Morocco

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So my mom has been forwarding me my daily readings and I thought that you all might enjoy this one, or at least I feel like it is a good one for this blog since I am on a journey (not to say I am not always on a journey, but a specific journey). This is by Melody Beattie from Journey to the Heart, Part 2. 
 “
Map your own journey. 
Go on your own journey. Don't let others hold you back; don't hold them back. Don't judge their journey, and don't let them judge yours. 
All persons are free to have the experiences their souls lead them to. Many of us started our journey by having the experiences others thought we should. Some of us tried to dictate the lessons and adventures of others, too. This caused pain and confusion for all. Learning those lessons, the lessons of setting each other free, became an important part of our journey. But now we're on to a new part.
 Pack your bags. Get out your map. Don't worry about where you'll go and what you'll see. Go where your heart leads. Your soul knows the way. It will speak quietly through the voice of your heart, your wisdom, and your intuition. Listen to the voice, the quiet voice within, that assures you you're safe. You will meet and learn from everyone you need to along the way. Don't limit your own experiences. Don't limit the experiences of those you love, or those you meet along the way. 
Start today to follow your heart.
 Map out your own journey.
 Have the adventure of a lifetime.
”

So anyways I am having an adventure, I am not sure if it is an adventure of a lifetime because I have not lived an entire lifetime, but I do classify this as one of many adventures I plan to have. I think the adventure not only comes from going to the actual ports and exploring, but it comes from meeting people, going through the ups and downs of living in a close knit community with all different types of people, and figuring out my real capabilities. Sometimes I get a little frazzled because I am a senior and I have one semester left when I get back before I graduate and I have absolutely no idea what direction I want to go or what I want to do, but I have to keep in mind that it will happen when it is meant to happen. Meaning hopefully that I will figure it out and the opportunities will present themselves as needed.

All right so Morocco. It is interesting because now that we are back there are so many people who just did not like Morocco, either they had bad experiences or they thought the people were too pushy or it was too dirty, etc, you get my drift, but I, on the other hand, loved it. I loved the immense difference from the United States (if I wanted it to be clean and everyone to act normal I would have stayed at Delaware); I also loved how it was a country full of contrast within itself. On one end of the spectrum you have the world’s third largest mosque, the gorgeous Hassan II and Beverly Hills-style mansions, and on the other you have the slums where the homes are simply cardboard boxes (probably 1 mile down the road from each other). There is the older part of the population that follows the Muslim religion fairly strictly (covering their heads, wearing traditional dress) and you have the younger population that dresses in a modern fashion and loves American hip-hop culture. There is also the influence of the Arabic culture and the Middle East mixed with the French influence from before Morocco gained its independence, of course among other things (I won’t bore you with more since I know you just care about what I did). Random fun fact: Morocco was the first country to view America as an independent country from Great Britain.

So in Morocco, I did not have as much free time to do exactly what I wanted because I did a Semester at Sea trip for 4 days and I had an FDP (Faculty Directed Practica) for one of my classes. So to start the first four days I was on a trip to Marrakesh and a camel trek. The last day was a visit to a Coca-Cola bottling facility. It was actually a nice mix and I enjoyed both pretty equally, I might have even enjoyed the Coca-Cola trip more, because I am loser and love school and learning about things.

So the first day we got in, over 160 students piled on to 4 buses to head out to Marrakesh. Funny story, so before we got there we pulled over in a gas station/rest area (kind of like the rest stops along the Jersey Turnpike) to go to the bathroom. Bus two (my bus) was the first bus to get there and we followed our tour guides (Ya-ya and Dris) to the bathrooms and when we came around the corner they pointed to the closest one and said “girls here” and pointed to the far one and said “boys there.” Me and this other girl were the first two people to come around the corner and so we just went into the first bathroom. After a few seconds, I started to hear a lot of boy’s voices that sounded like they were in the bathroom, but I really thought that I was in the girl’s bathroom so I did not think too much of it. But when we came out it turned out we were in the boy’s bathroom! I did not really care that much and neither did the boys that were in the bathroom already because the stalls were closed and besides there were no urinals to give away that it was a boy’s bathroom, but when we came out of the bathroom all of the other boys that were waiting outside were like “um, you can clearly see that the picture above the bathroom is a boy.” It was okay because I knew that our guides had messed it up and neither of us girls had double-checked to see if it was a girl or boy’s bathroom. So that was my sort of embarrassing story from the trip, even though it is not really that embarrassing.

When we got to Marrakesh we went straight to lunch and then to the Souqs. We had to eat lunch in a very closed off restaurant because it was Ramadan and it is considered rude if you are not Muslim and eat in front of all the people who are fasting. I felt bad for our guides because they were with us when we ate lunch, but they were not able to eat. Ramadan is the Islamic holy month that consists of sunrise-to-sunset fasting; it means no eating, drinking, or smoking during daylight hours for an entire month. I am pretty sure that none of us would be able to do this. So after we ate we had an hour or so and our guide took us into the Souks, or markets. Everyone was freaking me out talking about how intense the markets are and how we have to be very careful of the people and getting lost, etc, I was prepared to be extremely overwhelmed. However, I found it pretty relaxed, maybe after spending some time in Mexico in markets, with begging children and bargaining I did not think it was too intense. I could see that if it was your first experience in a market abroad that it could be uncomfortable, but I have a feeling that India and China are going to be four times as intense, maybe more. Our guide took us to a Berber pharmacy (it was all completely holistic!), where the pharmacist explained the different ingredients and how they create their products and it was so interesting. While we were in the pharmacy it started pouring outside (mind you we are in a country where it probably rains 20 days out of the year and it happened to rain while we were there) and the wind was blowing the windows open to the room we were in. One of the girls was sitting under the window and when the wind blew the window open it knocked over three pretty good size glass jars (2 full of liquid and 1 full of herbs) and in honestly a split second she was up and out of the way before the jars crashed on her and the floor. She got away without even getting the splash of the liquid on her clothing. It was pretty scary because the jar could have landed on her and the situation would have ended very differently, but luckily she got out of the way and we just sort of sat there dumbfounded for a few minutes. After the pharmacy we waited under an awning in the souqs for the bus and then had to run/speed walk across the Djemaa el-Fna (I’ll explain later) to where the buses were parked. After the markets we just went back to the hotel and took naps, got cleaned up, and hung out before dinner.

That night we went to Chez Ali, which to explain mostly clearly, was essentially a Medieval Times touristy show with dinner. I kind of figured it would be this way before we got there, but I think it turned out to be even more touristy than I was imagining. First we walked through a tunnel of caves with little plastic Aladdin artifacts (very Disney), then we walked by several groups of Moroccan singing groups, that could not have looked more bored out of their minds, had dinner in giant tents, and then we watched a fire-twirler, a belly dancer, men performing tricks on horses (and one on a donkey, it was my favorite) and a finale that consisted of a flying carpet over the ring with, my guess is Aladdin and Jasmine. Before I move on can I point out another interesting contrasting point: this is a society that is known for belly dancing, where women are pretty much in a bra and underwear dancing scandalously while by day the women cover their entire bodies head-to-toe. Also during dinner the performing music groups wove their way through all the tents performing for us, and there was one guy in one of the groups that was carrying around a corded phone and he would hold the base and talk and sing into the phone hand piece; it was an comical thing to witness. Actually two nights ago on this ship we had a talent show and all of the LLCs (living learning coordinators, they are staff here to help us get involved on the ship) put on a skit making fun of Chez Ali, and they did a pretty good job of it. Side note: the talent show was great! Every single act was awesome, some kids got really creative with it (one kids did an interpretive dance/show of making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and eating it to Star Wars themed music), some danced, some put on funny skits, some told jokes and did voice impersonations and one of the life-long learners did yo-yo tricks.

Okay back to Morocco. The next day we got on the buses again, this time for 8 hours to head out to Zagora for the camel trek. I wish I could tell you some funny story from this 8-hour bus right or something interesting at least, but it really was just an 8-hour bus ride. We did pass a ton of mud-home villages and palm groves and at every single one I wanted to get out an walk around, they just seemed like such interesting places; the men would be sitting out by the road in huge groups just socializing and the children would be playing with tires or riding on donkeys (they looked like they were having so much fun) and would wave to us when we drove by. When you are sitting on a full bus for 8 hours, just about anything will entertain you. Luckily the drive was beautiful, so that kept me occupied for a while along with several hours of sleep.

When we got to Zagora to meet the camels, we just pulled up along side the road and there were probably 90 camels waiting for us. Unfortunately 90 camels were not enough for everyone to get to ride so half of us walked and half road and then we switched. My brother was right though, riding a camel is not like riding a horse and it is an interesting, fairly uncomfortable motion, so it was not the end of the world that we had to walk some of the way. When we got off the bus, surprise surprise, half of the girls had to go to the bathroom and of course there was no bathroom, so we all had to take turns going behind the one bush that we could find. The camel trek, although the sheet said it would be in the Sahara, was not actually in the Sahara, I think we passed one sand dune. I was a little disappointed, but the camp they made for us and the dynamic of all the students camping out made up for the fact that we were not really in the Sahara Desert. We trekked for about an hour over to our camp and then the next morning trekked back. We named our camel Prince Ali a-Baboa.

When we got to the camp there was another singing group there to welcome us. The camp had several sleeping tents, a few eating tents, and a big open area in the middle for congregating. We played some Mafia, danced with the singing group for a while (they only sang one song, so the first time they starting singing we were really excited, but as you can imagine by about the 8th time they sang it we were a little tired), and then we decided to sleep outside under the stars. The next day went as if you took the previous day and pushed the rewind button. We rode the camels back to the buses and then had an 8-hour bus ride back through the mountains to Marrakesh.

The next two nights in Morocco made up for all the touristy things we were doing (mainly traveling in a group of 160+ Americans everywhere). Some of you may already know this, but French is the language of business and the secondary language in Morocco to Arabic. This worked out nicely because one of the girls we were traveling with is French so she was able to communicate and talk to everyone to help us get around on more than one occasion. This night following our 8-hour bus ride, a smaller group of us went to the Djemaa el-Fna, which is the main central square in the medina (old city) of Marrakesh (wow, a lot of words that require some explanation) and had dinner at the food stalls there. When we first pulled up outside of the Koutoubia Mosque, there were masses of Moroccans out front on their knees praying. It was quite a sight. We then walked to the central square where there were snake charmers, monkeys, and heaps more Moroccans that had just broken their fast. The edge of the square outside of the souqs was dotted with different food stalls where you could sit down amidst all of the chaos and have dinner, so this is exactly what we decided to do. It was fantastic; there were locals, tourists, kids, shop owners, and snake charmers running all around us. Let me see if I can explain the set up: it was a row of probably 15 different stalls, all with a little different food, although pretty similar. One stall ran into the next, but they each had a table displaying all the different foods you could order; behind the table was a place to cook the food and in front of the table were long picnic tables (where we sat to eat). All of this was covered by a long skinny tent. (I am sure all of you now have completely different images in your heads, but at least you have an image). The food included all different types of kebobs (chicken, pork, lamb, vegetable, etc.), couscous, and even French fries. It was perfect, casual food, awesome atmosphere, and a real authentic Moroccan experience.

Okay, so I have another cute story for you guys. When we finished eating there was about half a plate of French fries sitting at the end of our table and we were just hanging out talking enjoying each other’s company. This little boy (probably 5 or 6 years old) walks by the table, then backtracks a few steps to our table, and without looking at any of us grabs a few fries, like he was taking them from a friend (maybe I should include that he was a well dressed, probably well fed boy). We thought it was hilarious and thought it was a great story. But wait, it wasn’t over, the little boy makes a circle around the stalls and comes back by our table. This time he grabs another few fries with a mischievous grin on his face then when he walked around the corner looked back at us smiles and takes a sip of his Fanta. So now we are practically on the floor laughing and we decided to try to lure him back to our table to get a picture of him. So we put a few more fries on the plate, got our cameras out, and waited for the little boy to come back. Sure enough he comes back around, we saw him stop and joke around with some older man as we prepared our cameras to get a picture of him. This time the kid walks by and then waves his finger at us in mockery, like “you aren’t going to get me this time,” flashes his grin again and walks away laughing. Of course we were all really in hysterics now and disappointed that we couldn’t get a picture of this apparently very smart little boy. I guess as the saying goes “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me, fool me three times, it isn’t going to happen!”

After dinner we walked through the souqs, which I loved. I didn’t even end up buying anything while we were there, one because I know my mom just brought back plenty, but also I was just enjoying wandering around and taking it all in. All of the people were out and about because it was after they had broken the fast (during Ramadan everything during the day is pretty empty probably because you can’t eat) so it was great to see everything in action. We ended up running into piles of Semester at Sea kids and we were just standing in the central square attracting a lot of attention and not making any decisions toward what we wanted to do, so Jeremy and I went and found some wonderful ice cream. I am not sure it was as good as in Spain, but it was ice cream so I was happy as a clam. After that we just decided to retire to the hotel because people were still being too indecisive.

The next day we were given a few hours to go back and explore the souqs. Again I did not find anything, I actually did look, but I had a specific idea of what I wanted in my head and I did not find it, so I did not buy anything. I wanted a Moroccan lantern, but I couldn’t find one that I really loved so I did not buy any. After the souqs we loaded up the buses to head back to Casablanca. When we put our bags on the bus, the trip leader told us that we only had 20 minutes to find some food because we were not going to stop during our 3-4 hour ride back. Now why she did not tell us this information earlier that morning is beyond me, but we had to find something. You will all die when I tell you this, but we ran to McDonald’s down the street. Just picture a group of 20 Americans sprinting (no joke) about a ½ mile down the road and into McDonalds. Now if you know me, you know I don’t ever go to McDonalds in the United States, so you know that desperate times called for desperate measures. Next to the McDonalds was a Zara and a Zara Home, which I had never seen before, so I went in there while everyone else got the food. I think we just barely made it back to the bus and back to Casablanca. Fast food in Morocco is not quite as fast as in the United States.

When we got back to Casablanca, we all took very much needed showers, had dinner, and then went out to explore. We headed out in a group of about 40 people (I know you know how excited I was about this). We again stood on the corner of the street trying to decide what to do for at least 10 minutes before Sarah (my roommate) and I decided that this wasn’t for us. So Jeremy, Sarah, Brian (another friend), and I took of wandering through the old Medina. During our explorations we found a square with a stage set up and tons of people and children hanging out, playing soccer, etc; we did not stick around long enough to ever find out what was going on, but we did wait for a while. After that we happened upon Rick’s Café, which was once again infested with Semester at Sea kids. Here we lost Brian (his choice) and headed back out to find a bit more of a Moroccan experience. We walked by the Hassan II Mosque just as the prayers were ending and there were swarms of people taking over the streets, it was unbelievable. This mosque is the third largest in the world and can accommodate 25,000 worshippers inside and an additional 80,000 in the courtyards, and I am pretty sure we caught all 105,000 people leaving when we walked by. After that spectacle we ran into some of our friends, one being the French girl and decided to look for a hookah bar. This was a good group because together we made 6 people and we were all looking for a real Moroccan experience. Our French friend spoke to some policemen and taxi drivers to find us a hookah bar that was off the main drag and only inhabited by Moroccans. We were the only foreigner in the whole place and it was in the upper-class neighborhoods, so it really cool to see some of these men and women and just observe how they lived their lives as opposed to just someone on the street. We spent the next couple of hours just relaxing, watching football (soccer), observing real Morocco, and having great conversation. It was a nice way to close off our time in Morocco. Also I had some delicious banana juice (sounds kind of weird, but it wasn’t, I promise)!

Okay, so that is a lie; that was not the end of my time in Morocco. Encore, encore! All right, all right, so the last day I had my visit to the Coca-Cola bottling facility. This was awesome because as you may know, it is not possible to visit a facility like this in the United States; it is prohibited, so you have to do these kinds of things in other countries. First we put on hair masks and took a tour of the facility and they explained the process to us. I will have to post some videos and pictures later. I really cannot explain the speed at which these bottles fly through the plant. Plus the technology involved in this process is unfathomable. After our tour we were taken to a huge boardroom where Omar, the General Manager of Coca-Cola North Africa, gave a presentation about the company in North Africa. After that they brought in a Moroccan international lawyer who graduated from Harvard law, worked in the U.S. for several years, and just returned to Morocco to set up his own law firm based after the U.S. model, and also a international business owner, Tim (American), that does business in Morocco, to create a panel so we could ask questions. I thought the whole day was great because we got to do a lot of things that we would have never had the opportunity to do if we were just traveling and we got to hear some important people speak about what it was like to compete and do work on a global scale. Obviously the key thing is that when you go into another market or country, you have to pay very close attention to the culture.

I hope you enjoy learning about my journey though Morocco and as you can see I will most of the time prefer finding out what real life in these countries is like as opposed to just doing the touristy thing with 5 billion other Americans, so tune out now if that’s not what you want to hear. Classes are going pretty well, I remain pretty busy most of the time, with group projects, yoga, and seminars. Soon the intramurals will be starting and I am in the soccer league. I also had my first Sea Captain meeting for the Olympics and I am on the publicity committee. Tonight actually the publicity committee got together to begin planning our opening ceremonies. Stay tuned for more! Tomorrow we land in Ghana, so I am out for another four days. Hasta Luego!

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