Partying at McDonald's

Salaam wa aleikum!

So, I'm heading off to Rashidiya and Merzouga tomorrow with my family, which means that when I get back there will be pictures of the desert and camels and all the stereotypical things you think of when you think of the Middle East. Get excited.

However, while you wait, please feel free to watch this lovely video I made during my time at McDonald's this past weekend.

Ma'a salaama!!

I Made Another Video!

Rough-riding in Meknes

Salaam wa aleikum!

So I was meaning to write this post so much earlier in the week but school kind of got crazy and there was just no time to write. This is actually going to be pretty short, too, because I have to write a 300 word story, but it's kind of mutating into a monster (a beautiful monster).

Anyway, we went horseback riding on Tuesday!

Connor and Nelson and John all went last Thursday and they absolutely loved it and I haven't been able to horseback ride for a few years, since summer camp at Sky Ranch actually. So I thought, why not?

So after class on Tuesday, Connor, Nelson, Eric, Elizabeth, Stephanie, and I all jumped in a grand taxi after lunch (at MacDonald's. I finally caved) and headed into the countryside to this little barn-ranch-thing to ride horses. It's run by this Swedish lady that moved to Morocco and her husband and they were all very sweet. There was one problem though.

They use English saddles.

Let me rant about English saddles for a moment. They suck. I do not like them. They are not practical. I cannot herd cows in that saddle, I cannot be comfortable in that saddle, and I cannot steer my horse conveniently in that saddle. Western saddle for the win.

Continuing.

So went riding and my horse (Ginia) was a little jerk. She would not cooperate and they actually ended up giving my a makeshift crop so that I could smack her on the butt and make her go. But it was really fun.

Interesting Stories of the Week

• So Stephanie fell off her horse. While it was cantoring. Into a patch of stickers. Then child gets up, brushes it off, and walks to meet us where we stopped. The leader ran to go get her horse (which had run off), brings it back and I say to Stephanie, "Going to get back on the horse?" and she looks at me, says, "I guess," turns and looks at her horse and says with a completely straight face, "Bitch." In conclusion, you will never be more badass than Stephanie McBryer. 

• Also, we just went shopping at Abdullah's and he not only went and bought us water bottles, he also bought us a bag of sweets, AND gave us free good luck charms, all in the spirit of Ramadan. That right there is what Ramadan  is all about. WE LOVE YOU, ABDULLAH!!!

Ma'a salaama!

Monkeying Around in Azrou

Salaam wa aleikum!

So this Saturday, Siera, Joanne, Stephanie, and I all decided on a day trip to Azrou for basically one reason: monkeys. That’s right. Monkeys.

You see, in the forest located close to Azrou, there is a community of barbary apes that live close to the side of the road. Tourists (mostly Arab ones) come to interact with them and feed them and basically bask in the knowledge that they are partying with actual monkeys.

So anyway, our day started out with a jaunt over to the grand taxi station that is located close to where Siera lives (Joanne and Stephanie came to my house first to drop their stuff off for our sleepover). When ended up discovering that the grand taxi station is actually also a bus station, so we tried to go in and see when the next bus to Azrou was when who should we find but five people from the Egypt program that were also going to Azrou. We tried to get on their bus, but the man who sold tickets said that they were sold out and that we would have to wait until the 11:30 bus. Despondent, we walked over to see if our first plan (taking a grand taxi) would work out. And it would! If we were willing to pay 200 dirham one way. And we weren’t.

So long, suckers.

We decided that we would just wait for the next bus and started walking back to the bus station. We were about to walk back in when this guy runs up to us and starts yelling pretty loudly, ‘Azrou?! You want to go to Azrou?!’ And we were like, yes, of course we want to go to Azrou. It turns out that they did have enough room on the bus and we did a real quick money-ticket exhange and ran to hop on the bus as it was pulling out of the station. It was a pretty intense start to the day.

WE MADE IT!

So the bus ride was about an hour and when we got off, we kind of ended up just staying close to the Egypt group because they were going to same place we were anyway. Robert (one of the directors of the Egypt program) did some hardcore haggling with the grand taxi drivers and we got driven up to the Monkey Forest for 200 dirham (9 people, 2 taxis, could have been worse).

Negotiations. 

Four girls in a taxi, going up a mountain.

So we get up to the forest and see monkeys. Lots of monkeys.

After spending some time with the monkeys, we then all went hiking in the forest for a little over an hour and saw some pretty cool things. Enjoy looking at pictures (because nothing else happened).

So after that, we spent some more time with the monkeys and waited for our grand taxis to pick us up. Please, enjoy more pictures.

When then went back to the bus station in Azrou and bought our tickets for the 4:30 return ride to Meknes and waited for an hour to finally get on the bus. Siera and I were kind of worried because Mass started at 6:30 and we didn’t want to miss it, especially considering the fact that we had been invited to dinner with the priest afterwards, but we ended up getting there just in time.

We had a great time at Mass, but we noticed all these new non-old-French people there. It turns out that they were Italians who were visiting Meknes and Father Pietro, so they ended up staying for dinner as well. They were super nice and spoke a little English, but I was mainly excited because it meant that I could use Italian. At first, it was a bit of a problem because I kept mixing Arabic and English and Italian all at the same time, but it gave me a big boost on my language speaking confidence because, as it turns out, I do still remember Italian! (Seriously, you have no idea how excited this made me.)

After dinner, we all chilled at a little café for a while and then Stephanie, Joanne, and I went back to my house for our sleepover. All in all, it was an awesome day.

Interesting Story of the Day:

So I was falling behind the group because I really wanted to take a picture of the mama monkey with her baby, and this Moroccan guy that had one of the horses comes up to me and strikes up a conversation. We’re talking and he’s asking about my studies and ‘How long do you have left?’ and ‘Maybe you can come back to Morocco’ and ‘I’ve always wanted to go to America.’ So I’m like, yeah, cool story bro, but I really need to meet back up with my group. He tells me that I can have a free ride on the horse, ‘Really, it’s a gift!’ and so I get on the horse and he takes me back over to my group. But once again, I start falling behind (because everyone else was walking crazy fast) and I end up at the back of the group, behind this horse guy. He turns around, sees me, and then tells me that I should get on the horse again and go for another ride. I say, ‘Thanks, but no thanks, I really need to get back to my group’ and he says, ‘No, it’s fine, we can go see the panoramic view, together!’

…So I’m pretty sure a marriage proposal was not far off in my future. (I didn’t go with him.)

Ma’a salaama!

Everyday Life in Meknes

Salaam wa aleikum!

So nothing really interesting has happened this week. Just been doing classes and all that good stuff. However, I have been taking some video whenever the mood takes me, so here's another video. Enjoy!

Ma'a salaama!

A Catholic Experience (Warning: Religious Content)

Salaam wa aleikum!

So this Saturday, I went to Mass. That’s right, despite the fact that Morocco is a predominately Islamic country, there is a Catholic church right in the middle of the new city.

YAY!

Siera and I both really wanted to hit up Mass at some point during our stay in Morocco (and Siera will have plenty more opportunities, as she will be staying the entire year), and I remembered that Anne Marie had said during orientation that there was a Catholic service at 6:00 on Saturdays. So Siera and I headed out around 5:30 and caught a cab to the church (apparently all you have to tell the cab driver in ‘door of the church’ in Arabic and he totally knows where to go. That probably has something to do with the fact that there’s only one church in the entire city.)

 Hint: The cross means a church.

 A pretty little courtyard.

Where the priests and nuns live.

Yep, this is the church.

So we arrived at 5:40, went into the church, and sat down in the pews. There was this one Moroccan guy sitting there and an older gentlemen setting everything up for Mass. And so we waited. And waited. And waited (see where I’m going with this). There was a lot of waiting. It passed 6:00 and only one other gentleman had come in (who was also old). However, we were able to entertain ourselves by looking at the missals. 

Which were in French.  

(Spoiler alert: I don’t know French.)

Eventually people did indeed start coming in and introducing themselves to us. In French…and neither Siera nor I know French. They were all also up there in age. And I really mean up there. The Moroccan guy was probably closest to us in age and I’d put him in his mid-40’s.

But they were all super nice. The church community is (obviously) very small, consisting almost completely of old French people that have retired to Meknes. All the congregants knew the priest (Pietro (he’s Italian)) very well and the environment was really relaxed. Father Pietro went out of his way to make our experience awesome, including giving us English bibles and marking the readings for us so that we could follow along. (And he knew English. Which was a relief.)

Above and beyond, man.

So we opened with a French hymn (obviously), but I knew the tune from English Mass, so I just followed along and bastardized quite a bit of French as I did so. (Seriously, the poor women in front of us must have been cringing.)

Honestly, the Mass was the same, which is an awesome feeling. The fact that I am connected to my fellow Catholics through the Mass is never more apparent than when I’m actually in a foreign country, participating in Mass in a foreign language, but still knowing exactly what is happening. We all know the Sign of Peace, everyone shakes each others’ hands, we all say ‘Amen.’ We were welcomed without reservation. And that’s beautiful.

Some things never change.

Sorry, bit of a rant there. Anyway, when receiving the Body, the priest actually switched to English for us, which I thought was super nice. (Seriously, this priest was boss.)

After Mass, we actually talked with the only other young person there (after all the old people had wished us well and said goodbye), and young Italian woman named Nicoletta. She’s only in Meknes for two weeks, but she’s volunteering at the church because she met Pietro through a volunteer organization last summer. She is super nice and spoke English, which was great (mainly because I can’t manage to make Italian come out of my mouth right now. Everything’s in Arabic). So yeah, we chatted with her for a bit and then Father Pietro invited us to stay for dinner. Unfortunately, it was maybe fifteen minutes ‘till Iftar so we had to decline, but we did make plans for next Saturday. Get excited for that blog post.

So yeah, that was definitely a great experience and I’m already looking forward to next weekend. Talk to you all then!

Interesting Story of the Day:

• So after Mass, we walked outside and were talking with Nicoletta when we noticed this older gentleman walking around in a dress and women’s shoes. It took a second for it to actually sink in, and then we noticed that Father Pietro was about the shave him? I don’t know, there was cross-dressing happening at the church after Mass and I have no idea why. So yeah. That happened.

Ma’a salaama!