Au Revoir Morocco- Final Days

I think it has been almost…3 or 4 weeks since my last blog post, and as you can imagine, I have a lot to cover. For everyone’s sake, I guess I’ll divide the posts into sections-Morocco (Assilah, travels, and end), Spain, and my arrival to Jordan (yes, I am finally in Jordan!).

Our last ISA excursion was to the beautiful beach town of Assilah, followed by a short day trip to Tangier. Assilah was breathtakingly beautiful—our hotel was really nice, and a 15 minute walk led us straight to the old center of Assilah where most of the restaurants and the Medina were. Assilah was quite a nice break from the stress of life, except for one tiny little problem we had with one of our fellow students…I won’t get into that but let’s just say that it wasn’t very pleasant on my end.  On our free day, I decided to stay with 3 other friends on the beaches near our hotel (the rest of the group went to Paradise Beach, which is highly recommended but I’m saving for a future trip to Morocco!). I had the longest and most amazing run on the beach that day; I ran so far that I ended up on my own little “deserted paradise.” To my right the ocean roared freely, and to my left was almost a desert-like scene. There was not a soul around except for me, so I was about to splash around in the waves, sing, dance, and be silly without having to worry about anything or anyone. When I realized I had made it to another little town, I turned back and ran back to my friends. That evening also provided me with a really unique experience—the previous day I had met a musician, and we had agreed to meet up to share our musical talents and just hang out. I invited several of my ISA friends to come with me, and he invited one of his friends who was a professionally trained Sufi musician. Between the three of us, they played their guitars and sang, and I occasionally joined in adding harmonies and a solo every once in a while. Words cannot express how awesome that experience was for me—music has always been my way of connecting with people, and I was able to share a really awesome moment with two strangers from a different country while playing music. That night ended with a visit to an artist’s shop whom I had met the previous day. After an hour of conversing (I promised him I would come back and sit down to tea with him and look at his art), he basically gave me two of his original works for the price of ½ of one in return for a nice conversation and a few songs on my part. Assilah as definitely one of my favorite experiences in Morocco, and while I was sad that it ended, I was even happier to know that I had gotten to have those precious memories.

The last week on Morocco flew by-finals, presentations, classes, packing, final closing ceremonies, and goodbyes. As far as academics go, my classes were absolutely wonderful and I learned so much about both the subjects covered (Islamic Society and Politics and Peace and Conflict Resolution). I was also really challenged to see things from a different perspective, so I have no regrets in terms of classes. I also made a lasting friendship with one of my professors, from which an invitation arose to go home with him and meet his family. His daughter and I clicked from the moment we saw one another, and the rest of his family was also really sweet and welcoming, as are most Moroccan families.

Saying goodbye to my newly found friends was really difficult for me. I remember making “the walk” to and from their apartments across the street from my house to say goodbye before they left. In just 5 weeks, I grew really close to these really diverse and amazing people, and it was really sad to know our time and adventures together in Morocco had come to an end so quickly. Nonetheless, I have so many great stories from our time together that I will never forget, so even if we our paths don’t cross again, they will remain intact in memory for a very long time. I’ll spare you these stories for the sake of time and space, and also because if I think about them too much I’ll end of laughing and crying! But to my ISA family and friends- I LOVE YOU AND I WILL NEVER FORGET YOU! Thank you for all the memories!!

Marrakech Center (Jamaal Al-Fna)

Soon afterwards, I left for my one week trip around Morocco with Andrew. We visited Marrakech, Chefchouen, Tetuan and the beach town of Martil in the north, making a few pit stops in Meknes in between our travels. Unfortunately, I have no pictures from this trip because my pictures were deleted (story to follow in the Spain segment), but I’ll try to quickly describe my experience.

My initial train ride to Marrakech was (excuse my language) hell. Six and half hours sitting in a none air conditioned train car was awful…at least I had the pleasure of meeting a few really nice and friendly Moroccans who helped pass the time. I picked Andrew up from the airport and then we made our way to Jamaal Al-Fna, the historic Marrakech center that is always bubbling with activity and people. Of course, finding our little hostel was an adventure in itself because we got really lost and the towns people tried to take advantage of this situation by saying that they would “show us” where our hostel was…for a nice convenient price of x amount of money charged upon arrival. Nonetheless, the hostel was cool and right smack in the middle of the square. It was so unbearably hot in Marrakech though. We reached 50 or 51 degrees Celsius (which is anywhere between 110-120 Fahrenheit), and I swear I have never sweated (or “perspired” if I put it more delicately) so much before in my LIFE!  The square was pretty neat at night. We saw snake charmers, monkeys, had the yummiest and coldest fresh squeezed orange juice for 4 D’s (less than 25 cents per glass!), saw live dancers and street performers, and so much more. The historic sight-seeing in Marrakech was also really cool. I’ll try and see if I can borrow pics from my travel-mates to give you an idea of what we saw, but it was cool. Marrakech was crazy though! We got hassled and harassed more often than usual, and since the streets and little alleyways were also so jam-packed, it was easy to get tired of Marrakech quickly. (PS...the pictures from Marrakech and Chef are not mine, I borrowed them from Andrew because they are the only pictures that survived.)

Chefchouen was the total opposite of Marrakech and I can honestly say that it ranks up there with Assilah in terms of favorite places in Morocco. Chefchouen is known as the “Blue City” because all of the walls and everything are BLUE! It is a small little city in the mountain area of the north, and it has amazing hiking trips and so much to see around it. They only  hiking we did was up to the Spanish Mosque not far from the city, but the view of the mountains, Chechouen, and Morocco from that stand-point was breathtaking.  We also took a day trip to Tetuan and then to Martil to the beach. The ride there was really neat. We shared a “grande taxi” with 4 other people, and for one hour, we went through winding roads in the mountains and saw some of the prettiest hidden sights of Morocco. Martil’ls beach was really windy, but it was a fantastic way to end my stay in Morocco.

This trip was also somewhat difficult on me. It was really stressful and really confusing, and by the end of the trip I had lost myself and felt really down-trodden. Despite some of these negative things, I am really glad I took this trip. I saw some great places and it gave me the chance to put certain things into perspective and realize that the decisions I had made leading up this trip in terms of my personal relationship and life had been the right ones. I am now a free and single lady (WOOOHOO!) with a whole new beginning and a second chance to start over. For those things, I am thankful, and I’m glad that I finally got the clarity and peace of mind that I needed to move on and continue my life the way I wanted to live it.

 

Well, I think I’ll end this post here and start a new one for Spain and my final days in Morocco!