Morocco - Sahara

Last Thanksgiving, Tony and I flew to Marrakech, Morocco after three full relatively relaxing days in the colorful Sevilla, Spain. We landed in a super modern Marrakech airport with smooth customs, and Inwi friendly sales ladies handing out free SIM cards that require a photo of passport (hopefully we don't get contacted by NSA some day).

🗒 Tip: If it is difficult to get Moroccan dirham before arrival, try getting cash at airport ATM as local ATMs could be tampered.

Day 0

Once we stepped out of the airport, several taxi drivers came to us giving false information, like "the bus does not run anymore" and we were just more determined to take the bus. The bus stop was located after a section of parking lot, we eventually got on the bus that cost less than $1 USD.

Our full itinerary including Spain is here.

Academia vs. Industry

I recently comoderated a discussion session on "academia vs. industry" at a Women in STEM Mentorship Program event, and it was very interesting to think back my days at Stanford EE MS/PhD program and my struggle with PhD that led to my leave and my current job as a software engineer.

My comoderator Danielle is a very accomplished physics PhD graduate, worked in industry at Lockhead Martin, and went on to run her own company now. She brought a lot of great perspectives to the table from her path in both academia and industry, which compliments mine with an earlier transition to industry.