Africa

So... Africa... Never in my 20 years of life would I have guessed that I would be going to Africa. I think the one place my parents said they didn't want me to go while I was here... was Morocco. Sorry mom and dad.

Our trip started last Friday. We took a two hour bus ride from Sevilla to catch a ferry. The ferry took us across the stright of Gibralter. Once on the other side, we were in Ceuta (which is actually still part of Spain, so we didn't have to go through customs right away). After driving around Ceuta for a little (we saw the fortress, an empty pool [don't ask], where the Atlantic Ocean ends and the Mediterranean starts, and a few other sites).

Entering Morocco through customs was quite an experince. We had to put all of our passports in a bag and hand them over to the Moroccan customs officer while we waited on the bus. I can't say that I was exactly comfortable with that... but what could I do. You could tell the second you were in Morocco. Everything around us changed- the architecture, the way the people were dressed, the language. I was very excited, but at the same time a little nervous. I was out of my element.

After customs we drove to our hotel. One of the first things that stuck out to me, were the Moroccan flags everywhere. When I asked our tour guide why there were so many... he said because King Mohammad visited yesterday. No big deal. Our guide also appoligized to us saying that we couldn't drink because it was Profet Mohammad's birthday. Not a disappointment for me... because I wasn't planning on drinking anyway.

At our hotel in Tetuan they served us a wonderful Moroccan dinner. My favorite was the salad. It was an interesting mix of things that don't normally appear in other salads I've eaten before. We couldn't drink the water there so everyone ordered sodas (drinks were the only things I had to pay for all weekend, since our tour group covered the rest). I found it really interesting that the names of the sodas were in Arabic. Yeah, I know that makes sense since that's their language, but I was enthralled by the cans just the same.

That night we pretty much just went to bed since we knew we'd have a really busy day the next day. I did go on the computer in the lobby for a few minutes. Even that was an experience. All of the keys were in different spots than I'm used to. When I opened up facebook, it was in Arabic. Hmmm...

The next morning we headed out to a city called Chefchauen in the Reif mountains. Some of the interesting things that our guide told us on the way is that...

1) We were in the poorest part of Morocco
2) Morocco is 2X the size of Spain
3) Casablanca is the biggest city in Morocco
4) 60% of Moroccans are under 20 years old
5) Arabic is their national language 6)98% of Moroccans are Muslim
7) Muslims pray 5-10 times a day

Chefchauen was amazing. We walked around the city with our tour guide (the funniest little old Moroccan man). His English was really good. He even knew a lot of slang and random English phrases... "HOLA HOLA COCA COLA" "Bring your family here. It's bangin'!"

Walking through the city was very interesting. Everything in Chefchauen is painted blue. Chefchauen is a textile city and they use this color blue to dye the fabrics. I guess they decided it would be a good idea to dye the buildings blue too... Everyone was peaking their heads out of their doors and windows and staring at us. The men would say things to us. It was uncomfortable, but like I've said before... I like feeling a little bit uncomfortable.

My favorite part of Chefchauen was bartering. My best purchase was a ring for about 50 cents. Bartering scared me at first... but once you get the hang of it and once you figure out what language your supposed to speak (either English, French, Spanish, or Arabic...), it's not too bad.

After Chefchauen, we went back to Tetuan, but this time into the main part of the city. It was an eye-opening experience. After an amazing lunch, henna tatoos, belly dancing, and live music... we had the opportunity to walk through the city with a local. I wish you all could have been there with me. My experience walking through the city is just one of those things that you can't describe. The smells. The people. The small corridors. The shops. We got to see the royal palace. It was incredible. I wish I could have taken pictures, but we weren't allowed.

They took us to a spice shop. Sound borring? It wasn't at all! We all sat around this Moroccan dude who described to us all of the benefits of the spices that the had there. "This spice stops snoring. This root helps you lose weight. This massage oil..." After each description we all got to sample everything. I even got a nice massage from a surprisingly cute Moroccan guy : )

So I don't have much more time to write right now... but basically... Morocco was amazing. An eye-opening experience. I have never seen anything like it, and I'm not sure if I will ever see anything like it again.

When I got back to Seville... I felt really strange. The Spanish people never looked more American than they did just then. Well... I guess it wasn't that they looked American... but that after seeing the people in Morocco... I realized that the difference between America and Spain was a lot smaller than I had thought originally. Africa put a lot of things in perspective for me.

Oh and I got to ride camels.

Check out these songs if your interested... Mariah- Victor Magan Remis and Te regalo by Carlos Baute