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.