When in Africa…

Sorry it’s taken so long to update about my weekend in Morocco! Definitely a memorable trip, that’s for sure. We started traveling on Friday afternoon, a 3 hour bus ride to Algeciras followed by an hour ferry to Ceuta (Spanish territory in Africa). I even got to see the rock of Gibraltar. We had to go through Moroccan customs at the border then followed the coast to our hotel in Tetuoan. The hotel was surprisingly great. Turns out the Dream’s Hotel (I think someone goofed on the punctuation because this implies that a man/woman with the last name Dream owns the hotel) is a four star, two-year-old hotel. Not too bad. (pics to be uploaded once Spain starts believing in high speed internet) Additionally, all meals were included. I’m not going to lie and say that Moroccan food is great, but free Moroccan food is. Cous-cous is delicious as well as these cookies they kept serving us all the time that were kind of like shortbread gingersnaps- strange and scrumptious. Saturday was the big tour day. We spent all day touring the markets of Tetuoan and Tanger. It was like seeing an entirely different world. It definitely smelled like another world. But in all seriousness I have never seen such a difference in lifestyles and cultures firsthand. It was rare to see a woman on the street without children; it was as if single women don’t exist. As much as we were watching and looking at the people in the bazaars, they were staring at us. I did manage to find some neat souvenirs from the trip. Although tempted to buy a carpet and engraved daggers for cheap, I decided to pass this time around. The final day of our trip we visited a much less touristy town of Chefchaouen. The bus ride up into the mountains was worth it in itself. This city built between two peaks was actually clean and well maintained and had smaller markets that had much more friendly people that didn’t beg for money. Our guide for the day will soon be the mayor of the town; he was a very intelligent guy that spoke Arabic, French, Spanish and English. I did discover that I don’t like haggling for low prices with old foreign men. That’s not to say I didn’t barter for good prices, it’s just an entirely frustrating process. When we were in Tanger the one shop owner followed us out of the store and continued to hassle my one friend about not buying a necklace until we got on the bus. Yeah, a bit much.

I came home to find my senora waiting for me. After dinner, she said she had a gift. Ana gave me a pair of orange pajamas with hearts and bears on them. Absolutely hysterical. Even better, she made me try them on to make sure they fit and then proceeded to take a picture of me in them. Meanwhile this entire time of me modeling my new pajamas, Ana’s best friend who comes over every night (Paritu) is just laughing away. When I asked Ana why she wanted a picture, she explained to me that she needed a picture of me to keep so she could show the next student. So, the student that will be staying with Ana next semester will definitely get a good laugh at the girl with the ridiculous pajamas. I just hope they’re not from U of I haha
I just got some letters in the mail! Thanks for the cards!!!!!!!!!!