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.
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