Morocc-ohhhh That’s Different

*scroll down to the bottom for an amateur video I created of my trip!*

For a few years now I’ve been dying to go to Africa. Particularly South Africa and Seal island because I love animals and I’m obsessed with sharks, but in general anywhere in Africa would be amazing. After asking many people and being let down by plans falling through, I finally convinced a group of friends to come with me.

On Friday November 8, Allie, Jade, Shannon, Molly, Allie, Kathryn, and I left for Morocco for the weekend. The flight was a bit over five hours, I believe my longest flight yet while abroad. But it ended up being longer since we had to fly in circles over the Marrakesh airport because of ‘protocol’. The protocol we later found out, was the arrival of the King of Morocco. At the time all we were told was the airport was closed for protocol. Imagine being God knows how high up in the air doing donuts for who knows how long.

Our Airbnb had a taxi come pick us up and take us to our home for the weekend. Driving through Morocco was very interesting. The driving for one thing was crazy. And I thought the locals in Athens were daredevils. It seemed as though drivers didn’t care for the lines of the road, and cars as well as mopeds were stacked with a dangerous amount of people.

Arriving to our Airbnb, our host met us to take us through the maze-like residences. We passed crowds of people walking, shopping, hanging out, and selling anything and everything. Our Airbnb host was one of the nicest people I've met abroad. She spoke little to no English so the language barrier was difficult. But luckily, her husband was able to speak to us and translate.

The Airbnb had three floors, a rooftop, and more stairs that led to another rooftop on top of that. Our Airbnb host would make us amazing diners for 100 DK each and also complimentary breakfast. This was extremely helpful in terms of not having to worry about finding a restaurant to eat at and also helpful in the sense of bringing ourselves into the culture since she and her husband would make us dishes that they picked up from the markets.

The first night, we had salad, rice, kuskus, bread, a mushy type of eggplant, and chicken. The second night, we had salad, bread, and a big dish of cauliflower with olives and pickles in some type of sauce. And the last night, we had salad, bread, some type of veggie similar to a leak, a meat similar to a meatball, meat similar to steak, and meat similar to broiled beef, olives, and French fries in one dish. I say ‘similar’ because to be honest, I wasn’t too sure what we were eating since the language barrier was there. But I was fully ready to delve into the culture and eat whatever I was given. And, I wasn’t disappointed.

Personally, I find staying in an Airbnb to be one, cheaper, but also a great way to bring yourself more into the culture especially at this Aribnb. At the end of our trip, our Airbnb hosts walked us to our taxi at 4 in the morning for our 7 a.m. flight, and they embraced us with big hugs and Zara (our airbnb mom we called her) even cried a bit. It’s fascinating to see how much of an impact everyone has on other people that you’ve only known for a short period of time.

Before I went to Morocco, one of my friends already visited there while abroad and shared a few pointers. She mentioned “It’s so cool. And don’t let the culture shock phase you because it’ll feel super strange at first but you just gotta punch through it.” And boy was she right! I wasn’t sure what to expect but it definitely was the biggest culture shock I’ve experience while abroad.

Walking through the streets, everyone was going somewhere. If not that, they were all hanging out with each other. Either way, it was packed. We walked past someone selling live chickens and we accidentally saw a rabbit being skinned. I haven’t seen that in New Jersey. We walked through the Sooks which is similar to a flea market.

We then made our way to the main square with the help of a fellow tourist going the same direction. I know, you shouldn’t go anywhere with strangers, but this doesn’t count. The square was packed with so many tourists, different stores and juice trucks, and people doing different forms of entertainment to make money.

At first, myself and Allie took a video of a group playing instruments and singing. One of the performers made his way to us and aggressively demanded money. Another time, Molly took a picture of a peacock from far away, and a boy ran up to her demanding money too. None of us thought we would have to pay for simple things like that.

When we stopped for ice cream, there was one kid selling packets of tissues. After I bought my ice cream, I gave him a dollar coin, the change I had. Walking away, a little girl began tapping my arm, asking for money. I said I didn’t have any more money, but I suggested that she could share with him. Well, she didn’t like that idea. She grabbed onto my arm and followed me as I walked away towards my friends. Eventually she left. This was very difficult for me to witness but I couldn’t be giving out money to every person asking for it, even though I wanted to.

Another thing I didn’t like was the cat calling. We were called names I never even considered. Like; fish and chips, chicken curry (I still don’t know what this one means, and no one would tell us), Shakira, J-Lo, Spice Girls, Lady Gaga, and a Bachelorette party. These were super random and made us confused and uncomfortable at times.

Our last full day, we scheduled ATV riding and camel riding. The ATV riding was two hours and was insanely fun. I’m not sure what Kathryn would say though since she drove straight into a bush, flew off, and flipped her quad (she’s fine!).

We stopped for tea at a local area halfway through our ATV riding which was really nice. The camels were really fun too. At one point, we traveled through a residential area on the camels, where our instructor asked us not to have our phones out or take any pictures or videos. This was understandable and respected as the residential area was not something to consider as an area for your Instagram feed. These were people’s homes who were less fortunate. It’s incredibly heart wrenching to see how other people live while many students, including myself, are here complaining about how we’re running low on money while we’re studying abroad and visiting other countries.

Morocco was extremely interesting and adventurous. I stepped out of my comfort zone more than I thought I would have to. I’m grateful for that, our Airbnb hosts, the nice people we met, and I’m grateful for the time I was able to spend in Morocco. This trip was definitely one for the books and I’m glad I was able to experience it.