Adventures with Alice!

Apologies for the late blog post! Things have been going pretty well.
People have come and gone over these past few weeks! My roommate Maggie left to go back to Italy, but now I have another roommate who is from Belgium! So that's pretty cool. My host sisters also left, just today, to go to camp/work in the northern part of Morocco. And unfortunately, they aren't coming back until after I leave. So we said our goodbyes last night! The students from the BU group also left on Sunday, and it was sad to say goodbye to them! I did meet some more people though, some from Princeton, another from Chicago, and even some Moroccans!

In other news, Alice Su came to visit this past weekend! We had quite the adventure.

Friday.
After picking Alice up, we went to eat at Sbahi with some other people from Al-Alhawayne University. Then later that night, we went to the CCCL, where there was a farewell party for the BU kids. It was such a fun event! There was Moroccan music, and lots of dancing and shouting. They would call out someone's name, and that person would have to go into the middle of the circle and start dancing! Both Alice and I were called into the circle....But we had a fun time! The Moroccan families of the BU students were there as well, so that was really nice.
Afterwards, we met up with Djali, Alice's French friend, and we went to the Kasbah, and later on to Cafe Blueberry for dessert!

Saturday.
I gave Alice the shortened, super-quick, 90-minute tour of Rabat. Needless to say, we only saw 2 sights. We went to the Tour Hassan and the Mausoleum. But while we were there, there was an American/English/European tour group, and we kind of latched on to them and listened in on their tour. And a kind old couple start talking to us in English! They were sweet.
After lunch at my favorite pasta place, La Mamma, we met up with Alex, and headed out on our voyage to the beach. After much hassle - involving chasing down Djali for Alex's bathing suit, asking bus drivers for the correct bus, finding the grand taxi stand, figuring out prices to go to Temara - we finally squeeze into the grand-taxi along with 3 other people, and head out for the beach! (Note: grand taxis are not grand. Neither are they big. They are simply regular sized cars, but they fit 6 passengers in at once. 2 in front, 4 in back!).
We finally make it to the beach, and we meet 2 Moroccans, who become our friends, and decide to be our escorts. Alice and I set off to find a bathroom to change, but we end up on a 40-minute adventure, down a sketchy beachwalk, where there were sketchy plastic tables and chairs on the side, and random broken carnival-like cars, just sitting in the mud. Looked like a scene from a bad horror movie. We return safely, and join Alex and the guys. After some time in the water, we go back to our stuff, and take a giant 2 hour nap/tan on the beach. When we finally wake up, the 2 Moroccans were still there, watching us, and they ask: "Is it normal for you people to come to the beach and just sleep?" Why yes indeed, it is very normal :)

Our journey home was just as adventurous! We get onto the street and again ask our way around to get to the right bus stop. But we didn't know which bus to take, and we also didn't know if the bus was ever going to come. Didn't look like it. But right then, Djali calls Alice, and says "Alice! I'm right in front of you!". He had driven past with his Moroccan friend and saw us! So we sprint across the street, and piled into the car! Yay! We make it back to Rabat, and Alice and I get off at Agdal, where we did some shopping. Then we went to Yoka Sushi for dinner - our new favorite restaurant in Rabat. Dragon roll. Boston roll. Miso soup. Cucumber salad. Teppanyaki. Delicious!!

Sunday.
Our new Belgium friend, Jitske, joined us for church in the morning! Then afterwards, while trying to decide where to eat for lunch, we decide that it's not too soon to go to the sushi place again. So off we went, and enjoyed another delicious meal! Then we dropped off Alice at the train station.


So all in all, it has been a fun two weeks! Unfortunately, I didn't take many pictures this weekend. But go to Alice's facebook, because she has lots of great photos from this weekend!


Some other updates!
- The desert trip last weekend didn't end up happening, but it may be happening this weekend!! Very possibly. Will definitely post about that soon!
- My poor packages from the US still have not arrived, and it has been over 1 month! :( :( let's hope it gets here before I leave!!

And countdown to home: 11 days!

Fun-Filled Moroccan Weekend

This weekend was fun! On Friday, I hung out with Beka, Teneshia and Melanie, from the BU group. After work/class, we went over to the Hassan Tower, which I went to with my dad back when he was still here. It was a nice breezy evening, and we had lots of fun. Then we walked along the beach, and we come across this lovely mini theme park!

So we decide to go on 2 rollercoasters! We went on the "Supermontana Rusa", which turned out to be much scarier than expected. Also, being in Morocco, there was no electrical switch to work the carts - the guy manually pushed us onto the slope! We went downhill for a bit, then there was one long track upwards that was powered, but then from there on, it was, well, just gravity. Becca took an awesome video of our faces throughout the entire ride, and once she posts it, I'll link you guys there! For now, Melanie took some pictures of us on the ride.

We also went on a second, more tamer ride. It was one of those rides, where it just goes in circles and lifts you high off the ground. Here is a picture of Becca and I on the ride!

Saturday: Rebecca and I went to Sable d'Or with Rebecca's Wellesley friend who was visiting for the weekend, Cat. It was a beach about 20 minutes away, so we took a Grand Taxi. But we were badly ripped off, it turns out :( For three people, the cab driver charged us 200 dh one way. And when we came back, we were also charged 200 dh. But talking to the people at the CCCL today, they told me we could've just taken the bus for 4 dh each one way!! Booo. It's okay - a learning experience!

Sunday: I went to church! My friends Ryan and Mandy found an english-speaker church in the Rabat! It's called the Rabat International Church  However, Moroccan directions are always very vague. We were told to "Stop between the pharmacy and the school". The map they gave was also "Not drawn to scale". Suffice to say, we got very very lost. Little did we know that in Morocco, there are pharmacies on just about every block. At first, we were super excited to see a pharmacy, but turning around, we saw three other pharmacies on the same block. "Schools" are also very hard to distinguish, so we had quite the difficult time. Finally, this very very kind man understood my French and led us all the way to the church - a good 10 minute walk from where we had been searching! We had arrived at Chateau d'Eau in Takkadoum around 8:30am, but we didn't find the church until 9:30am! But it was so nice to be with English-speaking people again. There were Caucasians, African Americans, and even Asians! Koreans I think!
Indeed a fun-filled weekend.