A little bit about Marrakech

I had a great time in Marrakech, but it was slightly disappointing. It is known as the most touristy city in Morocco, and so I was expecting to be pretty busy all the time, seeing all the sights etc, doing lame touristy stuff and feeling good about it.

However, Marrakech's main tourist center was its medina, which was similar to the medina of Fes and Rabat except more stereotypically orientalist (and also slightly crazier). There is a huge square, called Djemaa el Fna where there are all sorts of things like snake charmers, people with monkeys, Berbers selling 'traditional potions' or telling stories. Basically what we associate with the Arab world in the 8th century. 

If you had never been to the Middle East before, it would have been completely astounding I think. I would have been completely content to spend 3 days in that square just seeing everything there was to see and probably would have been gushing about he experience, but unfortunately it was just more medina-y than the medinas of Fes or Rabat, so it wasn't nearly as much of a shock. 

That being said it was still a great trip. Marrakech has a lot of stuff to offer that the medinas of Rabat and Fes don't (like all of the things I listed above) and it was also nice to be out on our own with no rules of when we have to be back (one major complaint people have had with IES is that we are expected to be back by 10PM, which makes it hard to explore the city). We did see some cool sights like some palaces and whatnot. Also the hostel where some members of our group (not me) were staying was really, really cool and was owned by an awesome British guy. So we ended up spending a fair amount of time just hanging out there doing some team bonding.


Also despite sounding unenthusiastic about Djemaa el Fna, it was actually really awesome. Here are some pics:

This is a sheep's head.

Yes, that thing on the bottom is the ear. Yes, it's edible, but no, it does not taste good. 

Anyway I ate that

Probably won't blog until Monday

I'm in Marrakech. I will note that we ate breakfast in a cafe and I understood the news, which was talking about the Florida primaries. That was exciting.

Also I think my overall schedule here was somewhat unclear so:
I stayed in Fes for 10 days with one host family. Then I moved to Rabat to move in with my second and last host family. We are in Rabat for the rest of the time here, until we (possibly) visit Egypt for the last week. There are occasional excursions, both organized by IES and not organized by IES. This trip to Marrakech is not organized by IES, but later we will go to Spain for a few days, visit the desert for a few days (no idea what that entails), and visit a Berber village (also no idea what that entails). Those are all organized by IES. 

Even more things I do for fun

- Various cultural activities. A group of us went to a photo gallery which was kind of cool. We spent a long time trying to decide if a certain photograph was of an eye (it was) or a wave (what I thought and what it clearly looked like). A bunch of people also went to a Berber music concert, which I mention only because I didn't go there because of other cool things I was doing (not team handball)

- Hanging out and talking with other people in the program. I like the other people here! Cool. We spend time in cafes drinking sugary and pesticide-heavy mint tea and other cool things like that.

- Doing slightly cooler things with other people in the program. Today we played soccer on the beach (I mention because this is actually the first time I've played soccer since I broke my wrist and it was loads of fun) and this weekend we are going to Marrakech since the first 'quarter' is over and we have no organized excursion this Sunday.

- Hanging out with my host family. I do this a lot, but part of that is because, due to the fact that I've already had two host families, I've spent more time than would be expected in the "getting to know your host family" stage.

As my life goes on here in Rabat, I hope to spend more time in the "doing slightly cooler things with other people in the program" and "various cultural activities" areas.

What walking in the streets is like

When in the medina:
Hectic but not as hectic as in Fes. All of the streets are narrow, and even residential areas (i.e. not the market) have various food stands around where you can buy some fruit or something. A lot of the main streets in the medina are market streets, though, where they sell various stuff. Typically things are sold in sections, i.e. there's a food section, a clothing section, some touristy-items sections, etc. It's not neatly categorized though, there will be food items sold in the clothing sections and there are many sections of the same thing, e.g. there are a ton of food centers. The food sections smell amazing because there are spices out in the open and people are cooking street food which smells and tastes very, very good.

You can tell you're in the tourist section of the medina when people start following you and asking you what languages you speak. In general that's the only interaction I have with random people on the street unless I am specifically asking someone for directions or buying something. But basically they'll see that you're white and will then follow you and say "you speak french? english? russian? dutch? spanish?" etc. I generally just ignore them and they give up after a while. I feel really rude, but to be fair, they're really annoying. If you engage, they'll just talk to you for a while, not saying what they're getting at, and then offer to sell you drugs or give you a tour of the city. Also, they actually do know all of those languages (I think) because people in the group have said that they've said "yes" when someone asks them one of the less common languages; i.e., someone will say "yes, I do speak German" (in German) figuring that the person doesn't actually speak it, but then the person does. And it's sort of awkward at that point because now you have to talk to him. I'm only using a sample size of like 3 here though.

When I engage someone in conversation by asking for directions or trying to buy something, if the conversation is going to entail not just a few words (e.g. "how much is this, ok i want it") but something more substantial ("how do i get to this place") then they very often ask me if I speak french because clearly they think communication in french will be easier. But often enough we have the whole conversation in arabic and it generally works more or less.

Also, there are a lot of beggars. There is a beggar whom I always see right across from our house. There is another one or two on our street, which is about 100m long. There is rhetoric among middle/upper-class Moroccans (or just Rabatans?) that beggars aren't actually starving but are doing fine and just saving up money for a house. Or something, I'm not entirely clear on what the story is or where the idea comes from.

When you exit the medina it's more like Chicago. The biggest difference is honestly crossing the street, which is fun because there are no rules. Red lights do exist but they're really more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules so it always makes crossing the street an adventure. Also, there are some streets, like Muhammad V (the main avenue) which continues to have things for sale on the ground. For example, half of the sidewalk is taken up by people selling books. Another street has tons of paintings taking up half the sidewalk. 

This is my host brother, Adam

Il est mignon

More things I do for fun

Get lost and watch team handball, which is way more of a thing here than it should be.