Renée visits

This past weekend refreshed me entirely for the upcoming weeks in Morocco.  I somehow managed to enjoy the best of food, Moroccan interactions, and daily life in general in Morocco.

As a quick overview, one of my best friends, Renée, flew in from France to visit me for the weekend.  I had visited her in Paris, where she was a perfect host, and I wanted to return the favor.  She flew into Casa airport early on Friday morning, so she did Hassan II Mosque by herself before meeting me in front of Hassan Tower after I got out of class on Friday.

We managed to fit a ton of visiting into one day.  We went to the tower, had two Moroccan tea times, and went to the Syrian restaurant in Rabat to relive the delicious food in Jordan on Friday and headed to Marrakech on Saturday morning.  There we headed to the Saadien Tombs, the Bahia Palace, the Kotoubia Mosque, Djemma al-Fna and the souks, all of which I have done before, but all of which I really enjoyed seeing again.

The biggest highlight, and nobody is surprised, was the food.  I grudgingly promised Renée one truly Moroccan meal, as she knew I was getting very tired of Moroccan cuisine.  The first night we went to the Syrian restaurant to be nostalgic about our regular Jordanian meals, the most important of which was the Sandwich Batata.

Sandwich Batata is a tradition of ours that originated from the first week of studying abroad in Jordan together.  Once we realized that our lunch hour would start at 10:30 and we weren't ready for lunch yet.  We went to a food stand and decided to split what looked like potato wedges.  We ordered "Batata" and were presented with french fries in a sandwich.  Though the first time it was an accident, we have split the same thing at least eight times since.  Our Sandwich Batata lived up to expectations as did the amazing falafal, fatoosh, and hummus.

The next day in Marrakech, we happened upon a vegan/vegetarian restaurant in Marrakech, which, is basically unheard of, considering how much trouble I have had eating vegetarian here.  Renée was nice enough to humor me and I got a spinach, pumpkin and goat cheese filled pastry topped with caramelized apples. Amazing

I agreed to have a Moroccan meal Saturday night because we still hadn't and we lucked out to have found a place with vegetarian pastilla, an innovative take on a Moroccan, non vegetarian delicacy. I could not have been happier.

The hostel we stayed in, Kif Kif, was also a refreshing glass of water.  The hostel manager, who spoke effectively only Darija, insisted on walking us to find a taxi at four in the morning (Renée had an early flight to Paris).  I appreciated his concern after three months of expecting most men I encounter to either try to sell me something or proposition me.  This level of selflessness truly added a beautiful touch on my wonderful weekend.

Cascades d'Ouzoud

This past weekend I took my second journey through the Atlas mountains, though thankfully it was a much less nauseating ride than the last time.  But being prepared to travel through the curved road made it a much better journey.  Rather than the desert, the destination this time was the Cascades d'Ouzoud. We booked our journey through a private travel company who provided us with transport to the falls.  We ended up hiring a guide, though we said we were going to make it on our own.  It ended up being the best decision, as he showed us the smaller waterfall and took us to see some monkeys.

Here is the small waterfall

and a monkey

As expected, the big waterfall was the best of the attractions and had a very calming affect after the stress of living in the Rabat medina.  Even though it was less of a hike than we originally set out to do, we were so in awe of the waterfall that we were not bothered.

Because we had spent the night in Marrakech for the second time, we went to see the Jardin Majorelle in the morning before we headed out.  It was well worth the trip to see everything.  As gorgeous as the plants were, the architecture that accompanied them made the garden ever more beautiful.

One of the most redeeming parts of the trip, however, happened just as we were leaving the garden at the very end of our trip.  We needed to get to the train station and so we inquired about the prices of the taxis right outside this obvious tourist trap.  We were directed immediately to a taxi without notice of the price.  we asked him in Arabic and he quoted us the outrageous but standard tourist price.  We refused it and left, all in arabic, and heard behind us, as we were walking out, the taxi drivers yelling at each other that we spoke arabic, and therefore were not going to pay that huge price.  We walked away laughing and found a metered cab at about a third of the price.

A Vacation from my Vacation

So I just spent the past week travelling around Europe because it’s only a stone’s throw away from Morocco.  And I will try not to make you too jealous by giving you the highlights. 

Food.  Lots and lots of food.  Tapas and Paella from Barcelona.  Gnocci and Gelato from Italy.  Crepes and Cheese from Paris.  And those are just the highlights.  I have never eaten so well in my life. 

And the sights!  I desperately want Gaudi to design my future house after visiting the Segrada Familia and Parc Guell. 

There were too many gorgeous things to see in Rome and I managed to see everything I wanted to! The trevi fountain was by far my favorite, but I saw the colloseum and the Roman forum and so many sites that I have seen in the informational videos substitutes play during Latin class. 

Pantheon

Trevi fountain

Colloseum

As much I loved all of the sites I saw in Paris, my trip was majority revolved around food and my desire to eat as many crepes and cheeses as possible.  It rained the entire time, but I was still able to see some beautiful sites. 

Notre Dame

Another angle

Arc de Triumphe

My last day, I flew into Tangier, so I killed a little time there before returning home.  I spoke more spanish there than in Spain.  

Herculean Caves

Sorry to post so late! I had some trouble with this blog site and it wouldn't publish.  

Eid al-Adha

Yesterday was Eid al-Adha, which, for those who don’t know, is a Muslim holiday that celebrates the story of Ibrahim being given a sheep to sacrifice instead of his son.  On Eid al-Adha, every family is supposed to sacrifice a sheep (in a halal way) to symbolize this.  Then the families eat the sheep, making it sort of like Moroccan Thanksgiving.  My family set up a barbecue pit in our hallway to barbecue the lamb, and spent hours cleaning up after the eid meal was eaten.  I think my take away memory from today will be not being able to use the bathroom for a couple hours because of the sheep head that was being marinated on the bathroom floor. 

Being in Morocco the week before eid was equally cool.  Talk of Eid filled most conversations I was a part of, and my smelly vegetable street was overwhelmed by the farm smell of the sheep in a stable nearby.  Children would pile up to look at the sheep, and it was all my family talked about for several days leading up to it. 

Here is the pen on the street by my house:

We got our sheep Monday, so I went to visit him on Tuesday and Wednesday morning.  Luckily, I had no intention of eating him or watching him be killed, but I was sad to say goodbye to Sebaaaaaahstian (that’s what I named him).  Later I found his head marinating in the bathroom.  

Traveling Around Morocco

So I know I have touched on this subject before, but I am going to revive it, because it’s what I am most fascinated by in Morocco.  I cannot believe how crazy-diverse this country is.  In an eight-day excursion we covered everything: metropolitan, mountainous, desert, and historical.  Clearly Marrakech was going to be different from the Sahara desert, but even cities I knew only by name had very distinct feelings to each of them.  The only common thread was tagine.  I haven’t talked about tagine yet, but it is basically a dish of stewed vegetables and meats.  I have it most days at home, and while it is delicious, by the end of the trip, after 12-14 meals of tagine, we were ready to take a much-needed break. 

This is tagine- vegetarian version.

  

Marrakech: 

Marrakech was a melting pot of history, culture and tourist activity.  For the first hour or so in Marrakech, I did not see a single non-tourist who wasn’t working as a guard or taxi driver.  Even still, we were able to absorb some culture by visiting the Saadien tombs, which were breathtaking, and taking a trip to the famous Djemma al-Fna, a giant square that dominates a lot of the culture of the area.  During the day, the square is full of “snake charmers” and traditionally dressed men who scam tourists, but at night the square fills with locals and story tellers.  I got to witness a little bit of both. 

The city itself is very modern and artsy:

By contrast, this is Djemma al-Fna.  And a picture of the snake charmers I was able to take sneakily without paying for it.  

Sahara Desert

I have been in a couple deserts before, and while they are beautiful, not a single one holds a light to the Sahara.  I was already hyped to be able to say “that one time I slept in the Sahara desert” but it surpassed my expectations entirely.  The sand was unbelievably soft and I was shocked by how quickly the temperature of the sand dropped. 

As part of the tourist package, the staff put on a presentation of berber music and dance for the guests of the campsite.  There was one guy who was really intent on getting us to “dance”.  I put it in quotations because it was really just hopping around holding hands with one another.  Throughout the entirety of each song he kept shouting the arabic equivalents of “dance” “come on” “dance” “dance” “come on” “dance” “sexy”. 

Our transportation to the desert: 

Sahara at sunrise:

Fez

On first appearance, Fez’s medina looks similar to other medinas I have visited:  cobblestone, winding, and walled.  But upon exploring it further, I found it to be far cleaner and nicer than Rabat.  It is known for being old, and historic, and for its particularly thin and winding roads with shallow rooves. There are artisan shops around every corner, probably a result of the near constant flow of tourists through the streets. My day exploring the medina with a guide was fantastic, but the best part by far was my first evening there.  My friends and I accidently invaded a man’s house to drink tea on his terrace.  He had a sign advertising the tea on the terrace, but it had originally seemed like a café, not someone’s living room. 

It was so worth it though! This was the view from his terrace.  

A beautiful Madrasa (religious school) we visited. 

Carpet shop where I helped a friend bargain for a rug.  

And the famous tanneries of Fes!  They don't smell quite as bad as everyone says, but I was still relieved to get out of there.  

Chefchouen

I have heard countless times from my Moroccan family and staff of our program that Chefchouen is a gorgeous city, but as much as the aesthetic captured me, I was equally captured by the kindness of the people living in this beautiful mountain city.  The walls of the medina are entirely blue, ranging from periwinkle to light turquoise.  I heard a lot of theories about the reasons behind this; most have to do with color keeping the mosquitos at bay (which, admittedly, were scarce).  I was glad to have finished my excursion with this, however, because the people we met there were simply kind hearted and relaxed.  I did not face the usual hassle from shop owners or men on the street, and I never had the feeling that someone had an ulterior motive interacting with me.  I think that this one particular experience exemplifies my day in Chefchouen best:  I had set out early in the morning with a number of friends to explore the city a bit more and take pictures.  A woman and her son walked by, clearly having just purchased a ring of beignets (think doughnuts) and offered us one.  We were so taken aback by her attempt to make a clear group of tourists feel welcome in her city that we refused the doughnuts, but talked about this little act of kindness for the rest of the day. 

I still have a couple cities on my list of travel, but this excursion definitely excited the traveller in me to do more.  

All the Languages of Morocco

Going into this, I knew there would be a language barrier.  Even in Jordan, where the languages were either Arabic or English, there was a language barrier.  So it would stand to reason that there would be one here as well, especially considering the many spoken languages of Morocco.  Knowing some of these languages (Modern Standard Arabic, Spanish, and a little bit of French), I didn’t think communication would be nearly as difficult as it is.  Certainly, there was some level of vanity in my previous assumption: I assumed that because I could speak a fair amount of Modern Standard Arabic, that I could also speak Darija- the Moroccan dialect, or that I would catch on quickly.  This was similar to my assumption that I would succeed in French because I know a decent amount of Spanish, and that clearly I was mistaken there as well.

My host Mom understands Modern Standard Arabic but can only respond in Moroccan dialect, meaning that there is a lot of repetition and gesturing in our conversations, which has proven to be effective thus far.  We have had a number of misunderstandings, but nothing outrageous this far.  The other day, unfortunately, I scared my host mom into locking all of the shutters in our house because of some crazy animal outside.  Of course, I was trying to explain that there was a lizard on the wall of the house across from us and that I thought it was cute.  Not knowing the word in Darija (or let’s be real Standard Arabic either), I tried to convey this with charades and I may have led her to believe there was a deranged bird outside.  Needless to say, our communication needs work. 

Just when I had gotten the swing of things communicating in a mix of Standard Arabic and Darija, we started our internships. Mine is with the Organisacion Democratique du travail, and as the name suggests, they are a French-speaking organization that deals with the Humans rights of Sub-Saharan Migrant workers.  One person speaks a bit of English, but otherwise, people only speak French.  Although I have taken one semester of French, my French is quite awful, and more often than not we have to repeat ourselves (me, because I am saying things wrong: the workers, because they have great patience with me).  The organization seems very cool, and it looks like I will be helping them publicize their accomplishments for the purposes funding and of attracting more Sub-Saharan migrants to their organization. I am really excited for all of the things I will be doing there - I just hope my lack of French does not get in the way. 

Look at how pretty this Arabic writing is: