An Uneventful Day

Today was an uneventful day. It started out early at 7am, so that I could feast on some breakfast. Since I would be leaving at 1 for my SAS trip, I thought that it would not be practical to go out for such a short time. So instead I sat on deck 7 and drew the Casablanca skyline for a good 2 hours. It was much warmer outside and dustier than yesterday, which was only expected because its Africa and we are pretty close to the Sahara desert. After finalizing my packing and eating a very good lunch featuring sherbet ice cream (which was very welcome in the heat), it was time to head out to the  Union, sign in for the trip, and then we were on our way. The drive was about 3.5 hours with me sleeping about 2 of those hours. The drive really reminded me of the drive to Phoenix from my house. It was a desert with the occassional small town and gas station. I was quite surprised to see many relatively expensive cars on the road. Most of the cars I saw wer BMWs, Mercedes, or new Toyotas. It may seem a bit ignorant of me, but I wasn't aware that people were that well off in Morocco. But then again, maybe the only people who buy cars are the ones who can afford the nicer companies. We stopped at a Shell gas station for a rest stop, and the heaet was also very similar to Arizona heat: dry heat, but it was relatively bearable. After about another hour, we arrived in Marrakech. Almost all of the buildings in the city were painted the same shade of red (hence one of its older names as "The Red City), and had a similarity to pueblo architecture: box like. We got to the hotel around 5, dropped our stuff off into the rooms, and then tried to find something to do. Unfortunately it was Eid today, so almost everything was closed, in particular the world-famous Marrakech souks (market) which were too far from the hotel to visit. So instead I just walked around with some other students (Rudy, Kelci, Mauli, and my hotel roommate Andres). We did not get far until we came upon a restaurant that had Moroccan Mint Tea. I really wanted to try some, so we all got some. And boy was it good. Everyone I know who has had some told me how good the tea was, and I now know what they mean: the mint flavor was strong, but not overwhelming, and the drink in general felt soothing. We sat there for about 2 hours talking about our SAS experience so far and stories we had. We all agreed, that it really didn't feel like we were in Africa; it probably just hasn't hit us yet since we were just in Spain the other day. We didn't see much of the city but we had to head back to the hotel for dinner (and we would be seeing the city tomorrow anyway) around 8. Dinner was very good: it mostly featured salads that we would mix in with couscous to make a very delicious mixture that was quite tasty but at the same time felt very easy on our stomachs, which is something very welcomed after all the heavy food on the ship and Spain. Although it was still early once we finished dinner, we couldn't really go out anywhere since most places were closed anyways. So most of us just went back to our rooms (some people went out to clubs, but I don't want to do that in this country), and got ready for an early bed. I feel like today went to waste, but thats what happens when your long trip leaves in the middle of the day and starts on a religious holday in a very religious country. I kind of wanted to wander around the city close to our hotel, but no one else wanted to do the same, and it would not be the best idea to go out in this city on my own. Tomorrow should make up for today, and I'm really looking forward to buying lots of stuff at the souks. And also the next few days are going to be intense (4 cities in 3 days), and we still hadn't really recovered from Spain yet, so today may also have been a blessing. We will see in time.
-Nimish
September 10, 2010