Journey to Morocco: Part Two

Okay so where did I leave off–Madrid?

Flight three: Madrid to Casablanca: So, nice, finally I get a window seat, for the shortest leg of the journey–just an hour and a half. I tried to nap and I think i may have succeeded…. at this point the whole thing was a blur. I woke up in time to see us cross from Europe to Africa, seeing the familiar geography from the plane was actually really thrilling. At that point I thought we were close to landing but I was wrong–we flew over Morocco for what seemed like forever.

Casablanca: cut to Staci standing in line at the passport-checker-place (I am so tired right now the correct term is escaping me) FREAKING OUT because of an irrational fear that they for some reason wouldn’t let me in the country and I would just have to turn right around. My worries were exacerbated by the fact that the guy in front of me was getting hassled for some reason or another. Luckily there were no problems, I found my baggage, and I stepped out where someone from CIEE was supposed to be waiting for me–right? Wrong, nobody was there–no sign with my name on it, no nothing. I sat around and tried to look conspicuously lost and American in case someone decided to help me but no such luck. I made a couple laps around the terminal, changed a little bit of money, and sat some more. Like half an hour later (I thought waiting 30 min was a good amount of time) I bought a phone card and called the emergency contact for the program.
An English-speaking, chain smoking Moroccan guy (worked for the phone card place, I think–or was just friends with the guy at the phone card place) was SUPER helpful and without his help I might have lost it. Anyway long story short I got picked up, the CIEE guy had been waiting for me at the wrong terminal. I guess my plane got in at an unexpected gate.

Casablanca to Rabat: I got here by car, it took like an hour but really I dozed for a large part of the journey. I was awake enough to notice that Morocco is just as flat as Kansas and just as hot as Temecula. I also saw a ton of donkeys just chillin wherever they thought would be a good place to be. The houses and buildings along the road were actually pretty rustic, falling apart and whatnot, but I did see a lot of satellite dishes (for TV) the closer we got to Rabat. FINALLY I got to Rabat, checked into the hotel, called the parents and got some SLEEP!!