Morocco

So when I told everyone I was going to study abroad in Spain, I'm sure a lot of you were surprised.  When you heard I was going to Africa (Morocco), I'm sure you were even more surprised and maybe a little bit nervous due to the current state of things, however, fret not, I'm back in Spain and in one piece.  It was a great experience and I had a ton of fun.  I'll start at the beginning.  First we had to meet at 730am to get on a bus for 2-2.5 hours to Algeciras which is a short ferry ride away from Africa.  The ferry was just an hour long but on the way there it was pretty rough and I regretted not taking dramamine until I was able to fall asleep (just thinking about the ferry ride is making me lightheaded).  After that we got to Ceuta, a Spanish city on the coast of Africa just 14 km from Spain itself.  We then had to cross the border and take an hour bus to our first city, Tetuan.  We went with two chaperone's, Virginia who is one of our program directors and one of the coolest people and Cristina who is a receptionist at our study center and who is really nice as well (and is in some of my pictures).  There we met our guide who told us he was told by everyone he looked like the American celebrity, Michael Douglas.  I'll let you all decide...

"Michael Douglas" showed us all over the city of Tetuan from the markets, to a tannery, to small stores, to mosque's and everything else.  It was pretty crazy to see their small houses and everything being sold on the street.  We saw people cutting chickens heads off and a guy selling natural shampoo and deodorant

.  During our day in Tetuan we went to a restaurant for lunch.  We started off with a soup that was pretty bland but better once we put some salt on it.  Next was some beef on a skewer which was pretty good.  The main course was cabbage, carrots, onions and chicken on top of cous cous.  It was really good and my friend (and roommate in the hotel) Greg was pretty disappointed when they took it away and he couldn't eat anymore.  One of the more popular drinks in Morocco is their mint tea.  Being that I don't like tea, this was no different, however it looked pretty cool.

After lunch we toured the city some more and then went back to the hotel to eat dinner and crash.  I would say this may have been the most fun day out of all just because of how great our tour guide was.  He was pretty funny and we learned a lot about the city and Africa in general.  I should have mentioned this before but everyone in Morocco speaks Arabic and then the next language is French.  Our guide knew Arabic, French, English, and Spanish, and I'm sure he knew some others.  After dinner everyone was so tired from the long day that we went right to sleep, especially because we had to be up by 730am the next day for breakfast and then a bus at 8 to Tangier, the next city on our schedule.

The next morning we hopped on a bus to Tangier.  It was just an hour bus and first on our agenda was a tour of the Coke factory there.  It was pretty cool to see the different production lines of bottles, cans, and glass bottles even though our particular guide sucked.  She wasn't very good at Spanish so there was no point in trying to listen to what she was saying (mom you're probably shaking your head at that, but it's true).  It was pretty cool though and we got to drink some coke, and try the drinks they make that we don't have in the US which are called Hawai (coconut, orange and some other fruit combined and carbonated into a soda ha) and then POMS which is an apple soda.  They were both good but nothing I would drink on a regular basis.  I'm sure we all know however that I am brand intensive (marketing term, thanks IU education), and loved drinking Coke because it is that much better than Pepsi.  Anyways, it was a great time and I had a lot of fun touring the factory.  We also had to wear these goofy jackets/suits while we toured the factory, I can only assume for sanitary reasons...

After the tour we stopped at a beach for 20 minutes or so.  It was awesome and I wish we would have been able to hang out longer and swim.  Here's a couple pictures from it...

After the beach we headed to the caves which were pretty cool but nothing more than one nice view.  After that was the most fun part of that day.  We got to ride camels.  I was one of the last people to go and after watching people go I was just hoping I wouldn't fall off the camel because a lot of people seemed pretty close haha.  Thankfully, I did not fall and it was pretty fun.  I now can say that I have ridden a camel in Africa...how many of you reading this can say that? Probably not many.  

One of the funnier parts of Morocco was the little kids with pet donkey's trying to get any tourist to take a picture of them for money.  One kid let Greg pick up his donkey in the picture.  Another kid refused to talk to us until Greg paid him for a picture and he replied, "Thank youuuuuuu."  He was pretty funny and had his donkey rolling over like a dog which was impressive.  He wouldn't do it when everyone was around but we saw it and it was awesome.  He also played hide and go seek with the donkey, which makes me wonder whether the kid is an amazing animal trainer or that is the smartest donkey around.  

Here's a picture of the less cool donkey kid

After all of this busyness (is that even a word?), we headed to lunch where we had some pretty good food.  I have no idea the name so I can't really talk about it or tell you what it was.  After that we got free time in Tangier where we all did some shopping.  I got a couple soccer jerseys for friends, but nothing for myself because none of them fit me.  I also bought a few other things as everything there is pretty cheap.  It was fun bargaining with the people and getting good deals.  We headed back to Tetuan to the hotel we were staying at to hang out and then have dinner.  That night we had more food I don't remember!  Dinner was one of the most fun parts of the trip though.  I sat at a table with Greg, Annie, Nina, Melissa, and Steph, and we all decided that we would only speak Spanish at dinner.  Since most of the time here we always talk English to each other we thought it would be fun.  It was one of the funniest times we've had and we were laughing all through dinner.  I'm reallllllly glad we decided to only talk in Spanish as it kept us entertained the whole time.  After dinner a few of us hung out in my and Greg's room and talked for a while and then went to bed, again having to get up at 730am. 

Our last day was spent in Chefchouen which is the "all blue city" of Morocco.  It was pretty cool and in between mountains.  I did not enjoy the windy roads that we had to drive on to get there but at least I could sleep because it was early in the morning.  We got there and toured the city.  It was really beautiful (I never say that but I mean, it was...no manly word to describe it huh?) and not having a camera on this trip kind of sucked, but so does my camera (it's 4 years old, what can I say) so it is what it is.  I did however take some pictures on my iPhone and stole other peoples pictures of Facebook so no worries, you all get to see the awesome images of Africa.  

After the tour of Chefchouen we did some more shopping where I got a couple gifts and finally bought myself a new jersey.  After that we ate one more Moroccan meal and headed back to Spain.  The ferry back was much easier and we got back around 1030pm.  It was one of the most fun trips I have been on my life if not the most fun.  It was a great and eye opening experience.  I never thought I would go to Africa in my life, but I have and am glad to say I did.  Just want to thank you Mom, Dad, John, and Steph for pushing me to study abroad because I have had so much fun here and can only expect more to come in Italy and England before I head home in just a month.  On that note, I'm out.  Hope you enjoyed this one.