This morning I rolled out of bed 10 minutes later than I should have, as usual. At around 9:35AM I booked it to the main gate to meet up with the exchanges for our 9:30AM meeting. Fortunately, everyone was there waiting, anyway. Like, 20 of us. Was crazy. We walked for 20 minutes, first to get to town, then to the Grand Taxis. We would take one of these from Ifrane to Fes, for about an hour or so ride. Trick was, we had to fit seven people into a car that was made for five. Grand Taxis are just regular old Mercedez Benz from, oh, 1960 something? You pay 21 dirham (Less than 4 dollars) for a "seat" in the Taxi - if you DON'T want to squish, you need to pay for the other seats. We were thinking economy and group dynamics, so, 6 exchange students to a car it was. Ben and I squashed into the front.
The drive there was beautiful, though. Morocco is truly such a beautiful country. It reminds me so much of Guatemala; driving through the mountains, I felt homesick for it. How funny is that, huh Mama? And I love navigating around Morocco, feeling the frustration and confusion trying to communicate in a mostly foreign language, then having that AHA! moment, where you bridge the gap! These moments, for me, come mostly with taxi drivers. Today, I had a conversation with one about the sights of Morocco, about where I'm from, about his kids.
When we got to Fes we decided to see the Old Medina (City). It's basically a maze of shops selling everything from burned DvDs to purses to postcards to slippers to amazing Moroccan tea pots and lamps.
We (Ben, Hannah, and I) lost Lindsay and Britney while we were navigating the crowded paths. Apparently, they had gone to their hotel. We backtracked, found the hotel, figured we'd try to find a room for ourselves. At first, we tried to find a room for all three of us. However, after seeing the single room that the woman had to offer, Ben beelined out of there. The woman lead us to a different hotel, Pension Kawtar, that seemed really nice (in comparison.) The view from the veranda was wonderful.
Ben, Hannah and I goofed around up there for a bit. Taking pictures, looking around us. It was around the time that Ben was warning Hannah to please not fall off the chair and die, that the oddest noise trumpeted through the air. "What's that?" Ben asked, as the sound began to squeak and quaver. "It's the call to prayer," I responded, after a moment, as all around me the adhan erupted from the masjids of Fes. I only wore a small smile on my face, but every word moved through me. Ah, I thought, this is what it was like in the ancient world. This is what it's like to live amongst the Muslims. This is what their lives sounded like.
After leaving our bags at the hotel, we wandered around again, trying to locate Lindsay and Britney. They kept telling us where they were, but didn't stay put, so we played an odd game of cat and mouse. Along the way, a man offered Ben "moroccan whiskey" which we politely refused, and we also picked up a companion of sorts. A waist high boy, about 8 years old, who asked me if I was "maricahn" and whether or not I wanted the "channery." In Arabic, I asked him his name, which was Muhammad. He looked very pleased and asked me what my name was, and I told him, and then I told him that I had a brother named Muhammad. Then he kept on about the Channery. Eventually, some man told us that he meant the Moroccan lamps, "chandeliers." This man also helped us find a restaurant that Lindsay and Britney eventually joined us at. It was really pretty! And the food was excellent. Ben also ended up getting us a discount by telling the man in french that we were students and didn't have a lot of money.
I took some pictures of myself as per your request. HOWEVER I WOULD LIKE TO NOTE THAT I LOOK LIKE A WEIRDO. PLEASE FORGIVE MY AWKWARD EXPRESSION. I THINK IT WAS THE FACT THAT THE FLASH BLINDED ME. THANKS YOU.
Anyway. The meal was DELICIOUS. However, Ben started feeling sick. We ended up going back to the hotel, because we wanted to let him rest and also because it was starting to rain. When we got to the hotel, not only did we discover that the sheets of our beds were dirty (GROSS) but Ben vomitted twice. :( He was really sick. So, we decided to head back to Ifrane, and gave our room to some friends. Until then, we killed time with shenanigans.
We eventually ended up taking some taxis back to Ifrane, and man, was I EVER glad to see our cold but CLEAN campus. Ben, I hope you're feeling better :(
You don't look like a weirdo. :)
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