Morocco

August 14, 2009
Day 1
My Moroccan experience was truly memorable. I am mesmerized by this country. I felt so relaxed and so at ease while I was in Morocco. I can’t really explain it. The first day we arrived in Casablanca we docked in this highly industrialized port with a bunch of storage bins and cranes and a whole bunch of other random masses of metal. So the scenery wasn’t very inviting at the beginning. But we went into town it was a completely different environment. The city is so peaceful. Maybe it was because I had just been in the chaos that is Cairo, I felt that Casablanca was so serene, but I really just felt so comfortable. We got in a cab with a driver named Eunice. Now, I haven’t really talked much about my foreign cab driver experience but BELIEVE ME I COULD GO ON FOR DAYS ABOUT SOME OF THE CAB DRIVERS I HAVE MET! So Eunice was this chubby man with a wife and two kids yet he offered Grace and my other friend Eliza 3000 camels for me to stay in Morocco with him and be his second wife. I really had to talk them out of accepting the offer. It was hard but luckily they told him no thanks. So we tell Eunice that we want to go around and see all the sites in Casablanca for the day. He tells us 30 dollars per person, we say no way and walk away. He pulls back up next to us and says “$20” I say no thanks and continue to walk. He pulls up again and says “15” I say 10 or no thanks. He thinks for a second then says….ok ok no problem get in. so we begin our adventure with Eunice for the day. He takes us to the Mosque for our first stop. It was the Mosque of Hasaan the Second and of all the 48792634827634872634 mosques I have seen on this trip, it was really, seriously, not even joking, the most beautiful mosque I have ever seen. The architect of this building was so amazing and the entire area surrounding the mosque was so peaceful and beautiful and inviting. We walked around the mosque for a while because we couldn’t go inside because it was during the call to prayer so we just sat and people watched for a while. After the mosque, we walked back over to Eunice and his little red cab. Oh did I mention that in Morocco they speak Arabic and French and a language that is basically Arabic and French mixed together? Well they do and did I mention that I speak neither French nor Arabic nor any other variation of the two? Well…moving right along, we tell Eunice that we want to go see these gardens we heard about that were supposedly very beautiful and he says “no problem, Ill take you after I go see my friend. He has carpets”. Now Im sure every one is wondering why he thought it was acceptable to go where he wanted to go while he was being paid by us to take us where we wanted to go, but I have learned that people across the Atlantic do what they want to do when they want to do it and you can either go along with it and be happy or go along with it and be upset. So being the people we are Grace and I and our new friend that we drug along with us on another random adventure of ours, went off with Eunice to go see his friend and his carpets. The carpet people ended of being the nicest people on the entire planet and we ended staying in this carpet place for an hour and half, talking, drinking tea and negotiating prices on silk carpets. so after we bought carpets…why I bought a carpet…I don’t know….we ask Eunice to take us to the gardens. He says ok, but do you want spices? I never really thought about if I needed spices or not…I guess I wouldn’t mind having some spices, I do like to cook….sooo…ok lets go look at some spices. So Eunice takes us to his other friend who has a spice store. We end up staying in the spice store for about an hour, talking, drinking tea and negotiating prices of spices. I got henna for the first time in a spice store. Im not exactly sure why but it looks really pretty. Im not exactly sure why there was someone in the spice store doing henna in the first place but I guess that’s cool and im not exactly sure why Eunice kept taking us every where but where we wanted to go. So after we leave the spice store, Eunice starts complaining about the time. “Eunice, you were the one who offered to take us to all your friends in the world” I said to him. “Well, ok, ok, no problem, just pay me 20 more dollars and we’ll go to the gardens” he says. “Eunice” I say, “You must be out your Moroccan mind”. I don’t think Eunice understood what type of Americans we are, I think he was used to the timid, scared tourist who would fall for anything and pay a bunch of money for nothing. We were not going for it. “Eunice, we will pay you your ten dollars now and you can go on your merry way” we said. “Ok Ok no problem, 10 dollars that’s it. Come on.” So then we got back in his little red cab. So as were driving he asks if we wanted some leather. Now, by now you would think that we would just say no to his offers, but the situation was just too too too too too funny to pass up on going to another friend of Eunice. So we went to a store that sold leather and a bunch of other souvenirs. We stayed in there for about 40 minutes talking about politics and the history of the Moroccan people, there was no tea but we got a free bracelet. This one guy asked me what part of Morocco I was from and when I told him I was American he yelled at me to stop lying. That was a little weird. After we left the leather place, we tell Eunice to just take us back to the ship because by that time , dinner was being served on the ship and we were starving to death. When we get to the port Eunice says “ok 20 dollars each”. “EUNICE WE ARE NOT PAYING YOU ANYTHING MORE THAN 10 DOLLARS SO STOP TRYING TO RIP US OFF!” This made him angry and he kicked us out the cab.
Day 2: We get up to go to the amazing city of Marrakech. We missed the shuttle to the train station so we had to wait outside the port to get a cab. We asked one of the security guards to call a cab for us and he sends out a general request over this little phone thingy he had and told us that a cab was on its way. So after about a 10 minute wait, we see a little red taxi swirving and swaying down the road and pulling up to where we were. Guess who it was…EUNICE. I could have died from shock/disbelief/laughter. Of all of the thousand and thousand and thousands of cab drivers in Morocco that could have picked us up to take us to the train station, we got Eunice…again. He gets out the car and says “are you not happy to see me ladies?!” He then goes back to Grace and asks her if he can give her some camels and chickens to make me stay with him…she thought about the offer again, but she said no…what a friend. So after he charges us way to much to get to the train station, we hopped on the 4 hour train ride to be remembered for all of my existence.
I have never been on any moving vehicle filled with so many people in my life. There were literally people sitting on top of each other, hanging out of the train, and sitting on the floor. The trains in Casablanca are the traditional European style trains with a hallway and booths with doors that seat about 8 people, like the train in the first Harry Potter movie…ok if you haven’t seen that, there like the trains in the Disney movie Anastasia…um….if you haven’t seen that their like the trains in the movie Casablanca J Anyway, I was sitting/standing on some old woman for about an hour. I held someone’s child for 15 minutes as the mother passed her luggage over our heads down the 2 foot wide hallway to her husband who was aaaaaaaall the way on the other side of the hallway. I finally got a seat after about an hour and half in a the cramped little booth with this family of four, an old sleeping woman and a 21 year old Moroccan girl named Iman who became my best friend. The big, burping grandmother across from me stared at me the entire train ride. Her two daughters stared at me too. Finally one of them started talking to me…in Arabic…that’s how I got my best friend Iman. She spoke English and started teaching me different phrases in Arabic and French that helped me a lot while I was in Morocco. I know how to say about six things in Arabic and I can say thanks and five in French. I don’t know why, but Arabic is much easier for me to grasped than French. Anyway, Iman told me the lady was asking me if I was Moroccan. I told her I wasn’t and she, like the man in the leather store, told me to stop lying. Iman told me that she said that its ok that I cant speak the language but to deny who I am is wrong. I didn’t know if I was suppose to laugh or have a serious moment so I just stared back at the lady for a while. After Iman told her that I was from America she just shook her head at me. It was an awkward train ride. Then the lady told Iman to tell me that if I wanted to eat at a good restaurant that she would take me and my friends where ever they wanted to go. During this time grace and eliza were in a booth a few feet up from me laughing and talking and having a grand old time, meanwhile, I am stuck in a hot, crowded mini room with a snoring old women in front of me, a huge, nose picking grandmother next to her, a woman who thinks I am denying my Moroccan identity, her sister who has been staring at me for 3 hours and her husband who from some unknown reason, had no fingers, only thumbs. Thank God for Iman. But regardless of all that, the train ride was one of the best times I had in Morocco. This blog is really really long. Im laying in my bed right now watching The Incredible so im just going to keep writing for a while. You can continue reading if you want, but if you want to take a break, ill understand. Actually, I think im gonna wrap this up. We got to Marrakech and I had such a great time. We went on a bus tour of the entire city, we ate buffet style outside next to the most random people ever. MOROCCO HAD THE BEST FOOD I HAVE EATEN THIS ENTIRE SUMMER HANDS DOWN. I AM IN LOVE WITH COUSCOUS AND TANGINE. PLEASE GOOGLE A MOROCCAN RESTAURANT IN YOUR AREA AND GO EAT THERE IMMEDIATELY. We saw snake charmers and monkeys and all this crazy, crazy, crazy stuff in this place called the Medina. There were 1897329874892374b stores selling stuff and people walking around trying to do henna on your hand and men throwing monkeys on peoples heads, not my head because I would be in jail right now for assault…there were drummers everywhere and great food and nice people and it was really wonderful. I really really really really loved Morocco. I had so many great conversations with local people and learned so much in four days. I feel like Morocco was the most relaxed country and the country that I got the best cultural experience out of. I’m glad it was the last country, I think it was a great way to end an amazing journey I had this summer. The best summer of my life. Im now back in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, with two tests and two papers ahead of me. Ill be back in America in 7 days. I have no idea how I’m going to assimilate back into American culture. I feel like I am going to have major culture shock. I’m not going to want to pay full price for anything ever again and I might to bargain at the mall or at the movies or some other inappropriate place and get escorted out by the cops. I don’t remember what it feels like to sleep in a bed bigger than a twin and I think I have forgotten how to speak English properly because for the past three months I have been speaking a mixture of English, sign language and whatever other language that was appropriate at the time. I am so excited to get home, but its bitter sweet. I cant wait to share all my pictures and stories that are too complicated to write. See everyone soon! I hope you missed me as much as I have missed you!