Morocco!

Hey everyone!

This whole e-mailing to our blog thing has not been working lately, and we have both used up our internet minutes already, so I'm trying to work on it. We actually wrote this the night we got back on the ship, but it wouldn't post. We actually are keeping up on our blog, I promise!!

I want to start out by saying Morocco probably isn't going to be our favorite country, but it was definitely an experience we are grateful we had. It was so emotionally draining and overwhelming, but a fabulous time, nonetheless!

In the last entry, we told you about how we didn't get to Morocco until Tuesday. Well, Tuesday morning, we met up with Mike, Blair, and Sarah W. to head to the train station. We walked with a few other people to the exit of the port, and this should've been an indication of how the rest of the trip was going to go. It was muddy and smelly, and people were everywhere...shouting things at us in Arabic and almost running us down with their cars/mopeds. Needless to say, we were overwhelmed right from the beginning. We found a cab that we could all "fit" in (I say this because it only had 5 seats and we had 7 people) and bartered with the driver to take us to the train station. He wanted us to pay him a ridiculous amount and kept trying to get us in his cab. When he finally said a price we could handle, we all squished in and got to the train station in one piece. The train was supposed to leave at 10:50, and at 10:55, we were running down the platform with our 2nd-class tickets and hopped on (A League of their Own, mom?? haha). This, again, was a very interesting experience. There were no seats left, so we ended up standing for almost the entire 3-hour trip to Marrakech, looking out the window. Morocco is definitely a city of contrasts. One minute we'd see a tent city built up along the tracks and the next we'd see huge towns, with every building painted white, and mosques and palaces on the horizon. There never failed to be at least one cow or sheep wandering in the fields, and I got some good pictures of children chasing each other or waving at us as we zoomed by.

After the exhausting train ride, we got off the train and started walking. We didn't really know where we were going, but we knew we needed food asap! So we find this little cafe and stopped to have pizza and "coca cola light". It was interesting. The cheese was like nothing we've ever tasted and had a bitter aftertaste. But we devoured it and head out again to find our hostel. We had to take taxis there, and they made us split up- Mike, Blair, and myself in one...Sarah W and Kate in the other. When we got there, we found out that our cab driver ripped us off and made us pay 20 durham and the other cab only had to pay 10. Lesson learned I guess. Now starts the overwhelming part....we were dropped off in the medina, or middle, of Marrakech. Our hostel was supposedly located in the Place Jem al F'na, where the souks market is. So we walked into the giant square where the market was and saw a million things at once. People selling fruit, women offering henna, little children begging or selling pastries, men with either monkeys or snakes who tried to put them on you and then make you pay for it, and cars and mopeds driving like they owned the place. And the smells- I wish you could've been there- it was a mixture of spices, people, smoke, food, horses, and rain, and it just sucked you in and made you want to find out where each and every smell was coming from. We wandered around and made it to the souks which is a different experience altogether...let me try to explain. The souks is a giant market where people have booths and they sell things. It's literally a giant maze where they sell anything from shirts and handmade bags to rugs, food, spices, and decorations. I literally think you could go in there and get everything you would ever need. And you can't walk through there without the men harrassing you. They REALLY want you to come to their little shop and buy something so they'll say anything to you. Some funny examples were, "Beautiful eyes.....so much beautiful like butterflies", "Fish & Chips, fish & chips" (this reminded us of Kristina..I guess they thought we were British?), "Come here- I am what you are looking for", and "Obama!".

So, anyway, we finally found our hostel after walking down two creepy alleyways, and put our stuff down. The hostel was nice. The four girls stayed in one room and Mike went upstairs to stay with the other boys. Each room had about 5 foam "beds" lined up next to each other and a closet along one wall. The bathroom (which included a nice squatter toilet) was right outside. We walked in our room and found a girl from Australia who was traveling by herself. She was really nice and gave us some helpful hints about staying in Marrakech. After chatting for a while and putting our stuff in the closets, we headed out. We wanted to check out the market so we walked around for a while thinking we could see it and then get lunch. Wrong. We got so lost we were in the market for 2 1/2 hours! And we hadn't planned to buy anything, so we had no money, and every time you asked someone for directions, they'd insist on leading you there and then make you pay for it. It was a bit overwhelming. We finally found our way out (yay) and got a light lunch. The afternoon was much of the same...walking around the square and trying to barter for different things. And guess who we ran into!! Our friend Rachel! She was on a SAS trip and she decided to leave it and come with us, which was so much fun. When dusk came, the square completely changed. There were about 15 different food tents set up that had all kinds of different food, and they cooked it right in front of you. There were drum circles forming, people storytelling in Arabic, street boxing, and dancing. It was fantastic, and we decided to have dinner on a terrace overlooking the spectacle. Dinner was amazing. For 125 durham (about $20) we got a 3-course meal that included couscous, mint tea, vegetables, bread, and dessert (oranges with cinnamon). We even drank Moroccan Pepsi. haha. It was delicious and we got to watch the sun go down over the noise and smells of the Medina.

Sleeping at the hostel was definitely an experience (no shower, and we had to brush our teeth using a water bottle), but I'm glad we did it. There was a speaker right outside the window that went off at 4:30 am calling everyone to prayer (this happens 5 times a day), so we were all pretty much awake, just laying there, until about 8:30 when we decided to go to breakfast. This, too, was amazing! It was raining and cold, so when we got to this restaurant and saw other SASers looking happy and warm, we went right in. The waiter brought us hot chocolate, coffee, orange juice, and crepes which were so yummy! And all for 30 durham! We were full and happy by the time we decided to venture once again into the market. This time, though, we came prepared to buy a few things. We ended up buying a shirt each, a couple scarves, and two toy camels. We bartered for the shirts and got them down from 900 durham to about 250. We were very proud of ourselves. Everyone else bought a little something, and then Blair, Kate, and I went on a bus tour of the city while Mike, Rachel, and Sarah W walked around a bit more. I'm so glad we took the tour because the rest of Marrakech was so different from the Medina we had stayed in. Downtown there were fancy hotels, a mall, a 3-story McDonalds, and several mansions. In another part we toured, the only houses we could see were made of cardboard, and right next to these houses were more markets...fruit, clothing, jewelry. We were grateful to have gotten a view of the rest of the city because now we have a completely different view of Marrakech than we did the previous day. After the tour, we hung out and had dinner again, and then took a cab to the train station to head home...only this time we got 1st class tickets and had a compartment to ourselves. We all slept the entire time and ended up getting back to the ship at 1 am. We were so happy to see our ship because it's become as much of a home to us as any we've lived in, and the showers, beds, and free food were so inviting!

The next day, Blair came with us, and we walked around Casablanca trying to find the post office. This was probably the most annoying experience of my life. Everything's fine and dandy until you actually need to get stuff done, and then all the obstacles like not knowing the language or where the heck you're going really get in the way! We were trying to buy stamps and send a package, and the lady just could not understand us. I tried using the little French I know, but she just couldn't understand. When we asked for an envelope, she pointed outside and said "corner" in French. We were confused, but when we looked outside, there was a man selling envelopes on the street. How sketchy is that?! So we bought one from him for 10 durham and took it back inside to send our package. After being there for over an hour,we sent everything, and finally went to find food. After another hour of getting lost, we ate a pizza at a cafe, and bought 100 durham worth of chocolate before heading back to the ship. We got on with 1/2 hr to spare before on-ship time, and surprisingly, no one got dock time! This is the 2nd port that this has happened, so we must be a really on-time ship community!

I want to end with a couple stories that neither Kate nor I will ever forget. Everyone knows that Kate loves children. A lot. Well, when we were walking through the marketplace on the first day, a little girl with no shoes or jacket, who looked no older than Julia, came up to her, grabbed onto her jeans, smiled, and held out her hand asking for money. Kate looked like she was going to cry. She didn't have any money on her so she just had to walk away. It was so sad. I'm sure this won't be the last time we'll see children like this...I just had no idea it would be this soon into the journey. The next story is about two very different men I encountered while in Marrakech. The first man I ran into (literally) was in the souks. It was so crowded that you always run into something or other, and when I bumped into this man I looked up to say sorry and I looked at his face. He had no eyes. Just eye sockets. I was within inches of his face and it took me completely off guard. He was begging, walking around with a cane and no shoes or even pants. You just don't expect to see that, and I will never be able to get that image out of my head. The other man I remember was a lot happier. He was our cab driver to the train station and we was awesome! He was a little old man, must've been 80 or so, who only knew a very small amount of English. Every time we would stop he'd say ONE! And he'd wait, expecting us to echo him. Then he'd say TWO. We'd say it back, and then THREEEEE....GO! And he'd hit the gas. He was so proud of himself that he could communicate with us and we had a lot of fun on the way there. He also danced a lot (without holding onto the wheel....haha)

All in all, I'd say Morocco definitely impacted us, and a lot of people. I guess when you have no expectations, or any real knowledge of the country, it tends to surprise you. And that's what Morocco did. I am so grateful that we got to go there because I learned more in three days about the people, culture, religion, and language than I ever would have in a book. This is exactly what semester at sea is all about, and I'm falling more and more in love with this program every day. I never want it to end! We get to Namibia a week from today, and we cross the equator on Monday, so we don't have classes! We'll post again to tell you all about it and our ever-growing social lives on the ship (oh yeah...and classes and homework blah blah blah) We miss you and love you all! Till next time.....

K & S