Chefchaouen: Round Two & the Cannabis farms

Last weekend I decided to go back to the Blue city. It's such a stunning city and I wanted to go back and see the cannabis farms that the region is oh so famous for. The Rif Region of Morocco is famous for hashish as it produces nearly half of the world's hashish supply. Pretty amazing. I've heard that people in the region even tried to grow other products for agriculture but the only plant that would grow well was cannabis. So funny. So for this reason hashish has become such a strong part of their culture and has a huge impact on its economy, that the hashish culture is tolerated here by the Moroccan police.

Anyways I ended up going again and I went with another exchange student friend and we ran into two of the Italian exchange students, so we ended up traveling together and getting an apartment together. It worked out really well!

We got there late Friday night and spent the evening finding an apartment and exploring the medina a bit. And just like last time, there were numerous hashish dealers wandering the streets. You could find one at the turn of every corner. It is amazing to me how much it is a part of their culture there.

Saturday we called up one of the guys we met Friday night who said he owned his own cannabis farm. We had breakfast, and afterwards he gave us a tour of his fields and he even showed us the process of making it. The fields were mostly bare since it is nearing winter and they had already collected most of it. We went into one of the farms buildings and there were just piles and piles of weed everywhere. The entire room was full of it. He then picked some out, brought it and us to another room where he showed us how to make it.

These are photos of the cannabis fields and the process of making hashish. In the end we ended up learning to make it ourselves and of course we were served Moroccan Tea :)

After our tour of the farm, the guy took us on a hike through a trail in the mountains nearby. We saw a lot of beautiful waterfalls, and we made stops along the way for food. It was beautiful. It was amazing to me how clear the water was. But it was too cold to swim in. Anyways, I always enjoy hiking :)

We finished the hike when the sun went down. We headed back to our apartment and relaxed for the rest of the night. 

We woke up Sunday morning and just explored the medina. The others that I had come with had not been before so I ended up revisiting a lot of the same parts of the medina. We shopped a lot. My exchange is coming to an end in less than a month and I'm constantly worrying about Christmas shopping already. 

Most of our late morning and early afternoon was spent shopping. Then we caught our bus back to Fez at 3pm and I worked on my paper for a Politics class on the bus ride. I suppose we could have stayed later in Chefchaouen, but I had to guarantee I would be back before midnight to submit my paper. I cut it close but I got it done and submitted it five minutes before midnight when I got back to Ifrane. Success!  

I still can't believe my time here ends in less than a month. There have been a lot of ups and downs, but now I don't want to leave. In the past two weeks since I have not been hanging out with other international students, I've been feeling a lot more grounded here in Morocco. I realized I was doing my exchange completely wrong. There is no point in studying abroad if the main people you hangout with are people from your own home country. It was stupid, and I regret my decision for doing that before. Even though I have plenty of Moroccan friends, continuing to hangout with fellow Americans all the time makes you view Moroccan culture as a touristic/foreign perspective. Since I've been mroe on my own in the past few weeks, I've been spending all my time with only Moroccans, and being the only foreigner, people will speak less English. If there is a huge group of foreigners people will speak english. But because it has just been me they will speak their own native language. In the past few weeks I've learned more Darija (Moroccan Arabic) than I have in my entire semester her thus far. With it being just me, assertive Moroccans teach me how to pour the tea, they wont just serve it to me. 

That's the difference between really immersing yourself, and just living here as a tourist. You can sit back, speak English with fellow native English speakers and observe the culture (the fact that tea is important for example) from a foreigner perspective because you are only conversing and analyzing with other foreigners, OR you can put yourself into the culture and be taught how to pour the tea. You wont just sit there and have it be served to you, but you can learn HOW to make it and HOW to pour it. Another example is attire. Foreigners can sit back and observe how people dress here, possibly even make fun of it. I know that I thought peoples attire was interesting and strange, but once you put yourself in the culture you understand Moroccan perspective and WHY people dress he way they do. These are the slight differences. Between observing, and understanding how things are done. 

I'm not really sure if this all make sense but my mind is also sort of all over the place. Overall I'm feeling a lot better about myself and my time here in Morocco. Before I was so homesick, but now I only wish that I could stay longer. Now that I'm understanding more, I'm learning more and I feel grounded here. Morocco has become more of a home to me now in the past few weeks than it ever did before. Before, I was just living here. That does not mean it's a home. A place where I understand things and local cultural habits feel right. Does this make sense?

Anyways, I'm off to write a paper. I'll write more soon! Ciao ciao 

Lost in the Blue City: Chefchaouen

This past weekend I traveled to Chefchaouen, the Blue City. This city is known for being beautifully blue and picturesque, along with fields and fields of weed. So although weed is illegal in Morocco, it has been a part of the culture in this town for such a long time, that it is tolerated by the local police. Chefchaouen is in the middle of the hills with lots of beautiful hiking around it.

The trip was originally a small group of my friends and I, but others who I'm having some problems with (stupid drama stuff that happened over Halloween weekend) invited themselves. I tried to remove the negative from my life, but they just keep pushing themselves in my face and back into my life. My time abroad has become a bit stressful. I hate drama, and I've realized that some of the friends I once had really were not real friends and it's hard realizing that at the end, especially when there is still a month left here. Aside from friends issues here, my homesickness has gone away. I think it's because those friends were really mistreating me which made me sad, feel alone, and become homesick. But now they are mostly out of my life (except for this last weekend) and I'm feeling so much better. It's mixed feelings about my time here. I'm happier now that we're no longer friends, but since we started the semester together and made all the same friends, it makes social aspects of my life a bit difficult sometimes. I as an individual am happier with myself, but sometimes time goes by slowly.

Chefchaouen was beautiful, but it was an interesting weekend because I planned this trip but they invited themselves. I've never met anyone so obviously rude like that before.

Anyways, We left Friday afternoon and took a Grand Taxi to Fes, then a four hour bus ride to Chefchaouen. When we got there we didn't have any solid plans of where to stay. Luckily we ran into some local guys who showed us an apartment that we ended up staying at. Along with the landowner, another guy came with him trying to sell us weed. The guy showed us the apartment and it was perfect, blue, good sized, and had a view of the town. We sat down and the two Moroccan friends who came along with us began bargaining. We got the apartment for 400 MAD per night. That's like $45, and between the five of us that really wasn't much. After bargaining the price for the apartment, they began bargaining for the price of weed and hashish and all. It was really fascinating to me that this was just so casual and along with the landowner a weed dealer came too. So hilarious. In the end we scored good deals and spent the night just relaxing and going to bed early.

The next morning I was the first to wake up. I took a shower and climbed up to the top of our apartment roof and just enjoyed the view. Everything was so blue, it felt like being in Santorini except the city looked over a valley, not over the sea. I sat there waiting for the others to get up. Once we were all up and ready, we wandered our way through the town to eat breakfast in the town square.

The view from our apartment rooftop

Coffee and Moroccan tea at breakfast

On a side note about Moroccan tea, people here are obsessed with it and it's basically normal Green tea with mint leaves and a lot of sugar added into it. People have it with practically every meal and when it's served often times they're served in small cups that kind of look like shot glasses. Often times even if it's tea for just one person you will be served two small cups so that you can pour some in one, then pour it between the two glasses. This way you cool it down since the tea comes served so steaming hot. 

Anyways, after breakfast we wandered for about half an hour getting lost in the old medina. The skies started to clear and we decided to go hiking. We went back to the apartment, changed and brought our swim suits, and took a cab to the start of the trail. I can't tell you how much I missed hiking. At home in the summer I hike at least once a week, and it was such a good feeling to be in the mountains and in nature again, and FINALLY getting some exercise too. 

The beginning of the trail

On the hike we were hoping to get to the cannabis fields. We didn't make it because we didn't have enough time and the sun went down behind the mountains real fast. But the hike was still beautiful. People were smoking all around us the entire time. The entire hike was gorgeous. We followed along this river and stopped at an area where we went swimming. 

It was freezing cold water so I didn't go all the way in and swim, but I waded a bit. It was fun and really relaxing. I just loved being able to be in nature again. I missed it so much.

The sun was going down so we headed back to the apartment. We took showers, went to eat dinner and spent the chilling. It was peaceful (despite the negative people around me) just relaxing on the roof top under the stars. I think I only survived this weekend with the negativity around me this weekend because Chefchaouen is such a calm and chill environment. 

The weed dealer from the first day kept coming back to sell. So funny. 

Sunday morning rolled around, and again I was the first up. I took a shower and once all the others were up we began packing our bags and cleaning the apartment. We headed out of the apartment just before noon and spent the remainder of our time in the town wandering and doing some shopping before we left to head back to Ifrane at 3pm. Overall it was a good weekend. Chefchaouen is one of the most beautiful places I've seen in Morocco. If you ever come here, you should visit this place. I really could get lost in this town despite how small it is. It's so blue everywhere, everything kind of looked the same but different. I could get lost. But I enjoyed it, I saw so much beauty. I've really never seen such a magical and picturesque place. Here are some photos I took while wandering in the old medina. Enjoy!

Under the stars in the Pre-Sahara Desert

Time is a weird thing. Sometimes it goes by really fast, and other times it goes by extremely slowly. But it's all measured the same.

Halloween weekend was one of those slow times. Nothing happened on Halloween. I just learned who my true friends were. I really wasn't feeling well, so I stayed in bed most of that weekend and the days to follow it throughout the week.

November 6-9:
This last weekend was sort of a long holiday, there were no classes on Thursday so a lot of people just ended up skipping Friday. One of my Italian friends for his entrepreneurship class had to plan a vacation trip. He ended up organizing a trip to Merzouga, a city at the foothills of the Sahara Desert.

On Wednesday morning, the day before the trip it snowed. Just a little bit, but it snowed. Winter is coming and the wind in the mountains of Ifrane blew really strong that day. I'm usually pretty tolerant of the cold but that morning was too much for me. It's crazy to think that this small town really is part of Morocco.

From the mountains in Ifrane to the desert in Merzouga, we traveled driving through the Atlas Mountains Thursday morning. It was an absolutely stunning ride. Car rides are always easy for me to fall asleep on, but I never want to sleep because you can see so much just from driving through. It's amazing what you can miss in a split second driving through a small village and seeing the people.

We went through both the high, and low Atlas Mountains, and saw some areas (high Atlas) where there were even significant amounts of snow. When we arrived at that point it was hard to believe we were even in Morocco.

We made a few stops along the way like at this lake (above) and at a canyon and some other great scenic places.

Lunch: Meatball Tajine with egg

The Ziz valley

Souvenirs shop in Riassi

We finally got there at around 8pm in Merzouga. We hopped off our buses and walked into this beautiful riad. Riads are buildings that are constructed like a palace with a courtyard in the center for a fountain or garden sometimes, and the house is constructed around the courtyard. The only different between Riads and Moroccan style palaces is that they;re smaller, and they are generally homes, but extremely elegant homes. We walked around and checked into our rooms, it was a beautiful hotel.

The hotel was right at the foothills of the Sahara. This was the view from our backyard for the weekend. 

We were all pretty much super tired from travelling all day so most of us just ate dinner, and went to bed soon after that. The following day we woke up, had breakfast and some free time at the riad before we left on our camel adventure into the desert. Some of the other guys went swimming but i just layed out in the sun because the water was wayyy too cold. After our free time we ate couscous, since it was friday. It was DELICIOUS. I love couscous so much. I want to eat it all the time. At the restaurant we just all ate sharing the massive plate of food with everyone who was ate your table. it was one plate per table. And although there were half exchange students there in the group, there were also half Moroccans too. Some guys tried to dish some up and serve themselves on their own plate, but the Moroccans were always scolding us, saying, "no, no, no, that's not how you do it. You must eat with your hands." I love it here. The food culture. Everyone shares and we just reach our hands into the one plate and eat our fill. I was so yummy.

At around 3 that afternoon, we were all packed and ready and boarded our camels for our camel adventure through the pre-Sahara. The hotel owns its own camels and we just met them in the hotels backyard. So convenient. I ended up getting the largest camel of the bunch (30 or so camels). I named him Steve, and he was awesome. He had a really derpy face and Mohammed, our camel escort, made him the line leader. Every time someone dropped something and Mohammed left Steve on his own, Steve just would look arond for any bush of grass he could find, and start eating. And he dragged the rest of the camels in our line with him. He was the best, derpy and hungry.

After about an hour of traveling through the desert on our camels, we stopped to watch the sunset, which was gorgeous. Afterwards we continued on for another hour until we arrived at our campsite in a niche in the dunes. We stayed there for the night. We unloaded our camels and pretty soon after ate a dinner which consisted of a soup, a meat tajine, fruit, and of course Moroccan tea.

Following dinner, our guides took us outside and made a fire. Everyone surrounded it and the guides began playing music on the drums with traditional Berber drums, and they began to dance. It was a fun night, staying up for hours singing and dancing. One of the girls even brought her guitar, so after all the dancing the mood calmed down a bit, and we sat around the fire playing the guitar and singing. It was really beautiful and so much fun!

Mohammed, my guide, sat down and talked to me a lot of the night. I learned that he is from a small town near to Merzouga, and the he learned to speak Japanese, English, some Italian, very good Spanish and French, all from just working with tourists. He told me, that us tourists were his professors haha. Mohammed was cute.

That night it was difficult to sleep, it was too cold. We all had our own tents with thin mattress pads on the sand. It was comfortable, but soo much colder than I had expected it to be. I slept a little, but not much.  We got up early at 6am so we could climb the dunes and watch the sunrise. That was an amazing sight and I’m so glad I got up for it. 

Before we headed back to the hotel in Merzouga we ate a nice breakfast with coffee and tea. Breakfast is my favorite meal, so I was content.

We headed back on our humpy ride to the hotel. Literally, it’s a really humpy ride. Your given a saddle sort of thing which makes you be able to stay on well, except the camel’s hump really shoves up in your crotch area, and even more so when they’re walking down in the dunes, sliding and shifting their weight. I felt bad for all of the guys, I couldn’t complain.

Exhausted Steve

We got arrived back at the hotel. I said goodbye to my escort Mohammed, and my camel Steve. They were the best.

Then we had some free time until we had an SUV excursion. No one really had any idea what this meant but we saw some SUVs driving in the dunes and just thought that was what we would be doing. Since I was not prepared I didn’t bring my camera, but I took a couple on my phone. Driving through the desert was madness. Our group fit in four different cars, and our drivers decided to race. At each destination that we had, the drivers tried to race one another to it.

Our first stop, was a viewpoint from which you could see the Algeria-Morocco border. That was really cool to see. Then we were explained that because of the civil war going on in Algeria, there are a lot of people moving to Morocco, a place of stability, and nomads too.

At the mountains there ahead is the Algeria-Morocco border

Second, we were taken to see an abundance of fossils in this one area of rocks. We were explained that long ago many of todays' deserts used to be part of the ocean. We stepped out of the cars and they showed us alll of these marine type creature fossils. It was amazing. I could not stop staring they were so beautiful. These are actually a really common souvenir in the area.

The third stop was a nomadic home. We saw so many small really empty looking structures around in the desert. It was fascinating. We got to take a look inside a nomadic home which was a bit awkward because it was someones home but our tour guides told us to so I’m not sure… But the homes were very empty. We also learned that nomad homes didn’t have electricity until just 5 years ago. That was really interesting to me.

Driving through the desert we also saw a lot of roaming camels. We thought they were free camels but then we were explained how expensive camels are, and so no camel is a free camel. There must have been their nomadic owners nearby somewhere. 

It's fascinating to me that there really are people out there who live nomadic lifestyles, and just move around with their camels. Before while we were traveling through the desert we saw other people with camels. Some were tourists, but there were others who were the owners of the camels. They were just there trekking along, just chillin'. 

The fourth stop was at an old French quartz mine. In the early 1900s the French came and began mining quartz, but then they were kicked out and local Berber people took it over. It's pretty much a ruined village now with only a couple functioning buildings for those who still work there. It was pretty neat though! We walked around and climbed to the top of the hill. There we ate out lunch with a view of the desert. So breathtaking. Oh yeah, I also took home some pieces of quartz :)

Lunch spot view of the quartz mines in the middle of the desert

Our last stop was a lake. It was a small lake just fifteen minutes outside of Merzouga. It was pretty,but normal to me. But I guess it's a big deal because we were in the middle of the desert. I'm not sure. Afterwards we headed back to our riad hotel where we had some relaxing time before dinner.

That night after dinner me and a couple friends decided to take our wine, and bring it with us and drink in the middle of the dunes out in our hotels backyard. It was only right, since it was our last night in the desert. We just sat out there all night, drank our wine, and relaxed. I can't even explain to you how magical it is being in the desert. The sand is so soft, and being in the dunes is so relaxing. Just opening your eyes and seeing the dunes as your surroundings, its so colorful and calming. It feels like there is so much space and time out there, I just wanna go back already and spend my time playing around and rolling in the sand, and even sleeping there it's so soft and comfortable.

Even though we didn't really do that much, that night was magical. Laying there under the stars and in the soft sand of the Pre-Sahara with my friends and some wine. Simply magical.

The next morning our group took a group photo, then we headed out back to Ifrane. Without stopping the drive should be about six hours, but we made a couple stops along the way at some scenic viewpoints and at one place where a village man took us through his forest of produce and shared with us his work. There we kinda just wandered and got lost in his forest of palm trees. I've never seen so many palm trees in my life than I had there in the desert and the south.

We made a final stop about an hour and a half away from Ifrane. Dinner. We had bomb kefta which is beef prepared in, actually I have no idea how. But I do know it was delicious. After dinner we were headed back, and that was the end of our trip. The moment I arrived back on campus and in my room my body was exhausted and cold (still snowy in Ifrane) and I just headed to bed.

I'm sad the Merzouga trip is over. I loved the desert. Everything was so simple, calm, and peaceful. It was a much needed break from all the social and schoolwork stress I have going on at school.

Sorry I posted this a week late by the way. I hadn't found time between school work and the internet being down (internet here on campus is terrible). I'll post about this current weekend later this week. Now it's late and I just got back from a trip. So tired.

Good night!!

Just about the Halfway Point here..

A week ago was my halfway point being here. It's kind of crazy to think about it that way. There are still so many things I want to see and do. These last two weeks we went to Casablanca and saw Volubilis. But there are still only seven weeks left and at least five or six more places I want to go to.

Knowing that it's the halfway point, it kind of gives me a weird feeling. This is the point I should feel like I want to go home, and I should be missing everything. I was a bit homesick and adjusting a few weeks ago, but it never came to a point where I felt like I needed something from home because of an intense culture shock. It's just hard for me to say that I'm getting an intense culture shock here on this campus.

These past two weeks have been a bit hectic. Midterm week two weeks ago was really overwhelming for me and I became a crazy lady. School is a huge priority for me and when midterms and finals come around, nothing gets in my way or wastes my time because I know that any of that time could be contributed towards studying. I know, I'm intense. So during that week I mostly shut people out for the majority of the week so that I wouldn't get all crazy on them. It also drove my insane that the library closes at midnight even during midterms week. What is that? So I stayed up multiple nights in the computer labs which are open 24/7 but they are really loud and distracting. But at least it was a place to work. I worked my ass off that week and ended up pulling all A's and B+'s of the midterms I've gotten back so far. So I'm pretty happy it was well worth the work. The weekend rolled around and even though I had one paper left to write and a presentation due the next Thursday, I decided to give myself and break and take a spontaneous trip to Casablanca with my two main girls and a friend with whom we stayed at her house.

We left Friday afternoon and caught a petit taxi (small taxis that fit 3 people and go within the local town) to the grand taxi station. From here we took a grand taxi (big taxis that fit up to 6 people and for the whole cab is a set price and can be anywhere from $3-6 from one main city to another which are generally an hour away. It's an awesome deal.) to the Meknes train station from where we caught our train to Casablanca. When we arrived in Casa we took a petit taxi to our friends house. She had already left campus earlier that morning so we met her at her house.

Driving through the city was really hectic. Moroccan driving in general is pretty hectic but I don't mind too much because sometimes it happens in my own city and I'm pretty used to it in Italy. However, it was worse in Casa. Casablanca is Morocco's biggest city, and it certainly showed that driving through town from the train station to my friends house. The city was busy and full of people and cars. I mean all cities are like that, but Casa made me think it was like a Moroccan version of New York a bit. The neighborhoods varied though, some were really small and run down, other full of huge buildings and you could find anything you could need, and others were very traditional with Moroccan architecture. We finally made it to her house and we got some rest and when we woke up, Couscous was served! I love couscous so much. The university restaurant serves it every Friday, and that is the only thing they make that is edible and Friday is the only day I eat there. I get so excited on for Fridays for Couscous, except often times I don't get to eat it because we start traveling on Fridays for weekend trips.

Couscous in general is amazing. My school makes terrible food and their couscous is still edible. But my friends homemade couscous was to die for. Couscous is only made ans served on Fridays because it is the food of the prophet, and Fridays are the holy day. So if you come to Morocco and think that's all you're gonna eat, know that you are probably only going to be able to find it on a Friday.

After dinner we got ready to go out. My friend had some important matters to get to that night, so she left us with a group of her friends who took us to this amazing Brazilian restaurant for "aperitif" which is similar to happy hour, but isn't quite the same. I know what it is in Italian, but I don't think such a thing exists in the States. Or maybe I just don't know because I'm not yet 21. Anyways, for aperitif you just go and order a drink and pay for just your drinks, and you get unlimited food throughout the night. This place had live entertainment, lots of music, singers and dancers. At one point some of the dancers pulled us up onto the stage and made us dance with them. I was terrified because I just had being on the spotlight, so I went up for a bit but then left after a couple songs. It was still cool that they did that and made the night awesome.

After we had eaten plates and plates full of some of the most amazing meat I've ever had, and after drinking drink after drink, the restaurant closed shortly after midnight. Then our friends took us to a bar right on the beach and got us more drinks there. I ended up disappearing outside onto the deck of the bar and just started at the ocean and it's high tide. I couldn't believe that I was on the Atlantic Ocean. How neat is that? After awhile a pair of Italian men came along and they were from the same region my home in Italy is! We began speaking in Italian and it made me so happy. Except I felt the Italian words in my mind flow slower than usual because at this point in my experience here, even though my French is far from fluent, I am still thinking in French much more than I usually would at home. It was a strange sensation to know that the words in my head were French and I actually had to think to speak Italian. It was exhausting but still amazing and it made it easier that they were from my region and we have the same ways of speaking.

A couple hours passed by there and we decided to head home, since Saturday would really be our only full day in Casa to do whatever we wanted to do, and there were a lot of things we wanted to do.

Saturday morning we woke up, and one of my friends didn't feel well so she stayed the morning in bed. The rest of us went to get haircuts. I've been needing one for awhile, but everyone tells me not to get it cut in Ifrane, so the idea of it sort of terrified me so I waited until we were in Casa.

After our haircuts we went back to the house to get my friend, hoping she was better. She seemed okay so we brought her and went out to lunch along the beach. At lunch I just ate everything, because in cities they are more than likely to have good food, and food at school is disgusting. I was beyond excited to eat ravioli and it was amazing, I ate everything. When we all finished lunch, we headed straight to the Hassan II mosque. Being in my Islamic Art and Architecture class this semester, I was beyond ecstatic to see this mosque. I knew all the terms and functions of it. This Hassan II Mosque is the Largest mosque in all of Africa, and it's minaret (the tower) is the 7th tallest in the world. It was a gorgeous sight to see. If you ever go to Casablanca, this is a must see.

Next we went to the Morocco Mall, which is Africa's largest mall. I personally despise shopping and malls but we had to see it, and I really needed a scarf. If you needed anything, this was the place to get it. This mall seemed to be a pretty big mall, but I hadn't seen all of it. I saw a giant fish tank in the middle of it which was really cool.

But after I quickly bought my scarf I left to try get wine before the shop closed. Two of us left and two stayed shopping at the mall. We ended up not making it in time because the shops that sell alcohol close at 8. So we turned around, picked up the other two girls, and went out for dinner and got ourselves some wine there. It was a successful day in Casa, so here we were enjoying a last supper and celebrating with some wine and beer. The weekends are two short, I wished that we could have stayed longer. But it was a successful weekend and night. In the morning we woke up and all made breakfast together. Following breakfast we left my friends house, and headed toward the station to catch a tram, then our train. Leaving her neighborhood, her neighborhood guard came out and helped us with out bags all the way to the tram station. It was the sweetest thing and he was adorable. I hadn't realized that these were real jobs before, but it made us sad to think of how lonely these jobs are.

We caught our tram, then our train, and made it safely back to campus in Ifrane by night. The weekend break was over and I immediately went back into student mode stressing about my paper due that next Monday afternoon.

I ended up heading straight to the library and worked there for a few hours until it closed. The rest of my classmates who were also stressing about the paper headed to the lab but I couldn't work there for a paper. I ended up heading back to my dorm building and working there until 4 am and tried to sleep but didn't really. I got a few hours of sleep and worked again at 7am until 10am when I finished my paper. I felt so proud and successful. It didn't even feel like a crappy paper, I was just so happy I got it done but it also felt like a good paper. I submitted it on time, and I still haven't gotten it back, but we shall see! This paper was my last of five midterms. It almost could have felt like a moment of liberation, except for I happened to have a presentation due that Thursday. This presentation wasn't a midterm, but for two of my classes it is just a part of the class to give a presentation. Mine happened to be scheduled during midterms period which made it more stressful.

This presentation was for my International history class, a class I couldn't know less about, and that I couldn't care less about. When I first got here on campus they gave me like ten minutes to pick classes for my schedule without me being able to consult my advisers back in the States. I got four other decent classes, but this as my fifth was the only history class on the list that I could pick from. Even though it's modern history, I picked it hoping that it could possibly fit into my major (Archaeology) and that I could get credit, but I probably wouldn't. I just hoped there was the slightest chance. This university has 3 days of an Add/Drop period and I heard back from my home institution too late, so I got stuck with this class. I also, am one of the few International Students here who is actually taking letter grades. Most Exchange students couldn't care less about their academics because their taking pass/fail. Which in my opinion is completely incorrect because even though you are abroad and want to try new thing and travel, that's just traveling you might as well take the semester off and just travel. To me this is completely wrong because you are on exchange, you are given the opportunity to have a home base and immerse yourself. You should make local Moroccan friends and be a real student. Yes, your studies should not be so intense that they become more important and stressful than the experience as a whole, but if you're not being a student, what the hell are you doing with you life here? Work hard, and Play hard. Make local friends, even if that means you travel less, understanding the people and culture and its ways is so much more important than traveling and seeing a famous structure. You can see a picture of that on Google. You are here to learn, meet people, and establish relationships. I'm sorry, I went off on a little tangent there, people frustrate me.

It's just hard for me to compare this exchange to mine in Italy where it was a full immersion. With the lack of opportunity to improve my language by lack of immersion because this campus is so Western and everyone speaks English, I am trying my hardest to make new friends and understand so much about this culture, and learn the language. I'm putting all of my efforts to get something out of this and I see other Exchange students only hanging out with each other, only speaking English, never interacting with Moroccan students, and always traveling. It frustrates me to see that, they don't know what their missing. I know what I'm missing and I'm trying to so hard to get it.

Anyways, my presentation for International History was not difficult. But presentations in general stress me out because I know I am not a good public speaker. It was not hard material, I just end up getting anxiety throughout the entire week because I'm so nervous to public speak. Thursday came ad my presentation went. I stuttered a lot but I think the material that I presented was more important despite how poorly I spoke. Oh well, it went.

Finally, I had a break. So a couple friends and I went out to the club in town on Thursday night, which is always a chill time. Nothing too much to say about that except that whenever I go out on Thursday nights my mind gets messed up and I go on thinking that Friday is Saturday, and Saturday is Sunday etc. We decided to stay here this weekend because one of our close friends was throwing a big party, and we didn't want the stress of planning to go somewhere last minute. Friday after classes our friends took us to a spot where there is an absolutely amazing view. It was this little spot about ten minutes away from Ifrane. We thought we were on our way to go see the Monkeys in Azrou, but they took us here instead. I guess we'll have to do the monkeys another time.

Friday night we went out to our friends house first, played with their puppy, then went to our other friends house party. The house was enormous and gorgeous. For the most part I had a good time, I also spent the majority of my night next to the chip table because lets face it their chips here are bomb.

Saturday we got up and I got my two friends to come to Volubilis. FINALLY. It's been like 3 weekends that we stayed in the area, not traveling and all and we've never made it. We usually end up sleeping in or just goofing off. It was getting really annoying people finding out that I'm an archaeology major and that I've never been to Volubilis yet, especially since it's so close. We left at around 1pm and first took the petit taxi to the grand taxi station, then the grand taxi to Meknes. We ate lunch in Meknes and decided to be super American and eat Mcdonald's and Pizza Hut just because we missed this kind of food. I know, we're gross. But unless you've studied abroad before, you'll begin to crave things like Mcdonald's even if you don't ever eat it normally when you're home. So anyways, that happened.. Then we took another 20 min grand taxi ride to Volubilis...

The site was actually a lot bigger than we expected it to be and it was a good trek up and down around this hilly site. This is a Roman site that whenever my professor in my Islamic Art and Architecture class starts talking about mosaics, he talks about this place. He was so right, I've seen a lot of archaeological sites and even worked on a Roman site this last summer, this place has some of the most amazing mosaics I've ever seen. The archaeologist in my cried a little bit they were beyond stunning. Even if you're not interested in history or anything related to archaeology, you still need to see it because it is amazing art. 

The site was so big I don't think we actually got to see all of it, but we saw the main parts. Our cab driving was waiting for us so we had to leave after about two hours. We headed back to Meknes, then caught a grand taxi back to campus in Ifrane. That was our Saturday, yesterday. If you have not yet gone to Volubilis, you need to go because these mosaics are the most beautiful I've ever seen. I just want to go back and look at the closer but too bad we can't touch them or get closer. 

Saturday night we really didn't do too much. It was a holiday here so there was no alcohol served anywhere. I still don't really understand this holiday, but I'm going to ask. Anyways, those were my past two weeks, and I'm so grateful midterms are over. And I'm happy we finally went to see Volubilis, I want to go back already.

Today is Sunday, I'm not doing too much except I'm going to start prepping my presentation for next week for my Politics class, and I'm going to go to the library to find French books that I can practice reading. Wish me luck!