En las calles de España: Me encanta Marruecos

Because I need to finish my final paper for the semester and pack for PARIS (wooo!), I'm going to try to not take as long to write this post. However, since it is about my 5 day trip to Morocco, we did so many things and I have so many pictures that it is still going to be kind of really long. I'm sorry! I personally would take some snack breaks. If you're even reading this I appreciate it and applaud you, because I know better than anyone that my posts are pretty much always too long.

My trip to Morocco was AMAZING. It was five days long and completely set up through my study abroad program. In fact, this trip was one of the reasons I chose SIT in Spain. So when I got very sick the Sunday before we were supposed to leave, I was in a bit of a panic that I would not be able to go. Thankfully, antibiotics and endless care from my host mom got me over it fast enough, and I was fine for the whole trip!

DAY 1

Even before leaving Spain we got to see something cool- the coast of Africa! It was only a 45 minute ferry ride to change continents.

This is not a cool picture, except if you look to the right of that statue far away in the middle of the picture and realize that that is North Africa!

Met tour guide Abdu-Salem, who was with us all week. Fluent in Arabic, English, and French, and big player in making the trip so amazing.

Went to a women's center in Tanger for lunch. It was a really cool community center that teaches skills like cooking and weaving to help women be independent and make a living after they've gotten out of a bad situation. It was the first of many INCREDIBLE meals that week.

RODE CAMELS! It was so short and tourist-y, but come on. We rode camels in Morocco. I have a disproportionate amount of photos for how little time we actually spent there... here's just four:

Went to the Cave of Hercules, which is beautiful, and has a natural cut-out to the ocean almost in the shape of Africa.

DAY 2

Walked around the city of Asilah, where we stayed the first night. Aside from it's already beautiful blue and white buildings and seaside atmosphere, this town's biggest tradition fascinates me. Every year, it has an arts festival where people paint murals on all of buildings in the whole town, and when the festival finishes, they white wash everything again until the next year! Luckily, there are some murals here and there to get an idea of what this explosion of color must look like when it's all painted.

(taken at night)

how cute is this school?

market

Went to some ancient (Roman?) ruins, with a pretty much intact amphitheater. Abdu-Salem had us put on a play in it too.

Went to a rural home for the night...which was SO cool. The house was built around an open-air center, and in front of all the bedrooms was a kind of porch all the way around with low couches and tables everywhere. We ate delicious food, had henna done, and chatted with some of the people who lived there in Spanish or English (Moroccan families often live together with their extended families, at least with the grandparents.)

DAY 3

saw beautiful mountains

ate this food (which is a small, small example of what
we ate all week. Each meal is huge, and I seriously
loved most of the food I had.)

DAYS 4 & 5

The rest of our time in Morocco was spent in the beautiful city of Chefchaouen. We stayed in a hotel that seemed out of a movie, walked through the town bartering for rugs and blankets, explored spice shops, and even got to work with some local artisans to create a painting, weaving, or leather product. We were also lucky enough to meet with some students who are part of an educational organization dedicated to local agriculture expansion and education. I have never been so impressed with a group of teenagers as a whole. Some of these girls were 16 years old, and were fluent (I mean to the point of not even having an accent) in English, quite proficient in French, and of course fluent in their native Arabic. They had spent a semester in America as high school students. This was typical of many people we encountered in Morocco...we were definitely exposed to a lot of people who work in the tourism industry and in education, but I really think Moroccan people have a dedication to learning that most people don't have in the US. Many of the students walk hours every day to and from school in the rural areas. I personally was in Spanish classes all during high school and just spent a semester in Spain, and was no where near the level of fluency that these people had after a shorter time with my (very difficult) language. But these students were so unbelievably friendly and inviting, which is also a hallmark of Moroccan culture.

We were invited to pair off and go eat lunch at the students' houses with their families, and then they took us around the city to shop and sight see. The girls we were with were so sweet. After cooking a whole meal for us, they wanted to show us everything, bought us little things to remember Chefchaouen by, and took so many pictures with us on their phones (they were 16-year-old girls, after all). That experience was such a wonderful one for me, and part of the reason I really loved Morocco so much. There were so many little things that week; stories from our hosts, new foods, walking through markets and tanneries, overwhelming smells, scares over drinking tap water, chatting with the workshop painter in Spanish. If you ever get the chance to go, do it! You will not regret experiencing this culture.

Chefchaouen: