This year I’m doing a year in industry which means taking a year out and working. The advantage of doing this is that I get an extra 10% on top of my final year result as well as earning some money to get me through my final year of uni.

I’ve been working in a small web design company for the past 4 months, but unfortunately not for much longer. I’ve been made redundant.

I understand completely why i’ve been let go - if I were in that situation I’d do exactly the same thing. Its a small company with only 3 employees - I’m costing them money and I have no work to do - why pay for me to sit around all the time. So as of next friday I’m jobless!

I think my boss was slightly taken aback by how well I took it. I see no point in getting all upset about it. If I wasn’t a student and had more financial commitments it would be a problem but as it is I’ll be fine.

There is one problem though, I haven’t completed my year in industry! No 10% extra - I can’t go back to Uni to finish my third year. Scarily an interview with another company had already been scheduled before I even knew I was being let go! I need to work 14 more weeks in order to qualify for my year in industry - so far the thought is that I should be able to work for this other company for the 14 weeks - as they might not be able to afford to take on another industry student for the year. If I can complete my year in industry I can just spend the rest of the year working in a shop or something. I still need to talk to my tutor about all of this.

I’m not getting my hopes up but everyones being very helpful! If the worst comes to the worst then I’d be willing to do unpaid work experience (if that even counts) and then work full time somewhere afterwards to make up for 3 months of no income!

On the plus side I’ll have a few days/weeks of lovely lie ins and I’ll actually be able to work on my sites! :P

Marrakech was amazing - I really want to be back there right now. The thought of working and freezing cold weather somehow doesn’t appeal to me anymore!

We left at 2:30 in the morning to head to Gatwick, at least there was no traffic! Check in was incredibly quick, manfriend tried to tell a joke, it didn’t even evoke a response “have you packed anything sharp”, “just my wit!” For 4 in the morning its pretty good!

The flight was easyjet so not much to be expected, there was an obnoxious American girl behind me who needed a bit of a slap but other than that - plain sailing!

The obligatory plane wing photo :P

We stayed in a Riad, Dar Soulahfa, a traditional Moroccan house. It all faces inwards to the center of the building which is open. To get to our house we went down narrow smelly streets dodging pedestrians, motorbikes and donkeys. We came to a big solid metal door in a plain dirty looking wall, but behind the wall the house was magical.

I can’t explain it in pictures, it has to be shown in full video glory! But unfortunately you’ll have to wait until I have some video editing software on my laptop!

We spent the first day getting used to the place, the sights and smells, ugh the smells! We had lunch in cafe de france - pizza lol and then relaxed in the afternoon.

The next day we went on an organised trip to the Atlas mountains. This included a trek up a waterfall, we literally went though it. None of us were expecting this and we all got soaked! Manfriend loved it!

The following day we went to the souks in the medina (walled part of the city) and the new town too. There was a giant zara there - I mean HUGE! I bought a nice dress and some green leggings - my christmas costume is sorted!

Our second trip was to Assouria - on the way to which I blogged this on my dads blackberry! Assouria was definitely my favourite part of the trip. It was cleaner, quieter, cheaper and you were hardly hassled at all by shop keepers.

Our last day we went round the palaces, we planned to go round the Kasbar but it was closed. Instead we bought tickets for City Sightseeing instead and drove around the city - inside and out, listening to the guide. Its a brilliant idea. You can buy a 24 hour or 48 hour ticket and it’ll take you to all the main tourist spots along the route - you can hop on and off all day! Its genius!

The next morning it was off to the airport and home! *lesigh*

My write up probably isn’t amazing but then nothing can do the place justice, Once your out of the hustle and bustle of the streets the Riad was completely silent - so relaxing.

The best part of the riad though - there were three (real) tortoises on the roof!

I took some awesome videos of them too!