Post Intensivo Break

I survived a month of Intensivo! And have officially been in Spain for a month! For our long weekend before the semester officially starts, a group of girls from my program and I travelled to Morocco in search of adventure. 

---On a side note, on the bus ride there and back I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values, by Robert M. Pirsig. If you're at all into philosophy or just looking for a thought provoking read, check it out. "The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there".

Our tickets for the boat out of Spain were at 5 and we were 2 hours early, so we stopped at Marbella- a glitzy resort town for an hour of hanging out on the beach. It was like a Hollywood scene. So many yachts, so many ridiculously wealthy people.

"I'm like the rock of Gibraltar, I always seem to falter. . ." I had this song stuck in my head the entire ferry ride over from Tarifa (20 points if you know what it is). We actually did drive past Gibraltar, but we were closer to the Atlantic than the rock when we crossed the strait.

First view of Tangiers at the port.                                

Dinner at our hotel. These ladies are all from University of Portland, and were a great group to travel with:)

Cous-Cous. yummmmm

Salad .. . or about a quarter of the original plate full of rice, corn, beets, carrots, cabbage, tomatoes, onion, and potatoes (all cold). 

I didn't want to know the final purpose of these turtles. I did want to take them all back to Spain and keep them in our bathtub though.

Beautiful lake at a restaurant/convenience store we stopped at. Morocco was so green and mountainous, and it rained the first day.

The guy kept calling this "Moroccan Whiskey" and then giggling to himself ha,  it was actually mint tea with lots of sugar and basil and deliciousness. 

Chefchaouen- the Blue City. Our tour guide told me it was to keep away the mosquitoes (he also told me he didn't know what kind of government Morocco had when I asked him though so. . . . . maybe less "tour guide" and more "student herder"?), Google tells me that it's a tradition inherited from the large population of Jewish refugees that populated the city. In the Bible, Israelites are commanded to dye one of the threads in their tallit (prayer shawl) blue with a dye made from shellfish. In honor of this commandment, the Jews wove blue into their cloth and washed their houses with blue pigment to remind them of the sky and of God above in Heaven.. The tradition lost its religious associations and now is just a touristy tradition. True? Who knows, but I'm a fan.

Surprise, more doors. I may have to rename this blog to "Pictures of Doors and Windows in Europe". There's a really good psychoanalysis just waiting to happen from my fascination with them.

Our group :)

Surrounded by mountains. .. 

A door to nowhere:)

Cemetery on the hill, all facing Mecca. 

I love henna. I bought a good amount, so I will definitely be practicing up my skills. The arabic script says "Chaouen". 

Pigments. So many colors, so bright and vibrant. . .it was so tempting to buy a giant bag and paint our house with it. . .  you wouldn't mind, right mom and dad?

I really just like blue. 

Tapestries and rugs and blankets filled the markets. . . I wanted them all. . . . . bargaining is not my strong suit though, and I somehow don't see one of those fitting in my suitcase easily.

The pottery killed me too. If I didn't know for a fact that I would break it, I would have bought an entire stall's worth. If there's one thing I adore about Spain/Morocco it's their use of colors. 

"Just ignore the local kids. They'll just try to sell you stuff". Well.  .. . yeah, but they'll also take you on a wild tour around the city streets while jabbering away in french/arabic/spanish and a bit of english. They taught me how to count to ten in arabic and showed me all their favorite stores. They were great fun. And yes, I bought their bracelets ha. 

Coziest cat in Morocco.

The second day we went to Asilah, the opposite direction from Tangiers. After our bus got hit by a rickshaw and the Moroccan police held us up for an hour filling out paperwork. . . . they also pulled 9 kids out of the bottom compartment of our bus, they were trying to hitch a ride to Spain. . . . I rode camels and had the time of my life, and these kids just wanted a chance to have a life. . . definitely some food for introspection and reflection.

on a happier note, I RODE A CAMEL :) It was everything I remembered from the circus as a kid and more :D

Baby camel. Awww:) 

We stopped at the Caves of Hercules, where Hercules took a nice little break after completing his 12 labors. 

In Asilah, so much blue!! My favorite shades (obviously)

Art in the market. . .  ahhh that blue. . . .

Last look back at Tangier from the ferry back to Tarifa. I felt incredibly sheltered during this trip as we stayed in very modern hotels and drove around in a massive bus, but Morocco is clearly still a developing country and some of the scenes out the window really made me feel a bit ashamed to be gallavanting around with camera snapping photos and skipping around Morocco while the people were struggling for essentials. If I ever get the privilege to go back, it will NOT be with a tour designed for students like the one I did. Some of things I heard from the kids on the bus, and the entire set up of whizzing into a country like Morocco and dropping a bunch of cash buying kitschy souvenirs and oohing and aahhing at people just going about their daily lives, treating an entire culture like some sort of zoo exhibit to be photographed and looked down on and then left and forgotten about in order to return to our privileged lives in Spain. .  . well. . . it made me a bit queasy and more than a little ashamed to be a part of it. But I would LOVE to return in some other fashion- Morocco is gorgeous and has a fascinating culture that I feel like I barely got a glimpse of. Overall, a great weekend and a huge eye opener.