no money, no honey

Marrakech! I've referenced it in my last two posts, but I haven't exactly explained what made us choose this city for our first solo adventure a week ago. Unlike Meknes, Marrakech is known for being a haven for tourists, which had both its ups and downs.

We left at the crack of dawn 5AM last Saturday with seven other William & Mary girls on a private, roomy, air-conditioned bus. When we drove out of Meknes, the only people out were coming out of the mosques. The drive lasted about seven hours with stops for breakfast and the bathroom. Surprisingly, Morocco actually has really nice rest stops with jungle gyms and a chain of cafes.

When we got to Marrakech just after noon, we checked into our hotel, Hotel Ali. We were put in this big dorm-style room (which was just for us, don't worry) where we discovered there were no towels and the shower head was broken, leaving just a hose. We knew after walking around in the heat and dirt all day, skipping the shower was not a possibility, but we decided we'd just figure it out when the time came.



Since our hotel was right in the center of the big square which is in the middle of the souk, we headed there first. In the square, you can find orange juice for 3dh, fruits, spices, snake charmers, women selling henna designs, and pretty much anything else you can imagine.The souk, or market, in Marrakech is a shopper's paradise, but there is so much stuff (of often doubtful authenticity) that it can be overwhelming. We wandered around for awhile and somehow one of the people leading the group followed a man who took us to the tannery. I was not pleased with this development, but that's one of the setbacks of group travel. When we got to the tannery, they gave us mint to cover the horrendous stench of the hides drying and the (to quote our guide) "pigeon shit." After the tannery, some people bought leather goods and rugs from the store. While they were nice, I wasn't quite ready to part with my cash. However, apparently we will have another tannery opportunity in Fez in two weeks, so perhaps then. The colors, which are made from dyes including coal, saffron, and wild mint, are to die for.

When we were done with the tannery -- an interesting experience but not one I really care to repeat -- we sat down for some ice-cream at a cafe on the square. It was perhaps the most delicious thing I have tasted in a long time! It's hard to find legitimate, safe ice-cream in Morocco, so we all dove at the chance. On Saturday I had a chocolate ice-cream float that was sort of like a milkshake, and on Sunday I had a lemon and orange concoction. Unfortunately, I haven't found anything that great here in Meknes.

The afternoon was spent wandering around the souk after we split into two groups to make navigation easier. My group ended up spending a couple hours sipping jus d'orange, soda, and tea and people watching. Between the tourists (some scantily clad) and the natives, there was no shortage of amusement.



For dinner that night, we hit up a rooftop terrace. In the square below was a boxing match and a screaming crowd of thousands of people. After dinner we went to grab more orange juice and met this hipcat fellow named Mustafa, who was a Moroccan now living in Sweden. He spoke Arabic (Moroccan dialect and Fusha, which is what we study), Scandinavian languages, French, and Italian. He spoke to us in Arabic and English about Morocco and languages, which was fun because it is difficult to find people who can communicate with us in Arabic.



After returning to our hotel, we attempted to catch some Z's through the prayer calls, blasting music, and the noise from the motorcycle parking below our window. We tooks showers using our PJs as towels and headed out early after a free breakfast of crepes for our last few hours in Marrakech...

I can't write about Meknes without talking about the ridiculous catcalls! From Spice Girls to Hey, Fish and Chips, to "Victoria! Susie! Skinny!" we heard it all. While we get the occasional "oh la la" in Meknes, everything is much calmer here.

indiana jones

Badia Palace, Marrakech: We went to Badia Palace on our second and last day in Marrakech, after the Majorelle Garden. We split up into two taxis, with five of the girls in the first and Lavanya, Caitlin, and I in the second. After arriving at the palace and finding none of the other girls there, we consulted my guidebook (thanks mom) and realized that there are two palaces with almost identical names within two minutes of each other. We rushed over to the correct palace, Badia Palace, after consulting a few people in Frarabinglish for directions.

The palace is actually the ruins of a palace from the sixteenth century. Unlike in Europe and the US, Moroccan ruins are pretty much a free-for-all. We climbed through tunnels and on top of walls, like something out of Indiana Jones. The ruins were also infested with storks who stared us down from on top of the walls and looked like they might peck our eyes out.

After Badia Palace, we returned to Marrakech for a second round in the souk (explanation forthcoming) before we left around 3:30 for the seven hour drive back to Meknes.

Jardin Majorelle

Marrakech, Morocco: On the second day of our trip to Marrakech, we visited the Majorelle Garden. It was built by Jacques Majorelle but restored by Yves Saint Laurent and is known for its electric blue gazebo. We arrived before the Jardin opened but were allowed in. It was a relaxing break from the hustle, bustle, and constant catcalls of the Marrakech souk. There was also a Siamese cat we christened Jasmine who led us around. This was probably everyone's favorite place in Marrakech.

"you are all so beautiful, oh my god!"

The title of this post was from a passerby while we were out searching for dinner. As the only non-Moroccans around aside from French tourists who are never to be seen out and about and an odd Asian convention occurring in the hotel, we get a lot of stares. However, most of them aren't sketchy or anything, so there is nothing to worry about -- as long as you don't go to a random stranger's house for couscous, as Driss warned us about!

I can't believe that we have been in Morocco for nearly a week! Time flies when you're studying Arabic for forty hours a week and getting horribly lost the rest of the time. Actually, today's homework only took a couple of hours, which was a reprieve from the usual four or so, which are spent in the hotel lobby accompanied by some awful CD full of orchestral versions of American songs, including Little Drummer Boy and Take My Breath Away.

My Arabic is definitely improving, along with my ability to understand our teacher. The four hours of class time actually goes by quickly and we have been doing some fun group activities for the last hour. I have a feeling our teachers think we're crazy because our inside jokes from W&M have transferred to our group names -- for example, Team Dejaj (chicken) and Team Sinjab Mujnoon (Crazy Squirrel).

One thing that I like about Morocco is that is improving my French a lot. Lavanya and I have been watching television in French for an hour or so before bed. The shows are generally dubbed English shows. So far we have seen CSI, Lost, House (very difficult to understand), and Criminal Minds (I understood about 85% of this one). Our teacher also speaks French when she cannot explain to us in Arabic (we have a fluent student who translates), and I understand everything she says. It's funny because in Arabic, I am weakest in oral comprehension, but in French I can understand what people say but have not retained much in terms of speaking and writing. However, those five years of study are starting to come back quickly. In Morocco, speaking French is a sign of education, so you cannot assume people will speak it. There are a lot of signs in French and Arabic, though, especially in the ville nouvelle.

Today we went on two adventures. The first was to the supermarket ("Label Vil") which is in a mall-like building. We took the "petit taxi" or "taxi sagheer" (little taxi) there for the first time. There are no seatbelts and the drivers are crazy but they are experienced and hey, what else can you do? It took us a week to learn how to cross the road but the best way is to just be forward and go for it or you might cause an accident. Anyway, at the supermarket we bought some toiletries (I spent an obscene amount ~ $8 on a Venus razor because my disposable ones have been cutting me constantly), food (Twix! and "Breenglez - Pringles), and a notebook. We walked back to the hotel afterwards which was long but enjoyable as the weather has been cool, though we got a bit lost on the way back. Afterwards we went to try to find a restaurant in a girl's guidebook (getting lost again in the process, of course) but failed. Many of the cafes/restaurants are for men only, especially right now as they are packed due to the World Cup. In the end it was getting dark and there were seven of us girls and no boys, so we went to "Beeza Hut" (Pizza Hut), which is the same as the US ones except a bit nicer and with more menu options. This was probably a good thing are we are leaving at 5 AM for Marrakech tomorrow and no one wants to get sick.

Hopefully next week I will have photos. I am having some troubles with my SD card reader but I will borrow Lavanya's computer after this weekend's adventure.

PS I have seen multiple little children wearing Lightning McQueen (from Disney's Cars) and an autoshop with him as their mascot. I always knew I liked Morocco. Also, today must have been unofficial tracksuit day because every other Moroccan man was wearing a ridiculous Nike tracksuit.

Also, I have internet in the hotel now so I can be online more often. We celebrated by watching the finale of Glee together. Hooray!

forty-eight hour cous-cous party

It's my fourth day here and Morocco and things are so busy I have barely had time to breathe. 

On Saturday, my parents drove Lavanya and I to JFK to catch our eight o'clock flight to Morocco. I was upset because this is the first time I have flown or travelled without my parents, but when we got there we found the rest of the William & Mary kids and I settled down. There was a creepy guy in the terminal with a Yankees bag who kept pacing, looking around, and muttering to himself but obviously since I'm here, he wasn't a terrorist. Our flight left an hour late and they took away my carry-on suitcase, which was irritating since it had important things in it but alhamdulillah it made it to Casablanca intact. The guy in front of me started screaming when they took his suitcase away and threw a giant temper tantrum but eventually gave in; I was surprised he wasn't arrested since the TSA was all over the flight. I later learned one of my friends had to sit next to this lovely fellow. My seatmate was an elderly African American man who was in possession of every tabloid ever made -- People, Us, In Touch -- you name it, he had it. Most of them had articles titled things like "Who wore this dress best?" At the end of the flight, he asked me if I read "this stuff." I don't know why you would blow fifty bucks at Hudson news if you didn't want to learn about Heidi Montag's plastic surgery, but to each his own. During the flight, I slept for pretty much the entire time (including some turbulence that was apparently terrifying), but seven hours later I got off the plane feeling like crap. Luckily I made it through customs with Lavanya even with two crazy and incredibly intoxicated young Moroccan men in front of us wandering around and yelling at each other in French. Let's just say that if that happened in the US they'd have been detained in less than 60 seconds. 

Anyway, I made it through and then spent the next three hours while we waited in the Casablanca airport waiting for the rest of our classmates and vomiting in the bathroom. I'd better save some Snackwells and Pringles for the flight back because I will never be able to look at Royal Air Maroc food again in my life. 

We then had a bus ride (2 and a half hours or so, maybe more) to Meknes, where we're staying. I slept through most of it because I was loaded up on Dramamine but I woke up when our bus broke down on the side of the road. They ended up getting it going again after half an hour by pushing it until it got moving properly, just like something out of a movie. The bus was actually quite nice but, as someone said, they put the engine of a Kia inside.

The hotel we are staying is called the Transatlantique. Some of the other students (there are groups from TX, KY, and MO) are staying at smaller, nicer hotels. Our lobby and outside is beautiful but the rooms are a little subpar. Lavanya and I were shocked that we did not have a shower curtain but the director, Driss, called and pestered the hotel until they put one in, saying "Have you heard of Guantanamo Bay? How would you like to stay there for 48 hours for cous-cous party?" Now that we have adjusted to Morocco we are used to it and Driss will fix anything that's wrong. In fact, I'm pretty sure Driss knows everyone is Meknes; he's pretty much the man. He says we are his good quiet students who don't cause him trouble. Driss said he is like our mama and our papa on this trip, so don't worry.

After a good sleep, the first day we dove right into classes. Our teacher, Fatima, spoke entirely in Arabic. She speaks French too but I don't think she is very fluent in English so the first day was intimidating, though everyone is in the same boat. Sometimes we just stare at her blankly and she moves on to someone else, but she seems fine with everything. Homework takes a few hours in the afternoon but so far we've tackled it in a small group and it's been manageable. Class is from 9-1 with a break for tea at 10:45. I've always hated tea but here I've found myself drinking it whenever it is served and I am growing to like it. The institute feeds us lunch (usually chicken and vegetables) and this week we bought four nights of dinner since some of us weren't ready to go eat out in the city. Some of the Texas kids got really sick and I have to be careful because of my nut allergy, but we will probably eat out next week since the food can get a little repetitive. We all load up on bread, though, and the food is very good. The first night we had cous-cous, and since then we have had various permutations of chicken and vegetables, minced meatballs, these potato nugget things (the one food I didn't eat), and tonight (my favorite), pasta with a tomato and chicken sauce. 

I haven't explored Meknes much but we went on a tour of the medina (older, walled city) on Monday and it was fabulous. It is like nothing I have ever seen. There are tiny streets that cars can't get through with little stands and markets everywhere. I took a lot of photos and hopefully the rest of this blog will be more pictures than text. We walked through the medina, part of the souk (market), and also went to a mausoleum. It was exhausting and I am not sure how I will ever remember where everything is, but I'm sure we will sort things out.

Anyway, the rest of this blog should be a little more organized but the last few days have been a whirlwind. I am looking forward to a good night's sleep tonight.

I can hear the evening prayer call which means it's probably about time to head back to the hotel from the institute before it is too dark. The prayer calls are five times a day from all the mosques in the city announcing it is time for prayer (obviously) but saying Allahu Akbar (God is Great). This morning I was dreaming of William & Mary squirrels (since I am the squirrel whisperer, as I said in my drugged state post-wisdom teeth) and then they started chanting Allahu Akbar before I woke up and realized it was the early morning prayer call. I guess that's how I know this ain't Kansas anymore.

Anyway,

Ma'a salama, Au revoir, Goodbye!

Departure: T-minus 17 Days

It's just under three weeks out until I leave for Morocco. I've only been home from school for less than a week, but it's been a flurry of appointments (wisdom teeth are now gone), visits with friends, and last minute shopping trips to ensure I'm fitting in with Morocco's more conservative dress code. (No, Dad, I don't need to wear the hijab.) I'm savoring the summer but anticipation for the trip is growing! Unfortunately, I realized that I'm actually going to Morocco to study, not just to have fun. Considering the strain of last semester and the prevailing burnout, I hope I can revitalize myself in the next couple weeks... Now I'm going to go mope and drink another milkshake. Moving onto solid foods tomorrow!