Day 23: Home

So once we got to the 5 o'clock train, it was time to pass out. We got back to Fes at 12 so we basically had a whole day at home today. I went home and napped, ate lunch, and hung out with my family some. In the afternoon, Elle, Marissa, and I rendezvoused to go shopping for four items I wanted:
1. Pineapple - I was craving it
2. Watermelon - I was craving it too
3. Prune Juice - I was having issues
4. Djellabah - Because one is not enough. Mine is like a business djellaba, so I needed a cocktail chic djellaba to complement it.

Of these items, all I got was a bag of dried apricots. We were too tired to hunt in-depth so we went back to my house and watched the movie Like Crazy, the winner of the Grand Prize for documentaries at Sundance in 2011. It's a sad movie about a college couple who have visa issues once they graduate because the girl is British and overstays her student visa. I had seen it in the winter and liked it, so I enlightened them too.

After the movie, we went to Cafe Clock where we met up with Christie to tell her about our adventures and to hear about the fun weekend they had in Marseille. At 7:30 it was time to head home for dinner. I spent the night starting Anthony Kiedis' autobiography Scar Tissue, which is about the formation of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and his battle with drug addiction that started in his teenage years. Afterwards, it was time for bed.

Day 17: ArtiCHOKED

Let me begin my recap of today with a rant about lunch. I went home for lunch today where we had the usual tagine chicken and carrots. While this standard meal is pretty tasty, dessert was the opposite. The one piece of advice is I can give to any college student is: while abroad, you need to watch out for host families that enjoy artichoke. When I lost my artichoke virginity today, I was given a raw, unwashed artichoke at lunch and told to consume it. When you don't know enough of the language to yell, "Never! Give me some freedom fries," you unhappily begin to eat the artichoke. This entails peeling off the tiny individual leaves and eating the bottom 10 to 20% of each one. When I tried this, I ended up eating the bottom 30 to 40% of each leaf, which made me even crabbier. Once done with that, you will feel like Spike from The Land Before Time, who I always believed never talked because he was too disgruntled with the fact that he was a plant eater, but had the most badass name of all the characters. So after stomaching 20-something leaves that I knew my body did not have the chemicals to digest, I put down the bottom of the artichoke and was happy to be done with the trial. ALAS, I WASN'T DONE. No part of the artichoke is wasted in this country. They cleaned up the stem till it was one huge piece of artichoke and played charades with me until I could no longer pretend to not understand that they desperately wanted me to eat that chunk of chlorophyll-filled plant tissue. I thought, "hey, I'll just eat like a bite of it and just casually run off to class an hour early." When I implemented the aforementioned plan, my brother said "put the whole thing in your mouth!" I didn't even have enough time to think, "that's what she said" before he shoved the rest of it into my mouth. I ate it, don't worry, but a small part of me died today. I have since taken two massive fiber-filled dumps, but, no matter how relieving they were, the ends do not justify the means.

To continue complaining about food, I had my usual breakfast of baguette and nutella before school. Arabic class today was fun and I did the walk to and from school 3 times today. It was real hot so I had some nasty back-sweat showing through my button-down whenever I got to my destination. After Professor Sadiqi's class in the afternoon, we decided to all go to Cafe Clock for milkshakes and then to the riad to finally watch the Hunger Games. My chocolate milkshake wasn't very good, but it was fun to sit in a cafe together like real Moroccans do. Watching the Hunger Games was also a good time. I had to explain a lot of stuff that happened in the books that the movie doesn't do a good job of explaining, but everyone seemed to really like the movie. Afterwards, I got home just in time for dinner at 8:30. After dinner, I just read some Steve Jobs, did some homework, put pictures on Facebook, blogged, and skyped with Maddie. She spent the weekend in Iguazu Falls and is having a fun time in Argentina. I was able to do all of these online activities because Ariel and I traded wi-fi sticks. Her Maroc Telecom one wasn't working well in her house and my meditel one wasn't working that well in my house. However, after switching for the night, our "new" modems are working so well that I think the switch will be a permanent one. 

Day 16: Rabat

Happy Easter, readers!

Our third day trip started at 7:15 this morning. We piled into a bus with Lla MJ, Si Ron, and all of Si Abdellatif's family. There were no more open seats and it was a tight fit. We then had a 3 hour ride from Fez to Rabat, during which most people chose to catch up on sleep, but I opted to stare out the window the whole time. The clouds were incredible and the pictures I took should reflect that. 

We entered Rabat's city limits just before 11 because we took a lengthy bathroom break on the way.

Our day went as follows:

11 - 1: Rabat National Zoo. We walked around the newly opened zoo for two hours. They have the only remaining Atlas lions in the world, and they are a sense of pride for Moroccan people. Much literature says that the last Atlas lion was killed in the early 20th century, so the genetic build of the lions we saw is questionable, however, these belong to the royal family and they are fairly darker than your run of the mill lions. The zoo was not very big and most of the habitats were very scarce. We saw rhinos, ostriches, birds, giraffes, and all of your typical zoo animals. They also had some funny creatures in their zoo like squirrels (which we hadn't realized that they don't have here!), long horn cattle, and a dairy cow.

1 - 2:30: The Chellah. This is an archeological site that features ruins of from the multiple civilizations that have occupied the Rabat area. There are prehistoric ruins, Roman ruins, Phonecian ruins, and early Moroccan ruins, all on top of each other on the same hill! The site was massive, but our guide showed us around. There were two big take-aways from this. Firstly, none of the ruins here have ropes or railings. You can climb on whatever you want, walk wherever you want, and touch whatever you want. It makes the visits a lot more enjoyable and I have fun climbing and jumping on the ruins. Secondly, there was a pool that had fresh water eels in it. Women used to chant and put pieces of egg white in the water. If an eel ate the egg white, it was a good omen for fertility. this was a fun part of the day, but very hot.

2:30 - 4: the coast. We then drove through the city to the coast. Next to the beach, there was a huge cemetery, large enough that I would not have been surprised if it is the only cemetery in Rabat. It looked right over a beach to the ocean, so funerals must not have been the most somber occasion. We walked through ha walled in neighborhood that looked like it had been picked up in Greece and put in Morocco. Every wall was white and the bottom five feet was bright blue. We visited a women's pottery cooperative and walked around the streets. We went to a big patio that overlooked the beach. Lots of surfers were in the water and people were relaxing on the sunny Sunday. The coolest thing was that a group of 15 to 20 boys had a device that looked like half of a fitness ball on a plastic base. They put this down in the sand and would run, jump on it, and then do huge flips. They were so entertaining to watch and some of them would get like 10 feet up in the air. It was the best street acrobatics show I've ever seen. After some pictures and some ice cream, we walked to a gorgeous cafe that looked out over the river that flows through Rabat with the Mediterranean in the distance. We had tea and cookies before moving on to our final destination.

4 - 4:45: the mausoleum. We went to the royal mausoleum which is in Rabat. In it, are the marble coffins of the past two kings and the elder king's other son. It was gorgeous and mobbed by people. Outside, there was a courtyard with a lot of unfinished columns. Like typical tourists, we climbed on top of the 4 foot columns and took pictures together. It was a lot of fun and an easy way to end the day.

We then began the long drive home. Some people slept, but a big group of us talked and sang songs the whole way home. We got home just after 8, and as we walked home, Joe, Meredith, and Tash stopped by to meet my family. Lotfi was at Cafe Clock with friends, so we went there to get some dinner and milkshakes. I had a spicy camel burger and some incredible french fries. That night, I called my family at home to wish them a Happy Easter and did some reading before bed.

Day 15: Cafe Culture

Today I slept in till 10. It was awesome. 

When I woke up, I had my usual breakfast of nutella and day-old baguette with warm milk. However, things were different today because my mom also cooked me two eggs. This was unfortunate because little did she know that eggs are literally the only breakfast food I don't like. 

After breakfast, Lotfi and I went on a Medina adventure. First we went to the hair cutters. I thought about getting what I've been calling the Moroc Hawk, a variant of a mohawk that many Moroccan boys have, but instead just settled on a shortened version of the hair cut I have. The man was a little too scissor-happy, and it ended up a little uneven in the back. After a shower though, it looked good and I'm very happy with it. It only cost 30 dhirams, so like $3.75, which is a great deal when compared to a typical American $20 haircut.

Then we walked to the ATM so I could get some money and then we went jallabah shopping! He took me to a family friend's store and helped me negotiate my way into a 250 dh jallabah, which is a reasonable price for a quality jallabah. Mine is dark brown and looks good with my complexion. It will be useful in a variety of occasions when I am home: star wars parties, harry potter parties, residency in a monastery, as a onesie, as a dress, when I want to secretly be naked, as a bath robe, as a blanket, when I want to look like a creepy man, at the premier of the Hobbit,… the list goes on. We went to a cafe in the Medina afterwards to meet up with Alice, Christie, and Elle. It's called Cafe Clock and it is a really neat space. They have delicious milkshakes, an english menu, and an all-english speaking staff. The owner is clearly an expat and has a great business model cause they make bank. Lotfi invited them all to come over for lunch, so they came and met my family. AFter cows cows, we played cards. Unfortunately, Elle is too good at cards. They left to go to the hamams, the bath houses, so I had some free time to rest in the afternoon. Lotfi was planning on meeting some friends at a cafe at 4 and had invited the girls and I to go with him, so at 4:30, he and I walked over. The cafe was called Cafe Scorpion and it was like a more rugged version of Cafe Clock. We sat in a cushioned tent on a terrace and had a great time talking and being social. I fell on the stairs and hit my head, but otherwise it was a fun afternoon. The three girls joined us after their trip to the hamam and so did Marissa, Ron, and Christie. There was a live band that played Moroccan music that we watched for a bit too. We ended up staying there for almost 4 hours. I left with Elle, Christie, and Marissa cause I wanted to go home for dinner, but Lotfi, some of his friends, and some of my fiends stayed at Cafe Scorpion. 

We had some potato patty things that were stuffed with vegetables and that you covered in tomato sauce. They were good and filling. I hung out with my family and read some Steve Jobs before going to bed.