Long, long entry coming up about my long week of travels, but I do think I'm a little bit better then I was before. Let's see how that goes when I start classes again tomorrow.
Jen
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
((CAUTION: You are about to start reading a very long blog))
Marrekesh is just an interesting place and I’m not quite sure if I’m going to be able to do the bizarre ups and downs that I’ve had this weekend. Right now, I’m on the bus and we’re about halfway home to Rabat. Some of the “cool kids” are chugging cheap vodka on the back of the bus, but they’re really just annoying me. When did I grow up?
Day 1: Welcome to the Moroccan circus city
We were supposed to leave for Marrekesh at 7 AM on Friday morning, but we didn’t end up going until 8. Moroccan time. Morocco doesn’t usually wake up until about 9 AM so the streets were amazingly deserted. I was really excited/dreading this trip. I’d heard that Marrekesh is like a circus and is huge and crazy, but I’d also heard not to build it up too much.
We get to Marrekesh around 12:30 and pull up to our amazingly nice hotel. Our academic director (who is trying to make us like him so bad, I feel bad for him because of all the people who dug into him in their evaluations) is somehow connected to the bureau of tourism and they got us booked into this 4 star hotel that is usually exclusively booked by one of those vacation groups. We eat lunch and then we have our first class session.
This class session was about film and Moroccan society and was also surprisingly interesting. We watched this silent short “Le derniere cri” that I’m still not sure that I’ve figured out and that I agree with the people who were leading our discussions. Then we watched some clips of this older movie called MarroK which was about a Muslim girl and a Jewish boy (on some slow day, I’ll share all of my fascinating opinions about Jewish Moroccans). Moroccan society is so contradictory in their cultural norms and what they expect from their families. I still haven’t adjusted to living in a society that is so focused on family and I feel myself losing my identity a lot.
After that session, I did my best imitation of a MUN conference and we pre-gamed dinner. We knew that we were going to a fantasia venue for dinner and knew that meant dancers and fireworks and all sorts of thing that would just seem better with a bit of a buzz going. So, we all went up to one hotel room and had girl talk and drinks for 3ish hours before dinner. We also got to watch some of those great Moroccan soap operas where all the women look the same and all the men are about 15 years older than them.
Dinner was definitely an interesting experience. I had ready about the night in my guidebook and was really exciting. They said that it was a bunch of colors and sounds that combine into an amazing experience. We get into these little vans and drive out to this complex about 20 minutes outside of the city. About half the group is tipsy and yelling and singing and I felt, very briefly, that I actually belonged. We get to dinner (the venue was called Chez Ali) and see a sea of tour buses.
I guess that we’ve been in Morocco for 6 weeks now (and only 8 left- thank god) and I’ve stopped feeling like an absolute tourist. I live on this dirty street with Moroccans and I trudge through the dirt and knee-deep cats on a daily basis and I felt like Chez Ali was too much of a Moroccan Disneyland and not Morocco.
We all sit down in these huge tents and are surrounded by some more European tourists. I’m a little bit buzzed and everything still seems too clean. We order a bottle of wine and then begin the longish wait for our food.
Our first course was some hariyra and bread. The bread was actually moist and warm unlike the dry, slightly stale bread that I’d grown accustomed to in the last few weeks living with a family. The next course was what ridiculous. They put down half a lamb on our table that had been coated in grease and grilled. All the tables around us are cutting up their portions and putting them on their plates. My table, in contrast, is eating with our hands and bread like we’re used to. The lamb was really good (apparently I eat lamb now), but I really didn’t understand why they needed to coat it with grease and serve it with the skin and the bones.
The main course was couscous. I love couscous and have yet to find something bad with it. I am going to miss good couscous when I go home. Veggie couscous, couscous with figs and some kind of meat, beef couscous. It is always amazing. This was followed by tea, fruit, and cookies. As we were eating (and waiting) there had been various groups of dancers coming in and doing their various specialties. They all looked so bored and rehearsed. It was kind of sad how much their enthusiasm had waned.
We got there kind of late so we missed the start of the show. Outside of the tents that we had eaten in, there was a huge arena (medieval times style) and a bunch of fake building and bleachers. The first act we saw was a man doing acrobatic tricks off of his horse. This was followed by processions of people in costume, a belly dancers, and charges of people in horses though it was more fun to watch Prof Zaki wander around drunk.
We got home and a bunch of people went out, but I opted for bed (it was already 12:30, I was not putting myself together to go out).
Day 2: Somewhere between class and a night club
Saturday started out obscenely early for a Saturday. We had to get down to breakfast by 8 in order to go to class at 8:30. On a Saturday. Our session was about the human rights movement in Morocco and it’s relations to the regime change. It was interesting in that “I have to be interested because human rights are important” kind of way, but was neither presented well nor at an appropriate hour in the day.
We had an optional pre-tour of the city before lunch. I went and discovered that meant group nap-time on the bus. We went out to this garden and saw a few old buildings and then drove through the Palmerie. After lunch, we had a full tour of the city that included the great mosque, the mellah (the jewish quarter), a sheik’s old palace, some gardens, and a few museums.
The center of the medina in Marrekesh was amazing. I really wish that I had more time to explore it, but I had a hard time getting people to go out there with me. It’s a huge mass of open space with orange juice stands, stores, cafes, trained monkeys, dancing snakes, singers, and dancers. There was more tourists in that one place then I’ve seen in any one place since I got here (besides Chez Ali). The stores in the square (and in the rest of the medina) were amazing. If I go back to any city in Morocco, it’ll be back to Marrekesh to go shopping.
We were on our own for dinner that night so we awent out to this amazing Asian restaurant. I find myself craving foods of various nationalities almost more than I miss American food. The nice thing about Morocco is that we can go to nice restaurants (like we did for Asian), but it’s still fairly inexpensive. I had this shrimp wok rice dish (Thai and absolutely amazing), a cocktail, and a beer. I knew that we were going out that night and the drinks at the restaurants were much cheaper than at the club.
Apres ca, we went back to the hotel for the age-honored tradition of pre-gaming and getting ready. The next few hours are a little bit blurry and a lot bit chaotic, but at least I have officially had my first clubbing experience. We went to a club called Theatre (pronounced the French way) that was pretty much designed for the crème de la crème of Moroccan society. We pull up in front of the club and work our way through the crowds (predominantly Moroccan). Getting past the bouncers is the easiest thing when you are a white girl so it took us no time at all to get in. There was a bunch of drag queen-esque clowns/pirate/dancers dressed in the Napolean ear clothes standing on the steps which should have been my first sign of where the night was headed.
Inside the club was amazing. It was a huge, dark, two-storied room which was absolutely mobbed with people. We had paid 150 dirhams to get in, but that included our first drink. At some point, I’ve been told that I disappeared for 30 minutes, but we spent a lot of time making our own drinks with the alcohol that we snuck in, dancing on the stage, fighting off creepers, and screaming at each other. At some point, they set the bar on fire and, right before we left at 2:30ish, the pirate dancers got on stage to the pirates of the Caribbean theme song set to a techno beat. It was intense and we were all slightly sloshed.
When we left the club, the taxi drivers tried to charge us 100 dirhams to take a 10 dirham cab ride. I’m not a fan of the taxi drivers in Marrekesh anyway.
Day 3: Chillin’ in the Atlas
Sunday started out early again, but it was even more painful considering the sheer amount of alcohol consumed amongst the 20 of us the night before. We got on the bus and made our way out to the Atlas mountains and the Ourika valley.
The first stop we made on the way was at the tomb for some disliked sultan. Then we stopped at some synagogue/jewish shrine where the caretaker didn’t know what she was talking about and told the women to cover their heads out of respect. Finally, we made out way out to our restaurant/ hang-out for the day. We walked into this gorgeous complex filled with tries and a pool and a restaurant. I know that there were rooms for rent, but it was nice and private and I wanted to spend the rest of my life there. I do think that reaction might have just been because I had really been missing the outdoors.
Once there, we had our final session of the trip on Local Democracy and Morocco. I still think that they need a lot more reform, but the reform isn’t going to come before the people are aware of their political rights (the topic for my semester-end paper btw). We then had another mediocre meal in an amazing setting. We had a Moroccan salad, vegetable tangine, and chicken and meat skewers following by, once again, cookies and fruit. I’ve had a lot of good food in Morocco and I think my taste buds are becoming spoiled, but this food was not good. I think they had banked all the success on the amazing scenery and serenity.
After that, we “hiked” up to a local village on the mountain. It was hardly secluded, but it was very primitive. You could see the road from the walls and some of the houses had satellite dishes, but there was still chickens and cows camping out in people’s living rooms. Morocco has such a weird clash of technology and tradition that I’m not sure anyone else even saw the bizarre nature of the situation.
Eventually, we made our way back to the hotel and wandered around the town until we had dinner at our hotel. The hotel was astoundingly like a scene from Dirty Dancing randomly put into the streets of Marrekesh. The bar had the hotel employees who were dancing and the pool had entertainers. It was bizarre.
We ended up going to this classy adult bar across the street around 10 for a few drinks. We had the most amazing waiter ever while we were there- he was quite easy-on-the-eyes, nice, and brought us lots of free stuff. Of course, we acted like 15 year old girls and made sloppy passes at flirting and giggled a lot. Eventually, he agreed to come meet us after he got off work at the club in our hotel (after a round of free shots) and we left him a note with some of our phone numbers. Sadly, we missed him later that night at the prostitute-club, but he left us a note at the hotel and we ended up going to visit him again the next day (he was really cute- don’t judge us).
So, after the bar, we went over to the night club across the street. It was a Sunday night so I didn’t have that high of expectations for fun, but what I found was definitely not what I was expecting. The club was filled with 50% sleazy, dirty guys, 45% prostitutes, and 5% us. These weren’t the classy escort kind of hookers either, they were the spandex, short skirts, and simulating sex on the dance floor kind of prostitutes. It kind of reminded me of the singing prostitutes in “Across the Universe’, but I’m pretty sure that the ones in the club had a hell of a lot more STDs. Needless to say, we left that place pretty quickly.
Day 4: Shopping Spree Interrupted
Monday was a pretty chill day. I woke up, went to breakfast, and stayed in bed until we had to check out. After that, we grabbed a cab to take us to the medina to get some shopping down. Originally, our taxi driver (in an attempt to be helpful) took us outside of the medina to the over-priced fixed price store. Our misfortune ended up turning into so much more of an adventure.
We ended up wandering through some of the side streets that we hadn’t planned on shopping in and into some of the coolest places. We spent about an hour or so in a shop with this guy who went on expeditions down south and brought back tribal merchandise to Marrekesh. We later found out that one of his parents was Berber and the other belonged to another small tribe down south. He was amazingly interesting and let himself be haggled down to a real price. It was my first experience with old-school Moroccan buying practices. We had tea, we chatted, and, in the end, the other girls got good prices (about half of what he had told us before).
After that, we went on a search for a café for lunch. We ended up in this really nice, vegetarian place with amazing fresh, fusion food. The four of us split three dishes, but my favorite was definitely the spinach, squash, and goat cheese pastilla. The man who owned that shop was also very interesting. He had owned a shop out in L.A. for a few years and now he ran this restaurant as well as a store in New York. He also lived in Rabat so we talked about that for awhile.
After that, we did a bit more shopping, but I didn’t end up buying anything besides a “medina girl” friendship bracelet which promptly broke and I have yet to fix. Overall, Marrekesh was one of the better weekends that I’ve had in Morocco. I’m still not 100% certain on what I’ll be doing for my week-off next week, but I imagine that I’ll stay in Morocco. Currently, my tentative plan is to travel from Saturday until Sunday with my roommates down through the South (Essouira, Tafraroute, Taradounnt, and back to Marrekesh). It’s a much better alternative than traveling by myself and I’ve just resigned myself to doing Europe some other time.
I also doubt that I’ll get it up to write another entry before I get back from that (but who knows, I have 4 hours to kill at school tomorrow) so I’ll save you the trouble of checking until then.
Marrekesh is just an interesting place and I’m not quite sure if I’m going to be able to do the bizarre ups and downs that I’ve had this weekend. Right now, I’m on the bus and we’re about halfway home to Rabat. Some of the “cool kids” are chugging cheap vodka on the back of the bus, but they’re really just annoying me. When did I grow up?
Day 1: Welcome to the Moroccan circus city
We were supposed to leave for Marrekesh at 7 AM on Friday morning, but we didn’t end up going until 8. Moroccan time. Morocco doesn’t usually wake up until about 9 AM so the streets were amazingly deserted. I was really excited/dreading this trip. I’d heard that Marrekesh is like a circus and is huge and crazy, but I’d also heard not to build it up too much.
We get to Marrekesh around 12:30 and pull up to our amazingly nice hotel. Our academic director (who is trying to make us like him so bad, I feel bad for him because of all the people who dug into him in their evaluations) is somehow connected to the bureau of tourism and they got us booked into this 4 star hotel that is usually exclusively booked by one of those vacation groups. We eat lunch and then we have our first class session.
This class session was about film and Moroccan society and was also surprisingly interesting. We watched this silent short “Le derniere cri” that I’m still not sure that I’ve figured out and that I agree with the people who were leading our discussions. Then we watched some clips of this older movie called MarroK which was about a Muslim girl and a Jewish boy (on some slow day, I’ll share all of my fascinating opinions about Jewish Moroccans). Moroccan society is so contradictory in their cultural norms and what they expect from their families. I still haven’t adjusted to living in a society that is so focused on family and I feel myself losing my identity a lot.
After that session, I did my best imitation of a MUN conference and we pre-gamed dinner. We knew that we were going to a fantasia venue for dinner and knew that meant dancers and fireworks and all sorts of thing that would just seem better with a bit of a buzz going. So, we all went up to one hotel room and had girl talk and drinks for 3ish hours before dinner. We also got to watch some of those great Moroccan soap operas where all the women look the same and all the men are about 15 years older than them.
Dinner was definitely an interesting experience. I had ready about the night in my guidebook and was really exciting. They said that it was a bunch of colors and sounds that combine into an amazing experience. We get into these little vans and drive out to this complex about 20 minutes outside of the city. About half the group is tipsy and yelling and singing and I felt, very briefly, that I actually belonged. We get to dinner (the venue was called Chez Ali) and see a sea of tour buses.
I guess that we’ve been in Morocco for 6 weeks now (and only 8 left- thank god) and I’ve stopped feeling like an absolute tourist. I live on this dirty street with Moroccans and I trudge through the dirt and knee-deep cats on a daily basis and I felt like Chez Ali was too much of a Moroccan Disneyland and not Morocco.
We all sit down in these huge tents and are surrounded by some more European tourists. I’m a little bit buzzed and everything still seems too clean. We order a bottle of wine and then begin the longish wait for our food.
Our first course was some hariyra and bread. The bread was actually moist and warm unlike the dry, slightly stale bread that I’d grown accustomed to in the last few weeks living with a family. The next course was what ridiculous. They put down half a lamb on our table that had been coated in grease and grilled. All the tables around us are cutting up their portions and putting them on their plates. My table, in contrast, is eating with our hands and bread like we’re used to. The lamb was really good (apparently I eat lamb now), but I really didn’t understand why they needed to coat it with grease and serve it with the skin and the bones.
The main course was couscous. I love couscous and have yet to find something bad with it. I am going to miss good couscous when I go home. Veggie couscous, couscous with figs and some kind of meat, beef couscous. It is always amazing. This was followed by tea, fruit, and cookies. As we were eating (and waiting) there had been various groups of dancers coming in and doing their various specialties. They all looked so bored and rehearsed. It was kind of sad how much their enthusiasm had waned.
We got there kind of late so we missed the start of the show. Outside of the tents that we had eaten in, there was a huge arena (medieval times style) and a bunch of fake building and bleachers. The first act we saw was a man doing acrobatic tricks off of his horse. This was followed by processions of people in costume, a belly dancers, and charges of people in horses though it was more fun to watch Prof Zaki wander around drunk.
We got home and a bunch of people went out, but I opted for bed (it was already 12:30, I was not putting myself together to go out).
Day 2: Somewhere between class and a night club
Saturday started out obscenely early for a Saturday. We had to get down to breakfast by 8 in order to go to class at 8:30. On a Saturday. Our session was about the human rights movement in Morocco and it’s relations to the regime change. It was interesting in that “I have to be interested because human rights are important” kind of way, but was neither presented well nor at an appropriate hour in the day.
We had an optional pre-tour of the city before lunch. I went and discovered that meant group nap-time on the bus. We went out to this garden and saw a few old buildings and then drove through the Palmerie. After lunch, we had a full tour of the city that included the great mosque, the mellah (the jewish quarter), a sheik’s old palace, some gardens, and a few museums.
The center of the medina in Marrekesh was amazing. I really wish that I had more time to explore it, but I had a hard time getting people to go out there with me. It’s a huge mass of open space with orange juice stands, stores, cafes, trained monkeys, dancing snakes, singers, and dancers. There was more tourists in that one place then I’ve seen in any one place since I got here (besides Chez Ali). The stores in the square (and in the rest of the medina) were amazing. If I go back to any city in Morocco, it’ll be back to Marrekesh to go shopping.
We were on our own for dinner that night so we awent out to this amazing Asian restaurant. I find myself craving foods of various nationalities almost more than I miss American food. The nice thing about Morocco is that we can go to nice restaurants (like we did for Asian), but it’s still fairly inexpensive. I had this shrimp wok rice dish (Thai and absolutely amazing), a cocktail, and a beer. I knew that we were going out that night and the drinks at the restaurants were much cheaper than at the club.
Apres ca, we went back to the hotel for the age-honored tradition of pre-gaming and getting ready. The next few hours are a little bit blurry and a lot bit chaotic, but at least I have officially had my first clubbing experience. We went to a club called Theatre (pronounced the French way) that was pretty much designed for the crème de la crème of Moroccan society. We pull up in front of the club and work our way through the crowds (predominantly Moroccan). Getting past the bouncers is the easiest thing when you are a white girl so it took us no time at all to get in. There was a bunch of drag queen-esque clowns/pirate/dancers dressed in the Napolean ear clothes standing on the steps which should have been my first sign of where the night was headed.
Inside the club was amazing. It was a huge, dark, two-storied room which was absolutely mobbed with people. We had paid 150 dirhams to get in, but that included our first drink. At some point, I’ve been told that I disappeared for 30 minutes, but we spent a lot of time making our own drinks with the alcohol that we snuck in, dancing on the stage, fighting off creepers, and screaming at each other. At some point, they set the bar on fire and, right before we left at 2:30ish, the pirate dancers got on stage to the pirates of the Caribbean theme song set to a techno beat. It was intense and we were all slightly sloshed.
When we left the club, the taxi drivers tried to charge us 100 dirhams to take a 10 dirham cab ride. I’m not a fan of the taxi drivers in Marrekesh anyway.
Day 3: Chillin’ in the Atlas
Sunday started out early again, but it was even more painful considering the sheer amount of alcohol consumed amongst the 20 of us the night before. We got on the bus and made our way out to the Atlas mountains and the Ourika valley.
The first stop we made on the way was at the tomb for some disliked sultan. Then we stopped at some synagogue/jewish shrine where the caretaker didn’t know what she was talking about and told the women to cover their heads out of respect. Finally, we made out way out to our restaurant/ hang-out for the day. We walked into this gorgeous complex filled with tries and a pool and a restaurant. I know that there were rooms for rent, but it was nice and private and I wanted to spend the rest of my life there. I do think that reaction might have just been because I had really been missing the outdoors.
Once there, we had our final session of the trip on Local Democracy and Morocco. I still think that they need a lot more reform, but the reform isn’t going to come before the people are aware of their political rights (the topic for my semester-end paper btw). We then had another mediocre meal in an amazing setting. We had a Moroccan salad, vegetable tangine, and chicken and meat skewers following by, once again, cookies and fruit. I’ve had a lot of good food in Morocco and I think my taste buds are becoming spoiled, but this food was not good. I think they had banked all the success on the amazing scenery and serenity.
After that, we “hiked” up to a local village on the mountain. It was hardly secluded, but it was very primitive. You could see the road from the walls and some of the houses had satellite dishes, but there was still chickens and cows camping out in people’s living rooms. Morocco has such a weird clash of technology and tradition that I’m not sure anyone else even saw the bizarre nature of the situation.
Eventually, we made our way back to the hotel and wandered around the town until we had dinner at our hotel. The hotel was astoundingly like a scene from Dirty Dancing randomly put into the streets of Marrekesh. The bar had the hotel employees who were dancing and the pool had entertainers. It was bizarre.
We ended up going to this classy adult bar across the street around 10 for a few drinks. We had the most amazing waiter ever while we were there- he was quite easy-on-the-eyes, nice, and brought us lots of free stuff. Of course, we acted like 15 year old girls and made sloppy passes at flirting and giggled a lot. Eventually, he agreed to come meet us after he got off work at the club in our hotel (after a round of free shots) and we left him a note with some of our phone numbers. Sadly, we missed him later that night at the prostitute-club, but he left us a note at the hotel and we ended up going to visit him again the next day (he was really cute- don’t judge us).
So, after the bar, we went over to the night club across the street. It was a Sunday night so I didn’t have that high of expectations for fun, but what I found was definitely not what I was expecting. The club was filled with 50% sleazy, dirty guys, 45% prostitutes, and 5% us. These weren’t the classy escort kind of hookers either, they were the spandex, short skirts, and simulating sex on the dance floor kind of prostitutes. It kind of reminded me of the singing prostitutes in “Across the Universe’, but I’m pretty sure that the ones in the club had a hell of a lot more STDs. Needless to say, we left that place pretty quickly.
Day 4: Shopping Spree Interrupted
Monday was a pretty chill day. I woke up, went to breakfast, and stayed in bed until we had to check out. After that, we grabbed a cab to take us to the medina to get some shopping down. Originally, our taxi driver (in an attempt to be helpful) took us outside of the medina to the over-priced fixed price store. Our misfortune ended up turning into so much more of an adventure.
We ended up wandering through some of the side streets that we hadn’t planned on shopping in and into some of the coolest places. We spent about an hour or so in a shop with this guy who went on expeditions down south and brought back tribal merchandise to Marrekesh. We later found out that one of his parents was Berber and the other belonged to another small tribe down south. He was amazingly interesting and let himself be haggled down to a real price. It was my first experience with old-school Moroccan buying practices. We had tea, we chatted, and, in the end, the other girls got good prices (about half of what he had told us before).
After that, we went on a search for a café for lunch. We ended up in this really nice, vegetarian place with amazing fresh, fusion food. The four of us split three dishes, but my favorite was definitely the spinach, squash, and goat cheese pastilla. The man who owned that shop was also very interesting. He had owned a shop out in L.A. for a few years and now he ran this restaurant as well as a store in New York. He also lived in Rabat so we talked about that for awhile.
After that, we did a bit more shopping, but I didn’t end up buying anything besides a “medina girl” friendship bracelet which promptly broke and I have yet to fix. Overall, Marrekesh was one of the better weekends that I’ve had in Morocco. I’m still not 100% certain on what I’ll be doing for my week-off next week, but I imagine that I’ll stay in Morocco. Currently, my tentative plan is to travel from Saturday until Sunday with my roommates down through the South (Essouira, Tafraroute, Taradounnt, and back to Marrekesh). It’s a much better alternative than traveling by myself and I’ve just resigned myself to doing Europe some other time.
I also doubt that I’ll get it up to write another entry before I get back from that (but who knows, I have 4 hours to kill at school tomorrow) so I’ll save you the trouble of checking until then.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
I’ve definitely broken my cardinal rule and let my feelings and insecurities go into my blog entries…I’ll try and stop that.
The biggest heartbreak of the last few days have happened a few thousand miles away and I’m not going to rant on them TOO much because I’m sure that you all know how I feel about the Cubs. I’m so embarrassed that I thought that we would actually do something with an amazing season. On one hand, I’m sure they only lost because they knew that I might have a panic attack if I missed the World Series because I was in Morocco, but, on the other, this is absolutely ridiculous. Swept by the Dodgers when you are, by far, first in the league. UGH!
Anywho, these last few days have been rather full. Friday night, we had “Morocco night” at our residence directors house complete with a Moroccan band, dancing, henna, and my entire program clad in djellabas, caftans, and any other sort of Moroccan clothing that we felt like buying. Personally, I bought a djellaba for about 35 dollars. It’s light blue with multi-colored embroidery on the hems. It’s made out of really good fabric and is a good quality one so I’m pretty happy with it. Unfortunately, I’m still undeniably white underneath it.
The party was a lot of fun. All of Madiha’s (our resident director)’s family was there and the entire program was there. I still don’t have much appreciation for Moroccan/Arab music, but I have hope that a tolerance will develop sometime soon. We must have danced for six hours and we ate SO much food (to the point where one of Madiha’s relatives told us that we were going to get chubby). There were cookies, tea, more cookies, couscous, and fruit salad. It was easily the best couscous that I’d had since I got here with some kind of heavier meat and figs. Now that Ramadan is over, Friday is couscous day and the world is a better place. I love couscous, it’s just good stuff.
I didn’t know what I was doing for the rest of the weekend until Saturday morning. I had plans with other people, but they all spaced on me or claimed that “they just decided to go on a small trip, but we really want to travel with you”. Thankfully, some people didn’t pull that crap on me and the medina girls (including me) went to El-Jadida about 4 hours away.
El-Jadida is a resort town right on the shore south of Casablanca. It’s not especially known for any crafts of sites (except for the beach), but it was totally worth it. We were planning on catching the 1:00 train from Rabat, but Suzanne’s host brother (who was coming with us) was late and we decided to just catch the 2:30. When we finally got to El-Jadida around 6:30 and got into a car (that was not marked as a taxi). It was very shady, but Zachariah (Suzanne’s host brother) started talking to the guy who was apparently not kidnapping us and he took us to this house that we could rent on the outskirts of El-Jadida towards Sidi Bouzid.
The house/apartment was amazing- it was two bedrooms, a kitchen, a balcony, a full bathroom, and two Moroccan sitting rooms. It was nice to not be staying in some shady hotel and it only cost 100 dirhams/night per person (about 14 dollars). Since we got in so late, we weren’t able to do any site-seeing that night. Instead, we caught a ride downtown and then we went to dinner and then began our epic search for a place that served alcohol. El-Jadida is a small resort town in its off-season so there were not a lot of affordable places that were licensed. We had a few beers at this tiny, smoky bar in a hotel and then (after dealing with Zachariah’s childish moods) ended up at this great club with a loud Moroccan band and over-priced alcohol. I had a lot of fun, but it would have been a ton better if we hadn’t been paying 7USD for a tiny baby beer. I miss logo night.
The next morning, we all slept in and had breakfast at home before heading over to the beach at Sidi Bouzid. One of the guys who we had met the night before told us that Sidi Bouzid was the most beautiful beach in Morocco and I think that might be true. It was deserted and stretched for miles in either direction. It was also, more or less, trash-free (a rarity for Moroccan beaches). We spent the day tanning, reading, and talking. I went into the water twice, but the waves were huge and would definitely had won in an epic battle between the two of us. Around 3:30, Zachariah left to go back to Rabat and we were free of dealing with his mood swings. In case you haven’t caught on, I really don’t like him, but there’s nothing that’s going to change him- he’s had 33 years of getting his way and being coddled by Moroccan society.
We were all pretty broke so we didn’t have any ambitious plans for Sunday night. We tried to make it to the Portuguese cistern, but had trouble catching cabs, some people insisted on showering/talking to Moroccan boys and we ended up getting there after it closed. Instead, we just grabbed some dinner at a snack bar (the Moroccan equivalent of a diner, fast food place, and Dennys all combined into one). We spent the rest of the evening walking around and taking in the sites.
We had a slightly Babel-esque moment when our train got stopped for about 40 minutes in the middle of nowhere. I’d never been on the train for quite so long and it was really shocking to see the disparity between people there. We passed by countless of people herding sheep and riding donkeys, lots of homes made out of old fences and aluminum sheets, but we also passed by some really nice buildings with gates and cars.
Next weekend, I’m going to Marrekesh for a class trip. All I’ve heard about Marrekesh is that it’s a total circus and not a super-safe place, but I’m really excited. Because we’re going with the program, it’s going to be cheap and fairly safe. They’ve got the hotel and the meals. If I had a cord for my camera, I’d promise pictures, but, unfortunately, I don’t.
- Brief update-
Last night proved that Morocco is a billion times better when it’s not Ramadan. It was Micah’s birthday so a group of 15 or so went out to a tapas and wine bar to celebrate. Half a bottle of wine and about 8 courses of tapas for less than 30 dollars. It was a lot more fun than anything I’ve done in awhile here.
The biggest heartbreak of the last few days have happened a few thousand miles away and I’m not going to rant on them TOO much because I’m sure that you all know how I feel about the Cubs. I’m so embarrassed that I thought that we would actually do something with an amazing season. On one hand, I’m sure they only lost because they knew that I might have a panic attack if I missed the World Series because I was in Morocco, but, on the other, this is absolutely ridiculous. Swept by the Dodgers when you are, by far, first in the league. UGH!
Anywho, these last few days have been rather full. Friday night, we had “Morocco night” at our residence directors house complete with a Moroccan band, dancing, henna, and my entire program clad in djellabas, caftans, and any other sort of Moroccan clothing that we felt like buying. Personally, I bought a djellaba for about 35 dollars. It’s light blue with multi-colored embroidery on the hems. It’s made out of really good fabric and is a good quality one so I’m pretty happy with it. Unfortunately, I’m still undeniably white underneath it.
The party was a lot of fun. All of Madiha’s (our resident director)’s family was there and the entire program was there. I still don’t have much appreciation for Moroccan/Arab music, but I have hope that a tolerance will develop sometime soon. We must have danced for six hours and we ate SO much food (to the point where one of Madiha’s relatives told us that we were going to get chubby). There were cookies, tea, more cookies, couscous, and fruit salad. It was easily the best couscous that I’d had since I got here with some kind of heavier meat and figs. Now that Ramadan is over, Friday is couscous day and the world is a better place. I love couscous, it’s just good stuff.
I didn’t know what I was doing for the rest of the weekend until Saturday morning. I had plans with other people, but they all spaced on me or claimed that “they just decided to go on a small trip, but we really want to travel with you”. Thankfully, some people didn’t pull that crap on me and the medina girls (including me) went to El-Jadida about 4 hours away.
El-Jadida is a resort town right on the shore south of Casablanca. It’s not especially known for any crafts of sites (except for the beach), but it was totally worth it. We were planning on catching the 1:00 train from Rabat, but Suzanne’s host brother (who was coming with us) was late and we decided to just catch the 2:30. When we finally got to El-Jadida around 6:30 and got into a car (that was not marked as a taxi). It was very shady, but Zachariah (Suzanne’s host brother) started talking to the guy who was apparently not kidnapping us and he took us to this house that we could rent on the outskirts of El-Jadida towards Sidi Bouzid.
The house/apartment was amazing- it was two bedrooms, a kitchen, a balcony, a full bathroom, and two Moroccan sitting rooms. It was nice to not be staying in some shady hotel and it only cost 100 dirhams/night per person (about 14 dollars). Since we got in so late, we weren’t able to do any site-seeing that night. Instead, we caught a ride downtown and then we went to dinner and then began our epic search for a place that served alcohol. El-Jadida is a small resort town in its off-season so there were not a lot of affordable places that were licensed. We had a few beers at this tiny, smoky bar in a hotel and then (after dealing with Zachariah’s childish moods) ended up at this great club with a loud Moroccan band and over-priced alcohol. I had a lot of fun, but it would have been a ton better if we hadn’t been paying 7USD for a tiny baby beer. I miss logo night.
The next morning, we all slept in and had breakfast at home before heading over to the beach at Sidi Bouzid. One of the guys who we had met the night before told us that Sidi Bouzid was the most beautiful beach in Morocco and I think that might be true. It was deserted and stretched for miles in either direction. It was also, more or less, trash-free (a rarity for Moroccan beaches). We spent the day tanning, reading, and talking. I went into the water twice, but the waves were huge and would definitely had won in an epic battle between the two of us. Around 3:30, Zachariah left to go back to Rabat and we were free of dealing with his mood swings. In case you haven’t caught on, I really don’t like him, but there’s nothing that’s going to change him- he’s had 33 years of getting his way and being coddled by Moroccan society.
We were all pretty broke so we didn’t have any ambitious plans for Sunday night. We tried to make it to the Portuguese cistern, but had trouble catching cabs, some people insisted on showering/talking to Moroccan boys and we ended up getting there after it closed. Instead, we just grabbed some dinner at a snack bar (the Moroccan equivalent of a diner, fast food place, and Dennys all combined into one). We spent the rest of the evening walking around and taking in the sites.
We had a slightly Babel-esque moment when our train got stopped for about 40 minutes in the middle of nowhere. I’d never been on the train for quite so long and it was really shocking to see the disparity between people there. We passed by countless of people herding sheep and riding donkeys, lots of homes made out of old fences and aluminum sheets, but we also passed by some really nice buildings with gates and cars.
Next weekend, I’m going to Marrekesh for a class trip. All I’ve heard about Marrekesh is that it’s a total circus and not a super-safe place, but I’m really excited. Because we’re going with the program, it’s going to be cheap and fairly safe. They’ve got the hotel and the meals. If I had a cord for my camera, I’d promise pictures, but, unfortunately, I don’t.
- Brief update-
Last night proved that Morocco is a billion times better when it’s not Ramadan. It was Micah’s birthday so a group of 15 or so went out to a tapas and wine bar to celebrate. Half a bottle of wine and about 8 courses of tapas for less than 30 dollars. It was a lot more fun than anything I’ve done in awhile here.
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