The Sahara

   After a great lunch at Qalam Wa Lawh on July 8th, myself along with about 50 others hopped on to a large bus to start our trek to the Sahara. The first day we traveled for about 6 or 7 hours, and after about five hours  we made it to a monkey place, where I saw some monkeys up close and personal. It was cool. A few hours later and we made it to some nice oasis like hotel in the middle of nowhere. It was beautiful, but we didn't get there until it was to late to swim in the murky pool (at this stage in the trip, and pool is great!). The hotel was beautifully decorated with rugs on the stairs, walls, and floors. The air conditioning was quite nice as well, and the large bathtub was calling my name, although it could not be filled in less than 3 hours. Apparently water pressure in the desert isn't exactly the best.  After kind of settling into the hotel, I shaved my legs in the great bathtub, and went to dinner. We started off with the typical basket of bread and water. I then ordered the best lemonade ever. It was so cold, and lemony, and sweet, absolutely scrumptious. After another meal of lamb, potatoes, and carrots, a few Saudi Arabian  men showed us how to take coffee, Saudi style. The coffee was flavored with the precious saffron plant, which is reserved for guests and people of importance in the Saudi home. It was extremely bitter, and definitely woke me up. Unfortunately they were not prepared for 60 awkward guests, so we passed around 5 coffee cups (little bitty cups) and took shots of coffee. It was great fun. I then took a shower and went to bed, excited for day two of the desert adventure.

 

     The next morning couldn't come fast enough, I woke up at 6:45 and attempted to take a bath, but realized again that the water would never fill the tub, so I washed my face and stood on the balcony. I watched the murky pool reflect the sunrise as I listened to my newest audiobook, The Pixar Touch.  I have since finished listening to it, and I reccomend it to everyone! It is absolutely wonderful. After waiting around for a while, I packed my stuff up and headed to a breakfast of bread, cheese, and yogurt. After spending much too long eating breakfast, the group finally headed back to the bus to continue on in our journey of some 8 more hours of driving east.  I don't remember too much of the ride, because it was so boring, but we did have a couple of interesting stops. At about noon we stopped for lunch in some town. It was incredibly hot and we were all begging for water at this adorable little restaurant. We were instructed though, to not drink any water after we started eating this Berber pizza stuff. Kind of dubious, but whatever. We then went to market and bought scarves to wrap our heads with when we went to the desert. I got carried away and bought three and a dress. It's best to be prepared for the desert, and the scarves came in handy later when I needed a towel. 

     A couple hours later, at the hottest time of day we stopped to look at fossils at a fossil shop. Why anyone would travel to the middle of nowhere to buy fossil stuff beats me, but it was interesting.   After another hour or so in a bus, we made it to another destination, 4x4 tour of the desert area. We drove quickly around the rocky part of the desert, up to our main stop, the camel place. Once at the camel place we received 2 large bottles of water that would suffice us for the night and until the next day.  Fortunately we were on Moroccan time, and arrived a couple hours late so it wasn't as hot as we expected it to be. We boarded the camels and set out into the beautiful dunes. The desert is amazing. It is so beautiful and peaceful, AND you can get cell phone service, crazy, eh? A couple hours on the back of a camel and we arrive at our campsite, where we eat bread and lamb and potatoes and carrots, yum.  It was pretty dark by the time we got to dinner, so we ate in the light of a gas lamp and then everyone started to set up for bed. Most chose to sleep under the stars, but I knew better. A friend and I took a tent that was probably intended for eight and sprawled out. It was rather warm, but we opened the door flap and let the breeze in. I slept quite well in the tent while others woke up complaining about the sand blowing in their face all night, ha. We hopped back on the camels around 5:30 ish in the morning, and watched the sun rise on our way back to the central hub. I took a shower and ate breakfast and was excited to go back to Rabat. It was a great trip, but the tens of hours in a bus lessened the experience, none the less I thoroughly enjoyed my weekend in the Sahara.

I'm not good at keeping up with blogs. Especially not by date, so I will categorize:
Marrakech:

A couple of weekends ago I went on a trip to Casablanca and visited a massive mosque. It was very pretty, but it was built in the 80s, so I wasn't too impressed with it. Sure the dedication is impressive, but the technology of the 80s could have brought a lot more. It was the 2nd largest mosque in the world, and it was very large indeed. After the stop at Casablanca I went on to Marrakech. I stayed in a beautiful hotel with a gorgeous pool and wonderous amenities. After changing and unpacking a bit, I headed out with the group to dinner/tour of the square. The first tour of the city brought us to yet another mosque. This mosque is the happenin place at night, and many people hang out there. I'm not sure why though. We then walked (hungrily I might add) to the main square, where rows and rows of orange juice stands, food stands, and other stands plague your eyes as you are trying to dodge being bit by a rogue cobra, which isn't even there at night you later find out. Unfortunately our tour guide would not let us stay there very long, so we agreed to go back after dinner. Our dinner was nice, we sampled various types of juices and ate pasta and pathetic lamb chops. After dinner, my friend Dana and I decided to continue on in our goal of spending 100 dollars on orange juice. In Marrakech orange juice is approximately 50 cents a glass, we made it to 10 glasses that night and had to quit. We made it back to the hotel and slept off our sugar high. The next morning we went on some tours in the area, and went back to the square and the souk (market). Dana and I had 5 more glasses of juice. Success.  I also enjoyed shopping in the souk, however I must get better at bargaining. I bought a leather backpack, got my henna did (lolz), and bought a very pretty scarf for my mother. It was a good trip.

Here are some pictures:

Nice mosque in Marrakech.

Large mosque in Casablanca. Awesome jumping skillz.

Number 15 or so.

Cobra, only there during day for they may escape at night.

Another cobra, dancing in the street.

Orange juice rows. So good.

Tuesday July 28th

I woke up from a nice sleep on Tuesday morning to have a very large breakfast once again. I did the whole taxi routine again, which was a bit easier this time. I still had to point to the map and I think I got robbed of a couple of dihrams, but no big deal.  After class and lunch we went on a class excursion to Oudaya, an area of Rabat. This was the second time for us to go there, but this time I bought postcards! Oudaya is a very nice place to visit, it overlooks the ocean and you can feel the nice ocean breeze. We went to a cafe there and had great bakhlava. Here are some pics:

     After the group excursion we went back to the school and went our separate ways. I went with a group of people to my friend Eitan's host family's restaurant. It's an authentic Moroccan restaurant, haha. We sat in a tent:

After enjoying some fruit, juice, and sparkling water, I headed home to hang out with the host family. At home my lovely host family helped me practice some of my arabic, I was very grateful.

A recap of my past week!

It's been a fwe days since I updated, so here is my best try at an overview of the past week.

Last Monday:
I woke up rather early, after going to bed quite early and missing dinner, so I decided to lay in be dofr a while. It was awkward because I had no idea what time anyone was supposed to get up or anything. After I heard Habiba (the maid) stir, I decided to get up and get ready. I walked into the living room to be greeted with a beautiful breakfast of breads, jams, cheeses, olives, and of course Moroccan mint tea. It was wonderful! I was feeling very anxious about finding the taxi and getting to school, as well as being extremely discomforted from the intense sunburn from the previous day at the beach, so I did note at very much. My host father then joined the breakfast table, and told me that Habiba would show me the taxi. 10 minutes of picking at my croissant went by and then I took the initiative to leave for school. Habiba arranged the taxi for me, and I then pursued what felt like the longest 3 minute ride of my life. When we pulled up to the gate of the school, I saw my friend Eitan and I pretty much started to cry. I was so happy to see someone I knew after a weekend with the host family. It wasn't a bad weekend, just odd.
After a great class and more mint tea, I walked home with my friend Kelsey.It took a while and we took a few inciental detours, but overall it was a good walk. A shower was in store, and then I ate dinner and watched a Moroccan drama, and went to bed.
Tuesday will follow soon.

Host Family and School

A couple of days ago I met my host family. I absolutely adore them, for they are incredibly nice and accomodating. There is of course, no air conditioning, but it isn't too bad. Upon my arrival I was greeted by the whole family along with lunch. It was very good, we had all sorts of delicious foods. I must say though, I am so full and tired of eating. After eating lunch I took a shower which was wonderful. After unpacking and "settling" my host sister and father and I went off to visit cousins. They had air conditioning which was wonderful! After that we went somewhere to listen to djs on a trailer. It was strange, but I met this nice girl who spoke great English. I wish I would have gotten her number or something so I could have someone to talk to. After spending about an hour doing nothing (a common thing to do here), we went to the MegaMall. We didn't shop, but instead went ice skating for a while, which was something that I can do in any language! After falling a few times in the nice air conditioned icy place, we decided to go bowling. It was nice to be in an american-esque atmosphere, even though my bowling skills were not up to par. We then returned home and ate dinner and I turned in to go to sleep. It felt so good.

   The next morning I woke up to a beautiful breakfast, as always here. After eating and sitting around, I was told to put my swimsuit on. Off to the beach it was, unfortunately I did not realize we were going to be there ALL DAY LONG. I did not bring my sunscreen, and now I am sooo burnt. It should pass soon, I hope. After the beach I went home and showered, had tea time and went to bed. I felt bad about missing dinner, but they eat late and I had to go to school.

Now this brings me to the current day, Monday, aka school day. I woke up at 6:30 am, and no one else was awake except the maid and then my father woke up. I had a bit of breakfast (I'm so tired of eating) and then I headed out to get a taxi to get to school. It was a horrible experience, but I made it there. Class was good, and I feel like I learned a lot. We then had a singing lesson, which was interesting. Lunch was good and now I am going to stay at the school and do homework!
Here are some pictures from before I met my host family!:

This was at the Hasan Mosque

This was lunch on Friday. Couscous in the bottom right corner!

This is sideways, but it is at the Hasan Mosque as well.

The Gardens

Today after attending multiple orientation sessions we went on an excursion to the nearby garden center. It was absolutely beautiful and I enjoyed pretending I was an extreme adventurer in the jungle. We have had a few meals here in Morocco now, and they have been very good. I don't think I will be having a hard time zith the culture shock they keep telling us we will have. It is so pretty here and I love being outside. I will post pictures soon, with captions of course! Tomorrow we will take a trip to Casablanca, and in a few days we will meet our host families, I can't wait! I'll check back in later!

Miranda

Today I can finally say that I am settled in Morocco. Granted, I am having issues adjusting to the French keyboard. The weather is absolutely gorgeous and it is just overall beautiful. I will try to post some pictures soon, but I am quite busy. I think this will be a great experience.

Ill update soon!

Miranda