This past weekend my program took us to Morocco!!! FOR FREE! (Well, I guess we paid for it indirectly through our program fee, but let's not think about that). Anyways, to get to Morocco from Sevilla, it is a 2 hour bus ride to the port, a 1 hour boat ride, and about an hour to Tetuán- the first city in Africa that we visited. Below is a picture of me and my friends Alyssa and Julia on the ferry. The ride was EXTREMELY rocky. Unfortunately, many people felt seasick from this trip. Luckily, I was not one of them! It was so funny watching people get up from their seats and try to walk to the bathroom. They could not walk in a straight line whatsoever and kept running into things.
After waiting for about an hour to cross the border and get all of our passports stamped, we were taken to la Escuela Taller de Teuán which is a school that teaches different artisan trades such as woodworking, painting, metalworking, and sewing. The students start working there when they are about 12 years old, and many of them become professors later in life. After our tour, we had lunch, which consisted of Kabobs and Couscous. In Morocco, they also drink tea about 109348920 times a day, so we also drank a lot of that!
After lunch we were taken to exchange our euros for dirhams. Normally 1 euro= 11 dirhams, and most people took out 50 euros worth of dirhams. Then we went on a long tour of the markets of Tetuán and saw a lot of things that we Americans were DEFINITELY not used to seeing. For example, see the picture below...
There was a ton of raw meat being sold on the streets of Tetuán and most of it was covered in flies and the market was super dirty. Can't say that many of us enjoying seeing this, but it was definitely an eye-opening experience. Tetuán is not a very well-off city, and many people are work at the markets to make money for their families. Our programs directors told not to drink the tap water during our trip and my Señora told me not to eat any raw vegetables (because they are washed in the tap water). This ended up being pretty difficult because we were served delicious-looking salads as an appetizer to one meal, and fresh fruit for every dessert. I was too scared to eat either of these since my señora told me that some of her previous students had gotten sick from it. And it turns out several people did end up getting sick, but I was perfectly fine. I guess my señora knows best!
The next day we woke up early and took the bus to Tánger. This city was much more commercialized and modern than Tetuán. There we took a tour of a Coca-Cola bottling factory. On the left is a picture of me getting ready to enter the factory! (Note- Please ignore the scary look in my eyes. I tried to delete the red-eye with my iPhoto, but it just made me look more possessed hahahha). This tour was actually one of my absolute favorite parts of the weekend! It was so interesting to see how much goes into a product that people normally would not think twice about when they buy it. I have worked with many areas of the supply chain between working for Target and Kimberly-Clark, but this was one aspect that I had never really seen before. I am also taking an Operations class in Sevilla and it was interesting to see how the different things that we have learned apply to such a major company.
After the tour, we went to las Cuevas de Hércules (the Caves of Hercules), which were located about 14 kilometers outside of Tánger. Apparently, this is the place where Hercules rested after finishing his 12 tasks (I'm not really one for mythology, but I think that's the story!). Also, I now I have "la suerte de Hercules" (the luck of Hercules), because I touched the water inside the cave. Woohoo!
These caves are located right on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. Below is a picture of me outside the cave, really excited to be in Morocco!
After spending some time at the ocean, we were hopped on the bus again and told we were going to go ride camels. This was really fun! The wind was unbelievably strong though, which not only meant major hair issues, but also a fear of being blown of the camel! We got a few good laughs out of this.
After our time with the camels, we went to the Tanger School of Business for an intercambio with Moroccan students. Since Tánger is such an advanced city for Morocco, it didn't look too different from a University in the United States. There weren't as many computers and such, but the students pretty much followed the same schedules as us American students. It was cool to hang out with the Moroccan students for a bit though!
Later we were given some free time to do some shopping. In Morocco, prices in stores are not set in stone. You have to haggle with the store owners until you come to an agreement on a price. This was actually really fun for me! (Is anyone surprised?) I was trying to bargain with one store owner in Spanish and I was trying to push a super low price. He even asked me if I was born in Africa because I wouldn't give into his price! Everything was super cheap though, so in the end I gave into his offer because we had to get going and other customers were waiting. Still fun though!
That day I bought a Betis jersey for about 8 euros- which would cost about 80 euros in Sevilla (Betis is one of the two major soccer teams of Sevilla). Me and Rebekah's Spanish friends support Betis rather than Sevilla, so we decided that Betis was going to be our favorite team too! (Also, they did not sell Sevilla jerseys in Morocco for some reason, so that also played a role in our decision to support Betis). I can't wait to go to a game! I also got 2 pairs of earrings and some sort of "magical" lipstick that changes with your skin tone (that Naomi wanted me to buy for her).
Once we got to Chaouen, we took a long tour of the pueblo. All of the doors are painted blue and it is in the middle of the mountains. It was one of the coolest cities I have ever seen! There is nothing even close to Chaouen in the U.S.
After our tour we were given a couple more hours of free time to shop and I bought a scarf and some Moroccan tea. I only spent a total of about 25 euros the entire weekend, so it was a successful shopping trip!After lunch, we started the long journey back home to Sevilla. Since we kept moving farther South, away from Sevilla, our return trip took a lot longer- about 7 hours! Needless to say we were all exhausted when we got back. It was a great trip, and I'm getting excited to go to the London this Thursday!
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