(Upbeat music)
- Hello and good morning from Morocco.
My name is Miranda and I'm gonna be taking you with me
today to show you a little bit of what it's like
to teach English in the capital city of Morocco Rabat.
I moved to Morocco last June to start teaching English.
And so far I have loved the experience.
So I can't wait to show you a little bit about my day.
And hope that you can learn a little bit about
what it's like to teach English in Morocco.
I went to High school there after high school,
I did go to college.
I got a bachelor's degree in international business
and started working.
But I didn't really enjoy what I was doing.
And having loved to travel for a large majority of my life.
I decided to look for ways that I could travel
and work at the same time.
Now I did this once before.
I did live in France for about six months as an au pair.
And I loved my experience there.
I worked for a wonderful family.
It was truly an amazing experience.
And I wanted something like that again.
So I signed up for ITS online course
so that I could keep working my full time job.
And after the course was finished,
I gave myself about a month and a half or so.
And then I packed up and I moved to Morocco.
So I decided to move to Morocco after visiting here
Gosh what is it, two years ago now?
I came here for a two week visit
and I absolutely fell in love with this country.
It is Beautiful.
There are kind people here.
And the culture is significantly different
than what I grew up with back at home.
And I found that to be so interesting and intriguing.
And I wanted to explore that a little more than I could
in two weeks as a tourist.
So I was looking at a couple of different cities.
But eventually I decided on Rabat
because it's a little cleaner,
a little less busy than Casa Blanca.
There are fewer tourists than Marrakesh.
And it being the Capital,
there's a large expert community here.
And so I thought it would be a great place to experience
and dive into the culture while still
being surrounded by an international community.
Alright guys so I just got back to my apartment
after my noon class today.
I have let the kitten out
and I have started deciding what I'm gonna eat for lunch.
and I thought I'd take a minute
to show you around my apartment.
I live in a neighborhood called Act doll.
It is a little on the pricier side
there are definitely neighborhoods
that are cheaper than this one.
But it's a great area.
It's very active, lots of nightlife and it's very safe.
So I decided to go ahead and find an apartment here.
That being said, I did find a great price for my apartment.
It's a one bedroom
and I know and I pay 4,000 dirham a month
which is just over $400.
There's also a small fee for the concierge of the building.
And that is 120 dirham which is around $12.
So not too bad.
So let me show you around my apartment.
Alright guys
So as you walk into my apartment,
you will see a lovely large living space
which is completely empty.
I did decide to go ahead and get a unfurnished apartment
to save me a little money.
And because I'm frugal I don't have a lot of furniture
and that's okay with me.
Then over here I have a small hallway.
Behind this door is just a toilet.
So this apartment lots of the apartments in Morocco
are of a European style
where the toilet is actually separate from the bathroom
which is here.
So I have two sinks lots of storage.
And surprisingly a bathtub.
A lot of bathrooms in Morocco don't have a bathtub.
So I have those to look forward to every day.
Next we have the bedroom which as you can see,
again not a lot of furniture.
I just have my bed.
which is fine for me.
I do have this lovely bright window
that lets in morning lights.
And it looks out into the area in between
my apartment building and the apartment buildings
on the opposite streets.
Also in my bedroom I have lots of storage space.
So all of my clothes are in this area here.
And then I have more storage up above which is fantastic.
If we keep going then next to my bedroom is my kitchen.
Now this was one of the biggest selling points for me
on this apartment was the size of this kitchen.
It is huge guys.
Most apartments in Morocco especially one bedroom apartments
or studio apartments do not have a kitchen okay?
They will have a counter that's maybe this big
if you're lucky.
there will be a sink on part the of it
and this is all you have.
Okay and that is it.
But I have a double sink I have lots of counter space
and space for a refrigerator
my gas to run my stove.
And it is wonderful.
Just off the kitchen I also have a very small balcony.
I hang laundry out here sometimes
and again this looks out behind my apartment.
Last but not least the other huge huge selling point for me
on this apartment was a beautiful terrace.
Okay.
This terrace is huge.
It is sunny in the afternoons.
It is cool.
There's lots of airflow up here I am on the top floor
so I get a lot of air.
You can see the street I live on a little bit here.
And I love this terrace.
GG loves it too.
Don't you GG?
She loves to come out here and play.
As for finding an apartment here.
Finding available apartments is not the difficult parts.
The difficult part is finding a landlord
who will respond to you
and
someone who is willing to rent
to a foreigner who does not yet have a card secure
or residency card.
The problem is finding something that you're willing
to stay in and has things that you want.
There are tons and tons and tons of apartments here
in Rabat but a lot of the buildings are very old.
The ones that are new are very expensive.
So depending on what you're getting paid,
and once you feel comfortable paying for an apartment
it can be easy or harder to get an apartment here.
Finding a place to work here in Rabat
is actually really easy.
There are a lot of language schools.
So really you just have to send out your resume all over
and then follow up with everyone
and you'll quickly find a job.
So I found my current job simply by doing a Google search.
I found the school did a bit of research.
I thought it sounded good.
So I sent in my resume.
I had one interview and at the end of the interview,
I was offered a job.
Alright so I just got home from my second class of the day.
Normally on Tuesday, Thursdays,
I have a private class also but it was canceled today.
So just the two and I've gotten home
I've changed into my comfy clothes,
and I'm gonna answer a few more questions
before signing off.
So I lived here for one month before I got paid
and I wanna say I spent about 1000 US dollars.
I won't say it's impossible to make debt payments
while you're here but it will be a bit difficult
for most people to pay off debt.
I pay $25 a month for a slightly better internet.
It's pretty good.
It's not great.
There's definitely times when it runs slowly.
So I'm not sure how that would work for online.
Fiber optic is available but it is very expensive.
Because I had visited Morocco before I lived here,
I was actually very prepared for the cultural differences.
I can't think of anything specific that caught me off guard
or that I wasn't prepared for.
So the transition for me was actually pretty easy.
Alright that is it for me.
I had a great time telling you about
living and working in Morocco.
But it is getting late
and so I have got a bit of lesson planning to do
and then I am going to bed.
If you guys have any more questions,
you're welcome to Ask me over on my personal Instagram.
I'd be happy to talk to you more about working in Morocco.
Thanks so much for following along and have a great night.
(upbeat music)