casablanca et azilah

The weeks fly by here. I guess this one more so than most because we had only four days of class, but  the weeks are gone before I know it.

I have had doubts about whether I am fully taking advantage of my experience here because I spend so much time with other American students. We are all in the same situation; foreign in a country, facing language barriers and wanting to travel while we can. In that respect, I can't feel bad about spending so much time with Americans. Anyway, we meet Moroccans while we are out so it works in our favor some of the time.

With this same group of girls above, I took a trip to Casablanca on Friday. We left on the train after Arabic in the morning and arrived by 11h30. I have enjoyed my time in all of the cities that I've visited but I have to admit, Casablanca was not my favorite. It was a grey day, which didn't help, and the air was thick with humidity. As I walked I felt that I could taste the smog and could smell burning trash. We went to Casablanca with simple motives; go to Rick's Cafe, per the film Casablanca, and see Morocco Mall, the biggest mall in Africa. At Rick's Cafe, we treated ourselves to a cocktail and seafood which was much needed. I had a caesar salad and could actually taste the anchovies, and then had grilled shrimp with black pasta. It was so nice to taste familiarity. 

Afterwards we walked the city for as long as we could bear without choking due to gnat consumption. It was truly bizarre how many gnats there were...really gross. We then made it to Morocco Mall where I spent entirely too much time and money. But it was really nice to be there. And we had fun. This is me trying to justify it. But it's not working. We returned to Rabat (just a one hour train ride) to make it back to go out with some friends and a few friends that we made on the train. 

Saturday morning I got an early start with a friend to head to Azilah, a quaint, artisan beach town on the Northern Atlantic coast. It was a four hours but well worth the hot and crowded train ride. If I understood correctly, the town was first Portuguese and then Spanish, so the presence of Spanish is much more prevalent there than across Morocco. The mayor of the own pledged to "keep Azilah as clean as Switzerland", and he told no lies. The town was spotless. It was an amazing retreat from the noise and grime of the big cities. 

As we began walking through the tiny town, we came across an older man who took interest in us. He asked if we were French, we said, no American, and he was impressed with my French, but more so my friend's Arabic. He invited us to tea with him at a cafe down the street and we actually said yes! I was the only girl in the packed cafe and faced some disapproving looks from the men as I entered. Our host, Mohammed, assured me, however, that I was at liberty to do whatever I wanted, including smoke kif at the table with the men. He turned out to be a checkers boss, like the man schooled every single person he played and did it with style. Each time he would set up a double or triple, he would use the same cry, "aghhra!". After an hour there, we moved on and continued walking through the white-washed city, with painted walls and villas on cliffs overlooking the sea. It was so charming and relaxing to be there.

Sunday morning we went out in the town, took our time having a Moroccan breakfast of Melaoui (delicious fried dough...why does it have to be so delicious?) and a normal sized coffee -- hard to come by here. We went to a small art museum and took a short carriage ride and then got back on the train for Rabat. It was so nice to be there...I hope to go back this semester.

So, it is midterm week. Which, under most circumstances, calls for studying, coffee, all-nighters, etc. but it is a little different here. Sometimes I forget I'm taking classes. Not proud of that but that's the reality. I just put a lot more weight on learning through other experiences here. 

Once I get through this week, at this time on Friday, I'll be headed to Spain to enjoy a nice spring break!