Winter Whirlwind

Winter break was a complete whirlwind.  Last semester came to a close far too soon, but even the end of school and the departure of my friends didn’t leave me with nothing to do.  Just after Christmas, I flew to Barcelona to meet my parents there for New Years.  We spent the next month traveling across three different countries in two continents.   My aunt was able to come with us to Morocco as well and I jumped at the chance to show my family my new home.  We did and saw far too much to list everything but here are some of the highlights:

• Visiting the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain – there’s a reason why everyone says you must go and it’s because you really must go.
• Eating what has got to be the BEST pistachio crème brûlée ever in Montpellier, France
• Watching the parade for Noche de los Reyes in the coastal town of Roses, Spain and giving all my candy away in exchange for a smile from a little French boy
• Visiting the Dali Museum in Figueres, Spain and discovering just how prolific and amazing an artist he was
• Trying to see all we could with only one night and one morning in Valencia, Spain (a gorgeous city I must return to)
• Wandering the streets of Cordoba, Spain late at night, not wanting to miss the chance to explore one more alleyway before returning to our hotel facing the gorgeous mezquita
• Climbing the Girlada minaret-turned-belltower in Sevilla, Spain for fabulous views of the city
• Watching a Flamenco show performed by students at a professional Flamenco school in Sevilla
• Sitting at a table next to some prostitutes in a bar on my family’s first night in Tangier, Morocco
• Being continuously “Welcome!”d and stuffed with delicious food by the family that opened their home to us in Meknes, Morocco
• Learning to make Melwi (a kind of Moroccan pancake) and trying to determine the American equivalents of Moroccan ingredients
• Watching a whole square full of food tents set up in the afternoon at Jemaa El Fna in Marrakesh, Morocco

Granted, not everything was absolutely wonderful or went as smoothly as planned.  We had navigational difficulties, got ripped off, and suffered from misunderstandings and miscommunications due to language barriers but such is the nature of travel.   We had an entire month of amazing experiences and I am so glad I got the opportunity to show my family why I love Morocco so much.  They left me in Marrakesh, to fly back to Madrid for a few more days of vacation while I met the new ISA group for orientation, jumping right into the next semester.   Life never stops, and I’m loving it!

Mountains and Movement

Driving along the cost of Tangier at sunrise, I realized I haven’t seen the ocean in months, haven’t touched it in longer.  What struck me was not how long it had been but the fact that I didn’t miss it or think anything of it really.  I live next to the ocean back “home” (one of the many places I call “home” anyway) in San Diego, but I’ve never really taken full advantage of that fact.  I love the ocean, especially the smell, but I do not need it.

[Note: It's similar to the difference between my parents' and my perception of traveling:  they really enjoy traveling, but they do not NEED it as I do.]

Mountains on the other hand, are a whole different story.  Driving in to the small town of Chefchaouen in the Rif Mountains was like coming home again.  The air was fresher, the elevation higher, and the skyline filled with rocky outcroppings and mountainous hills.   Even the road, which unfortunately made my friend carsick, made me feel like I was right back home in Calaveras or Amador County.

Blue Medina (with a little exoticism thrown in too)

My friend Gabriel and I had decided to spend the weekend after Fall Break in Chefchaouen in the hopes of getting some more hiking in before the end of the semester.   While hiking was our initial goal, the highlight of the trip turned out to be the town itself.   Chefchaouen is known for having blue walls, but you don’t see much from outside the city.  On street level, however, there is a lot more color, and in the medina there are some places where every visible surface is painted.

Hiking didn’t work out as well as we had hoped: the taxi out of town was expensive, our backpack broke, we had a hard time finding the right trail, and then it started raining.  We took refuge in a cafe in Akchour until we could get another taxi back to Chefchaouen, feeling (and probably looking) rather like drowned rats.

Despite everything that went wrong, however, we both still managed to have a good time.  We built a mini rock bridge so Gabriel could get out onto a big rock in the middle of the river, we explored some abandoned buildings and rock chimneys (I couldn’t pass by it without climbing inside now could I?), and we talked to some interesting people [The Rif Mountains, and Chefchaouen in particular, are known for kif and the crazy "Hat Man", selling hats and bartering while high as a kite, was just one example of its omnipresence].   With the day’s adventures, we were soaked and freezing by mid-afternoon but we had fun.

Movies a la Misr

We hadn’t planned on seeing a movie.  We didn’t have anything to do but wander the crowded streets of Alexandria.  When we passed a movie theater with people rushing to buy tickets it was a spur of the moment decision.  Why not?  It was past the start time listed but people were clearly still on their way inside and since when did anything run on time?

I pushed and elbowed my way up to the ticket window (they don’t use lines in Egypt or Morocco) and bought two tickets for the movie that was playing at the time: X-Large [Even written in Arabic it was "لارجX"].  Brian and I followed people inside the theater and up the stairs a few steps before a couple of guys checking tickets cut us off.   “You have got to be kidding me”, I thought, as they held out their hands, asking for money.  In Egypt, everyone expects a tip for everything, especially from foreigners.  I sighed but there really wasn’t anything to be done about it.  I handed over a few Egyptian Pounds and they suddenly became our new best friends.  They ushered us past, one man with a flashlight insisting we follow him.

The theater was like and old performing arts theatre that had been adapted slightly to accommodate a movie screen.   Flashlight Man led us down through the upper half of the balcony and down to the box seats on the side, dodging people and broken seats on the way.  The movie had, in fact, already started so the flashlight came in handy.  Any attempts to stop and take a seat were prohibited by the fact that some seats were actually missing and Flashlight Man really wanted us to follow him.  The boxes all had people in them but Flashlight Man went straight to one full of a group of kids and kicked them out, presenting us proudly with some chairs and making sure we didn’t want for anything.

Men walked around the theatre with drinks and snacks on trays to sell, offering to run get you anything you wanted if they didn’t have it.   The audience itself was very participatory.  They laughed uproariously at some of the lines and cheered and hollered when something good happened.  At one point in the movie the characters went to a club and some people in the audience stood up and started dancing to the music.

Then, about an hour into the movie it suddenly stopped.   There was no rhyme or reason to stopping then, it was the midst of a scene, the middle of a conversation.   I think it even cut the main character off mid-sentence.

Brian and I looked at each other, confused.

The house lights had come on and some people were getting up out of their seats but there was no mass exodus for the doors.

Intermission?, I guessed.  I thought it was a strange way to take a break from a movie that shouldn’t be longer than usual to begin with, but I couldn’t think of anything else.  Everything seemed to be working properly and no one was overly-concerned so we just went with it, waiting to see what would happen and hoping the movie would start back up again.

Sure enough, about ten minutes later, it took up right were it had left off, mid-scene.  The rest of the movie passed as it had before, with vendors roaming, people laughing, and Brian and I lucky to understand even 10% of what was going on but enjoying the experience nonetheless.

Leaving the theater once the film ended was an exercise in crowd-swimming.   Everyone tried to leave at once, turning each door and passageway into a bottleneck.   No one used the front door either.  Instead, everybody headed out the back entrance of the cinema, onto the street behind it.  Brian and I found our way back to the main drag of the city and headed home to the hotel to sleep so we could get up early the next morning and drive down to Luxor.

Alexandria

By Monday morning, it seemed our providential timing had run out.  We had hoped to leave the resort by 7am so we could start the long drive to Luxor as early as possible but Reception hadn’t opened yet.  We discussed our options while we waited and decided to take the shorter trip to Alexandria first.  I was excited to see “my city” but was especially looking forward to visiting the library.

The Library of Alexandria was easily decided upon as our first stop.   Driving along the crystalline coast, it made for an impressive sight, slanted circle facing the ocean and carved stone wall protecting it from it’s very own half-moat.  We parked the car around the corner and walked up to the plaza-like space next to the library, watching as people milled about taking pictures but never seeing anyone actually go inside.  I found what looked like a possible entrance and approached the uniformed man standing nearby.  Turns out the library was closed.

For the entire week.

For Eid.

No chance of gaining access.

More than a little disappointed, we decided to see it as an excuse to return to a city that, from what little we had seen so far, looked beautiful.  Determined not to let this setback ruin our trip (or our impression of Alex) we set off to explore the city on foot.

Alex’s bumblebee-painted taxi’s stood out along her evenly-paved streets as we wandered the city.  Picking a direction at random, we eventually saw a cluster of trees in the skyline not too far away and wandered over to find a group of people standing outside of a cemetery.

I have what some might see as a rather morbid fascination with cemeteries.  I thoroughly enjoy wandering amongst tombstones, looking at the different places and ways people are buried, how they are remembered.  Checking the dates to find the oldest person, the youngest child, the oldest grave.  Wondering what their life was like, why that epitaph was chosen, who came before…

So we wandered our way past the group of people and through the gate into the cemetery.  Walking along the main path we found workers doing construction on a rather large building.   Turns out we had taken the back way into a Coptic Church.  Navigating the ropes and scaffolding, a man appeared from what was probably the front entrance and showed us into part of the church itself.  A lot of it was blocked off but it was really interesting seeing Christian iconography next to Arabic script.  We left out of the “front” entrance to find we had been in the Saint George Church.

Continuing our explorations of the city, we were often greeted by friendly Egyptians.  One Arabic phrase in particular was used on multiple occasions that I did not recognize.  It took a few times, and one friendly group that knew some English, to learn that it was the equivalent of “Happy New Year”.   We were traveling during Eid alAdha, which commemorates the willingness of Abraham (or Ibrahim as he’s known in the Islamic world) to sacrifice his son.   Upon learning this phrase, I thought it might mark the Islamic New Year as well.   However, I have since learned that the Arabic equivalent for “Happy New Year” (كل عام و انتم بخير) is said for just about any festival, and does not signify that the start of a new year exclusively.

We continued our wanderings, seeking some form of sustenance as it had been a long time since we had anything to eat.

No dice.

We found McDonalds =)  You know how I love MikkyD’s.  So healthy, and delicious, and nutritious, and authentic, and pure.

NOT!

I had hoped that there might be other food options nearby, but we were in the wrong part of town.  There were cafe’s galore (from my experience it seems cafes are pretty much omnipresent in Islamic countries) and a few butcher shops along the way, but we never even came across a place that grills meat.   Gosh how those grilling places are good!  You pick out what (freshly chopped) meat you want and you tell the guy who grabs it for you and takes it over to a grill where it’s cooked right in front of you, smoke rising and juices dripping until it’s handed back to you along with خبز (“khobz” is bread) and probably some olives to snack on as well.  You can’t get any fresher, simple, or more delicious than that.

But I digress.  I soon gave up and asked some people on the street where a good place to eat nearby was.   They told us to keep walking, five minutes straight ahead.  Past the local souk, dodging blood and feces from freshly butchered animals, and numerous cafes later we found something.  I ordered an entire kilo of kofta for us to share and we carted it back to a nearby cafe to eat.  The khobz there was more like pita-bread, and this time the kofta (which lay on a bed of cilantro) came with sides of pickled vegetables, onions and tzatziki-ish sauce.   I was thrilled.  And we had leftovers for days (or at least a few more meals).

Eventually, we returned to an internet cafe we had passed earlier to scope out a place to spend the night, or at least the area in which such a place might be found.  We ended up staying at an interesting hotel that took up the fifth floor of a building with an awesome old-fashioned elevator.

The night was still young so we went back out to explore some more and ended up going to the movies.  Boy was that an interesting experience!  I’ll cover it in the next post but for now here are some pictures of Alexandria:

The Library of Alexandria

McDonald's Delivery

Patriotic Graffiti

Coastal Sunset

Sinai

When we had finished gallivanting around the pyramids, Brian and I headed out to the Sinai Peninsula to find the place we would be staying.  The Sinai was extremely desolate.  There was nothing but desert and interesting rock formations, along with a surprisingly strong military presence.  There were checkpoints before and after every town (no matter its size) and the tunnel was heavily guarded.

The resort we stayed at was nice, with a beach on the Red Sea.  We spent our first full day there, just exploring the area.  We drove to some of the nearby towns to find there was really nothing there: just a few small outdoor cafes to drink tea along deserted streets.   The landscape was really interesting though, with mountainous rock formations and one dried river bed we pulled over to explore.

After a day of relaxing exploration, we felt ready to tackle a challenge so the next day we climbed Mt. Sinai.   The mountain was a couple hours’ drive South, in which the towns got smaller but more lively and the mountains became taller and taller.  Mt. St. Catherine is the highest mountain in the Sinai and Gebel Musa (as Mt. Sinai is known in Arabic) is right next to it with the monastery at its base.

After hiking the ~3,000 steps up the mountain, we finally reached the top for a gorgeous view of the mountains stretched out around us.  Sin means tooth in Arabic and the mounains are named after the fact that they look like teeth: Sinai.

On the way down, our guide told us biblical stories from an Islamic perspective as we took the camel’s path, full of switch-backs instead of stairs.   Most people take this route up, even if they don’t opt into the camel, but I was glad we had decided to take the more challenging route – it was more gratifying to reach the top and the hike wasn’t that bad to begin with.  We eventually returned back to the resort, a little tired but feeling accomplished and excited for the next day’s adventures.

Walk like an Egyptian

The trip began with perfect timing.  Unsure exactly of when we should be there, Brian and I arrived at the Meknes train station to buy our tickets and get on the platform just before the train arrived.  Three hours later, we waited in Casablanca for the train to the airport, excitement keeping tiredness at bay until we finished wandering the terminal and picking up our boarding passes at Mohammed V.  A few naps on the plane later and we landed in Cairo around 7am.

It was our first morning in Egypt and we couldn’t go anywhere.  We had to wait a few hours for the rental car company to open so we occupied ourselves with wandering the airport, drinking tea, and reading.  After some confusion about which rental company we needed and where it was, finally we got the car and we were off!  We didn’t know where we were going but we were going somewhere and we soon decided that, after food, that somewhere should be the Pyramids.

The amount of hassling markedly increased the closer we got to such a major tourist attraction.  We declined the multitude of offers for camels, horses, and carriages in favor of wandering the area on foot.   The pyramids are surrounded by a huge wall and chain-link fence, with a poorer neighborhood pushed up against it.   I feel like our wanderings allowed us to see things most people miss and I was struck by the contrast between the real-life neighborhood and the touristy spectacle right next door.

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We eventually found ourselves at the entrance gate, and decided we couldn’t come this far without going in so we got to explore even more.  The pyramids themselves were spectacular.  We took pictures of and with them, climbed them, went inside a tomb, saw the Sphinx, explored the foundations, and had a great time.

Casablanca and Rabat

Inside the Hassan II Mosque

Last weekend was our excursion to Casablanca and Rabat.  I didn’t really get much sleep but it was certainly a lot of fun.  I’ve definitely decided I do not like tours though.  We had a few tours this weekend, some walking, some on the bus, some that combined both.  I always find I enjoy places better when I’m allowed to explore them on my own.  I want to learn about them too, but some guides can ramble on forever.   But I digress, besides the tours it was a fun trip.   I enjoyed seeing the Hassan II mosque in Casa.  It’s HUGE and the architecture is gorgeous!  After exploring the inside of the mosque we hung out on the edge overlooking the ocean.  Some Moroccan boys then proceeded to convince some of the group to jump off the edge into the Atlantic.  It was pretty epic.  =D

Our one night in Casablanca was full of adventures.  Roaming the streets looking for somewhere to eat we stumbled upon a “Puerto Rican” pizza place/creperie.  It was definitely hole-in-the-wall and we had the place to ourselves (it was late afternoon after all), but I’m pretty sure it was the best pizza I’ve had in a long time.

We wandered our way back to the hotel after dinner, passing through the main plaza where we traumatized pigeons by the fountain earlier that afternoon.   The night was far younger than we expected when we got back so we hung out at the hotel for a while before we felt it was late enough to head out to some of the clubs we had heard of.   Taxis in Casa are expensive (at least by my Moroccan standards) so I only went to one club but it was a lot of fun.  It was called La Bodega and had a Spanish theme down to the drinks and music.   It was really interesting to see how behind-closed-doors it was though.  When I first walked in I was slightly confused because it didn’t look like what I was expected (not that I knew what I was expecting at the time).   The main floor was set up like a restaurant with a small stage for entertainment but downstairs was a full bar with crowds of people dancing to great Spanish music.  I felt like I was back in Costa Rica since it had a very similar feel to some of the clubs I went to there, and the music brought back memories as well.   After a while some of the group decided to take taxis to another club and I headed home to catch a few short hours of sleep before getting up early to go to Rabat the next morning.

Blue walls in Rabat

Rabat surprised me by its cleanliness.  The city had a really nice vibe, along with a temperate climate and a refreshing ocean breeze.  Our tour was long but we saw some interesting places.  I especially liked the blue-washed walls, supposedly made so to keep mosquitoes away.  After the tour we had some free time to eat and wander the city.   I explored the souk and watched my friends barter, having spent far more money in Casablanca than I had anticipated.  I always enjoy wandering and exploring though and when it came time to meet the rest of the group, Gabriel and I were the last on the bus.  Thank goodness for Moroccan time.

Intercultural Forum Website

As some of you may know, ISA began hosting an annual intercultural forum a few years ago, collaborating with students and officials from various countries.   This year, the forum is moving to Sevilla, Spain in the hopes of making it even more accessible to the international community.   Members of our group are already working hard on their projects and presentations for the event which will take place in November, during fall break.   Before the forum can take place, however, we need input from people around the world about some of the issues we plan to discuss.  One group of ISA students has put together a website for just this purpose and we would all greatly appreciate your contributions.   Please answer the questions on the website: http://culturaldiversity-globalization.weebly.com/index.html  The overarching topic of the forum is intercultural dialogue in media and social networking society and ISA’s focus is on cultural diversity within globalization.   We’d love to recieve input from everyone so please, check out the website, share it with your friends and family, and help us make this intercultural forum truly great.

Intro to Meknes

How fast the time has flown and yet it seems as if we’ve been in Morocco far longer than just two weeks.   Spain was fantastic.  Between wandering the city of Granada, getting to know the people in the program, and going between bars and clubs for tapas and dancing until the early morning, I was rather exhausted by the end of the excursion.  It was definitely worth it though, the Alhambra was beautiful, the people fun-loving, and the overall experience was great. After several days with the group in Granada we left for Tangier, via ferry across the Straight of Gibraltar.

The busy port city was our first real exposure to Morocco and I should probably say more about it but in all honesty the food was what left the biggest impression on me.  For lunch our first day, a group of about six of us went to a restaurant recommended by Daniel, our resident director.  Though we were followed and accosted by a faux guide, my first real Moroccan lamb tajine was worth far more to my tastebuds than a few dirhams and a little bit of hustling.

The next morning we got a tour of some as the city, as well as some free time to explore before hopping on the bus to Meknes.  Everyone was excited to fully unpack and move in to what would be our home for the next several months.   After a five hour bus ride, we finally reached Meknes around sunset.

We made it to Meknes!

First impressions of our apartment were amazing.  They are huge and have anything one could possibly need, from a fully-stocked kitchen to school supplies, medicine, and notes of advice left from past ISA students.  The tile floors will probably freeze our toes off in winter but for now they offer blessed relief from the heat.

Thursday (8 Sept 2011) was our first full day in Meknes.  We all got our first tour of the university, which is especially cool because it’s in a fort.  Then, after a ceremony in which the professors welcomed us with speeches, Moroccan sweets, and mint tea, we took the language placement exams.   I ended up placing into Beginning Arabic II, right were I should be according to the number of chapters I completed at UCSD before I left.  However, this meant that I would not have Arabic classes at all until halfway through the semester.   You can guess how excited I was about that.

Sure enough, I lasted one day of classes without Arabic before starting to audit the Intermediate Arabic class.  Knowing I was in a class that should by all rights be above my head, I was surprised when the professor complemented me on my Arabic and insisted I should be enrolled in the Intermediate level.   There are whole tenses the rest of the class knows that I haven’t seen before, but I am learning so much.  The class is demanding and I need to study a lot more than I ever have before, but it is an excellent challenge and I feel like I have already learned as much in two weeks as I did in two quarters back home.  It’s hard, it’s crazy, it’s slightly insane, but I love it.

University Moulay Ismail

Albayzin

2 September 2011
Early morning
Granada, Spain

Travelling from Madrid to Granada was surprisingly easy and relatively painless.  I got to the bus station (via the ever so handy metro) around 9am on Wednesday, hoping to catch a bus at 9:30.  However, the line for the ticket window was full of other people who had taken the metro as well and by the time it was my turn I had less than 15 minutes before the bus would leave.  Would I make it?  No problem.  The lady at the window implored me to hurry, repeating her instructions in Spanish rather earnestly, clearly unsure how much I could understand but everything went off without a hitch.  The bus was just starting to load up and in no time we were off, driving south through the Spanish countryside.

The ride got more interesting about half-way through where we drove through this huge rocky mountain pass.  Welcome to the province of Jaén.  After a quick stop for lunch we loaded back up and drove through fields and fields of pungent olive trees, easily smelled on the bus.   I thought it was interesting that all the tunnels we passed through were named, too.

The bus finally arrived in Granada around 2:30pm and after dragging my hefty luggage around Spain on public transport for so many days I decided to take a taxi to the hostel where I would stay in Granada.   I swear that was the best ten Euros I’ve spent on the trip so far.   The taxi driver was friendly and we chatted in Spanish as he drove me through the metropolitan center of the city and up to the windy, cobble-stoned streets of the Albayzín (the Arab quarter).
My hostel was a modified riad, with colorfully painted walls, marble floors, and a big open courtyard downstairs to hang out.  After settling in, I headed out to explore this new, ancient city I had been so excited to see.

I spent two days exploring Granada on my own, mostly in the Albayzín as it was easily my favorite neighborhood.  All the windy, narrow streets have so much character.  You never know what you’re going to find.  I found the Mirador, where there’s the best view of the city and the Alhambra above it.  I made friends with a Moroccan man selling calligraphy and used Arabic for the first time in real life.  I explored old buildings, found cool graffiti, and ate delicious tapas.   I loved Granada from the very first day.

The hostel I was at made for a great time too.  I had roommates from all over the world and stayed up late just talking to a lady from Holland one night.  Another night we all went out on the tapas tour, pub crawling through the city and meeting everyone else staying there.   It was a lot of fun with cool people.

Now my time here at the hostel, and even in the Albayzín is coming to an end, though I will remain in Granada for several more days.   Today I check into the hotel ISA has booked for us, it’s about a 10-15 minute walk south, in the more modern part of the city, and from what I’ve seen walking by, it looks pretty fancy.  I’m really excited to meet the rest of the people I will be studying abroad with in Morocco, and I can’t wait to get the program started.