Morocco

Even if it was the most northern part, it was Africa. The best part: the trip was through my university and so the cost for all the food, transportation, and housing for 3 entire days was only 30€!! But like the rest of the trips, it was another early morning and a long bus ride. I surprised myself by sleeping the 2.5 hours, but then again, I was doubling my sleep from the night before... After the bus, we took a ferry and another bus before finally arriving at the hotel.  Upon arrival, we had our first taste of Moroccan tea. I will never look at tea the same.  It was ridiculously sweet with honey and beautiful at the same time because of the mint leaves left within the glass.  Throughout the weekend, we would drink a lot of 

 this tea, often served with little cookies. Everyone looked forward to the tea at the end of the meal, and if they didn’t serve it, would jokingly complain “where’s my tea?!” 

From the hotel, we went to the art workshop school of Tetuan where we learned about the steps to the traditional Moroccan art. It’s a long process- the students are required to practice drawing the designs for 3 months before they’re allowed to actually carve and paint.  After this visit, we were starving and relieved to be going to lunch.   We were led through a narrow walkway, turning left, turning right, and turning left again in order to reach a traditional restaurant hidden within the labyrinth. Before each group was set a humongous couscous dish right in the middle of the table and nos pusimos ciegos (we stuffed ourselves). It was awesome. Waddling from there, we were given a tour of Tetuan by Moroccan guide who told us that he had 3 wives.  Abdul was the man—he knew everyone and everything.  He explained that the doors of the houses were lower than a person’s head to make it necessary to bow your head in respect what you’ve been given, a home. I thought that was really interesting. Abdul took us through more narrow roads and into the middle of a meat-smelling market (Minnesotans, think the dear hunter’s garage).  Even more smelly was our last stop, at the leather mill that had cow hides soaking in pits. That was quite the day and so we returned back to the restaurant for more tea and cookies (ha, ha), had dinner at the hotel, and then sprinted to our beds.

 On Saturday, we had a quick breakfast at the hotel and got on the bus to go to Asilah, a beautiful beach town with white houses and interesting wall murals.  Just like in everywhere in Morocco, people stared at us, tried to talk to us, or tried to get us to buy something.  One guy asked me to be his girlfriend and apparently I could give him no satisfactory reason why I shouldn’t be his... But instead of boyfriends, all of the girls came home with henna tattoos and I've enjoyed looking at mine throughout the week and remembering Morocco.  After our short stint in Asilah, we went to Tanger, the most cosmopolitan city that we visited. Before entering the city, we first ate lunch on the outskirts of town on a hill overlooking the sea.  It was another fantastic meal, a curried-chicken patty with a caramelized crispy outside. And of course, the meal ended with tea and cookies :)
 

Near the restaurant was the Hercules Cave. I couldn’t get a good picture of it, but at a certain angle it’s Africa upside down! It was very interesting but we didn’t stay long because we had camel to catch. Yeah, man... I rode a camel!!!! Not only that, but we were late for our tea date with some Moroccans. Unfortunately, we did miss the majority of them except for Jasmine and Oussama, the most gorgeous couple.  They both spoke Arabic and French fluently and English and Spanish quite well. This is typical of most Moroccans and I died in envy thinking about it.  After awhile, the beauty goddess left but Oussama stayed with us for a while.  I talked to him for over an hour and eventually came to asking him about the polygamy because I just hadn’t been able wrap my mind around it.  

Me: “Is there still polegamy?”

Oussama: “Yes.”

Me: “Are you going to have more than one wife?”

Oussama: “Yes.”

Me:  “Well how does your girlfriend feel about that? Won’t she be jealous?”

Oussama: “Of course she would be...”

Me: “Welll??”

The conversation carried on for 5 minutes before he said “...but it’s not common anymore.” What?? What have we been talking about for the last 5 minutes??  Apparently, he hadn’t known exactly what I was asking him, but I eventually understood that although polygamy is legal, it isn’t common anymore. In fact, the man has to ask the first wife to agree before he can marry a second.  Later, I asked Virginia about Abdul and she said, “He does have three women, his wife and his two daughters...”  Apparently, it had been joke that he forgot to finish telling.  All of the Americans had thought that polygamy was still alive and well... Well, how should we have known??

                Our last day of the trip was a visit to Chaouen, a cute little town, that we reached by taking windy roads to get to the top of the mountain.  Poor Jennifer, I’m so lucky I don’t get carsick... Anyway, it is built on the side of the mountain so our tour was a workout, up and down the streets.  All the streets and houses are white and baby-blue and are painted 7 times a year!!  I'm not exactly sure, but it has something to do with the heating and cooling system. That was the last of our Moroccan experience and we sadly started our 6 hour trip back to Sevilla.  Sigh... at least I still have my henna tattoo.