So much to tell!! I think this blog will just be a long list of things that have happened to me over the past week. Enjoy!!
- ISA excursion to Casablanca and Rabat
- Frenchmen
- Blisters
- Hassan II Mosque
- Fresh ocean air
- Tourists
- Sun
- Water
- Moroccan fine handcrafts
- Mom and Dad in Meknes!
- I went to Fes and stayed at fabulous Riad
- Dad and I got food poisoning
- Toured Fes and medina again!
- Left Fes for Meknes but missed my stop and ended up in Kenitra
- Kenitra is two and a half hours away from Meknes
- I didn't mean to go to Kenitra...
- I made it back to Meknes after a 7 hour detour.
- Lost wallet.
- Retrieved wallet from Moroccan woman who spoke only Darija... long story. Ask and I'll tell.
- Professor strike this Tuesday and Wednesday
- Spring break in Granada on Thursday!!!
This is a brief update but I hope it helps keep you entertained :) I miss you all but can't get enough of it here!
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Traditions
Man oh man has time flown by! I feel like it was just yesterday that we got to Meknes, and it has already been over a month! I can't believe it. I've met some amazing Moroccan people who have become my friends and I am so excited that we still have another two months together. Normally when we hang out with other Moroccans we meet up in cafes and relax for at least an hour. The cafes here are fantastic and abundant. The only thing I have against the cafes is that there are always at least ten Moroccan men sitting outside them watching us walk by, but other than that, cafes in the Ville Nouville are the place to be on a sunny afternoon, besides the roof sunbathing of course. The cafe culture here is completely different from the cafe culture in the United States. When going to a cafe here, it is expected that you buy something to drink, but then you are also expected to just sit and relax for over an hour. There is no rush, no need to hurry. It is a given that when in a cafe you are not doing work, but just taking time to socialize or just to take time for yourself. In the United States, if you go into a cafe, it feels like you are rushed out of the cafe just as fast as you rush into one. This country in general is more open to just being laid-back and not always needing to rush around to get things done. I think I can live life like this.
I realized that I haven't really mentioned some of the more traditional Moroccan things I have done while here so far. A specifically traditional thing I got done the other day was henna. I was invited over to the Alaoui house (Bukky, Amanda and Amanda's house) for a henna party. Henna is a traditional art form that is done on women's skin as a sign of beauty. Women also get it done just to have because what woman doesn't want to feel beautiful? It is so fun to have something that gets put on your skin and stays there for a couple of weeks. It is a constant reminder of the fun time ahd and everybody comments on it.
Another Moroccan tradition is going to the hammam. The hammam is a public bath where women go to wash and gossip. So far I've actually been to the hammam three times. The first time I went I had absolutely no idea what to expect. Since the hammam is basically a huge steam room with all the hot water you want, I decided that nothing could get better than that. You bring a floor mat, bucket, traditional black olive soap, henna for your hair and skin, and your entire bath supplies. It's basically a really, really, long bath. We typically stay there for around two hours! It's sort of crazy actually. There are also a few women who work in the hammam who are scrubbers. The whole point of going to the hammam is to exfoliate your skin so much that your skin literally feels like new. Let's jut say that these women help you out a little bit... I'll leave the rest fo ryou to figure out what they do! It was so neat to go to this traditional hammam where we are literally the only foreigners in there. I thought we stuck out while walking around town as the only foreigners, but even though we stick out at the hammam, it is almost as if nobody sees the color or culture difference because it is just a place where women can go to just unwind and relax.
Last week we went on an ISA excursion to Fes. Fes is about a 45 minute bus ride from Meknes and is one of the four Imperial Cities in Morocco. An Imperial City just means that at one point it was deemed the capital of Morocco. The four Imperial Cities are Meknes, Fes, Marrakech and Rabat. Fes also has the oldest medina in Morocco and one of the windiest as well. There are over 4,000 streets inside the medina and they are all about six feet wide at a maximum. Good luck bringing a donkey carrying goods through here! We started our tour of Fes by driving through the Ville Nouville then heading toward the meidna. We basically wandered around the narrow, craggy streets of the medina, with a guide of course, and first ended up at a mosaic tile workshop where they showed us the different types of mosaics made by hand. They were all beautiful and of course I wanted everything! Next we walked past one of the bigger madrasas, Koranic schools, in Fes which was connected to an enormous mosque. The mosques in Morocco tend to be whitewashed and with colored tiles that are the color of the city. Meknes has the color green, Rabat has the color yellow, Marrakech is red and Fes is blue. After visitng the mosque, we, once again, wandered around hoping we were going in the right direction. All of a sudden we were told to go up these steep stairs, we were given mint leaves, and we popped out on a balcony overlooking the tannery. There are no words to describe the amazing-ness of the tannery. The smell was god-awful, but the view was spectacular. Let's just say we found out as to why they provide us with mint leaves! I promise they'll be pictures of it soon!! The tannery is where people bring their animal skins to be dyed and dried so they can be made into leather goods. There were large, cement pools of dye, and each color is made from natural things. The yellow color is a mix of cow urine and pigeon feces, the blue is from indigo, and the red is from poppies. I never knew something like this even existed and still cannot believe some of the traditional techniques Moroccans incorporate in their work. After visitng the tannery we went to a traditional Moroccan weaving factory. The men working used looms and weaved scarves, bedspreads and table clothes all manually. Everything was beautiful. The workers each tied a scarf like a turban on our heads and showed us how to tie them for future usages! Of course the scarf tied around my head was amazing so now I am the proud owner of it!
After our spectacular tour of Fes and its medina, we went to the biggest winery in Morocco which is only about twenty-five minutes from our apartment. The tour guide told us that since wine/alcohol is haram, forbidden, in Islam that they have to do all of their own research because the government does not fun any sort of research. We got a tour of the cellars and where they make the wine and of course got a little wine tasting in as well. We then hopped back on the bus and had a Moroccan dance party the whole way back to the apartment.
After the past couple weeks, I have falled even more in love with this country. The people, the food, the culture and the traditions help make this place what it is. My parents are currently in Morocco and it was great spending time with them!! More updates soon!!
I realized that I haven't really mentioned some of the more traditional Moroccan things I have done while here so far. A specifically traditional thing I got done the other day was henna. I was invited over to the Alaoui house (Bukky, Amanda and Amanda's house) for a henna party. Henna is a traditional art form that is done on women's skin as a sign of beauty. Women also get it done just to have because what woman doesn't want to feel beautiful? It is so fun to have something that gets put on your skin and stays there for a couple of weeks. It is a constant reminder of the fun time ahd and everybody comments on it.
Another Moroccan tradition is going to the hammam. The hammam is a public bath where women go to wash and gossip. So far I've actually been to the hammam three times. The first time I went I had absolutely no idea what to expect. Since the hammam is basically a huge steam room with all the hot water you want, I decided that nothing could get better than that. You bring a floor mat, bucket, traditional black olive soap, henna for your hair and skin, and your entire bath supplies. It's basically a really, really, long bath. We typically stay there for around two hours! It's sort of crazy actually. There are also a few women who work in the hammam who are scrubbers. The whole point of going to the hammam is to exfoliate your skin so much that your skin literally feels like new. Let's jut say that these women help you out a little bit... I'll leave the rest fo ryou to figure out what they do! It was so neat to go to this traditional hammam where we are literally the only foreigners in there. I thought we stuck out while walking around town as the only foreigners, but even though we stick out at the hammam, it is almost as if nobody sees the color or culture difference because it is just a place where women can go to just unwind and relax.
Last week we went on an ISA excursion to Fes. Fes is about a 45 minute bus ride from Meknes and is one of the four Imperial Cities in Morocco. An Imperial City just means that at one point it was deemed the capital of Morocco. The four Imperial Cities are Meknes, Fes, Marrakech and Rabat. Fes also has the oldest medina in Morocco and one of the windiest as well. There are over 4,000 streets inside the medina and they are all about six feet wide at a maximum. Good luck bringing a donkey carrying goods through here! We started our tour of Fes by driving through the Ville Nouville then heading toward the meidna. We basically wandered around the narrow, craggy streets of the medina, with a guide of course, and first ended up at a mosaic tile workshop where they showed us the different types of mosaics made by hand. They were all beautiful and of course I wanted everything! Next we walked past one of the bigger madrasas, Koranic schools, in Fes which was connected to an enormous mosque. The mosques in Morocco tend to be whitewashed and with colored tiles that are the color of the city. Meknes has the color green, Rabat has the color yellow, Marrakech is red and Fes is blue. After visitng the mosque, we, once again, wandered around hoping we were going in the right direction. All of a sudden we were told to go up these steep stairs, we were given mint leaves, and we popped out on a balcony overlooking the tannery. There are no words to describe the amazing-ness of the tannery. The smell was god-awful, but the view was spectacular. Let's just say we found out as to why they provide us with mint leaves! I promise they'll be pictures of it soon!! The tannery is where people bring their animal skins to be dyed and dried so they can be made into leather goods. There were large, cement pools of dye, and each color is made from natural things. The yellow color is a mix of cow urine and pigeon feces, the blue is from indigo, and the red is from poppies. I never knew something like this even existed and still cannot believe some of the traditional techniques Moroccans incorporate in their work. After visitng the tannery we went to a traditional Moroccan weaving factory. The men working used looms and weaved scarves, bedspreads and table clothes all manually. Everything was beautiful. The workers each tied a scarf like a turban on our heads and showed us how to tie them for future usages! Of course the scarf tied around my head was amazing so now I am the proud owner of it!
After our spectacular tour of Fes and its medina, we went to the biggest winery in Morocco which is only about twenty-five minutes from our apartment. The tour guide told us that since wine/alcohol is haram, forbidden, in Islam that they have to do all of their own research because the government does not fun any sort of research. We got a tour of the cellars and where they make the wine and of course got a little wine tasting in as well. We then hopped back on the bus and had a Moroccan dance party the whole way back to the apartment.
After the past couple weeks, I have falled even more in love with this country. The people, the food, the culture and the traditions help make this place what it is. My parents are currently in Morocco and it was great spending time with them!! More updates soon!!
Thursday, February 25, 2010
The Sun!
Sorry for the two posts in a row but the internet decided to actually let me use this website so I'm going to post the two things I've written over the past few weeks. So finally after waiting for a month for the traditional Moroccan weather of sun and warmth, it is FINALLY here!! With the sun shining constantly and the temperature in the high 60s and low 70s at all times, it will be very difficult to find me in a bad mood. Today I even went up onto the roof to do some Arabic homework and ended up taking a roof-top nap in the sun! It was great! The sun is a perfect cure for a surprise extra two days of classes while every other student in Meknes doesn't have school. We were supposed to have these days off because of the Prophet's birthday, but since we are running on Moroccan time, the birthday of the Prophet moved to Saturday... how convenient... Since the Prophet's birthday is on Saturday, we of course are taking part in it. Meknes is the place to be during the Prophet's birthday according to the ISA directors. There are tons of people here and it is a big ol' gross party. Apparently too many gross things happen while people are in trances, so the host mom of Bukky, Amanda, and Amanda (yes, two Amanda's in the same house) told us to stay away from the North side of the Medina!! "That is where the goat gets slaughtered! Not good!" There are too many gross details that nobody wants to hear about so I'm not going to describe it; I'll just post pictures instead... KIDDING!! Happy birthday to the Prophet!!
After getting to know Bukky, Amanda and Amanda's host family, who has invited me over for dinner three times already, I decided to hang out with the mom, Majda, and the son, Mamoun, today along with Bukky. We went for a walk in the park and then Majda brought us to the Meknes Tennis Club and we watched an international tennis match with participating countries such as Argentina, Croatia, Slovakia, Spain and France. It was awesome!! It was cool to see something so basic as a tennis match in a different county. After spending the day with Majda and Mamoun, Majda insisted I come over for dinner again tonight. Majda speaks mainly French and only sort of understands English... can you see how this can become a problem? I only speak English and I pretend to know or understand French. But somehow we make it work and she treats me as if I lived there too.
The more time I'm spending in Morocco, the more it is starting to feel like home. I am more comfortable walking around during the day or even at night and all of the cat-calls and comments I just shrug off or ignore because this is starting to feel like normal. I am SO excited for my parents to come soon! I do things everyday that I want them to be a part of or tell them about and get sad thinking they won't be able to... until I realize they'll be here in less than a month! Also I have started to form my spring break plans... as of right now I'm planning on spending some time with my mom and dad in Malaga, Spain and then flying to Istanbul, Turkey to spend the rest of break with a few fellow ISA goers. Looking forward to the adventure!
After getting to know Bukky, Amanda and Amanda's host family, who has invited me over for dinner three times already, I decided to hang out with the mom, Majda, and the son, Mamoun, today along with Bukky. We went for a walk in the park and then Majda brought us to the Meknes Tennis Club and we watched an international tennis match with participating countries such as Argentina, Croatia, Slovakia, Spain and France. It was awesome!! It was cool to see something so basic as a tennis match in a different county. After spending the day with Majda and Mamoun, Majda insisted I come over for dinner again tonight. Majda speaks mainly French and only sort of understands English... can you see how this can become a problem? I only speak English and I pretend to know or understand French. But somehow we make it work and she treats me as if I lived there too.
The more time I'm spending in Morocco, the more it is starting to feel like home. I am more comfortable walking around during the day or even at night and all of the cat-calls and comments I just shrug off or ignore because this is starting to feel like normal. I am SO excited for my parents to come soon! I do things everyday that I want them to be a part of or tell them about and get sad thinking they won't be able to... until I realize they'll be here in less than a month! Also I have started to form my spring break plans... as of right now I'm planning on spending some time with my mom and dad in Malaga, Spain and then flying to Istanbul, Turkey to spend the rest of break with a few fellow ISA goers. Looking forward to the adventure!
Busy Busy Busy!!!
Uff da! Man has it been a busy few weeks! I rarely have access to my blog since the internet here is pretty shoddy so I'll probably be updating it less often but I'll try and include some highlights. I realized that I never really described the university I am attending but can do so in three words: overgrown concrete jungle. It needs a little help with yard work and the buildings need some paint, but man do I love that place! I am taking beginning Arabic, which is by far my favorite class, Darija (which is a Moroccan Arabic dialect course), a gender studies course, a geostrategic placement of Morocco course and a course on the history of Morocco. We have class at some random times throughout the day, even at night! One thing I am really starting to love about Moroccan culture is how the meal at lunch is the main meal of the day. Everybody comes home between classes and we sit down and have a huge meal around 2 o'clock every day. It is a reat time to talk about everyone's day and what their plans are for the rest of the evening. Oh and did I mention how the food is AMAZING?! On Fridays, our cooks, Saida and Nora make us the traditional couscous platter and after that meal we have leftovers for days! The other days they make other types of traditional Moroccan cuisine and we all love it, maybe a little too much.
About a two weeks ago we went to the Roman ruins of Volubilis and the holy city of Moulay Idriss. It is about a 45 minute bus ride from Meknes and it is one gorgeous place. There are tons of old Roman pillars and traditional Roman architecture and it looks/feels like you're in Tuscany. The reason the Romans actually settled there was because they did feel so much at home due to the rolling hills and Cyprus trees growing all around. We walked around Volubilis awe struck by everything just trying to imagine what life must have been like that long ago. It was so fun. We also had a hilarious guide who made inappropriate jokes the whole time so he had us roaring. After chilling in the Roman's old hood, we drove through the hillside and ended up in the holy city of Moulay Idriss. Moulay idriss was the first king of Morocco and he was a descendant of the Prophet and he settled in the area, which is now known as Moulay Idriss, and made it the capital of Morocco. Many Moroccans see the town of Moulay Idriss as sort of a Mecca and if they cannot afford a pilgrimage to Mecca they go there instead. To Moroccans, Moulay Idriss is a mini-Mecca. We took a tour of Moulay Idriss and it was a town completely different from any I've ever seen. It is a very religious and traditional city that never used to let non-Muslims come visit until only about 10 years ago. All of the buildings and mosques are extremely old and they are painted in every color. The guide brought us to a traditional public Moroccan bakery which is where the whole community bakes their bread. We all got piping hot bread that was by far the best bread I've ever tasted. I was also starving, so it could have been a Joyce mentality type of thing :)
During that week, we came to find that there was a professor's strike for one day. So we got a random free day on Wednesday! Some people decided to go to Fes for the day and get lost in the Medina, but some others and I decided to stay in Meknes and wander around our Medina. It happened to be a beautiful, sunny day (which is rare during this time of year) and we just leisurely walked around finiding some great stores and shopkeepers. After the people who went to Fes for the day got back, they had the travel bug. They decided that they wanted to go to either Casablanca or Rabat for that coming weekend. We frantically starting planning trips and a few of us decided we wanted to take a day trip to Rabat on Saturday so we still had time on Sunday to get some homework and laundry done. But before the weekend came, we heard some awful news.
During the taxi ride to the university on Friday we kept seeing a bunch of ambulances zooming past and we asked our cab driver, in French of course, what was going on and he told us that a minaret from one of the mosques in the Medina had collapsed over the worshipers right before the Imam's sermon started and killed a total of 41 people. Nothing like this has ever happened in Morocco and everyone was pretty distraught. The collapse of this mosque prompted the King to issue some orders to have all of the old mosques inspected and fixed if they needed it. Hopefully this will help prevent future catastrophes.
Now on to Rabat! We woke up at the crack of dawn to catch a 7:30 train to Rabat, but since we're in Morocco, the train actually came at around 8:10. The train ride was only around two and ahalf hours so it wasn't a bad ride. We got to Rabat and just sort of wandered around the city looking for an American bookstore to buy some books for our classes and much to our professor's dismay, none of the books we needed were there. And if we were going to find any of the books we needed for that class anywhere, it was in Rabat. Looks like we won't have to read them! After some good lost wandering, we caught a taxi to the American Embassy just to see what it was like there. Long story short, we got kicked out of our cab right outside the embassy, didn't want to go in the embassy due to the fortress-like nature of it and we couldn't find a cab for about 20 minutes. We decided that lunch and the beach was now necessary so we high tailed it out of embassy row to the beach. We grabbed a quick bite in a beachside cafe and then went to the Medina. The Medina was amazing. The streets were actually quite wide which didn't make it seem so claustrophobic. I bartered my way from 200 dirhams (around $25) for a purse to 200 dirhams for a purse and a sweet pair of traditional Moroccan slippers. It was a great deal! After a busy day in Rabat we hopped back on the train and tok a late trian home to Meknes.
After arriving to Meknes, all of us took a big sigh of relief realizing we actually know our way around. "Man it feels good to be home," one of my roommates said as we walked up to the apartments. I think we are all starting to realize how much we love this small city in the middle of Morocco. We're finally getting to know the city and we are the only foreigners for miles but we wouldn't want it ay other way.
About a two weeks ago we went to the Roman ruins of Volubilis and the holy city of Moulay Idriss. It is about a 45 minute bus ride from Meknes and it is one gorgeous place. There are tons of old Roman pillars and traditional Roman architecture and it looks/feels like you're in Tuscany. The reason the Romans actually settled there was because they did feel so much at home due to the rolling hills and Cyprus trees growing all around. We walked around Volubilis awe struck by everything just trying to imagine what life must have been like that long ago. It was so fun. We also had a hilarious guide who made inappropriate jokes the whole time so he had us roaring. After chilling in the Roman's old hood, we drove through the hillside and ended up in the holy city of Moulay Idriss. Moulay idriss was the first king of Morocco and he was a descendant of the Prophet and he settled in the area, which is now known as Moulay Idriss, and made it the capital of Morocco. Many Moroccans see the town of Moulay Idriss as sort of a Mecca and if they cannot afford a pilgrimage to Mecca they go there instead. To Moroccans, Moulay Idriss is a mini-Mecca. We took a tour of Moulay Idriss and it was a town completely different from any I've ever seen. It is a very religious and traditional city that never used to let non-Muslims come visit until only about 10 years ago. All of the buildings and mosques are extremely old and they are painted in every color. The guide brought us to a traditional public Moroccan bakery which is where the whole community bakes their bread. We all got piping hot bread that was by far the best bread I've ever tasted. I was also starving, so it could have been a Joyce mentality type of thing :)
During that week, we came to find that there was a professor's strike for one day. So we got a random free day on Wednesday! Some people decided to go to Fes for the day and get lost in the Medina, but some others and I decided to stay in Meknes and wander around our Medina. It happened to be a beautiful, sunny day (which is rare during this time of year) and we just leisurely walked around finiding some great stores and shopkeepers. After the people who went to Fes for the day got back, they had the travel bug. They decided that they wanted to go to either Casablanca or Rabat for that coming weekend. We frantically starting planning trips and a few of us decided we wanted to take a day trip to Rabat on Saturday so we still had time on Sunday to get some homework and laundry done. But before the weekend came, we heard some awful news.
During the taxi ride to the university on Friday we kept seeing a bunch of ambulances zooming past and we asked our cab driver, in French of course, what was going on and he told us that a minaret from one of the mosques in the Medina had collapsed over the worshipers right before the Imam's sermon started and killed a total of 41 people. Nothing like this has ever happened in Morocco and everyone was pretty distraught. The collapse of this mosque prompted the King to issue some orders to have all of the old mosques inspected and fixed if they needed it. Hopefully this will help prevent future catastrophes.
Now on to Rabat! We woke up at the crack of dawn to catch a 7:30 train to Rabat, but since we're in Morocco, the train actually came at around 8:10. The train ride was only around two and ahalf hours so it wasn't a bad ride. We got to Rabat and just sort of wandered around the city looking for an American bookstore to buy some books for our classes and much to our professor's dismay, none of the books we needed were there. And if we were going to find any of the books we needed for that class anywhere, it was in Rabat. Looks like we won't have to read them! After some good lost wandering, we caught a taxi to the American Embassy just to see what it was like there. Long story short, we got kicked out of our cab right outside the embassy, didn't want to go in the embassy due to the fortress-like nature of it and we couldn't find a cab for about 20 minutes. We decided that lunch and the beach was now necessary so we high tailed it out of embassy row to the beach. We grabbed a quick bite in a beachside cafe and then went to the Medina. The Medina was amazing. The streets were actually quite wide which didn't make it seem so claustrophobic. I bartered my way from 200 dirhams (around $25) for a purse to 200 dirhams for a purse and a sweet pair of traditional Moroccan slippers. It was a great deal! After a busy day in Rabat we hopped back on the train and tok a late trian home to Meknes.
After arriving to Meknes, all of us took a big sigh of relief realizing we actually know our way around. "Man it feels good to be home," one of my roommates said as we walked up to the apartments. I think we are all starting to realize how much we love this small city in the middle of Morocco. We're finally getting to know the city and we are the only foreigners for miles but we wouldn't want it ay other way.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Meknes!
So we're finally in Meknes!! Our home! Our apartment is AWESOME and so is everyone else's too so we spend a lot of time together, which is sweet. There is another girls apartment right above ours so they're even in the same building. We have a cook and a maid and I never thought I would be eating as much food as I have been!! All the food is amazing and traditional Moroccan cuisine which definitely adds to the fact that we're actually in Morocco. Yesterday we took a tour, in the pouring rain, of the Medina and the Ville Nouvelle in Meknes and sort of ran around trying to get our bearings of the city and figuring out where everything is. I bought a cell phone for getting a hold of some people here and some friends I make and we're also buying some internet later today so we can stay in touch. The guys live right above an internet cafe so we go to their place and use there internet here which is pretty convenient! Today we went to the university and had a small orientation and got to meet the dean and some of the professors and we got our schedules all figured out. I signed up for an extra term of Arabic and also for Derija which is the traditional Moroccan dialect. It is a short class that should only take a few weeks to go through and will be completely helpful for getting around in town and in the medina. Today we sort of have a free day and then we also have the weekend off. I'm looking forward to sort of touring the city on my own and figuring out all of the nooks and crannies of the medina!
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Free Day and Catch Up
So as of right now, I'm a little behind on my day-to-day updates so I'll make this one a long one and fit everything in that happened since the caves! Well after a late night out drinking cervezas and eating tapas (a free random assortment of appetizers given to you when you buy a drink) seven of us (Hunter, Kate, Bukky, Corinne, Joe, Amanda, and I) decided we wanted to get up early and catch the bus to the top of the snowy Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. We weren't planning on skiing or snowboarding but we all knew we wanted to get up to those beautiful snow covered mountains. But in order to get there we needed to catch a local city bus to get to the main bus station in Granada and then buy tickets to get to yet another bus that would then take us up to the mountain top. Little did we realize that we were cutting it a bit close, as we needed to run through the bus station in order to catch the bus. Man were we lucky!! We made it with about 30 seconds before the bus left and there were only seven seats left on the bus... Spain must love us!
When we got to the mountain top, it looked like we were in the Alps. All of the hotels, apartments and condos were styled like places you would expect to see in the Alps, this did not look like Spain anymore. We were SO excited to finally be there and not stressed about catching a bus that we decided to hike on a groomed snow trail that went on for miles just wrapping around the mountains. There are really no words to describe how amazing the view was. The best part of the trip to the mountain was the fact that Bukky (who is from Houston, TX) had never been around snow before. Ever. So of course we wanted her to have a fabulous time so we suggested she make a snow angel and throw some snow balls. She absolutely loved it. Did I mention that we were over 2000 kilometers high and I didn't wear any sunscreen? You do the math... I got by far the WORST sunglasses and forehead sunburn I have ever gotten so I was looking pretty sweet for the next couple days. After a really long, but awesome, day on the mountain, we headed back to the city where we had a classroom meeting about what to expect while in Morocco, especially Meknes. There was so much information to take in, but it all seemed so cool!
The next day we woke up early and headed to the Alhambra which is one of the things Granada is known for. It was an old castle and palace for the ruler and is now a great place to visit. It is located on the top of a big hill and it overlooks the city which of course offer amazing views. After visiting Alhambra we decided to take a leisurely lunch and sat outside at a great little cafe and just visited for awhile. We had another meeting that night about the academics at the university, so now it actually feels like we're going to school!! YAY! We then went into Albaycin and went into a cave and watched Flaminco dancing. It was spectacular! They were SO good! It was pretty sweet to get to see live Flaminco in the country where it originated. After Flaminco was over, most of us went out for a drink since it was our last night in Spain. It was a great time.
So today (and tomorrow) was/is a big travel day. Today we woke up early and drove from Granada to Algeciras (a port town) and boarded a huge boat that took us to Tangier. It sounds easy... but of course the boat ride was delayed for 4 hours so we spent most of the day in the boat terminal. The Mediterranean Sea was very choppy and rough today so it took us around 3 hours to go about 15 kilometers... it was pretty awful. After hearing all about the hastle at the port in Tangier, I thought I was in the clear with moving my luggage around when suddenly a man insists on helping me (assuming I'll pay him) by carrying my luggage up a huge flight of stairs. I did not want him to take my luggage but he grabbed it from me and carried it anyway!! I could not believe it. I have never ran up a flight of stairs so fast in my life! Oh and he wanted money of course, but I was not about to give him money for taking my bags so I told him in a strong voice that I did not want him to help so I was not giving him money. It was crazy and I got a little shaken up! But hey, now we're safely in Tangier and taking a walking tour of Tangier in the morning and taking the 5 hour bus ride to Meknes tomorrow. Whew! We're pretty busy but it has been an awesome trip so far.
When we got to the mountain top, it looked like we were in the Alps. All of the hotels, apartments and condos were styled like places you would expect to see in the Alps, this did not look like Spain anymore. We were SO excited to finally be there and not stressed about catching a bus that we decided to hike on a groomed snow trail that went on for miles just wrapping around the mountains. There are really no words to describe how amazing the view was. The best part of the trip to the mountain was the fact that Bukky (who is from Houston, TX) had never been around snow before. Ever. So of course we wanted her to have a fabulous time so we suggested she make a snow angel and throw some snow balls. She absolutely loved it. Did I mention that we were over 2000 kilometers high and I didn't wear any sunscreen? You do the math... I got by far the WORST sunglasses and forehead sunburn I have ever gotten so I was looking pretty sweet for the next couple days. After a really long, but awesome, day on the mountain, we headed back to the city where we had a classroom meeting about what to expect while in Morocco, especially Meknes. There was so much information to take in, but it all seemed so cool!
The next day we woke up early and headed to the Alhambra which is one of the things Granada is known for. It was an old castle and palace for the ruler and is now a great place to visit. It is located on the top of a big hill and it overlooks the city which of course offer amazing views. After visiting Alhambra we decided to take a leisurely lunch and sat outside at a great little cafe and just visited for awhile. We had another meeting that night about the academics at the university, so now it actually feels like we're going to school!! YAY! We then went into Albaycin and went into a cave and watched Flaminco dancing. It was spectacular! They were SO good! It was pretty sweet to get to see live Flaminco in the country where it originated. After Flaminco was over, most of us went out for a drink since it was our last night in Spain. It was a great time.
So today (and tomorrow) was/is a big travel day. Today we woke up early and drove from Granada to Algeciras (a port town) and boarded a huge boat that took us to Tangier. It sounds easy... but of course the boat ride was delayed for 4 hours so we spent most of the day in the boat terminal. The Mediterranean Sea was very choppy and rough today so it took us around 3 hours to go about 15 kilometers... it was pretty awful. After hearing all about the hastle at the port in Tangier, I thought I was in the clear with moving my luggage around when suddenly a man insists on helping me (assuming I'll pay him) by carrying my luggage up a huge flight of stairs. I did not want him to take my luggage but he grabbed it from me and carried it anyway!! I could not believe it. I have never ran up a flight of stairs so fast in my life! Oh and he wanted money of course, but I was not about to give him money for taking my bags so I told him in a strong voice that I did not want him to help so I was not giving him money. It was crazy and I got a little shaken up! But hey, now we're safely in Tangier and taking a walking tour of Tangier in the morning and taking the 5 hour bus ride to Meknes tomorrow. Whew! We're pretty busy but it has been an awesome trip so far.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Granada
I finally made it to Granada!! It is so beautiful here and cannot believe how amazing the architecture is. We have some awesome people in our ISA group and they've all been super fun so far. I can't quite remember all of their names as of right now, but hey, I'm only spending four months with these people so I have time! Yesterday evening we just wandered around the narrow streets of Granada and ate dinner at a kebab stand. Today we toured the Cathedral of Granada and the Albaycin and the Alhambra, which are in the northern part of the city and are the former Arab part of town. We also saw the tombs of Ferdinand and Isabella. After we finished touring the cathedral, we all sort of went our separate ways, ate lunch, then a big group of us decided to head up the mountain and check out the hippie caves Daniel (our ISA Director) had mentioned earlier in the day. We trekked up the mountain and quickly realized why the hippies want to live there. There are 360 degrees of spectacular views. We probably walked a marathon and loved every moment of it. It is pretty difficult to explain how they live, but we decided that the best way to describe the residences is like how Hobbits live... can you picture it?! It's nuts. We came back to the hostel and are about to go out for some dinner and fun. I'm having a great time so far! I'll try and post pictures soon!
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