Friday Feb 24 & Saturday Feb 25

Friday Feb 24 & Saturday Feb 25

As Sara says, Casa is not worth it's own post. SOOO I am going to do two days in one. I have also become very busy unfortunately, and I need to do actual work here now (what a -TERRIBLE-concept). Ok so here we go…

2-24-12

We woke up from Essaouria and had breakfast- then back on the bus for the last time!! We stopped for lunch with the group at a pizza place. Fadoua did not make reservations in advance because she was unsure of how many of us were going to come to Al Jadida. I think more people came back than she was expecting. My table at the restaurant was the first to order, and our waiter put our order in right away. I ordered a “pizza quatre saisons” which was essentially a veggie pizza, we also (obviously) ordered French fries for the table. Our food came pretty quickly, and others hadn’t even ordered by the time we were done!! Lucky us. We left the restaurant and walked around a little. Kind of looking for a hotel because we hadn’t booked one yet. We came across a park that was on the water- it was very nice, and we forgot about our hotel search. The park had these play structures that were actually secret exercise machines. I want to bring this idea back to the United States, and maybe stop childhood obesity. A lot of kids were playing on metal ellipticals, or doing- I kid you not- bench presses on what they thought was a playground. This is a picture of Josh doing some sort of exercise on an unfamiliar machine. We had to go back to the restaurant to retrieve our suitcases from the bus. There were only a few of us who decided to stay. Fadoua gave us a snack for later (delicious coconut cookies that tasted kind of like sunscreen) and then they left. We all grabbed our bags from the bus and then it left to go back to Rabat. Two suitcases were unclaimed and we realized that they belonged to people who were still on the bus. One girl is actually crazy and very unlikable, so her suitcase being left behind was hysterical. I felt bad for the other girl though. We called our friends who were still on the bus, and it came back for the bags. Then we were on our way.

I am going to skip some details, but we had the option of a nicer, more expensive hotel or a cheaper less nice one. We picked the cheaper one… we put our stuff down and it was already like five o’clock, so I really wanted to get out and see the sights. Some of my friends wanted to go to an internet café, but I can do that anytime in Rabat, so I convinced them to come to the PORTUGESE CISTERNS with Josh and me. The cistern was a big room with a sunroof thing in the middle, and some sort of well under the sunroof thing. It was interesting and was used as basically a big drinking fountain for the Portuguese in the sixteenth century. A lot of scenes from the movie Othello were apparently shot in the cistern, which was cool because I definitely watched that movie in Donovan Hohn’s class. After the cistern we went outside and went through the (very small) medina. You can climb to the walls/former military look-outs, so we did and just sat for a long time and talked/ ate Fadoua’s sunscreen cookies. A lot of good pix from Al Jadida, but if I had to pic ONLY ONE favorite it would be THIS because it shows everything about the wall hang out spot. It was very sunny and warm, the water was beautiful, there were old cannons everywhere, and in the top right corner is a guy (there were a lot of people like him) just looking out to the water totally in his own world. After the barricade we walked to THE BEACH. There were a lot of school children, and soccer players. We went to a café on the beach and sat for a little. Three girls from our program passed our café so we made plans to get dinner together in an hour. We ran back to the hotel to freshen up and then were out again.

We met at an Italian restaurant, but the whole group did not really like the idea of eating there. It looked VERY nice, and was Moroccan expensive (very cheap by American standards). Half of the group decided to go elsewhere, but we stayed (the cheap hotel helped us justify our decision). I was very happy we did. Before we went into the restaurant, I successfully used my credit card to withdraw money (for the first time). There have been a lot of horror stories regarding ATMs eating bank cards, or cards simply not working, so I was a little nervous, but everything was a-okay!

Dinner was unreal. I got pasta with vodka sauce and chicken/mushrooms. Wow wow wow. I was a total clam at that restaurant. It was a long dinner, but it was great. After dinner we stopped to get ice cream bars (no choco-tacos… I settled for a Magnum chocolate/almond covered vanilla bar). Then we went back to the hotel and fell asleep.

2-25-12

Casablanca was by far the least interesting city. It was very blah, but there were some good things about it. We had a good lunch (Istabmbul Shwarma- Sophie) and yummy ice cream after. Then we went to a weird and boring pigeon park (???). From there we went to Hassan II Mosque (I had already been, but this experience was much different). It was a nicer day than when I went earlier, so a lot more people were out, AND they were SWIMMING! I wanted SO badly to hop in, but I didn’t know if any of the swimmers had an extra towel for me. I love this picture. Families just sat on the ledge and ate snacks and watched the swimmers. There was definitely a community of swimmers and they seemed to be having a really great time- I could have sat there watching them forever. The men were all wearing “water shoes” that were actually those jelliez shoes from lower school. They wore those girly shoes in girly colors. It was very funny.

We stayed for a long time, but finally left to go to RICKS CAFÉ- very touristy, but I thought we had to go- especially because Casablanca was one of my dad’s favorite movies. The café was closed, but that’s okay because I just wanted to see it. We must have took the wrong turn leaving the café, and we fell into slums. We had no idea where we were, but we did not stress. Sydney had been there before, and said there should have been cute shops/cafes in the area, but we did not find any. Somehow miraculously stumbled upon a BEAUTIFUL restaurant in the middle of nowhere. I was confused, so I like asked the woman who worked there “is this a restaurant???” she was confused at me asking such a question. lol. We ordered delicious juice, and Alexa got some dank tea. Apparently we went in the back entrance (hence the not-so-nice neighborhood), so we left the MAIN entrance and went back to the hotel.

I picked the dinner place, La Bodega. Two thumbs up for me. It was Spanish-y food. I also ordered a great meal (personally I think it was the best out of everyone’s). I got FAJITAS and ate LITERALLY every bite (not surprising…). The sangria was delicious, and there was live (English) music. After dinner we went downstairs because the owner/greeter told us to. It was like a bar/club thing (more bar than club) and they were playing MORE American music—my type of music: a lot of Jay Z and Beyoncé believe it or not. None of us were really in the “going out” mindset, so we stayed for a while, but eventually left. I came home, fell asleep in my clothes (again), and slept like a total cherub.

Thurs Feb 23rd

I woke up later than I expected/wanted to, but we made it in time. The hotel tried to trick us into paying more money because they said that we drank drinks at lunch that we did not. We were a little delayed, but we were finally on our way. I was excited for the bus ride because I wanted to get comfy cozy and sleep, but we had a lot of stops on the way that hindered that desire. We first stopped to see some GOATS IN TREES it was really weird and I was on the verge of napping, so it was kind of dream-like… I am glad I got out of my seat to see them. Our next stop was at an Agran Oil COOP. It was interesting. Apparently all of the profits go directly to the women who work there, so that was good. We bought things because it was a good cause, and Agran oil is very good for you- “Berber Botox”. We continued our journey. Essaouira was not as far as I had hoped (I love bus time) but once we got there I was not disappointed. Essaouira is a VERY beachy town, and I wanted to stay there forever. We ate lunch at a place called Chez Sam. The fish was good, but they fry it- not fish & chips style either…. Still delicious tho. Funny side note: one of the things that Moroccans say to get your attention while you're walking through the medina is “HELLOOO!!! HOW ARE YOUU!!?! FISH & CHIPS!!” which is so funny that I have a very hard time ignoring it. After lunch we had free time to walk around. I was in heaven. I love the smell of sea water and the sight of boots on old fishermen, AND sailboats in the water. Everyone was SO nice and very willing to talk to us. We spoke with three people in depth, but I will keep my summaries short.

The first one was a man who had an art gallery. He basically said that his sister lived in California, and when we asked him where in California- he said “Florida, California” (???) he knew from our faces that he was wrong, and then somehow we figured out that she lived in Miami, Florida. I told him that i love love love Miami. He told me to go home and tell all of my friends & family that Morocco is a great country, and you all should visit, so this is me keeping my promise- Morocco is a great country and you should visit!!

The next guy was from the shoe shop that we stopped in. IDK how we started a conversation. Actually yes I do. He was showing me these flats and said that they were hand made in “Essaouira”, but I heard “the sahara” so I was like “OOO REALLY? The Sahara?” and he got a kick out of it. He is actually a very intelligent man. He basically like quit his studies/life to move to a beach town and surf/do what he loves to do- meet and talk to people and simply live his life. He was an inspiration. Don’t be surprised if two years from now I am an incredible surfer with dreadlocks selling sandals and flats in a petit shop in Essaouira… Long story short- he also owns two other shops and he brought us to one and made us Thé Royale (he was shocked & offended that we had never had it before). I really don’t remember the ingredients, but THIS IS A PICTURE and maybe you guys can recognize some of them. I did learn (and remembered) that the amber is for creating the infamous Moroccan bubbles in the tea. He had a lot of weird spices in his shop (Laughing gas, Moroccan Viagra, hair loss remedies etc), and he told us about basically all of them. We exchanged phone numbers and said we would meet again later. He gave us a weird plant as a gift and said that it was for cleaning teeth (was he trying to tell us something?????)… Another thing that he said was that the Moroccan sugar was less sugary/different than American sugar, which makes sense because we put two cubes in VERY tiny glasses… ok moving on

The next group we met were from another shop. They were Berber men from Merzouga (the town we stayed in in the Sahara). We looked through a lot of jewelry (overwhelming), and got to know them well during our browsing. THIS MAN spoke English very well, and I asked where he went to school/how he learned it, and he simply said “the school of life”. I LOVED that and asked more and more questions. Every answer that he gave me made perfect sense, and was so simple. He basically learned English by interacting with people in his shop- “the school of life”. Ali- you would have REALLY liked him. He was so like loopy and he had THE BEST laugh. I have no idea how to describe it. It was like medium/high pitched, and was like “HEEHEEHEEHEE” it was so funny, and they ALL laughed like that . Not just one of them. I bought a pair of harem pants- I def paid too much, but its okay because they rocked. They pulled out their drums and started to play them with/for us. DRUMMING PIC We probably could have stayed in that shop forever, but we were supposed to meet up with our friends, so we had to go.

On our way to meet our friends we came upon a cat and her kitten (NOT unusual for Morocco). My friend Sara is WEIRDLY obsessed with cats- total cat lady. She once told me that her cats lick away her tears when she is upset- Sorry for putting your secret on the internet, Sara…. She took a special liking to this mom and kitten, and made us stop to play with them. She started to CRY!!! Because she said that she wanted to save all of the cats in Morocco. She is a looney toon. I am totally not an animal person, which is funny- we have completely opposite views of cats in this country. Once we were able to peel Sara away from these kittens, our friends had already left, so we took a petit taxi back to our hotel. Apparently there are two hotels that differ by one letter in Essaouira, so we went to the wrong hotel. Sara insisted that it was the right one, but it definitely was not- funny. We called Fadoua and she cleared it up with the cab driver.

I took a great (very hot) shower back at the hotel, and put on my harem pants for dinner. They were received well by my peers, and they’re VERY comfortable (and purple- duh). We went to dinner at a really nice restaurant. All of the people at my table said that they were not hungry, but I was (duh, again). It was a five-course meal with a lot of utensils. We all got our own HUGE salads to start. Then we had these fish samosa things that are delish, and they come with spicy sauce yum yum. After we had the main dish which was fish and rice, but the fish was very bony- I had a hard time eating it and Alexa said that she swallowed a bone that is still in her throat today. We had some sort of mousse thing for dessert and then fruit. Great dinner and good conversation, but it was hard to cross my legs because of the harem pants. I can’t wait to wear them at Conn next semester. Bri & Sophie start thinking of your jokes now… If I wear them as a onesie they are shants, and if I wear them as pants they could be mistaken for a soiled cloth diaper. (See the main pic of this post- shout out to the photog S Birkz for the photo) Hahahaha okay anyway… We went back to the hotel and had some much needed R&R/Media time. I fell asleep in my harem pants and without washing face/brushing teeth- the trip really started to catch up on me, and I was SO unbelievably tired. I got a VERY good night’s sleep.

Wednesday Feb 22nd

Today was a totally free day in Marrakech- we were allowed to do whatever we wanted. It was very busy, exhausting, but awesome. In the morning we decided to go to the Jardin Majorelle, which is currently maintained by Yves Saint Laurent. It was a 50 dirham entrance fee, but Faduoa said that the CCCL would re-emburse us on tickets to anything we went to in Marrakech, so it was FREE! It was smaller than I expected but really beautiful- a lot of succulents and cacti. There was a Berber museum that we did not go to, but there was also a small room that had a lot of framed pictures. The images were apparently drawings that Yves Saint Laurent drew and sent to his friends and family over the holidays. They all had the word LOVE on them, and they were really cool. I wished that I was on the list to receive them before he died, and I am definitely going to look up all of the pictures online soon. Outside of the jardin there were two little boutiques that were very European, but sold Moroccan novelty items. We browsed a lot and then waiting for Hicham (Sidney’s tourguide) to pick us up from lunch. As we waited I bought a scarf, and got a good deal (I think) beause I insisted to the woman that we speak in “arabee fuqat” “only Arabic”, after she asked “French, Spanish, or English??”. She was impressed that I was learning Arabic, and we had a (very elementary) conversation, but I understood everything that she said. She initially wanted 150 dirham for the scarf (She obviously thought I was a sucker…) but then I miraculously got her to knock it down to 50 dirham. Its really nice: like striped and rainbow colors.

Finally Hicham picked us up from outside of that little shop. We drove to his house. We passed a lot of apartments that I could definitely see myself staying in this summer……… Hicham’s apartment was beautiful and huge. His family was incredibly nice, and welcoming (typical Moroccan fam). There was a little girl “petit Sara” who was incredibly shy and stuck her tongue out at me (cute, but rude). We had tea and cookies, but I was hungry for food food, so I got a little nervous. A lot of the lunch conversation was in fusha (classical Arabic) which was good, and their main motto (YOLO ha jk) was basically to have us speak (even with mistakes) as much in Arabic. It was really refreshing, and a good reminder that I actually DO know Arabic, after being somewhat discouraged for the past month. I am definitely going to make a serious effort to speak in Arabic more when we get back to Rabat. Both in class, AND at home. I am going to make little Imane listen to my Arabic, and try to understand. It will probably be good for her too because she knows Darija, and is learning fusha too (she is def better than me. Duh, but practice is always good). After tea Hicham’s mother asked if we were ready for GRHeda-ah (lunch) and we said we were. They brought up the tagine, and it was couscous! (not Friday tho...). One of Hicham’s ideas is that in order to best learn Arabic, one must eat a lot of tajine/couscous, and drink tea. My friend Sydney is just starting to learn Arabic, so Hicham says that she needs to eat a lot more meals. It was funny. We talked about “Jin”- a Muslim notion of a devilish spirit entering and taking over someone’s body. It was an interesting conversation, and I learned a lot. I do not believe in that stuff, but Hicham’s family seemed pretty convinced. They also said that Fes was a big area that performs exorcisms for these people. His story about the spirits started with Adam & Eve. I keep on forgetting how intertwined Islam is with Christianity and Judiasm. Hicham told me that if I end up in Marrakech for the summer that he would be happy to help me in any way necessary- a very good contact to have. We left Hicham’s house, and petit Sara finally blew us kisses good-bye (I knew she would come around). Hicham drove us back to the Marrakech medina because we wanted to explore some more.

We waited for our friends (for a long time- they were late) in the square, and the #1 juice cart. I might have already mentioned this, but the Marrakech medina is very different than the Rabat one because there is a GIANT SQUARE square in the middle that is the main focus. There are mostly juice spots and some nut/fruit places, but the main draw is definitely the animals that are roaming around. Their owners tend to throw them on you in an effort to force you to pay for the picture that you will undoubtedly take once that happens. I was previously warned about this, so I was VERY aware of my surroundings. No animals on me!!! We stopped at a cart that had a lot of nuts and dates and figs and looked around a little bit. The owners obviously tried to get us to buy something by feeding us some of their products. They had these delicious honey roasted peanuts that were covered in sesame seeds. The owner noticed that we liked them, so he basically started to bag some up for us. We didn’t protest too much, but in the end he tried to sell us a kilo (2.2 POUNDS) of these nuts. It was ridiculous, and Sara and I joked that our children would have to finish them if we ended up buying all of them. We tried to get them to give us a quarter of what they had measured out, but it was VERY hard. The language barrier had a lot to do with it, but the shop keeper was very stubborn too. We ended up getting the perfect amount for the perfect price after a lot of laughs and yelling. We continued on our way and just bopped around. Nothing specific, and I don’t think I even bought anything. We DID see those Moroccan trick boxes, and we tried to figure them out. I know that I learned how to do them from the Amazing Race or that other show, but I couldn't do it. Asif (a boy on our program) tried the other day, and ended up breaking (buying) it, so I didn't try too hard. We stopped at a café towards the end of the day, and the Yale professor who came in and spoke with us one of the first weeks (and is a SIT Morocco alum) was randomly at the same exact restaurant as us!! Very random, but nice to see her. After coffee we walked back to the hotel. It was a long walk, but nice because the sun was setting, and the clouds were BEAUTIFUL. We stopped at the grocery store for snax, and then it was almost dinnertime.

I was supposed to meet with the woman from the organization that I was considering working for this summer, Education for All, at like 4, but then she rescheduled to 7 (dinnertime…) so I asked if I could go right after dinner, and she agreed. I was a little flustered, and kind of nervous for the meeting, so I INHALED my dinner and put on a kinda crazy outfit. I called her to make sure she was home, and she was. I took a petit taxi because I didn’t want to get lost, but her house was very close. Her directions were a little confusing so I ended up knocking on her neighbor’s door first. They were not pleased, and pointed to Aniko’s real house. There were two guys kind of loitering, but I kept my cool and ignored them. Aniko came to the door and greeted me with la bise. There was a young (cute) girl behind her ~11 years old I’d say- on the stairway to the house. She had an iPhone in her hand and was taking a pic of a bug that turned out to be a HUMONGOUS BRIGHT GREEN SCORPION THING. Really crazy, but luckily I am not so squeamish about bugs- Ali, u would NOT have reacted well/gotten the job… I bonded with the girl about it, and then we went inside. Aniko offered me a beer or glass of red wine, but I took Mary Devins’ advice to never mix busness with pleasure (aka don’t drink on the job) & I politely declined/asked for a water. Aniko was SO French it was crazy and exhausting. She reminded me of Mary Elizabeth and Nancy: short hair/cool glasses/trendy. She was kind of negative about a lot of things, but not in a mean way. She took a 15 minute call in the middle of our meeting, but I was okay with it. The general summary is: she totally dismissed the notion that I would be able to practice my Arabic while I am here. I showed her my itinerary for the excursion that I was currently on. She asked me who planned it, and basically said that it was a poorly executed schedule, and we were seeing trivial sites. Finally she discredited the Hassilabied Association and said that the women do not get nearly enough money for the amount of work that they do, and I did agree with that point. She had basically already planned my entire 3 weeks during ISP and then my 6 weeks in the summer, but it is not exactly what I want to be doing… She works with girls from rural areas, and I am more interested in both boys and girls from more urban/cosmopolitan areas. She also said that she would hire me a translator, which would be great, but I want to try to do a lot of work in Arabic on my own. The outcome of the meeting was that I was not going to work with her, but I still haven’t told her. I am having trouble creating an email to let her down easily. I also want to ask around in my program to see if anyone would be interested in taking over this project for me (I feel that there might be one or two people who would). I also want to kind of keep her in my back pocket in case (WORST CASE) I can’t find anything else to do (unlikely). Will keep you updanted on this…

I WALKED home (in the dark… alone…on the phone w/my mom…). I felt very cool and like I belonged there. Confidence is key. All of my friends were going out so I had to play catch-up and get ready quickly. A lot of girls were in my room (including Fadoua!!!- the program assistant/”boss”). I knew it was going to be fun. We went to “Gossip”- a place that we had passed the night before on our way to Africa Chic, and it was bumpin. It was fun, A LOT of peeps from my program were there, and the journalism kids too. After that we walked (a long way) to this place called "Silver", which was equally crowded & playing my type of American music. Weird for a Wednesday, but appreciated. We met some nice boys who were from England, and said that they went to Oxford- looking back I think we were lied to…... We took a cab back to the hotel and I slept well after that VERY long day.

2/21/12

We had breakfast at the Dar Taliba and then started our journey to Marrakech. It was a long ride , and I don’t remember anything in particular besides sleeping I guess. We passed “Moroccan Hollywood”- where a lot of Western films are taped. Josh bartered his watch for a dagger… weird, but funny. We got to Marrakech and it was very refreshing. It looked different than any other city that we had been to so far. It was definitely more modern and had a lot of western influence. Later we found out that there was a Club Med right by the medina. We dropped our bags off in our hotel (not bad, but not as nice as the two previous ones that we stayed in). Then we had lunch in the hotel. There was a pretty big salad selection, and BOMB French fries (I had two helpings--- I had to). I then went back upstairs and showered. After our shower we explored a little bit.

Our hotel was not close to the medina so we had to walk a lot. The Marrakech medina is different than any other one we had seen thus far. There is a huge square in the middle with different little pop-up shops (mostly food) and also the animals are in the square. We were warned that the animal keepers sometimes throw the animals on you when you pay them any attention, so I made sure to very seriously ignore them. We got some grapefruit juice and just walked around the medina. People kept leaving and going back to the hotel, but I was interested in staying out as late as I could. Finally I got a little antsy, but neither of the two people I was with wanted to go back yet. We ended up on a street that reminded me a lot of South Beach—I loved it, but a lot of the restaurants had people on the sidewalk trying to get you to come in, so that got kind of annoying. We decided to go into a café. I got a tea and my friends got a delicious banana milkshake/smoothie that I helped them finish. My friend Sydney was in Morocco with her family two years ago, and her tourguide was from Marrakech, so she called him to see if she could meet up with him during the two days that we were there. He called back when wew were at the café and offered to pick us up and bring us back to the hotel (GREAT because we were going to take a taxi otherwise). Hesham is his name, and he was very nice. He encouraged us to speak in Arabic in the car to him, so we did. He really loved it & invited us over for lunch the next day. We agreed and were dropped off at the hotel.

Dinner was weird in Marrakech because instead of having it at the hotel, we were given a 50 dirham (~6 dollars, but goes way farther than 6 USD) food stamp kind of thing that could only be used at McDonalds, Pizza Hut, or the grocery store. We opted for the grocery store option and went across the street to the grocery store. It was fun to see a Moroccan grocery store, but it did not have a lot of the things that I wanted for dinner- a Jefferson or Cromer’s roast chicken in particular. I got tired of the grocery store VERY quickly and just let my friends pick out dinner for us. We ate it on my queen bed in the hotel. We got challah bread (with sugar on top, not salt), three types of cheeses, salt & vin potato chips, bubbly water, a DC for me, chocolate milks, and yogurt. It was a great (but very unhealthy) dinner. THIS WAS OUR DINNER After dinner we met up with some friends and decided to go out on the town as they say.

We went to a place called “African Chic” and it was weird, but fun. Very crowded (especially for a Tuesday) there was live music and they played a lot of songs that we knew- my favorite was “Stand by Me”. “African Chic” hosted a weird group of people and we kind of kept to ourselves, and just sat at our table or danced on the dance floor. We took a petit taxi home, and I finally found a website to stream tv (thanks Sarah) so I fell asleep to an episode of SNL.

20 February 2012

9 a.m: Great day so far. We all woke up and early and went to see the SUNRISE. It was later than we had expected, and some of my friends left before they even got to see it rise because it was kinda light out. That was a very big mistake for them because it was really really cool. At one point I was confused/wondering when it was going to actually rise, but I knew once it started to rise. We then went back to the hotel and BREAKFAST was already set up. I felt like a Moroccan princess. At one point I said out loud (it was probably supposed to stay in my head as a thought) “I am SO happy right now”. It was true, and our friend Josh said that three people had already said that his morning, and that we all said it as we were sipping our (delicious) coffee—interesting. I also peeled a hard boiled egg really well. I only started to eat them here in Morocco, but I am already a pro. Anyway after breakfast we had to leave. I packed up with Ari and we went back to the 4WDs. Our ride out of the desert was more direct and quick than the trip in. We stopped at “Molay Ali Charef” right before we went back on the bus. I thought that it was just a really nice bathroom, but Abdelhay explained that it was actually a tomb of the founder (IDK if that’s the right title) of the current dynasty. It used to be open to Muslims only, but when Hillary Clinton visited a few years ago, the King simply took off the “Muslims Only” sign, and non-Muslims have been allowed inside ever since.

There was a lot of bus riding today. We had more presentations and some people (myself included) had our first meetings with Abdelhay, our Academic Director. The meetings before mine were pretty long, and I couldn’t imagine what they were talking about- I got a little nervous. Alexa finished and said that Abdelhay said that her ideas for the Independent Study Project (ISP--- the last three weeks of our program where we are allowed to observe/study whatever we want to and are expected to produce a pretty long research paper by the end of the three weeks). My meeting went well. He started by asking about my experiences so far and I got like weirdly emo- because of happiness (soft)… I told him that I honestly was not expecting to enjoy myself as much as I am. He said that sometimes happens and they love to hear that blah blah. We then talked about my ISP proposal and he was enthuasitic about it. He gave me a contact to get in touch with when I get back to Rabat. I am going got contact “Fairus” asap because she might have some contacts that I can maybe work with this summer. We arrived at Tinehir soon after my meeting ended and had lunch at the Todra Gorge. It was filled with tourists, and lunch was only okay. Def not good, but the LOCATION definitely made up for the sub-par food. We walked around after lunch, but there wasn’t really a lot to see besides the very high rock walls and the stream in the middle. I often find myself fearing the worse here, and wondered what would happen/what we would do if the rock wall collapsed on us- it didn’t. We got back on the bus ride, and although we just had lunch- I was craving Aji sushi/the rock shrimp that I ate on New Year’s dinner this year.

I love long car rides, but on day 3, the bus finally started to get boring for me. We stopped at (yet another) reststop and Fadoua said that we were about an hour behind schedule, which meant that we had another hour on the road. Some peeps played “never have I ever” which I almost never play, so I took the role as DJ and got out my Jambox. It was hard DJaying for my new friends because I didn’t have the one song that Sara requested (Hips Don’t Lie—I only have it in Spanish????) and I don’t really know their taste of music, so I played what I wanted to.

Anyway we finally made it to “Dar Taliba” in Ouarzazte. It is kind of like the plex- Moroccan version. Dar Taliba stands for house of the (female) students. Female students from the surrounding countryside dorm here in order to be able to safely get to school every day. Boys usually do not have problems biking or walking to school from their rural homes (areas where schools do not necessarily exist), but girls are at risk when traveling- especially after sunset. One of the organizations that is a front-runner for my summer internship creates dormitories like this one, as well as building schools in rural areas. I wanted to learn more about this specific one, but because we were late- the schedule got messed up. We had a little time to get settled into our rooms. We are in bunk beds~ 8 to a room. Then it was time for dinner, or a lecture- we were unsure. We met downstairs at 730, and then went into the dining room. The head “rai-ees” (translates to king/president) of the Dar Taliba said some words in French (Fadoua translated) and basically there were just a lot of random introductions/people welcoming us. The head of their club- “Darnee” (Our house) said some words in English. I didn’t quite catch the beginning of her talk (the Moroccan students at my table were chit-chatting the whole time), but I did catch her say something about the club trying to reduce conflict amongst the girls. I thought of YPN and all of the unnecessary HS fights/drama.-- very similar to the United States. Then it was time for dinner. I wasn’t particularly hungry, but once they brought out the dates and sesamie cookies thing… I became famished. We also had hareera (traditional Moroccan soup)- the girls were telling us to eat, but we heard them say something about kstaksta (couscous, but it's not Friday??!?!) and we decided to stop eating and wait to see what was ahead of us.

They brought out huge platters of couscous for each table! Very a-typical Moroccan Monday night dinner… I told my neighbor that (in Arabic), and she laughed and agreed. The girls at our table talked about boys—they didn’t have a lot of boyfriends like Imane, but two of them were engaged!! After dinner they brought out the two (female) chefs and we thanked them. Someone brought out drums and all of the Moroccan girls started singing and banging drums and dancing. I really enjoyed it, but was SO tired from the sunrise (that was TODAY?!?!?!) that I had a hard time actually becoming totally involved in the festivities. I also wish I knew the songs that they were singing because they were having a blast, and I think I would have too if I had known the lyrics or at least the beat. The women were so smiley and beautiful. It made me so happy. When dinner was over we went back upstairs to our floor and chatted/caught up on emails (We didn’t have internet for a little less than 48 hours, but my friend Sara claimed that she was “off the grid for a few days”… ) It is very upsetting that we (myself definitely included) are so used to being so connected that we get so anxious/crazy when we are not. I liked being in the Sahara because I didn’t have ANY way of communicating- it was not an option, so I didn’t even think about it. I am really going to try to NOT be on my computer at every possible second from now on- it is really unnecessary to be connected as much as I am. Now that I have my computer again- it is always in the back of my mind, and I don’t know how to change that. I haven’t been needing my phone recently, but that is because it is not a blackberry, AND anyone who ever contacts me on it is on this trip with me (besides my mom).

I decided not to shower (it has only been a day) so I just went into the bathroom to brush my teeth and hair. Fadoua was sitting in a stall with her feet in a bucket. She filled the bucket up with hot water and was soaking her feet because they were achy. I told her that I still had sand on my feet, and she got out of the bucket and told me to put my feet in- “it feels soooooooooooo good”. I couldn’t refuse, so I did. She was right. It was very similar to the foot massages that my mom used to give me after basketball games (tarnishing fact about me). I then DIDN’T get into pjs because I was already wearing them (I did all day) and just slithered into my bottom bunk and went to sleep.

Feb 19

Today I woke up from a great sleep and did some research for our bus presentation- did you know that as of 2004, 82% of the Moroccan population had access to an improved water source, and almost 60% of that population had a source tap inside their house? Only 13% of the wastewater goes under treatment, which does not sound like a lot but Morocco has substantially less wastewater that Western countries- thanks to bucket baths, and Turkish toilets. That was essentially my entire presentation… it was good though. Then we had a BREAKFAST fit for a queen: croissants, bread, crêpe-like things that I forget the name of, orange juice, coffee, butter, cheese and jelly. My breakfast was somewhat rushed, and I took some food to go. Alexa took two hard boiled eggs to bring on the bus which was very funny- nobody (herself included) knew what she was thinking. We laughed a lot, so I guess in the end it was a goood thing. We have been hearing terrible things about how cold the Sahara is, so I wore double leggings (black) and a black long sleeve. My friends made fun of me because of my “catsuit”, but it was warm and comfortable. Abdelhay (our Academic Director) also announced on the bus that women in the north/Atlas mountains tend to wear all black, so I was actually very much en vogue. We stopped at the Ziz Valley, which is similar to what I would think the Grand Canyon would look like. I have never had the desire to go there, and now I have satisfied my gorges quota for a while. It was really BEAUTIFUL, and we stayed for about 15 mins admiring it. Back in the bus and onward to Rissani.

On the bus I was thinking about the difference between the bigger cities and the smaller ones/villages. There is a very visible difference between the places that we have traveled on this excursion so far, and Fez/Rabat/Casa. At first these cities did not really seem like cities to me, but after seeing more of the country I am giving these cities my seal of approval. The clothing choices between the cities and more rural areas vary greatly. The women are MUCH more covered up and the men were almost all wearing jelabas. Some women were completely covered up except for one eyeball. I also found it interesting that there is a difference of skin tones here vs. Rabat etc. People here are darker/tanner. We learned in class that Moroccans do not really think about skin color when classifying people, which is great, but I am interested to find out how they differentiate between ethnicities. There is definitely not as must outward emphasis on where people are from and their background as there is in the States.

We get some snacks in between rest stops and someone passed me a bag of what I thought was wasabi peas. They were dried chickpeas instead, and they were SO hard to chew. Again, my dentist is not going to be happy with me come May. If they were wasabi peas I would have had to find some and bring them back for Nick G to replace the entire container that Rachel and I ate one night last semester at the Ridge… There were a lot of animals on the side of the road- particularly donkeys. Although these places that we are visiting are considered cities, there is a very significant difference between these cities, and Rabat. Simo told me to buy things in Risanni because it was cheaper, and will really support the Rissanis, so I was ready to shop. We had lunch first. We ate these pizza-like things (kinda like calzones I think?? Or just stuffed pizza). I sat at a table and everyone was talking about the vegetarian options at their school. I participated and told them about the Freeman (vegetarian) dining hall with soup & bread, and stirfry on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The conversation was weirdly in depth/personal. Somehow I eventually realized that I was sitting at the VEGITARIAN table of the restaurant. I got up rather abruptly and moved my seat. Funny. Anyway the lunch was good (not my favorite, but definitely good). Fruit for dessert (duh) but there were STRAWBERRIES on our dessert tray. They were so beautifully red and delicious. I was a very happy girl. I got some good gifts in Risanni, and I bought myself a (purple) scarf. There was a lot of raw meat in the medina and it smelt REALLY terrible. Here is a picture of the Rissani medina. (Much different from that in Rabat)

After lunch we switched to 4-wheel drives, and I noticed that my camera started to die, which scared me because we were scheduled to ride camels today. I forgot my charger in my other bag under the bus, but I managed to sneak in underneath and grab it before we got in the 4WDs for the day. Not only was I able to grab my camera, I also miraculously got shotgun in a great car with my ladiessss. Usually I would have chatted with the driver, but I was too busy looking out the window. I DID ask him if he was a good driver, and he said yes of course. I obviously buckled my seatbelt, but I was still a bit nervous. We were only on actual road for a short amount of time and then we went “off road”- VERY scary for me, but I kept it cool. We had races with the other FWDs and were blastin Berber music- not too loud though. We did like loop-de-loops and donuts. The view was UNREAL. We could see the dunes, which were a beautiful pinkish/coral color, and our driver pointed out the Algerian boarder (we were the closest to Algeria that we could be without planning to travel there), I later joked- emphasis on the JOKE- that we could make a run for it…

Before we went to our hotel, we stopped at the Hassilabied Association. They help women, particularly divorced or widowed, to become self supporting. They teach them how to read, write, and sew. They also organize a system of microfinance, where they give women one sheep and she keeps it for a year or two, until it reproduces and she can have a sheep of her own. The man said that the organization was initially unpopular in the village, but as more women became interested and started to attend the workshops (often secretly), more women became interested, and now they have about 60 women learning. He also said that some women went to simply learn to sew as a hobby, so they started to charge the women 10 dirham (~1 USD) to join the classes, and weed out the women who might not necessarily use the skills. I was able to charge my camera for a minute at the association, and then we got back in the 4WDs for 35 seconds to look at the irrigation systems in the desert villages.

The system is very ancient, but seems to work. I thought back to Jamie Lieberman’s world history class and the Roman/Persian empire irrigation systems. Certain families have water access on certain days and when it is not their day thy block the water path to their house with mud. This is a PICTURE of the water path/irrigation system. Then we got back into our 4WD and drove to the hotel. It was a MINI CASTLE in the middle of the Sahara. We got off of our 4WDs and got straight onto our camels that were waiting for us across the way.

The camels were very big and dirty. I got a little scared and waited until all of my friends got on them before I got on mine. The men who owned the camels showed us which camels to get on (I assume based on size). The camels sit down (cute) in order for you to get on and when they stand up it’s scary, but then you’up! Daisy’s camel came VERY close to my leg to say hello at one point. Camel riding is not like horseback riding. Your legs have to spread out wider and they are less graceful than horses. Some fun facts about camels are that there are no feral (wild) camels in Africa and all of the men who offer us thousands of camels are liars because there are not even thousands of camels on the entire continent. The camel ride was BEAUTIFUL. We just rode into the desert at magic hour, and then got off and played around. The sand was SO beautiful, but I forgot a container of some sort to capture it. I definitely still have some sand in my shoes, so I guess its okay. We watched the sun set, and our camel leaders made a fire. It was a really great experience.

The way back to the hotel was not as enjoyable for me personally. I tried not to complain, but riding the camels back was much harder than riding them there. It was getting darker (colder), and my camel and I were both tired. I considered getting off the camel at one point and walking, but I am not a quitter!!!! My peers were either having a much easier time for whatever reason, or are much better at hiding their emotions. I loved the camel ride, but I was happy when we got back to the hotel.

Back at the hotel we got our new roommate assignments. I was with Ari (from Brandeis in my Arabic class—VERY good at Arabic) and Beth… We had tea and biscotti and then had a half hour until dinner/the Gnawa music presentation. Dinner was INCREDIBLE. Two people at my table said that it was the best chicken that they had ever had. I am reluctant to say that but it was pretttttttty delicious. It also had preserved lemons in it, which I hadn’t had yet- beneen bizeff (very delicious). The GANAWA music was playing during dinner, which made it hard to talk, but it was good music. After dinner we had more tea, delicious cookies, and more music. After that a bunch of us went to the terrace to look at the stars. It was too hard to get a picture, but I don’t mind. I have never seen as many stars as I did in the Sahara, and I will definitely have the image in my head for the rest of my life- you all will just have to believe me. It was really phenomenal and put a lot of things into perspective- I am a very lucky girl. We went to bed kind of early (I think) because we decided that we would walk out to the desert early in the morning to watch the sunrise. One of my roommates (the one who is not in my Arabic class) and I talked a little before going to bed, and it seems that she is having a very hard time removing herself from her life at home in order to appreciate this amazing opportunity. It was kind of a frustrating conversation, especially because I don’t know her well enough to say what I wanted to (GET OVER IT). Again, I felt even more blessed and aware of the fact that I am SO lucky to be here- and that I should live every moment here to the fullest. On that note, I went to bed.

18 February 2012

I am on my excursion and am having the time of my life. Currently it's day 4 and we just got to Marrakech. Everything has been really really awesome and I wish I could spend the entire semester traveling. I have been "blogging" on pen & paper and then typing them up whenever I get a free minute, so they are a little late. This is the post from day 1-- Enjoy!!

Today was the start of our week-long excursion to Southern Morocco. I woke up right on time and did some last minute packing. I left my house and slipped right into the group walking to the bus- it was great timing, and I am very lucky to live so close to the CCCL. We boarded a bus named “Aya Tours” or something (Aya is my Arabic name in Connecticut), so I knew it was going to be a good trip. We got snack bags (two packs of cookies, a juice box, a drinkable yogurt… “cereal” flavored), this was our breakfast. Delicious, but not nutritious. I took a small nap and then we came to our first rest stop. It was similar to an American rest stop, but there were like three separate jungle gyms, and a pretty nice café.
We finally got to Ifrane to take our tour of Al Akhawayn (the two brothers) University. Three Moroccan students greeted us, and handed out swag bags- a lot of unnecessary papers, a pencil, and a “pocket calendar”. We took a little trip back in time to Junior year of upper school, going on college tours. About 20 years ago there was a huge oil spill right off the coast of Morocco. The government had no money to deal with the situation, so they reached out to their MENA allies. Saudi Arabia gave Morocco money to clean up the spill, but apparently the winds/tides changed, and the spill was cleaned up naturally. In Arab culture it is not acceptable to return a gift (no Indian givers, or re-gifting here!!), so the King had to figure out what to do with the money. He decided (for whatever reason) to build a university based on the North American School system. The product of that decision was, Al Akhawayn (two brothers; named for the late Moroccan King, King Hassan II and late Saudi King, King Fahd. Although this university is obviously partly funded by the Saudi government, our tour guide (SGA President) said that it is not apparent on the campus. He said that they had only five Saudi students, and the Saudi girls do not even wear hijab.
The University is strangely American. I really felt as if I was on a college tour. I could predict the things that our tour guide was saying: “we have X number of clubs, but you can gather your friends and create a new one”, “everyone gets to keep their own mailbox for ALL FOUR YEARS!!!”. We went to the library, which is the third biggest in Morocco. In the lobby of the library there is a sign that says “NO FOOD OR DRINK: 100 DIRHAM FINE” and a table with a TON of water bottles. From that I assumed they did not have the equivalent of a Blue Camel at their school, unfortunate. The tour was interesting, but got kind of boring- especially because we were all getting hungry. The classes are all taught in English, and a lot of students end up continuing their education in the States or other Western countries post-graduation. After our tour we went to the cafeteria, which is weird because I said to myself earlier in the day that I could go for some Harris brunch. The Al Akhawayn University Cafeteria is a far cry from Harris, but that did not stop me from eating my ENTIRE meal—every single bite. We had limited options, but I was satisfied. I chose a tomato and mozz salad, a cheeseburger (which I never eat in Harris, but it was okay to here), fries and a coke zero- hit the spot. After lunch we said goodbye to our tourguides, and were on our way.
We made a pitstop in a town called Azrou. It was not particularly interesting. Definitely rural, and I read in my guide book that the market is only open on Tuesdays, so I guess the town dies on the other days. Our second pit stop was at the cedar forests. It was snowy in this part of the country, but it was not particularly cold. The forest was beautiful, and on the way I saw a monkey on the side of the street! My sighting was confirmed when we were parking in the forest and Abdelhay said that we might see monkeys in the forest! I knew it. Anyway as we were walking into the forest, some men were leading horses around and trying to get us to ride them. Some of my classmates fell for it, but I did not. We didn’t go far into the forests because we only had 15 minutes, but we were able to see the trees, and a few monkeys. Apparently they sometimes grab things from you and are very bold, but these monkeys kept to themselves. It was VERY slippery because of the snow, and we saw an entire Moroccan family eat it domino style. It was very funny. They were laughing too, so it was okay to smile/laugh. Back on the bus!!!
I passed out. We traveled over an hour, but it actually felt like 5 minutes, and I was awoken when we were in Midelt. The hotel that we were staying at was BEAUTIFUL, and warm. I was a very happy girl. We had the same roommates as orientation week, so I was with Sara again. We had time to settle, and then it was dinner, which was on par with the hotel. We had an entire fish to ourselves (trout, with the bones and skin and head). I had some trouble eating it, but it was delish. I ate every bite except the head. There was also some sort of pesto sauce, and rice and fries. I am considering this week vacation, and when we get back to Rabat I am actually going to think about what I eat, and hopefully go on a few more runs. After dinner we had a talk with Abdelhay. He found the owner of the hotel in the restaurant, and he asked if he would talk to use about the area and the hotel. The owner also happened to be the mayor of the town Midelt. He built the hotel in 2004 in order to build tourism in the area. He said that it has been a success so far, but is excited for it to grow even more. Someone asked about the design of the hotel, and he said that it was French inspired, but wanted to keep some authenticity to it. Later in the night Abdelhay said that nothing about the hotel was authentically Moroccan… yikes. The mayor also said that he hired men from a nearby village to carve the wood designs, but he also had to pay for their hasheesh supply because it helped them “concentrate” He was also very open about drinking alcohol, which I found surprising coming from an Moroccan official. The police deputy was also present for the lecture, which was even weirder. This guy was a character. E also told us that he wanted to open a fossil/mediorite/dinosaur museum soon, and that this area is known for the giant meteorite that hit Morocco a while ago. Some people made fortunes off of the space rock that they found in their back yards. Abdelhay continued the discussion by talking about urbanization and the new shift of people moving from bigger towns/villages into smaller developing cities. It would be interesting to come back to Midelt (we are always welcome) in 10 years to see how far the city has come.
I took a marvelously warm shower before bed. I put my pjs on the radiator while I was showering, so they were very warm when I got out. It was heavenly.

big couscous

Friday Feb 17

Today was an amazing day. Nothing Moroccan made it amazing. I want to cut to the chase, but I should tell u a little bit about other things. My "cousin" was crying historically this morning for reasons unbeknownst to me. I have NO idea why, nor did I ask-- It was weird... Very weird, and I felt bad. I heard her say something about "Hamza" which is a boy's name, so IDK if it had to do with a boyfriend, or what. I might be jumping to conclusions as I usually do, and it might have nothing to do with a boy... As I was writing the previous sentence I was interrupted by my sister and we started to talk (she was fighting with her parents and stormed into my room--- weird that after I write a glowing post about the Mansours, things fall apart...) I found out that Fatima wanted to sleep and not make breakfast, which is why she was crying. Here I am thinking that someone died or something, and she is just being a cranky diva (understandable). Anyway she DID make breakfast and then we had Arabic class. Arabic was rough today because we had to read our HW out loud and I was not prepared to do that. I am also not a very quick Arabic reader, and I'm shy in class in general. My teacher asked me what she could do to help (nothing) after class, and I suddenly missed Waed (my Conn Coll teacher) A LOT :( I forgot to mention that we did calligraphy yesterday (al-hat) and it was fun, but again, I miss Waed and Muhammad, Yalla Bina and my entire Arabic fam...

COUSCOUS FRIDAY was today. IDK when I am going to get sick of it, but it was great (as always). I wonder if they give us couscous on the excursion??? Every week the couscous dish gets bigger. I later realized that was because Simo is here, but I was shocked at the size this week. Right before couscous I spoke with my REAL mom and she asked if I would be able to make it when I come home. I mentioned that at the table (hint hint... teach me how) and they basically said that I wouldn't be able to :( faithless.... Anyway we had class again at 2:30 and the Sara(h)s and I had a presentation that we kinda made up on the spot, but kicked ass on. After class we were free TGIF! We had some errands to run before our big trip tomorrow, so we walked out of the medina. Mohammad V is the big street in Rabat, and it goes from outside of the medina to inside. We were at the point where the medina begins when the best (non-Moroccan) thing happened to me...

We usually focus on each other as we are walking and don't really take much mind to the people around us (my family members have stopped me in the street a few times because I did not recognize them passing). This group of people was very hard to miss. It was a group of giants. They totally caught my eye (duh) and I was blatantly staring. I looked closer (squinted) and realized they were all wearing matching sweatsuits... my heart started to beat faster as I came to the conclusion that they were on some sort of team. AN ATTRACTIVE BASKETBALL TEAM. I immediately turned to follow them (shameless) and my friends did not realize what was going on, so they were calling my name- I motioned for them to follow me, but they still didn't get it. I ran back and told them about my discovery, and they rolled their eyes. The team had yet to be identified. Sara told me (i think jokingly) to talk to them, and at first I was like "no noo" but then I jumped to the future and the fact that I would have been very curious/unhappy if I didn't say anything. I scurry-stepped to catch up to them, and I approached this man. It really is all a blur, but basically what I got from his conversation was: Yes, they are basketball players "From France" and they were here for the week (leaving on Sunday). They are going out tonight to the "Irish Pub" (bar in Hotel Rabat). I told them that we were students and we are here till May. He said "wow" very surprised, and it made me sad because I am actually going to be here till AUGUST, which is even longer.... Regardless- it was definitely the most refreshing thing that has happened to me thus far, and it sparked my interest to look more into Moroccan basketball. ~~~ I asked Simo about it tonight, and could not get a lot out of him besides the fact the he runs track (IDC) and that there seems to be some sort of Moroccan intramural team that plays in the area.~~~ When I met back up with my friends after our conversation, Alexa told me I smelt like the bball player I was talking to-- I LOVE that, and not washing that outfit for a long time. I was so set on going to the Irish Pub, but obv we didn't because we have to be at the CCCL at SEVEN THIRTY TOMORROW. Terribleeeee. I did research and the team that they were on is JDA Dijon Bourgogne I know that not a lot of you care about this, but I am literally still smiling from my interaction with them, and will be holding onto it for a long time. Imagine 15 TALL, STRONG, ATTRACTIVE men trying to navigate thru THIS.... It was priceless, and definitely a sight to see. It also made me realize how incredibly small the men are here. Very few tall men, and they all have the skinniest little legs/bodies in general. My friends on my program did not truly appreciate the significance of this event for me, so I hope that at least a few of you can. I really wish I wasn't leaving tomorrow- I would definitely have gone to the Irish Pub and made friends with them. I am not kidding.

After the bball boys sighting we went to a drugstore type thing that had a TON of products... then a home improvement-type store (like Surprise Surprise) and then a juice bar- I got Papaya Ginger... A little heavy on the ginger. Then we putzed around a little and went home. My "mom" did my laundry, but didn't fold it. I folded my clothes. I was thinking of the time when I folded Ron's sweater for him in the Blue Camel and he said that I was a great clothes folder-- That was my motivation. I then packed for the excursion (probably not enough believe it or not) and then I hung out with my friends and Simo and his friends. We ate chips and this nut mix thing that has peanuts, almonds, something crunchy and sunflower seeds. I told my "mom" I wasn't going to be home for dinner, but I did make it in time and was able to have some soup before I came into bed.

Dinner was funny because Imane (my sister) was NOT HAVING whatever my "parents" were telling her to do. I actually saw myself in her place in like Middle School. She has mastered the eye roll quite well. I figured out that Imane has to go to her dad's friend's house tomorrow to be tutored in Math, and she does not want to. The main reason why she doesn't want to is because she won't be allowed to wear make-up and she has to go to the Hammam before (9 am-- on a Saturday!!). This tutor conversation turned into more parental nagging, and she eventually stormed off. Her mom came into our room as we were talking, and simply asked if i wanted to give her my American money and they would give me Moroccan dirhams. I did, and they said that if I want to do it again they are willing... I am unclear as to why exactly they want to do this, but I think it's okay? Imane said it had to do with them traveling to Saudi Arabia??? IDK ... I am not really sure, but I don't have to pay the extra fee if I do it like this, so I am okay with it.

Get excited for excursion posts & pix

Ni niii