This week was soooooooooooo long. The long awaited trip to Morocco was this weekend, but before I left, I had to finish studying for 2 tests and work on a project. So no relaxing this week. This blog is gonna be long, so pour yourself a cup of coffee, strap in, and get ready for a wonderful post!

School

First test this week was Bioinstrumentation. What we were being tested on, I already knew from a past class, so that test wasn’t hard. Plus we got the full 2 hour class block to do it (what a concept!!), so the stress that I had about the test, I could take it slow and be confident in my answers. The next test was Biotransport, and that was a little harder. He didn’t post any past tests, so we had nothing to go off of. He just said know your derivations. So I rewrote 6-pages worth of derivations, and still managed to miss a couple that were on the test. Since he gave us the full 2 hours, I was able to figure it out (mostly), but I’m not as confident on that one as I was on Bioinstrumentation. However after that test, which was on Wednesday, I had to prepare for the Morocco trip, which started Thursday night. So I started packing, ran some final errands, and got ready. I went to bed, super excited for what the next day, and the following 4 days, would have!!

Morocco – Day 1

Thursday comes. I bring my small backpack with only my notebook. Normally Thursday’s are hell, with at least 8 hours of classes, sometimes 10. However this week, I only had 2!!! I had one class in the morning, and the one I usually had after was canceled due to the holiday this weekend, and I was missing the others due to this trip. So after the one class, I went home and double checked my bag and everything to be sure I had what I needed. After chilling for about 4 hours, it was time to go. I took the train to the airport, where I met up with the rest of the group. From my program, there were 4 others, with about 10 others from the other Madrid program, as well as some kids from Salamanca. I knew this trip was going to be difficult cause 3 of the other 4 students from my program were sick as a dog. Coughing, fevers, the works, and it oscillated throughout the entire weekend from better to worse to way worse. But those stories will come…

After about 2 hours of waiting and going through security, we were in the air. On the plane, I sat next to a student from Madrid named Shanaya. I introduced myself, cause I recognized her from past ISA excursions, but never said hi. But she will become important later. After we land, we get on a bus that will take us to Meknes where our hotel is. I sit next to one of my program-mates, one of the sick ones, and I can tell he is not having a good time. I felt bad cause there was nothing I could do and we were going to the desert tomorrow. But he already paid for the trip, so there was no way he was not going to come. We got to the hotel, got our room assignments, and made our way down to dinner. When my roommates and I got down there, my program-mates didn’t have any seats open next to them, but Shanaya, the girl from the plane, had one, as well as 2 others for my roommates. Apparently my roommates knew that group of girls already, so it was pretty chill.

Now, before coming to Morocco, I knew that it was common practice to cook food with nuts or nut oils. However, I was stupid to not think much about it. Shanaya has other plans though. She is also allergic to nuts, but she printed an allergy card that explained the allergy in both English and Arabic so that she could ask if a food had or was cross-contaminated with nuts. We asked our waiter at the hotel, and turns out our first course might have been cross contaminated, so I was saved a trip to the hospital in a foreign country. And so now we’re friends!! After that, we enjoyed the rest of our dinner, and prepared ourselves for a veeeeery long bus ride tomorrow.

Morocco – Day 2

So we start the day bright and early just to get on the bus and go back to sleep. But as is the life of traveling (not that I would know anything about that). The 8 hour bus ride to the desert was gonna be split up into 3 parts: 3 hour leg, separated by a bathroom break, another 3 hour leg, lunch, and the last 2 hour leg to get to the jeeps that would take us to the camp (yea, you heard me. We stayed in a campsite in the desert). Got a decent amount of sleep in that day, and tried Moroccan BBQ chips. Verdict: they taste the same, but with a longer lasting, worse aftertaste. After our second leg of the trip, we got to the Ziz Oasis, which is pretty much as it sounds

Lunch was amazing!! We ate at a hotel in the middle of the oasis, so we were surrounded by palm trees that grew dates, and on top of the canyon walls surrounding us, there was nothing but desert. We were truly in the middle of no where, which is scary and cool at the same time. But lunch, yea. It was a buffet style at this hotel, and they had rice, vegetable mixes (which contained cooked orange peel, to my surprise), and chicken. But the best part was the clementines they had for desert. They had to have been picked that morning cause they still had twigs attached to the stem with green leaves on them, but they were the best tasting clementines ever. And apparently everyone else thought that too cause everyone took at least 3 with them on the bus. But after a lengthy break and talking more with new people, we got back on the bus for the last leg of the trip.

We learned to take the times that the adults gave us with a grain of salt, cause the last 3 hour leg turned into 4.5 hours, so we were skeptical that this next leg would only take 2 hours. And we were right, cause they spring that we’re going to a fossil museum when we get back on the bus. This is the first time all of us are hearing about this, and all we want to do is get to the camp. But we went, and were surprised when the “museum” part of this place was a 5 minute talk about the common type of fossils found in Morocco. That was then followed by a 30 minute trip to the gift shop. So it really should have been “fossil shop with a bit of information sprinkled on.”

After that pit stop and a 20 minute drive, we arrived at the jeeps (which are just 4×4 SUVs). We went off-roading, which was a lot of fun!! We made a stop in the middle of the desert and the sky was incredibly clear and full of stars!! We could see the Milky Way clearly, and I always thinks that’s an amazing view. After that, we finally got to the camp. The tents, or haimas, we nothing more than stuffed pads with a blanket on the ground, with a really long blanket as the roof. I didn’t mind, cause you don’t usually have to worry about rain in the desert. But the tent was in the shape of a circle, and all the beds were stuffed in there. There was another main tent with tables, and that is where we ate our meals. The entire time I was there, I just kept quoting Anakin Skywalker, when he was referencing the Tatooine desert to Amadala. (“It’s course and rough, and it gets everywhere”). But really, the sand was nothing like that. It got everywhere, but it’s dry, so it’s easy to get off, and it was super soft and fine!! It was very nice to walk around without shoes.

After dinner, we had free time. There was a bonfire with our guides playing the drums and singing. I went to the crest of an adjacent dune and watched the stars for a little bit and met someone who was studying in Malaga. She was from the University of Utah, and the moment I said that I was going skiing in the alps, she started advertising the college to me for a potential grad school. She said it has a great med program, and is with a 30 minute drive of 6, not 5, but 6 world class ski resorts. I will definitely put that on the list now lol. After that, I went to bed, cause I was tired af and I knew tomorrow was gonna be a long day.

Morocco – Day 3

We wake up bright and early to see the sunrise. 10/10 would recommend, but don’t forget a jacket, cause it’s freaking cold in the morning!! I remember waking up in the middle of the night cause when I fell asleep, it was still too hot for a blanket, but then the temperature plummeted, and then I needed a blanket! When I went to the dunes, a local (who spoke Spanish, so I was happy) led a friend and I to a great place to see the sunrise. After the sunrise, he proceeded to sit me down and try to sell me things. So naturally, I bought something (but for super cheap lol). After breakfast, which was just bread with a hard boiled egg, we prepared ourselves for our camel ride. Throughout the morning, we could see the camels arriving and being stationed on the other side of a dune at one side of our camp, se we knew that that was next.

The camel ride was amazing!! If you’ve ever ridden a horse, it’s like that, but with a lot more forward and back motion. My camel’s name was Rick, since he kept pooping on the camel behind me, whose name was Jerry (love Rick and Morty Jones). We spent 30 minutes going to this large dune, which we then proceeded to climb. Biiiig mistake, cause about halfway up, I was dead. Imagine a steep hill, but every time you take a step, the ground sinks away beneath you and you are pretty much where you started, but now there is a lot of sand over your shoe. And that’s what it was like to climb this dune. And the views were ok I guess. After climbing down, we got back on the camels and walked into town. Our next stop was some pool time at another hotel, which would have been amazing if the water wasn’t ice cold. A lot of people jumped in, but got out within 5 minutes since it was so dang cold! It was relaxing, but by the end, everyone was hungry and wanted to return to the camp for lunch. So off we went!

After lunch we had more free time, and this free time was a lot of fun!! A friend and I rented a snowboard, and started sand boarding off this large dune next to the camp, which was a cool experience since I have never been snow boarding, let alone sand boarding. After that, there were some kids playing soccer on the other side of the camp, so I joined them for a little bit. It was really funny cause they were sooo good, and even the people who played soccer in college were having trouble keeping up with them. I then joined the group of people where the other students in the program were teaching the kids how to whip, nae nae, Superman, and other fortnite dances, which was hysterical to watch. At one point, two of the kids devised a plan, without any of us knowing, to tabletop one of the ISA students. So one kid got on all fours behind him, and then another kid pushed him toward the kid on all fours, and the guy just went tumbling down the hill. It was so funny cause no one expected it!! That was truly a funny thing to watch, and I wish I got that on video.

After that I took a nap. When I woke up, my friend was shaking me awake saying that dinner was ready. I was still sleep groggy, so I got up and walked to the food tent, with my vision still blurry. I walked in and looked at the adult table, and saw my program director in a skin tight T-shirt and pants of the same color. I looked at him funny cause it looked like he was wearing a wetsuit, so my face reflected the thought of “why are you wearing a wetsuit in the desert??” However he wasn’t, but I felt like I looked at him for a solid 10 seconds until I realized that. I thought “he must think I’m drunk or something.” And if he didn’t think that already, he probably did think that after I ran into a pole trying to find a seat.

That night was very chill. I looked at the stars for a little bit, then went to bed early after playing some Uno. We had to go to the city tomorrow, which meant another 8 hour bus ride. Horray…

Morocco – Day 4

We wake up to another wonderful sunrise and more merchants trying to sell us stuff. We quickly eat breakfast, pack up all our stuff, and cram into the jeeps again so that they can take us to our bus. This time, I was a lot more agitated to be on that bus. On the way to the desert, I was fine, and was able to sleep and enjoy the views from the window without much discomfort. But during the return bus ride, the amount of leg room was too small, the AC barely worked and the bus was stuffy and hot, everyone was dying, and I wanted nothing more than to stretch my legs out. the first leg was full of me trying to go to sleep and not being able to. After lunch, we had our second 3 hour leg, and that was better, but even after taking some Benadryl to make myself tired, I still couldn’t sleep. So for the entire 6 hours, I could only listen to music and look outside the window. I forgot to mention that I couldn’t charge my phone too, so I only had enough battery for music and not games, since I still wanted to make recordings for the vlog. But eventually, we got to the hotel, and good timing too, cause everyone on the bus was starting to get antsy and hungry. We go into the hotel, which is a 4-star hotel, and are welcomed with a very extravagant lobby. Our rooms were also very extravagant, which doesn’t really matter to me so long as I have a bed. The AC in this room was broken too, just like the hotel the first night, but I didn’t care since I was so tired. After showering for the first time in two days (since the desert didn’t have showers), we went to dinner then to a show in the city.

This show was pretty interesting! There was a lot of music, a lot of dancing, some magic, and this one guy who did a whole bunch of weird things with cups of tea (like by weird, I mean WEIRD). It was fun, but really the best part was the belly dancer. The dancer was at least 50 years old, but the amount of control she had was amazing! And she tried to teach us how to belly dance by taking students onto the stage and having us copy her movements. I tried it, and the results were really amazing! You will have to wait for the vlog to see that in total, but here is a picture in the meantime.

After the show, we went back to the hotel and got ready for the next day. When I got back, I returned to an empty hotel room. That wasn’t really optimal since my two roommates didn’t have a key. So I stayed up for a while and then fell asleep waiting for them. They came back around 2 in the morning because they apparently went to a night club. I was just glad they didn’t have to sleep in the hallway lol.

Morocco – Day 5

This day was for Fes and the market. The panoramic tour included a stop at the 7 doors that led to the Royal Palace, and that was basically it. After that we made our way to the historic district where the market was.

The market was really cool, as there was a different market every 3 5 feet. One stand would be selling fruit, the next would be selling fish, with the next selling chicken, then shoes, clothes, and so on for what seemed like miles of alley ways. It was way different than anything I had ever seen before, but at the same time really overwhelming. There were people talking in Arabic, kids running past us, people trying to sell me stuff, the clucking of a chicken somewhere in the distance, it was just a lot.

So, the shopping. A trip to Morocco wouldn’t be complete without a good ole fashion shopping trip. Except this wasn’t old fashion. I am convinced 100% that the tour guide had a deal with various shop owners in that the tour guide would get a cut of the earnings that day if the they brought us to their shops, cause they literally brought us to the most expensive shops in Fes. The first place was a leather shop, of which I bought a bag for more than I should have. The next was a jewelry shop that sold silver, bronze, and gold. The next was a carpet store, then an apothecary shop, followed by a fabric store. The apothecary (I don’t want to say pharmacy cause it didn’t sell medicine, but oils and spices) was super cool! I bought a decent amount of stuff there as the argon oil felt very good and smelled very good. The spices smelled delicious as well, and I am eager to see how they taste on chicken. The fabric store was cool as well, but by the time we got there, I had spent all my money and had to give my credit card to someone else to be sure that I wouldn’t spend any more money. It was really bad, I spent way too much money there. But oh well.

After the shop fiasco was over, we had lunch and reloaded the bus to make our way to the airport. My mind was fuzzy and I was dead tired of people trying to sell me stuff. I slept for the entire 3 hour bus ride back to the airport. However, we got to the airport 3 hours before our flight, so we got there, waited, got our tickets stamped, waited some more, got our passports checked, and then waited for 2 more hours since our flight was delayed. Our flight was 2 hours, and when we got back to Madrid, it was 1 am, and the metro lines closed at 2, so I started to worry if I would have enough time to get home. Thankfully I got home, but I cannot say the same for my friend. Remember when I said that 3 out of the 4 students in my program that came with me were sick? Yea, well one of them got so bad that he could barely talk and went to the hospital the moment we landed. He had to stay there for 4 days to make sure that his bronchitis, which is what he had, did not develop into pneumonia. At the time of my writing this, he is perfectly fine, as are the other two people. So no one died in the making of this blog.

When I got home, I immediately went to bed without even changing. I had class the next day at 11 am, and I got home at 2, so I did not have a lot of time to recover. Over the course of that week too, I didn’t eat a lot since for some reason, my body started rejected the Madrid food. Every time I went to bed or laid down, my stomach got queasy and I felt like I was going to throw up. Good thing it ended 2 days later since that Friday I had another trip. Apparently this is normal, but I don’t know why.

Morocco – Final Thoughts

Morocco was really cool, but the people I went with really made this trip amazing. The sights of the sunrise in the desert, the culture we saw in the show, and the locals we had to meet were really cool, but the truly made the experience amazing was the people I got to experience it with. If it wasn’t for the other people braving the desert, the bus rides, and the city alongside me, I know I would have let the bad parts of the trip get to me and wear me out after the second day. Once again, I am reminded that it is much better to travel with others than it is to travel alone. It rounded out the experience and gave me perspectives that I never would have had alone.

Other than that, the entire trip was a lot to handle. It was cool, but I had my fill for a long long time. I’m not a fan of the culture a lot, and the market was a lot to take in at one time. Plus the fact that I could not drink the tap water that was a real downer. Everything was expensive, and where for a short time its alright, and I can now say that I went there, I’m ok with not going back for a while.

Thanks for reading another post!! I had a great time in Morocco, and now I have to work twice as hard during the week cause for the next 4 weeks, I have trips every weekend, followed by a visit from my parents in the first week of December. After their visit is finals, and as that comes closer and closer, I realize how close the end of my time in Madrid is. I feel conflicted all the time cause I miss my friends and family in the States, but I am not done learning what I want to learn here in Spain. But that time will come faster than I think, so wish me luck in maximizing my time here. See you next week!!

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