waka waka AFRICA

This weekend I went to Morocco with my program. Traveling was quite extensive. We first took a 2 and a half hour bus ride to the coast of Spain, a one hour ferry ride across the Strait of Gibraltar, and finally another hour and a half bus ride to Tangier. Tangier was probably my least favorite city because it was really dirty. Our guide gave us a tour of the markets, where there were endless amounts of raw meat, fish, and flies. There were even speckled of blood on the cobble stone from killing chickens in public! This was by far the most different place I have traveled to date. Also, during our tour of the city, I saw 4 funeral processions. The bodies of the dead were carried in a wooden coffin by about 4 men. What I found really odd was that only men were present at these funeral processions. Sometimes they were singing in Arabic, and other times they were silent. I was also really surprised by how Western many of the men dressed. On the other hand, many women dressed in the traditional long gowns over their clothing with scarves over their heads.

After our tour we ate a traditional Moroccan meal. All of the meals were 3 to 5 courses, which I wasn't expecting at all. The first course was a broth which was kind of bland. I must be getting used to the salty food in Spain. The second course was cmeat kebabs. They proceeded to serve us another course of cous cous with chicken and vegetables. After that we had green spearmint tea which was by far the best tea I have ever tasted. Our tour guide told us that Moroccans like to add a lot of sugar to their food, so this must've been why it was so delicious. Finally, after the tea we finished the meal with cookies. What a meal!

The next day we went to Tetouan. On the bus ride to Tetouan I noticed that Morocco was much greener than I expected. No, I wasn't expecting sand dunes and dessert, but the green landscape and mountains reminded me a little of Colorado. It was really beautiful.

Tetouan was much more modern than Tangier. We started our day off with a visit to the Coca Cola  factory. We got to see how the different products were manufactured, and we also sampled some of the special products sold in Morocco. I even took a glass coke bottle with writing in Arabic for a souvenir. After the visit we stopped at the beach, which was absolutely breathtaking. The beaches were so natural and untouched, I had never seen anything like it. After lunch, we went to the Caves of Hercules. We then headed into town to do some shopping. I absolutely loved bargaining with the locals. What really surprised me is my Spanish skills came in handy in Morocco. For some odd reason, many of the venders approached me in Spanish. I'm still slightly confused by this because I know others that were approached in English all the time, and we all know I don't look Spanish at all! But hey, I'm always up for practicing my speaking.

On our final day we went to Chechuan, a city where many of the walls and doors are painted blue. This city was by far my favorite because it was beautiful and I actually felt pretty safe. Originally, the purpose of the blue paint color blue was to make the city cooler during the day. I question if that is actually true, but regardless it was fun to see. After the tour, we did some more bargaining and I bought most of my souvenirs for my friends and family for a total of 440 dirham or 40 euro. I even bought a purse and a bracelet for myself :) Gotta love bargaining! After lunch we headed back to Sevilla, which involved excessive amounts of traveling. After about 7 hours of bus rides and ferries, it was good to be back.

I only have about 3 more weeks of classes left. I can't believe it! This Thursday I leave for my 8 day eurotrip, which includes 4 days in Paris, 2 days in Amsterdam and the last 2 in Berlin. I will get back to Seville on the 22nd, just in time to see the end of Semana Santa (Holy Week). Semana Santa in Sevilla is a huge week long celebration. I have heard it is almost impossible to walk around the narrow streets of the centro because there are so many tourists. Thank god I will be gone for the majority of it!