Monday, March 9 // Lunes, 9 de marzo
ENGLISH
SAIIE hosted our first trip outside of the European Union this past weekend. Our program traveled to Morocco!
It's mind boggling for me to even think that I am in Spain or Europe at all because I am still in contact with my family and friends, yet in reality I am thousands of miles away from them. Now, after this weekend, I can say that I have been to yet another continent. When I think about Africa, I don't think about Morocco - but it's such a large, plentiful, and diverse continent that I have to shift my perspective a bit to include the countries with predominant Arabic influence.
Before I arrived to Spain, the trip to Morocco might have been the one I was most looking forward to because I knew that we would be going to the "blue city". I didn't know much about Morocco but that's what made it so enticing! I couldn't wait to see the brilliant colors of another continent and get a glimpse of what life could be like in the magical city.
When I received information about the trip, Morocco was described to me as being like "another planet" in that there was a completely different language - Arabic and French - and life was completely different to life in Spain. Our program director told us that 80% of us would love it and 20% of us would hate it. This was very intriguing to me; naturally, I hoped I would be in the group who loved it. I tried not to have any expectations because I did not want to be disappointed or jump to any conclusions.
On Friday, March 6 we woke up at 6 something in the morning - I ate some cereal, grabbed my backpack (thanks Aunt Ginger!) and my bocadillo lunch, and head out the door. Talia forgot her passport, so we walked separately. The walk to the Portuguese Consulate - about 25-30 minutes from our apartment - was quiet and dark, but nice. I took the time to think for myself by myself and finally let myself get excited about the trip and forget about school, the stupid coronavirus, and life as a temporary Spaniard. I was getting out of there!
Our bus was huge. It had comfortable seats and we could all take up a full row because the bus was way bigger than we needed, but it was nice to be able to sit alone sometimes and nap or listen to a podcast. We left Sevilla around 7:00 AM and drove two hours to Algeciras, a port city just to the west of Gibraltar. We were to take a ferry over to Tanger Med (in Arabic ميناء طنجة المتوسط , just for a crazy reference) which is a massive commercial port that is also used by tourists. Our ferry was delayed so we waited about an hour and played Uno in the café. A plus, I had a great green tea with ginger and lemon. The whole process was very long. We waited another hour in line because we had to fill out paperwork as a coronavirus precaution and we had to get our passports checked and stamped.
TMI section, but it must be included because it defined most of my trip. Friday was the first day of my period, so naturally I had painful cramps all of Friday and most of Saturday. This was simply TERRIBLE timing because most of Friday was waiting in lines and traveling with no distractions, so I was a bit miserable. Would not recommend this experience LOL.
However, the ferry was really cool. I've been on a ferry before, but this one was MASSIVE - there were endless semis and transporter trucks underneath - including our bus. It reminded me of an airplane, but fancy and comfortable with actual shops and cafés inside. We of course had to check out the upper deck. Amazingly, you could see Spain and Morocco at the same time - it only takes about an hour to cross the Strait of Gibraltar.
We arrived and waited a while for our driver to exit the boat with our bus. We picked up our Moroccan tour guide, Mohammad - but he told us not to call him that because half of the country will turn around (LOL) so we called him by his last name, Daham (questionable spelling on my part - sorry my guy!). I still couldn't believe that I was in Africa, so I had to screenshot my maps to make sure and orient myself. SO COOL!
Our first stop was Asilah, a beautiful town on the western Atlantic coast. On the map above it is labeled Arcila because that is the Spanish spelling). At this point, we were all pretty tired from traveling, but we perked up once we saw our surroundings. Daham led us through the new town to the ancient walls of the old town. The brick walls that surround the medina, or historic center, are from the Arab rule during the 8th century. My heart was so full as I walked through this city - it was incredibly rich in history and art. Since many of the walls are white, painters from all over the world come to share their interpretation of the city or their ideas, and these works make the walls so inviting.
One of the stand-out stories from this city was the odd bathroom encounter. We were told to use the public bathrooms if we had to go, so some of us went. There were local ladies standing outside of the bathrooms - apparently they take care of the facilities. When our students left the bathrooms, the women asked them for money. Of course, in some countries, this is customary. When I was in Germany, I had to pay 50 cents to one euro in order to use the facilities.
However, all of the sudden we heard shouting. I turned around to see our tour guide and one of the women having an argument in Arabic. I had no idea what was happening and couldn't understand anything they were saying, but I could see and feel the anger coming from the woman. Then, I noticed that one of our students was unable to leave the bathroom because the woman was blocking the exit. We all told her to be calm and walk out as our tour guide continued to argue with the woman. Eventually she and another student were able to leave, but the whole thing had us confused and a little shook up. If we hadn't had our tour guide, I'm not sure what we would have done. He merely said that locals can expect to pay to use the bathrooms, but tourists usually don't have to because they are not informed about the cost beforehand, which makes it unfair.
All in all, we were off to an eventful start in Africa! I was excited to see more of the country. On the way to Tangiers, where our hotel was, we pulled over in a seaside lot to ride dromedaries, aka Arabian camels. I learned that dromedaries have one hump while camels have two humps. I was nervous for no reason; Charissa and I went at the same time and they were led on a rope by a man and followed behind by another. The man behind would encourage the animals to stand up once we got on and then make sure they laid back down after we took a short lap around the lot. It was awesome and weird and I honestly would do it again!
As you can see, we did it at a perfect time, because it was almost GOLDEN HOUR and the sun was so beautiful as it started setting over the ocean. It was such a gorgeous and humbling view.
We arrived to our hotel later that night. It was called Hotel Tarik and it was really nice. Talia and I roomed together and freaked out when we saw our room, because we had a balcony that revealed an iconic view of the water and part of the Tangiers skyline. We were treated to a hotel dinner - soup and chicken curry kebabs - and then hung out in the hotel. It was not recommended to leave the hotel at night because it would not be safe and there would be a high risk of getting lost. Instead, we enjoyed our dinner and hung out in our room with some friends. It was nice to just sit together and tell stories and laugh because we aren't able to go to each other's apartments back in Sevilla. Much needed relaxation, too.
Sunset view from our room, dinner, and a café view from the next morning. Watch for my next blog about Morocco, coming soon!