Part One: Salam Alaikum

It’s been a long time, I know. Lets just say, no news is good news, and in this case also means that I’ve been living every moment to the fullest. Where did March go? I can’t believe it’s almost the end of the month. Starting tomorow I have midterms, and then my parents come to visit for Semana Santa by the end of the week. I don’t even want to think of the weeks to follow after they leave, because I know the end of my time here is coming soon. So much has happened in the last few weeks, it’s hard to know where to start. Frenchy went back to France, Caroline and I went to Morocco, our group went to Sevilla, and a whole load of other things. I’ve discovered new things about Spain and myself; every day is another chance to learn and do something new.

I don’t know how I’m going to be able to describe Morocco in such a short amount of space. I’m not sure I even grasped enough in my short amount of time there. Morocco is primarily Muslim, and I haven’t spent time in a culture that is mostly Arabic before. Almost everyone wore the typical dress of Muslim culture, with women wearing head coverings, and both men and women wearing an abaya, the long robe type clothing. Caroline and I went with a Study Travel group that takes students down, shows them around, and makes sure they don’t get in too much trouble; the usual. Our tour guides were very informative and fun to be around. We took a ferry over the Straight of Gibraltar and went to Tetuan, Tanger and Chef-Chaouén. Morocco was very different and beautiful, and I would have loved to explore more than I did. Sadly though, many of my memories from the trip are those of frustration and annoyance with other people that came on the trip. There were 54 of us in a group, and lets just say at least 2/3 of which were not prepared to actually be in Morocco.

When someone wears high-heals and a low cut shirt on their first day in Morocco, you gotta wonder if they accidentally got on the wrong boat. The majority of the group was girls, and many of them took little to no regard of the fact we were going into a country with different cultural standards and beliefs than what we are used to. Anything from complaining about bathrooms, gasping in disgust at markets, to making fun of language differences and remarks about terrorists could be heard. And although there were a lot of Americans in our group, there were a fair amount of people from other countries as well, such as Iceland, Germany, Holland, and the UK. Overall, I was embarrassed to be with this massive group of people who reacted to their trip to Morocco as if they were at a circus, taking pictures every second to keep their memory of the trip and prove they had been somewhere “adventurous” without actually doing anything and alienating the people of the towns.
Of course, I’m not saying that I wasn’t a tourist. It is impossible to go to a completely different culture and country and not stick out and not be a tourist of some sort. I took pictures, my stare lingered on things I wasn’t used to, but I’d like to think I did my best to go into the situation with an open mind.

The trip wasn’t a failure by any means, as our guides were very helpful and showed and taught us things I would not have been able to do on my own. Also, we stayed at a very nice place and ate good food that was guaranteed to have the water boiled beforehand, since those of us who aren’t from there could not stomach the water. Our guides taught us how to say hello, thank you , and no in Arabic. For hello the first person says, “Salam Alaikum,” (shuh-laum wuh-lake-um) and the second person says, “Alaikum Salam.” This isn’t just hello, but a sign of peace and respect to the other person, said while touching your heart. Thank you is “chokran” and no is “la”. But you can’t say “lala” because that means Grandmother. Although within our guided trip we used these phrases to say hello and thank you, no one in the markets for bargaining or in the streets spoke to us in Arabic. Mostly all of them knew Spanish, as well as French and I’m pretty sure many other languages. One man approached me in a market and said, “Bonjour, Madam!” tipped his hat and kept on going.

We learned quickly that in Morocco the national sport is bartering. We were told to never accept a first price anywhere we went, and that people would hound us to buy their things. This was definitely true. Men would come up to you with jewelry, grab your wrist, put a bracelet on it and ask for your money. They didn’t even ask for Durhams, the currency of Morocco, they wanted our Euros, too. You could say no all you wanted and they wouldn’t listen, but the second you said, “La!” it was like the magic word had just been spoken, and they grudgingly walked away.

Although we visited three towns everyone’s favorite was the last we visited, Chef-Chaouén. Chef-Chaouén is a mountain village that is easily recognized by the colors of its buildings; white and blue. These colors represent peace and devotion to God, and I was pretty sure I heard also they were the colors of Israel. I could be wrong on that one though, because our tour was completely in Spanish with Arabic accent. Life in this town seemed so pure and simple, as everyone washed their clothes in the river coming straight from the mountains, everyone brought their bread to be baked at the bakery (bakeries don’t make their own bread, they bake your bread for you) and everyone bathed in the bathhouse which has specific days and times for different ages/genders.

While I was there I got henna on my hand, rode a camel, bought a woven blanket, bartered with a 12 year old for some leather sandals, and saw where the Mediterranean and Atlantic meet. This last part was especially cool, since while in South Africa this last summer I got to see where the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean meet! It really made me realize how much I've seen of this world already, and how much more I want to see.

Morocco is a place I would love to return to and learn more about it. It was so different to be woken up at 6am by the prayer call that announced to everyone the time to turn to Mecca and pray, to see women covered from head to toe but look so beautiful, and to see people function primarily as a community and use nature in their favor in everyway possible. And although I would love to return again, I don't know when this will happen. I have visited eight countries since receiving my passport. I still have a lot more to go!