morocco-the rollercoster of emotions

Morocco, the roller coaster of emotions

· Last week was like Catholic Church for my emotions. Up, down, up, down. It was crazy how much change in feelings i could have in 5 days. Nick and I went out on Thursday nite even tho I had to leave at 545 the next morning, but it was worth it cuz dancing at Buddha is always a good time. I arrived to my house at 5, got my pre packed stuff together and headed to avenida del cid. We then drove to the ferry pick up and set forth. We then boarded another bus to take us thru the last part of spain to the Moroccan border. There is where our problems began. While the moraccan soldiers checked our passports there came to be a problem with one girls documents. Godeliever has a passport from the Congo where she was born and no student visa because she didnt have to get one to study in spain. Even tho it was a passport from the same continent that she was trying to enter they told her that she hended to file for a moraccan passport before entering. So we waited, 2 hours while she applied and got approved. I looked out my window several times and it was sobering to see the many vans going through customs completely packed full of furniture. These people’s entire lives were strapped to their cars. It was at this first stop that I began to experience what it is to pee in morocco. We went to the bathrooms and discovered a little hole in the ground surrounded by porcelain complete with foot grips to aid in the non slippage of your squat. It was not a pretty picture. Another couple hours and we arrived in chefchaouen. This was a smaller village and it was absolutely spectacular. Mainly because most of the city walls were painted a periwinkle blue so dense that it jumped off the walls and straight through you. Since we got there late, we weren’t allotted our free time which sucks because the market and little shops there seemed to have many great things. After our first moraccan meal of beef, carrots, zuchinni all in this sauce with fruit for desert, we headed back to the bus to get to fes.
· Fes- we arrived in this massive city that you would think was uber metropolitan but then we entered into the medina area and everything changed. Narrow streets lined with shops that were tiny squares in the walls filled to the brim with wares ranging from perfume, to spices. Burros pulling carts rumbled by us as we followed in a straight line through the extreme difference that was fes. One thing that caught my eye was a small man sitting on the ground with a line of live chickens sitting patiently in front of him. Obviously their legs had been tied together, but they weren’t even fluttering or making any noise. The smell was both pungent with stench and spice mixed together to make a combination that one could only find in morocco. The various spices and fresh baking bread combined with the things left behind by both animal and human was intoxicating both in a good and bad way. As we continued we entered our first stop… the rug store. We walked into this 3 story building that was like a palace from Aladdin. Rugs hung from the each balcony of arches that surrounded the area where we sat. Again we were served Moroccan tea in the beautiful glasses by the henchmen of the rug store. Then all of a sudden the main event began. A short round man burst onto the scene wearing a leather jacket, khaki pants and a thin layer of sweat that would continue to grow through out the 2 hours we spent there. He began his spiel concerning the different types of rugs, the different colors and patterns and how they were all hand made by women and that it took them up to 2 years to complete. The henchmen returned and began unrolling rugs in front of us to display what the boss was talking about. His fervor and craving for sales was extremely apparent as he informed us that they take credit cards, cash from the us euros or duram and also that we could pay in installments, have it delivered to the us or have it packaged into the size of a carry on for the flight home. This man had his bases covered. he paced back and forth spewing flecks of spit as he became more and more excited that ¨filthy rich americans¨had come to buy his rugs. Sadly we are students and the rugs though beautiful at 380 euro a pop were not in my budget.
· As we continued through the dingy streets we stopped and walked through a dark tunnel just to quickly look at the sheep shearing and skinning factory. Skins were drapped everywhere and there were other parts of the animal as well. It was quite a sight, and smell. We continued, getting followed the whole way by men wanting to sell us trinkets and we arrived at a staircase with a man holding mint to greet us. The mint was for us to smell in the more odorous areas. We walked up all the way to the top floor where we discovered a room full of leather goods. Purses, wallets, slippers, shoes, you name it, they had it. And they really wanted to sell it to us! They were so pushy. Then I looked out over the edge of the building that overlooked the back of the city to see these giant tubs of dye and all these Moroccan men dipping leather into each brilliant color of ochre, crimson, royal blue and camel brown. After we left that tourist trap we went on to the third one that actually kind of had good deals. It was a store that sold scarves, jalabas, and other things made of woven fabric. There were three large stand up looms each under control of a Moroccan man and another ¨leader¨of discussion. I found out later that he had actually been to Minnesota… random. I bought a beautifully woven scarf for only 5 euro or 50 duram and the guy taught us all how to tie them into head wraps. I felt slightly like a terrorist, but then I thought better of myself and felt like Aladdin again. Hehe I love Disney! Finally we went back to the bus and continued on our way to the first hotel.
· We checked into the hotel and at this point drama ensued. I was going to room with a girl named Krista but once tru and Dario, who are dating, got wind that they wouldn’t be able to share a room they asked me to switch with tru and room with Andrew for the nite. I felt comfortable doing that since there were two beds and Andrew and I were friends. And so it went. In the morning we got up and got on the bus, we started off climbing large hills. After a while, we realized that the poor bus had been careening through the mountains all the day before and sounded like it was going to die… and then it did. 35 min outside of fes smoke started pouring from the back of the bus and it shuddered… and turned off. We all unloaded and sat in the field directly to our right and waited to hear what to do. Muhamed our guide told us that it would only be 45 moraccan min later till we got a new bus. After 5 hours of sitting outside, peeing in the bush and getting more and more dehydrated we realizad that 45 moraccan min must mean 5 hours. Finally a smaller bus came to pick us up and take us to the next town over to get some food. We hadn’t eaten since breakfast. After eating and feeling like everything was going to get back on track we were informed that the bus we had would not be able to take us to erfoud, our next destination 7 hrs away because it didn’t have the proper insurance. We waited… for 4 hours. Finally our options were to go back to fes for the nite and miss out ojn the super cool hotel or drive thru the nite in mini buses to get there. Obviously we chose the mini bus. We all unloaded and loaded back up in the mini busses and waited… and waited. Finally a ripple of whispers passed seat to SEAT saying that our bus couldnt go and the others could because our driver didnt have a licesnse and needed to apply for it right then. So we waited. Finaaanlly we started off for erfoud and drove thru the nite. I slept some, but my back was killing me. Upon arrival in erfoud they told us that we could still eat dinner. I was hungry so I was like ok. The hotel was marvillous. Called hotel chergui in erfoud. The food looked amazing as well and I ate tons even tho I wasn’t starving. I then went to my room I was sharing with Andrew again and found it to be just as lovely. Bright orange and red bedspreads looked like sunsests and there were arches with columns in our own room. The bathroom was great as well, tile floors and a huge shower, not to mention a real toleit. I slept well that nite. The next day we got up round 8 and headed to breakfast, also delicious. We then left our suitcases in a locked room and got into Land rovers, 6 in each car. I was with Michael, Alison, beth, tru and Dario. It was the craziest ride ive ever experienced in my entire life. Careening through the sahara desert up and over huge dunes turning sharply here and there and almost getting stuck. I felt like I was in a car commercial because I looked out and saw 7 other land rovers doing the same thing in different directions. We stopped at this one spot to take pictures of a beautiful background of sahara sand. It was absolutely breathtaking and unbelievable to me that I was standing in the middle of some place so foreign and doing stuff I never imagined Id be able to do in my life. We stopped in a small village and were hearded into a even smaller building. We all sat on pillows on the floor, were served Moroccan tea and then we got to experience a wonderful concert of 5 african men dressed in long white robes with red trim. They danced and sang and played these great instruments. The little boy was adorable but you could tell he sooo didn’t want to be there. We finished up and went to our place for lunch. It was this beautiful hotel with the walls made out of mud and straw and were served another amazing morrocan meal that I could barely enjoy since my stomach was starting to grumble angrily. The famous one legged travel guy hoped by and then we got back in the land rovers.
· After crazier driving we reached the camels. We all go out regained our selves and chose a camel. I was in a 2sy with Emily me in front her in back. I named my camel Harold and hers became kumar. It was quite an interesting feeling riding a camel, especially as they stood up you got thrown forward then backward and the whole ride was a shift of front and back. Not too comfortable but worth it. Our guide, a burbone lead us around the sahara and up to a magnificent dune. We all got off, climbed the dune to watch the sun set. It was a hard climb, I work out every day and I had a difficult time reacing the top with out loosing my breath. But the view from the top definitly took away all the resto f the breath i had. It was brilliant. The glowing sun setting over giant golden red dunes so perfectly shaped from the wind, untouched by humans. We finally got back on the camels and got to our camp right as the stars began to come out in the sky.
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· The camp that we stayed in was a tent city but much more beutiful then i had imagined it would be. Each tent door was a huge blanket of ochre or royal blue and the inside was held up with a stick with beds with many blankets
· We all gathered around the fire and enjoyed more moraccan tea, green mint tea with sugar. Delicious! The musical trouppe from befote had come with and began to performe again for us. It was great. Then we went into the idnner tent and ate, it was gross and I was also feeling kinda sick so I was sticking to bread. And some veggies. After dinner we gathered again round the fire and enjoyed more music… and then the dancing began! It was so much fun to dance African like moves around the fire with the burbones and others in the camp we all bonded so much on this trip it was crazy! that is most of us… there was a certain group of people that decided to seclude themselves in the back of the camp but in my opinion they missed out on the fun, and we didn’t. I had a blast. Finally retiring to my tent that I was sharing with Michael at around midnite. I passed out automatically because i was so tired! However i woke up at 2 in the morning and new something was wrong… I felt even more sick. I made my way to the bathroom… which had real toilets but that didn’t work so well, and well… I was rite I was sick. Thus began the Moroccan plague that over the next few days around 30 of the 50 people on the trip caught. I felt ill. So sick and so dehydrated. I woke up again at 5 to go watch the sun rise in the desert and boarded my camel again. The stars were so beautiful. Millions of them. After climbing a dune and watching the sun come up I climbed back down, was sick again, and then ate some bread for breakfast. We then got on camels, and went to the land rovers. The clique had taken my land rover spot so i had to find a new place to go, so I went with Kristina, teresa and Katie. It was fun! Our driver was crazy, playing lots of akon and he kept getting stuck. We helped him out from time to time pushing the car out of the sand jumping back in and continuing on our way. after stopping agian at the place we ate befote we continued on to the beautiful hotel chergui to get our bags, eat and hang out. I sat by the African shaped pool and got Burned in 15 min with 30 spf on. It was wonderful. On the bus again driving away from the sahara we stopped in a town to see some things. Another rug factory. It was horrible it was like, we saw one weve seen them all! At that point i had taken many trips to the bathroom. Only could manage to eat bread and had grown so dehydrated I felt faint. Michael the chaperone sat me down and made me get some water. We checked into our hotel in meknes later that nite and it was probably the grossest one I had yet been in. I was sick, tired, pmsing and wasnt really in favor of sleeping in the same room as a guy based on the fact that I was sick and would have to use the bathroom, and that he had basically ditched me for the bitchy girls and wasn’t talking to me. I started to cry while trying to change my room and got overwhelmed. Then at dinner, all the food had milk in it, or strawberries and the program was supposed to take care of that for me. and didn’t. so I went to bed hungry and sick. Jessica the sweetheart pulled me aside and asked me if i was ok, and i said i would be, she was so nice to care and ask. I got sick again twice and we boarded the bus back to fes to finally visit a market. The place was cool. So different then anything id seen. It was like a giant salvation army of lesser quality spread out on the ground in all areas. We went to the more tourist side an d started shopping around. I went to this shoe store with Jessica and Katie and the man said he had my size in the back room. It was just around the corner so I wnet back to try them on. I said id come back later to get them and he came toward me, grabbed my ass and my chin and came towards me I squirmed elbowed my way past him glared and got out as fast as I could. It really shook me up i had never had anything like that happen to me so I was upset. I shook it off tho and continued to look for some jewelry. I ended upgetting a beautiful old necklace that is so my style for 15 euro. A little expensive but we were leaving as i was bartering so i had to take what i got down to. We got on the bus, I slept and read and we got back to the ferry, got on the ferry and came back to sevilla.

All in all im glad that I went to experience something so different from my own culture but at the same time I was disappointed that I had spent so much money on something that went terribly wrong. The sahara was magnificent and made up for lots of it, but the sickness was not somehting i would wish on anyone.