Last weekend, all of the CIEE students went on a large bus to Marrakech. Marrakech is beehive of touristy activity, but nonetheless, very entertaining. Because most of its walls were created from the pink sandstone of the atlas mountains, Marrakech gives of a deep pink glow during the day. The Medina is absolutely huge. Getting lost is not only a must, but inevitable. Turn to your left and there is an entire quartier of iron smiths; turn to your right, and you are confronted with rows and rows of silk thread used to make the gorgeous tekshetas and caftans that vendors attempt to sell to you for outrageous prices. When in Marrakech, you need to come armed with a hearty appetite for bargaining and sense of humor. The vendors are quite funny and charming...until they ask you to send them a picture of yourself on MSN messenger (a chat service that appears to function as the main communication line between members of the opposite sex here in Morocco). After wandering through the souks, you emerge on a large square that is filled with "blue people" (berbers from the south region who tend to wear periwinkle blue garments) selling various remedies for all types of ailments. Whether anyone (including the vendors themselves) takes these remedies seriously is anyone's guess. It seems more of a tourist trap than a legitimate pharmacy.
The first day we arrived, we took a tour of several important old buildings in Marrakech. The first of which was the katoubia mosque (named for the street of booksellers behind the mosque--kitEHb is the word for book in derija). Built in the 11th century, the Katoubia mosque holds 20000 worshippers and has three balls on the top of its minaret that were donated by royal princess during the 13th century. Now brass, the three balls used to be solid gold. The second building we visited was the palace of Bahria, named for the fourth wife of a wealthy vizier in Marrakech. In traditional Islam, one can only take four wives, so while the first wife holds all the power, the most beloved is the fourth. It was grandiose, but certain portions (like the harem) have fallen into disrepair. Many historical sites in Morocco are in similar condition because of the lack of government funding (not because the goverment is not giving money but because of the sheer amount of historical sites). Regardless of how much money is given, each room needs a team of skilled craftsmen to repair the intricate tile designs and carved cedar ceilings, and so the money drains very quickly. Within the palace, there is an arboretum of rare international trees, the most interesting of which is poisonous, and therefore had been used several times to kill of various members of the vizier's family. After wandering through the groves of lemon and fig trees we moved on to the Medina Madersa (school). It was built in the 13th century and was used as an Islamic studies school until 1975. It housed about 800 students in tiny (i am talking 5 feet by 6 feet or smaller) rooms surrounding a main courtyard. In each of these dorm rooms, up to four to five people slept and studied. I felt claustrophobic just thinking about it. All of the students were fed by local Medina families as a charity, and students sometimes remained there for as many as 11 years studying and memorizing and learning the proper way to sing the Koran.
After leaving these hallowed halls of learning, we piled into our bus and were carted off to what i would describe as the Moroccan disneyland. Tired performers entertained us while we picked meat off a sliced in half lamb carcass (head included). The meat was a little tough, but really it wasn't half bad. After the rather large, bland meal, we followed our entertainers out to this ring where we watched a horse show involving physical stunts and extremely loud gunshots with about 3000 other tourists. It was not a highlight, although it has caused a good deal of laughs amongst our group.
During the evenings, most of the group went out dancing at our hotel's night club...le diamant noir (black diamond). Hmmm, how to put this delicately...the women in our group were honestly the only non-prostitutes there. I am not kidding. Luckily, since we weren't wearing mesh shirts and skirts so short that even we Americans found them rather scandalous, none of us were bothered by the large population of sleazy men at the club. Since the focus of the club for most of the patrons was not the dancing, CIEE proceeded to take over the dance floor and worked our moves to the likes of "the rainbow song" (techno song played EVERYWHERE, ALL THE TIME), "ymca", and "Mesmerize" (ashanti, ja rule, for those of you who don't know this classic hit of the early 2000s). It was a great deal of fun had by all. And rather interesting to watch socially. Sexuality is not something you ever ever see in Moroccan society, so watching it full force and in your face was quite the experience.
Overall, Marrakech was marvelous, and provided a jump start to our 10 day semester break. Currently, i am in a small town in the Atlas mountains called Ouarzazate, and only four days into our marvelous break. We have to catch a grand taxi to the Saffron-growing region of the country, so i have to run, but I promise to write again soon. Sneak peak: Maggee falls ill, receives Berber medicinal treatments, rides a camel, and gets caught in a rainstorm...in the Sahara.
A la prochaine!
B'slema
Magpie
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Coq Magic and Hassan the Carpet Man
*If you havent read the post below this, read it first and then read this one*
After our big Moroccan fete, my friend Janet and I decided to spend the weekend in the small university town of Meknes. We arrived at around 12:00 pm, and so we decided to walk around to look for lunch, before heading up to the palace of despot Sultan Moulay Ismail and the Medina. Thank God we did, because we found the most amusing restaurant. It was called "Coq Magic"...naturally we had to go there. The owner thought it was hilarious that we couldnt stop laughing for long enough to order our roast chicken. The owner talked to us while we ate our meal and told us that lots of english speakers like to take pictures of the restaurant, but he doesnt understand why. Janet and i looked at each other, but neither of us had the nerve to tell him it was a rather hilarious innuendo.
After having our fill of Coq Magic we grabbed a petit taxi up to the palace and mausoleum of Moulay Ismail. Moulay Ismail has a rather interesting history. He is revered for uniting Morocco in the 18th century, but also frowned upon for massive amount of death inflicted by both his ministers and himself. Indeed, at one point he had about 4000 christian slaves who built walls for him all over Mekness. Moulay Ismail was obsessed with walls, and wanted to build a palace as grand as Versailles. Ironically, in his haste to build the walls, he neglected to use good materials and so most of the walls were crumbling even before the end of his reign. However, his granaries and store rooms are absolutely mindblowing. Advertised as the prison of christian slaves, our guidebook informed us that in actuality the "prison" was most likely a storeroom. However, it was very atmospheric, and all i could think of was the Count of Monte Cristo. Underground were seven hectares of thirty foot vaults, with a skylight twelve inches in diameter at the top of each vault. Janet and I wandered around in the cool dark vaults for about thirty minutes before ascending the steep staircase into the bright yellow courtyards of Meknes.
Wanting to take a break from all the crumbling walls, we headed for the Meknes medina. The Medina of Meknes is painted in alternatively in either a bright warm yellow, or a bright pink. It is quite beautiful and a lot more calm than the Rabat medina. We were wandering around when Janet spotted some Berber jewellry she liked. THe proprietor invited us inside his shop (always a big decision because the pressure to buy something becomes infinitely greater) to learn about Berber carpets. He offered us mint tea and started to explain and display his wares. It was very interesting, and he explained the differences in the make of each carpet and the function of each carpet in the Berber world. His french was very easy to understand, and Janet and i were having a ball! As it turned out, he knew our Anthropology professor, Hassan Rachik, who is a big name in the Berber community. WE continued talking about anything but buying carpets for about an hour until this AMerican man walked in the door. From Colorado, Samer had known Hassan the carpet man for eight years, having befriended him on his first trip to Morocco. Samer told us that he was a really nice guy and that while we should bargain, that he generally sold carpets for a reasonable price. THis was great news because Meknes is known for its cheaper-than-Fes-or-Marrakech carpets. We departed from Hassan promising to return after visiting the Mausoleum. Upon returning to the carpet souk, Hassan took us on a back roads tour of the medina and showed us courtyards covered with cascading grape vines and ancient, gnarled trees, bright pink alleyways so narrow my small backpack brushed either side, and silver demascene workshops where men hunched over copper plates pounding silver thread to create intricate designs. We returned to the shop after our tour and had more tea and cookies and he finally revealed his starting price for my favorite, gorgeous Berber carpet. I informed him that it was way too much and that I had to save my money for the rest of my trip, and that i had to talk to my parents etc etc. We ended the night promising to return with my final price the next day, and we headed out the door.
Janet and I grabbed a petit taxi down to the train station where we met our cousin's mother, with whome we were staying overnight. A nurse at a local hospital, Aziza lives about an hour outside Meknes and walks 2 miles from her house to the grand taxi station and than another 3 miles to her hospital twice a day for work. Needless to say, she is a pretty amazing woman. SHe cooked us dinner, made our beds, and left us breakfast in the morning. It was lovely...although we did have our first experience with a squat toilet. It was confusing, and we had to call another family member to explain what the bucket of water was for (to flush) and whether or not we could use toilet paper (you can).
THe next day we returned to Hassan the carpet man, ater haggling a little more, we brought the price down. Just then, the American returned to say goodbye to Hassan, and asked us how much we were paying for the carpet. I told him, and he said, woah, I have known these guys for eight years and i have never purchased a carpet at a lower price than that. Make sure you thank them! So at the end of the weekend, we ended up with a new Berber folk carpet for my room at KU and a new family friend. Hassan kissed us twice on each cheek (a sign of affection in Morocco) and told us that should we ever return, to make sure to visit, and that he wanted us to have couscous with his family. As Meknes is only two hours away, Janet and I intend to return to visit Hassan within the month for more wonderful conversation and good home cooking!
Well, that is about it for Morocco at the moment. Our group is headed for Marrakech on friday so I will post about that trip soon after returning on monday night! Hope to hear from you all!
Love and peace
Magpie
p.s. forgot to mention that Moulay Ismail had a chariot that he rode that was alternatively pulled by either women from his harem or his court of eunuchs!
After our big Moroccan fete, my friend Janet and I decided to spend the weekend in the small university town of Meknes. We arrived at around 12:00 pm, and so we decided to walk around to look for lunch, before heading up to the palace of despot Sultan Moulay Ismail and the Medina. Thank God we did, because we found the most amusing restaurant. It was called "Coq Magic"...naturally we had to go there. The owner thought it was hilarious that we couldnt stop laughing for long enough to order our roast chicken. The owner talked to us while we ate our meal and told us that lots of english speakers like to take pictures of the restaurant, but he doesnt understand why. Janet and i looked at each other, but neither of us had the nerve to tell him it was a rather hilarious innuendo.
After having our fill of Coq Magic we grabbed a petit taxi up to the palace and mausoleum of Moulay Ismail. Moulay Ismail has a rather interesting history. He is revered for uniting Morocco in the 18th century, but also frowned upon for massive amount of death inflicted by both his ministers and himself. Indeed, at one point he had about 4000 christian slaves who built walls for him all over Mekness. Moulay Ismail was obsessed with walls, and wanted to build a palace as grand as Versailles. Ironically, in his haste to build the walls, he neglected to use good materials and so most of the walls were crumbling even before the end of his reign. However, his granaries and store rooms are absolutely mindblowing. Advertised as the prison of christian slaves, our guidebook informed us that in actuality the "prison" was most likely a storeroom. However, it was very atmospheric, and all i could think of was the Count of Monte Cristo. Underground were seven hectares of thirty foot vaults, with a skylight twelve inches in diameter at the top of each vault. Janet and I wandered around in the cool dark vaults for about thirty minutes before ascending the steep staircase into the bright yellow courtyards of Meknes.
Wanting to take a break from all the crumbling walls, we headed for the Meknes medina. The Medina of Meknes is painted in alternatively in either a bright warm yellow, or a bright pink. It is quite beautiful and a lot more calm than the Rabat medina. We were wandering around when Janet spotted some Berber jewellry she liked. THe proprietor invited us inside his shop (always a big decision because the pressure to buy something becomes infinitely greater) to learn about Berber carpets. He offered us mint tea and started to explain and display his wares. It was very interesting, and he explained the differences in the make of each carpet and the function of each carpet in the Berber world. His french was very easy to understand, and Janet and i were having a ball! As it turned out, he knew our Anthropology professor, Hassan Rachik, who is a big name in the Berber community. WE continued talking about anything but buying carpets for about an hour until this AMerican man walked in the door. From Colorado, Samer had known Hassan the carpet man for eight years, having befriended him on his first trip to Morocco. Samer told us that he was a really nice guy and that while we should bargain, that he generally sold carpets for a reasonable price. THis was great news because Meknes is known for its cheaper-than-Fes-or-Marrakech carpets. We departed from Hassan promising to return after visiting the Mausoleum. Upon returning to the carpet souk, Hassan took us on a back roads tour of the medina and showed us courtyards covered with cascading grape vines and ancient, gnarled trees, bright pink alleyways so narrow my small backpack brushed either side, and silver demascene workshops where men hunched over copper plates pounding silver thread to create intricate designs. We returned to the shop after our tour and had more tea and cookies and he finally revealed his starting price for my favorite, gorgeous Berber carpet. I informed him that it was way too much and that I had to save my money for the rest of my trip, and that i had to talk to my parents etc etc. We ended the night promising to return with my final price the next day, and we headed out the door.
Janet and I grabbed a petit taxi down to the train station where we met our cousin's mother, with whome we were staying overnight. A nurse at a local hospital, Aziza lives about an hour outside Meknes and walks 2 miles from her house to the grand taxi station and than another 3 miles to her hospital twice a day for work. Needless to say, she is a pretty amazing woman. SHe cooked us dinner, made our beds, and left us breakfast in the morning. It was lovely...although we did have our first experience with a squat toilet. It was confusing, and we had to call another family member to explain what the bucket of water was for (to flush) and whether or not we could use toilet paper (you can).
THe next day we returned to Hassan the carpet man, ater haggling a little more, we brought the price down. Just then, the American returned to say goodbye to Hassan, and asked us how much we were paying for the carpet. I told him, and he said, woah, I have known these guys for eight years and i have never purchased a carpet at a lower price than that. Make sure you thank them! So at the end of the weekend, we ended up with a new Berber folk carpet for my room at KU and a new family friend. Hassan kissed us twice on each cheek (a sign of affection in Morocco) and told us that should we ever return, to make sure to visit, and that he wanted us to have couscous with his family. As Meknes is only two hours away, Janet and I intend to return to visit Hassan within the month for more wonderful conversation and good home cooking!
Well, that is about it for Morocco at the moment. Our group is headed for Marrakech on friday so I will post about that trip soon after returning on monday night! Hope to hear from you all!
Love and peace
Magpie
p.s. forgot to mention that Moulay Ismail had a chariot that he rode that was alternatively pulled by either women from his harem or his court of eunuchs!
Eid Mobarak Said!
Well, Ramadan is finally over, to the relief of everyone in Morocco. The end of Ramadan is called the Eid, and like Thanksgiving, it is a time for family and food. We woke up rather early by Moroccan standards (10am), and dressed in traditional jelebba (they kind of look like big robes with pointed hoods...which then in turn look like KKK members when you have the hood up...except everyone wears brightly colored jelebbas, but it is still kind of disconcerting) and caftan (jelebba without the hoods) and we went over to the the family house in Temara. A note about Moroccan dress: everyone matches everything to the same color. If you wear a blue shirt you where dark blue or light blue pants with blue shoes, a blue bag, and blue sunglasses. Essentially, you have to stay within one color. As a result of this matching, my sister Selma thinks i am incapable of dressing myself. The other day she told me that, "Betule, you put very odd colors together", and i said, "actually matching complementary colors together is quite normal in the US". At any rate, I was dressed entirely in pink for the occasion. We essentially sat around and talked and ate a huge taijine of couscous with vegetables and chicken in it. It was phenomenal. Couscous is a very time consuming and expensive dish to make here, so most families only have couscous on friday for lunch, and so it is kind of a big deal when couscous is cooked for you on a day other than friday.
During the evening we took up a common Moroccan activity: watching wedding videos. Apparently watching wedding videos is very very popular here, and it doesnt really matter whether anyone knows the people getting married in the video. They are the longest home videos of all time. Luckily we were watching Madiha and Steve's wedding, so at least i knew some of the people. Moroccan weddings last about 3 days...straight. The first day is a religious day, the second is for henna, and the third is the actual wedding. During all these days there is dancing and eating and celebrating. In fact, on the final day, Madiha's wedding went until 7 am the next morning. The brides also go through about 6 dress changes, while the grooms go through 3. It looks exhausting, but fun.
The next day, we had a "beach day", but in Morocco, this means that we arrived at the beach after waiting around all day for lunch (at 3:30pm) at 4:40 pm. Moroccan time is lovely when it postpones class, but it is unbelievably frustrating when it is delaying something fun, like the beach. Nevertheless, we had a great time and swam in the ocean and played soccer on the beach with the family.
On Friday, Madiha (our program coordinator, whose family i am staying with ) arranged a huge Moroccan party for the CIEE kids. Everyone was dressed in their Moroccan finery (tekshetas, caftans, jelebbas, etc), and the whole house was transformed to accomodate five or six tables, dance space, and a traditional band. When we walked in we were offered creamy milk (fresh from the family farm 20 minutes away) and dates filled with almond paste; a traditional Moroccan greeting. AFter this we had tea, cookies, music, henna, and dancing. Dancing here is very different and is really fun. Everyone dances. And you dance with everyone: little kids, grandmas, cousins, aunts, uncles etc. After the huge amount of dancing, we sat down, exhausted for a dinner of couscous with carmelized onions, raisins, and roasted almonds. The spices in the onion/raisin topping were heavenly, and it was my favorite couscous dish thus far. At midnight, all the American kids became tired and all the Moroccans kept dancing. We sat on the couch and marveled at their energy. It seems endless!
Since everyone gets out of school and work for the Eid, we still had the whole weekend to travel. Janet and I decided to go to Meknes. However, so many and exciting things happened, that I will write a different post for our weekend.
Love and miss you all
Magpie
During the evening we took up a common Moroccan activity: watching wedding videos. Apparently watching wedding videos is very very popular here, and it doesnt really matter whether anyone knows the people getting married in the video. They are the longest home videos of all time. Luckily we were watching Madiha and Steve's wedding, so at least i knew some of the people. Moroccan weddings last about 3 days...straight. The first day is a religious day, the second is for henna, and the third is the actual wedding. During all these days there is dancing and eating and celebrating. In fact, on the final day, Madiha's wedding went until 7 am the next morning. The brides also go through about 6 dress changes, while the grooms go through 3. It looks exhausting, but fun.
The next day, we had a "beach day", but in Morocco, this means that we arrived at the beach after waiting around all day for lunch (at 3:30pm) at 4:40 pm. Moroccan time is lovely when it postpones class, but it is unbelievably frustrating when it is delaying something fun, like the beach. Nevertheless, we had a great time and swam in the ocean and played soccer on the beach with the family.
On Friday, Madiha (our program coordinator, whose family i am staying with ) arranged a huge Moroccan party for the CIEE kids. Everyone was dressed in their Moroccan finery (tekshetas, caftans, jelebbas, etc), and the whole house was transformed to accomodate five or six tables, dance space, and a traditional band. When we walked in we were offered creamy milk (fresh from the family farm 20 minutes away) and dates filled with almond paste; a traditional Moroccan greeting. AFter this we had tea, cookies, music, henna, and dancing. Dancing here is very different and is really fun. Everyone dances. And you dance with everyone: little kids, grandmas, cousins, aunts, uncles etc. After the huge amount of dancing, we sat down, exhausted for a dinner of couscous with carmelized onions, raisins, and roasted almonds. The spices in the onion/raisin topping were heavenly, and it was my favorite couscous dish thus far. At midnight, all the American kids became tired and all the Moroccans kept dancing. We sat on the couch and marveled at their energy. It seems endless!
Since everyone gets out of school and work for the Eid, we still had the whole weekend to travel. Janet and I decided to go to Meknes. However, so many and exciting things happened, that I will write a different post for our weekend.
Love and miss you all
Magpie
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