Here’s another excerpt from the log I’ve been keeping that I thought you guys might find interesting:

The past day or so has been a wild one that has pretty made this a lifetime sort of experience. It all started yesterday morning when we started out on an 8.5 hour bus ride from Fez to the outskirts of the Sahara Desert. After reaching a hotel at that location, we got out of our bus and packed into a set of Land Rovers for a 45-minute drive through the Sahara to an encampment in the middle of the desert where tourists are brought to get the real desert living experience. We started out there with dinner at the main house of the camp and then retired to our section of the camp where we had a bunch of two-person tents set up for us to stay in. We’d brought a ton of liquor with us to prepare for the evening and we all just hung out in our area, drank, talked, and told stories until 2am. It was the first time that we’ve been able to just sit around and kick it without having to go off to some sort of tour during the trip. That evening was one of the most fun that I’ve had with GSB folks since I got to Stanford because we just had 28 diverse people just being themselves without concern for any effects on their reputation around campus.

We started off really early this morning by rising at 5am and gathering to jump on a bunch of camels to ride out in the desert. We teamed up in groups of two to ride out into the dunes and catch the sunrise at the crack of dawn. Riding that camel was one of the most uncomfortable feelings I’ve ever had because the saddle wasn’t attached well and I had a long way to fall (about 7-8 feet up), but it was exhilarating to be actually out there on a camel…I never thought I’d be getting down like that. Then, when I saw the sun rising in the distance, I was amazed. It was simply gorgeous and it was made better by sitting up on top of a dune with a group of classmates who looked as much in awe as I did. I got some great pictures up there and I can’t wait to show them to you. The ride back to the camp was even more uncomfortable because the saddle had somehow gotten even more unbalanced and my man Matt and I had to lean far to the right to make sure we didn’t get knocked off the camel’s back. When I got back to the camp, I couldn’t help but stand and look off into the distance, realizing that I’d just had an experience that I’m going to tell my kids about one day. The period from 5am through 8:30am basically sealed this trip in my memory as one that I’ll never forget.