Long Time No Blog

Sáb May 1 (21:20)

I am desperately behind in my journaling, so I’ll attempt to catch up with everything that’s happened in the past… long while…

First of all, our trip to Morocco. For Semana Santa (the week before Easter), we had the week off of classes, and the first part I spent on an ISA excursion to Morocco (Yup. Africa.). It was fricken sweet!!! Definitely something I have never experienced before. It was definitely an adventure. Yup. An adventure.

An adventure which began Friday morning (March 26) with a million hour (approx) bus ride which left at 4 in the morning.

Then took the ferry across the vast blue, and when we landed we were technically still in Spanish territory. It took a while to get across the border, then we drove for another million (approx) hours until we reached Fès.

Oh, and the concept of a “rest area” doesn’t really exist in Morocco, so when the bus pulled over for a servicios stop Quique said, “Vale, chicos. Get your toilet paper, go find a tree… you know what to do.”

Different culture—THIS was recognized immediately. Women covering their heads—it’s still seen, even in the more modern areas. And the traffic—whew. There are no pedestrian crossing signals (okay, that’s a lie, I saw one), so you just cross the street where you feel like and pray no one hits you. And, well, none of us died, so the system seems to be working, at least. And just—I don’t know, Morocco was just something I had never seen before!

Saturday we went to the Medina, the huge famous market within a maze of unlabeled village streets. That was such a great day!!! Granted, we did stay in a huge group, and could only go to the stores we were brought to and not venture on our own, but, I mean, I like not getting lost in third world countries, so that was okay I guess. We were taken to a rug store (couldn’t break me—came back rug-free), a weaver [bought a turban ;) ] , and a natural beauty products/spices store. That store was my favorite! They had us try all their oils and lotions and what-not. I bought some of their mint tea (but not the mandrake root, which apparently turns your tea into Viagra), some cinnamon (best smelling cinnamon EVER), and some other spices (I intend to have fun cooking next semester). After the spices store we had lunch.

Oh my goodness. Moroccan food. It’s so good! So many vegetables, and spices (in comparison with the fairly bland and meat-filled Spanish cuisine… it was a nice break).

Okay, we also visited a leather tannery (that… smelled… horrible…) and a clothing store. Some of us (myself included) tried on some traditional Moroccan dress… it was pretty attractive.

So those were our outings in the Medina. Later that night we went to a folk show with music, belly dancers, a magician… that was a blast as well!

The next part of our trip after Fès was camping in the desert. Yup. Sahara desert :) THAT was so awesome!!!!

Our bus took us as far as it could, then we took Jeeps through the desert to our campsite. That Jeep ride was seriously one of highlights of my trip. Besides the fact that it was, well, a Jeep ride through the desert… our driver drove super fast, and it was bumpy, and I was sitting in the very back, and it was seriously like an amusement park ride! I had SUCH an adrenaline rush! OMG.

Get to our campsite, basically there’s this huge social tent and two long rows of fabric tents for us to sleep in, surrounded by dunes of sand, and open sky, and more dunes, and more openness. Geena, Ashley, Amber, and I claim a tent and then immediately go out to explore the desert. We’re walking, enjoying our first views of the desert, and get approached by these two Moroccan (more correctly, Berban) guys who start talking to us (because of all the tourists they see, they know a little of many different languages. They’re Spanish was stronger than their English so we ended up mostly speaking Spanish with them… hey more practice!) and offer to lead us on our hike, seeing as they know the desert. We’re like, okay, cool. So we’re walking, and talking, and then they ask, “Do you want to go up to the top of the tallest dune?” And we go… why not? So not ten minutes after we arrive to our campsite, we had begun what turned into an unpredictably long (like two hours) journey, up to la Gran Duna. That was… a lot of work. But so worth it. By the time we got up to the top it was night, so we had a great view of the desert lit by moonlight. It never really got pitch black at night in the desert, because of the moon.

The next day was full of adventure. It started off with getting up really early and watching the sunrise. That was cool. Some of us even went as far as doing some sun-salutation yoga (with the desert sunrise, it was pretty legit). The next part of the day was our camel ride. I was paired up with Liz (We had a quite aggressive camel; he was at the back of the line but was NOT a fan and kept creepin up on the camel in front of us. We named him Abu). That was just such a classic moment. Here we are, all 40-some of us ISA kids, and pretty much everybody is wearing a turban, all on camels. It was so legit Sahara desert! We got off the camels in the middle of nowhere and our guides led us up to the top of this dune (I was like… been here, done that…) where we chilled for a bit before heading back down (by that I mean jumping/running down which is suchhh a rush) and returning to our camels. The end of our camel trek took us too this village, which we explored for a bit. After a while there our ISA directors informed us that there was a sandstorm coming and that we would have to stay there for lunch instead of heading back to the campsite, i.e., we were stranded. That was also very legit Sahara desert.

So we’re brought into this large building and given an impromptu (but still very delicious) lunch while we wait for the storm to settle. Eventually it does and most people head back, but I along with some others stayed behind to get a henna tattoo and then walked back.

What we returned to was a site to see. Everything was just covered in sand. Covered. But we didn’t have much time to stare in awe, because almost as soon as we got back, the storm started up again and I spent the next couple hours in the social tent talking with people, playing cards and making friends with some students from the Granada group while we all were waiting for when we’d be able to walk outside without inhaling sand.

Later that night after dinner, we had a dance party, Moroccan style. Whew, what a hoot.

The next morning we packed up and left the desert. I absolutely LOVED camping in the desert, it was just such an experience. But after two nights, and most of us not showering (though they did have four showers, they were kinda ghetto and most people chose not to use them, so we were all pretty smelly and sunscreen-/sweat-/sand-covered by the end. I however did end up experiencing the desert shower… at night… in the dark… fun fun), we were all ready to leave.

Our next destination was Meknes, which wasn’t quite as exciting as our other stops. It’s a more modern city, we just walked around and did some shopping our one night there. Finally on Wednesday we drive for a million hours again, recross on the ferry, drive for a million more hours and get home to Sevilla.

Overall it was a fantastic trip and I am SO glad I went. One thing we got to experience was bartering. Not really in stores where prices are more fixed, but in open markets and stuff, you’re pretty much expected to barter. My international marketing professor told my class once that in Morocco you shouldn’t buy anything unless you can drop their initial price down to 40%. And the people act like they’re offended, but it’s all part of the act. And you can walk away, and they’ll come after you. I bought a ring in the desert village we visited only after I had argued for forever AND walked away (twice). It’s fun, but man, it’s hard work :/

One thing I was getting sick of though… When we were in the desert all the Berber kids kept being over-friendly to us and then asking if we’d buy any of their crap. It got old, and I got really annoyed. Maybe that makes me a horrible American? But they wouldn’t leave us alone. If you want to sit alone and just enjoy the desert at night? Nope, not gonna happen, some guy’s gonna come sit next to you and talk up a storm even when you flat out ignore him. And then ask you to buy something. I got SO sick of it. I had so much fun in that desert, I could have easily spent more time there, but I was just getting so fed up that I was excited to leave when that time came.

But um besides that Morocco was freakin fantastic and if you ever get the chance to go, you should!!!!!!!!!!! (but go with a company, don’t try to travel by yourself)

Dom, May 2 (21:00) - a continuation of the update

We arrived back to Sevilla from Morocco on Wednesday, in the middle of Semana Santa. This event is huge in Sevilla. Other Spanish cities have Semana Santa processions, but they’re the best in Sevilla. Basically, there are these processions essentially all day and night. Some people march and play music, others hold crosses/candles/other items, and then it takes a group of 50ish people to haul around one of these beautiful, I guess we’d call them floats. Each float is of a religious figure or scene, and they’re so intricate. So so intricate.

On Thursday of Holy Week people dress all in black and women wear these black headdress pieces. I at first didn’t know about this and then I dressed all in black because Maribel convinced me to :) And Thursday night is supposed to be the best night for Semana Santa. Geena and I had Maribel tell us which were the best floats and where were the best places to see them when, so we mapped out a plan ish and went out to el centro that night with Ashley. We were seriously there, at Semana Santa, until five in the morning. If we had to wait a while for our next procession, we’d pop into a bar and sit and talk and chill for a while. At one point we had a good chunk of time to kill so we ended up going to the club Catedral for a little over an hour to dance, haha.

Semana Santa is definitely… not something we have in the States. Centro (and the metro) was completely crowded, the whole week. Definitely glad to say I’ve experienced it.

Friday afternoon my parents arrived in Sevilla (to visit me for a week!), so I met them at the train station after getting, well, limited sleep :) They checked into their hotel and we just chilled for a while before I took them into centro so they’d be able to see a bit of Semana Santa. After watching a procession we walked along the river, through Plaza de América, and met Diego, Maribel, and Geena for a “family” dinner. That was such a hoot! Neither Maribel nor Diego speak English, and my parents don’t speak Spanish (well, okay, Dad has had some, and he was trying, and Mom was attempting too but most of what she had to say was French), so Geena and I had to be interpreters for the evening. It was so fun! Maribel and Diego were really welcoming and my parents had a great time. After we left the restaurant we went back to our apartment for hot chocolate and Maribel’s homemade deserts. By this time we had all drank a bit, and eaten quite a lot, and my parents were still suffering from the whole time change/jet-lag thing, and when the adventure ended at almost 1:30 in the morning… Well, I just hope it was a good “Welcome to Spain” for mis padres :)

Even more keeping Mom and Dad still from recovering, we got up super early and caught a 7:00 train to Granada the next morning for a day trip. It was so nice to revisit that city, because I did truly LOVE IT. It was good to see and go to places that I’d seen before, but we also did things I didn’t do on my weekend there, so it was a good day. The only disappointment was that we couldn’t get in to see the Alhambra… When we got there, even though it was only 12:30 all the tickets for the entire day were sold out (So, as a warning, if you ever go to Granada—which you should—buy these in advance). The day wasn’t too packed with activities, just some window shopping, eating, walking… a lot of walking. By the end of the day, we were… quite pooped. Mom and Dad especially… seeing as they were pretty much still jet-lag fresh. But it was a good day.

The next day was Pascua (Easter)! I went to mass with Maribel, Diego, Geena, and Ashley, then met my parents for lunch and we had a relaxing rest of the holiday.

more of the update to come