We had to get another stamp once we were on the ferry. I gave the guy my passport and he was looking at it funny. Then he looked up at me and said, " where are you from originally?" I said "what?" And he repeated it "where is your dad from, originally?" I said "Algeria," and then he asked where and I said "Tizi-Ouzou," it's the closest big city to Ait-abdelmoumen. And then he changed to French and said "oh so your Kabyle," and I said "Oui" and then he stamped my passport and said "have a nice trip" and I said "merci!"
That just about sums up my experience in Morocco, but there plenty of pictures and details. So let's continue...
On the way to Tangier, the boat seemed to be going super fast and I got a little light-headed. I've never been on a big boat so I don't know if I get seasick. There wasn't even a place to sit outside. I had to focus intently on the conversation at hand and not look outside at the speeding waves.
Some people were still sleepy! Hahaha. When we finally got off the boat we had to show our passports to the police officers to prove that they were stamped. I noticed that the same bus that drove us from Granada to Tarifa was on the boat and it was going to go stay with us during our trip around Morocco.
Jorge introduced me to our Moroccan guide after we went through security. Jorge told him that I speak Berber and French too. Jorge wanted to keep the group moving (there were 49 of us) so he told us to go with the guide. I don't remember his name unfortunately so he's going to be "the guide" in the his post.
We were outside by the buses when someone was yellig my name. I turned around to see the group stopped because they thought the guide was some creepy dude. He went up to them and told them he was guide he said "I'm your man, you can trust me." I thought that was funny.
We all split up into 4 buses that took us to a place for lunch, we had couscous and a pastry that was super tart but really good and I couldn't finish sadly. The couscous was dry compared to how I usually eat it. But I still ate it.
After lunch we headed upstairs to meet with Moroccan students and talk with them. They introduced themselves to us one by one, and instead of having all of us introduce ourselves, (remember.. Big group) the guide picked me to introduce the whole group and give a quick synopsis about us.
We then split up and talked in groups of about 9 or 10. The second group I was in, one kid was named Zakariae and the other was Issam. I asked Zakariae when he takes le BAC. Le BAC is like the ACT in the US. And he was like, oh you speak French? And then we became besties. He wants to study medicine but isn't sure if he wants to be a specialist or not. And then we headed downstairs because we were going to go on a tour around Tangier. I don't remember what we were talking about but I said the word 'beautiful' in Arabic which I'm going to pretend like I know how to right it in Latin letters but it'd be something like "cheba" or "sheba." And then he was like "c'est toi qui est 'cheba.'" And I thought to myself "is this 16 year old kid hitting on me?" He asked how old of us were and I a said the majority of us are 20 or 21. And I asked him how old he thinks I am, and he said 18. And I said "sweet!" But then I told him I'm 20.
Zakariae and Issam and I were talking during the while tour and I whipped out my Arabic, and they were laughing at how much I know.
After the tour we had to leave and then they asked for my number so we could stay in touch and then the other kids bombarded me for pictures, and my name so they could add me on Facebook. While this was happening Jorge and Dani were trying to get me to leave. But you can't leave these kids without saying goodbye properly.
Issam, me, and Zakariae.
We left and headed to go camel riding!!
The camels were there waiting for us!
The quote for this next picture: "I know how this would have been settled in the animal world.."
When we were on top of the camels I asked the guy what their names are, I only remember "Sabrina" and "Nadia" because there's people in my family with those names. My the guy in the blue shirt was telling the other camels to get up and I wanted to get up too so I said the camels name "Sabrina" and she got up, it took me by surprise! And I told the guy in the blue shirt what words I recognized that he was telling the camels to do.
Don't mind my janky smile,
ISU represent!!
And with a little touch up...
There were these old men who were trying to seek jewelry and t-shirts. Literally following us. One came up and I said "non, merci" and he asked where I was from and I said "Algeria" and then he started talking to me. Later when I was taking a picture for Erika, the same old guy was talking to the guy in the grey shirt in the pictures pulling the camels. And then the old guy told the grey shirt guy that I'm from Algeria and he started talking to me. He was like "how do you know so many languages? I only know Arabic." I didn't know what to say, and we had to leave right after anyways.
We then headed to the Hercules cave.
This guy was selling so much stuff. I ended up buying an elephant that's made from Quartz or marble or some shit, but it's heavy. I was talking to the owner and he told me I talk like an 'Algerian' and I was like well duh.
And with a little touch up...
We then headed to the hotel. It was called La Paloma. And it was really nice. The most comfortable mattress and pillow ever!!! Ugh! I'll dream about that bed, I swear.
The dinner was delish. We had a soup that was kind of like a purée. And I told the guy "merci" the first time he took the plate away. The next course was a little rice mountain with chicken. So good!
I told to he waiter "saha" after he took that plate away. Then they asked me where I'm from and I said Algeria. And I think I was like a unicorn for them. You'll see why later.
After dinner Collin and I wanted to explore the hotel. We found a pool with seats that are raised. We decided to walk on water and be Jesus!
We went upstairs and found a cool view of the chandelier!
As I was taking pictures of the chandelier, out of the corner of my eye I saw a group of people coming inside. I looked to see who they were and I recognized one of them, Kelly, from the girls I met in Portugal, and then there was another and another. I freaked out! I ran down the stairs and over to the table that she was sitting at and said hi. I talked to her fora little and the other girls too. I saw Nito and Toba. Toba gave me a hug and Nito too. I was so excited! Then I saw the other girl guide who was in Granada handing out flyers. I also met Noel, the girl who we figured was one of the guides girlfriend's but wasn't sure who. I told her the story about that in Portugal and she told me she's with Nito. It was funny.
And I told them they could go eat if they wanted to. But Noel and the other girl were waiting to for a spot to sit. When they found a table they told me to sit with them and I told them I already ate. They said I could still sit with them. I was following then to the table when the waiters came up to me and asked if I was going to eat with them and I said I was only going to sit. They told me to eat with then too and I asked if it was free and they were like "of course it's free." So I sat down and had a mini second dinner. I told them I only wanted one scoop of soup, and the cute waiter was going to give me a second one when I stopped him. And he asked if I was sure, and I reminded him that I had already ate dinner. When the second course came I said no to that too. Although one did put in front of me and then the cute waiter came and I told him I really wasn't hungry anymore, so he took it away. I had fun talking with Noel and the other guide. I know I know her name, I just can't think of it!!
I decided to leave while they were eating the fruit dessert. As I was leaving I said bye and goodnight to the waiters. Hahaha, they were really so nice.
I got up to the room and found Allison still up, we roamed through the channels and found some music videos in Arabic. Soon after that, we fell asleep on the beds from heaven.
