Saturday Feb 11

My alarm rudely woke me up at 9:15 and I suddenly remembered my friend from the train and got up. Our friend Liza knocked on our door and we (Claire, Sara, Liza, and Sophie) went to breakfast in the hotel. Alexa and Sarah were sleeping still. My friend- his name is Fahd- called me and said that he was outside of the hotel, so I went out and met him. He also told me that his cab driver said that he couldn't freely take us around in the medina bc there are a lot of undercover cops (I have developed a fascination with law enforcement here) and tour guides are required to have a license. We were willing to pay for a tour guide bc the medina apparently is not very easy to navigate, and there are a lot of hagglers/ppl who talk. We weren't sure if Fahd was expecting to be paid, but he was an older man who seemed to be doing this out of the goodness of his heart. Our AD told is to be cautious, but that there are also a lot of genuinely nice ppl in Morocco, and I could tell that Fahd was one of them. Fahd said that we should go to the police station so we could tell them about the situation, and that he wasn't a criminal on the off-chance that an undercover cop approached us. We went to the police station and there was nobody in the tourism division so we just made copies of our passports and basically Fahd told the cops that if something bad happened (God forbid) he was responsible. He didn't fill out any forms to get an actual certificate or permit bc he wasn't planning on doing this again. We got everything settled and took a petit taxi (red) back to the medina. Fahd showed us around both historic sites and shopping places. The Fes medina was different than the Rabat one… more crowded and daunting. There were also random DONKEYS walking around that one man said "MEDINA TAXI!!" and pointed to it… I thought that was funny AND he was wearing a Knicks hat (GO NY GO NY GO). We saw the oldest university in the world and a number of other madrassas/mosques etc. We had to pay to enter most of the buildings so we just admired from the outside. We saw the water clock that people have deconstructed, but could not figure out how it functions. It looked different than I had imagined and it was in a random part of the medina. I definitely would have missed it if Fahd hadn't showed us. We went into a pottery store that was beautiful and had beautiful pottery too. store and pottery pic I wasn't in a bargaining mood, but Fahd helped my friends get some food deals and we got a feeling of how much we should ACTUALLY be spending in these shops (MUCH less than the original asking price). We went to a beauty / argan oil place and Fahd helped me bargain a bottle of natural (scent-less... The real stuff) oil from an asking price of 100 dirhams to 60 (~7 USD). I also accidentally stole a nut from the argan display that they had.. There were two old women who were pressing the it's to make oil. It was a little weird and out of place-very touristy. (PICTURE) Sara and Sophie got this weird lipstick (actually turned out to be cool) that was green but went on like bright pink (weird, but cool). Then we walked around the traditional clothing area (slippers & jelabas) when we were stopped by a man wearing normal clothes who showed us his police badge. He spoke to Fahd and this time i knew exactly what he was saying... There was an intense exchange and i interjected and somehow it came out that we were American students studying Arabic and everything was okay, so the man improved his mood and gave us a "WELCOME TO MOROCCO!!! enjoy ur stay" spheel. I really think that Fahd would have been in big trouble if we hadn't made that police station pit stop in the morning. We then saw that man standing around (in cognito) like 2 more times and he was very friendly. We then went to the tanneries (what Fes is known for). We were lead up a lot of stairs and were given sprigs of mint bc it smells bad. We went to the terrace (it was smelly) and saw a BEAUTIFUL panoramic view of Rabat, and the tanneries beneath the building. There were HUGE buckets of different neutral colors and almost an assembly line of a few men each curing the skin at a different station. You watched the tannery action from the terrace and then the store selling the leather products was downstairs. The man who was guiding us through the tannery said that it was a co-op of one family that had over 100 members, but Fahd said that he didn't like the tannery industry bc it is not fair to the ppl who do the most work. He also noted the fact that some tanneries have recently switched from natural products (saffron, mint, turquoise etc) to using chemicals which is cheaper, but very detrimental to the environment &the workers. We went downstairs to do some shopping, but i honestly didn't really see anything that I thought was totally worth buying. Nobody bought anything, but the tannery was a great experience. We then were starting to get hungry, so we asked our tannery guide for a good restaurant close by. He told us to follow his friend (from a distance bc of the undercover cops) and we did. Be brought us to a restaurant that was kind of dark and seemed dirty, so we looked at the menu (it was also expensive) and decided not to go there. We stumbled around and found another restaurant that was French and looked great. We went up to the terrace and sat down. It had a BEAUTIFUL view Lunch here is always a three course meal (like my last lunch in NYC at Riverpark), so I picked a cheese omelette (a meal in itself) for an app, brochettes (chicken skewers) for my main course and "French pastries" for dessert. The food took a long time, but was worth the wait. We INHALED our oms and Fahd was like "u must be hungry" (duh). Good lunch, but we had to rush it at the end bc Liza had to go back to Rabat to go to a wedding !!! (she said it was okay- I will get more deets tomorrow). So we rushed and I ate like 15 mini cookies and an orange in a minute. Literally. And then we were like speed walking (VERY QUICKLY) thru the streets of the medina. I was tired and felt stuffed and sick. We got to the edge of the medina and had walked so far into it that we had to take a petit taxi to get back to the hotel. Liza and Fahd took the first one and then the rest of us got in the second after getting cash and admiring the outside of the medina. When we got back, Fahd was speaking sternly to the man at the front desk. Liza was only staying for one night bc of the wedding, but they made her pay for two bc we (stupidly, very very stupidly) didn't have her check out at checkout time and it was now 5 pm. It sucked that happened, but it was totally our fault. Liza was nervous about the train so she just paid, and left. We then bid Fahd farewell and went upstairs for some much deserved rest. Alexa and Sarah spent the day with Noor bc they woke up so late, and they came back a little bit after us. As it turns out, Noor owns a Riad in Fes, so he invited us over for dinner. I was SO tired and didn't want to go really (Sophie, Sara and I were thinking about Chinese food*)... But as always we were convinced. *Asian feast pushed to TuesdayValentines Night ladies dinner (ladies nights never get old, but I'm wondering if they will after this lady-filled semester...). We had an hour until we had to be at Noor's so I power napped, baby powdered, and brushed face washed teeth (lol- did anyone catch that? R u still reading?????). We took a cab to the Riad, where we were greeted by an old man with white hair and a large cartoon-like dark mustache. Noor came out and paid for the taxi and then brought us inside. The Riad is really great. Its very Moroccan (kinda under construction) and has a lot of stairs and rooms. We went to the terrace at the top and it was amazing. Noor said we were having a BBQ (for some reason I was anticipating having delicious baby back ribs -- in my dreams). It was cold out, but he brought us into an enclosed glass HEATED area with a lot of couches and music and flashing lights. We sat down and chatted and then Noor broke the news.... We were having (Connecticut College) camel burgers for dinner. I think I am moderately adventurous with food, but I was incredibly wary & nervous for this one. Sara is a vegetarian so she was struggling with it more, but how could IIIIII eat one of my own?? The idea of eating a camel was nauseating, but I didn't really have any time to think about it even because they were almost ready, so that was good. We watched one of the chefs cook them, and they looked like mini sliders... There were also bright red tomatoes and jalapeños, but no cheese or fries..... The cook brought them inside when they were ready and we kinda just dug right in. They were VERY good. They were well done, but still juicy and tasted almost exactly like a cheeseburger (sans cheese). I had three and a half. Unreal. I was very appreciative of this opportunity because I really think I would NEVER have ordered a camel burger on my own, but I am proud to say that I ate & and liked it. I also felt bad for the camels, but I got over it very quickly. When we finished we moved to the other side of the room and were socializing etc. Noor's friend (i forget his name, but it started with an H) and I were talking a lot and he was telling me alll about being Moroccan today. He professed his love for me when I said "esdeeHam" (overcrowding-I've actually used this word a LOT here... Who would have thought!!!) about Moroccan streets. We took bathroom breaks and the bathrooms were SO NICE- a rarity here. Hot water for our hands and toilet paper and western toilets AND beautiful tubs with showerheads.... We realized that the majority of us were Pisces (Sophie was born March 6th, and Noor is Feb 28th.... Can I ever have my OWN birthday????) and Noor said he would host our birthday party at the Riad. I am pretty sure he was serious about it, and I was SO SERIOUS… I talked about it a lot and am going to make a playlist soon… I am incredibly excited for my 21st birthday in MOROCCO (exactly 3 weeks from today… I suggest you start to send your bday packages now). Time passed and we decided to go to another live performance thing. We passed right thru security and didn't have to pay a cover charge because Noor knows EVERYONE. The live music was better than the dj the day before, but it still wasn't really my type of music…. It was a lot of fun, but kind of an older crowd. There were women in the club- my friends said they were all prostitutes, but I don't agree/don't want to jump to conclusions. I was very hungry at the end of the night, but they said that nothing would be open… We went home late, but earlier than the night before. We saw that Whitney Houston died and listened to her music in the hotel before passing out…

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