parlez-vous de chameau

So as a gift to myself for taking the extremely hard final exams, I went to Morocco with a group of friends. It was the most thrilling trip I have taken so far!! We were there for about 5 days and 4 nights and it was absolutely wonderful!

Hostel that we stayed at, highly reccommend it!

So the first day that we were in the city we were picked up from the airport by Mohammed and he took us to our hostel which was this super cute place located down these windy roads.

After settling into our rooms we went off to explore the city and grab a bite to eat. I fell in love with the culuture, architecture, and atmosphere of Marrakech:) There was so much life in the city and so many cool things to see! In the main plaza you had snake charmers, henna tattoos, people with monkeys, delicous orange and grape fruit stands. Also, at night they have what I called "Moroccan tapas" because they set up all these mini "restraunts if you will" and you can get a pretty decent size meal for about 30 durham (€3).

The next day we got up semi early and ate breakfast at the hostel which was really simple (bread w/jelly coffee and juice) but so good for some reason.

Moroccan breakfast.

 The second day we went out to a smaller town to climb what I would like to consider a rock mountain because it was ridiculously hard for me to climb it lol. There were almost no paths just rocks you had to maneuver around, and to make matters worse it was sprinkling and my shoes had very little friction. Needless to say our guide probably thought I was this damsel in distress type girl because everytime it was a little hard to go across something he automatically stuck his hand out to help me haha. Oh! forgot to mention that I had to go to the bathroom the entire way up this hour long hike and our guide would not stop anywhere to show me where a bathroom was so that made things a little difficult as well lol. Once we finally made it to the waterfall it was really pretty to see the village and the other mountains in the distance. Fun fact, you can actually ski in the mountains in Morocco, I didn't believe the guy on the plane that there is snow and people ski but I saw it for myself.

After the waterfall we got to ride camels!!! From the first day I arrived to Spain I told everybody I wanted to go to Morocco to ride a camel and it finally happened! Not going to lie it was a little frightening at first because I didn't realize how tall they were and I have a slight fear of heights. I named my camel, Toe. Yes, vulgar yet hilarious, at least I think so :) 

Me at the waterfall

The mountains with the snow

There was a marathon that delayed us for about an hour lol

Riding my camel :)

Later that night we came back and went out to dinner with some kids we met at the hostel. They were from the US as well but they go to school at St Andrews in Scotland. They were really nice and it was comforting to have greater numbers haha.

The next day we walked around the Souks ( a farmer's market that has everything imagionable), I made quite a few purchases here but everything I got was relatively cheap because you can barter with them. On the down side you also get harrassed in the Souks, I think my favorite pickup line was "Can I help you with something? A necklace, scarf, a boyfriend?" haha

We also went to a castle in the city which was neat to see. I was so fasicated with the architecture and I kept saying "its like im in Aladdin"

So I couldn't leave Morocco with out getting a henna tatoo. It was a really cool design and started on my ring finger and went up to the middle of my arm. However, I now know that I should never get a hand tattoo because it was so distracting and after about 3 days I was sick of it and wanted it to be gone.

Later that night we were just going to go get dinner and walk around the city for a little bit longer and then go home but we ended up meeting this really cool guy at a juice stand and he took us out for tea and brought us over to hang out with his friends who were playing Moroccan music and singing and dancing! It was the best night I had ever had :D I really felt like they thought of us as "family". We danced in the middle of the circle and then he took us for rides on his motorcycle. It was a fantastic time!

Christmas Break Update/ Return to Spain :)

From Thanksgiving to Christmas time was filled with many trips to the bars and goodbye parties as many of the erasmus (exchange students) were only staying a semester. It was very sad so see so many of my friends go, I had become very close with many of them in such a short time and they have imprinted on my heart. It is crazy how close the erasmus family seems to be. It really feels like an actual family that we have here and I am constantly learning something new about my "family" and the different cultures.

My trip back to the US was a nice 3 week refresher. I got to eat at almost all my favorite restaurants and seeing all my family and friends was really nice. It was cool to be home for a while but after about 2 weeks I was ready to be going back to Spain. There was just a lot of drama back home that was just annoying and frustrating to deal with. Some of my friends had changed and not for the better. It kinda sucked to be gone for 4 months and come back and people that you thought were your close friends had completely changed and let their priorities get out of line, almost like you don't have things in common any more. This made me sad and worried what it was going to be like when I came back home for good. Would the changes about myself and the people back home clash so much that we wouldn't have things in common anymore. Well I guess we will just have to wait and see. No use worrying over something I can't control :D

When I came back to Spain I must have caught something in between Dallas and Madrid because by the time I arrived in Murcia I was deathly sick! For about 3 days I didn't leave the house and had no appetite! It was the absolute worst! I also developed a double ear infection in this week and ended up having to go to the doctor and get antibiotics for a week which was a God sent because they made me feel a million jillion times better!! This sickness also could not have come at a worse time because I had final exams in a week.

My exams were not so bad, I studied my butt off for a week and a half and I think I did pretty good. However, I wont know my grades for a while because let's face it, it's Spain and they take forever and a day to do anything lol Hopefully (keeping my fingers crossed) that I did well!

Yes, It has been a while sorry!

Yes I realize it has been forever and a day since I have updated my blog but things got really crazy between the holidays and going back and forth from Spain the states and back to Spain again and then my finals so I will do a couple seperate blogs in order for them not to be a mile long.

This first blog will be about Thanksgiving in Spain. Team America (aka the American exchange students) decided to put together a big thanksgiving dinner so we would not be lonely and missing our families this holiday. Ironically, the Turkey day was held at our Italian friend's apartment because they had the most room. All of the americans searched high and low for the typical food of an American Thanksgiving. My roommate Paige and  I went all out and made cheesey potatoes, macaroni and cheese, oreo balls, and wine. Along with our food there was turkey (there was only one shop in all of Spain that sold Turkeys and you had to take all of the guts out yourself! ickky!), apple and pumpking pie, bread, stuffing, and various pastas from the Italians. All in all it was a pretty sucessful Thanksgiving :) I even streamed the Macy's Day Parade :D