Packing :(

Today is my last full day in Granada.... and it feels very strange! :/ I have without a doubt had the time of my life and I'm having a difficult time watching it come to an end. I have been blessed to meet amazing people and make such amazing friendships. This past week has been filled with celebrations and get-togethers; we're all attempting to spend as much time together as possible.

This past weekend was my friend Melissa's birthday and we had a great time going out to dinner and hanging out with one another. We went to a Mexican food restaurant for dinner and were a bit skeptical about what it might taste like, but it wasn't too bad ;) It definitely wasn't San Diego Mexican food, but it passed the test. We celebrated with Churros con Chocolate and Sangria :)

It snowed on Monday in Granada, so the weather is definitely dropping. Glad to be out of here before it gets too too cold! Nevertheless it was really fun to see the snow in the city before we leave :)

Last night was our going away party and our entire program went to a Flamenco show together. We were sandwiched in there like sardines, but had a fabulous time :) For whatever reason I always get picked out of the audience to dance on stage, so yet again I had to make a fool of myself on stage. Wouldn't have been the same without it ;) A few of my friends and I raised money to hep pay for a new camera for our director, that was stolen on our trip to Morocco, so we presented that to him last night and he was very surprised. It made our night to give back to him! He's off to buy a new camera today.

I'm off to finish packing... hope to see everyone soon when I get home!

Road Trip: Tarifa

Our last day of our road trip, we woke up and went down to the beach of Conil before we got on the road. It was a nice beach and the weather was perfect, but I was shocked at how in awe Nicole, Melissa, and Sherman were. Having grown up by the beach I wasn't surprised at what we saw, but they were just in shock soaking everything in, it was great! THey didn't know or understand how surfing worked, so we explained it to them and how tides work... they were in awe, it was so neat. I've really come to value and appreciate how different we all are in our own country, let alone around the world, and how much there is to explore there. It makes me excited to visit them and see what their version of the US is like.

After wading in the waves in Conil we headed for another coastal beach town named Tarifa. Tarifa is the southernmost point of Europe and has spectacular views of the coast of Africa. We took our lunch for the day and sat and overlooked the ocean and the continent of Africa. It was very cool to sit there and think that just over a month ago I was over there having the time of my life. I would love to spend more time in Africa one day.

After eating our lunch, we walked down the ain streets of Tarifa and headed back to Granada. We were not looking forward to leaving the nice, warm, beach weather. We drove back around Gibraltar, Marbella, and Malaga and headed towards the Sierra Nevadas. As soon as we headed towards the mountains, our lovely 21 degree celcius weather turned in to 9 degrees. It did feel more like winter and christmas season when we got back in to Granada. We pulled in to Granada and everyone was all bundles up in their pea coats and scarves. SO glad I've had a taste of a cold winter, so I can really appreciate our warm winter back home!

Road Trip: Cadiz

Our full day on Saturday was spend within the port city of Cadiz. Cadiz is the oldest European city, dating back prior to the Romans, but the best thing about it is it doesn't look like an old run down city, it is beautiful.

We drove about forty minutes from Conil, where we were staying, to Cadiz. Sherman was awesome and looked up things for us to do there and took us around the city. It was so nice to not have to think about anything, we were so appreciative of all his hard work. We went on a coastal walk, stopping to look at various monuments along the way. We went first to a castle built on the coast. We couldn't go inside, but the scenery was beautiful. The castle was surrounded by tide pools, men fishing for sea urchins, men sailing and walking along the beach. The Atlantic ocean was bright blue and it was fun knowing that the United States was just on the other side of the water from where we were standing. We sat on the walls and looked back at the city and Cathedral of Cadiz and out into the ocean. We could not have asked for better weather!

We walked a little further down the bay and came to the next fortress built in 1596 and went inside to explore. We were a bit disappointed to ind that there was a contemporary art exhibition going on inside, because it kind of ruined the vibe and atmosphere of the castle for us. But the view was beautiful of course, so we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless.

We left the castles and headed for a park in the city to relax and have lunch. The park was beautiful and very relaxing. We continued our stroll along the coast and ended up at the Cathedral. The Cathedral was fantastic, very different from others we've seen. It's a neoclassical style, which is very different than the gothic we have become accustomed to. It was a much softer look and much easier on the eyes. My favorite Cathedral to date. I feel like I should make a ist of the churches I've seen now... every city has a large handful of them.

We saw an old Roman theater near the Cathedral. Supposedly they didn't discover it until 1980, but we're not sure how something so big, above ground, in the center of the city wasn't discovered until now.... interesting.

Road Trip: Gibraltar

This weekend, Ellen, Nicole, Melissa, Sherman and I road tripped throughout Southern Spain. Our first day we visited Marbella and Gibraltar. We rented a car in Granada and were anticipating difficulties while driving in Spain, but it wasn't too bad. We made a good team navigating and driving. We drove to Marbella first, about a 2 hour drive to the coast, to see the famous beach town in Spain. Marbella is the town for the rich and famous. Their yachts are parked in the bay, but we didn't feel out of place. It was till a very traditional, Spanish city. The weather was gorgeous! We only stopped for a few minutes, but I was so impressed with Marbella's tropical, Mediterranean feel.

We drove for another hour so and made it to Gibraltar. I absolutely fell in love with it!. It is a British territory located on the Southern end of Spain and shares a land border with Spain. Gibraltar and Spain have not been on the best of terms for years. Spain has wanted Gibraltar in order to control navigation through the Mediterranean, but the people of Gibraltar have made it clear that they wish to remain British citizens. They have voted on it on numerous occasions and have always remained true to their British roots.

Our tour guide pointed out to us, that as we crossed the border in to Gibraltar there were Spanish border agents and Gibraltarian agents checking our passports. The Spanish, technically shouldn't check our passports as we leave their country, but want to make a petty point that they believe they have some control of the territory. Our tour guide also informed us that the bay of Gibraltar is called the bay of Gibraltar by most world maps, but that the Spanish maps label the bay as the bay of Algeciras, the Spanish city that shares it's border with Gibraltar.

The contention between the two is very interesting and provides for an interesting blend of the two cultures. The official language of Gibraltar is English, but children are taught both English and Spanish. The mix of English and Spanish has created an actual form of Spanglish known throughout Gibraltar and is spoken on an everyday basis. Our guide we met shared a newspaper article with us and it was very cool! It would say something along the lines of, "The libro is muy interesante, pero in reality es un rollo." completely mixing the two languages. There didn't seem to be rules as to when to use each language, but there must be some system. This language, "Gibrish," even has it's own made words to trow in to the mix.

Now...what we actually did in Gibraltar. Walking down main street we ran into a man giving guided tours of the Rock of Gibraltar. He began to give us his shpeal on the deal we would get and were immediately turned off, but by the end, decided it was a good idea. And whether he was a good salesman or not, it was a blast and I'm so glad we did it.

Normally, you have to hike the Rock of Gibraltar for about 4 hours to see the sights we saw, but he drove us everywhere in his own van and took us directly to the best places. Eric, our guide, first took us to the Pillars of Hercules. The myth is, the Rock of Gibraltar and the mountain of Northern Africa were the two pillars signaling the end of the world by Hercules. After sailing through these pillars, you would fall off the world, because it was flat. Funny enough, these pillars are the origins of the American dollar. After Columbus sailed to the Americas, they were regarded as the port to the new world. The monument for the pillars has a scroll running through them and this is where we get our symbol for the American dollar, the scroll with the two pillars $. From the Pillars of Hercules you could see the northern coast of Africa and it was beautiful.

We then headed to Saint Michael's cave. The cave was not the most impressive or biggest I've seen, but nonetheless was very cool to see. We walked around in the caves for a bit and headed for the best part of the day.

Eric drove us to see the monkeys! :) The British sailors brought monkeys with them from Africa during the 1800s and they've been there ever since. Winston Churchill once said, "When the monkeys seize to exist, Gibraltar will no longer be a British territory." So, as you can imagine, they are a protected species and receive veterinary care regularly. Each monkey is tattooed with a number and is taken care of from birth. Eric sees the monkeys on a regular basis and knows them on a first name basis, so as you can imagine, the monkeys loved him. He called one monkey in to the car and he rode along with us until we got to our monkey destination. The monkeys are very territorial and hierarchical, so Eric had to tell us which monkey's to play with and when to be careful.

Eric would call the monkeys and they would jump up on to our back or heads. The monkeys were obsessed with my hair and wanted to see if they could find any bugs in it...thankfully they weren't successful. It was exactly what I picture monkeys acting like. We truly were their jungle gyms. Technically, they're not monkeys, because they don't have tails, but mekaks. The mekaks live to be about 29 years old. One mekak, Michael, is the oldest monkey on the island and is as old as the latest Spanish constitution, at 29 years old. There were a blast. We would have stayed there all day if we could.

Our next stop was at the mouth of a series of militaristic tunnels in the rock. There are over 72 km of tunnel within the rock. The tunnels were impressive, but the view was amazing. We were looking back towards Spain across the Strait of Gibraltar. The Strait has an airport runway along the width of the Strait. It is the only runway in the world with a traffic light for public cars to pass through, as it's the only way in and out of the territory, by land. It was very cool and very beautiful looking back over the Strait.

Our final ISA Excursion to Sevilla and Cordoba

This past friday afternoon we left Granada for Sevilla, Spain. After a four hour bus ride we arrived in Sevilla. Sevilla is a much larger city than Granada (Granada has about 250,000 people and Sevilla has about 750,000). We were taken to Hotel Becquer, named after a famous Spanish author, sculptor, and painter, and then went on a walking tour of the Triana neighborhood. Triana is located on the far side of the Guadilquivir river. Sevilla had a very romantic vibe to it, and reminded me a lot of Paris and the Seine river. The river, the lights, bridges and buildings seemed very Parisian. Secilla is the capital of Andalusia... it was my favorite Spanish city outside of Granada. I absolutely loved it!

The next day we toured the city. We started at the Alcazar, the palace in Sevilla modeled after the Alhambra. The alhambra was deserted for a short while and wasn't taken care of, but the Alcazar had the colors that the Alhambra should have and was unique for that reason. It is one of the oldest palaces in Europe still in use. It was very reminiscent of the Alhambra, but had been added on to by various rulers, so it incorporated many other styles as well. Interestingly enough the Alcazar has many monuments and elements in honor of Christopher Columbus and his discoveries. Christopher Columbus set sail for the Americas from the city of Sevilla. One of the paintings in the palace shows the very first depiction of the native americans by Europeans after their discovery. They weren't painted savagely or anything but in a pretty realistic form. Overall, the Alcazar was beautiful and encompassed all of those things I loved about the Alhambra.... minus the fantastic gardens.

After visiting the Alcazar we visited the Cathedral in Sevilla. I was excited to see the Cathedral after learning about it in my art history class. When the Catholics conquered Spainm they destroyed all of the mosques to build cathedrals of their own. But rather than destroy the call tower of the mosque, they added to it and made it a combination of both styles and uses by adding a bell tower. The Sevilla Cathedral is one of the three largest cathedrals in all of Europe... it was impressive for this reason. I am not a fan of large, gaudy Cathedrals, but I could appreciate its size and grandeur. There was a large, silver altar made from the silver of the Americas, after its discovery, and it had a very "mayan" flare to it.

Following Columbus's death, he was "buried" in Sevilla, then Valladolid, then Santiago, then Habana and back to Sevilla. In the process of his post-life travels, the actual remains of his body were unknown. Both Sevilla and Santiago claimed to have the body of Columbus until 2000 when researchers did a DNA sample of the body in Sevilla and confirmed the remains to be that of Columbus. So... there remains a tomb and monument to Christopher Columbus inside the cathedral. When Columbus died he was still under the impression that he had found a new route to India, rather than a new continent. For this reason, America is named after Americo Vespuce who was the first to declare America as a new continent previously unknown to Europe.

After touring the cathedral, we went up in to the Giralda tower (the bell tower). We climbed 36 ramps to make it to the top of the tower. The Moorish ruler originally had it built with ramps rather than stairs, so that he could ride his horse to the top of the tower. Once at the top we were situated underneath the bells and looking out over the city of Sevilla. It was a fantastic view!

After lunch, my friends Ellen, Nicole, Melissa, Cate and I went on a carriage ride throughout the city. It was a blast! Sandwiched in to the carriage, we saw the res of Sevilla on our carriage ride. We went along the river and saw El Torre del Oro, the Bull Ring, the university, Plaza Espana, the large public park and arrived back at the cathedral. We had entirely too much fun and laughed hysterically all day long.

Sevilla has a lot of history in Flamenco and Torreros. A large portion of Flamenco originated in Sevilla and the bull ring in unique to Sevilla as well. This particular ring has eight sides, rather than being a circular ring, and has unique yellow, sand in the arena.

After visiting Sevilla for a day and a half, we went to COrdoba to visit the Mosque of Cordoba (La Mezquita). La Mezquita en Cordoba is the only one of 300 mosques still standing in Spain. The Catholics demolished the other mosques in order to further weaken their moral and establish their own religious customs.

There are three main sections to any mosque ; the tower, the patio, and main church. The Mezquita in Cordoba is a mixture between the old mosque and catholic cathedral. The call tower of the mosque was altered, like the one in Sevilla, to become the bell tower of the cathedral. The patio was left the same and the "Salon de Oraciones," or main room, was altered drastically. The mosque itself was built to look like a forest of candy-cane striped columns and the effect is beautiful. HOwever, the catholics decided to build a cathedral right, smack-dab in the middle . You can no longer see through the forest of columns and the entire flow is broken.

While it is a shame that such a beautiful building was tampered with, it probably only today because of the cathedral within it. Had the cathedral not been built, it is likely that it would have been demolished like all of the others. When the architect contacted the King, King Ferdinand III, the king had never been to Cordoba and seen the Mezquita, and okayed the construction of the cathedral. It is said, that later when the King passes through Cordoba on his honeymoon he was horrified. He said, "Had I known what they were damaging to build this cathedral, I never would have allowed it."

The Mezquita is truly astonishing, unlike anything I have ever seen before. The columns are astounding and provide a very serene ambiance. It is exactly the kind of place I would like to go to for worship. The pulpit is decorated, but no where as distracting and overwhelming as the altars of a Catholic church. The simple, intricacy is stunning. All mosques are supposed to face the direction of Mecca, but.. the architects that built the mosque were from Sevilla and oriented the mosque in the same direction, thinking the direction was the same as Sevilla. So, the mosque is not actually facing Mecca as it should be, go figure. Never the less it has captivated the hearts of many for centuries.

All of the columns throughout the building are different from one another. They didn't have the time to build them all, so they sole them from various locations. Although this is an odd way of going about building a house of worship, it provides for an interesting result. What a way to end my adventures with ISA! It was a fantastic weeked :)

“El mejor intercambio de nuestra vida”

One of our amazing directors Marissa has put together an annual magazine called MagazaISA. She collects articles and poems and pictures from all of the students who wish to participate and puts them together into one large magazine for all of us to take home. It's a very cool idea and I'm excited that she's doing it. Each article has to be written in Spanish, but can be about anything we've experienced while on our travels. This way, each of us that participates has a cool memento to take home with us :) I decided to write a poem about our experience in the Moroccan desert with the burburs. I'm sharing my poem with you, but I'm not going to translate it, because it won't sound very pretty in English ;) so here it is: “El mejor intercambio de nuestra vida”

Yo Hago las maletas y sueño sobre viajes,
Excursiones con arena y estrellas,
Las dunas consume el mundo en mi mente,
Y los camellos pasea en el paisaje;
Pero está oscuro y me pone nervioso.

Me empaño la oscuridad del vacío,
Los camellos y las estrellas desaparece.
Una figura aparece con una mano extendida,
No puedo ver pero la tomo fielmente,
El ambiente del desierto me da confianza.

Caminamos hacia el amanecer,
Mano en mano, armonía.
Nos sentimos lo caluroso del sol,
Nuestras almas juntan,
Personas y tierra se unen en tranquilidad.

El sol resplandeciente sale,
Todo el desierto transforma en oro.
Los camellos vuelven a aparecer,
Unidos con bereberes y los visitantes,
Las sonrisas ilumina todo y me emociona.

Se celebran todas las diferencias,
Idiomas, culturas, comidas… vidas.
Aunque poco tiempo ha pasado,
Agradecemos y aprendemos mucho.
Se llama “la escuela internacional,”
Lo llamamos el intercambio más deseable en la vida.

Visiting the village in the desert

We left the large dunes on camelback and arrived in a small desert village. It felt eerie and abandoned as we walked through the town, until we realized the eyes peering back at us through the windows. The men were all at work and the women were left to stay in doors throughout the day, so needless to say we saw very few people in the village. A few women stepped out doors to watch us pass by, but most stayed indoors tending to do their jobs for the day. There were children EVERYWHERE! Everywhere we went we had children at our feet asking for water or something to eat. It was very hard to tell them that we didn't have anything for them, knowing full well we had backpacks full of supplies.

On our walk towards the school we passed two brothers playing in the sand. I made sure no one was around and gave each of the boys a small plastic soccer ball. The expressions on their faces vanished and you could tell they were trying so hard not to lose it... the moment I turned around to walk towards the school they erupted in to screams and ran home waving the balls in the air. I can only imagine how many balls they have had to play with in their lifetime... very few.

We were given strict instructions by our directors not to hand out anything to the children if we were surrounded by a large group, otherwise it was pretty clear that we would be bombarded by children. We walked through the town and split up in to separate groups. The Granada group was the only group going to deliver supplies to the local school kids, which made me feel good to know that I was part of conscientious few. The school building was an adobe room without a door and a few broken desks inside.

Our director Eugenio began handing us each a bag of pencils, pens or markers to hand out to the class. Immediately the kids jumped out of their seats and tried to attack you for something. One of the young burbur men had come in with us and he immediately yelled at everyone to sit back in their seats. He proceeded to tell them that if they couldn't handle the excitement and act politely that we would take our things somewhere else. It was amazing to see the kids respond so quickly to him, he wasn't the teacher or anyone remotely connected to them, but they knew to follow his orders. The kids squirmed in their seats and tried to maintain some composure. We were in the classroom for about twenty minutes and handed out every single thing we had.

When we left the school and headed back towards our camp I felt a small tug on the back of my shirt. It was the two boys that I had given the balls to. They had come back to play with us :) We didn't have any plans with our program that afternoon, so our director told us it would be okay to stay behind and play with them for a few minutes, so we did. We played with Hamid and his little brother as they chased the soccer balls around the desert. It was a very rewarding and uplifting experience. These two boys didn't want to hoard their treasures to themselves, they wanted to share in it with us. Our director handed out two small pieces of candy to a little girl, and instead of eating them both she unwrapped one of the candies and promptly stuffed it in to our directors mouth. They don't have a lot, but they aren't poor. They just have a better idea of what is necessary and what is excessive. They don't seem to miss out on anything or feel as though they're missing out, but simply have what they need to get by. It was a great reminder that the things we have in life can bring joy, but by themselves are of no importance.

Saharan Sunrise and Camel Rides

We were woken up at 5:00 am in our tents to watch the sunrise in the desert. Can you believe it... some people decided to sleep instead! But for those of us smart enough to get up, it was absolutely beautiful. The Burburs took us out on a trek to the big dunes, which was quite a work out for 5am. But they ensured us that the higher we went up the dunes the better it would be and they were certainly right. Before the sun rose the sand was a light grey, but the moment the sun began to peed out from behind the dunes everything turned a bright golden color. It was one of the most peaceful, serene moments of my life. There was not a building, person, or animal as far as the eye could see. We were in complete solidarity and it was the best feeling. We sat and watched the sun rise for a half an hour or so and then headed back to camp. We had to get ready for our big day. We were going to ride camels and visit a small desert village.

After getting dressed and eating our breakfast of hard boiled eggs, bread and yogurt, we bought turbans from the burburs to protect our heads from the sun... and just because it's cool :) I bought a bright yellow turban and had it wrapped around my head by one of the burbur boys. It was absolutely amazing how cool the turbans kept you that day! We would have died without them.

The camels began to arrive in small trains and the photo taking began. I was a little apprehensive that the camels wouldn't be very nice, but I was completely wrong they were all very nice. Nice and smelly! They smelled awful. It took quite a while for the 80 camels or so to show up, but as soon as they were all there we were assigned to certain camel trains. Ellen and I shared a camel of course and it was a hoot. It wasn't that strange for me having ridden a horse before, but most people had never even done that, so you can imagine. The getting on and off was the most interesting part. When a camels back legs are up and its kneeling on its front you very nearly fall off each time. The funny thing is, the camels are very picky and don't like more than one person getting on. So one person has to get on and hold on tight while it stands up. Then they have to sit the camel down again and you nearly fall off again and then wait for the second person to get on and start the whole process all over again. It was very entertaining.

Once we were all on our camels, it was a lot like riding a horse, in terms of how it felt anyway... we weren't steering or telling them where to go, I have no idea how that would have gone. The camels were connected in small trains, about three or four camels to a train, and were lead in the front by a man on foot. We walked for about an hour giggling and taking pictures of everyone as they passed. It was then time to give the camels a rest, so we all climbed a VERY high dune to look at the view. Our director Noelia brought her snow board so that she could board down the dunes. Many people boarded down the dune and other road it like a sled. It was a lot of fun to watch, but it was entirely too hot for me to think about boarding down and walking all the way back up! A couple of people actually got sick for the heat that day after over exerting themselves on the dune... so I'm glad I didn't follow suit.

The adventures begin in the Saharan Desert!

My favorite part of the trip was by far our stay in the Saharan Desert. The morning after our show we took an eight our bus ride towards the desert. Here all 150 of us piled in to thirty plus jeeps that would take us to our tents in the desert. We reached the jeeps around sunset and would not be driving through the desert with any light left... this made it very interesting.

The jeeps didn't seem to follow any particular path through the desert. Everyone took off in different directions at full speed. They were clearly trying to avoid the dust from the jeeps ahead by taking different routes, but we had absolutely no idea how they knew where they were going. It was pitch black outside and not a single landmark in site to orient yourself from. We drove for about an hour in the desert, bobbing up and down and swerving to miss other jeeps, but we arrived safely at our destination.

We stepped out of the jeeps and were in complete awe at the scene around us. The burbur people were there to greet us and show us to our tents. We slept in large tents made out of blankets and had a large dining tent for all 150 of us to eat in during our next two days. We were completely overwhelmed. We ran in and found a tent to put our things in and wasted no time in exploring the rest of the campsite. It was only seven clock of so, so we had a few hours to relax before dinner. The burburs served us tea and we settled in to our new home.

We felt like little kids that had been cooped up for days. Everyone was running across the dunes and somersaulting down them. It was a full moon, so it appeared as though there was a light turned on somewhere in the desert illuminating everything. We tackled each other in the sand and sat under the stars, struggling with the idea that we were sitting in the Saharan Desert of all places. We were slightly bummed that the moon was so bright, because it ruined our chances with star gazing, but nonetheless we were captivated.

Moroccan Show in Fes

After our fun filled day in the Medina, our program took us to a Moroccan show. It was an interesting experience to say the least. Throughout our travels in Morocco each Spanish city had its own tour bus... and it didn't take long for the group to realize our bus had the most fun ;) Our bus quickly learned the title of Granada Buscoteca. Our Granada directors were an absolute kick. They knew going in to the trip that the bus rides were going to be a part of the experience and wanted to make sure we had as much fun as possible at all times. On our way to the show our directors turned off the lights on the bus and turned flashing green and blue lights while we all sand our hearts out to songs from "Grease" "Beyonce," anything they could get their hands on. It was a blast :)

Our entire program, 150 students, took up the entire venue. We were all seated at round tables and served the traditional mint tea. We weren't sure what to expect for the entertainment and we could not have prepared ourselves for it. We had become so accustomed to seeing women fully covered throughout the city that we were taken aback by the fairly naked belly dancers at the show, it didn't seem to match up at all. Their were four or five belly dancers that danced throughout the audience for a majority of the show. However in between the dancers there were other various acts as well. There was a group of four men that played various instruments and danced around the audience. One of the men played a pair of rusty old scissors! It was the strangest thing, scissors of all things. The other played different types of drums and dance and sang. Another man danced with a tray of tea on top of his head. He was the contortionist part of the act. But my favorite part involved two of our friends from our program. Our friends Randall and Cate were selected from the audience and taken back stage for fifteen minutes or so. When they emerged they were dressed in full Moroccan attire and acted out a Moroccan wedding ceremony. Cate was hoisted up in the air upon a seat and paraded around the room as Moroccan women sang and danced around her. It was very interesting. Cate's dress and headdress looked to weigh about 15 pounds! She could hardly move underneath it.

Overall I wasn't overly impressed by the talent in the show, but the cultural experience was an experience all on its own. It was a very interactive show and they kept the audience entertained. We had a great time :)

Fes: The Medina

Our first full day in Morocco was spent in Fes, the third largest city in Morocco. Our tour guide was fantastic! We visited the Medina in Fez, a giant labyrinth of over 9,400 streets, all without street names and addresses. We visited five major portions of the Medina; the tannery, the pharmacy, the ceramics, the rug district, and the market. We stepped in to the narrow, winding streets of the food market and were hit with the stench of fresh meat, fish, cheese, vegetables... you name it. There was no easing yourself in to the experience, Morocco came at you full force. Shouts of "Balak" rang throughout the streets, as men attempted to lead their donkeys through the crowd with their merchandise for the day. Camel heads hung on the stalls, acting as food labels. Full sharks were laid out upon the counter tops as men sold fish to women buying food for the day... but not without being noticed by the cats in the alley, as they waited patiently for something to drop their way. There was so much to take in at every moment that your senses were simply overwhelmed. It was clear that none of us were going to buy any food that day, so we moved on to our next stop, the pharmacy.

However, before I go on, I should explain one thing. There are no laws or health care systems within the Medina. People are left to govern themselves and have managed their businesses this way for thousands of years; however in order to ensure a good life, you have to have a lot of children. Children are considered life insurance here. The more children you have, the more people you have to work for you, and care for you when you're older, and continue the family business when you pass away. So, the pharmacy that we went to was run by a father and son and had been in the family for over 6 generations. It was a natural medicine location that sold everything from cooking spices like safran and cinnamon, to makeup and oils, to herbs for the sick. The father, salesman, gave us a demonstration of a handful of their products that he would gladly sell to us at the end of the presentation, aka sales bit. It was very interesting to see the natural eye liners and lip sticks and perfumes... and they sure made a profit off of our group ;)

With the pleasant scent of natural perfumes in our nose we headed for the tannery. As we stepped through the door we were kindly handed a stem of mint before our noses were assaulted by the odor. We were standing in a leather goods shop overlooking the entire tannery itself. There were huge tubs that the hides soaked in for 7 days at a time, sometimes with color dies, before being made in to handbags or boots. Men stood in the tubs mixing the hides and checking them for consistency. It definitely made you think twice about buying leather in your lifetime. There is a sad hiccup in our system that allows us to be completely ignorant about the things we buy, that you could never do here.

After leaving the pharmacy we went to a very nice lunch... half of which we could not eat. We were advised not to eat anything uncooked and washed in water during our stay because of the parasites in the water, so we looked longingly at the delicious salads and fresh fruit. We did eat a fantastic mound of cous cous with chicken and peppers and cooked vegetables... it was wonderful!

After lunch we went and visited the rug and tapestry portion of the Medina. Moroccans are known specifically for their handmade rugs and they are absolutely beautiful. There are different kinds of rugs, but we were taught mostly about Burbur rugs. The Burbur people are people of the desert. There are no books written about the culture of their people, so the rugs act as the only "written" history of their culture. They have many different rugs, wedding rugs, family rugs, traveling "caravan" rugs and many more. We were taught the significance of the patterns, symbolizing the dunes of the desert etc., and the importance of the colors, yellows representing the sand, blue for the sky and freedom, and so on. It was fascinating! My favorite part of the Medina :)

We ventured on in to the ceramics portion of they city and were blown away by the intricacy of their work. They made everything from mugs, to table tops, to clocks. The workmanship was beautiful. A large majority of the pieces we saw were mosaics. The men didn't measure the pieces to fit properly with one another they simply measured by eye and were right on each and every time. There were mosaics of old ships, intricate geometric patters, flowers, anything you can imagine. It definitely made you appreciate the workmanship that went in to those pieces.

It was time for us to leave the Medina, but before we could leave our tour guide took us to a lookout point that overlooked the entire Medina. We knew we had been winding our way through thousands of streets, but looking at the sheer size of the area from above was truly astonishing. We were told that the Moroccans often come to Fes to visit the Medina to remind themselves of what life used to be like throughout all of Morocco and what their parents used to live like before them... we had truly been transported back in time.

Morocco Part I: Departing for Africa

This past week I visited Morocco with my program and had the time of my life! :) Not many would have enjoyed a trip with more than 40 hours of transportation by bus in six days, but we were in good company and could not have asked for anything better. We left Granada at 3:00 am on Friday morning and drove down to Algeciras, Spain. Here we hopped on a ferry and crossed the Mediterranean to Ceuta, Spain in Northern Africa. We could not believe we were on the African continent and probably would have been content with that if we had not gone further :) You can tell by my ecstatic picture on the ferry ;)

Ceuta, Spain looked pretty much like the rest of Southern Spain, much to our dismay, but this soon changed as we headed for the Moroccan border. Our customs experience crossing in to the Moroccan border was interesting to say the least. Our directors had collected all of our passports to be examined and stamped with approval while we waited on the bus. However while we waited, a young police officer stepped on to the bus and promptly pulled out a black gun and pointed it at the forehead of our director... naturally startling him, and everyone else. Little did we know this black gun was used only to check out temperatures! SO after he explained himself, he walked down the bus and point the gun at everyone's face to check out temperature before passing through the border. It was a bit nerve racking. So after an hour and a half in customs we had made it to Morocco! :)

The minute we turned the first bend in the road we knew we were in an entirely different world. Donkeys and mules pulled carts, filled with vegetables and children, along the road and donkeys worked the fields alongside the road as well. It was as if we had stepped back in time. You'll have to hang with me throughout the next few entries... I haven't the slightest idea how I am going to tell you everything!

Banos Arabes

I had visited some Arabic Baths while we were in Ronda and found out that we had running, functioning baths in Granada. So this past weekend I went with a few of my girlfriends to one of the Arabic Baths in the Albyzin. It was an extremely relaxing and neat experience. From the moment we stepped in to the building it felt as though we had taken a step back in time :)

The baths are located on a site where actual baths were located, but have been renovated in recent years. The baths go in to the side of the mountain and you definitely feel like you're in a cave while you're in there. We changed in to our bathing suits and were escorted in to the baths themselves. There were three baths (jacuzzis) one hot, one warm and one cold. We had an hour and a half to alternate between baths and sit in the sauna. I was originally a little nervous about the sauna, but it turned out to be my favorite part of the experience, it was very relaxing. My allergies have been going haywire, and the steam turned me in to a new person!

Throughout the baths they had cinnamon burning and it smelled amazing! The baths were decorated in complete arabic style, with arabic tiling similar to the Alhambra, skylights that resembled those in the authentic baths and candle-light. After we were finished in the baths we each received a very nice massage.

As we left the baths it was hard for us to fathom a life where this would have been a weekly, and sometimes daily, experience. During the winter months, the baths were one of the only places someone could go to get warm and get out of the cold. If I had visited the baths during the winter, I don't think I would have ever left. It was a very relaxing experience and I fully believe we should all experience arabic baths once a week :)

Flamenco

I have been looking for a good Flamenco bar to go to the past couple of weeks and last night we found it! We went to a place called the Andalusian Dog and watched a fantastic two hour Flamenco show. It was the most unique dance experience I have ever had. The show itself is only part of the experience. The bar is built in to the side of the mountain in the old Moorish portion of the city and actually takes place a cave-like setting. When you arrive you are given a beverage of your choice and a tapa with your admission, which is only $8. So you are expected to come and have a glass of wine and socialize before the show begins. I love this about the Spaniards, no matter what it is you are doing, you are expected to mingle and socialize with people there.

After mingling for a half hour or so, the guitarist and singer began. The singer was an older man of about 80 with the most powerful voice. They sang and played the guitar for about twenty minutes and then invited the dancer to come out and join them. She was remarkable! She was dressed in a traditional dress and matched the other two in their red and black. The other girls I was with, were surprised by the strength and sadness behind their dancing and singing. I had known that this is how it would be, but nothing compares to seeing it in person. The unique thing about the experience was that it was in a small cave, so there was probably only thirty or forty people in there and everyone was very close. It was a very intimate setting and allowed you to really feel the emotion behind the performers. I am so glad we finally found a place to watch authentic Flamenco, I'm sure it is only one of many times that we will go there. I still plan on hunting down some more shows ;)

Ronda and Malaga

This past weekend our program went on an excursion to two cities in Southern Spain, Ronda and Malaga. We went to Ronda for the afternoon and toured the city. It was one of the most charming cities I've been to thus far in Spain. It is much smaller, and in my opinion, much prettier. Ronda itself wasn't on the map to English speakers until recently. Ernest Hemingway wrote a novel called For Whom the Bell Tolls which takes place in Ronda, bringing the small town to the attention of travelers all over the world. The bridge that Hemingway writes about is in the center of town and there is now an entire portion of the city dedicated to him. The English major in me was excited yet again by the literary influences on the cities we visit... although I think I was the only one in our group to get much excitement out of it.

While in Ronda we visited Los Banos Arabes, the Arab baths, and they were very cool. They are one of the few baths that mimic the Roman baths in their entirety. They have three separate rooms, the hot room, the warm room and cool room. The baths are located outside of the city walls, so that people would cleanse themselves before entering the city. The arabic inhabitants washed themselves five times a day and frequented the baths often, men in the morning and women and children in the afternoon. But when the Christians conquered southern spain the history of the baths changed completely. The Christians did not look favorably upon bathing like the Arabs did and the baths were no longer used by the community, but instead denounced as a center for prostitutes... so impressive how something can change so drastically depending upon the way you look at it.

We also visited a mansion in Ronda that had spectacular views of the valleys below and a beautiful garden. People were much smarter in the way they engineered houses in those days, creating inside patios and gardens as natural air conditioners. The houses we have visited are a good ten degrees cooler inside without using any air conditioning. We've been told their streets are so narrow, so as to block the sun from coming in through the windows and keeping the house itself cooler throughout the day. Here I was thinking they just didn't like wide streets...

After visiting Ronda we drove to Malaga that afternoon. We went with a small group of friends to the beach to watch the sunset that night. The water is incredibly warm on the Mediterranean coast. At eight oclock at night we could have easily gone in the water and been more comfortable than in San Diego beaches during the heat of the day.

The next day in Malaga we went on a long tour of the city. We visited the mother of the Alhambra in Granada, Alcazaba. The Alcazaba had more Roman influence than the Alhambra in Granada which was a neat difference between the two. Alcazaba has an old Roman theatre which was very cool and incorporated Roman columns in to the building, setting it apart from the Alhambra. Generally speaking however it looked like an extension of the Alhambra. Beautiful.

Malaga was a beautiful beach city. There were parks everywhere stretching along the Port. The city itself is older than Rome! So you can imagine the amount of history within the city. Unfortunately as the city grew they tore down a lot of the old Arabic neighborhoods to build outward, so a lot of the original city has been lost. Malaga itself is situated on a hill that runs in to the ocean, so instead of continuing to build over the mountain thousands of years ago, they filled in sand to extend the land mass out in to the water. Our hotel would have been under water had they not expanded the city so long ago. It is so nice to learn so much history about the surrounding cities while we are here. It continues to enrich our stay here :)

The pictures are of the bridge Hemingway wrote about, the view from Ronda and the roman theater.

Vamos a la playa!

This past Sunday a few friends and I went to the beach for the day. For Ellen and I it was quite a journey to go to the beach, having been used to a short drive in San Diego, but for our other friends it wasn't a journey at all (they're from Nebraska and Colorado). We had to take the bus to get there and it was 2 hours there and 2 hours back. We left Granada at 9am and came back at 9pm. It was a great day!

The beach is called Nerja and is part of the region known as the Costa del Sol. Costa del Sol is located on the Mediterranean Ocean. Nerja is known in Spain as one of the most beautiful beaches to frequent. And it didn't disappoint! :) The water was a clear, teal and absolutely beautiful. The water was brisk, but comfortable enough to swim in. It was quite a warm day at the beach and it felt good to get in the water. I am definitely not accustomed to the topless norms on the beach in Europe and it took me by surprise. Once we were in the water, I made sure to ask ellen if there were sharks in the Mediterranean ;) But not to worry I could see right through the clear blue water, so I would see him about to eat me if he was there!