Well another week has gone by and I only have three more months in Espana! We're almost to the halfway mark and the time seems to have flown by! My goal for the rest of the time is to make it without stepping in dog poop. (Spanish people don't ever pick up their dog's poop, so it's everywhere in the streets). This might prove to be difficult because it requires me to walk while looking at the ground, which is not only dangerous because I could run into someone, but the weather is starting to change so I always want to look up to the sky/at the beautiful sun. I'll keep you posted on my progress.
This last weekend I went to Morocco (hence the title). If you don't get it, I suggest watching this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRpeEdMmmQ0 . I went with 5 other girls from my program and 18 other girls from Granada who I didn't know. Then we took a bus to Sevilla where we met up with the two tour guides and I'm not sure how many people but enough to fill the bus. (My guess is 75 in total). Then we made our way to Tarifa where we took a ferry to Morocco. Something that keeps fascinating me every time we travel is how little security there is. We walked through security and had to put our bags through a scanner. We didn't have to empty jacket pockets or anything so literally every single person beeped through the scanner and there wasn't even a person watching our bags to see if we had any weapons, so I'm not sure what they were scanning our bags for. (If you know, please enlighten me). A similar thing happened on the way back into Spain.
After 8 hours of traveling we finally arrived at our hotel. We stayed in a city called Tangiers in a very nice hotel. My only complaint was that you can smoke anywhere so everything smelled like cigarettes (but I know this is common for anywhere not in the US). We had dinner at the hotel buffet and then went to bed. The food was typical Moroccan food (beets, food with weird spices, lamb etc). The next morning we had a bus tour with a local tour guide (fun fact, Moroccans speak four languages: Arabic, French, English, Spanish). Then we made our way to a small town called Chefchaouen (aka the Blue City). We had lunch at a cute little restaurant called Casa Aladin and it was adorable. Fun fact: the servers wear flip flops. I thought it was gross. (then again, I don't even like my own feet). Then we went on a tour with a local guide from Chefchaouen. After that we were given an hour and a half to walk around and shop/barter for things. Nothing in Morocco has a set price, you barter for everything. So it was pretty cool because I love a good deal! I bought a painting and some magnets and a woven bracelet all for 15 euros. Something else that the tour guides warned us about is that there would be unofficial "guides" trying to sell you a guide of the town but that we should just ignore them (and anyone else who tries to show you anything or get you to come into their house) because it's most likely a drug house for hash (aka sketchy weed). And our tour guides were not lying when they said that. Creepy guides would just be standing outside their houses asking us if we wanted to come in for some hash. Another guy tried to show us his "factory". Some other random/funny things that I heard while I was walking around were:
"Hey pretty girl, you got a facebook?"
"Flower, beautiful flower, come look at my shop"
From the "tour guide": "I have tour" Me: "La shukran" (aka no thank you in Arabic). Guide: "Do you want weed? I have that too". After all of that fun we got on the bus and went back to the hotel. At the hotel we had dinner and watched a Moroccan show which was really cool. Then our guides brought sangria and we drank it in an attached bar of the hotel and then went to bed. Here are two pictures from Chefchaouen. The pictures don't do it justice. Literally everything was a different hue of blue. It was beautiful.
The next morning we went to a small town called Assilah which was also very blue but wasn't as blue. This was a coastal town known for its graffiti. There weren't any offers for hash here but I did get called a flower again so that was cool. The tour guide pointed to me and my roommate and told us to sit down, so we did and the next thing we know some guy is shining our shoes. Our tour guide paid for it and my boots look BRAND NEW! I was pretty happy about it because with walking everywhere here, my boots are taking a beating. Then we departed for Tangiers again but this time for a camel ride! Here's a picture of my on the coast and the coolest graffiti in my opinion.
We then went on our camel ride! It was a very short ride (only like five minutes) but I was okay with it because the camel was SUPER uncomfortable and he smelled. Some people didn't go on it because they thought it was animal cruelty (which is fine, but I'm gonna get to my complaining section in a minute and I will comment on this). Here's a picture of me on a camel!
Then after we got back on the bus we were just waiting there for like 20 minutes. We asked one of our tour guides what was taking so long and he said he didn't know because he had to stay on the bus with us. (I think this was probably a lie). Then after a few minutes a girl got up and was like "I have to pee, I'm gonna go use the bathroom" in which our tour guide told her she needed to wait. (I'll complain about this in a minute too). The other tour guide climbed on the bus and told us that we had brought with us a few kids of Assilah who sneaked into the engine part of the bus because they recognized our bus as a Spanish tour bus. We were told that this is a normal thing, especially for poor towns like Assilah. And now we had more kids who were in Tangiers trying to sneak onto our bus as well. We were told not to worry, that they couldn't get to our luggage or to us. The Moroccan "police" were pulling the kids that they could see off of the bus, meanwhile more were running under our bus trying to hide. The "police" (not really police, just guys in jeans calling themselves the police) used brooms to hit the kids, kicked them, and threw rocks at them. Our tour guides told us that this was a normal thing and that it happens every weekend. They said we were going to continue to the restaurant for lunch and that when we got to the border control they would scan our bus and find the kids and pull them off. So then we went to lunch and had really good Couscous and then headed back to border control. As we were driving towards border control three more kids ran and got into our bus leaving us with a total of 8 kids.
My commentary:
First of all, when you travel, especially in a place like Morocco, you need to have common sense and be smart and alert the entire time. You have to be prepared to see some things that are bad/sad/stuff you've never seen before. That's the whole point to study abroad, is to get out of the bubble of the United States, to expose ourselves to new cultures and see what the rest of the world is really like, because NEWSFLASH: the rest of the world is NOTHING like the US. Yes, the camels obviously aren't free camels. But what were you expecting when you saw "Camel ride" on the itinerary? Free camels roaming around in the wild and you were just gonna climb onto one and ride it around and then climb off? Common sense. And yes, the kids part was really sad. It broke my heart seeing kids ages 7-13 who were so desperate to change their situation that they were willing to risk being kicked and stoned and the dangers of sitting inside a bus engine for hours on end. But these kids aren't lucky/privileged like we are to be studying abroad, or to live the free lives we have in the US. Be grateful that you live the life you live, and that you are now aware of the situation in Africa, and take this new perspective and apply it to the way you live. Do something good for the world and stop being so ignorant. Ignorance for example: from the back of the bus I heard a girl say "I don't understand why the kids think this is fun, it's so dangerous" in which I heard someone reply "It's not a game, it's their way of life, they have nowhere else to go". The girl who said that was probably one of the girls who brought two suitcases with her for a two day trip. Also, if rocks are being thrown outside, don't try to push past our tour guide to go to the bathroom, you can wait 30 minutes and go in a safe area. That's the end of my rant. Thanks for listening.
When we got to border control there were other kids waiting outside who had already been caught that day trying to run onto our bus right in front of the police. We got off the bus and onto the ferry. My roommate could see our bus being scanned and saw the police using drug dogs to find the kids and pull them off. To my knowledge they got them all off.
We got home around 4 am in which case we were back up at 9 for class. Monday was a rough day, but it was so worth it. I am so grateful for the life I live and I am so glad I got to learn about a new culture and be more aware of the world that I live in. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to study abroad in Spain because I never would have gone to Africa had I not been given this opportunity. It has definitely given me a lot to think about this week. Thanks mom and dad for supporting me and pushing me to study abroad, and for not freaking out when I said I was going to go to Morocco. I love you guys.
Another thing I've been thinking about lately is women and the way they view themselves. Pretty much only girls study abroad, of the 28 people in my program, there are only 5 guys. Of the 75 on my Morocco trip, there were 3 guys. So I hear a lot of gossip and stupid comments and girls hating on themselves or on other girls. STOP! You are beautiful. Love your body. Eat what you want when you want. Stop worrying about what other people are thinking about you, because everyone is gonna judge you, and there's always going to be someone who doesn't like you, and that's okay. All that matters is what you think if you. Stop degrading yourself and calling yourself fat. If you don't like the way you look, then work hard to change it, not because society or some loser guy tells you to, but because YOU want to. Also, that loser guy who calls you fat isn't worth your time or your effort to try and impress him. Girls, stop commenting on other girls' appearance or weight because that's just contributing to the cycle and the idea society has about women having to be perfect. With that being said, stop relying on your looks to get you by. Study, educate yourself, see the world, read.
Love yourself.
Hasta luego!
