Happy Thanksgiving! And a bit about my trip to Morocco.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! I'm sorry I haven't been good about keeping in touch with everyone recently, school and life have me totally swamped.

We are having a Thanksgiving meal today at 2. I made cranberry sauce and Lauren and I are making a joint effort on sweet potatoes. She is awesome and hosting our gathering and also doing a full turkey!

I am also getting things together for my presentation due next Wednesday. It wouldn't be that stressful if I wasn't going to Morocco this weekend!

That's right, MOROCCO!

Since I'm pressed for time at the moment, I will post our itinerary for the weekend. Read about it and enjoy! I'm really looking forward to such a unique experience.

I love you all and Happy Thanksgiving!
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Time for Reflection
We are aware that our program is very rich. We will be careful to provide time to process experiences rather than to rush from one sight to the next. We have seen on other journeys, that when individuals have time to arrive within themselves there is the space for authentic connections with land, culture and individuals.

Day One ALGECIRAS - TANGIER - RABAT

Morning:

- Meeting at 8am in Algeciras
- Boat journey across the Mediterranean Sea from Algeciras, Spain to Tangier, Morocco
- Drive to Asilah and walk through the Medina (old town) to the Atlantic Ocean
- Lunch in a restaurant outside the old city wall

Afternoon:

- Conversation "Cultural diversity in Morocco" about Arab, Berber and Jewish coexistence in Morocco, with Moroccan students from L’Ecole Superior du Traduction in Tangier (one of the best schools for translators in the Arabic speaking world)
- Drive along the Atlantic Ocean to Rabat (3 hours)

Evening:

- Meeting of the home stay families (Two or three students will stay with one family.)
- Dinner with home stay families
- Walk through the Medina of Rabat in small groups with Moroccan students

Day Two RABAT

Morning:

- Breakfast
- Facilitated discussion “West and Arab worlds - images about each other” with Moroccan students from Rabat University and Professor Zaki
- Visit of the Roman ruins Chellah, the Mausoleum Hassan II and the Main mosque.

Afternoon:

- Lunch with home stay families
- Exploration of Rabat’s Andalusian houses in the Kashba and the street life in the medina market. Individual options: to spend time in the art museum or gallery, at the ocean or in the gardens of the castle. (This afternoon will be spend in small groups to create space for authentic experiences of the place and for personal connections. Two American students will be accompanied by two Moroccan students from Rabat University)
- Break: Mint tea in the Kashba Café at the river

Evening:

- Social time: Conversation in the patio of a family with Peace Corps volunteers about living in Morocco as a foreigner
- Dinner with home stay families

Day Three RABAT - RIF MOUNTAINS - CHEFCHAOUEN

Morning:

- Drive to Akchour, Rif Mountains through rural areas of Morocco (3,5 hours)
- Break on the way
- Short walk through a valley in the Rif mountains

Afternoon:

- Picnic and time to relax at the river
- Conversation with Abdeslam about education, simplicity of life and economic challenges of rural areas in Morocco. Abdeslam himself was the first in his family to receive an education. He finished a degree in literature while his older brothers had no schooling for economic reasons.
- Drive to Chefchaouen (30 minutes)
- Guided walk through the medina of Chefchaouen with background information about it’s Moorish and Jewish inhabitants and it’s historic link to Al Andalus
- Settle in Hotel Andaluz

Evening:

- Time to explore the medina individually (good place to buy some souvenirs)
- Special celebration dinner in the Medina of Chefchaouen
- Social time on the roof terrace: to share images and thoughts from our journey.

Day Four CHEFCHAOUEN - CEUTA - ALGECIRAS

Morning:

- Morning walk through the awaking town to a hill outside the city gate
- Drive through mountains, fields and cities to Ceuta (2 hours)
- Breakfast on the way
- Crossing the Moroccan - Spanish border

Afternoon:

- Boat journey across the Strait of Gibraltar
- Good bye in Algeciras, Spain around 3:30pm

It's Christmas time in Granada!!!

I really mean that. Walking around the city, a nice fresh wintery chill hangs on the air. Everyone is wearing big jackets and scarves. Stores are full of wool sweaters and tall boots. Lights and garlands and music and Christmas spirit can be seen, heard, and felt all over the city. The Sierra Nevadas, the perfect backdrop to such a wonderful city, glisten with the layers of snow against the winter sunlight.

It's beautiful and fresh and frankly, I'm in love with it.


I will miss being home for the holidays... but I'm glad that if I have to be away from home, I can be somewhere where they clearly love La Navidad as much as we do in the US.

So now, here comes the tactless part of this blogpost. For anyone who really feels the need to get me something for Christmas, I NEED MONEY.

I don't need it need it, but I have a 3 week break coming up, and I want to travel! I want to see London, Dublin (both of which are on the pound, so are expensive), Amsterdam, and Rome (among other parts of Italy). I want to see a bit more of Europe while I'm here, and this will be the perfect opportunity to do so.

My dad has a card to my bank account... he could probably help get the money to me, since I can't use USD or American checks here...

I hate asking for anything, especially like this... but when will I ever have this opportunity again?

I'm sorry to ask... but I really feel like I must.

In other news, next week is Thanksgiving. I HATE that I won't be home for Thanksgiving... but I will, of course, be there in thought.

Next weekend is my trip to Morocco! I'm going with the moroccoexchange.org program, so I will be going into the suburbs/rural areas of Morocco and staying in homestays! It's a group trip, so we will all be together and safe. I'm really looking forward to seeing how life is in a non-Western society. Europe in and of itself is so different from California... I can't even imagine how different a place like Morocco will be! I am really looking forward to it.

The weekend after that, I am meeting Danielle in Paris! She has a friend there, so we won't even have to pay for lodging, which is good because it can get pricey in Paris. There will be so much to see! I am so happy that I have such an amazing friend to see it with!

After that, there are only two weeks of school left. Then vacation/(hopefully) EXTREMETRAVEL. After that, 3 more weeks of school, then finals, then, with any luck... more travel.

I just know that my time left here will go so fast. I have so much left to experience, but being on the halfway point of my time abroad and knowing that the majority of my travel will be happening soon... Let's just say, I'm really, really excited to experience it all.

I'll be home before I know it... that feeling is SO bittersweet.

Life... followed by Sevilla!!

Hello world! I know I haven't been online in a while, but here I am again, to remind you all that I'm alive and loving life!

Last weekend, my first weekend home in quite a while, was actually a pretty hard one for me. With the start of November, I really started to realize that I was going to be missing the holidays... mom's cooking, seeing family, bugging my sister... All of those things I usually do at Thanksgiving, I won't get to this year... and I actually felt a little devistated. So, I spent most of the weekend cooped up in my room, writing, listening to music, wishing above all else that my internet would start working (which of course it didn't... I'm in an internet cafe right now to write this actually), and then going to internet cafes and being annoyed that no one was online... I just wanted to not feel alone.

So, then, I spent most of my week out and about. Lots of time with friends, eating at the comedor (it's like a cafeteria, substidized for student use. 3€ will get you two plates, a dessert (usually a fruit), a bread, water, and a cup of wine or beer if you so choose), going to movies, having people over, shopping... Anytime my phone rang, I would hang out with whoever was calling. Which was great for me emotionally, I got out a lot, I saw a lot of people, I had a lot of fun... But it ended up being not so good for my academics. I will spend this week playing catch-up. Nothing I haven't done before.

I also neglected to go pay for my residency card, which means I will have to do it tomorrow morning at 8:30 (ugh) so I can ensure it's done and I can make it to the police station at 9:45 for my apointment. Yes, I'm still not done with this process. It's a little ridiculous. I will get my card in December or January, then leave in March. Part of me is tempted to see if I don't do it if I'll get deported... but it's not worth it, and if I was deported, I would never forgive myself. But it would be kind of ironic to be in illegal American in a Spanish-speaking country (Just me? Okay then...).

And then, the week came to a close and I was headed off to Sevilla, capital of Andalucía (the province which Granada is in). Let me tell you, it is a LABARYNTH. But it was probably one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. The cathedral there was GIGANTIC and one of the few gothic cathedrals in Spain, which made it feel really unique. Additionally, the bell tower was open to the public, so I could climb up and be among the bells and get a marvelous panoramic view of the city. It was spectacular.



There were plenty of gardens as well. It was nice to escape from the city. Lots of horse-drawn carriages went through the parks and around the city. I loved the faint scent of horse and the clopping of hooves on cobblestones... I wish it wasn't so expensive to ride in one, or Kirstin and I both would have gone and complained about how we miss our boyfriends, haha.


Above all else, the Plaza de España was the most remarkable thing about Sevilla. It had its own little canal with rowboats in it, big beautiful buildings, two big bridges... It was absolutely beautiful. I'm really glad my camera lasted for two quick pictures. Then the battery died.

Which means I didn't get any rainy pictures, or pictures of the Alcázar. The Alcázar was very remniscent of the Alhambra, because it was so big and full of Arabic influence, since it had at one point been an Arabic palace. The gardens were beautiful. There were peacocks and fish and ducks, which was always fun for me. Although my love for the animals may have been a little annoying for Kirstin, haha. I would wander off following a duck sometimes rather than follow the path... but it was fun.

And it RAINED. It rained a lot. The rain was fun to watch on the train ride back though.

And now, here I am, at an internet cafe, writing to you all... pictureless, once again, since I can't use my own internet. (UPDATED on 9-12-2010 with pictures!)

But overall, life here is wonderful, and I can't wait for the adventures life has waiting for me around the corner!

I miss you all and I can't wait to hear from you!

Home from Cádiz! And oh yea... School...

At the beginning of the week, we booked a hostel for the weekend in Cádiz, knowing that going through/around Central Spain was also over a long weekend and we almost didn't have a place to stay for two nights. So, we booked the hostel, looked at the buses that were less than halfway full, and planned on taking the bus there first thing Saturday morning.

...but, of course, even though our hostels were booked, the buses did, indeed, fill up.

In a panic, we looked for alternative ways to get to Cádiz. Aimee and Sean decided to go from Málaga to Ronda to Cádiz, so Sean wouldn't have to go to Granada and they could have a day to themselves. Jim and I took a bus to Sevilla and, from there, a train to Cádiz. It all worked out.

The train ride was quite nice. So nice, in fact, that I slept for most of it. I later heard about the ocean views and such that I missed... Oh well, what can I say? I was tired.

But then we got to Cádiz. It was so nice. It has such a lovely old charm to it, and it's surrounded on three sides by the Atlantic. There were so many old buildings, a HUGE, old Cathedral, cute coffee shops, beaches... Anything a person could want on vacation.

I only wish I was on my computer instead of a library computer so I could load my pictures and share them with all of you. (UPDATED: 09-12-2010 with pics!) Especially the sunsets over the ocean, and the fun pictures I took on my new camera with 500 million settings. My favorite is definitely the 'Get even closer to your close-up subjects!' setting. I took so many random pictures of flowers with a blurry monument or other blurry flowers in the background. I felt like such the artíst! THANK YOU, KEVIN AND ADRIANA!






But, of course, there was a slight sense of bittersweet at seeing the water, the beach, the romantic sunsets... It reminded me so much of San Diego. The fresh ocean air, the sandy beaches right next to the cliff beaches (although the cliffs in San Diego are MUCH taller)... The undying, cold wind followed us throughout Cádiz, and all I wanted was Chris's arm around me, keeping me warm and shielding me from the wind.


I wanted to walk with Danielle and Aryanna on the beach, listen to the water, talk about life or love or boys or complain about school, then go back to the hostel and cuddle with Chris to a scary movie on Halloween.

Life here is great and wonderful, and I know I'm living the opportunity of a lifetime by being here, but in one way or another, I find myself reminded of home, the people there, the people waiting for me, and the people I can't wait to go home to.

So, even though Cádiz is probably my favorite city I've been to thus far (other than Granada, of course), it really just made me homesick at times.

Maybe that's part of why I like it so much.

Anyway, Monday night at 9, we went to board our bus. This was DEFINITELY our bus. It was an ALSA bus, #21, bound for Granada. But the driver wouldn't let us on. He kept insisting another bus was coming. Eventually, after a few panicked '¿Estás seguro?'s, he went inside to check. Then, reassured that it was our bus, he let us board.

I slept until Sevilla. In Sevilla, an old man got on the bus and sat right behind us. He started puking. Not like carsick puking, like I was seriously scared for this guy's life puking. The person next to him (some relative I assume) asked for the driver eventually, and the ambulance came to get him. By the time they evaluated him and determined he could not stay on the bus, we were put over an hour behind schedule.

Oh, and did I mention, I was puked on. Yes. It was nasty. And then I had to sit with it on me for the entire ride home. Not a lot of puke, just a few drops, but it was REALLY nasty. Luckily Jim had some gum... it got the sour taste out of my mouth that came because I tend to be a little sympathetic... ugh. Not pleasant.

Anyway, then I got home, put on pjs, and went to bed.

This week has been full of writing my first ever Spanish paper! That is, my first paper in Spain. I've had papers in Spanish before. It was about a reparation law that was put into effect after Franco died.

In and of itself, it's a nerve-wracking topic. I mean, most Spaniards now-a-days, especially in a university setting, aren't in support of Franco... but as a foreigner writing to a Spanish audience, it's hard to say ''Your ex-dictator was a bad, bad man and it's great that you put these reparation laws into effect.'' You know what I mean?

But I finished my paper and it has been turned in. 5 pages. Whoopee!

Anyway, this weekend I should be staying home... Maybe a daytrip to the Alpujarras or Santa Fe, but nothing too extraordinary.