i bless the rains down in AFRICA

in my mind toto and shakira were playing 24/7 this past weekend in morocco. though it certainly was not by any stretch of the imagination typical africa, it was just the refreshing break i needed in my abroad experience. i swear if i had to look at another church i was gonna throw up (just kidding god). morocco is a traditionally arabic country and is the most different place i have ever traveled to in my life (or rather my semester abroad lets get real i didn't go anywhere before this). i was obsessed from the get-go. friday was a pretty long day of travel that included a 7:30 am wake up call, 4 hour bus ride, and 40 minute ferry (actually it took 40 minutes by ferry to get from spain to africa....wut?) we got there and the sun was shining and we were a happy crew. we ate lunch at a women's home as a group which consisted of couscous, steamed veggies, and chicken...... as did every single meal we ate this weekend. i would probably be okay with never eating couscous again. we got a little tour of tangiers with our guide who was with us all weekend and was the man, had a really awesome hat. friday is apparently the sunday of islamic culture so he had on a nice little outfit and was just plain killin' it. he explained to us how he is of the sunni  (sp?) branch of islam and how he teaches his children that his religion is about loving his family, pursuing an education, and being happy. i really don't know much about islamic culture, but all stereotypes that i had of it from america were certainly broken this weekend. after our little walking tour we got to ride camels on the beach at sunset. realistically it was like at a town fair where they walk the 3 yr olds around in a circle on ponies but regardless it was beautiful and very fun. kind of sad cause some of the camels were upset but it was still pretty damn cool.

my gf ella and i holding hands and riding camels

after our camel ride we headed to tetouan where we were staying for the weekend in a nice hotel. alcohol is banned in arabic culture so there was nothing to do at night but chill in nice hotel bedrooms and watch homeland, i was not complaining thats for sure. the next day we woke up and got on the bus to head to chefchaoun (i am definitely butchering the names of these cities). this day probably goes down as one of my favorite days abroad. we started with a little walking tour (these walking tours literally just consisted of us walking around it was actually nice to not be bombarded with useless facts). we also met some of the moroccan kids that were going to host us for lunch that day. they were all around 16-18 years old and some of the friendliest, most accomplished, and interesting kids i had ever met. and they really like the blonde americans. basically all of them spoke upwards of 3 languages and one 16 year old girl i met who started learning english 2 years ago and is fluent, also is fluent in arabic and french, proficient in spanish, and is teaching herself japanese and korean. i've been taking spanish for about 7 years now and i'm still not even fluent in that. for lunch we split up into groups to go to these moroccan kids houses and eat lunch with their families (more couscous).

just us and our pals

so kathryn, dash, and i were all in a group with a 17 year old girl named naziha. i apologize for how corny this is going to come off via blog but she really was one of the most inspiring people i have ever met. we walked all the way to her house talking to her and she was just so excited to have us visit with her family. her english was amazing and we kept complimenting her on it and she was like "i LOVE speaking english i speak it every day because i love it so much" and i thought imagine if i loved spanish that much how good i would be at it. we later learned that her dad died last year but when we walked into the house you would think nothing was wrong. the rest of the family (mother, aunt, brother) spoke no english at all so we needed naziha around to break the language barrier cause the only thing we could say was "thank you". naziha kept saying how much she loved her mom and how cute she is and how her and her younger brother are her moms world. it was the most adorable thing ever, they were just so happy. she also had us write a little message, and inspirational quote, and our addresses in a notebook so we could keep in touch. when we went to leave the mom told us we were beautiful and she wants us to come back and marry her 8 year old son. i went to go give the mom and the aunt hugs goodbye and in morocco they do the double kiss a little differently than in spain and i messed up a little bit........ and kissed the mom on the lips............. only me. we all laughed and it was funny but i was like oops thats deff not cool in your culture my bad! we then proceeded to walk back to meet the group in the pouring rain and naziha gave me, who had a rain jacket, her umbrella. because she loves walking in the rain because she thinks its romantic. her attitude did not cease to be positive for even 3 seconds it was unreal. she also then proceeded to serenade us with some adele  "set fire to the rain" and i was like seriously i need to be you you are so happy.

me, kathryn, and our homegurl naziha

afterwards we did a little shopping and then parted ways with our moroccan friends. luckily they friended us all on facebook so no worries. still waiting for some of the selfies i took with some of them to surface. that night we ate in tetouan (more couscous) and the girl that had been helping with the guide and meals etc all weekend duaa, ate at our table with us. she continued to impress us by telling us she got into columbia, bu, and nyu. her dad gave her the choice to either go to study at columbia or buy her a beach house in morocco. she opted for the beach house, what a boss. she's 18 and was telling us how she has known her boyfriend since she was 5 and will probably marry him. pretty crazy. we then proceeded to watch some belly dancers and some guy who i wish i had a picture of but ill do my best to describe him and do him justice.... no teeth, hole in crotch of whatever costume he was wearing, little moroccan man dancing around with a plate of fire on his head. weirdest but funniest thing ever. he could contort his arm in ways i am still not sure are humanly possible. we walked back through the streets of tetouan which reminds me i forgot to mention morocco's stray cat problem. it was basically my only qualm with the country. i thought new orleans was bad but literally whenever you turned a corner there was a dirty flea infested creeping cat and i kept having flashbacks to that recurring nightmare i have about the cat in a hoodie with rabies that follows me to monroe and attacks me. ugh so gross.

we got back to the hotel and had another relaxing night. enjoyed a little bit of moroccan hash, because lets be real when in morocco you have to. and then had a great night sleep. the next day we had a mini walking tour of tetouan and got to go to an apothecary where they basically advertised for moroccan argan oil, rose cream, moroccan tea, etc etc. and then sold it after. it was nice we got to try everything and it only got awkward when kathryn asked for a free massage and then when the man said she didn't have to pay the 3 euros and to follow him in the middle of the presentation things got really awkward and they started talking about her in arabic. i had the misfortune of sitting next to her during this time and the other guy thought it was me who asked and kathryn dragged me into it so she wouldn't feel as awkward. there was some mention of getting naked in the attic upstairs in front of the entire crowd including our program director so you can only imagine how my awkward self handled this one (how many times can i express that this exchange was awkward?) we then spent the rest of the day traveling back to granada which was really really long. and on the ferry i swear to god it almost capsized it was scary but pretty exhilarating. until people started throwing up.

all in all a great trip and now i have a morocco stamp officially proving i've been to africa making that 3 continents i have traveled to. getting there. it was unbelievable weekend that was such a great breath of fresh air i could not have asked for anything better. and this week we have so many visitors!!! sabrina is here from tulane and willa is coming from south africa before she heads home. we're going to see them tonight and i might cry tears of joy. it will be so great to have some pieces of home here for thanksgiving. lots of activities this weeks so i'm sure i'll have something to say about it. وداعا !!!

the mid-semester breakdown

it's that time of year again. the part of the semester where i hit my breaking point with all my classes. i hit the hump this weekend after registering for next semesters classes and i could only ask myself, what the hell am i doing here? i can't say i'm getting much out of any of my classes, my spanish is only semi improving, i have no desire to do any work for any of them, so what's the point? it made the whole weekend very frustrating for me when it literally would take me an hour to write one sentence in spanish. luckily i felt reassured when i talked to others from tulane here on my program, who by some weird coincidence, had these similar feelings this same weekend as well.

this was the first weekend since september i had been in granada. i have been so lucky to see all ends of europe even just in the past month, but this weekend was one to relax and reflect on my time here. i realize that the enchantment of spain has worn off a bit as their "no pasa nada" attitude is starting to effect my work ethic, which is fine here, but will be a huge reality check come next semester. i wouldn't say this weekend i was homesick but rather i finally came to appreciate all the great and convenient things about home that i miss. for example, my own schedule not based around meals being made for me, making my own food, a phone, doing my own laundry, not having everything shut down on a sunday, a library, the english language. the simple things.

luckily on saturday, ella, rachel, and i went for a walk around the city (it was one of the first days in a long time here without rain, of course it has rained more this semester in southern spain than ever before). we walked up to the mirador de san nicolas that has a breathtaking view of the alhambra and sat there until sunset. it reminded me why i really do love spain and reminded me there was much more to my experience than my dumb classes. we really did have a lovely weekend in granada that included visitors, free bottles of champagne, the gym, absynth shots, sleeping in, the albaicin, and even fried rice. i was a happy girl. now that i have overcome the mid-semester breakdown, i have found i need to space out my work in a way that what very little i have doesn't stress me out or frustrate me. like i'll do one assignment and then watch an episode of 30 rock, fair trade right? alas my time abroad will enchant me yet again this weekend, as i travel to a whole different continent: AFRICA! adios europea, off to morocco!

all we did was laugh

another big weekend for a tulane reunion. my favorite. after 18 hours of travel including sleeping in the airport alone with no phone or anything, i was able to embrace jessie, chase, and segolene on the other side at copenhagen central station. you think more would be in english cause who the hell speaks danish but no. alas by jessie's directions i managed to get there in one piece. on friday we saw most touristy sites and met up with other tulane kids. i didn't go home in between any of this so i just carried around my backpack for the whole afternoon like a dweeb. 

okay actually instead of recounting my whole weekend by detail.... to sum it up, we were with tulane kids all weekend enjoying each others company at places like christiana, penthouse, and of course sensation white. all i can say is we did a lot of laughing, not a lot of eating, some snuggling, a mix of sweating too much and freezing our asses off, and way too much dancing. saturday we all managed to find each other at sensation white (yes everyone was actually dressed head to toe in white) and spent the whole night having the time of our lives. we were all so happy to be there and so happy to be with each other. i never considered myself one for a rave, but spent with so many people i love to be with, i had the greatest time ever. to give you an idea of what sensation was like watch this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HbAF7Zry3s&feature=relmfu

and now... a week to rest here in Granada. after 5 straight weekends of traveling this is pretty necessary. reflections to come soon.