Our (a little bit too) eventful trip to the north!

So, the entire time I've been in Morocco I've been dying to travel to the north! I love the Mediterranean and I really wanted to see Chefchaouen (a city that is painted entirely in blue because of its Spanish Jewish background). I've been waiting 7 weeks for this trip and finally we went!

We got together (three of my classmates + my host sister) and planned the trip. We decided to stay in a town called Tatouen which is on the coast and only an hour away from Chefchaouen. We booked an ocean-view apartment in a nice resort (pool included) and split the cost five ways. 

Friday came and I rushed home from school to pack, only to arrive home and find out that my host sister actually would not be able to make the trip because she had to go to Fez to take a test. Cue major panic. Since we were splitting the cost five ways, it would be 20% more expensive without her and therefore impossible. After about two hours of pulling our hair out, another classmate decided to join the group and make us five again (thank goodness).

In order to get to Tatouen you have to take a train from Meknes to Tangier and then a grand taxi from Tangier to Tatouen. The train was excruciating. It broke down several times and the weather was stifling. We got to Tangier about an hour later than expected and stopped to grab dinner. We agreed on a price with the taxi driver in exchange for taking us to Tatouen and we set out on the road again. When we arrived the taxi driver demanded 100 more dirhams because of traffic (major eye rolls). 

We enter the hotel and show the staff our booking, to which the immediately reply: Oh, that's a scam.

[If you can't tell, the theme of this trip is absolute mayhem]

Apparently, the person put up the ad using the name of an established and credible resort (that is not actually located on the ocean) and expected us to pay up front upon arrival. Luckily, the man working the desk at the resort was INCREDIBLY nice. He understood that we were foreigners and it was midnight and we had nowhere to stay. He kindly called a friend and got us an apartment on the harbor with air conditioning for the same price that the ad offered. So, after much debate among the group, we headed to the new apartment.

Saturday: There had been some debate about whether or not the group wanted to stay in the apartment since it didn't actually have an ocean-view and there was a small contingent (aka one person) who wanted to go back Tangier for the weekend. We agreed to get a quick breakfast and then make a decision. Turns out, quick breakfast isn't a thing in Morocco, so after much more discussion we decided to just stay in Tatouen, go to Chefchaouen on Sunday, and get a long breakfast. 

Breakfast on the harbor was one of my favorite parts of the trip. We had a killer view and the cafe made excellent omelets and fresh orange juice. Here are some pics from our breakfast joint.

 After breakfast we went for a dip in the ocean and spent the rest of the day laying around on the beach. The highlight of the day for me: double chocolate magnum ice cream bars.

The next morning I got up and found everybody else very unwilling to get up in time, so were unable to go to Chefchaouen (however, I will make it a point to visit if I'm ever in Spain or Morocco again). We took a ride back to Tangier and spent the day wandering around the city before we got on the train back to Meknes. The train pulled in at midnight and I didn't get to sleep until about 2am (spoiler: I slept the entire next day).

Eid al-Fitr

EID!!!!!

Translation: we can eat during the day again!!!

To celebrate the end of Ramadan, we were woken up before breakfast and carted to the Grandmother's house. Moroccan breakfast is basically just sweets. Then we had couscous for lunch. By the time we finished lunch, we were so hot that we went home and (accidentally) slept for the rest of the day. I blame the beautiful kaftan that I bought...the material was so heavy.

 

Fatima

I realized recently that I only have a few more weeks in this beautiful country and honestly the saddest part about leaving is that I will be leaving my adopted family. After some reflection I felt that I should dedicate a post to my host mother, Fatima. Not only will this serve as a sentimental reminder of my "Haltee" (aunt in Arabic), but it will give my readers a look at the life of a Moroccan woman. 

Fatima is a wife, mother of three, French teacher, and superhero. Her powers include supporting her family in every way possible, doing all of the house chores with little to no help, and preparing food all day long without being able to eat any of it. She has her degree in English and speaks pretty fluently, making our relationship even easier. 

Here is a day in the life of Fatima: 
Wake up at 8am to feed the American girl breakfast
Go to work
Do any shopping
Prepare dinner
Wash the floors, tables, bathrooms, kitchen
Do laundry
Hang the laundry
Fold the laundry
Set the table
Eat dinner
Clean up from dinner
Continue to clean while the men go to pray at the mosque
Prepare dinner which is served at 2am because it's Ramadan
Go to bed at 3 or 4am when everything is done

Repeat 

I can't even begin to fathom doing this much work, much less doing it with a smile on my face after only four hours of sleep. 

I have only ever seen her sit during mealtimes and even then she is running back and forth to the kitchen to fetch various utensils and spices.

Beyond all of her daily achievements, she has welcomed my roommate and I into not only her home, but her family as well. Ramadan is a time of gathering with family and every time that they go to visit family, she insists that we come along. She cannot leave us for more than half an hour without offering us juice or food or water. Every time that I compliment something of hers, she gives it to me. So far she has tried to give me three of her daughters dresses and a pair of shoes. 

They have this nifty contraption that is a handheld carpet cleaner, just to pick up big stuff. My roommate and I commented that this was a pretty cool gadget and she immediately bought one for us both. 

Thank you Fatima, for being my mom away from home and for loving us like a couple of extra daughters. 

Laylat al-Qadr

It's almost Eid! We've entered the last ten days of Ramadan, which is a very special time in Morocco. Laylat al-Qadr is a celebration of the night when the Quran was revealed to the prophet. Nobody knows exactly when in the ten days this took place, so people typically celebrate in the middle (on the 26th or 27th night of Ramadan). 

Morocco does things a little bit differently from other Islamic countries during this time. In addition to all of the extra praying and celebrations, Moroccan children who have reached the appropriate age to begin fasting spend their first day fasting and that night they have an extravagant celebration. It's basically all of the festivities that are typical of Moroccan weddings. The children dress up, sit on plushy thrones, are carried around in amariyas (as in, four men holding then on a fancy chair in the air), and there is music and dancing! 

These festivities take place in the main square of the old medina and, as we found out by accident, at McDonalds. 

Here are a couple pictures from McDonalds while the people were setting up!

Birthday Extravaganza!

Friday night was one of the best nights of my entire life. All week I had been kind of bummed about my birthday because I knew I would have to spend this one away from all of my family and friends back home. Since we usually travel on the weekends, my highest hopes for a celebration were that I would be able to get a few people to come over if I made a cake.

So on Friday I went to school and everything was totally normal...until my professor asked me to stay after school to help one of the administrators with something. Now, I have to be honest, I was not thrilled about this unexpected plan. As much as I love to help, it was Friday (the only day I don't have four hours of homework), I had just taken a brutal exam, and I just wanted to go home. However, I stayed and helped the administrator do some research and then I helped the teachers film a skit for their English classes. 

After filming, I saw my friend Philip walking to get a taxi and I seized this opportunity to get away. We live near each other so we split the taxi. On the way, Philip said, "Hey, have you seen the mall? Let's go to the mall!" Naturally, I agreed...but this was kind of weird. Philip and I had never hung out alone before and I was surprised by how enthusiastic he was about going to a mall. We got to the mall and he said, "Oh man, I need to go to the ATM." So, we walked from the mall to the ATM and back to the mall again. We shopped around a bit in the market and in the natural course of conversation I convinced him that he absolutely needed to try the watermelon in Morocco. It is far superior to watermelon in the States. To my surprise, he immediately took my suggestion and we walked to an outdoor market where he bought a huge watermelon. After holding this watermelon in the 100 degree heat, he began to sweat profusely, so I convinced him that it was time to go home. I helped him carry his groceries up to his apartment since his hands were full with the watermelon. We got to his room and he said, "This used to be Johnson's bed, but he left after week 4. Now Chris sleeps here. He hangs out here all the time. You can hang out here right now." At this point, I'm getting seriously freaked out. No, I do not want to hang out in your spare bed, it's 5:30pm and I want to go home! (I was, of course, more polite...)

So I get home and I find my roommate and my host sister chatting casually. I tell them about my bizarre day, adding that I think Philip is seriously so lonely. My roommate distracts me by searching for dresses online and convinces me that I should take a nap in the room. 

About an hour before Iftar, I wake up and my roommate says, "Hey I'm bored let's play dress up!" This isn't really out of the realm of normality for her personality. So I comply and put on the outfit she picks out for me. Next she says I should do my makeup and my response was, word-for-word, "If you think I'm going to put on makeup after sweating all day, you're guessing." She got her way, however, because my 18-year-old host sister came in and insisted on doing my makeup. I can't really deny her, she gets so excited about doing makeup. 

Finally, I'm beautiful and dying to eat, so we go out to Iftar. At this point, everybody in my class jumps up and yells SURPRISE! 

They had all been in the apartment all day long. My professor, the administrator, and Philip were all desperately trying to distract me and keep me from coming home. Apparently I have been talking about southern food for a while, so they made me fried chicken, mac and cheese, and mashed potatoes. They even made my favorite type of birthday cake (chocolate devil's food cake with white buttercream frosting). Philip brought the watermelon that I had forced him to buy. I was so incredibly overwhelmed. It was a pot luck, so everybody contributed and they had worked so hard to keep it a surprise! I was utterly floored. These people I had met a mere five weeks ago had put in so much effort to make it a special day for me. 

We watched Top Gun and everybody stayed until about 2am chatting (we had a lot of laughs over Philip's weird improvised attempts to get me to stay). 

It was by far one of the best birthdays I've ever had!

 

To the souq!

Jasmine and I have been talking about buying traditional Moroccan outfits from the souq for forever, so last night we finally set out to accomplish our mission. 

Every major Moroccan city has a souq. Things you can find in the souq: traditional clothes, modern clothes, jewelry, tile work, furniture, toys, sweets for Ramadan (and all other food), camel hair, and...well, anything. Our souq has indoor and outdoor sections. The indoor section is very crowded and narrow and the shops are like stalls on either side of a hallway (good luck getting out of the way when the corn guy tries to pass with a wheelbarrow full of husks or a kid decides to drive his motorcycle through the lane). The outside section is absolute and complete chaos. 

Since it's Ramadan and it's 103 degrees outside, we decided it would be best to go after Iftar. Everything opens up again at about 10:30pm. 

Since we're very obviously American, we took our host mom to avoid the "tourist tax." 

So, at 11pm last night we set out and got to shopping. And when I say that we got to shopping, I mean that Jasmine and I pointed at things and our host mom bargained with the shop owner until she was blue in the face. Now, Moroccan darija is a very quick and difficult dialect to understand, but from what I understood the exchanges included a lot of "Are you sleeping?" "God will bless you," "Why are you doing this to me?" Bargaining in Morocco is a very passionate art. Since everybody is typically very kind and polite (it is common to refer to strangers as sister/brother if they are your age or aunt/uncle if they are older) the art of arguing over prices is actually kind of pleasant, at least as an observer. Pleasant, but not easy. We spent an hour at each stall and afterward our host mom said, "I just want some juice," because her voice was so tired!

Finally, I succeeded in purchasing a dress for the holiday of Eid and souvenirs for my family. We only left after the shops started closing up and the workers were cleaning the plastic from the streets. We got home at 2:30am, but it was definitely worth the night out!

Ifran and Azrou

Our next adventure was a hiking trip to the Middle Atlas mountains! We stayed in a town that was built to model a Swiss skiing village, called Ifran. It was absolutely beautiful. 

There are petite taxis and grand taxis in Morocco. Petite taxis take only three people at a time, but grand taxis will put 6 passengers in 4 seats (not so grand). We took a rather cozy ride in a grand taxi from Meknes to Ifran on Friday night. Upon arrival we explored the local grocery market and set to work making tacos! It was so fulfilling to eat something North American!!!

On Saturday we woke up and headed to Dayet Awa, a nearby village with a lake and an 18 mile hiking trail that leads from the lake back to Ifran. The thing about hiking in Morocco, though, is that trails are really just paths that donkeys take and they aren't marked. So, after wandering through some locals' farms for about 7 miles, we decided to give up on trying to find the trail and just climb a mountain instead.

 Above: photos of the lake at Dayet Awa on our way out to find the trail.

 Above: photos from our wanderings through farmland. Wildlife count: chickens, cows, donkeys, horses, ducks, peacocks, sheep, cats, dogs, and tadpoles.

 Above: we took a break as we began to realize that we were quite lost and we sat around this abandoned...something

Below: pictures of the climb!

 As we reached the summit there was a huge thunderstorm rolling in and I got some cool pictures of the sheets of rain in the distance!

 At this point, I feel like I should mention that I almost died climbing this mountain. I have exercise-induced asthma and even though I've trained my lungs to handle walking and running, climbing a mountain with no trail is a very different story. I lagged behind the group almost the entire way and used my inhaler twice. I also did vertical rock climbing for the first time...as in, I was holding on to a sheet of rock for dear life and climbing it using natural foot- and hand-holes (NOT like at the YMCA). I did not, however, give up. I made it to the very top and back down again and I am very proud of myself (disclaimer: there were minor scratches and bruises)

 Above: the lovely house that we booked on AirBnB

 Above: Ifran

When we told our teacher we were going Ifran she told us (in Arabic) that we absolutely had to go to Azrou and see the Cedre Gouraud and the monkeys! And we were like...what the heck does that mean?! As it turns out, Azrou (a town near Ifran) is home to an extremely large and dead cedar tree and an endemic population of Barbary apes! So, of course, we had to go see the apes.

 Above: I bought some rocks as souvenirs from the Atlas mountains and the monkeys, having learned that humans carry food in plastic bags, attacked my rock collection!

 But we made up when I shared some real food.