My 5th Continent

Hi!

I hope everyone is doing well! Last weekend I went to Morocco on an organized trip with about 45 other students on my program. It was a great experience and cool to know that we were in Africa! We arrived Friday night and had dinner and hung out at the hotel. On Saturday, we walked around Tetuan and weaved in and out of the Meriendas (markets where they sell fruit, fish, nuts, etc). This was definitely not my favorite part of the trip because I saw live chickens in cages ready to have their heads chopped off to be sold. It was disgusting! Later, we had a typical Moroccan lunch at a cool restaurant which was delicious except for the fact that they served chicken. Needless to say, I didn't eat my chicken. I liked the cous-cous and the tea with cookies was great too! We also walked through the Jewish quarters of Tetuan where the 6 Jews on the trip took an exclusive Jew picture :) There was a walkway with 6 pointed arcs to represent the 6 points on the Star of David.

Later that day we traveled to Tangier where we had the opportunity to ride camels for a few minutes around a parking lot. It was definitely a little anti-climatic after my 30 minute camel ride in the Negev desert in Israel, so I didn't do it but enjoyed watching my friends squirm as they got on and off. We walked around the markets of Tangier and had time to buy souveniers, then returned to the hotel for dinner. It was my friend's 21st birthday on Sunday so we stayed up with her and celebrated in the hotel.

The next morning we woke up at 6 for breakfast and traveled to Chechaouene which was my favorite city. It was beautiful-- located right next to the mountains and was full of white buildings with blue doors that reminded me of pictures I've seen of Greece. We saw women washing their laundry outside near a river which was really cool. It made me really appreciate washing machines! We toured the city and then had some free time again and a lot of us bought scarves, one of the souveniers that Morocco is known for (mine is really pretty!). After another Moroccan lunch (not as good as the first day) we headed back to the bus for our long trip back to Granada.

The weekend was a great experience and I enjoyed observing Moroccan culture. We barely saw any women outside, and when we did, they were dressed in typical Muslim clothing. We also had to be careful about handling our purses and wallets because it is easy to get pickpocketed there.
I'm really glad I went on the organized trip because I definitely would have been lost if I would have tried to see the country with a few of my friends.

That's all for now! We had our first day of no rain in Granada yesterday which was wonderful and I sat on a bench in the sun for 10 minutes just enjoying the warmth. Time for class now-- I'll write again soon!