I met Alladin in Chefchaouen!

Friday - On the bus to school I was reviewing my homework on the bus when I heard a cheerful voice from right behind me say "salam alaykum!" and I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around to see the girl who I had briefly spoken to on the bus the other day, she came and plopped herself down next to me and proceeded to correct little things in my homework. I found out her name is Samia and she lives and works in Rabat; we got off at the same bus stop and walked for a little while together. She's a very nice woman :)

        I was late for class again but it hadn't even started since we were waiting for a room or something. But who needs a room?! It was beautiful and sunny out in the courtyard so we set up class at a big table outside in the garden. It was much warmer than our freezing little basement room! Samia brought a really yummy chocolate cake for everyone to snack on since it was our last class together. I was still full from practically being force-fed too much breakfast that morning but I HAD to try a little :) Sarah passed out our tests and to my delight (and slight surprise) I had received a 96 on it! Yayy! Hahah then she gave us our oral exams which went pretty well, I'm still a little slow to speak but hopefully with practice I'll get faster and more normal sounding hahah... We learned a little more vocab until class time was up (Sarah NEVER wastes a minute of our class time) Then we took lots of pictures of the class together and said goodbye to Samia and Stephanie. Wouter, Tiberiu and I will be in class together still, but Stephanie is going back to Switzerland and Samia is going to travel for a few weeks :(

        When I left school I was totally brain-dead and extremely hungry so therefore I was in NO mood to wait for a million years at the bus stop. So, of course, the bus pulled away before I could cross the street and the next one took it's sweet time coming. It probably seemed longer than it really was because of the strange thing that happened to me while I was waiting. As I was standing there, a boy (about 13 or 14 years old) walked by me and said something I didn’t understand but I thought nothing of it since he kept on walking. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him turn stand for a while by the side of the street then slowly turn around and walk back in my direction. I willed the bus to come faster but it didn’t and the boy appeared in front of me speaking words that I couldn’t even guess at. He kept trying over and over to tell me or ask me something, the whole time he kept a blank face so I couldn’t even tell if he was scared, angry, sad or whatever… It was so weird. I tried my best to look apologetic and say in every way possible that I didn’t understand. He eventually just sat down on the bench near where I stood and every 30 seconds or so, he would tap me shoulder and try again to say something and I would shrug and shake my head. I didn’t know what he expected of me. The bus was taking FOREVER! Why did it pick today to be so slow… this was so awkward. All of a sudden I felt something move in my backpack so I quickly turned around ready to grab whatever he took back but he leaned away opened my water bottle and took a sip out of it! I looked at his blank face in disbelief and slight anger that he had the nerve to just take it out of my bag and sit there looking at me with that ever present blank expression! He took another drink, put the cap back on and reached over to put it back in my back pack! I moved away from him and almost laughed while shaking my head… I didn’t want it back now that he had drank out of it. He finally showed a glimmer of emotion in his face which seemed to be slight CONFUSION! Hahah… I knew he didn’t speak English but I told him “You think YOU are confused?” He tried a few more times to put it back but I wanted him nowhere near my bag and if he wanted water that bad he should just keep it since I wouldn’t drink out of it anyway.

        The bus finally came and I made it home without anymore strange occurrences or people trying to take my other water bottle (I always have a spare!). At home, I watched cheesy Moroccan soap operas with Ali & Katoum. Mama Katoum showed me a new magazine that had her son Mohammad’s wife on the front cover. Inside there was a beautiful 10 page spread her and two other Moroccan celebs dressed in all kinds of elaborate Kaftans… I think they were wedding ones. In the pics she had henna all over her hands and feet from her recent marriage to Mohammad in Essouira (Brides get covered in henna designs as a wedding tradition). I want to see a Moroccan wedding soooo bad! I heard they are a party that nobody would want to miss. For dinner, Mama Katoum made me some chicken and green beans that had this amazing flavor. I keep asking her what the seasonings are but she is very secretive. She said she will take me spice shopping but I still have to work on her more to get the recipes… it’s only a matter of hugs ;D

Saturday I woke up wayyyy too early and mama Katoum was up making breakfast for me! I am so spoiled here. I left the house around 6:30 and met everyone at the school for tea and another breakfast spread before we left on our trip. I felt bad for not eating since they had a huge amount of food laid out for us, but I was stuffed from breakfast at the house. We all sat in the van waiting for a while wondering what was taking so long and getting antsy to leave when the cook came out with baskets of homemade chips that he had gotten to school early to make for us as a snack on our trip. We were so full so we put them in big baskets and saved them for later in the trip. We waited longer and wondered what it was this time when Yocine (our guide who is one of the professors at the school) emerged from the school carrying MORE baskets of chips! Hahah… we were WELL supplied for this trip!

        I sat behind Donna and Ciara and they informed me that I would LOVE Mohammad’s (the driver) music mix. He played a little dance music, some Celine Dion (of course), Michael Jackson, Backstreet Boys, Bryan Adams, and a few cultural songs here and there as well. It was great lol… Conversation was lively in the car and kept me distracted from my vocab flash cards that I had brought to study in the car. Simon (a guy from England), Tiberiu, and Will (a guy from the US) talked about a range of political and economic issues in a wide range of countries. They are all very smart and know a lot about politics so it was cool listening to them. I joined the conversation a few times, mainly when they were talking about Detroit and Kwame got brought up hahah… So sad that a Romanian and a Brit know about Kwame. God save Detroit lol… I also talked a little bit with Tania (a girl from Germany) and Barbara who is from Toronto and has traveled to some pretty crazy places to teach and learn.

        Tangier was an impressive and beautiful city (from what I saw of it). Our tour guide didn’t show up, so Yocine showed us around his “second favorite city.” I can’t remember what his first favorite is. Tangier is undergoing a lot of growth and some people think that it will become as commercial and modern as Casablanca in the next decade or so. We walked down on the beach after lunch and even though it was kind of hazy outside, I could see the coastline of Spain across the ocean. They took us in the van to another part of Tangier where there was a café on the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean. It was really cool because it was terraced down the cliff with about 3 or 4 different levels of places for people to eat so wherever they sit, they will have the best view. We just stood there for a while talking and taking pictures until it got too cold to bear because despite the sun being warm, the wind was brutal and I had left my coat in the van :( We also walked through the souk for a little bit but didn’t have much time because we left around 4 or 5 to get to Chefchaouen in time for dinner.

        The drive to Chaouen was kind of crazy because it was through the mountains, it was dark and Mohammad drives FAST! People pass a lot on the mountain roads so it was very exciting to say the least. We got there around 8 or 9 I think but we were all exhausted and thought it felt much later than it really was. We had 30 minutes to settle into our rooms and explore the terrace on top of the hotel before we had to meet for dinner. They almost made one of the girls sleep by themselves because there were 5 of us and only 2 beds per room, but luckily one room had a queen and a twin so three people shared that one and Me and Tania took the other room. They were small rooms and the whole bathroom (like most Moroccan bathrooms) WAS the shower. You could sit on the toilet and get a shower at the same time hahah… I wonder if anyone does that? We had a little sitting area, for what? I have no idea… And a teeny room that barely fit our two twin beds in it. I took the bed with the asian themed comforter and let Tania have the one with the cool skate-boarding themed comforter, aren’t I nice?! The view from the top of the hotel was gorgeous, the whole city almost glowed even though there were no big street lights, all the buildings are white and blue so it was picturesque even at night.

        We walked down into the souk and more touristy area of Chaouen and found it to be still bustling and lit up. Our restaurant was called Aladdin’s Palace and was painted completely blue and themed to look just like Aladdin’s Palace would look hahah… I was hoping to see the Genie somewhere but he didn’t make an appearance. It was beautifully decorated with dark red curtains and colorful pillows and candles everywhere. Our waiter was dressed in poofy silky pants and shirt and we decided that he himself was Aladdin. Us girls sat at one table and the guys sat at the other, we talked about everything from Kosher rules and prohibited foods to midgets coming out of the fireplace and grabbing Ciara and thinking up all the cheesy pick-up lines we could use on Aladdin… I think we covered all the bases. We didn't actually try our lines on Aladdin though, maybe I'll get up the courage next time ;-)

Gotta go study now :) Later dudes!