Maroc, Morocco, Marruecos, Al Maghrib, etc...

So again I blog while waiting for class to start instead of studying like I should be doing. But, I consider this trip to Africa quite blogworthy so that justifies my present nonscholastic attitude, right?

So last Wednesday the 16th of April I departed for Algeciras, the city in which I would catch a ferry over to Tangier and then take my first step on African soil. Algeciras is a pretty town and it has schawarma so theres really nothing I can complain about. Not much noteworthy went on there except stumbling upon a hidden plaza at the top of a hill full of old men shootin' the Spanish breeze. The next morning Ali and I woke up at an ungodly hour (only to be eclipsed by the last morning of our trip) to go meet with the group and catch the ferry. The boat trip over was a bit choppy but no one tossed their cookies and everything was fine. We got to Tangier and went to Darna, which is like a woman's shelter and took a tour. After that, our translators, students at the university of translation in Tangier, had a talk with us about Moroccan culture to them. Very interesting. Then, one of the highlights of this trip happened. We drove a really long time but in the middle of our drive the guide, Lindsey woke up, turned around, and asked "Hey, do you guys want to ride camels?" And of course we did so we pulled over to te side of the road and rode camels on the beach. No, not wild camels unfortunately, they had....handlers. But I prefer to call them camel shepherds. Then we drove to Rabat to meet our homestay families.

Ok, Im realizing if I outline everything we did that would take a really long time and you would all lose interest in reading. So Ill sum it up. We talked to lots of people, stayed with homestay families another night, went to a Hammam (a Turkish bath house where everyone scrubs eachother down, p.s. I have never felt cleaner in my life), visited a family that lives in a village in a really rural area, ate lots of yummy cous cous, adn went to a mountain town that was way pretty. I learned a lot on the trip and definitely recommend this program to anyone. Oh, I havent told you the program... its called Morocco Exchange. Props to it. Heres some funny quotes that I was very amused by...

Jessica: Did you know that there is DNA from every baby that a woman has had still in her uterus?
Ali: Wow, you gotta get that flushed out, man.

Lindsey: It's not called Pepno Bismo? (Pepto Bismol)

Lindsey: I studied primatology so I studied monkeys in Belize and followed them and collected samples and watched where they'd sleep and go back to camp and...
Sara: Samples? What do you mean samples?
Lindsey:..........poop. I'd go back to camp and sift through their poop.