Packing, take one...

Morocco was amazing…I know, I say that about every country, but it’s true.  I have not gone to a country I haven’t liked.  We woke up for sunrise again, but sadly there was no sunrise.  It was so cloudy that you only saw it get slightly lighter out.  We were all pretty sad that this was our last foreign sunrise and there wasn’t really one.  So, we had breakfast and went back to bed.  The ship wasn’t cleared until after 11 and since I had a trip at 1 it seemed pretty pointless to try and take the 20 minute walk out of the port and explore the city for a few minutes before taking the 20 minute walk back (they started shuttles later on that day).

 

At one we had our city orientation.  The orientation was a bit odd, but we managed to make it fun.  Our first stop was at a fresh fruit market (where we were recommended not to eat the fruit or meat or basically anything in the market).  Our tour guide also didn’t let us wander on our own…she called it a “group shopping trip.”  It was a bit ridiculous.  We walked into this market area and the outside smelled like garbage, but once we walked in we were surrounded by the smell of flowers then as we continued we discovered that everywhere else smelled like old meat and there were full carcasses hanging outside everywhere dripping blood into the streets.  Also, there were tiny tortoises being sold everywhere.  Our guide assured us many times that they do not eat them, but they are sold for decoration or pets for a garden.  Next we went to see the king’s palace.  Since this palace is still in working order, we were not aloud in, but we got to see it from the outside and that was beautiful.  When we left there he took us to a really neat looking church.  The walls were completely covered in stained glass and it looked so neat from the inside.  However, the next stop was where I really wanted to go…the Hassan II Mosque.  It was absolutely gorgeous.  I think it was my favorite mosque.  It maybe tied with the Blue Mosque, but I’m not sure.  From a feng shui perspective, it was awesome.  The mosque is built over the water.  90% of the mosque is actually over water.  It is the only mosque that non-Muslims can visit and only during certain times of the day, so as to not disturb those who pray.  I really liked that about this mosque because I felt it is weird to have us watch people pray and disturb them.  The inside was just as cool as the outside.  Since this mosque was newer, the ceiling opened up mechanically.  The ceiling was very high, but I cannot imagine what it’s like when the ceiling is gone.  On the floor in a few spots there is some glass that looks down into the wash rooms.  During prayer time there is water on top of the glass.  The entire place is massive, but it looks much smaller.  When you walk through you feel like you must be almost to the end, but it is still so much further.  They also showed us the washrooms downstairs and the baths which were also huge and decorated in beautiful patterns.  When they brought us out we didn’t have much time left, so we skipped getting out at the beach (which I was happy for…it just seemed like a tourist trap to me).  We drove around the city and our tour guide told us what everything was, then we drove back so that we could get onto the bus again and go to our reception.

 

We didn’t have time to get on the bus and off again, so we luckily had thought ahead and worn nicer clothes in order to go out.  We also had been under the impression that this would be dinner, so we didn’t eat.  The bus we took was a small rickety school bus which Carly and I were so excited for.  It was nice to be in something that wasn’t a taxi and wasn’t a tour bus.  We sat by the window (which opened) and enjoyed the ride to the US Consulate office.  There were only about 25 of us going (the smallest trip I’ve been on).  When we got there they took away our bags and we were not aloud to take pictures (so, no pictures from this trip yet), but our photographer on the ship managed to convince them to take her camera in.  We met a bunch of students from the local university when we entered.  They were all so nice.  There were small orderves and some drinks, but no real food.  There was a really awesome live band (which made it difficult to talk sometimes).  We spent the entire night talking to the students and a few teachers.  Muhammad and Hussein we talked to the most.  They were really nice.  Muhammad invited me to come stay at his house if I ever came back to Morocco and we all exchanged information.  I think it’s finally time I got Skype.  This was also my first time drinking Moroccan mint tea!  It was so incredible.  The man who was serving it the special way made me sit with him at one point so that the photographer that they hired could take my picture…not sure, but it may have been for a newspaper…who knows.  I had two cups of tea though and Hussein told me that I would probably not sleep that night because of the amount of caffeine, but I got tired as soon as we got in the bus.  We were all sad to go, but I was so hungry by this time that I almost welcomed it.  When we got back to the ship we immediately went upstairs to get some food from the snack bar and then went to bed since I was exhausted.

 

The next morning I woke up early and went to meet my group to leave for our overnight.  On girl showed up wearing really short shorts (you could see most of her but) and a strapless shirt…I was so happy when they asked her to go change (twice since the second time she had just put a cardigan over it).  That sort of thing is just disrespectful to the country.  She said that she should be aloud to wear that since we were all told in Egypt that it wasn’t safe and she wore it and was fine.  I don’t really care if she was fine, it’s disrespectful.  So, we all got onto the bus and headed out on our three hour drive to Marrakech during which I slept most of the drive.  Our first stop was at a really beautiful garden which was created because an explorer a long time ago would bring back a new plant whenever he returned home.  It was a very relaxing stop.  When we left there we went to lunch near the famous square in Marrakech.  The food was really good.  Everything we ate was cooked in tagene (sp?) and was so flavorful and so heavy that we all got full after our first course.  We, however all made room for the desert which was absolutely incredible.  Deserts here tend to involve some sort of fruit (which they recommended we not eat, but none of us listened).  The desert was slices of oranges with crushed almonds and cinnamon sprinkled on top then we also had some pastries, but they were nowhere near as good as the oranges.

 

After dinner we were brought through the square (we were not aloud to look around since we were on our way somewhere) and we were brought to a spice and apothecary type place.  They stood in front of us and showed us some spices that cure certain ailments and some scents that cure things.  One mix of spices actually helped with “diabetes sickness.”  Upon further exploration, I found out that it was supposed to help with sugar control (I did not get this, as it was pretty expensive).  It was really interesting.  They let us try almost everything and we smelt ridiculous by the end, I’m sure.  I got some Moroccan mint tea to bring back and some spices and headed off to one of the few palaces which is not still in use.  It was really beautiful in parts, but they were trying to fix it up, so there were painters everywhere and paint was peeling in some rooms.  Then we went to another older palace which was now only used as a museum and the palace itself was hardly kept up.  It was interesting and neat, but it was around 100 degrees inside and by this time we were all quite hot and tired.  When we left, he brought us back to the square where we had about 30 minutes to walk around the performance part of the square.  Before getting there we had been warned that they will come up behind you and put snakes around your neck and ask you to take a picture and then pay them.  We were also told that taking pictures of the snake charmers would cost us money as well.  The first tent some of us stopped at did not appear to be charging anyone to take pictures, so I did and didn’t get charged anything.  However, while I was standing there, a man came up behind me and put two snakes around my neck.  I wasn’t really scared by this since I don’t really mind snakes, but I just said no and tried to back away.  Before I was able to get away, he grabbed both ends of the snakes around my neck and used them as a sort of leash, asking everyone around me to take a picture of me as he dragged me around the crowd.  I was terrified.  I yelled no and told him to take them off me so many times, but he didn’t seem to even care.  I mouthed help at a few friends standing nearby and they realized what was going on and started yelling at him to let me go.  Finally he let me go and walked away quickly.  Another man came towards me and a friend with snakes and I stared him directly in the eye and yelled no at him and as he walked away he said “relax” to me.  I wasn’t happy at all at this point.  I was ready to leave, but our tour guide had walked further into the square and was now near the bunch of people who were putting sickly looking monkeys on people while they weren’t looking.  They carried the monkeys around on leashes and sometimes hung them that way.  They looked like they were treated terribly.  I felt so bad for them.  I just wanted to leave the square, but we were stuck there for a little longer.  Since most of us had already had something bad happen to us, we all were standing in a large clump and watched each other’s backs.  When we finally got to leave, we went to our hotel where I proceeded to take a two hour nap.

 

That night we all met in the lobby to go out again to a “folk show.”  It wasn’t as much a folk show as Disneyland, Moroccan style.  The entire place was covered in tourists.  The buildings were all in an Aladdin style and all of the musicians looked miserable.  They brought us into this big tent which looked really cool.  This is where we ate.  The food was ok, nothing special.  The fruit at the end was delicious and I ate so much of it, I didn’t care if I got sick.  Even the mint tea wasn’t very good.  After we were done eating we went outside to where there was a horse show that was supposed to start soon.  We watched as they rode their horses around and did cool tricks.  The horses didn’t seem to be treated all that well.  I especially hated it when they cantered them all the way down the ring in a straight line and then all of them fired off huge guns off their backs at the same time as they made them come to a sliding stop.  Parts of it looked cool, but I was really disappointed.  We were told we were going to get a sense of traditional Morocco, but this was the most I have felt like a tourist the entire voyage.  The other tourists there were being obnoxious and making everyone there pose for their pictures and they would complain.  On the ship we always talk about the difference between a tourist and a traveler and I think that most of us have moved into the traveler mindset and this was just disappointing.  I think most of us were thankful when it was over.  We all walked quickly out of the facilities and got back into our bus.

 

The next morning we got up at 7am and went down to breakfast which was a really American style breakfast.  Our first stop after getting on the bus was at a place that makes pottery.  It was located on the side of the highway and there were no other buildings around.  There was a huge field behind that had a man riding a donkey for most of the time we were there.  He made a tagene in front of us as well as a little pot.  Then we got to look around the shop and see his kiln.  We didn’t spend too much time there which was good since there wasn’t much to do there. Next we drove off further into the countryside, Ourika Valley.  Originally we were supposed to take a short hike, but the area we were supposed to hike to was closed for the season, so we went to a Berber village (Berbers are the original inhabitants of Morocco, they came before the Arabs).  The village was on a hillside and it was like walking into another time.  There was very little electricity and most people there made pottery or rugs or raised chicken.  One of my favorite scenes from this village was a donkey started walking into a woman’s house and she began shooing him away with her broom that she had obviously made herself and he walked away and started chewing on a nearby tree while she continued to sweep.  We walked all around this town and went to a family’s house and drank tea with them.  They prepared it in front of us which is tradition and showed us how it was made (with tons of sugar).  The tea was delicious and they were nice enough to show all of us around their home.  The home was small and seemed very traditional.  They had their own Hamam (a bath) right by their kitchen.  I’ll show you pictures later since I don’t think I can really describe it.  After we left we wandered back down the hill and turned the bus around in a very dangerous feeling way.  We stopped for a couple minutes at a place where a Jewish “religious figure” (as he called it) lived and his tomb was inside.  It wasn’t that interesting, so most people didn’t get out of the bus.  I wanted to see the view down into the valley, so I got out and took pictures of that.

 

Our next stop was back at the square in Marrakech where we finally got free time after eating a lunch at the same restaurant as the day before.  I bought my pillow (which I got down from 600 Dirham to 200 Dirham) and we just explored a bit before getting back in the bus and heading back to the boat (ship).

 

The drive back seemed so much longer than the ride there.  We all seemed to be going crazy very slowly.  Rachel and I kept sticking our heads between the seats and saying hi to each other and the guy next to me (who must have thought I was insane) kept laughing at us.  At least he joined in our jokes a bit after a while.  When we finally got back to the ship we had just about lost our minds.  When we got on the ship we all had to run to dinner in order to get some food before it closed.  My grand plan was to do a little packing so I would know if I needed to go out the next day and buy a bag.  So, I took out my hard bottomed suitcase, took out all of my souvenirs and spread them all over the room.  Then I rearranged them, stared at them a bit and put them back into the places I had pulled them from and put my suitcase away…I’ll start packing today instead.

 

The next day I only had 12 Durham left, so I wasn’t planning on buying anything, but I decided to go out anyway and shop with some friends.  We wandered around one of the bazaars and I found a pillow that I loved even more than the one I saw the day before and since I was still under budget for this country, I decided I should just get it.  It is so gorgeous.  Both of them are made out of camel leather and are so pretty.  When we were all done shopping around the bazaar we headed over to the mosque.  Two of the people we were with hadn’t been yet, so they were going to go inside while we sat outside and gazed at its beauty.  At one point a bunch of black cars came up to the edge of the mosque escorted by two police cars, but we got over to the crowd too late and never figured out what was happening.  We’re just going to say it was the king.

 

When we were done there we returned to the ship for lunch and went back out afterwards to the bazaar that was within walking distance. I still had my 12 Dirham and I was insistent on using it on buying myself some henna.  I didn’t think I’d get much, but I’d see what I could get.  This bazaar was much better than the one from earlier that morning.  I walked up to a woman with henna and said “I have 12 dirham, what will you do?”  She sat me down and called over another woman and the woman started doing a design on my hand…it was much larger than I was expecting, but I wasn’t about to complain.  When she finished, she reached under her chair and pulled out this little vile and opened it up.  Inside there was a bunch of purple sparkles.  I said “no sparkles” so she put some sparkles on my hand and I just said “ok, thank you.”  They didn’t ask for my money yet, so while Rachel was getting hers done, I took out my 12.50 dirham and handed it to the woman who I had originally made the deal with.  When Rachel was done and paid, we quickly walked away for fear that the other woman had assumed she was getting more (Rachel paid too, don’t worry).  While this had all been happening, Janelle had gone over to a stand and had gotten some fresh squeezed orange juice (which I had heard was incredible here).  So, she lent me 5 dirham and I got some delicious orange juice before heading back to the ship to get some work done.  When I got back to the ship, I took a 30 minute nap and then started and finished my PowerPoint presentation and worked a bit on my paper.

 

During dinner that night they announced over the speakers that we would be leaving an hour early…this upset us all…this was our last port and even though we weren’t aloud to get out anyways, we wanted as much time in port as possible.  So, we all ran up to 7^th deck forward and watched us leave.  It was really sad (happy for some).  We all said goodbye to land for the next 9 days and when the captain announced that the seas were about to get rough and everyone was ordered to move inside and sit down, so we all returned to our rooms and began doing work again.  The seas were not as rough as was predicted, but they were still pretty rough.  We had to brace our drawers (since sometimes they swing open) and I remained in my room for a while, writing my paper.  Later that night we had our last discussion group meeting.  This was also sad.  We decided to have a dinner at some point during the next week.  I have really enjoyed discussion group and I will miss it.  I went back to my room and wrote more of my paper, but fell asleep on my computer at around 12, woke up to someone coming into the classroom I had taken over and could no longer keep myself awake, so I returned to my room and fell asleep.  Yesterday the seas were still pretty rough, but still manageable.  Classes went on as usual and after a slight psychological breakdown last night, I finished my paper!  And since we got another hour last night, Katie and I had time to watch more Evengelion (which we’ve been slowly watching over the past week).  Tonight I will start writing my other paper, but I will take the middle of the day off today to pack a little (hopefully I will get further than I did last time).

 

Wish me luck!!  I’ll be home in a little over a week!