(Chokrun means thank you) Sometimes things change you when you least expect them. I was looking forward to Morocco but it was the last port of the trip so I hadn't really thought about what I would be experiencing or what the culture would be like. I finally experienced a good deal of culture shock, and I fell in love with it. I love Morocco, the people are all very respectful and adore the elderly and children. Complete strangers will look after the kids and make sure they behave, also the elderly are always greated with respect and multiple families will take them in once they can't care for themselves. Even women are respected, men won't look at a woman unless she looks at him first. They also do all the hard work, however women can if they want, it's just expected of the men. Thankfully while I was in Turkey I didn't spend very much money so I had quite a bit left over for Morocco. Because of this I was able to pick up a trip to the capital city of Rabat. Where I toured many of the many popular sites. However the highlight was definitely eating a 6 course meal inside of a palace of the royal family. The capital city was about 2 hours away and when we got there we got to see a famous Pastry shop and try mint tea, of which is very good. Being conquered by France was good for the Moroccan pastry makers, I was not disappointed. Then we went to the current palace of the king and the jewish quarter of which we saw various beaches and a river that the locals enjoy. After all of this is when we finally went to the palace for dinner. We were invited because a member of the family is currently a professor at the University of Virginia and she wanted to take a group of 30-40 students around the city and meet up with some of the faculty she knows. The tile work and place settings were beyond elegant. I felt like I was in a movie of some sort. There was real silver-ware and crystal glasses. Not to mention the food was to die for. Never an unrounded meal. Fruit, veggies, cous cous (not the sandy kind from home, the homemade kind) chicken tangine, fruit juices, and so much more. I took pictures of all the food, so that will be posted on facebook. I may also do a few picture posts on my blog once I get home, but it won't have as many as my facebook will have. After a three hour dinner and about an hour of digestion time on the many pillow couches, we headed back. This should be rather non-eventful right? No, we were all fast asleep as it was 11:30 at night...when the whole bus started shaking and slammed to a stop. We were suddenly very awake...as people were screaming at each other in french and arabic and the like. Everyone was okay, but what had happened was three teenaged Moroccans had jumped up on the truck that was parked on the side of the road pushing a bundle of metal that had been stacked up off the truck. This happened as we were driving past, denting the whole side of the bus and scraping the door. Then it was under the bus and we hit it with the back tires which jolted the bus so bad that the windshield cracked. ...Talk about an intense event. They sent us a police escort and a new bus. This way we weren't run over trying to get to the next bus. This wasn't all bad, because while my friend Stefanie and I were sitting on the bus she invited me to come to Fes with her. She had been telling me about how her boyfriend is Moroccan and how he has family that still live in Fes that he hasn't seen in a few years and how she is going to meet them because they're considering getting engaged and she just happens to now be in Morocco. After the crash she ended up inviting me to join along the next morning with her and her friend Amanda. I was so excited I could hardly stand it, this was the experience I had been waiting for. I packed a back pack and crossed my fingers that all went well. Thankfully Stefanie had an international phone so we were able to stay in contact with his mom that way. She was the only one of the family that spoke english. Families are very tight nit so his uncle, mom, brother and sister (who was only 8 <3) came to pick us up. We also met his cousins, dad, and neice and another uncle over the course of two days. It was a four hour train ride from Casablanca (where we were in port) to Fes. Fes is an amazing city and her boyfriend Khali wasn't able to come with us. So we had to find his family based on pictures, also they actually live about 20 minutes out of the city. So I got to stay in a farm house in the African countryside. It was gorgeous...and there was a storm at one point too. It was such an experience that words can hardly explain. As soon as we met the family we went over to a hotel that was still underconstruction. It was being built right into the medieval walls there (you should google Fes, it has an amazing history). It turns out that Khali's uncle works on mosaics and tile working so we were able to leave our bags there. Thankfully the family is used to the kids eating and drinking during Ramadan fasting time, so they didn't make us fast. They actually did the opposite. Between them having to fast and being very hospitable, we were eating and drinking constantly. Even at 1 a.m. there was a second dinner. After dropping our bags off we found some water and fried snack food type things. Then we wandered the streets through several markets and tiny walkways, sending me into a whirlwind of culture shock. I thought I had experienced it in Rabat, but being with a family navigating I was able to look around and just absorb more. Also I wasn't with a giant group or a tour guide so I could feel almost like a local. Instead of getting the why are their giant groups of americans here look I was now getting a "oh how do you know my friends?" look. The little girl's name was Mushala and her and I skipped, danced and sang our way through the streets, it was so much fun and she reminded me of myself as a child. After a lot of wandering and some shopping we found a restaurant and got good seats, because the break fast (Iftar) happens at 7:30 with the call to prayer. They drink fruit juices, usually banana orange and lemon, occasionally peach. Also they have soup and hard boiled eggs you can dip in cumin and salt. Not to mention the eggs are fresh from the several farms located near by. The bananas were mixed with goats milk to make it a juice, so it was really good. We also had figs, dates and grapes along with a lot of water. After that we all went over to one of the many carnivals they had. They had juice, snacks and of course rides. Mushala wanted to ride them all, but of course we had to just pick a couple. The bumper cars were the most intense ones I've ever riden haha To get your money the guys would jump up on the bumper part and take it from you...also they went A LOT faster than any I've ever been on. Launched my sunglasses clear off, there were kids riding on the bumpers all over. I also had to do a hand off to get my sunglasses back from a guy who had grabbed them for me. It was also the longest bumper car session I've ever been in. I swear I had whip lash the whole next day. It was so much fun, Mushala was awesome at driving for an eight year old. I seriously had a smile on my face for two days straight. Sadly, the mom had thought we were staying for two nights, but we had only been intending on staying for one and Stefanie had a trip the morning of the second night, so we compromised. We ended up deciding to take the 2 a.m. train the next night (or the second morning, however you want to look at it). However, the carnival was not the end of our night. We picked up our bags and then 8 of us crammed into a TINY little taxi for the 20 minute trip to their house. If I spoke Arabic I could tell you the town, but I couldn't quite catch it :/ I slept the whole way back, partially in Stefanie's lap haha Then we relaxed and watched t.v. for the first time in 2 months and made little beds out of a couch and a mattress...then as one a.m. came around we were informed it was time for dinner ?!?!?! She brought out fresh pressed olive oil, bread baked by her that morning, figs and cactus fruit from her yard and then a clay pot of sorts with little meat balls and an amazing cumin tomato sauce that we dipped the bread in it and quickly had it devoured. Shortly there after we were all passed out...I woke up to a Rooster and the sounds of sheep and goats in the back yard with a gentle breeze blowing in the window. Unfortunately their bathroom consited of a bucket of water with bowls in it for a shower and a hole in the ground for their bathroom :/ On the positive side their house was four stories high and you could stand on the ceiling to look out over the town on one side (about the size of Hastings, if not smaller) and the horses, sheep, goats and chickens on the other standing amongst the olive groves. <3 I absolutely loved it. We then ate breakfast of which was cinammon rolls, fresh baked bread, olive oil, fruits of different kinds, mint tea, juice, this protein mix that was similar to granola, little pastries, potatoe pancakes and various other foods. We then watched t.v. for a while and played more with Mushala, at this point Amanda wasn't feeling well so Stefanie, Uncle (as we called him), Mushala and I went up to the top of the mountain for a swim. The taxi ride was a blast playing rock paper scissors and singing old mcdonald with Mushala, Uncle kept turning around in the front seat of the cab with this giant smile on his face, everyone loved how much fun this little girl was having, it was quite contagious...however swimming in a muslim country means swimming in your clothes. It was a river that only the locals new about that came out of the mountain spring, of which is where they all got their water. It was chilly 60 some degree water with plenty of people swimming. There were tents out for people fasting, and some people that were camping. There were also these boats made of painted tree trunks and little paddles...so it was a raft and a paddle boat that had a child that was then decorated with tinsle, and random cartoons. The majority of the locals seemed quite confused as to how these white girls managed to find their swimming holes, but many of them came up to us and greeted us and asked us questions, however we didn't speak the language so it was mostly arm movement communication. This blog entry about Morocco in general will be long enough without me going into that...I will be writing again this week sometime about what this trip has done for me and what I will miss and where I see my future going now. As for dwelling on the past, after that river trip we went back to the house to eat homemade couscous and chicken tangine. Along with amazing veggies, fresh bread, chocolate flan, fruit juice, olives, dates, figs, and other food. Then we watched a few movies and digested as a storm started to blow in. It thunderstormed while we ate dinner, which was fried fresh caught fish in a lemon pepper batter, fresh limes baked with tomatoes, potatoes and eggplant. More of the potato pancakes and some of them filled with meat, mint tea, more figs fruits and way more. This isn't the only food we ate, remember how I mentioned that they were always giving us food while we were walking around? Good thing I have practice with my Italian relatives, because I ate A LOT of food. I also enjoyed every second of it. To digest our food Mushala started dancing around and we signalled for Uncle to turn on music on the t.v. and we all danced to Moroccan music for probably a good hour. Her whole family joined in, even her cousin who lived next door. It was so much fun and she got a kick out of it. Even when there's a language barrier dancing seems to be a universal language...that and the Arabic phrasebook Stefanie brought was helpful...haha After this Iftar and our dance off we went back into the city (Fes) as we were about to get into the taxi a dust storm blew up because there was never much rain. A really bad gush of wind pelted pieces of rock at us and it got in our hair and clothes, and it was hurting Mushala so I picked her up and tossed her into the taxi before getting in and laying on her to protect her from the storm. Her mom was shocked at my reflex, and so were my friends. Actually they were all impressed, yet not surprised at how good I was with kids, even the random ones we found out in the street. They were often playing soccer or just running around like crazy, because that's what kids do. So we went to the markets in Fes and ate MORE food while shopping for traditional moroccan slippers and various other souvenirs. The markets were great, weird food items, traditional muslim dress, random western apparel lol So after some shopping we went to see the Palace in Fes which was quite a site all lit up at night. Then it was off to the train station (every time we travelled there were 8 of us ....in a tiny taxi lol). She helped us get our tickets and we sat and chatted for an hour while we waited. Poor stefanie was getting the usual about to marry my son questions and was trying to explain them the best she could when the mother only understood 75% of what she was saying. Then we got the train hugged goodbye and took our seats. We looked out our window to find her and Mushala staring in our window crying as we were about to pull away. It was one of the most heart warming moments I've ever experienced. We managed to touch people that barely spoke our language, and share our cultures in ways that are next to impossible to explain. I will never be the same, I now realize how real people are. People in other countries aren't just figments, they're real breathing beings, who live and touch and feel. I mean, I've always known that, but now I've witnessed it first hand. Of course this emotional experience started to wear off a bit while trying to sleep on a Harry Potter style train haha We arrived back in Casablanca around 6:30 a.m....I got to watch the sun rise over the desert. We then took a taxi back to the ship..and had to walk thirty minutes across the dock -_- First thing I did back on the ship other than hand in my passport was take a really long shower. The bucket and bowls just wasn't cutting it in the 120 degree heat of Fes. It felt like an oven ...all over your body, that you couldn't walk out of. You know how when you open it and go "AHH that's hot" and then close it..well it was that without it closing and your whole body. haha I went and ate breakfast...since I knew I'd skip lunch...then went to bed until 2 p.m. woke up and made plans with people to go out that evening and then went back to bed again. I was thoroughly exhausted. However I did get up at 6 to go to Rick's Cafe for the breaking of the fast. For those who don't know that's where a lot of the classic movie Casablanca is based. I got a tshirt and an awesome tbone steak (perfectly medium rare :)) and a brownie with icecream. I also had the best tequila sunrise I've ever drank. Then we played with a group of kids who were playing soccer and drumming on homemade drums. After that we all just relaxed. Then I went to lunch today and went to the near by bazaar to spend the last of my money. It wasn't much 1 dollar is worth almost 10 moroccan durham. Therefore everything was cheap. However, you can't exchange Moroccan currency back in the states. I then spent my other money on a purse for myself and a few gifts. To keep from spending all my money on everyone I know I decided to keep gift buying to a bit of a minimum and stick to my parents, brother and my grandparents. I'm sorry all, I love you but I was on a strict budget :( Then I went to a hotel and used their computer and now I'm on the ship for the last time. It's actually rocking...a lot...we just got an announcement to keep our stuff closed up....I'll make sure to blog all about that, final thoughts, and final exams on another day. Wow, can you believe my trip is almost over? 8 more days! Love to all :)
Gwen
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