Morocco cont...


surrounding town, showing us the mosque of Hassan II in Casablanca, the second largest mosque in the world next to the mosque in Mecca. It is only 13 years old and looked absolutely luminous at night. We took some pictures, it was freezing out and I was only in a sweater, then she took us around to some of the nicer neighborhoods and showed us the beach hangouts and clubs nestled on the hilltops. I asked her what they wear when they go to the beach, perhaps a stupid question, but supposedly Muslim countries are supposed to be very modest, chaste, forbidden to drink alcohol, but I never saw someone pray during the call to prayer a single time, there was alcohol in many places, and our mom said that everyone at the beach wore “bikinis of course, or topless.”Oh, okay.
       Then we get to her house. WOW. These people are filthy rich. The house is exquisitely decorated. The family speaks French to each other, and they are also rather fluent in Arabic and English. It was completely surreal sitting down to eat with this family speaking French all around me. There was the wife, who was sweet and tried very hard to speak English with us. The dad, who reminded Katherine very much of her own dad and made her a little homesick. He was hilarious and so warm. They have two kids, a daughter who is 28 and was recently married in May and a son who is 26 and was recently engaged. They were both rather quiet, but also very friendly. The daughter could have been a French model. Her pro tennis player husband arrived and was the hit of the party. He studied in Missouri and Miami on tennis scholarships. He was so great, he turned on Snoop Dogg and said it reminded him of his time in the States, and warned us about smoking the weed in Tangier. Then Abba came on and the entire table started dancing and singing. There was also a Philippine cook/maid named Liza who spoke great English and was very sweet.
       The meal was SUMPTUOUS. We began with appetizers of vegetables soaked in some sort of salt water, sounds weird but it was amazing, and then chestnuts that had been roasted…you guessed it, on an open fire. But seriously…they really were. And vodka and pear juice. Then we sat down to dinner. First course, delicious bread, spinach mix, the best eggplant mix I’ve ever tasted, fish, and soybeans. And delicious Moroccan wine. Everything tasted great.
       Next was the main course, cous cous. But definitely not the cous cous in a box like my mom makes. A gigantic dish was brought out and placed in the middle of the table. On top of the cous cous sat five different types of whole vegetables that had been soaked in some sort of amazing broth, as well as lamb. I took pictures because I have honestly never seen food served like this in any fashion. After the cous cous, which all nine of us combined barely finished half of, that’s how much there was, they brought out our last course, which was a dessert of another ridiculous sized bowl of the freshest fruit I have seen in about a month. I went right for the mangoes, and the pear melted in my mouth. After dinner we all just sat down and watched French news and chatted. They let me use skype which I happily used to talk to Anthony and my mom. The wife and brother finally brought us back to the boat around midnight. It was a great night and probably one of the best experiences I will have on this trip. But then again after what I have experienced in only two countries I can only imagine what is to come for me in the next few months.
       And another funny little racist comment from Morocco…they had a little black dog named Naomi, and the daughter explained to us, “Because she is black like Naomi Campbell.”haha.
       The next morning I had a super early wake up time of 5:30 AM to catch our 6:50 AM train at the larger Casablanca train station. We needed that entire time too. The four of us were out making the long walk to the main road before dawn, so in mostly dark. The trucks and cranes were all hovering menacingly and only a couple of people were about which made it worse rather than better. Then the call for prayer started going off, and it sounds a little like a tornado siren. Eerie. We were practically jogging to get out of the port, that was a very very long walk for us. Caught a taxi to the larger train station and got our first class tickets to Marrakech to meet up with Hannah, Caroline, Taylor, Greg, Nate, Brady, Stacy, Brendan, Aaron, and a few other people that were all staying in a riad there together. The train ride was about three hours and I slept for a couple hours of it.
       We taxied to the riad and found it after searching for awhile. The place was great, the rooms were very nice and there was a great rooftop view. Hannah and I shared a room with a couple of guys, and we got the honeymoon bed all to ourselves. It just seemed funny to me that someone would actually honeymoon there, but the guestbook held records of all the couples that had been there before us. Hannah and I had a magical night and we can’t wait to spend the rest of our lives together.
       Anyways, the whole group trekked over to the souq, which was very different from the last one I had been to. First of all it was much much bigger, and the stores were in a way more organized and orderly, but in other ways things were crazier than they were in Rabat. Marrakech is apparently a huge tourist destination but I saw many more locals at this marketplace than tourists, especially surrounding the street performers. There were snake charmers that would forcefully place their cobras around your neck then force you to pay for it, women with henna syringes that would grab your hand and start painting before you said no, men with monkeys in diapers, musicians playing primitive instruments, acrobats, and men and children alike telling stories alongside animals such as hawks or chameleons and a huge circle of people gathering around them just to listen to the tale. That was something that I was amazed by…storytelling is a lost art form in the US, but here the people are standing captivated by whatever images the person is twisting in the air through his words.
       We spent probably about four hours throughout the day at the market. There was just so much to see and so many great things to buy! We all experienced the sultry art form of bargaining. I think I did a pretty good job of it, I could have saved myself maybe another 10-15 dollars but overall I was proud with my skills. Sometimes if you named a price too low they would get mad and shoo you out of their store. My most intense experience was bartering with this guy for these two rings that I really wanted. I named a very low price and he seemed legitimately insulted. “Be honest! This is real silver! I am being honest with you you need to be honest!”And when I wanted go past 150 riad he turned me away. But about a minute after I walked away I had sincere buyer’s remorse for not getting them, then had a hell of a time finding that specific shop again. I eventually did with the help of friends and ended up buying them both for 240 riad, or about 30 dollars. They were worth it, I felt so happy after I successfully retrieved them haha. I also bought a couple of Moroccan glasses, couple of magnets and postcards, couple shirts, and these very cute keychains for friends when I get back. It was a very interesting day in the market and we all came back with some great items. We had lunch at a traditional place along with about 100 SAS people that were in Marrakech on their designated organized trips. Brendan had rabbit and somebody else had pigeon. Just like chicken, right? I couldn’t help but wonder if this meat was bought from a store of the fashion I had seen in Rabat and within Marrakech’s marketplace, just slabs of meat laying out, flies all over them.
       After the market we headed over to the Palacio Bial, which was a ruined palace. We took some great pics and checked out the huge storks that have made their nests along the palace peaks.
       We made the walk back to our riad and relaxed for a little before heading out to a hookah bar. This was a very stressful time for all of us.
       Rule number one: never travel with more than five people in one group. Ever.
       Rule number two: never travel with stressful or paranoid people.
       Rule number three: roll with the punches. Be flexible.
       We went out to grab a cab and we were on a little bit of a sketchy corner, and there were fourteen of us, and one guy agreed to drive us all there, he would make three trips, each trip for forty dirham. So the first taxi goes, and people start to freak out. Oh my god how do we even know if this guy is coming back this is so sketchy oh my god look at that guy he is scaring me we are like sitting ducks here this is so stupid hagdoasdosabdoabsjf. Ugh. I couldn’t stand it. It was a little bit of an intimidating situation, but looking back on it, we were being so dumb. I mean if we had just gone around the corner we would be on the main boulevard and we were all together and we were freaking out for no reason, but some people definitely more than others. Hannah and I just gripped arms and stayed put, we knew the cab driver would come back. And he did and he got all of us there safely and from then on I pledged not to travel with a couple of the people we were with.
       The rest of the night I hung out with Hannah, Caroline, Greg and Brendan. Perfect amount of people and a really enjoyable time. We drank delicious mint tea everywhere we went, it is the Moroccan delicacy and everyone that usually hates tea was addicted to the stuff, especially Hannah who couldn’t stop talking about mint tea. We had hookah, the strongest I have ever had before. I was wired for the rest of the night. After that we headed to a hotel bar where a lot of SAS kids were and we drank and ate a little, we got a pizza and it was literally gone in 30 seconds. Ravenous. Then we headed back to the riad. Greg and Caroline wanted to go sit up on the roof and hang out more, but Hannah and I had gone up to the roof already, seen the stars, and then said okay well we did that, and headed to bed. But instead of actually going to sleep her and I stayed up for at least another hour talking in the honeymoon bed. Even after we stopped talking I lied awake for a long time, I just couldn’t sleep. Seems to be a common thing for me lately.
       Next morning, up at 6:45. Love it, not. I was already awake when the alarm went off. Went downstairs to have breakfast, as our riad was a B&B. Delicious mint tea and fresh fresh OJ, many different types of bread with honey, marmalade, orange and strawberry spread. Took off from there to catch our 9:00 train back to Marrakech. Talked the whole way home and slept for about half of it. Took a taxi to the mosque in Casablanca, the second largest in the world. It was very rainy and very windy, probably the strongest wind I have ever felt in my life. It was a struggle to walk against it. We took a tour of the mosque after waiting around for an hour or so. It was beautiful inside and it was interesting to see their bathing areas, or hammam. After that half of the group headed over to Rick’s Café from the movie Casablanca. We walked the half hour there only to find it was closed. Poop. So we just walked back to the ship since we only had about three hours till on ship time. Half hour back to the boat in the pouring rain, my feet are soaked, but it was just Hannah and Win and I and we really enjoyed the walk, and I know it would be my last time walking on land for eight long days.
       Back on the boat, call Mom and Anthony, pig out on dinner, then we all settled into Tymitz Square where there is a big tile floor to slide around when we exited the harbor because we know we would be sliding all over the place. We were sliding from one end of the floor to the other, and one time we all smashed into the wall in a pile. After that I got out because I didn’t want to get hurt. A couple of people did get injured in various areas around the ship, one bashed her face on a chair, another apparently got a concussion. We went back to our room and our dresser was flipped over, everything had fallen, there were papers and bras everywhere even though Caroline and I had thought we hunkered down pretty well. Apparently not. So we cleaned up and had ten people over in our room to watch Aladdin, which is a very racist movie but we identified with some things in it after visiting Morocco. It made me think of home friends a lot and how much I sincerely miss sitting on the couch watching The Lion King or A Goofy Movie or (insert Disney movie here) with my besties.
       And now. Eight days of class.
       I love and miss you all.

“I might be sorry but that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it at the time.”