Small digression...

Hi everyone! I hate interrupting the Morocco saga (if anyone still has interest...it's been so long!) because the best is yet to come, but I have noooo time to write! Especially since I don't want to write about it without all the interesting and funny details.

So I decided to update really fast to tell you that I am still alive! I have been super busy enjoying life here and traveling a little more...I went to Ronda, experienced feria here in Sevilla, went to the beach in Portugal, and we had a trip with the school to Granada last weekend. I've actually hastily written about most of that on paper so one day (aka, possibly not until this summer...sorry!) I will write about it on here so I can have it typed out for myself if nothing else lol.

But just wanted to let everyone know that I am doing well! One reason I am busy is I have an 8-10 page research paper due soon that I need to prioritize...which is hard because I would much rather hang out with my intercambio, talk with my host mom or watch Spanish tv with her, go to Biblestudy, or get a coffee with a friend lol. So we'll see how that goes! hehe I know I will get it done but I am a little nervous becuase I have never written something that long in Spanish!

I hope everyone is doing well, thank you for all the prayers and support!

Morocco Chapter 3

So the next day the original plan was to get straight back on the bus and drive to our next destination which was 7 hours away (supposedly we were going to tour Fes on our way back). But the powers that be decided that traveling all day was a little much so we were going to spend some time in Fes that morning. (As you will see, it’s a good thing we got some sort of touristy activity in!) So we did the tour of the city. We saw some golden doors to the king’s residence there and had our pictures taken with the guards, who very graciously tolerant of us. Then we walked around more of the city. It was bigger of course and much more urban than Chefchaouen, but it still had just as much poverty. It was really interesting though to walk around those very narrow roads in between tan walls (not blue here!) and interrupted by little holes in which people made a living with shops selling one specific type of thing. They were seriously like little closets, most of the time it looked like the person had to climb over the counter to stand in it. They sold everything…shoes (some looked like they had been worn), flowers, bread, nuts and spices, cleaning supplies, clothes…we even saw one of the enclaves filled to the brim with stacks of dusty cassette tapes. A lot of the time there were a lot of the same thing being sold on the same street…I heard that the people didn’t really care about trying to compete though; they were just concerned with trying to make enough to eat that day.

It wasn’t always pleasant though. We poked our head in this place where they had like a million sheep hides they were gathering cotton from. Walking into it was definitely a very smelly, strange experience.

We soon found out that we would be taken to a lot of touristy places where they would try to sell us something in the end. They were still pretty interesting though and they didn’t normally pressure us to buy something unless we started bargaining, in which case you could be stuck! One place was where they made things out of leather. The main store overlooked the area where they dyed everything. We could see all these big holes with dye and men working down below, so that was pretty cool. We took pictures and one young guy working saw all us girls (there were actually only 4 guys on the trip total!) and started flexing his muscles and doing pushups across the hole for the camera. It was funny!

There was also a weaving place where they had a lot of traditional clothes and scarves used for turbans. They would put them on our heads for us like they wear them so that was fun. Then we went to a place with like a million beautiful, hand-woven, very expensive rugs. It was cool to see them and drink the tea that they gave us. We also got to go up on the roof there, which had a good view, and see some ladies actually doing the weaving!

I think that’s about all we did in Fes. So after that it was off to Erfoud for lunch. We still supposedly had a 7 hour drive ahead of us which was going to put us there even later than the normal late lunch we have in Spain. Or so we thought. We started driving and at about 12:30 or so (I think we were less than an hour outside of Fes) the bus started letting out a lot of smoke. So we had to pull over to the side of the road. Apparently, the bus was having some grave problems and going even like 15 minutes to the next city would not be a good idea. So we were stranded….in the African wilderness. We had to jump out of our burning bus and face lions—luckily the elephants gave us refuge and there were a few trees we could climb during the stampede. Hehe just kidding. (Totally had you going right??) No it was interesting because it didn’t really feel like we were in Africa. We hadn’t really seen any jungle or even the Sahara yet and all the people looked more Arabic than African. So fortunately for us we weren’t driving through they jungle, although we did see a turtle and some sheep. It was just some countryside with a small mountain and a little house with a donkey across the road. We did all get out and hang out in the grassy area by the bus. Some of us practiced our Sevillanas (traditional Seville dances kind of like flamenco), others read or played games. Ester called back to Spain and had people contacting the agency to get another bus. They said they would have one on the way and there within 40 minutes. That did not happen. Upon calling back, they told us it had left already and they could not communicate with it but it should only be like ten minutes. We heard this same line over and over again, seeing as we were there for about six hours. Yup, 6 hours. Apparently in Morocco it is more important to tell people what they want to hear to try to keep them happy rather than tell the truth. God is good though, there were trees and bushes nearby providing for good restrooms (if we had driven a couple miles more there would have been nothing!), and some mentioned that that was actually preferable to the ceramic holes. We did get hungry but luckily most of us had snacks with us. Some people started getting frustrated with the situation but overall everyone was pretty relaxed and just enjoyed hanging out—understanding that this is a third-world country and we can’t expect it to be the same. So finally at 5 something the first little van came (they didn’t have another bus the same size so they had to do a van and a bus). There was much rejoicing. Eventually people decided to go on and fit as many as possible in that on head to the next town for lunch. The rest of us waited for the other bus. Not to long later, after having watched other charter buses drive by all afternoon, ours finally arrived! There was much more rejoicing! So we got to a hotel in the next town and ate a much anticipated “lunch” at around 6:30pm. Phew.

After that we were going to take the same bus and van to Erfoud, but to no avail. Somehow it wasn’t licensed to go that far or something. So we sat at the hotel and Michael, Ester, and Muhammad took our orders for beer, wine, and mint tea while they figured out what to do. Hehe it was funny when they offered the second round and we knew they were just trying to keep us happy for as long as possible!

After thinking we were going to have to stay in a hotel there or back in Fes that night they finally found a way to take three vans and said that if we were willing to drive really late we could go on and go to Erfoud and not loose so much time in the Sahara the next day. We voted yes and piled into these van-bus things. We ended up having to sit in them without moving for a while though because it turns out that one of the drivers didn’t have his license and had to go get it. At that point we weren’t surprised. I think it was close to 11pm when we finally left.

Although I can’t tell you how happy I was to finally be moving, I have to say that driving that late at night in the middle of who knows where in Morocco was a little scary for me. It was so dark and we had gone a different route than the other two vans and we were just winding through mountains in the middle of no where in the middle of the night in Africa—not the safest place in the world. Ester was in our van though and it was all fine of course. Luckily someone let me have some of their Dramamine and I slept a little. We stopped for one bathroom stop (one of those rest stops we saw a lot of there with pork in the form of a full skinned pig hanging right in front of you) and a lady was standing in front of the restrooms. She let some people go in but when she realized how many of us there were she started yelling at Muhammed. He argued back but ended up angrily giving her money out of his own wallet so we could use her holes in the floor. Crazy.

We finally got to the hotel at 4:30 in the morning. And of course this was the nicest hotel we would be in during the whole trip! We only got to enjoy a few precious hours of sleep in those amazing beds. It was just really pretty and spacious and had a pool shaped like Africa!

Anyway, so that was that day. What an adventure! Hehe. Sorry I don’t have pictures this time, I am at the center and I don’t have my laptop with me but I wanted to go on and post this. Until next time!

Morocco Chapter Two

So I woke up that morning after not actually sleeping, changed clothes, and ran to meet Joanne. God is good, because I was amazingly awake! I definitely slept some that morning on the bus though. This was a trip with my program so all 50 of us were on a bus together with two leaders from our center – an administrator named Ester and an English teacher named Michael. They were both really nice and a lot of fun. We drove an hour or so to Gibraltar and then took a ferry across the Mediterranean. I felt slightly seasick on the ferry but I could barely keep my eyes open so luckily I slept some. We got on a bus when we landed at Ceuta, a Spanish city. I think that was when Mohammed, our Moroccan guide, joined us. Then we drove to cross the border into Morocco. It was all strict – we couldn’t take pictures or anything and then we had to wait for like 30 or 45 minutes to for a girl in our group to get a visa. She was born in the Congo so she was surprised she had to have a visa to return to her own continent! During that time we had our first experience with a Moroccan bathroom – a ceramic hole in the ground. It definitely takes talent to use! Fortunately not all of the bathrooms were like that; we always had toilets in the hotels. Anyway, luckily we finally made it across the border.

Then we drove more… The Moroccan countryside is gorgeous – the mountains were breathtaking to me. I loved looking out the window in the bus while we winded through the tan peaks spotted with green towering above us. (Sorry, about the flowery writing…you will just have to bear with me because it’s the best way to really paint the picture!) But it wasn’t that perfect because the roads that my eyes loved the most were also the ones that the rest of my body hated the most. Going around those curves in a charter bus (especially when I sat in the back) is enough to make almost anyone feel carsick!

So we finally got to this little town tucked away in the mountains called Chefchaouen to have lunch. It seriously looked like it was from a movie or something! It was almost completely surrounded by mountains bigger than I have ever seen. Like all other Moroccan towns we went to, it had windy narrow streets and lots of teeny tiny venders along the street selling food and all kinds of other random things. Almost all of the buildings in Chefchaouen were painted with different shades of an aqua blue – apparently it keeps it cool without reflecting the sun like white would. It made for pretty scenery as well! We ate lunch at a restaurant there and I liked it a lot. We always ate well on the trip, normally the meals were around three courses and very yummy! That first lunch was similar to a lot of the others: we started out with bread (which we had refilled throughout the whole meal) and some cold vegetable salad thing and then they brought out this huge clay thing with something that was like a pot roast except Moroccan-style – with saffron I think and different flavors. We ended with a plate of fruit and the Moroccan staple, mint tea. It’s always served hot in a little glass and made with green tea, mint, and lots of sugar. Sounds simple but I don’t know if I can ever replicate the delicious taste! They drink it ALL the time there; we normally had it multiple times a day! So we ate and walked around the town. It was like going back in time, there were woman washing their clothes in the river. I felt bad though because some other people and I tried to take picture of their little wash houses on the river in just trying to get the whole scene but they would yell at us not to take pictures. We realized that it was like we were treating them as a spectacle, which of course is the last thing we want to do. It was a weird situation…to be in awe of these people just because they are so different from me…but at the same time to remember they are still people just like me. I would hate to have people walk by gawking at me every day and trying to take pictures.

Then we drove to Fes, where we would sleep for the night. That was what we did for probably more than 50% of the time: rode in a bus! Everything was just really far apart. Fes was pretty cool, it was decorated with lights strung across the streets and other things because the king had just visited. There were pictures of him everywhere – apparently he is more modern than his dad was. His wife is actually a public figure, no one ever saw his mom like that. Anyway, we got there in time for dinner (a really good coconut cookie, tomato and garbanzo bean soup, roast again, and yummy orange juice fruit mix) and going to bed, which was much anticipated!

So that was the first day. Sorry for all the details, I just like to write them if I have time because like I said this is to explain to my family and for me to remember, too! If I were you I wouldn’t have time to read any of this so no one feel obligated hehe.

Besos!

Morocco Chapter 1

Alright, I am actually going to start with the day before I left. This was my roommate, Becky’s last full day here, so she was trying to do everything she hadn’t had a chance to do in the last three months hehe. So we were busy but we had a lot of fun! We got ice cream that morning and rode in paddle boats with some other girls on the Guadalquivir River. Although a work out for the thighs it was gloriously beautiful (the weather was perfect) and relaxing at the same time. That night we had a party at the center (my school) and my intercambio came so it was cool to talk to her and her classmates. Then a lot of us went and got churros and chocolate (delicious!) and hung out by the river for a little while. Becky was determined to have me taste her favorite beer (Guinness) so we went with two other girls to a bar. I took a sip of her beer and wasn’t a fan…but we had fun hanging out while she finished it and laughing when the bar tender gave her a big Saint Patrick’s Day hat. Then we decided to go home, and since it was like 2 in the morning we didn’t want the other too girls to walk alone. But they lived in too different opposite directions, and meanwhile I had to be at the bus to leave for Morocco at 5:45 am. So we walked both of them like halfway home and by the time we got back it was like 3am, and I still had to finish packing! I had to say bye to Becky that night too…which was really weird because neither of us were actually leaving…I was walking to the bathroom to take a shower and she was going to bed. It was very sad though nonetheless…God is so good because we got along great and it felt like we had known each other for way more than two months! I miss her very much!! So between packing and talking to Becky and then saying bye to Becky and then showering it wasn’t until like 4:30 that I got in bed. After all that I was wide awake and didn’t exactly sleep at all during the 30 minutes I laid there! Then it was up again to meet Joanne and a couple other girls at like 5:15 to walk to where the bus would be.

Well geez I didn’t even get to the actually Morocco part! Just increasing your anticipation :) But I have to go home now because it’s Magdalena’s sister’s birthday today and she made some type of dessert so I am going to go have that with them.

Oh PS I read my other entry from the other day and I had to edit a typo so just to clarify it should have been "Isabel's roommate's boyfriend" not girlfriend lol if anyone even remembered that... I think I am going to follow my mom's advice and start making time to read through these things before I post them! hehe

I am going to Morrocco this weekend!! My school has organized the trip. I am kind of nervous about it, but really excited! I will return on Tuesday night so I can enjoy the rest of Semana Santa here. I probably won't have the internet the whole week, so I hope everyone is doing well and I will try to update in a little over a week!

So picking up where I left off again, when I got home from Barcelona it was like 10 am and I was exhausted and unshowered. Magdalena (my host mom) was here waiting for me. She excitedly told me that we were going to her pueblo that day as she gave me breakfast. I tried to tell her that I would be okay with staying here and resting and she could just go but she would not take no for an answer. I’m sure she could never imagine leaving me here alone without nine course meals and she said she wanted me to see her pueblo (home town…looks more like a little village). So she said I could rest and shower in her house in the pueblo so “Venga!” and I changed clothes, washed my face and brushed my teeth and we were off. We met her sister, Cipri, who lives two floors below and went out to wait on the corner by the car garage. I knew we were waiting for some guy but I wasn’t really sure what was going on. Then a car drives up with a middle aged man and an older woman who apparently was his mom. He parks his car and we all get in Cipri’s old voltswagon – I am in the back between Magdalena and the mother (to this day I still don’t know their names…they probably told me but I was so out of it…). We drove for about 45 minutes or so maybe…I don’t really know because I literally could not keep my eyes open and Magdalena had me lean on her shoulder and sleep. The time I was awake was kinda funny though, I wish I had more energy to understand all the conversation. It was just funny to listen to their non-stop chatter and bickering back and forth about which highway to take and what not.

Anyway, so we finally arrived. Her pueblo is beautiful! Right out her door down the street is a beautiful view of green pastures and mountains in the distance. She has a really nice house there, and it’s extremely spacious, especially compared to her small apartment here. Sure enough, after the house tour she took me upstairs and made a bed for me to sleep. It was like queen size and it was basically the most comfortable bed I’ve ever slept in! I slept for four hours until she woke me up for lunch. We went out to eat where yet again I understood almost nothing but the food was good. I had some type of meat…I asked what the plate was called to try to figure it out and she said it was called “Iberian Secret” which helped a lot hehe. (I later found out it was pork.) Then we walked up a hill to a castle, which happened to be right behind her house of course. The building was closed but we still walked up the hill to see the view which really was amazing. I love all those little white houses with the green and moutains in the background. She told me she grew up there…I told her I couldn’t imagine that, it was like something out of a storybook! She found that amusing J Then I went with her to visit some neighbors, and didn’t understand most of the conversation again, but they were all really nice.

We returned here that night at the same time as her son Jose Manuel and his girlfriend, Isabel, and cousin, Pedro. They were going out for “cervezas” (beers…they do it all the time here) and invited me. I was exhausted and didn’t want beer but I said yes because it was the first time they had asked me and I didn’t want it to be the last. So I went with them to this little tapas bar on the corner right by our apartment building and we met up with Isabel’s roommate and her boyfriend. We all got drinks and they ordered tapas to share (luckily Pedro was the only one who actually got a cerveza, so I didn’t fill silly with my fanta!) Needless to say, although I understood them when they addressed me directly, most of the time I had no idea what was going on because they spoke so fast and with their accent and it was impossible… It probably didn’t help that I was going on a four hour nap and no shower. I didn’t feel like I could even say anything…I felt like I didn’t have enough vocabulary to even spit out one sentence. So overall it was kinda a discouraging night. But I talked to Mary Alice about it and she was like, you have to have lots and lots of those nights to have one good one. It was good to have someone who could relate!

I went to a church service in a church here in Triana (the neighborhood/area of Seville I live in) that was held by a study abroad program here for Christian colleges. It was really good! It was mostly in English but some of the songs were in Spanish. It was the encouragement I needed. We sang the worship song “For you are good…” (not sure if that’s the title or not) which we used to sing all the time in my youth group during high school. I hadn’t heard it in a while so I was suddenly transported back to the old sanctuary in our church and it was a precious give from Him! As much as I love it here I definitely miss things from home so it is always nice to have a taste of it here when I can J

On Friday morning I met with Mary Alice for coffee. It was wonderful! She very graciously let me vent all my frustrations to her…language problems, and just the frustration of sometimes feeling like alone here in the way I think and what I believe. God is very good though because as much as I tried to vent in an email home (which does help, mom and everyone I appreciate your responses more than you know!) but it is totally not the same as having a real live person there who can sympathize and nod her head and respond before I’ve even finished speaking. So that was really good…she said I encouraged her too because she has had the same experiences. And by the way she told me that she is working with other Christian organizations here like Campus Crusade and InterVarsity so apparently there are more protestant Christians here than I thought! You can be praying for her and what God is doing here!

This weekend I went to the island Palma de Mallorca with my roommate Becky and our friend Rebecca. It was a short trip but it’s Becky and Rebecca’s last weekend because their school is on trimesters and so I really wanted to spend it with them! And Becky’s friend from Madrid, Marta, was going to be there so I decided to go. It was really fun! Marta was there (taking courses for her job as a flight attendant) and her cousin, Sylvia, was visiting too. The first day we rented a car because things on the island are pretty spread out. So all five of us were stuffed in this little European car bumping around because the stick shift didn’t always work right. It was so fun! On Saturday we saw these amazing caves and then ate by this beautiful little cove place. We stayed in a hostel that night, which was interesting because they had decided that the best plan would be to just try to fit three of us in a room for two. So we pushed the beds together and me Becky and Rebecca all sleep on them in the opposite direction. I just woke up a few times when the crack got really under my hips which was a problem because the other two were sleeping like rocks when I tried to push the beds back together. It worked though!

The next day we walked by the water to the cathedral, which was beautiful, and then Becky and Rebecca played in the sand and collected shells (I was opposed to getting sand and water in my shoes). Then we climbed up 500 steps (Becky counted) with Sylvia (Marta had to study) to a castle. Sylvia even did it in heels! The castle wasn’t super impressive but the view was incredible! It was fun to be with Sylvia too because she didn’t speak much English so we got a lot of practice. We ate near the beach again that night for dinner. It was a really good weekend and I am glad I spent it with her!

Well, I have a lot to do this week so I am gonna run…I apologize for typos and what not because I don’t have time to read this before I post it today…although I might try to come back and put pictures in if I can. Hope everyone is well!

Hay mucho que decir....

Hi everyone! Sorry it has been forever since I updated, I know you have been on the edge of your seat this whole time hehe. I have been super busy so this is the first time I have gotten a chance!

So I like my new classes. I have an advanced grammar class with only five people in it, including myself (yes mom I told you three but two more people joined). I love it because we all have lots of time to talk and I feel comfortable asking any questions I need to ask. Especially because the class is really directed towards whatever we need to go over -- the first day she told us to tell her what grammar topics we need to work on and that's what we would do! I love it because I am a nerd when it comes to Spanish grammar (not english grammar, only spanish). I guess it's because I am perfectionist and if I am going to speak I want to do it right!

Speaking of grammar, my intercambio told me today that she is a grammar expert (her parents are professors) so that should help a lot too! For those of you who do not know, an intercambio is a spanish person learning english who you get paired up with to practice together. I was disappointed at first because i signed up for one but didn't get one for like the first three or four weeks. I told God that i really wanted one, and one that would actually be helpful and willing to meet (sometimes they don't work out) because I need to be around Spanish people if I want to learn the language! He is so incredibly faithful. He knew that I didn't have time to spend with one earlier and brought her at exactly the right time. Her name is Cristina and she is 27. She is actually from Cadiz, a beach city not too far from here, and she is here working and looking for a full time job and taking English classes at the center with my program. She is wonderful! Her class meets in the morning and it has a thirty minute break everyday and after the first day we met she said I could come have breakfast with her basically her whole class during their break if I wanted. She said "If you aren't embarrassed..." I said I was a little but I would get over it. So I went! Everyone was really nice. I mostly just get to talk to Cristina though which is good. I go with them like every other morning now and get to talk to her and some of the others. I brought some other American students today, it was fun! She also wanted to bring each other lists of spanish and english phrases and talk over them together which we have been doing as well in the mornings or when we meet for longer periods, which is very very helpful! So yet again, as Ephesians 3 says, He did abundantly more than I imagined!! ok the center is closing now and i still have like a novel to write to be on the look out for the next post!