The beauty of living the unknown and unfamiliar: Marrakesh, Morocco

This previous weekend I embarked on a weekend trip with around 10 others to none other than...Marrakesh, Morocco. I'll preface the rest of this post by saying that everyone should visit Morocco once in their lives, it was and I'm sure will continue to be( for a long time) one of the best experiences of my life. My intent in studying abroad was to explore the unknown and unfamiliar; a life 100% different from what I am used to and one that would open my eyes to what the rest of the world has to offer. This experience did it. As "abroad" as Barcelona is, I am often surrounded by a bubble of tourism and the inability to fully immerse myself in the culture. It's not as easy to get a legitimate feeling for being a Spaniard when you are on study abroad program with 100 other people coming from the same place with all classes, but one, in a building that is solely for our program. This is why Morocco was a breath of fresh air. It was everything I expected and more. I met incredible people, saw landscapes and a lifestyle that contrasts my own and really got to understand a lot more about the culture of the people living in this area.

The group I traveled with was awesome, everyone was adventurous and very open to the cultural experience. In Morocco, there is no escaping the culture...their version of touristy is pretty much the option of finding a Coca-Cola, aside from that, even touristy things like the snake charmers and street vendors are an incredible experience that teach us a lot about the Moroccan culture. We ventured around Marrakesh, making our way in and out of alleys, spoke to the people and learned from their life experiences and present situation (more on this later), went on a camel tour in the Atlas mountains where we also met a Berber family (traditional people of Morocco), ate authentic food the entire time (and avoided getting sick!)...and so much more.

Fri: arrived, open-eyed to a new language, lifestyle, surroundings, etc and explored the city
Sat: camel trek into the mountains with hike to a waterfall and dinner at a restaurant with an amaaaazing view... Here it is...the white thing in the back is snowy mountains...in Africa, next to desert mountains. True story...

Sunday: explored all day and got to see the riots that started up at night! I have inside connections ;) One of the friends we made was a young man named Imad who worked at our riad (which was super nice and had awesome breakfast). He participated in the riots that Sunday morning, so we were loving hearing his story. His insights was incredible...hearing it first-hand is powerful. They don't have anything against the king, its more about the rest of the government and the poor standard of living they are faced with: no jobs, expensive to live there, etc.

We asked him if he was scared to riot...I like what he said in respect to it..."Scared, no why? I have one life and this is the present of it." I thought it was kind of moving seeing how some people have the ability to live for the moment and their happiness in that point in time, which in turn, unfolds into a better future...instead I often find myself trying to focus only on the future and controlling that...which as we all know, you really can't do. So I learned something from Imad that I will carry forth with me. 

Here's my friend Imad...

Moral of the story, there really aren't words to describe the experience, but it was awesome and I highly recommend it to people (even if its not Morocco, try going somewhere completely out of your usual comfort zone, try learning from the people and really appreciating the diversity that our world has to offer.

In the days to come I'll post Morocco-isms/funny moments we encountered by being newbs to their form of life and a blurb about a new perspective on immigration I gained from a world traveler I met on the camel tour!

Top five, all time.

We heard the prayer call five times a day! Here is the mosque.

Tea Ceremony upon arrival to riad. They drink a mint tea which is amazing! Imported from China hah.

Our room in the riad.

the inside of our room!

Snake charmers. That's the closest I ever got and I was sneaky taking the picture otherwise they run to you and put the snake on your neck until you pay.

haha

One of the palaces.

Random but I liked it. I felt artsy hah

The Big Square: Djemaa el Fna

 Us girls had a slight shopping problem here...

The food market on the Big Square at night

Breakfast! Thick tortilla type pastry with molasses!

 Berber family up in the mountains

Typical.

Making friends...