Morocco Day 4

I am not even going to try to pretend that I am writing this the day of, but I did write in my journal soon after the events of the following posts. Now that midterms, papers, and presentations are over for now I have some time to write in my blog. So, lets take it back about month, and go to a far off distant land called Morocco. And when I say far I mean like 10,000 miles and many experiences away.

So we go back to September 13th this time I am not woken by Big Brother multiple times in the night and instead I wake to some freaken roasters and the smell of fresh manure. I got out of my thing that I slept (it wasn’t a bed and that’s why I am not calling it a bed), then went #1 across the street where they put all of the cow manure.

We then ate breakfast and happily left this gite gladly moving closer to civilization. I am sorry I am not a roughing it type of dude, so this no Western toilet thing for one night was more than enough for me.

The hike was good; it lasted for about an hour and half, ending with a crossing of the river that tested our team working abilities. We all made it across successfully and took a group picture at the end of our hike.

Next we took the best car ride of my life, since I was the biggest person I got to sit in the front seat. And our driver was not scared of driving fast at all. So we were zipping down these curves inches from the side of the mountain (with no guard rail) hopping through berber villages going well over 80 kph down hill.

I was so happy we were going back to civilization and life was moving at a fast pace again. So of course the first thing I do once back in Marraketch is go to the bathroom, then do a little bit of shopping. I am pretty sure that I clogged the drain to the bathroom because I definitely put the toilet paper down the toilet. But oh well, life goes on.

We then race to the train station, where all 30 of us run through the train station like Home Alone style, only this time no one gets left behind in Marraketch. And of course we passed by other SASers.

I then enjoyed my Moroccan boxed lunch on the 4 hour train ride back to Casablanca. I took a well needed nap on the rickety train because the next 6 hours my heart rate was elevated from all of the activity.

So after we get off the train, we get in these small buses to get back to the boat. We get to the boat and there is one hella long line, and to skip the line I proclaim that I have an FDP that leaves in 15 minutes. SO I got to skip the line, I run onto the ship after having my dignity taken away from the security people searching through all of my stuff and touching me all over.

So I run into the union trying to get into the event “Dinner with a Moroccan Family” and nobody is there because guess what, I was early. So I went to my room dropped all of my luggage on the floor took the world’s fastest shower for Marcus. I then got on the waiting list and I ended up being fourth.

I go ahead and sit in a chair where I over hear somebody is really tired and debating not going. So I go up to her and tell her that I would like to go in her place. So I cut in front of the three people ahead of me and was the only one off of the waitlist to have a dinner with a Moroccan Family.

The Dinner was really interesting. Professor Siad gave us a driving tour of Casablanca and of course I got to sit in the front seat. We then broke the fast with his extended family and had a great conversation consisting of 4 languages (English, Arabic, French and Spanish). We had a few fundamental differences on religious views so we kind of glossed over that because the grandpa was getting a little heated.

After breakfast we took a nice walk down the boardwalk and had a cup of coffee before heading to the big Mosque. I think it is the third biggest in the world. He then took us back to the ship where we exchanged email addresses. This was a great day filled with adventure, enlightenment, culture and love. On this day everything just seemed to go right.