Camels are AWESOME...

Man. I am so sorry it has been a while! I have been crazy busy this week with a Spanish test, two papers due for travel writing, and getting things set up for future trips (booking flights, etc.). Morocco last weekend was fantastic! We started out the day on Friday afternoon by taking a bus to the coast, and then a ferry to Africa, where we landed in the African-Spanish city of Ceuta. From there we took another bus to our first hotel in the Moroccan city of Tetouan. We got dinner at the hotel and just crashed for the night (I was feeling terrible on Friday). On Saturday morning, we walked through Tetouan and went to a rug/carpet market, and an herbal medicine market. That was pretty cool, because in Morocco EVERYTHING is negotiable, price wise. The sellers will start with a price about 800X the product's actual value and then from there if you are a wise bargainer you can get the rug/herb/jewelry box/whatever for what it's actually worth and usually much less. The only thing I bought in Morocco was a sweet soccer jersey, and I got that for less than 10 euro, so I was pretty happy about my bargaining abilities, haha.

After Tetouan, we went on a bus to the city of Tangers, where we went to the beach at the point where the Atlantic and the Mediterranean meet! I have a photo below. Also in Tangers, we got to ride camels!!! It wasn't for too long, but it was still a really cool experience, and was a ton of fun. That night in Tangers some of us went out to a belly dance variety show. It wasn't too expensive at all and it was a blast. There were acrobats, a live band, fire handlers, belly dancers, and lots of crowd participation! Tangers is much more of a European city than the typical Moroccan cities like Tetouan, where the housing, streets, and basically everything are very tiny, a bit dirty and third-world (Morocco is still a third world country, I think).

After we crashed in our hotel in Tangers, we went on Sunday morning to the city of Chechaouen. I bet that city would have been interesting as well, but it rained all day so all we did was go to the market and eat lunch there. Then we took the buses and ferry back to the other side of the strait to Spain. Overall, the weekend was great. The experience of going to a third world country is eye opening, to say the least, and is a wonderful opportunity to discover a completely different culture from that even of Spain. Arabic is the main language, the water is not safe to drink, people sell mostly crafts and home made goods, and women don't eat in the same restaurants as men. Late late Saturday night, my friend Colby and I went out to eat some pizza in Tangers with two of our friends, Marcia and Amanda. As the four of us walked into the pizza parlor, all the men turned and stared at us... like they had never seen women in their parlor before (they probable have never seen women the likes of Marcia and Amanda, two very American looking girls). We just went on with our business and had some pretty decent pizza!

Overall, the trip was an absolutely wonderful experience.

We had our first Spanish test on Wednesday, and I think I rocked it! I am really picking up in the language here, thanks to going out at night, hearing it 24/7, and not being afraid to try and fail to communicate with everyone from my house mom to the old man at the bus stop.

I have started to attend a sweet intercambio (exchange) meeting at a Sevilla pub on Monday nights, where Spaniards studying English partner up with English speakers studying Spanish and we meet eachother, get some food and drinks, and just try to have a good conversation and help eachother out. I am really excited for this, because not only will it help me with my Spanish, but it will provide me with the opportunity to make some cool friends (Spaniards and other Americans in different programs).

This upcoming weekend, we are traveling as a group to Granada! David, some of our friends, and I will be skiing in the Sierra Nevadas on Saturday and Sunday! I bought some ski pants on Wed. and I have some gloves and a good jacket. It is going to be really awesome to ski in a foreign country! I will put pictures up for Granada when I get back, and I promise I won't take so long to update. Next week should be MUCH easier than this one. Photos of Morocco are below.


My camel (on the right) was awesome


Ryan, Colby, David, me, Humberto at the place where the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean


Our hotel name in Tetouan (at least we all understand the 4 stars!)


The Rock of Gibralter


I jammed some with a Moroccan band that was performing during one of our lunches


I made some foreign friends- Merel (from Germany), me, Mia (from Finland), and Manu (from Germany)

Until next time...

Peace, love and God bless,
Noel