Asilah!

Time to explore the Atlantic coast of Morocco! This weekend we went to Asilah, a small beach town south of Tangier. It is known for art, and beautiful beaches. Every year this is a mural competition, where artists from around the world come to paint beautiful murals on the white washed walls of the old Medina. We were a little early for the competition, but there were still murals up on the walls from the previous years, and we ran into some artists who were preparing their mural for the coming competition. 

But first, we made our way to Paradise beach on the back of a mule cart. It took about 30 minutes on the back of the cart where the seven of us girls held onto each other for dear life trying not to fall off as the mule roughly pulled us over rocks and gravel. As we got closer to the beach, the rocky ground turned to sand, and we began to enjoy the cool salty air brush softly against our faces. 

 When we arrived, we were struck by the empty beach. It was so large, and only began filling up towards the afternoon when Moroccans from Tangier came down on the train to enjoy the beach for a half day and then made their way back in the evening.

Us girls before we jumped into the water...
living young, and wild, and free!

Emma and her nutella... the perfect beach snack.
(We easily finished that entire baguette,
can never get enough "hubs", bread,  here!)

The really cute beach shack where we hid from the intense sun.

Got to have the camels on the beach!

We went for a walk to explore the stone caverns on the far edge of the beach and ran into greenish/bluish Moroccans. At first I thought it was a form of natural sunscreen, but as the number of blue people increased we realized the greenish mud was coming from the rock crevasses. When we went to investigate, some of the Moroccans eagerly summoned us to the top and began covering us with the mud. I started with a face mask, and then proceeded to prove my Michigan pride... Moroccan style.

My face felt so good after I washed the dry mud off my face!
Very refreshing!

GO BLUE!

I wasn't quite as hard core as some of the Moroccans...

Addie, Emma and I stopped for some tea that evening...
quite sun kissed!

Out to dinner! Trying the read the Arabic menus!

Party in the hostel on the roof top terrace! 

 The Second day, Sunday, before we got on the train back to Fez, we went and explored the murals, and I bartered for hours for a piece of art that I hope to decorate my dorm room wall with in the fall.

Addie, posing with one of the murals.

Another mural... loving the blue theme!

Old, Portuguese ramparts, protecting the city from invaders.

One of the artists being interviewed.

At an art gallery...

Posing with the Danish curator and artist who has made
Asilah her home. 

Posing with Muhammad (the shop keeper) who I shared a cup of tea with,
while trying to negotiate a good price for the painting I eventually bought. 

It was a wonderful weekend, and it was difficult to leave such a calm and peaceful place. However, things quickly became hectic on our way back to Fez... but that should be expected, traveling anywhere in Morocco is always an adventure. 

We had a large group of friends from our school who went on this trip with us to Asilah, and it was sometimes hard to coordinate things. To get back we pretty much all decided to meet at the train station and hope we all make it on time. I was busy bargaining for my painting and left it up to the last minute to ask for my final price. So my friends went ahead and brought my stuff with them to the train station so I could meet them directly there. When Muhammad finally secured my painting with a last piece of tape, I thanked my new friend, and ran to find a taxi. I made it in time and went to the counter to buy my train ticket only to find that the computer had broken, and they were hand writing all the tickets. I got my ticket and ran to the other side of track just as we heard the toot from the incoming train. We prepared to face the crazy crowd as we all rushed the doors of the train to try and find a place to sit. We were not well equipped to face the natives, and misjudged which direction to turn once on the train. We got stuck in the narrow passage way where we had to wait until the next stop when people would get off. It was very hot, and after about two stops (about an hour and half of standing) we had to change to another even hotter train where at least we were able to find some seats.  This is us waiting in the narrow passage way of the first train... deceivingly happy. 

Fez Festival of World Sacred Music!

About two weeks ago the Sacred Music Festival of Fez took place from June 8th through 16th right outside my window. I mean literally, right over the high Medina wall. Every night for a week, Sufi musicians would play until 2 or 3 in the morning. Everyone seems to stay up late, then get up late, work for a few hours, then take a long break in the middle of the day for a long lunch and siesta, work for a few more hours and then just walk around with family and friends at night. The streets are filled at night, and with the music festival, tourists were swarming. 

This is a picture of the Sufi artists singing and playing their instruments in the small inclosed garden on the other side of the wall from my house in the old Medina. Many of the Moroccans knew some of the words, and the crowd was very interactive. This was only one venue of many. There were at least four different performances every night... two were free and two were more formal that you would have to buy tickets for in advance. This was one of the free venues, and one of the other ones was only a short walk from my house in a big square at Bab Bojloud. Both were a lot of fun, but housed very different performances. This one that you see here in the picture, usually always had Sufi musicians playing, while Bab Bojloud was usually more international Islamic music, meant for a younger crowd. 

A little gathering with other students from my Arabic school at the top of a friend's riad (or Moroccan apartment) before heading out to some of the free performances. 

I decided I would splurge for one night (about $20), and buy tickets for one of the more formal performances that the sacred music festival offered. My roommate and I bought a ticket for our host sister to come with us, and we all got dressed up for the event. My host sister did my hair and make-up, and we all headed out to Bab Makina to listen to the famous Lebanese singer, Wadih el Safi. 

All ready for the concert!

Bab Makina all lit up for the performance!

My host sister and I at the concert!

My host mom and family friend, after we got home!

Sahara!

I am probably the most exfoliated that I will ever be in my life... the Sahara leaves no edges unsanded!

This past weekend I went on the ALIF program trip to the Sahara where they put us up in beautiful hotels with gorgeous pools. It was a much more luxurious trip than my friends and I would have planned on our own, but the desert it much harder to just wonder around until you find a hostel... and we were glad we did not have to do the nine hour drive on our own. 

As we drove south from Fez, the landscape gradually became more mountainous, and homogenous in color. As the green faded, dull colored shrubs and rocks covered the hill sides. The narrow road we were driving on was well kept, but very windy, as it snaked its way through the sandy colored mountains. Every once and awhile you would look down at a green valley with walls of the sandy colored earth rising on either side. We made a quick stop at one of these valleys...

When we made it to our first hotel, berbers welcomed us with musical instruments, and quickly dragged us into dance...

The first hotel was beautiful, complete with a large outdoor pool, and a smaller indoor pool with a hot tub. A buffet dinner was waiting for us, and we alternated swimming with eating, and later in the evening, swimming and drinking. It was a lot of fun, and we had pretty much complete freedom to run around in bikinis and be as loud as you want. It was a nice to break from the constant stares you get on the streets of Fez.

Just playing around in the pool!
We even got some synchronized choreography going
later that afternoon!

The next day we slept in a little, and prepared for the camel ride. When we arrived at the second hotel where the camels were at, we just dropped our bags off and got our scarves tied around our head in the traditional turban style...

Before we mounted our camels... the scarves were more than necessary, not only to protect your skin from the sun, but to prevent the very fine sand carried by the wind to get into your eyes and nose, and worst of all into your lungs. 

We rode our camels into the setting sun.

When we reached one of the largest sand dunes between Morocco and Algeria we dismounted and began to climb...

We we got back down from the dune, we enjoyed a traditional berber dinner and danced the night away while the berbers played various traditional instruments. 

Many students decided to sleep on the sand dunes where the stars stood out brilliantly against the thick darkness. I decided to pull my mattress out of the berber tent and sleep with my other girlfriends inside the berber camp. There we were protected from the sand but we were also able to enjoy the dry desert air. On our way down from exploring the large sand dune in the pitch darkness, one of our friends came up to us and told us that one of our friends, Jacob, was very sick. He was throwing up and had severe abdominal pain. The berbers had apparently tried to improve his stomach pains by placing him face-down on a cup they had put in the sand so that it dug into his stomach. They commenced to push hard on his back, and message his limbs as he writhed in pain. In his delirium, he tried to roll away from the berbers, trying to get away from the pain. He couldn't hold anything down, and he was severely dehydrated. A group of students stayed up with him all night long, slowly giving him water from a wet cloth. There was not much we could do for him, so we just came and checked on him every once and awhile, and by morning he was awake, but still very weak. We all got up right before sunrise... which was only a few hours after we had fallen asleep, and we mounted our camels to start the long walk back to the hotel. Jacob was driven back, over the sand-dunes, and slowly began regaining his strength as he slept at the hotel. As we made our way back, we enjoyed a spectacular sunrise over the sand-dunes which was a mixed blessing. As beautiful and welcoming as the sun was, it also brought the stifling heat. The temperature increase was rapid, and unforgiving. Thankfully we left early enough, that our ride was quite pleasant, and I found myself nodding off to sleep in time with the rise and fall of my camel's easy stride. 

Shout out!

I just want to give a shout out to my wonderful mother who's birthday just recently passed on June 10th, and to my little brother who just graduated high school!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!!!!!! You are amazing, and the best mom I could have wished for. I love you sooo much, and I know you are always looking out for me. I can't wait until you and Dad come visit me in Fez at the end of my trip... I have already begun planning where I am going to take you guys! I just want to warn you... the mint tea is VERY sweet, and I know you like your tea unsweetened... it seems as though they make up for the heat by eating a lot of sweets, and putting a huge amount of sugar in everything. They do have strong turkish coffee, and we all know you need your coffee in the mornings, so you should be fine! ;) hehe I LOVE YOU!

Lachlan, Congrats again! I know you must be enjoying all those graduation parties! I really wish I could have been at your graduation, but im glad Sophie was able to come to part of it... We all know you would be looking for her in the audience anyways... :p Good luck with your summer plans, and in the meantime, enjoy the time you have without deadlines. The weather must be beautiful in Boston right now, and I hope you take this time to get to know our wonderful city! Don't forget to spend a little time with Mom and Dad! As much as they want you out of the house as soon as possible, they will miss you when you leave for another city... so try and make the time count (after all, you're not that special)! ;)

LOVE YOU GUYS!

Rabat!

The fried donuts were probably the highlight of our Rabat trip. Below are two pictures of Jacob posing with the one dirham donuts that we would pass every morning and evening on our way in and out of the old Medina in Rabat. He even got to know the young lady who was selling them. She miss understood his Arabic when he said he loved them, and instead she thought he said he loved her. She got a little shy after that, but continued to smile at us and timidly hand us our donuts, avoiding Jacobs eyes.

Jacob posing with the amazing donuts that
they dipped in sugar for us.

Jacob with the donut lady!

 Exploring the city... It was much cooler than Fez since it was on the water, and we made sure to get some beach time while we were there.

The beautiful coast and fortress of Rabat!

The King's burial place. 

The ruins of an ancient mosque that was never completed, only the
 columns remain and the bottom of what was to become the largest minaret
of the largest mosque in the world.  

At the beach!!! Pretending to ride the baby horse! 

Then finding a big horse to ride down the beach for a small sum.

It was so much fun!

Enjoying the night life in Rabat!

Emma and I in the dance club!

Our last morning we were walking around the city and ran into a large protest. My friend found this sign lying around...

It says: We are the 99% in Arabic!!! Here you go Dad! :) 

I spy an intruder! ...Jacob trying to blend into the protest.

A nice government building in Rabat I think... it was right
across from where we sat and had dinner the first night.  

liquid Nutella from the heat on the train ride back... so delicious!