( an exam in the last year of high school ). However, we have a good teacher. I really like her, we can learn a lot of things with her because she knows how to make a course interesting for students. I think as I told all that is to say. Hope that you answer us as soon as you can.

Bisous!

Marrakesh

Hello Students of L.D Bell High School, My name is Sami Fekkak. I'm 17 years old. I live in Casablanca with my parents and my little sister.

Today I'm going to tell you about one specific touristic site in Morocco, “Marrakesh”.

The city of Marrakesh is the first tourist resort in Morocco, there are more than two million tourists each year.

Marrakesh has become a favorite tourist site for French celebrities who love its charm.

The city has been called "rêve des milles-et-une nuits" which means "dream of a thousand-one nights".

Marrakesh has become a place famed for its culture, arts and traditions. I recommend, if you ever want to come to Morocco to go to Marrakesh, you will have a lot of fun .

Aid Al Ahda...

Hello my name is Jad El Azali and I want to speak about a religious holiday in my home country: Morocco. It’s the "sheep’s holiday" and it’s called “Aid Al Adha” which occurs about three months after the first day of Ramadan. This holiday symbolizes the submission of Ibrahim to God who ordered him to sacrifice his son Ismael. Ibrahim accepted because he wanted to show his submission to God. Ibrahim is God’s messenger for Muslims. God told him that he could use a sheep instead of Ismael. That’s why now; we slit the throat of the sheep every year. After this fact, we can eat with the family every part of the sheep on this same day. This year we think that it’ll take place on the 17th or 18th of November.
What about me? I love these days because we can stay together with our family. I have been used to practising this custom since I was a child. Even the poorest people feel like they have to buy a sheep by anyway (to sell one piece of furniture or something else).

From El Mehdi...

Hello everybody, I'm a Moroccan teenager : I'm sixteen years old. I study in the "Lycee Lyautey" which works with the French education system. This year, my level is called "Première S" which is the scientific class where my classmate are between 16 and 17 years old. I've got 10 subjects to study : French, English, Spanish, Arabic, Biology/Geology, Physics/Chemistry, Mathematics, History/Geography, Physical Education and ECJS (which stands for civic, legal and social education). But the scientific block is the one that takes the most class time : 5 hours of Mathematics, 4 hours and a half of Physics/Chemistry and 4 hours of Biology/Geology.

My school is one of the biggest French high school in the world (there are about 3,400 students studying there !) and it is situated in Casablanca, Morocco's economic capital, a big city. Because I don't live there (but in Mohammedia, a smaller city 33 kilometer away), I have to take the car twice a day to go and to come back, each time during about one hour. This organisation is very tiring, moreover because I have to get up at 6 o'clock to be at school for the first lesson which begins at 7:50.

Well, I would like to tell you generally about Moroccan crafts which is, with Moroccan food and cooking, the most powerful symbol of Morocco.
First, it would be interesting to notice that woodwork is famous because it can be various and it is a very easy way for the tourists to keep a souvenir from Morocco. Indeed, you can find for example furniture (often tables) heavily decorated, boxes and many other various stuffs like sculpture or keychains.
Then, traditional carpets are also part of our craft industry : they are manually made by experienced craftmen and there are beautiful patterns on them.
Also, it would be a mistake to forget to talk about goldsmiths who are really present in Moroccan craft industry, indeed traditional metal work is a domain where Morocco is very developed.
Finally, I would like to end up with Moroccan traditional dresses which are very famous all over the world : Moroccan djellabas and caftans that are particular, long and elegant dresses.

I hope you enjoyed my small introduction and I'm very impatient to read you back.

From Othmane

Hi guys,
My name is Othmane. I am sixteen years old and I live in Casablanca (a city located in western Morocco, on the Atlantic ocean side) with my Mum, my Dad and my younger brother. I go to a French institution established in Morocco which is called Lycée Lyautey to the memory of Marshal Lyautey who was the principal protagonist during the First World War in my country. I am in Première S ( scientific class) and we have to take the Anticipated French Exam: the written and the oral tests. Concerning my schedule, it can be considered as very exhausting. In fact, we had one class after another from 8a.m until 6p.m . Then, when I come back home, I can barely stay awoken but I have generally to do homework and to read some lessons for the next day: I get about two hours of homework a night. I don’t have really the time to devote myself to my favorite leisure activities like playing tennis. But thanks to my teachers, my family and my friends I can overcome the difficulties.
Hope having your answers soon.

Hey Texans :)

I'm Maryam Alaoui and I'm 15 years old. I'm a junior at " lycée lyautey" high school and I wanted to talk about something that we could have in commun : TV shows!
I practicly watch all the new American shows like "Gossip girl", or "90210" for example. True blood or the Vampire Diaries are also some of my favorites programs on TV. The only problem is that I don't have American Channels at home , so I have to look for them on the Internet.
But, here in Morocco, we have our own TV shows. We have Drama ones, fantastic ones ... . We also can watch on our national channels, Mexican ou Turkish TV series, translated in Arabic.

My second, and not the less, favourite subject is cooking.
Everybody should know that Moroccan food is one of the most diversified and fine foods in the world. We have lots of traditional meals like : "Couscous" or "Tajine" that are kown all around the world. The U.S. is a country, very famous for its food, but is fast food the only food that can be found there?
I hope I can read from you soon, so you can answer my questions and I'll answer yours.

Casa and Mohammedia...

Hi everybody,

We are 2 students: Noha D. and Anass T. . We study in Lycee Lyautey in Casablanca, Morocco but live in different cities: Casablanca for Noha and Mohammedia (a small town near Casablanca) for Anass.
So now, let’s talk about our cities: Casablanca is the biggest city in the country and it’s the economic capital. It developed very quickly during the last 10 years.

We have three cinemas (Megarama, Dawliz, Rialto), an aqua park with a bowling but outside the city. Also, in every street corner, we have sports centers: People are anxious about their health. There are two or three malls in which we can find shops like *Celio, Cartier, Guess, Dior … It’s a very nice city but it’s polluted and the traffic is blocked when we leave school and when we are waiting, we can see Ferraris, Maseratis, Lamborghinis but it’s quite rare.


Let’s talk about Mohammedia, it’s at 18.6 miles from Casablanca. The city is called City of Flowers because there is a big park with a lot of flowers, trees, it’s very beautiful.

Even if it’s a small city, there is one of the famous restaurants in the country, everybody comes to eat the chef’s specialty: Fish!
Mohammedia is a very important city for Morocco because there is the only refinery in the country.
So now, we will talk about our school: Lycee Lyautey.

The day is exhausting, it starts at 8 a.m. and finishes at 6 p.m. but, according to the different timetables, we can start at 10 a.m. and finish at 4 p.m. . At the end of the year, we have a big test called Bac, we have French, and the next year, there will be the other subjects.
If you want to come to Morocco: You’re Welcome!

Ramadan in Morocco.

In Morocco, the main religion is Islam which gathers five important principles including Ramadan. During one entire month, Moroccans have to fast, stop drinking and smoking from the sunrise to the sunset. Everyday, the muezzin calls the end of the fast from the top of the minaret. Most administrations, public services and stores adjust their schedules. However, non-muslims can eat in some restaurants, especially in hotels. Days could seem hard but nights are beautiful. The purpose of Ramadan is to be able to resist to life pleasures but also develop a spirit of equality between poor and rich people who can feel and have an overview on poor people's hard daily lives.

Benjelloun Touimi Sarah 1S2

Kenza...

Hello !
I'm Kenza El Khadir and I live in Morocco, I'm sixteen years old and I'm sending you a message because I would like to know more about your life at school and in your country in general (what about your typical schooldays ? what do you like to do in your free time? for example). As for as I'm concerned , I study in " Lycée Lyautey " which is a well known high school in Casablanca , my typical school day starts at 7.50 a.m and finishes at 6.00 p.m ...It's very long and exhausting ! At the end of the year , I'll have to take my French Bac(it stands for Baccalauréat) exam and next year , I'll have to take the other exams for the Bac , and all the subjects are compulsory. In my free time ( I don't have a lot of free time this year), I like to listen to music , to dance ( I'm keen on dancing) , and to hang out with my friends and do some shopping !
What about you ? I'm sure you have a lot of things to say !
Until then , bye :)

Moroccan weddings...

Hi everyone ! Our English teacher asked us to write an article on this blog to practise our English , to introduce ourselves blablabla...

But I’m note here to talk about me , my school … I think you all noticed that we are in Lycée Lyautey , in 1ere Scientific etc.. But , I really want to present you weddings in Morocco !
It’s a very special event where men have to wear costumes (of course) and women , the caftan which is a traditionnel Moroccan dress. First of all , before the wedding there is the engagement when the two families meet. Then , there is the big night where everyone has to come ! There are a lot of tables, food…Well in that case , it’s not that different from other weddings in other countries. But , at the begining we don’t see the bride, she comes later on a huge tray held by some men ! There is a lot of music , a specially folklor and traditionnal. Then the party can go on for the whole night and sometimes breakfast is even served at dawn ! Currently , there is a new trend of wedding parties starting early and finishing early, until two to three am.

Well , I think that’s it ! If you want more information , you can of course add me on Facebook ! Alya Annabi.

From Kenza...

"Hi everybody!
My name is Kenza and I’m currently a pupil of "lycee Lyautey" a French school established in Casablanca. Most of my friends are not totally Moroccan which is not my case.
Just so you know and stop wondering how we go to school ... there are actually cars in Morocco and very fine ones. The only places where you can find camels are the beach and in the south of Morocco.
Although I walk to school since it is not very far from my home so I can't dress really as I want. I'm always on my guard because of the assaults that are unfortunately pretty common here.
I am really close to my family especially to my eldest sisters and my nephews.
We try to meet every Sundays for barbecue lunch or on Fridays for couscous with my uncles and cousins etc….Although my family has grown and now counts more than 30 members (only from my mother’s side).
So in the end the only time when we really get all together is Ramadan. For one month all the Muslims which accounts for 92% of Moroccan population fast. We break the fast together at least three or four times a week!
Another religious celebration is coming. Aid el Kebir: we'll have to kill a sheep in a special way to remember the bravery of a prophet. We don't do it but we'll certainly go to my uncle's place to celebrate (or maybe use the three days off to go to Marrakech). The killing part is really disgusting but the eating part is actually pretty tasty and different.

Kenza”

From Théo...

Hi!

I am glad to meet you. My name is Théo, I’m fifteen years old, I’m French and I live in Morocco. I used to live in Gabon (a country in the centre of Africa), in Mayotte (a little island between Africa and Madagascar) and of course, in France. It’s a new experience for me to write to other people who live in the U.S.A. Our homework for these holidays was to write an article on this blog, about traditions from a country we know. So, let’s start.

I’m going to talk about a French festival I’ve just been to, “the soup festival”. It’s a festival which takes place in a little village in Lozère, Florac, in the South of France. It took place during this mid-term break. Participants had to cook a soup which passers-by tasted. A jury gave a note for the quality, the flavour, and the smoothness. Then, the first contestants won the gold ladle, the second, the silver ladle and, finally, the third won the bronze ladle. As far as I am concerned, I prepared a soup with my cousins made of many different vegetables which I want to keep secret... We finished fifth but we had great fun!



Good bye and I hope to read soon from your traditions too...

From Alia M., Mehdi E.M. and Meryem D.

Hi everybody, welcome to our blog!
We are three students of the French high school “Lyautey” in Casablanca, Morocco, and we’ll be glad to help you to learn more about our country or our way of life!

But first, let us introduce ourselves: our names are Alia, which means sublime or high in Arabic; Mehdi which means guided by God in Arabic; and Meryem, which is a Koranic character, but also a Biblical character better known as Mary!
We are 16 years old and we’ve chosen the scientific way.

We're fond of Mathematics it's actually our passion, we also like physics and chemistry but we are not that keen on Biology... History, English and Politics are pretty cool too. Moreover we HATE classical Arabic, it’s too dificult! Well as you may know the 1ere S' timetable is full, we usually begin school at 8am and finish at 6pm except on Tuesdays when we don't have class in the morning :) As you should know at the end of this year we have to take the French Baccalaureat which will count on the general Baccalaureat so we work hard for it... We'd like to study in a famous school after, maybe a school of the Ivy League (but we doubt :D).

You must think these clothes are fairy or extravagant and it's true, but we don’t dress like this everyday ! The most important to know is that despite the distance and the traditions that separate us, we are all teenagers who have more or less the same interests: we also like brands like Gap or Abercrombie and Fitch, as we listen to Lil Wayne or Radiohead, we also have seen the movies "The Social Network" or the last Woody Allen film, and we all watch TV Shows like "Gossip Girl" or "How I Met Your Mother" ... So finally we're not so different, the world seems always smaller when we share our customs ;)

In this message of hope a little exaggerated but true, we wish you a good time on this blog and we hope you'll answer pretty soon, see you!
PS : Next time, we'd like to tell you more about Moroccan fashion, or more precisely the Moroccan Haute Couture… enjoy!

Aïda...

Hi everybody!!
Well I don’t really know where to start but I will to try...
So, my name is Aïda Khalidi, I am sixteen years old and I live in Morocco like you already know. First of all, I was really excited when our teacher told us about the project, even though we’re not travelling!! But I think that it is a wonderful idea to meet new people who live the same life as ours even if we’re separated by a lot of things and by things, I mean distance, religion, culture, language...
Well, here in Morocco we live very peacefully, nothing special... Of course, we do have cars, TV, computers, internet and many crazy technology things you can think about!!
I’m not going to talk again about my school days because my classmates already told you everything and I think you get it! I do scientific studies and so I prefer to talk about what I like and dislike rather than school. Like I said, I’m sixteen which means I have two years to go and I can’t wait to leave my school, my country and live other experiences. It’s not I don’t like where I am, it’s just that I’m dying for new things and to be a little bit honest I’m tired of my school.
Meanwhile, I know that I’m having some of my best years here and it’s probably the only years that I can spend with my friends in the same high school before being separated in the future. On the other hand I am really thankful because the French system allows us to have great culture, but it sure needs a lot of work and so we are always working late, tired and we are stressed moreover by the big exam we have at the end of the year that probably the others already told you about and so we are working hard certainly like you do.
So let us know what your life is like. I think, this blog will help us, Moroccans to know more about the other teenagers all around the world who want to share with us ideas and more.
So we can’t wait to have your reponse!

From Saad...

Hi everybody, I’ll introduce myself. I’am Saad, I live in Casablanca, Morocco with my parents and my younger brother Amine. I’m 17 years old, I go to lycée Lyautey. I’m in year 12 which means at the end of this year we have to take an examination: it is the French Baccalauréat. I’m in scientific branch; I chose it because I like Mathematics and Chemistry but to be honest I’m not keen on Arabic. My favorite hobby is tennis but I play it just on weekends because during the week we don’t have much time. My favorite city is Paris because we can have fun there. Well, now I’m going to describe my country, most people in this country are muslims, everybody laughs. We can have fun, there are good places. Hope having your answer soon...

From Chouaib ;-)

Hello, I’m Chouaib Benkirane, I’m 16 and I live in Casablanca , the economic city in Morocco,

I’m a pupil of the French highschool lycée lyautey. It’s one of the most popular highschools in Africa.I’m in “première S”. It’s the branch I have chosen because I’m good at scientific subjects and I’m very interested in science. This year, we have to take a French exam. For me, French is boring but I have to study it.

After school, I have to do my homework, and on the week-end, only on Saturday night, I go out with my friends to relax.

Morocco is a kingdom, crowned by the Alawite dynasty. I love my country because we can see and visit many monuments and landscapes like the mosque Hassan II

Or different mountains .

In Casablanca, we have the Twin Center; it’s not like the Twin Towers in New-York because they are less high.

We can notice a lot of mosques because my country is based on the Islam religion so I’m Muslim.

Moroccan food is famous all over the world; indeed, we have a huge variety of dishes! The most popular are: “hraira”, “couscous” , “chebakia” and tajines… muhmm :D

Here, I introduced myself, and I hope to stay in contact throughout this year, "insha Allah"

From Kenza.

Hello everybody and welcome to our blog !

My name is Kenza Bennis, I'm 16 as all my classmates and I go to Lycee Lyautey where I am in 1°S (1° is the equivalent of your 11th grade and S stands for scientific), but I guess you already know all of this.

I live in Morocco, which is a Muslim country located in North-West Africa but my school is a French school belonging to the French mission (system), so it's a secular multicultural school where all religions, nationalities and cultures are mixed, and it teaches us to be tolerent.

We're about 3,400 students in this school ( half in the middle school and the other half in the high school) and there are almost 250 teachers. Our timetable is very full, we have to go to school even on Saturdays in the morning and our typical school day starts at 8 am and finishes at 6 pm with two breaks of 15 minutes and a lunch break of 1 or 2 hours. You are very lucky with the American system ! I wish I were an American student...

All of us, in our class, are very happy to do this cultural exchange because it represents a great opportunity to learn more about your way of life, your culture and your traditions. It will be a real pleasure to know all of you, and everything about you ! I’m sure we’ll love to talk to each other and we’ll have a lot in common whereas our cultural differences. I can’t wait for this !

Talk to you soon.
With all my friendship, kisses.

From Fahd.

Hello everybody . I don’t have a lot of inspiration because of the holidays so i’ll introduce myself. I’m Abali Fahd , I’m 17 years old and I live in Casablanca. Physically, I’m tall and thin. I’ve got short and brown hair and brown eyes. I’m someone who likes laughing, is quite nice and nasty if you push him into the limits. I’m a sporty guy, i enjoy spending times with my friends, playing football and videogames. At school , I chose the scientific branch , the hardest one so I have to study a lot. I love Music , everytime I have a moment, I listen to Rap or House music. I like travelling, my favourite destinations are Paris , Marbella and Montreal , three citys with differents characteristics but when you’re there , you can be certain that you’ll have fun ! I’ll write you soon about my city and about the places when young people can have fun ! Leave comments , Goodbye .

From R.B...

Coming back to shool is not easy !


Hi everybody ! I wish you've all spend good holydays.

In my quest to find inspiration i try to watch trough the window, the sky is cloudy, and no inspiration came i think that at this moment there is many students who are in face of there homework, which like me let all for the last moment, and that now realised that the make an error. Its so dificult to work after 10 days with out any reflexion, 10 days of long night and short day, 10 days of game and trip ! Well holidays is the enemy of work. I've tryed to look at the blog to find good idea and to do like them :D but the first word i read on it was « no post » I think I am not lucky. So this blog have been make to show to american students that life in morocco is not so different, all I know is that my problem in this moment is univesal, is'nt he ?


R.B

From Karim...

Hello everybody
My name is Karim Kharchafi i'm just sexteen years old almost seventeen.
I'm not a ordinary guy, I have some defects like everyone els, i'm not perfect, the perfect does not exist in my eyes, I just try to improve my self, I'm pretty sporty in life, I can not not an hour without laughing but I assume..
I would like tell you my life, but I do not know where to start, so if you have any questions ask me or If you want to know me ?
You can add me on facebook, under the name Karim Kharchafi, my profile is very limited and you can only see my profile picture in which I wear a hat, yes the bogoss blue eyes is me so.. :)) ( N.B : I'm not narcissistic guy, it's just for fun ! )
Goodbye everyone !

From Maria...

" Hi everybody, my name is Tahri Maria, I'm moroccan. I think that it's very nice to know people from an other country, with another way of live, religion etc.. It's very enriching to discover a new culture. So I'm going to intruduce my self, my country, and my high school. I'm 15, and I live in Casablana ( the economic capital of Morocco) with my parents and my little brother. Well, now lets talk about school, I'm in première S (a scientific class) and I study at the french school Lycée Lyautey. At the end of the school year we have to take an important exam the french Baccalauréat . This year our schedule is fool, we start our school day at 8.00 am and we usually finish at 6.00 pm, except saturday ( we finish at 12.00), and we have a lot of homework so we don't have much free time to practice sports ( hope it's not the same for you). But we already knew that before choosing this class, and it's for our own good. Well, about the country, the wheater like is often hot and pleasant, even in winter. Most of the country is muslim, but our high school is secular, so we belong to various nationalities.
Awaiting your answers.
Tahri Maria "

... and three more!

"Hey everybody

We are 3 students of the lycee lyautey in Casablanca, Morroco and we will help you to know more about our native city and our school.
Casablanca is the economic capital of morroco and this city has really evolued this last years.
There is a lot of clichés about Morroco like going to school by camel, or dont have elictricity .. But you should nt believe it.
We have the bigest Cinema of Morroco (The Megarama) which comport 18 moovie theater, and a lot of sports center. Moreover, there is a very important shoping place where we can find international store like Gucci, Dior, Guess ect and international fast foods like Mcdo, KFC ...
At the end of this year, a very big project is planned : The Morroco mall. This comercial center will comport a bowling, an ice rink, a cinema, a lot of stores and restaurants...

Now we will tell you about our school.
The "Lycée Lyautey" is a french school, the biggest of Morroco. There is more than 3500 students.

In the french system, the school day is very long. In fact we beggin every day at 8:00 am and always finish at 6:00 pm. We are in a scientifist class where the main subjects are : Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry and Biology. At the end of this year, we ll have to take an important examn the French Bac.
We hope that now, you know more about us and our city.
Goodbye .
Julien Sebag, Fatem Kadiri, Ghita Agouza Bennis. "

Introducing myself!

 

Hi! My Name is Hamza, I’m sixteen years old and I live in Casablanca, in Morocco with my parents and my brother. I go to “Lycée Lyautey”, I’m in “1ère S”, which means that I chose the scientific branch. My subjects are Mathematics, Physics & Chemistry, General Science, French, History & Geography, English, Arabic, Physical Education, ECJS (it stand for civic, social and juridical education) and ‘TPE’. During this year, we’re going to have two official exams, The French ‘Baccalaureat’ (divided in two parts, First part: Writing, Second part: Oral) and The ‘TPE’. In this subject, you have to search a topic from two other subject (example: Mathematics and French), and you have to search information about the topic, to make, in the end, a production; so, this year is really important.

Now, I’m going to tell you about my hobbies. Like Everybody, I like watching TV, surfing the net, listening to music. I love also the TV series, for example, ‘Dr House’, ‘How I met your mother’, ‘Scrubs’, and many more. In the net, I always go to ‘Facebook’, for discussing with my friends, and for other things. For the music, I love House, Hip Hop and Rock music. I’m also DJ of House & Electro music, and I started composing my own tracks. It’s a little bit difficult but I’m working hard on it.