Hola Everyone,
I know I have been getting very slow with these blogs as the semester is nearing its end. We are now down to 22 days until I return home.
In this post I will talk about the events of two weekends ago, and hopefully tomorrow I will get around to posting about this past weekend.
Lets start on Thursday 11/14, this marked the day of Ashura. A holiday celebrated by Shia Muslims for a reason that I have yet to figure out. The thing is Morocco is a Sunni Muslim country, and the holiday is celebrated differently. Here they celebrate it by giving small gifts, eating nuts and raisins, and more scarily setting off fireworks everywhere.
The State Department explicitly warns of terrorist activities in North Africa, and a holiday marked by small explosions is not comforting, as the idea of setting fireworks off in a safe area does not exist, often with M80s being set off right next to you as you walk by. Scary
On Friday 11/15, after our morning Arabic class, I finished packing my things and we made our way to the taxi station and headed to the Rabat Airport. It was a little weird, going back to the airport, the same place I entered Morocco more then three months ago.
I do take pride in the way my bargaining abilities have developed. While some of my peers here think in terms of the American dollar, I think in Dirham...and I will bargain down to what I believe a Moroccan would pay, and I am not afraid to walk away. So we got the taxi rate down below what the sign posted there says is the "Standard rate"....like I have said before, nothing in Morocco has a fixed price.
We got to the airport with plenty of time before our flight, after checking in we waited at passport control for about twenty minutes, as the passport control officer was at lunch. After finally getting through passport control we got to "security", which typically Moroccan, does not hold a candle to American security.
We landed in Spain where we encountered the easiest commute thus far in my European travels between the airport and our hostel. We were able to do the entire journey via metro, for only five euro and less than one hour.
We arrived at our hostel and found out that I was not in the same room as my friends, because I reserved separately. While I was annoyed at first, it worked out in the end, because after the first night, everyone but one other guest left our six person room, leaving me with plenty of space.
One of the first things I noticed in Madrid was the trash everywhere....piles of it.
It was quickly explained to me that the garbageman were on strike, and were only legally required to do the bare minimum of cleaning.
Our first night started with dinner at a Spanish restaurant, it was here we discovered that the bread and water on the table are not free....typical Europe. The only good thing about eating on this continent is that tips aren't a thing.
Spain's night life starts late...really late
The pub crawl didn't start until 1am. While most of our group decided to go to bed, I was able to convince Dom to go with me. And we had a blast. We had so much fun that we ended up getting back to the hostel at around 6:30am.
After a few hours of sleep, my roommates began there exodus out of the room and were determined to keep me awake, even after I let them know how I felt about the lights being turned on.
That Saturday, the art museums were free to students, so we decided we would go to the Prado....a famous one. I really do try and appreciate art, but I just can't, and I found the cafe more interesting.
Immediately after leaving the Prado I headed for a church that was within eyesight. This has become a European hobby of mine, and I made my way up to the door of Saint Jerome's. I never had to open the door, because as I reached for the handle, a wedding party began to emerge from the church, and all of the sudden I was in the midst of photographers, shortly followed by a bride and groom. This looked like a royal wedding, talk about bourgeois, these people were dressed in clothes that I am sure cost more than what I make in a year. (After pushing through the crowd and into the Church, and listening to the information audio recording on the wall, I found out that the church is historically used by the Spanish Royal Family...so it is very possible I stumbled into a royal wedding).
We ate lunch at an Indian restaurant.....I did not like it
After this, some of our group continued on to another art museum, and two of us headed back to the hostel to partake in one of the best aspects of Spain, siesta. A three hour nap period in the afternoon.
Post nap, we headed to an indoor tapas market, the name escapes me.
This was another interesting aspect in Spain...tapas.
I got to Spain thinking a tapas is a food, but its not, its a type of food.
It is common for a group of people to order multiple tapas, which is like a small appetizer, and all these small appetizers make up a meal.
After the marketplace we went to dinner at a tapas bar, which sold small beers at inflated prices and served things I did not care to eat, so I held off and got some Chinese food later.
We called it an early night, after hanging out with one of the girls friends who studies in Madrid.
Sunday morning we headed to the Madrid Cathedral for mass, a beautiful church with a medallion dedicated to Saint Mary that the people of Madrid have an incredibly powerful devotion to.
Following mass we headed to lunch, to get paella, a traditional Spanish rice, cooked in a deceptively shallow pan mixed with spices, meats and vegetables.
We then headed towards the Spanish royal palace, which I toured for only 6 Euro
For dinner that night we headed to the Dubliner, supposedly an authentic Irish pub, it was disgusting, and I would never eat there again.
On Monday we went to the Corpus Christi Monastery, a community of cloistered nuns famous for their baked goods that you receive through a rotating window.
We then had a snack of churros and chocolate syrup, authentically Spanish.
We then took the metro back to the airport, where we boarded a plane and found ourselves back in Rabat again.
Thus far, Madrid was my least favorite European city, I found it to be unimpressive, without much to see, and it was made worse by the 72 hours of constant rain. But I am still glad we went.
I am beginning to lose track of the amount of flights I have been on.
Selam,
Kevin
Arabic Word of the Day
طائرة- taEra- Airplane
I know I have been getting very slow with these blogs as the semester is nearing its end. We are now down to 22 days until I return home.
In this post I will talk about the events of two weekends ago, and hopefully tomorrow I will get around to posting about this past weekend.
Lets start on Thursday 11/14, this marked the day of Ashura. A holiday celebrated by Shia Muslims for a reason that I have yet to figure out. The thing is Morocco is a Sunni Muslim country, and the holiday is celebrated differently. Here they celebrate it by giving small gifts, eating nuts and raisins, and more scarily setting off fireworks everywhere.
The State Department explicitly warns of terrorist activities in North Africa, and a holiday marked by small explosions is not comforting, as the idea of setting fireworks off in a safe area does not exist, often with M80s being set off right next to you as you walk by. Scary
On Friday 11/15, after our morning Arabic class, I finished packing my things and we made our way to the taxi station and headed to the Rabat Airport. It was a little weird, going back to the airport, the same place I entered Morocco more then three months ago.
I do take pride in the way my bargaining abilities have developed. While some of my peers here think in terms of the American dollar, I think in Dirham...and I will bargain down to what I believe a Moroccan would pay, and I am not afraid to walk away. So we got the taxi rate down below what the sign posted there says is the "Standard rate"....like I have said before, nothing in Morocco has a fixed price.
We got to the airport with plenty of time before our flight, after checking in we waited at passport control for about twenty minutes, as the passport control officer was at lunch. After finally getting through passport control we got to "security", which typically Moroccan, does not hold a candle to American security.
We landed in Spain where we encountered the easiest commute thus far in my European travels between the airport and our hostel. We were able to do the entire journey via metro, for only five euro and less than one hour.
We arrived at our hostel and found out that I was not in the same room as my friends, because I reserved separately. While I was annoyed at first, it worked out in the end, because after the first night, everyone but one other guest left our six person room, leaving me with plenty of space.
One of the first things I noticed in Madrid was the trash everywhere....piles of it.
It was quickly explained to me that the garbageman were on strike, and were only legally required to do the bare minimum of cleaning.
Our first night started with dinner at a Spanish restaurant, it was here we discovered that the bread and water on the table are not free....typical Europe. The only good thing about eating on this continent is that tips aren't a thing.
The pub crawl didn't start until 1am. While most of our group decided to go to bed, I was able to convince Dom to go with me. And we had a blast. We had so much fun that we ended up getting back to the hostel at around 6:30am.
After a few hours of sleep, my roommates began there exodus out of the room and were determined to keep me awake, even after I let them know how I felt about the lights being turned on.
That Saturday, the art museums were free to students, so we decided we would go to the Prado....a famous one. I really do try and appreciate art, but I just can't, and I found the cafe more interesting.
Stumbled upon a group of Spanish and Italian Scouts
We ate lunch at an Indian restaurant.....I did not like it
After this, some of our group continued on to another art museum, and two of us headed back to the hostel to partake in one of the best aspects of Spain, siesta. A three hour nap period in the afternoon.
Post nap, we headed to an indoor tapas market, the name escapes me.
I got to Spain thinking a tapas is a food, but its not, its a type of food.
It is common for a group of people to order multiple tapas, which is like a small appetizer, and all these small appetizers make up a meal.
After the marketplace we went to dinner at a tapas bar, which sold small beers at inflated prices and served things I did not care to eat, so I held off and got some Chinese food later.
We called it an early night, after hanging out with one of the girls friends who studies in Madrid.
Sunday morning we headed to the Madrid Cathedral for mass, a beautiful church with a medallion dedicated to Saint Mary that the people of Madrid have an incredibly powerful devotion to.
We then headed towards the Spanish royal palace, which I toured for only 6 Euro
For dinner that night we headed to the Dubliner, supposedly an authentic Irish pub, it was disgusting, and I would never eat there again.
On Monday we went to the Corpus Christi Monastery, a community of cloistered nuns famous for their baked goods that you receive through a rotating window.
We then had a snack of churros and chocolate syrup, authentically Spanish.
We then took the metro back to the airport, where we boarded a plane and found ourselves back in Rabat again.
Thus far, Madrid was my least favorite European city, I found it to be unimpressive, without much to see, and it was made worse by the 72 hours of constant rain. But I am still glad we went.
I am beginning to lose track of the amount of flights I have been on.
Selam,
Kevin
Arabic Word of the Day
طائرة- taEra- Airplane
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