Maroc the Kasbah

As-salaam alaykum!  (very unsure of that spelling....)

Hello from Morocco!

I'm bummed, I had written a whole post earlier and the stupid, sketchy internet tricked me and erased my email.  UGH. 

Anyway, I'm in AFRICA!!  Isn't that insane?! 

Just wanted to write a quick post tonight because I'm leaving early tomorrow morning for Marrakech.  I will be there 3 nights and will return Monday afternoon, so try not to miss my posts too much :)

Did you know that Morocco (or Maroc as they say) was the first country to recognize the independence of the United States?  I didn't either, but learned that today. 

We entered the port of Casablanca around 1100 this morning and were in the dock by noon.  Customs and immigration took a couple hours and the ship was cleared by 1400.  We actually had a diplomatic briefing as well, where 2 Foreign Service Officers came aboard ship to talk with us about the political, economic, and general social climate of Morocco.  They also gave the hard sell on becoming an FSO. 

The FSOs also told us about this nutjob minister in Florida who is apparently planning a Quran burning on the 11th.  Every single person on this ship was really frustrated and disappointed to hear this, for a number of reasons.  In pragmatic terms, should this happen, it will certainly be an obstacle for us in the "goodwill department."  Seriously, we just don't need it.  Public opinion of Americans in Morocco is already the lowest of all countries we'll be visiting.

For the first time, we docked on the port side of the ship.  I'm sure you don't care, but this is GREAT news for me!!!  I think I've mentioned that the gangway goes right by my window, so in port I need to keep my shade drawn.  Gross!  But now starboard side is facing the water and I have a great view of the mosque, the port, and the sunset.

I met up with a few friends about an hour after we cleared and we headed into Casablanca to walk around, get oriented, and get some dirham (cash!).  The exchange rate is about 8.7 dirham to 1 USD.  So I feel super rich having 2000 dirham in my wallet. 

We walked down the main street leading from the port and headed into the medina.  Wow.  In a matter of 60 seconds, I had seen dead chickens, knock off Ralph Lauren shirts, purses, dates, scarves, orange juice, bananas, motorbikes, a dead cat, tagines, leather... it's quite overwhelming!  Casablanca itself is overwhelming and busy and crazy and kind of thrilling, really.  There are palm trees everywhere and all kinds of different architecture (both very new/modern and very ancient looking).  We walked past the one cathedral in Casablanca, and it was definitely impressive.  I think my favorite thing that happened today was hearing the call to prayer.  It was just kind of surreal and amazing. 

Since I'm saving my dirham cash money for Marrakech, I did not make any purchases. There wasn't much for us to do anyway because everything is cloooosed.  Today is (hopefully) the final day of Ramadan.  I say hopefully because an imam must confirm the location of the moon before declaring the month over.  It's expected to happen tonight, meaning that Eid al-Fitr begins tomorrow.  Eid al-Fitr is the big celebration after Ramadan and is a very important holiday in Islam.  It also means lots will be closed, but we'll be in Marrakech which is a big tourist destination for Europeans, so we should still be able to do stuff.

People are very friendly here.  In the 3 hours we were walking around, I was approached by more people than I was during 5 days in Spain (and that's INCLUDING all the gypsies in Sevilla trying to give me "regalos" of olive branches or whatever).  Some of the people who approached us just wanted to say hello, some wanted us to come in their store, some wanted to offer their services to be our tour guide through the medina (a common scam, which was especially funny in Casablanca because the medina is not at all confusing).  We only had one very persistent person, and she was a little girl trying to get my friend Marci to buy some tissues.  She kissed Marci on the cheek and stuffed the tissue in her pocket then hung around for money.  We all kept saying "no no no" but she was eager.  Chris grabbed the tissue and put it on the nearby concrete wall and we left.  We basically learned quickly to keep moving.  But really, once out of the medina it was just like any other big and crazy city.  But with palm trees and Arabic writing. 

I have to laugh though - I feel like Casablanca will be a cake walk compared to what we'll be experiencing in Marrakech.  I'm ready for it though.  I'm excited, anxious, curious, and many other feelings. 

We came back to the ship for dinner - pretty much everyone did.  Nothing is open for dinner (again, because of Ramadan).  We ended up just hanging out here tonight - our shuttle to the port gate ends at 2100 and there's really nothing to do in terms of night life. It works out well, though, because I am TIRED and needed to pack.

All right, well I hope everyone has a great weekend!  I'm not going to lie, I'm going to miss football this weekend.  Go Packers!  Oh, and shout out to Lindsay for her babies' 2nd birthday!  I need to see some Harper & Ian birthday cake pictures on Facebook asap.  And big shout out to everybody dealing with Open Advising at work! Yikes! 

xoxo