The Sahara and Camels.

Here accounts one of the best trips ever. The Sahara is a remarkable place, with lots of sand, camels, bedouins and thousands of stars. I will never forget riding the camels out to the camp and sleeping beneath the stars.


Just copy and paste the links to see the pictures.

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Hello everyone!

We just returned from the Sahara on Sunday, it was absolutely incredible. I’m not sure if I can describe it in words, but I will try. The entire trip was so…surreal.

We left Saturday morning around 5:30am, needless to say, I don’t really remember much of the car ride because I was asleep most of the time, actually, most of the people in our van were asleep……

However, when I was awake, we passed many villages:

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And Date Trees:

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As well, the King was passing through the region, so there were flags everywhere showing national pride, I suppose. On the way back we passed many envoys…so…who knows, we could have passed the King!

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As well, we learned from Emily (on the left) a new trick with scarves….The Italians had fun with it…

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Eventually, we reached the hotel, we didn’t actually stay there…just used their bathroom. Which, I have to add, was the best public restroom in Morocco so far, it actually had toilet paper and soap.

The hotel:

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After using the best restrooms in Morocco, we set off for our adventure into the desert:

Camels waiting for us patiently:

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This was my camel, apparently, his name was Bob, I did not name this camel. If I did, his name would have been Lulu.:

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This is what it’s like to ride a camel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIZqno_5coY

Camel Shadows:

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Omgz, I’m on a camel:

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Riding into the Sahara:

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And there’s sand everywhere:

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The Sahara is incredibly quiet and beautiful…..especially at sunset:

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We reached our campsite at nightfall and we stayed in Bedouin tents….and ate a fabulous Tajine and fresh fruit….

We stayed in tents similar to these:

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The next morning, our guides woke us up at 4:15am (another early morning) to watch the sunrise from atop the camels:

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Desert at Sunrise:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYKVJfPfyNI

The sunrise was incredibly bright:

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We eventually stopped to watch the sunrise from atop a dune….

Our guide:

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Camel:

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I’m with a camel:

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Eventually we boarded (????) our camels and returned to the hotel:

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The “off roading van” we took to get to and from the hotel:

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Camels on the road:

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On the way back we passed more villages, this is what I expected to see when I came to Morocco:

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As well, we stopped and visited the monkeys that live in a forest about 20 minutes away from the University, as you can see, they’re a huge attraction for tourists:

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And the day finished with a beautiful sunset in Azrou:

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Other than the fabulous trip to the desert, life here is fantastic, as usual. Midterms are finally over and I have a lot more time to enjoy life here and classes

Essaouira

A continuation in the email series....This following email recounts our trip to Essaouira. Click the links to view the pictures. Enjoy.



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Marhaba from sunny Morocco!

I have a little more than a month left here in Morocco; I can’t express how enjoyable and amazing this entire journey has been. There hasn’t been a single moment where I’ve regretted my choice about studying here, well, except for being sick in the beginning. In Morocco, you never know what will happen, everyday is an adventure, you can never predict what will happen on a particular day or when doing a simple task such as going to the Marche( the market) to buy fruit ,it can easily turn into a random language and cultural interaction…I rather enjoy it. There are a few things that I miss having such as toilet paper in public restrooms, actually, restrooms that aren’t Turkish Toilets. As well as, set prices and not bartering over everything. Even though, I find these things as annoyances, I know that when I go back to Montana, I’ll miss them.

Anyway, our adventures in Morocco continue, this past weekend we traveled south once again, but this time we went to Essaouira on the Atlantic Coast. We left right after class on Thursday and took the train to Marrakesh. We arrived right after midnight, after eating dinner at KFC (Yeahhh….it’s much better here than in the states…), we decided to find a hotel, however, finding a hotel on a holiday weekend in Morocco is seemingly difficult so we ended up wandering the streets of Marrakesh trying to find a hotel until 3am when we decided to go to the Bus station instead to see if we could find an earlier bus to Essaouira, as chance had it, there was one leaving at 4am. We arrived in Essaouira at around 10:30am. My first impression of the city was that it reminded me of Chefchaouen yet next to the Ocean. We eventually found the main entrance to the Medina…but it was blocked by construction. It was sort of surreal seeing an excavator in the 18^th century entrance to the Medina, it seemed out of place in a way…

Entrance to the Medina:

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We wandered the streets of the Medina in search of a hotel:

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There are large doors everywhere throughout the city (I’m rather fond of this picture):

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We eventually found our hotel, which was considerably nicer than the other hotels we’ve stayed at in Morocco, this one cost around 10$ a night but it included breakfast. Also, it had a nice terrace which we sat upon and enjoyed the view for a bit before wandering the Medina.

Crumbling building next to our hotel:

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Seagull:

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View of the street below:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2642/4100852236_caae347d5b_b.jpg

We then wandered around the city and visited the fortifications…

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Rocks, waves and a city in the distance…

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Cannons:

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Essaouira is known for its wood products:

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and Fish Markets:

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We also visited the beach:

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Camels on the beach:

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Man riding on the beach:

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People riding camels on the beach, they probably paid a lot to do this:

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I’m on the beach…ha ha ha:

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A man with camels wanted to take us on a camel ride, but we didn’t want to:

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We crossed a small “river” to walk along the beach to find the place where Jimi Hendrix had found

inspiration for his song “Castles Made of Sand” and when we were coming back the tide had risen, so we had to ford across the river. The water would have reached up to my waist, so, my friend Megan carried me across the “river”:

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Essaouira:

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We left the following morning…and we realized that the bus station is the very essence of what Polychronic means. Our bus tried to go between the other two busses:

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Next week, we have a long break for Eid al Kabir, instead of traveling in Morocco, I’ll be heading off to The Netherlands, Brussels and Luxembourg!

Emails once more....

Ever since the beginning of my study abroad experience, I had sent a series of emails recounting all of my trips for family and friends. I'll be in the process of posting these emails in order from the most recent to first email I ever sent out. Enjoy.


The last email recounted my trip home and the final few weeks in Morocco. Sadly, this email contained no pictures unlike the previous emails do to technical problems with my laptop.
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Well, I’m back. Back in Montana that is. I can’t say that it’s not strange, because, well, it is. I’m both happy and sad to be back. I miss all the experiences and people I met while in Morocco. But, I’m happy to be back to my old life. Studying in Morocco was the best decision I’ve ever made and I highly suggest studying and traveling abroad to everyone because it changes how you perceive and interact with the world.

Anyway, I haven’t updated since the middle of November. A lot has happened since then, during the “Thanksgiving Break”, we traveled to Amsterdam, Luxembourg, Brussels and Brugge. It was an amazing trip. Sadly, I don’t have any pictures because my computer is currently being repaired, it decided to start freezing and have other problems. Anyway, back to the update…Amsterdam is a beautiful city; I imagine it’s even better during the summer months. We visited museums and the Anne Frank House on the first day. As well, we enjoyed the beauty and food of Amsterdam. Moreover, we stayed in a boat youth hostel; it was probably one of the most memorable places to stay and highly suggested. Luxembourg is beautiful. Even though we were only there for a day, we visited a beautiful cathedral and spent most of our time in Christmas Markets eating Fondue and drinking Gluhwein (hot spiced wine). The following day we boarded the train again and went to Brussels, Brussels is a huge city; I wish we had more time to visit everything; however, we tried our best to visit as much as possible. One of my friends is a huge fan of the European Union, so we visited a multitude of EU buildings all over the city. I never thought I’d see so much of the European Union in one day. Later that evening, we visited the Brussels Christmas Market and were able to take a ride on the Ferris wheel and have an excellent view of the expanse of the city. The following day, we took a daytrip to Brugge. Brugge is like something out of a fairytale, I’m not sure if anyone actually lives there because it’s so perfect. The buildings are all hundreds of years old and so quaint. There are a multitude of Belgian chocolate shops and Cathedrals and Christmas Markets, all of which we visited. Europe was fun, but by the end, we were all wanting to go back to Morocco.

Our final 2 weeks in Morocco were dominated by finals and papers. It seemed the school plans to assign all of its work within those final 2 weeks. Thus, we didn’t travel very far. We went to Fez on the weekends and Azrou during the week to buy our final gifts and other things. After finals, I left Al Akhawayn and went to the nearby city of Meknes to visit my roommate and her family. It was nice to stay with a Moroccan family and see how they live.

I left Morocco on the 19^th and flew to Paris; I slept in the airport that night and awoke to find that the flight I was supposed to take back to Montana was cancelled. I went to the desk to reschedule and the only flight they could place me on was on the 22^nd. At this point, all I wanted to do was to fly home. So, I left the desk in hysterics because they refused to help me anymore. I called my mom on my phone in confusion and she was able to help me find a hotel. Finally, on the 22^nd I was able to fly from Paris – London – Seattle. When I reached Seattle, I discovered that they had failed to complete my booking to Montana in Paris. Luckily, they were able to find room on the plane for me and I was able to fly home.

And now I’m back.

The unofficial hit and miss list of 2009/ Morocco

I haven't written anything since the camel trek.



Am I bad blogger? Or maybe I'm having too much fun.



I've recently made it back state-side. It's quite nice. Everyone speaks English and I'm no longer a minority. Is that a bad thing to say? Either way, it's the truth. I can once again eavesdrop and understand what people are saying. Oops. There I go again, spilling my internal thoughts and actions. So, can I go back to Morocco now?



Anyway, back to the subject....



Hit/Miss of 2009



I think I'll start with the Hit list (not that sort of hit list....even though, I should start one of those...just for fun)



Hit List (The Positives of 2009 - Mostly from Morocco)



-Morocco - By far the biggest and bestest thing that happened in 2009. It was amazing, I can't put words into amazing-ness. So, I won't...But, I do know that stuff about/from Morocco will appear on this list...a lot.



-I turned 22 in style with a chocolate cake made by John Blake. Another year older....another year wiser? Perhaps.



-Traveling to France for the second time. It was incredible, as always, and very relaxing. While in France, I was finally able to visit a discotheque, drink wine at lunchtime, take a tour of a French village on a 4-wheeler and eat a lot of cheese.



-(Cue Arabian Nights-esque music) Ride a Camel into the Sahara and camp for the night. Does this really need an explanation of the awesomeness? Have I mentioned how much I love camels?



- Beneluxxxxx. Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg. All in one extended weekend. A 6 day tour of Chocolatiers, Museums and Christmas Markets. Excuse me, but do you have a puzzle book?



- In fact, I can't really remember much of 2009 except for Morocco.



-Fez (Fes), Morocco- I love Fez, regardless what others say (Anass...). I love the Medina and Muhammed's cafe, disappearing into the other-worldness of Cafe Clock, the stinky Tanneries, getting lost in the Medina, Jus De Banane, rooftops and the Bab.



-MASI- Montana Arabic Summer Institute. Otherwise known as; the craziest and busiest few weeks of my life, as well as, the funnest and best job ever. I loved working with all the various personalities that incorporated this years MASI program including the students. We had so much fun traveling and teaching/learning Arabic together. Another round of pictionary please.



-Chefchaouen, Morocco- (Also known as, the place that I cannot spell except after 4 attempts) The entire trip north, excluding Tangier (it wasn't that exciting), was something out of Alice in Wonderland, it was so strange, so bizarre, yet, so wonderful. Any place that is painted all blue cannot be ordinary.



-The Desert, I know I brought up the camels, but the desert is one of the most incredibly beautiful places and so sandy.



-The people I met in 2009. I can't list them all because I know I'll exclude someone. The people that I met in Morocco are the some of the best people I've ever met in my life thus far. We traveled together, lived together (sort of), we were sick together, we went through Ramadan together, spent so much time together that if it were anywhere else, we would probably hate each other, but by the end of the semester we remained so close to one another.



-Essaouira, Morocco. A crazy trip of fresh fish markets, fording rivers, Gnawa music, bargaining, rooftops, really long and sauna-esque bus rides and KFC. One of the best cities in Morocco.



- Buying a Macbook and an iPod. I love my Apple products, when they work.



- Crocheting more hats than....than...what I know what to do with.



- Azrou sunsets with Jus De Banane and Cheap Sandwhiches.



-Highland Dancing at First Night..... solo.

-Saturday Nights watching Babar and playing Rock Band II in Madeleine Street house.

- Couscous and Tajine. NoosNoos and Mint Tea. Food is good in Morocco.

-Polychronic. The very concept of being polychronic is so much more relaxing, however, sometimes it's a bit annoying because nothing gets done in a efficient manner. It just takes longer.



Miss List (Things that I missed out on)



-Not spending more time in Morocco. Heck, it's a great place, full of culture and history. I wish I was spending more time there. But, I'm planning to go back in the near future, so, round 2 of Liz in Morocco will soon happen. Inshallah.



-In relation to the previous, miss item, not spending enough time in Marrakesh, Casablanca and Rabat. Apparently, those are great places or something, because everyone across the pond here in the states keeps asking me if I went to those places. Um. Okay.



-Breath mints for dogs. Only because my dog is panting next to me and her breath stinks. Ew.



- Not Dropping Advanced-Intesive Arabic. Why didn't I drop the class like I wanted to. I should have taken that Sociology class instead.



- Not going Skiing. Maybe next year.



- Not singing Africa by Toto enough when it rained.



- Not buying a teapot or a jilaba in Morocco. Sad Camel.



- Jet Lag. I really could have done without it.

-Not skipping class more and traveling.

-Bargaining/Bartering. I have a love/hate relationship with it. Sometimes it's fun, other times I just want to scream in frustration. Please, I don't care if it's democratic price or you'll be giving me a good price. I don't believe youuuuu.

Miss lists are harder to write...because I generally don't have that many regrets to count for....Oh well.......

This is it. The unofficial hit/miss list of 2009. I'm sure there is more...and they will be added in time.

Well. I'm back. And now I want to go back.

I love Camels.

Last weekend we took a short trip to Merzouga and rode camels. It was frickin' amazing. 7 shooting stars, 1 night in a Bedouin tent, 1 amazing Tajine dinner and a sore behind, it was all worth it.

Blog Post 5: Life in Polychronic-nessss

Life is Polychronic here, or at least that's what they tell us.

What's Polychronic you ask...

Well, that's a good question....

According to the dictionary it's when things happen all at once.....

For me and for the other foreign exchange students, Polychronic is an explanation for everything that happens; the absence of nice orderly lines or people inviting you places such as their house after meeting them or the lack of order at a Grand Taxi station.

Even though it makes things take 10 times longer, there's something special about it as well as an annoyance. However, I believe that's just my orderly American side coming through.

Polychronic. I love it and hate it at the same time.

Blog Post 4: This is Africa (Image heavy)

Dear Africa,

This is Liz, thank you for being everything I expected and more. Thanks for being hot all the time, but also raining so I can sing "Africa" by Toto. Oh and thanks for the food.

Much Love,

Liz

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This is Africa. I'm in Africa, Morocco to be precise. (O Hai Africa *wavesss*). I'm still in shock, more like, self-imposed shock, I have a tendency of reminding myself numerous times a day that I'm here.

Ooooh! Look! A Moroccan fly (It's so muccchhhh coooler because it's Moroccan!!!!)

.....right.............

This post contains a very brief update of my life from last week until now and oodles of pictures.

This past weekend I went to Tetouan (I just had to look up how to spell that....). It was fabulous, we met wonderful Moroccans, swam in the Mediterranean, ate delicious food (nom nom nom) and stayed in a beautiful Riad in the center of the Medina (or city/market area)! Dear reader, if you ever go to Tetou-an, I know the place to stay.

This was taken on the way to Tet.....ouan. Yeah, that's Africa.
This is a random Moroccan City and youth playing soccer.
There are Palm trees in Morocco, oh, and the Rift Mountains (as well as construction!).


The Mediterranean....OoOoOoOOoooo


This is a Souk.
Sighzzzz, it takes soooo long to upload pictures or maybe it's my lazinessss. Oh well.

Back at school, life is about average, very school like, studying....clubs....more studying...oh and classes.

It rained last night....Yeah, that's right, it rained in Africa.

I bleessss the raaaaainnnsss dowwwnnn in Africaaaa