I am going to start to be less detailed about the excursion because I am getting very behind. (I am writing about March 14th on March 23rd- TGIF EVERYONE)
We woke up and had breakfast and then said our good-byes. It was very sad, but I hope to visit again. We took a short bus trip to Ouazzane to Abdelhay’s house. It was un-real. VERY beautiful. It was very classy Moroccan. I loved it. SUCH a nice change from the village, which I also loved. He loves Jazz music, so it was playing and there was a fountain… I felt like I was in a resort. Very funny and different than where we were less than a half hour earlier. Here is the view from the terrace of his HOUSE- emphasis on the house part, not a restaurant or hotel… We took a tour, and it might as well be a house or a hotel because it was very big. Beautiful & fragrant plants, which I have been noticing more and more of around Morocco recently- I love it. Okay so after the tour we went to the infamous olive press. The olives are not in season now, so unfortunately we couldn’t see it totally in action. We learned that a Moroccan olive tree produces 1/3 less olive oil than the Spanish olive trees because Moroccans do not use machines, nor do they take very good care of their olive trees. We debriefed the village stay, but that was uninteresting for you.
After our conversation we all sprawled out on Abdelhay’s terrace outside. Remember the camp game “dead worms”- that was us. It was great. We had tea and cookies and coffee and then we had to leave- our second sad departure of the day. I sat with Josh on the way to Chefchaouen. The fact that I went to a Quaker school growing up came up, and talking about Friends made me miss it a lot. We got to Chefchaouen and were dropped off a little bit from the hotel. My bag was heavy and the street was kind of slippery, but I made it without falling. We got to pick our roommates. Sara and I stayed in a total princess room- we later found out that every room was like that. It was still great & comfortable.
We had some exploring time before dinner. Chefchaouen is in the mountains (I thought it was on the water for some reason) All of the buildings are blue. Like this and this. It is also very hilly, and I could feel my out-of-shape glutes working hard. We wandered around the small city and then ran into our friends who told us about this very cool spice shop. It reminded me of an old apothecary—like Bigelow’s! It was a little different, but there was soap hanging everywhere, spices, incense, and lotions. I bought a LOT. If you are reading this post right now, it is pretty likely that you will get a gift from this shop in May… The man spoke Darija to me and I didn’t really understand him, but I pretended to (laughed when he laughed, acted surprised when I thought something sounded surprising etc.). I like to think that because of my interaction with him I got a discount. I DID get some free gifts for myself, so that was nice. The bag was incredibly heavy. I forgot that I already had a heavy bag, and our excursion was only half way over. Uh-oh! I hadn’t showered yet- my friends were very fresh & clean, so I broke off and headed back to the hotel to shower for dinner. The shower was alllllright, but it did feel VERY good to take one. Sara got back as I was getting out of the shower, and we were both equally tired and grumpy. I later found out that I was hungry too, but we were VERY anti-Moroccan food. We all walked to the restaurant together.
We saw (thru our puppy dog eyes) a million pizza restaurants. I was very tempted to break off from the group and stop in one of them, but I resisted. I was very evil at the dinner table because I was so so sooo anti-moroccan cuisine. I have never felt this way before. I really hated the soup, UNTILL thy told me that it was carrot soup (I thought it was bissrah). We also had very tender and delicious red meat (I think lamb, but I never know…) tajine. I came to the conclusion that if I had to eat only one animal for the rest of my life it would definitely be cow (even though I was fully enjoying the lamb). I am going to have thirty steaks and thirty-five cheeseburgers when I come home. Anyway, I realized at that dinner that I really AM a toddler. A lot of people are going to laugh, you just realized this NOW. But once I am hungry- its all over. Feed me and I am a-okay-ready-to-go!
Okay, so after dinner we had more free time. It was COLD outside (I was still in my day clothes). So I wanted to go back to the hotel. My friends and I got separated a little bit, but Josh insisted on walking me home (very nice, but not necessary). We met up with friends and went on a hunt for snacks. They bought some from a street cart, but I didn’t need any because I still had milanos from Kristen Wissmar- so great. After snacks we went back to the princess pad, talked and did some internet time and then slept like –drumroll plzzzz- PRINCESSES!
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