So, this whole STUDY abroad thing has finally caught up to me. So far the trip has felt like an extended vacation with a few weekly seminars thrown in here and there, but tomorrow I have an Arabic midterm AND I have to give a presentation in my CORE class. Both on the same day–I know right?
The reason they’re both on the same day like that is because we’re skipping class on Thursday to head to Essaouira for a famous musical festival (www.festival-gnaoua.net) that will take place all weekend. Until I started googling it I wasn’t too psyched about going… sometimes I get in these moods where I’m more of a homebody and just lounge in bed all weekend which is kind of what I wanted to do… but after yesterday’s lecture on Gnawa music and a little bit of Youtubing… I am SO TOTALLY PSYCHED to go to this festival! Not to mention we’re staying in a hotel and I love staying in hotels :)
Awwww man they sure get down around the 3 minute mark!! Anyway that’s enough procrastinating I think, feel free to watch the awesome video and be jealous of me. Back to paper writing.
Also, I’m coming home one month from tomorrow. Pretty depressing but kind of a relief :)
I’m only kind of sick but its still irritating. I had a stomachache all morning and now I have a splitting headache. The original plan was to take a nap as soon as I got home from school, but I have an Arabic midterm that I need to study for (the test is Wednesday) and a 5 page paper also due Weds that I was unaware of. LAME… but such is school. I am thinking back fondly upon the days when summer break was really just for relaxing. I’m talking about the days before summer school and for that matter, summer jobs. Can I be 16 again?
Anyway, time to study Arabic. There is so much I don’t know, but the amount of words I’m given each night are really way too many to learn in such a short time.
Anyway today, for part of our class, we visited a recording studio and the producer there gave us small lecture about Moroccan music–traditional stuff and modern stuff. We watched a video by my prof’s niece Nabyla (who, according to the lecturer is one of the only distinctly Moroccan artists to achieve mainstream popularity here–most popular Moroccan artists are hip-hop). Moroccan music has influenced musicians such as Jimi Hendrix and yes, Led Zeppelin!
Here’s a video that my computer won’t play for me (javascript is having issues and I am none too pleased about it) but this is one song in particular he was talking about today influenced by Moroccan music.
After a morning of Arabic (I was the only one who had class Friday which made it even lamer) and a four-hour, sweaty bus ride to Tangiers (a place that would merit its own weekend excursion, actually), we got a taxi to the port and took a ferry across to Tarifa. The orginal plan was to continue on to a city called Algeceiras but by that time it was 8:45 and the last bus to Algecerias was leaving at 9. (There is a weird time zone change from Morocco to Spain).
So, throwing out the idea of Algeciras, we asked the people working in the cafe for a hotel (not hostel) recommendation and they gave us some directions. Upon arriving we found the hotel clean and adorable. And only 100 Euro for all three of us for two nights! I’m not sure if that’s a good rate but sounded reasonable to me–a little over 15, each, per night. After putting our stuff down (I love that I packed the lightest out of us three–even lighter than the guy in our group) we went out and got dinner in a cafe. Brynn and Pete took every opportunity to drink something alcoholic–drinking in public (even at a cafe) is severely looked down on in Morocco. Those two sure can put it away.
The next day we slept in until “ten” (really nine, Morocco time) and went to the beach until around one or two. I had to buy a towel since I completely forgot to bring one with me… across the Atlantic… at all! Haha. Now I have a cheapo towel to remember Spain by. Its pretty at least. I was very careful not to get sun burned and it was delightful. Even though its seperated from Morocco by only a little bit of water (one could actually see Morocco from the beach) it was so much less humid and several degrees cooler. When we’d had enough sun we went back to town to do some shopping but realized that all the stores were totally closed until like 5pm for the siesta. So that was a bust. We went back to the hotel and napped. After our nap we ate at a pretty nice restaurant, then did some window shopping and finished up the evening with dinner.
To your left, a handsome young man. To your right, um... not so much.
Since we were in Spain but we weren’t really going to any historic sites or anything we took the opportunity to delight our tastebuds in hyped Spanish foods–namely, tapas and paella. First off, tapas. OVERRATED. Don’t bother. They give you what looks like potato salad and put it on bread and expect that to be your meal. First off they totally skimped on the bread so half of our tapas went uneaten. Secondly, the stuff we chose didn’t really taste that good. After the disappointement of the tapas, we were delighted when the paella was brought out and it was ~delectable~ even though it contained all manner of questionable seafood. Steering clear of anything that wasn’t chicken, fish, or those small shrimp I’ve had before, I scarfed my portion of paella in no time. I am determined to learn how to cook it when I get home.
Yummmmmmm.....
The weekend ended far too quickly. Being in Europe reminded me what its like to eat with a knife and fork, and how lovely it is when people follow traffic laws.
Other notable moments included a crazy Spanish bachelorette party at a club we went to, Pete being convinced the flamenco dancer outside the restaurant we ate at was a tranny, and wearing a tank top the entire time I was there.
My Friend Staci 