Reflection (a little lame, but oh well)

So, today is the last day on the ship. I cannot believe that this trip is over. It flew by! I was looking forward to it for so long, and it really was one of the best summers of my life. I have learned so much and made some really great friends. I have also grown so much, and I think I am officially a world traveler. I’m pretty sure I am addicted to having new adventures and experiencing different cultures.

I know reflecting is a little lame to write about in a blog, but I feel like it is necessary with a trip like this. I don’t know if I have really figured out everything that I have gained from this trip yet. I don’t really think I will know until I get home. I have learned a lot though. That is for sure. Especially about the countries we have visited. Spain and Italy were probably the most similar to the U.S. Not to mention the fact that the areas we visited were super touristy. The riots we saw in Spain showed how they are having problems with their economy. Yet, we saw also that even though they were having these problems, they were still proud of their country just like anyone else. Bulgaria was a serious look at what communism can do to a country and how long the effects of it can last. Yet, the thing I think I learned the most about was the Muslim religion. Well, not only the religion but the Arab world in general. Turkey and Morocco (and maybe Global Studies) showed me how similar the Muslim religion is to Christianity and Judaism. I really had no idea that it basically sprang from the same roots. I also learned that dressing conservatively and wearing a burka doesn’t make you completely foreign. I’m not really sure what I though before, but I feel like the media in the U.S. makes it seem like the Muslim religion is one that breeds terrorists which is completely ridiculous and untrue. Islamaphobia is a very real problem, and I hope that I can spread the idea that the terms Muslim, Islamic, and Middle Eastern don’t mean terrorism. The seriousness in which they practiced Ramadan was also eye opening. August is obviously one of the hottest months in most of these countries, and these people were not eating or drinking ANYTHING all day. Nothing. Not even gum! It was definitely an interesting thing to experience, even though it made me feel terrible to eat and drink in front of them.

Secondly, I have gained a greater faith in people. I have met some of the nicest people while traveling through these foreign countries. Just about everyone we encountered (there are always a few exceptions) was kind, helpful, and generous to us. Yes, I know that most people were trying to get us to buy stuff, but the people we asked for recommendations or directions were just as helpful and kind. Hamid was the best example of us. He literally put his whole life on hold for 3 days to tour us around his city. He wanted us to have a great experience in Morocco and really appreciate his hometown. He succeeded too. I have a feeling that without him, I wouldn’t have enjoyed Morocco as much as I did. It may have even been my favorite because of him. It definitely showed me that I need to be more open to helping people, and that Americans should be more welcoming to foreigners.

I also think that a lifelong effect of this trip will hopefully be a global perspective. When I do things or think of things, I feel like I may think of the effect of my actions on a larger scale than just who and what I am. I realized also how insignificant I am in this world. Not in a bad way, but just that there is so much to learn from others that I need to be open to. This trip has also inspired me. I hope that I can turn this experience into more travel and a continued effort to learn about the world.

Another thing that I realized was that everyone speaks English. Well, just about everyone. So, that means just about everyone is bilingual. At least! We met a bunch of people who knew three or more languages. I really hope I can learn more than one language too. I felt so behind!  I really think learning a language should be started at a younger age in the public schooling system. It is so much easier to learn when you are younger. I really would love to continue learning Spanish even though I know it will be a struggle with all of my engineering classes. The language barrier was definitely the biggest struggle in all of these countries.

I also learned how lucky I am to have the freedoms I do as a woman in the U.S. Women in the Muslim world have very few choices. It is all about getting married, having children, etc. They have been given more opportunities and things are changing, but it is nothing like the U.S. I have so many choices, and I am so lucky that I do.

I also learned how fortunate I am. People in the U.S., including myself, have way more than they need.  I am so blessed to have been able to go on trip and see all of these places. It has been the experience of a lifetime, and I wouldn’t change a moment of it. Adding on to that, I have finally realized how blessed and lucky I am to be an American. Not that I didn’t love America before or have pride in my country but seeing how children in other countries are growing up in comparison to my childhood is really eye opening. I had a big backyard with grass, and everything I could ever ask for. I saw kids playing soccer on the patio of a government building in Morocco because it was the only place big enough. Not to mention what I have learned about the governments and the legal systems.

I also learned a lot of things about the U.S. I learned how we are perceived in other countries. Mostly, people would yell famous movie and pop star’s names at us. We are definitely known through the media. I also learned that the U.S. isn’t the center of the world. It is definitely an influence piece of the puzzle, but I feel like we need to have more of a global outlook considering the way technology is shrinking the globe. Yet, in the end, I am so happy and lucky to call the U.S. home. I should have figured, but my dad was right. The best place in the world is home sweet home, the good old U.S. of A. 

Muppet's gonna do, what she wants to do..bomchicwowow

Being on the ship is really starting to get to me. It was fine for the first few days, but most of the people on this ship are so ridiculously rude, I can’t stand it. I have also been doing a lot of school work which is absolutely no fun. Haha. Megan and I wrote our negotiation paper on the first day, so that was done early. We also went to a presentation about the Peace Corps. One of the LLCs (basically an RA) just got back in December from serving in the Peace Corps. I really would love to do it, but I don’t know how I feel about being away from the U.S. for 3 years. I know it isn’t that long, but it will feel really long. I dunno. Maybe right now just isn’t the right time for me.

We have also been laying out a lot. We all got burned really bad the first day we laid out after Morocco just because we got a little lighter. It’s okay though. It will turn to tan. We all met up and exchanged pictures and music that night. Those are the times I am going to miss because I really have a great time just sitting around with all my friends. We laugh at the dumbest stuff, and it is going to be weird not being with them 24/7. We got up for the sunrise one morning too which was pretty cool. It is just so weird that this is almost over. I started packing yesterday which is pretty interesting. My stuff is NOT going to fit. I am probably going to have to carry a lot of it off just because it is fragile. I think I did well on my global studies final though. I don’t know about my Spanish final though. I studied a lot, and it was multiple choice, but I am not that confident. It has been so hard learning a language in 23 days. We literally cover a chapter a day, not to mention the fact that we don’t have class for a week in between. It has been a struggle. I think tonight is stargazing night though when the captain turns off all the lights on the ship. Hopefully we will see lots of stars!

LOVE getting ripped off!

We slept in until lunch which is at 11:30 am. It was so nice to sleep in. We then went out to do our last little bit of shopping in Casablanca. Dice wasn’t feeling well, but she really wanted to spend the rest of her money, so she came with us. It was really hard to bargain with people without Hamid, but we managed. I was pretty tired of bargaining by that point, so I probably got ripped off once or twice. I also got my henna redone, and the lady TOTALLY ripped me off. We agreed to 20 durhams for redoing my hand, and she didn’t do a very good job. Then, she asked if I wanted my foot done, and I agreed. I first said though, for the same as my hand? 20 durhams? And she said yes. Then, when she finished my foot, she was like 70 durhams. So, obviously I said “what? You said 20 durhams for my foot”. And she said “No. 50.” There was a really big group around me, and I really didn’t want to start something with her, so I paid it. It was really annoying though. Megan was yelling at her for ripping me off. Dice wasn’t feeling well at all though at this point, so I walked her back to the shuttle. After that, I shopped around by myself for a while because they chances of me finding anyone were slim to none. It was kind of fun to wander around by myself though. This one woman got really upset with me when I wouldn’t buy clothes from her, but I got out of there without any problems. I did go into one store which had some really cool stuff, but I couldn’t find the shop owner. I stayed and looked for a while hoping he would show up, and I eventually saw him sleeping behind the desk. He woke up after I made a little bit of noise though, and I bought some stuff from him. I got a little lost too in the souks because it is pretty much a maze of shops. It was fine though. I eventually found my way back to the main street and ran into Megan and Katie which was a complete coincidence. I gave the last of my money to people begging on the street, and we headed back to the ship.

We had dinner on the ship, and Ray-ray and I headed up to the top deck to watch the ship sail away from Morocco. Megan bought us fro-yo but she went to sleep pretty early because she found out she had strep throat. Lame. It was crazy to watch us sail away from Morocco though. I can’t believe that this trip is over. Well, the seven days at sea are going to be rough, but I was looking forward to this trip for so long and now it’s over. I am really excited to come home though. I miss everyone. I miss Pittsburgh. :-)

I don't give a what-what

So, I was lucky enough to have Dice wake me up this morning by poking the shit out of my leg. She seriously poked me so hard. Haha. Anyways, she poked me at 8:45 am when we were supposed to wake up at 9:45 am. Good thing Dice can read her watch. So, we went back to bed for like an hour and then woke up. Amid was picking us up at 11 to go shopping, so we headed down to breakfast. We didn’t even have to order anything because they just brought us exactly what we ate yesterday morning. Haha. So, that was pretty funny. We ate and went to go meet Hamid in the lobby. Megan was feeling a little bit better this morning which was good too.

So, we headed to the souks which are where we were the other night. It was really different during the day. It was really hot, and there weren’t as many people out as there were at night obviously. We went to get money out of the ATM, and while we were doing that, a fight broke out near us. Hamid went to go break it up, and apparently some guy said something rude to another guy’s girlfriend. Hamid is such a gem though. We walked into the souks, and Hamid wouldn’t let us buy anything until we were pretty far in because he said the stuff on the outskirts is cheap. The first store we went into was a tapestry store which has these really cool tablecloth things that you hang on your wall. They are handmade and really cool though. So, we went in, picked out the ones we liked, and Hamid did the bargaining for us. That is pretty much how it was at every store. Everyone said they gave us a way better price than they normally would because Hamid was there. He just saying that we were his family which was probably the most adorable thing I have ever heard. He also refused to let me carry all of my bags, so he was carrying so purses and stuff for me. What a cutie. I also felt bad for him because we really do love to shop, and Megan can be indecisive at times which can take a while, but he was really patient.
We walked past this one guy that was a wood carver, and he was carving these really cool skewers WITH HIS TOES! Yes. His toes. He made us these really cute, free necklaces, and we watched him do it…with his toes. I seriously can’t get over it. I am surprised he still has both big toes because that is the main toe he uses. It was crazy. He was really cool though and showed us a picture of him carving like that when he was a really young boy. It was awesome. I also bought these really cool, handmade shoes which I am super excited about. They are so cute! We saved a TON of money thanks to Hamid, and he was the best negotiator we could have had. After shopping for a while, we decided to head back.

When we were walking through the square, we saw snake charmers which I was really excited about. Dice was not so excited and stood about 15 feet away from the snakes. Haha. Pretty hilarious. When we walked up, he pulled one of the snakes out of a bucket of water, and I thought it was just a normal garden snake because that was the one he was holding. As soon as he set it down though, its flared out these flaps from the side of its head, and I could see that it was a cobra. Pretty scary. The other one they had was a viper. They are both incredibly poisonous, so I was kind of scared. I got a picture with the garden snake and Hamid though. Haha.
We got back in the car, and Hamid dropped us off at the hotel to pack up. He really wanted us to eat something, but I didn’t want him to have to watch us eat again, so we refused. I feel so bad when he can’t eat! We packed all our stuff up and went to check out of the hotel. So, this was probably the funniest part of the whole day. The hotel room was really nice and in a really nice hotel in general, cost us 240 durhams. That is about the equivalent of $10 a person. That was for two nights, and breakfast both mornings. Isn’t that INSANE!?! We couldn’t believe it.

Hamid picked us up to drive us to the train station, and I gave him my Pitt ballcap and all of our contact information. He gave me his authentic Moroccan straw hat, and his contact information. We thought he was going to drop us off at the train station, but he parked and came in with us. Megan and I wanted to get a little more money out for Casablanca, but we decided to buy waters first. While Dice and I were buying water, Megan dropped the skewers she had bought all over the floor in front of the ATM. I didn’t even realize she did it until she almost had them all picked up. People were staring though, so it was a little funny. Haha. Our train was leaving in about 15 minutes, so Hamid walked us to the place where they took our tickets. We each gave him kisses on the cheek and a hug. He was seriously SO nice to us, and we still can’t figure out why. I guess it was because I go to Pitt, and he went there back in the day, but he made our stay in Morocco 10 times better than it would have been without him. He left, and it was really sad to see him go.

We got on the train and were really excited because we got first class tickets. We were in our own Harry Potter compartment, and we were hoping that no one else was in there. Unfortunately, as we were fighting over who was Hermoine, a man came in and told us we were in the wrong seats. Boo. We were supposed to be in the other first class car which was just a bunch of seats without compartments. There were some women sitting in our seats, so we had to get the conductor to kick them out. It was just really stressful because we had a TON of stuff with us, and we were having trouble carrying it all. Of course everything goes wrong as soon as we leave Hamid’s sight. They finally moved and we sat down. Unfortunately, the one girl was in the right seat, and she ended up trading seats with this younger guy so she could sit with her family.

This guy was not the smallest guy ever, and of course he sat across from me. He had NO problem hogging all the leg room and literally had his feet all the way under my chair. At one point, he even put his leg in between my legs! ARE YOU SERIOUS? I was super pissed, but he was being nice to Dice because she was studying French, and he is fluent in French. He was getting on my nerves though because I was trying to study too, and he wouldn’t shut up. Ugh. We were also really hungry. Not eating because of Hamid was apparently a bad idea. We should have at least grabbed some snacks.

We finally got off the train and away from that AWFUL man. As we walked out of the train station, we were SWARMED by taxi drivers. Absolutely swarmed. The guy on the train told us not to pay more than 20 durhams, but no one would take us for less than 50 durhams.  I was completely exhausted and hungry by this point and didn’t feel like arguing, so we agreed. A bunch of people from SAS were in taxis in front of us, so our taxi was basically just following them. It wasn’t a long ride, but the ship was docked pretty far back in the port we were in. Also, there is a security gate that you have to get through to get to the ship. The people at the security desk made our taxi driver give them his taxi license, and he was clearly not happy about it. So, as revenge, he dropped us off a good 10 minute walk from the ship. He was super rude to us too. Everyone else got taken all the way to the ship, so we were pretty annoyed. Megan got him back though by accidentally ripping off the lining of the car door when she got out of the taxi. It was a crappy taxi anyways. We walked back to the ship, and Megan’s flip flop broke when we were about 50 feet away. What are the chances? So, she had to change into her tennis shoes. I felt bad because they are her only pair of flip flops! Also, when we got back on the ship, they took Megan and Candice’s skewers away from them because apparently they are weapons. So, hopefully they get those back before we get to Boston.

We took a nap and got ready to go to dinner. We went to Rick’s Café which is based on the place in Casablanca. We met up with Katie, Nicole, Amanda, and Ray-ray and heard all about their adventures. I realized how lucky we were to have Hamid with us once I heard from them because apparently a lot of people bothered them in Marrakech. I guess a lot of children were begging for money from them, and a lot of people bothered them on the streets. We didn’t really have a problem with that, but it was definitely because of Hamid. So, we walked to the restaurant. Luckily, we made a reservation because it was packed! The place was really cool though. It looked exactly like the movie, and they had a piano player! The food was also SO good. We had a bottle of wine, and I had duck which was yummy. I also got a chocolate sundae. It was awesome. Katie paid for dinner which was really nice of her, and it was a great last dinner in port.

What? You want fancy feast?

We slept in since we weren’t meeting Hamid until 11 A.M., but Megan woke up feeling like shit. I felt so bad because today was our last big day of the trip, and we were supposed to ride camels. We went down to breakfast at the hotel together though and took a look at the menu. They seemed to have a lot of great choice, but we could only choose between the Moroccan breakfast or the continental breakfast. Why do you give me so many choices then?

We got fresh squeezed orange juice (they really are into that here), and I got the Moroccan breakfast while Megs and Dice got the continental breakfast. They were both all carbs except for a small container of yogurt, hard boiled eggs, and some weird looking pieces of meat. The Moroccan breakfast was made up of this yummy bread, crepes with nothing in them, and these holey pancake things. I just put honey on everything and dug in. Dice and Megs basically got a bunch of croissants. Yummy. Megan really wasn’t feeling well, so we were going to ask Hamid if we could ride camels with her close to the hotel, bring her back, and then go to the mountain.

Just as a side note, this weird thing started to happen with us and Hamid. Every time he picked us up, I would sit in the front, Dice would sit behind Hamid, and Megan would sit behind me. Also, anytime Megs or Dice wanted to say something to Hamid, they said it, and then he would look at me to repeat it. It wasn’t like I was translating or anything, but I kind of was. I think he just liked me a lot because I went to Pitt and so did he, but I would just repeat what they said slower and with some hand motions. It actually became a little joke between us girls.

So, Hamid arrived, and we asked him if Megan could ride camels close by. He said “No Problem!”, so we all hopped in. Before we took off, he pulled out this big envelope with a ton of pictures of him from the 1980’s in Pittsburgh! He had a picture of Forbes which looks super different now, and a picture of the cathedral. He also had pictures of himself at Kennywood and The Pittsburgh Zoo. It was seriously the coolest thing ever. The best part was that in most of the pictures, he was rocking some old school Pitt gear. It was some of the same stuff that my dad used to have. It was seriously really cool. He was obviously really excited to show it all to me too. After I looked through them, we started to drive. I noticed that we were headed in the direction of the mountain, so I reminded him that Megan wanted to ride a camel and go back. Hamid basically refused and said that she needed to see the mountain. He also said that she would regret it if she didn’t because she would see all of our pictures and be really upset. I could tell Megan was super pissed at this old man for tricking her into coming along, but she was a trooper and agreed.

So, let me set the scene for you. We are all in our assigned seats, rolling through the most beautiful mountain range, while Lady Gaga’s Judas is pumping out of the speakers. Definitely an experience. The road was super windy and became more and more narrow as we got farther into it. The mountains had this red look to them because the dirt is pretty much red, and they were spotted with green plants and trees. It was so beautiful. Hamid is a big fan of using the horn and basically honked it at every corner to let people know we were coming. We drove through Ourika which is the region we were in to get to the village named Stivadma. After about a two hour drive and a ton of pictures, the road ended, and we had to park the car. We walked around the village a little, and we saw this little goat that was tied to a pole in the middle of a porch. It looked so helpless because it was tied up with a piece of ribbon, but Hamid wasn’t afraid and picked it up! I stood behind it for a picture, but we learned that it was eventually going to get killed. You know how we knew that? We saw its brother’s head hanging in the shop next door along with its body and legs. EWW.

Then, the most amazing thing happened. IT RAINED! I honestly never thought I would be so excited for rain in my life, but it was awesome. I missed it these past two months! It rained really hard too. We took shelter in this outdoor restaurant that had a tin roof so the rain sounded even louder than it was. Hamid ordered mint tea for us which were SO good. He then ordered more tagine but this time it was egg and ground beef. He called it a hamburger, but it was honestly better than any hamburger I ever had. There were so many spices and deliciousness in it. Ah. So GOOD. We sat and ate for a while which I felt bad about because Hamid couldn’t eat. He was fasting along with almost the whole village we were in. We didn’t ask him to get us food though, but as I said, he doesn't take no for an answer. We started feeding some of the food to a bunch of stray cats that were around and before we knew it we looked like a bunch of cat ladies. One of the cats had a face that looked like a dog though, so we named him Catdog. Hahaha. Some of the cats were a little picky though, and we had fun making fun of them (see album title). Hamid kept getting up and walking around while we were eating, and he eventually came back with a honeydew melon. He got the restaurant owner to cut it up, and it was really good too. Good old Hamid. Gotta love him.

The rain had slowed down by the time we were finished eating, and Hamid wouldn’t let us pay for our food yet again. We started following him through the town, and we started to head down a side road. There were a bunch of chickens everywhere which was really funny. But then it started POURING rain again. Hamid literally started running through this alleyway filled with rocks and mud, and I couldn’t even keep up with him. We were all laughing at the fact that we were running through the rain, and a 64 year old man beat us to shelter. We jumped into this little store, and Hamid said he would bring the car down to meet us. We refused and told him we would run to the car with him, so off he went like a lightning bolt again. Haha. Oh Hamid. We all jumped into the car and headed out of the little town. We were all soaked, but it was really funny and refreshing.

As we headed out of the thick of the mountains where Hamid said it rains a lot, we drove past a bunch of old, rickety bridges that cross over the river. Hamid decided to pull over (he makes all the decisions..seriously though..he does), and he led us over to the bridge. Candice is really afraid of heights, so when Hamid basically started to run across this bridge, we were all taken aback. It was rocking back and forth like crazy and the bridge had a ton of holes in it. It was made of tree limbs and cable wire, and it was really scary to walk across, but we all did it. Once we got to the other side, we walked down to the river, and Hamid started climbing on top of all these big rocks. By this time, we had traded hats. He was wearing my Pitt baseball cap, and I was wearing his traditional Moroccan straw hat. We took a picture together that is pretty adorable.

We hung out down there for a little, and then we headed back across the bridge. We all jumped back in the car and headed back out of the mountains. By this time, Megan was feeling a lot better (gotta love medicine), and I think she was really glad that she came along. The drive and the town were probably one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. I love getting out of the city and seeing these countries for what they really are. As we drove out of the mountains, Hamid had the radio up loud, and we were all singing to Chris Brown and some other American artists. We also taught Hamid how to pound it or “knucks” which he loved. We really bonded with him.

Once we were almost out of the mountains, Hamid pulled over where there was a large group of camels chilling on the side of the road. Guess it is time to ride a camel! We all hop out, and Megan is the first to mount her camel. I had no idea how BIG camels were. I was really surprised. They are SO huge. The way they stand up and sit down is pretty funny too. They first go down on their front legs and then on their back legs. It was really funny, but these animals are also kind of gross. They were covered in flies and flees, and I really wasn’t a big fan. Yet, I still jumped on! We all got on our camels, and the guy who owned them led us around for a couple of minutes. Hamid was snapping pictures like a pro, so we caught the whole experience. He really liked the fact that my camera could take videos, so he swallowed up my whole memory card with a video of the experience. I wasn’t mad though. It is a pretty hilarious video.

After riding camels, we headed back into town while singing and dancing in the car. It was a lot of fun. Hamid took us back to the hotel and said he would pick us up at 9:30 to go out. Apparently he wasn’t sick of us yet! When we got back, Megan took a nap and a shower while Mandice and I walked to the train station to get tickets for the next day back to Casablanca. We stopped to get postcards and water, and a few guys were yelling stuff at us while we walked. Can’t go anywhere without Hamid! We got to the train station and were lucky that the attendant spoke English really well. We also ran into another SAS girl who asked to borrow Megan’s phone which I took in case we got jumped. Hey, you never know! We hung out in the hotel and showered until it was time for Hamid to pick us up. Even though we were basically best friends with him by this point, I was a little nervous getting in the car with him again. I just don’t know why he wanted to hang out with us.

He started driving and decided that we were going to go to Chez Ali which apparently means the Two Alis. It is this really famous show that is pretty similar to Medieval Times. I think it is probably where Medieval Times originated. We were a little nervous on the drive there though because this place is kind of far outside of the city. Megan wasn’t feeling well again, so we were hoping it wouldn’t be a late night. We arrived, and the place looked like a palace. We paid for just the show because we had apparently missed dinner and got our pictures taken with some women dressed in cool outfits. The place was really cool with a place in the middle for the performance, and a big palace build around it. We got a table, and Hamid ordered a coke and some water. There were a bunch of groups of performers that came around to each table, and they made us get up and dance with them. Hamid just took pictures. Haha. He showed us around the place, and apparently Reagan had visited at one point. This place was really famous too and had won all kind of awards.

He showed us all the indoor seating which was really authentic, and then we took our seats for the show. It was a story about a woman being married off I think. It started with a girl who did belly dancing, and then there were two people on a flying carpet above. It was hard to follow because it was in Arabic, but it was still cool. They also had guys on live horses that charged the audience and shot these really loud guys. Candice screamed when it happened the first time. Pretty typical. Haha. They also had a couple of guys who did tricks on horses which was really cool. At the end of the performance, they lit a bunch of letters on fire to spell goodbye in Arabic. It was a really cool experience. Megan still wasn’t feeling well though, so after the show we asked Hamid to take us back to the hotel. He wanted to just drop Megan off and take Candice and I to get dinner, but Candice and I didn’t want to leave her. So, we all headed back to the hotel after a LONG day. I felt kind of bad because he was obviously disappointed, but it really wasn’t a good idea for us to split up. It was just really hard to explain things to him without sounding rude or ungrateful. :-(

To Get in the Car or Not?

We got up early on our second day because we needed to catch a train to Marrakech which is a bigger city about 3 hours from Casablanca. We had breakfast on the ship and left to catch the shuttle which transported us to the front of the port. From there, we needed to get a cab to the train station because it was on the opposite side of town, so we took this really nice BMW cab that was unmarked. Probably not smart, but oh well. We also paid more than we probably should have but we didn’t know that until later. I guess you live and you learn right? We got to the train station and ran into a bunch of people from SAS because a ton of people were planning on going to Marrakech. We were pretty early though, so we got tickets, but we didn’t get first class tickets like we had hoped. The difference between first and second class is air conditioning which is a pretty vital thing in the desert. So, we weren’t looking forward to that. We went out to where we thought the train was going to be, but all of the announcements were in French, so we almost got on a train to go to the airport. Luckily, one of the professors stopped us, and we finally boarded the correct train.

Now, as I have mentioned in many previous posts, lines DO NOT exist in Europe. Well, they don’t exist in Africa either. So, we had been waiting for the train for about an hour and a half before it got there. A ton of SAS people got there right before it left and were PUSHING us out of the way to get on the train first. So annoying. I KNOW you are from the U.S., where lines exist, so DON’T CUT IN FRONT OF ME. I was literally fuming because to be honest, I am SICK of most of the people on the ship. People are rude, obnoxious, and obsessed with getting wasted which I do not understand because you can do that at home. So, anyways, I was basically elbowing girls out of the way, and I was the first of my friends to get on the train. By the way, it was just Candice, Megan, and I on this little adventure. Everyone else had plans they had made earlier. So, I was saving two seats in a compartment (yes! Just like Harry Potter!), and this awful SAS girl comes barging in, throws her stuff in the two seats I was saving, and yells to her friend that she saved her a seat. At this point, I am BOILING. So, I told her that I was saving those seats for my friends. So, she took her shit out of one of the seats, but not the other one. So, I just gave Megan my seat because she wasn’t feeling well, and Candice and I sat out in the aisle way because I felt bad making Candice sit out there by herself. So, the awful girl got her way. I hate when that happens.

The good news is that Candice and I only had to sit out there for two stops because three people got off at another stop which was awesome. So, we all moved to another compartment together. There were two men in there, one that spoke English and one that didn’t. The guy that spoke English talked to us for a little bit, but he was a little creepy. After about two stops, another older man came into our compartment and sat down across from the three of us. Of course, we were just talking up a storm, and I started reading Candice’s palm at one point. Before I knew it, I was reading this old man’s palm! Don’t worry. He had a really long lifeline. We started talking to him and became really good friends with him on the train ride. His name is Hamid. He is a native of Marrakech, and I found out that in the 1980’s he studied abroad at Pitt! Isn’t that awesome? He knew all about the Cathedral of Learning, and he even lived in the Towers! We talked about Pittsburgh and some other stuff, and he was just a really nice guy. His English wasn’t that good, but the more we talked, the better it got. About halfway through the train ride, Megan started feeling really sick. I felt so bad because she had gotten pretty sick in Italy too, but we were on the train so there wasn’t really anything we could do.

The train ride finally ended after about three hours, and Hamid offered to give us a ride to our hotel. He said his son was picking him up from the train station, and our hotel was only two blocks from there. We said we could walk, but he advised against it because of the heat. So, we know that we shouldn’t get in cars with strangers. It definitely is not a good idea, but his son was waiting for him outside, it was hot, and we were tired. In our defense, it was also the middle of the day, so we could have yelled and screamed and barrel-rolled (HAHA) out of the car if necessary. So, we hopped in. All three of us were squeezed in the back with our stuff, and Hamid was right! It was only like two blocks away. His son pulled up on the wrong side of the hotel, and the hotel looked deserted. Hamid hopped out and walked us inside. He helped us to find the main desk and helped to translate with the people working at the desk. We were all checked in, and Hamid said he would pick us up at 8:30 P.M. in the lobby to show us the old town of Marrakech. We said okay because we were delirious, and off he went. He was just the nicest man!

So, the hotel we stayed at was SO nice. Like ridiculously nice. There was a bellhop that took us up to our room which was a one bed room apartment. There was a big living room, kitchen, bathroom, and two balconies. The common area of the hotel had this really nice pool, and it was decorated authentically. It was awesome. We were all really excited about how nice our room was, but we were STARVING when we got off the train. We hadn’t eaten lunch, and it was pretty late. So, we headed out to the main road because our hotel was a little bit off the main road. We walked down the street a little bit until we found a cab, and we tried to get him to take us to a restaurant. He didn’t speak very good English, but he seemed to understand that we were hungry, so we hopped in. We ended up at the mall. Yes, the mall. Clearly he didn’t understand us, but oh well. We tried. So, we headed for the food court to find that there are two restaurants open: Pizza Hut and Korean BBQ. Yup. Just those two. I mean, it is Ramadan and just about everyone is fasting during the day, but COME ON PEOPLE. I’M HUNGRY. So, I got Korean BBQ while Candice and Megan got Pizza Hut. The Korean BBQ wasn’t too bad because it was sushi with BBQ sauce to dip in, so I enjoyed having some sushi. I didn’t realize how much I missed it. Megs and Dice got salads from Pizza Hut, and we ate together in the completely deserted food court. Kind of eerie.

After lunch, we went back to the hotel to relax and shower before our big night out with Hamid. As the sun started going down, and we were online (FREE WIFI YAH!) telling people what we were about to do, we started contemplating if going with Hamid would play out the way the movie Taken did. I mean, why would some random old man want to hang out with us? We weren’t sure if we were going to go, and we decided that the best course of action was to tell him that we would meet him in the Old Town, so we wouldn’t have to get in the car with him. Even though we already did get in a car with him. But that is beside the point because that was during the day which is completely different. Megan was pretty much set on the scenario of “What if he doesn’t come?” but I knew that was never going to happen. So, we went down to the lobby and were waiting for him there. While we were waiting, we had this brilliant plan to ask the hotel desk for the number to call the police. The woman working at the desk did not speak the best English, so Megan went to try and ask her for the number. The conversation didn’t go well, and pretty much ended with “What is the number for 9-1-1, but not 9-1-1?”. Hahaha. Yah. She didn’t know what that was. So, we just got the number for the hotel. We are brilliant.

Hamid did show up and was right on time. He came into the lobby, and we were all sitting in the seats. He asked if we were ready, and we asked what we were doing. I was trying to tell him we would just meet him there, but we ended up just getting in the car with him. I know, but he was an old man, and we had Mandice with us, so I wasn’t too worried. We were all really nervous in the car, but he did take us to the center of the city, not a random, dark basement with torture devices. I did breathe a sigh of relief when we got out of the car though.

He parked a little bit off the main street, and we walked towards the city center together. All of a sudden the street we were walking on opens up into this HUGE square, and it was filled with people. There were street performers, tourists, locals, horses, cars, etc. Literally, everything you could think of going in all different directions. It was a little overwhelming, but I enjoyed it. I was really glad we went with Hamid though. He kept all the creepy guys away and helped us to find our way around. As soon as we got into the main part of the square, we came across a man with a monkey! It was the cutest thing ever! He climbed on to my shoulder, and Megan snapped a picture. I was surprised at how big it was though. I was expecting it to be smaller. We walked in a little more and found a ton of places serving food. Since most of the people had been fasting all day, including Hamid, there were a ton of places to get food. Hamid bought us all a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice which was really good except for all the pulp. He basically chugged his, but it took us a little longer to drink it. We walked farther back in the square, and he ran us through the souks really quickly which are all the places to shop. We didn’t do much shopping, but he definitely knew his way around. We did stop at a purse shop, and he bargained a great price for us which was great. The souks sold all kinds of stuff from food to furniture. It was a lot like the Grand Bazaar, but people weren’t as pushy. I think that might have been because we were with Hamid though.

After we ran through the souk (Hamid is a REALLY fast walker), we headed back to the main square. We all decided we wanted to get henna, so Hamid negotiated a price for us, and we all got something on our arms. Hamid got another glass of orange juice, and as I got my henna, I watched a belly dancer do her thing. Yet, I was wrong. Hamid told me that it was a MAN who was belly dancing. You really couldn’t tell because his face was completely covered, but it was super weird.

We then headed back to the main square where we ran into a bunch of clowns. Now, these weren’t your typical clowns. Hamid called them cloons (his pronunciation is his biggest problem), but they were basically guys dressed a little funny telling stories. They had huge crowds around them, and in the middle were a bunch of kids who were clearly engulfed in the story. It was a really cool thing to watch. Even though I couldn’t understand what he was saying, I could tell if the story was funny or scary. We didn’t stay long to listen though because Hamid is always on the move. I swear he is a 15 year old boy trapped in a 64 year old body. He moves at lightning fast speed. So, we were off, and this time we were headed in the direction of the mosque. In most of the cities in Morocco, the city center is accompanied by a mosque (thanks for that lesson Global Studies!). It is where people gather to pray, socialize, and such. So, we headed over to the mosque. On the way over, we passed a bunch of horse drawn carriages which apparently act as taxis. Hamid said they would take us all the way back to the hotel which was a pretty good way. I’m sure it would have been expensive though. The funny thing was that the horses had these cloths behind them to catch their poop! Pretty clever huh?

So, as we approached the mosque, we had to cross the street to get to it. Crossing the street in any country we have been in has been a task, but Morocco was definitely the worst. People WILL run you over. So, Megs, Dice, and I were basically clinging to Hamid because locals seem to know the exact moment when it is okay to cross even if a car, bike, and moped are less than a foot away. I guess they are born with it. We arrived at the mosque, and it was beautiful. It was all lit up, and there was a sea of people outside of it, all in white, praying towards Mecca. It was honestly one of the most beautiful things I have seen on this trip. I am not really sure why, but after seeing these people fast all day and then pray, I really understood the religion. It is such devotion. Anyways, they all moved in unison as they prayed, and they just seemed so connected. I obvious didn’t take any pictures because that would just be wrong, but it was awesome.

We then headed back to the main square and then back to the car. Hamid was basically our tour guide and very rarely told us what was planned next, so we figured out when we got in the car that we were headed to dinner. He took us to this café that was on the other side of town behind a gas station. Don’t worry. No one dies. We were all pretty tired though, and Megan wasn’t feeling well still, but telling Hamid no is IMPOSSIBLE. I swear he pretends to not understand me anytime I say no. More examples to come about that one. So, we walk into the restaurant and are literally the ONLY foreigners there. I mean, that is kind of typical since we are rolling with a local, but I have never been stared at by a whole restaurant in my life until that moment. I swear EVERYONE looked up at us. That was kind of a surreal experience. We sat down though, and Hamid ordered us water and tagine. Tagine is basically a mix of a meat, fruit, and vegetable all in this cone shaped pot. They put the cone shaped pot into an open fire stove, and let it slow cook for about an hour. Want to know what comes out? The BEST food I have ever had. Seriously. He got one with lamb, apricots, and onions. The meat was falling off the bone and was infused with the apricot and onion taste. It was SO good. We all ate out of the same pot though which was also pretty cool. They also served it with tanourt which is a weird kind of flat bread. We ate pretty quickly, and Hamid wrote all of our names on our napkins in Arabic which was pretty cool. He then got in a little argument with the waiter about our check (Hamid is kind of impatient like me!), and we paid for dinner since he had been so nice.

By this time, we were all really exhausted. Yet, Hamid has plans. He really wanted to show us this public bowling alley, and I honestly got a little nervous that he was going to kill us or something. But there actually was a bowling alley. Apparently, he thought it would remind me of Pittsburgh. Haha. He wanted to go in, but I told him we were all really tired, so he took us to buy some water and then back to the hotel. We thanked him for everything and for being so nice to us, and he said “No problem! See you tomorrow at 11? We will go into the mountains!” We had told him we wanted to see some of the Berber villages which are in the mountains of Marrakech, and apparently he wanted to take us! So, we agreed, headed back to our room, and informed everyone that we hadn’t been “Taken”! Quite an interesting night to say the least.

But can we buy them HERE????

We got up early on our first day in Africa, but it took a while for them to clear the ship because they decided to stamp all of our passports. I was really excited to get a stamp though. They are super cool and prove that I’ve been to Africa! We ate breakfast and headed out to the Hassan II Mosque which is the 3rd largest mosque in the world next to two that are in Saudi Arabia. It was built in 6 years which means that they pretty much worked on it 24 hours a day for all 6 years. Crazy! It was finished in 1993, so it is actually a really new mosque. It is built right over the ocean too because there is a verse from the Qur’an that says something about Allah being near the ocean. It is absolutely GIGANTIC. It was so big that we couldn’t really figure out where the entrance was, but we asked and eventually found it.

We walked down underneath the main entrances of the mosque which are only opened during Ramadan before sunrise and after sunset. We had to pay 120 durhams to get in, but that is only like $15. We had a tour guide take us around too which was nice. We took our shoes off before we went in, and it was the most magnificent place I have ever seen. The ceilings were so high, and it was actually made out of cedar wood. The ceiling weighed about 50,000 pounds, and it can open automatically which is pretty cool. They open it during Ramadan to help keep the place cool because it can hold 25,000 people. Yah. It is THAT big. The ceiling is beautiful though and has gold in it. The floor is also made of marble, but they had carpets all over it to make it more comfortable for Ramadan. All the materials used to make it came from Morocco except for some Venetian marble and Venetian chandeliers. I really can’t explain how beautiful it was. You could see the ocean from the windows on the left, and a lot of the materials used like the cedar ceiling and the titanium doors are to prevent erosion from the ocean.

The tour guide also took us underneath the mosque which is where everyone must wash before praying in the mosque. We then walked to another part of the mosque which was separated into sections for women and men. Apparently each side is exactly the same, and they have a pool underneath which is supposed to be for socializing. The cool thing about it is that people who aren’t Muslim can use it.

We walked to the mosque, and we walked back which was a really far walk. It was probably about 45 minutes each way, but it was a good way to see the city. It was actually only about 80 degrees which wasn’t bad with the breeze. We walked past Rick’s Café which is the place they built to replicate the café from Casablanca. I think we are going to eat there on our last night in Morocco. We went back to the ship to grab lunch because a lot of the places to eat were closed in Casablanca. So, we ate and relaxed for a little before heading back out to the Medina which is where they sell a bunch of stuff. They had a bunch of cool stuff to buy, but we just decided to look around. They had a TON of bootlegged movies, and some super cute shoes but my feet are too big for all of them. We did walk to Rick’s Café to try to make a reservation, but it was closed. On our way there, we were walking through some serious back streets though. We saw two guys having a verbal fight that attracted a bit of a crowd, but it wasn’t too intense. People kept saying “welcome to Morocco” to us which was really nice. They seemed genuine at least. Rick’s Café looked really cool from the outside though, so I am excited.

We walked back to the ship after that, and Katie, Candice, and I went to the train station to try and buy tickets for the next day. Crossing the street was quite the event though. People here drive crazier than anywhere else we have been which is saying a lot. They have lanes drawn on the road, but they are only a suggestion. So, we raced across the street to get to the train station. It was a live version of Frogger for sure. We got there though, and the guy selling tickets only spoke Arabic and Spanish. Katie took Spanish for a few years though, so we found out that we couldn’t buy train tickets from this station. The tickets we needed were at a station across town. It was really hard communicating with him though, and I pretty much pulled a Candice by repeating over and over if “we could buy the tickets HERE”. Clearly, we couldn’t, so we just decided to wait until the next day.

We ate dinner on the ship and relaxed for a little bit. A lot of SASers were all dressed up and ready to go out, even though they don’t serve alcohol during Ramadan. I heard the next morning though that a bunch of girls and a couple of guys tried to go to a bar, and they wouldn’t let the girls in. I guess that is understandable since it is their holiest month.

After dinner, Candice and I went back out to try and buy phone cards. We were literally the only women out though. It was insane. People kept yelling stuff at us, and we were even dressed appropriately! We did end up buying phone cards, but they were only for about 8 minutes. While I was waiting for Candice to finish on the phone, this woman dressed in black from head to toe came running by. Actually running though, and her outfit was flying up behind her. She actually looked like a bat. It was crazy. We walked back to the ship though because we knew it would be an early morning trying to get to Marrakech the next day!