This may possibly be the last post I write while I'm here in Spain and it's quite sad to be saying that. I love it here and I don't think it's really hit my brain that I'll be leaving this place and may potentially never come back. I sure hope I come back because I love this town. I still feel like there's so much that I haven't done while I've been here.
Morocco was quite an experience to say the least. We spent many hours on a bus and I learned that Moroccan time is worse than Spanish time. When the tour guides told us that we'd stop at a rest area for 15 minutes, they wouldn't get back on the bus for 30 -45 minutes.
The first day we took the ferry from Spain to Tanger, Morroco. We traveled for 2 hours, stopped for lunch for over an hour (originally was supposed to be 45 minutes), and then traveled like another 2-3 hours to Casablanca. Each city/town paints their buildings a certain color. Casablanca is white, Marrakech is red. We had dinner that night in the hotel and woke up at like 5 the next morning to start the day....
We got back on the bus and traveled for like 3 more hours until Marrakech. That was my favorite city. We went on a tour of some water resevoir, a palace, saw the main mezquita, and walkked through their rose garden (Garcia Lorca's garden was way better though). It was hot that day. We went to our AMAZING 5-star hotel. Absolutely amazing. It had two giant outdoor pools and their buffet had so much food. I could never have tried everything. After lunch we had a surprise horse and carriage ride to the market, where we went into a Moroccan Pharmacy, spent time in some warehouse type thing, then spent 45 minutes in the main market center.
We went back to the hotel and I went to a dinner spectacular that was cool. We had dinner in a tent and they brought out so much good food. They put on a show afterward which was alright. Not the greatest, but whatever. It was nice being there with everyone. We got back late and I was exhausted so I went to bed for a few hours before waking up bright and early again.
After our delicious buffet breakfast we got in the buses again and headed back up to Casablanca. We went into this BEAUTIFUL mosque. Probably one of the most amazing things I've seen in my life. It was right on the edge of the ocean and it's one of the few mosques in Morocco that actually lets in visitors.
We headed to Rabat next. We went on a tour and saw the outside of the king's palace and then saw a few other important builidings. We went to our hotel and um....it was definitely nothing like the one we had just left. I went from the best hotel of my life to the worst. But that's alright, we made it out. The next morning we started headed back to Tanger where we took a bus tour of the city and went walking through some shops. However, it was this day that people started to get sick, including myself. There must have been something in one of the hotels to make almost our entire program sick. And 2 weeks later I can finally say that I'm like 99% recovered from Morocco.
We got back on the ferry, but had an interesting time with that. The ferry left without some of our AIFS members, including Pilar, one of the staff. Everything worked out though and some people stayed behind once in Spain so that one bus could go back to Granada and one could stay and wait for the rest of the group to arrive.
So yes, that was two weekends ago. Last weekend we went to Almeria with our program. That was a good little weekend. It was a nice beach and it was sunny the whole time, but it was way too windy to lay out on the beach. We spent more time at the hotel pool instead.
This week I had exams and finished my last one on Thursday. I think they went well, but we'll see. I met up with Kathlyn and her family for some tapas on Thursday night, and went out for tapas at the bull ring later that night with peeps. Friday night AIFS took us to a departure dinner in the caves where they gave us tapas and then performed a flamenco show. I absolutely loved it but it was so sad to think that that was my last time with everyone.
My brain started to comprehend a little that I was going to be leaving Spain. Yesterday a bunch of us went up to a park near the Alhambra where there are peacocks. That park was so beautiful, and it sort of reminded me of a fairy tale. I went out for tapas again last night and then went up with some other people to the San Nicolas Mirador at 11 to see the Alhambra lit up at night. This morning I had chocolate and churros at Cafe futbol and here I am!
I've had an amazing time here and cannot believe that 5 months have already gone by. I remember panicking one morning in the beginning when I thought of how many days I would have to be away from home, but now I just don't want to leave. It'll be great to see everyone again but I know that I'm going to have reverse culture shock when I get home.
I gotta get going but I'll see you all soon!
