Marrakech Express

We got in on Thursday and immediately embarked. The port in Casablanca is what they call an industrial port so basically it is a 20 minute walk to get out of the port and into the city and there are cranes and shipping stuff EVERYWHERE. So far we have only been in passenger terminals so the exit to the port is like RIGHT there. This was different and they had a shuttle running constantly to the exit of the port so that was super nice.

I got right on the bus to Marrakech for my 4-day trip. This trip was huge there were 170 people and 4 buses so it was a little frustrating at times. I sat next to Melissa (from work study) and it took about 4 hours to get there. Our tour guide Jamal was really funny and young and our bus was the all girl bus so it def. couldn't have been easy for him. We got to Marrakech and went to this gigantic shopping square called Djemaa El Fna and got lunch at this nice restaurant. It was all traditional Moroccan food so cold veggie salads and this thing they call Tagine which is meat or veggie dish that is cooked in this funny looking ceramic pot thing. It is cooked in the clay pot so everything is slow cooked together. Sorta like a precursor to the crock-pot. Morocco is also known for their mint tea, which is a green tea with mint and a lot of sugar.

We then had free time to go into the souks (markets). This is ridiculous. They are hundreds and hundreds of years old and you get so lost in them. There are literally miles of these teeny tiny alleyways crammed with vendors and stores. Every so often they turn into these open squares w. mosques and people selling their wares. Obviously I was in heaven. I was with a big group of kids including Kareem. I met him on the first day and he helped me with my bags and we are work study together. He is Muslim and fluent in Arabic (quite an asset in Morocco). We made a great shopping team because people thought I was Moroccan and he could speak the language so I bartered through him it was amusing.

We were wandering around the souks and all of a sudden the sky literally opened up. It rains about 25 days a year in Morocco...guess what day we were there for? It was actually my favorite moment on the trip so far. It was POURING and these markets aren’t really enclosed. They have little tin roofs and in some places nothing. So we were huddled in a corner trying to keep dry and laughing pretty hard. We had no idea it was going to rain so some kids just had their nice cameras around their necks; my bag was getting soaked. Not to mention there is like 200 year old clay dripping on us and rat water everywhere. Literally this place can't be described. Picture Aladdin in the bazaars then age the bazaars by 300 years and add pollution. All of the little alleyways were flooding because it isn't like there is any drainage. I got Kareem to ask this nice guy if we could have plastic bags in to put our stuff in and he gave them to us and wouldn’t even accept any money, which was nice. We got directions out (which is difficult trust me I experienced being trapped there later on) and we are running at this point because we thought we were going to be late for the bus. If you are late you get dock time, which really really sucks. It means when you get into a port you have to stay on the boat for x amount of time. 1-15 minutes late is 3 hours dock time. So anyways we start running out of the markets and as we go all the vendors start cheering us on. Like totally screaming yell go go it was soooooo hilarious. Like just a great moment they were clapping and jumping up and down like we were finishing a marathon. We finally made it to the bus and back to the hotel. We randomly got assigned roommates and I got this girl Lexi from New Hampshire she was very nice.

We went to this place Chez Ali for dinner which was horrible. Basically, it was the sad Moroccan version of Medieval Times. We got there and it was this huge facility that was made to look as “typically” Moroccan as it could. There were all these different “tribes” all singing the music of their people. Every SAS trip that was going through Marrakech was at this place so there were a ton of us and we were all so uncomfortable. They sat us in these tent like things to eat dinner. The food was actually good, cous cous & tagines. As we were eating dinner the “groups” of people came through each tent singing. They just looked so incredibly miserable the whole time we were so uncomfortable. Then they had a horse “show” in this huge pit like thing in the middle of the complex. They had a fire dancer, belly dancer and then people doing horse tricks. They were playing star wars music with all this. At this point we just died laughing. They ended with a “Magic Carpet” flying across the area with the horses. It was horrible. It left such an impression on the shipboard community that at our talent show the LLC’s ((RHDs keep the peace authority position) did a skit called “Chez Ali at Sea” and recreated this whole event. It was hilarious.

That whole thing just made me realize how lucky I have been when I have traveled to India in the past with Dad. We rarely get roped into “tourist” attractions and it is a genuine experience. It made me upset to think that some people travel to places like Morocco and just see shit like this, and are ok with it. I don’t know if I am being self important, but it really does make a huge difference traveling with people who know what they are doing.

The next day we had to get up super early and Lexi's alarm didn't go off so it was a rough start. We headed out to the Sahara on our 8 hour bus ride. I sat next to this girl Leigh Anne from Alabama who was really great. She goes to UVA and her mom actually did SAS in the 70's so she always knew she would be doing tithis. We had some stops and ate lunch. The drive was beautiful but a little treacherous. We had to drive through the High Atlas Mountains and let me tell you that is a windy trail. Our bus actually almost got into an accident and we had to pull over. In addition to our almost accident one girl was puking almost the entire way…which added to the fun? Finally we got there, unscathed slightly.

There weren’t enough camels for all 170 of us obviously so we shared. I didn't get on at first and I saw there was a LLC riding a camel and we all didn't even have one. That annoyed me, Anyways, I finally got on one and I named it Claude. Claude was a great camel and a little smaller then the rest basically my size so that was good. I got to ride him for a while and eventually we got to the camp. It was very nice. There were traditional Moroccan singers at the entrance greeting us. It was set up really interesting. There was an area with a ton of traditional tents w. mattresses in them; we all were assigned a tent. Then there was also a "common area" that had a little bar and a big open space and then these huge tents with tables and low couches in them for dinner. They also had showers and what they called toilets (basically toilets without seats and that didn't really flush sorta gross). We watched the sunset and my friend Dani and I split a bottle of wine and a bunch of us just sat around talking. They served us dinner (tagine again duh) and the singers came back and we had a little dance partay. Then after dinner Professor Church, the parasitology teacher, had brought a UV blacklight because apparently scorpions glow fluorescent under blacklights, so I went on a voluntarily scorpion hunt. Kara and I tagged along and we found 3 scorpions! It was super cool and they really did glow. We lost a lot of the group and we stayed with the professor and she went into a little parasitology lesson and q&a it was so interesting. And also sorta weird to be learning like that at like 11:30pm. I learned loads and now never want to eat or touch anything again haha. We headed back down to the camp after a while and some people were playing mafia and just hanging out. They had a generator so there were lights.

People had decided to drag their mattresses out into the open area to sleep so we did too. They were afraid of bugs, which there were a ton of and they were HUGE. People didn’t realize that just because they moved their beds out of the tents that the bugs could still get them, but whatever we pulled out our mattresses too. There was a big group of us so it was pretty fun. I let my true colors show when Kara and I tried to pee. I thought she was going to kill me- I couldn't do it. I literally went almost 24 hours without peeing. Tried squatting in the desert but I was too exposed. Tried hovering, but couldn’t do it. She was laughing pretty hard, but I know it isn't the greatest way to influence new people and make friends haha. Finally fell asleep under the stars in the Sahara around 2 and were up by sunset. It was really cold and in retrospect probably not a great idea because I got pretty sick, but it was amazing. I got out of my bed and there was dirt and hair in it, and I didn’t even freak out because of the germs. I tried to ignore it. I used my colgate wisp! and brushed my teeth without water. They had bread (obviously moroccans eat an inordinate amount of bread) and honey and tea and stuff for breakfast. We got changed and got BACK on the camels to trek back to the buses. I got Jasmine this time. She was behind Claude, who was the best camel ever. I had Kareem taking pictures of me and Melissa taking pictures of Christie who was behind me. They were like the paparazzi we had a lot of fun. We then got back on the buses for an uneventful 8 hour trek back to Marrakech.

We stopped for lunch at a different place, which was actually pretty gross. We had tagine (again) with lamb that had mostly fat and bone on it so it was really hard to eat. We got back to Marrakesh and Lexi and I got into our room. The trip was lacking in organization and we were told we had the night to ourselves, but in the last 5 minutes of our bus ride Jamal offered to escort us to a nice restaurant. It was sweet of him because it was taking out of his time off, but we had been on the bus for 8 hours and he hadn't brought it up so we said we would go. I got back to the room and Lexi was talking about how she was going to go to Pizza Hut, which after 5 straight meals of "traditional" Moroccan food was sounding pretty damn good. So I found Melissa and we headed to the Meriem hotel to meet up with other SAS kids. The trip was so big they had to split us into two hotels.

I am always pretty confident is sketchy countries and I was the vote of confidence but there were 4 girls walking the 3 blocks to the other hotel and I was a little nervous. The girls were freaking out about how morocco is apparently the sex trade capital of the world etc etc. The only reason I felt uncomfortable is that there were no other women anywhere. Since it is Ramadan everybody is on their best behavior and being super religious. So the women are at home cleaning up after their huge break fast meal. We met up with a big group and walked over to Pizza Hut, which was quite delish we also went to Haagen Daaz. We got back to the Meriem hotel and were gonna go to a hookah bar, but the hotel was jumping and not in a good way.

A bunch of independent trips had ended up in Marrakech at that hotel. There was a small Hookah bar upstairs and we headed up to see what people were doing and oh man it was not good. Since it was a hotel with SAS students we are still under SAS rules and since it was Ramadan and a religious country we were beyond warned that we needed to behave as Morocco is not a country to fuck around in, but no one listens. We got up there and kids were a MESS. They were taking bottles of wine from the downstairs bar and bringing it up to this little hookah bar. People were WASTED and being so inappropriate. They were shot gunning the hookah smoke between them (inhaling and then making out with each other to pass the smoke) and playing in the decor which was a bowl filled with water and flowers. The security guard looked disgusted, it was not a good scene for a seriously religious country. I am all about partying, but not somewhere like that. So Melissa and I went to the lobby and saw some people and all the hotel staff was running around yelling you could hear the people from the hookah bar downstairs. It was not good. So we peaced out of there before anything worse could happen and the LLC's got back. Melissa and I decided to just head to bed at it was midnight already and we needed to get up in the am to have time to shop. My roommate Lexi apparently had become good friends with drew fink from Wilton and she had a bf but for some reason he came and slept in our room it was weird. I guess he didn't have a hotel room or something. Anyways the next morning she told me a bunch of kids came to our hotel at like 3am and were jumping off the balconies into the pool and kids went behind the bar and stole bottles. Its like people don't realize this is not a country you fuck around in. There is no bail, no lawyers like they stick you in jail and there really isn't much you can do about it!


The next morning we head back to the giant square with the miles of shops. This is where I was annoyed with SAS. Out of the 4 buses we had 1 bus decided to take their kids to the market and back that was it. And the kids on that bus got to go and the rest of us had to find our own way there and back. It was weird. Anyways a group of 6 of us met up to go to the market. I was stunned at how scared people were. Leigh Anne didn't want to go because I couldn't find Kareem. She thought it was dangerous for us to go alone and we would get ripped off without him there to speak Arabic. I was not having this, as I am not one to rely on others. She thought it would be better for us to wait and go with the bus so 200 white kids could descend on the souks...uh bad idea. So we bartered with cab drivers and went ourselves. After we got in the souks we sorta split up anyways so it all worked out. I ended up with Melissa and I haggled the shit out of people she was so impressed. I look Arabic and they kept asking me if I was Moroccan it was great. I got a ton of great stuff. We ended up finding Kareem and taking a cab back with them. We then boarded to bus to head back to Casablanca.

We made a stop at Marjane which was Morocco's WALMART it was so ridic. They had a Lacoste & scooters and a Mcdonalds! It was amaaaazing. I got water and realized overcharged we had been for water the entire trip since we were in these huge groups. We had been charged 25 Dirhams for a big bottle in Marjane they charge 4 dirham. They also had soda and food and it was hilarious. We got food from Mcdonalds (mcchicken obvi) but they also had this sandwich called the McArabia hahahaha It was cool. On the ride home I chatted with Eddie Diaz the Ass. Dean of Students and got some dirt on swine flu. I guess once the Vaccine is done they are going to be flying it out to the ship. When swine flu is contracted (it is pretty inevitable) on the boat it is going to depend on where we are if we have to come home or not. Apparently, in China when we get off they take every single persons temperature. They are so strict and that is the country that apparently everyone is petrified for. Also, I guess health & safety wise the staff is very concerned about Ghana. Part of that stems from the fact that SAS has never been there before. I also found out that there is a 5-year waiting list to teach on SAS. Anyways, we finally got back to the boat and it was like a vision rising up in the ocean I was so happy to be home!

I ate dinner on the boat and went and hung out in Melissa's room with a bunch of people. I was really starting to feel like shit, but knew I wanted to do something. Kareem, Hannah and I decided we would go find the huge group of people planning on heading out to the bars. Since we missed the last shuttle we had to walk out and we only knew the general direction, but it ended up working out.

We found this local outdoor concert with all these people. We stopped to watch it and ended up in the middle of all these Moroccan people. It was so cool. And it was refreshing because there were all these women and teenagers flirting and just acting like kids. We watched two acts and then there was this guy dancing like a crazy man next to us and all the teenagers started egging him on. Hannah had the great insight that Moroccan boys are just like Americans they "crowd around the stupid one and clap". Somehow something happened though and someone threw a punch and there was a huge rush to watch the fight, so we ran like hell out of there. It was still amazing and just a great experience. That is the stuff I really love not the touristy planned crap, which is cool, but this was better. Then we walked out to the Hassan II mosque to see it at night. It was so gorgeous and huge. We headed back to the boat and slept.


Our last day in port a bunch of us got together to head to the Hassan II mosque to get a full tour. It is so big inside & out it fits 125,000 worshippers. It was finished in 1993 and took 15 million continuous hours of labor and over 1/3 of the mosque was built on the water out of a verse from the koran that says god's throne sits on water. It is also really modern with a retractable wooden roof and speakers put into the many of the columns. Then kareem, melissa, Amanda, tommy and I and went to the markets. They were nothing compared to Marrakech, but i got some last minute stuff. We then boarded the boat to get ready for another 6-day trek to Ghana. I did my best barter with my last 40 dirham. I went to buy a bowl and he wanted 120 but I only had 40. So between Kareem’s arabic and my sick bitchyness we kept lowering him. He asked it i had the 40 + an American souvenir and all I had was my travel pack of kleenex, which I offered him. He then dissolved into laughter and let me have it for 40.

Some kids did some stupid stuff even after they scared the shit out of us. There were 3 kids (2 girls 1 guy) that met some local guy on the train to Marrakech and he invited them home with him and they actually went! I guess he was super awk and tried to sell them stuff and sorta take stuff from them. Not good basically. I just don't understand how people can be so dumb. People were also complaining about how dirty it was and how poor. I just kept thinking wait till India. This was like a baby India like maybe 1/3 as bad. It was empty and clean compared to India. I know that is totally gonna change people if they reacted like this to Morocco. They were also so upset because people are so aggressive when shopping and walking and it was nothing. These people just talked from their store in India they come out grab you touch you and talk in your face. In my head I just kept being like wait till India. I tried not to say it because I didn’t want to be a know it all, but it is going be really interesting how people react if they thought Morocco was bad.

All in all I really really enjoyed Morocco. It is definitely a place I am going to want to go back to one day, but I have a feeling I am going to be saying that about everywhere! Hopefully, I will find an internet café in Ghana or South Africa and be able to put up some pictures! I am also super proud of my Phi Mu’s for a fabulous rush! I knew you could do it. And Ellen break a leg with your shows!
xoxo