2/19/09
KwaZulu Natal, South Africa
I woke up verrrrrrry early this morning with a start. It was 3:30 a.m., and I had a nightmare that I missed my safari. I got out of bed, grabbed my bags and headed out. I wasn’t being overly cautious because of the nightmare; our meeting time was 4 a.m. I was wide awake, because I was SO EXCITED. I was bouncing all around waiting for everyone to meet in the Union. I have been dreaming of going on an African safari my entire life… it was at the top of my “Things To Do Before I Die” to-do list. Its something I never thought I would be fortunate enough to do before I retired, but a combination of factors led to my dreams coming true. This is my big excursion for the voyage. The rest of the time I am planning smaller independent trips, but when our itinerary changed to sailing around Africa I knew I wanted a big excursion in South Africa. I have been excited about South Africa since the itinerary changed mid-December. The day had finally come!!! I couldn’t believe it was finally here. I was like a big buzzing ball of energy, radiating excitement even before the sun was up.
There were 22 of us on the trip, and we all headed to the airport. We flew to Durban, a city northeast of Cape Town about 2 hours flight away. From Durban, we got on a bus and drove another 2 hours to KwaZulu Natal, an area of South Africa that is still very rural. It is populated by the Zulu People and wild animals. We were booked in the Zululand Tree Lodge, and arrived at around 1 o’clock. We went swimming while lunch was prepared. It was HOT HOT. I was sweating while just sitting on a lawn chair. The pool felt wonderful. Lunch was delicious, all food tastes wonderful compared to the food we get on the ship. The food isn’t terrible, but I am getting incredibly tired of how bland it is. At the lodge we had delicious succulent pineapples and watermelon. We were eating our lunch when suddenly a monkey jumped out of a nearby tree and grabbed a bread roll from my friend’s plate! It was my first taste of what an exotic place KwaZulu Natal is.
Our rooms were ready after lunch, so my roommate and I grabbed our key and walked to our room. My roommate for the trip is Faith, a girl who goes to University of San Francisco, originally from Connecticut. We have a lot in common and made a pact to hang out in the Bay Area. When I saw our room, I was shocked by how nice it was. I was expecting to rough it on the safari, but instead we had our own little beautiful bungalow. The cabin was raised on stilts, and although only one room, it was definitely the sweetest little bungalow. There were doors to a patio with two chairs that overlooked a forest and a river. It was beautiful. We were allowed about an hour to settle in and rest before going out for an afternoon game drive. I was too excited to nap, so I went back to the pool and watched the monkeys race around the pool umbrellas.
Around 4:30 we took of for my first SAFARI! It had started to cool down and I could barely contain myself. Zululand has their own small game reserve, about 150 acres. As we took off, we were greeted by a few dozen impalas, which are small deer-like animals. They call them the “McDonalds” of South Africa, because they are ubiquitous and have white markings on their butts in the shape of an M. Another animal we saw was the njalas, which are similar. They are also deer-like, but a little bigger. The males have large, twisted horns. As we continued our game drive, I saw what a beautiful country South Africa is. The landscape was hilly with low, very green brush. A few tall trees stuck out in groves, and the landscape was much greener than I expected. We drove into a grove of trees and found some giraffes!
Giraffes are my favorite animal, they are so tall and regal. They are absolutely beautiful animals, I love to watch them walk. In the grove of trees, there were three male giraffes. The trees had a yellow powdery coating on them, because they don’t have any bark. It made the yellow in the giraffes stand out even more, and it was breathtaking. I was so excited!! I’ve seen giraffes at the San Francisco Zoo, but there is something so exciting about seeing them in the wild. They are free to roam as opposed to being stifled in a cage. It gives them an ethereal quality, as if I’m catching a glimpse of another world. It’s a wild world, and we are passing through to capture the feeling of these majestic animals.
After watching the giraffes for awhile, we went in search of rhino. The park at Zululand does not have any elephants, but they have plenty of other animals. We came across some zebras, which have the sweetest faces. They are much smaller than horses, which I was a little surprised by, but they look like the sweetest things. A bunch of zebras is called a dazzle of zebras. In South Africa they call them zeh-brahs, instead of zee-bras. The zebras were pretty common as well.
As we were driving along, a girl in my vehicle looked left and somehow saw a kudu hiding in the shadow of a tree. Kudus are amazing animals, I loved them. They are huge, about the size of a moose. They are also deer-like with gigantic horns that can reach up to 1 meter in length. The horns are used to make Shofars, the horn blown at the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah. It’s amazing that the girl saw the kudu, because they can hold absolutely still and it makes them very hard to see.
We stopped for snacks at around sunset, and then slowly drove back to the lodge. The animals were everywhere, it was very fun. We didn’t see rhino on this drive, but we saw plenty of other animals. I was ecstatic seeing the giraffes. We returned to the lodge and sated our hunger with a delicious dinner and some South African wine. I had great dinnertime conversation with the people on my trip, none of whom I was friends with before this adventure. I fell asleep around 9 oclock because I was so exhausted, and the next day was sure to bring more adventures!
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Kwazulu Natal, South Africa
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Stellenbosch, South Africa
2-18-09
Stellenbosch, South Africa
I LOVE SOUTH AFRICA! That’s the short story. The long story goes like this…
We arrived about an hour late because of heavy fog. We had to pass through a narrow channel to enter the harbor at Cape Town. The fog reminded me of San Francisco, and it burned off by late morning. At breakfast, I met up with one of Heather’s friends whom I had only met briefly before. We decided to go wine tasting outside of Cape Town. South Africa is famous for their wines; try them, they are wonderful! South Africa produces 1,000,000,000 liters of wine annually. Most of the wine is produced in the Cape Winelands, where Stellenbosch is located.
We got off the ship as soon as we were cleared by customs, and wandered around the waterfront. The harbor is built up with shops and nice restaurants… it was a nice change from the usual industrial harbors that we dock at. There were street musicians and a ton of shopping. Theresa, Andrew, Dana, Morgan, and I took the noon train to Stellenbosch. It was a slow train, although cheap ($1.20 US) and we arrived at around 1:30. The terrain was mountainous and very green. There were large vineyards near the train with beautiful mountains in the background. We got off the train in Stellenbosch with little idea what to do. About 100 meters down the road was the Bergkelder Winery. We walked in and asked for a wine tasting. We were the only ones there, and had our own bartender who was very nice. It was incredibly cheap, 15 Rand for 7 different wines. 10 Rand = 1 US$ Bergkelder is a big distributor, and had many different brands. Fleur de Lac is the label that we tried. We started with 2 white wines: chardonnay and chenin blanc. We then moved to reds: cabernet sauvignon, merlot, and pinotage. Pinotage is a distinctively South African wine. It is not made anywhere else. A professor at the Stellenbosch University crossed a Pinot Noir vine with a Cinsaut vine, and created the Pinotage grape. It produces a very fruity red wine, which I really liked. The Cabernet Sauvignon was my favorite. We finished with a desert wine, and a glass of amarula. Amarula is also a special South African drink, made from the fruit of the amarula plant. The fruits are citrusy, and elephants love them. The drink comes out to something close to Baileys, and is very sweet.
I considered buying wine and shipping it home, because the wine was great and very cheap. The bottles were about 50-75 Rand, and although I don’t know too much about wine, I know it was good wine. However, shipping to the US would have cost about $400 US. Sorry mom! We had a really good time at Bergkelder Winery, though. It really introduced me to wine, because I was able to taste many different kinds with someone who was very knowledgeable. Our bartender would tell us what flavors we were supposed to taste, and I almost got it (kinda?). We took a taxi to Spier, which is one of the most famous wineries in South Africa. It was really built up to cater to visitors, as there is a very nice hotel and restaurant there. It’s where I want to honeymoon!!! It was beautiful. We tasted a few wines, and went to the restaurant. It was a little too early for dinner, so we split a bottle and some appetizers. The restaurant is called Moya, and is spectacular. They built platforms up into the oak trees, and many of the tables were up among the trees. You could look out and see the vineyards and mountains. I loved it. It looked like there was a place for dancing after dark, with a live band. I would love to come back some day.
Unfortunately, we had to take the evening train back. The train ride back was really interesting, because most people were getting off work. I love to people watch, and I was so interested in all the people getting on and off the train. We arrived in Cape Town at around 8:30 and were starving! We had heard of a place called Mama Africa where they served African food, i.e. gemsbok, ostrich, springbok, etc. We went, and it was terribly crowded. The estimated an hour for a table. There were a ton of students from SAS there, which made it fun. There was also a live band, mostly percussion, so we decided to wait. The band had two wooden xylophone-type instruments, a djembe (drum), bongos, a drumset, and occasionally saxophones. They had pretty much all of my favorite instruments. We listened for an hour, and saw that we were no where near the top of the list for food, so Andrew and I decided to go somewhere else for food with Tim, Carrie, and Kristen. We walked just across the street to a restaurant called Cape to Cuba, which had Cuban food. It was really good, and our waiter was very entertaining. We headed home around midnight, because I had to get ready for a safari that left at 4:30am the next morning!! It was incredible, but more on that later…
Dune Sea and Swakopmund
2-16-09
Dune Sea and Swakopmund
I had no plans for my last day in Namibia, and decided to play it by ear. I woke up when breakfast opened, and waited until I heard some plans that sounded fun. My friend Claudia convinced me to come ATVing with her in the Dune Sea, and boy am I glad she did! We headed for Dune 7 as soon as we were done with breakfast. They have a little stand for adventure sports. They have ATVs, sandboarding (like snowboarding on a sand dune), and zorbing (where you get in a giant plastic ball and they roll you down the dune). We signed up to go ATVing for an hour with two other girls. We got helmets and followed our guide to a row of ATVs. After a brief safety lecture, we headed into the dunes. We started by going to the north of Dune 7 and into the dune sea. It was unlike anything I have ever seen before. The dunes looked like waves traveling for miles across the desert. They were huge too, Dune 7 is the tallest at almost 1000 feet, and others are not far behind. It was awesome. We went up and down and all around the dunes, stopping at peaks to take the look at the views. Then we would accelerate and zoom down the dunes. It was an unbelievable hour.
We came back to the ship for lunch, where I met up with Andrew. We decided to spend our last few hours in Namibia in Swakopmund, as he hadn’t been there yet. We left the ship, and by the ship there are usually a few taxis. In the countries we have been to, we always have to barter for taxis and tend to get ripped off. It’s a practice I really dislike, however I am getting used to it. The fare to Swakopmund is around 25 Namibian Dollars per person (10 N$ = 1 US$). We asked these taxis to take us to Swakop and they wanted 100 ND each, so we walked outside the port gates. The first taxi driver who came up to us immediately agreed to 25 ND to go to Swakopmund, so we jumped in his cab. We started off, and a few minutes into the ride I noticed we were not using the streets I had taken before. I was a little worried, but figured there was traffic (in Namibia? hah) and that we were going a different way. However, he took us into a township. The townships are where all the poor blacks live. It is a pretty destitute place, where people live in little more than shacks. SAS told us not to hang out there, so I got a little worried. Luckily, Andrew is 6’5” and pretty intimidating… so I never got too scared. The driver raised his hand out the window holding two fingers up and yelling in one of the many Namibian dialects. A few scary thoughts ran through my mind, “I’ve got two tourists” was one of them, but it turns out he wanted two more passengers for the drive to Swakopmund. I’m sure we were never in any real danger (don’t worry Mom and aunties) but the change of scenery was enough to make me alert. It was interesting to see the township though; I can’t believe that hundreds of people (and thousands in South Africa) live in such conditions. The people seemed generally happy, most people were outside because the houses are so small. Children were playing and adults were sitting around talking. After about 15 minutes, when we were just about to pay the driver to just get going, two men hopped in our cab. They were very nice, both spoke English, and they were dressed very nicely because they were going to some sort of conference. It turned out to be a memorable experience, although it reminded me that things are very different around the world.
We safely arrived in Swakopmund, and wandered around the market. People come from all over to sell their wares, as in Morocco. They sell handmade wooden and stone statues, jewelry, paintings, and masks. They loved all the SAS students coming through, we tend to take over any town we go to. We saw a bunch of friends there. After buying some souvenirs, we got some ice cream and went to the top of the tallest tower in Swakopmund. It was probably 6 stories tall, and towered over all the other buildings. It was awesome, because you could look out over the town and see giant dunes behind it. The dunes rolled into the sea to the west. I kept thinking what a unique place Namibia is, with the German architecture, African people, a desert of dunes, and a nutritious ocean all converging in Swakopmund.
We caught a taxi back, and this time made certain that we would go straight to the port. I made it on to the ship about 10 minutes before our on-ship time… if you are late you get dock time (where you have to stay on the ship) in the next port. I’m glad I took full advantage of the time I had in Namibia, I loved every minute of it. I cant wait to come back! ; )
Namib Desert, Namibia
Namib Desert, Namibia
My day started early on my second day in Namibia. I was embarking on my first SAS trip called “The Geological Wonders of the Namib Desert” We left at 7 am, which I was excited about because there is no better time to go to the desert than in the morning. The sun had just risen as we drove the 40 km (25 miles) to the Namib. We were in 4x4 Jeep-like vans. The desert was beautiful. It is one of the oldest deserts in the world, thought to have been arid for 55 million years. Namibia only gets a few centimeters of rain each year. Our guide taught us how to find water using plants, and which plants have edible fruit. Hopefully I’ll never need that knowledge though! About 3 hours into our drive, we stopped for a surprise and some snacks. In my Plant Biology class last quarter, we studied Welwitschia, a two-leaved plant that has no other living relatives and only grows in the Namib Desert. They can live up to be 2000 years old, and are considered “living fossils.” I never thought I’d see one, but there were about 10 of them where we stopped for snacks! I thought they were amazing. The oldest one we saw was estimated to be around 750 or 800 years old. I was really excited because I just recently studied them, and was excited that my education is actually pertinent. I was able to have a real experience related to something I never thought I would see.
After examining the Welwitschias, we had snacks. Snacks consisted of juice, some chips, and oysters! Oysters are not native to Namibia, they were imported from South America; but because of the large amount of nutrients in the Namibian ocean, they grow twice as fast here. It only takes 9 months as opposed to 18 months for the oysters to mature. I think I’ve only had oysters once before, and the texture really freaked me out. However, I have a rule on this trip to try any food someone recommends, so I had to try one. I actually liked it! With a little lime juice and Tabasco sauce it was really good. The texture was still a little weird to me, but I didn’t mind as much as I did when I was younger.
We returned to Dune 7 again, its one of the main attractions of southern Namibia. We then returned to the ship. I met up with a bunch of friends and we took taxis to Swakopmund. Unfortunately it was Sunday and most of the stores were closed. We have been in a number of ports on Sundays, and it always amazes me how almost everything shuts down. Life in California would be very different if things were closed on Sundays. A few stores were open though, as were restaurants. We hung out at the beach too, which is always open! The water was warm. The sunset was absolutely beautiful! We headed to a pizza place (apparently Namibia has really good pizza?), and it actually was very good. I called my parents and was really excited to talk to them. I hadn’t talked to them since Spain, since they were in the Caribbean when I was in Morocco. It was really nice to hear their voices!!!
Swakopmund, Namibia
Walvis Bay/Swakopmund, Namibia
Hello from Namibia!! It is a great country! I am having such a great time. I did my first Semester At Sea trips here, and I loved them. We arrived in Walvis Bay at 8 a.m. and were welcomed by a singing and dancing troupe of girls. It takes awhile to clear all of our passports, so these girls gave us a concert. They were between 6 and 12 or 13 years old, and were mostly orphans. They performed for about an hour on the dock, a combination of singing, drumming, clapping, and dancing. Afterward, they got a tour of our ship, but I was long gone by then. I had a city orientation of Swakopmund. It is a 20 minute drive from Walvis Bay to Swakopmund. There were 3 busses that were doing the city orientation, and somehow my good friend Isaiah and I were the only two students who managed to get on the professor/lifelong learner bus. It was interesting, their adult jokes were kind of strange… but they thought they were funny! Isaiah and I had a really good time though. The road is a two lane stretch that hugs the coastline. Going north, if you look left you see the ocean and beautiful beaches, then looking right you see an ocean of sand. It is amazing to see the dichotomy between an ocean filled with waves of water being infringed upon by waves of desert sand.
The town of Swakopmund is a small town of about 30,000 founded by the Germans in 1892. Namibia was a German colony until the end of WWI, and then came under South African rule. Namibia gained independence from South Africa in 1990, shortly after Nelson Mandela was released from prison and became president. You can still see the German influence on the town, especially in the architecture. The buildings are beautiful. Swakopmund was the port town for the Germans because Walvis Bay was British. When the British relinquished control, the economy of Swakopmund briefly crashed because the port closed; however, it is now a bustling city again. My city orientation began at 10 am, and we went to a number of destinations in Swakopmund learning about the history and culture. Our first stop was the Karakulia Weaving Center, where we saw Namibians making tapestries and rugs. The entire process was done by hand; first spinning and dying wool into colored yarn, then drawing and weaving a design. The designs were very intricate, and often reflected African designs or wild animals. The tapestries are made by hand weaving sections of wool and then tying them off. After a tour of the facilities, we went to a crystal shop. Mining is the main industry in Namibia, from diamonds to copper to uranium. There I saw the world’s largest single quartz crystal – it was about 15 feet wide by 10 feet tall. Huge! We were then granted free time to wander around Swakopmund. After that we went to the harbor, where our guide told us more of the history of Swakopmund. Our tour was mostly over after that, and we returned to the ship by a back road which took us by Dune 7. Dune 7 is the most famous of the dunes, it is over 300 meters tall… which is almost 1000 feet! The “dune sea” is beautiful. There are so many varying shades of orange, brown, and yellow. We stopped at Dune 7 and got out. Isaiah and I climbed the dune, but the sand was soooooo hot. I unfortunately was wearing sandals, and got little blisters on my feet. As you climbed, the dune got steeper; each step I took I would be sent halfway back as the sand would mini-landslide and pile on top of my foot. It was a lot of fun though, and the view was worth it.
After the return trip to the ship, Isaiah and I dusted ourselves off and headed on foot into the town of Walvis Bay (pronounced Val-fish Bay). It was early evening, and there wasn’t much going on in town. It was nice to walk around though. We came back to the ship and got ready to go out to dinner. I met up with friends and we decided to walk to The Raft restaurant, located on the lagoon. It was a beautiful restaurant built on stilts over the water. It was about an hours walk with a group, but its hard to get 12 people to stay on track. It was crowded when we got there, but we found a table big enough to fit all of us. The tables were picnic-style benches. The Raft is famous for having African food, stuff I would never get to try in the United States. I split a meal with Andrew, and we had warthog for appetizer, and two steaks for our main course. The steaks were ostrich and oryx (also known as gemsbok). It was awesome!! The warthog came in a salad, and was delicious. There was a lot of other stuff mixed in, so I’m not exactly sure what just warthog tastes like. The ostrich was delicious; it is a red meat but had a consistency of chicken. It was very tender. The oryx was my favorite though, its one of the best steaks I have had. It tastes pretty much like a steak, but very tender and it was served in a tangy sauce. I shared with all my friends, and in return got bites of crocodile, springbok, and Namibian prawns. Being a former German colony, Namibia is the “country of Jagermeister” and the girls of the table were treated to shots by some local Namibian boys at the next table over. We became friends with them, and had great conversations. They all speak English, which makes it much easier to communicate. It was interesting to hear some of the stereotypes they had of Americans. I was surprised by how racist they were, there is a big difference between the white and black communities in Africa. They are separated by where they live, where they work, and income levels. However, Namibia is still a young country, and I have faith that over time things will become more equal. We had a lot of fun with the Namibians, and too soon it came time to go back to the ship. I love to meet new people in other countries! So far I love everything about Namibia, and I have only been here one day. Instead of quenching my thirst for travel, this trip is making me want to keep traveling forever…
Marrakech, Morocco
Marrakech, Morocco
At John the photographer’s suggestion, Heather, Francisco, and I took the 6:50 a.m. train down to Marrakech. He says Marrakech is his favorite city in the world. Rabat is the capital of Morocco, Casablanca is the “economic capital,” and Marrakech is the “cultural capital.” Marrakech (which is the French spelling, it is Marrakesh in English) is the third largest city in Morocco, but for hundreds of years was the largest city in ancient times. The population now is a little over one million, and Marrakech houses one of the largest open markets in Africa. There is a square called Djemma el Fna in the middle of the old medina (old walled city). Vendors sell their wares: slippers, clothing, belts, teapots, lamps, tandoors, tajiks, art, and many many other things. There were easily 1000 vendors in the whole medina. The main square is filled with orange juice vendors and men selling nuts and dried fruit. Everyone tries to get you to buy their wares, since many of the shops sell the same stuff, and can be rather forceful when trying to get you into their store. It can be a little overwhelming.
We ended up walking 9.1 miles that day, a girl in our group had a pedometer. I feel like I saw most of the city in one day. It was raining in the morning, but it cleared up by noon or so. We walked through the city center to get from the train station to the old medina, so I got to see a lot of modern Marrakech. We finally made it to the market, and immediately went to the orange juice vendors. They squeezed the oranges right in front of you, and it was some of the most delicious orange juice I have ever had. It was only 3 dirham, which is less than 50 cents! I also bought some peanuts with a candied coating and sesame seeds for snacks on the long sail to Namibia. We shopped around for awhile, looking at everything. I ended up getting tricked into getting henna on my hand, but it turned out to be a great experience. My friend was getting one on her hand, and I was waiting for her. I started talking to an older woman, who was a friend of the woman giving Aubrey henna. I told her multiple times that I didn’t want any, because they tend to charge exorbitant prices after they are done. I started conversing with the woman, and she was very interesting. She fluently spoke 6 languages, even though she had never been to school. She learned everything from tourists. Her name was Amina. She looked ancient, but she told me she was only 52 years old. Healthcare in Morocco is not widely available to those other than the upper class, and life in Morocco is a much rougher existence. She was missing most of her teeth, and had what looked like scars from a skin rash. We had a great conversation, she told me about her life and her daughters and about marriage ceremonies. She somehow, very sneakily, took my hand and started drawing henna. It was an intricate design, and I really liked it. Many other girls I saw just had flowers or their name written in Arabic. Amina drew a geometric design going from my wrist and up my middle finger.
When we were done, we headed up to get lunch… although I was still full from the night before! We had lunch on the third floor patio of a restaurant; we could see everything going on in the square below. It was fun to see other groups of SASers wandering through the square. After lunch, we wandered and explored some more until it was time to head back to the train.
We got a little lost trying to get to the Royal Palace, as we usually do. We figured the best way to get back to the train station was to skirt the cities edges, and then cut in on the main boulevard. While wandering around the cities edges, I looked left and saw a herd of camels! I called out to my friends and we ran across the street. The herders (owners?) of the camels were sitting under a tree around a fire. They did not seem to take notice of us at all. We walked right up to the camels, which were not scared of us at all. Heather was a little scared of them though! They made weird grunting noises, like they were getting ready to spit. We learned later that it is not a bad noise, and camels don’t even spit! It was late afternoon, and was a great culmination to an interesting day in Marrakech.
I had mixed feelings about Marrakech, and Morocco in general. It is certainly an interesting country, but there is a lot to take in. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and would love to return some day. It definitely made me glad to have been born in the United States to wonderful parents! Especially as a woman, I kept noticing differences between the US and Morocco, and how many opportunities are presented to me. It reminded me that I need to take advantage of all these opportunities because I am so much more fortunate than so many people on this planet. I am so lucky!!! I also want to say THANK YOU again to my parents for working hard so that I can be so lucky!
Friday, February 13, 2009
Casablanca, Morocco
2/3/09
Casablanca, Morocco
We finally arrived in Casablanca! We arrived during the night, but were not allowed to disembark until 8 a.m. when our passports had been cleared. After grabbing our passports, I headed out into the city with a few girlfriends and the voyage photographer, John. Our first stop was an ATM to acquire some Dirham. One US dollar will buy 8.66 Dirham. However, prices of things are higher; for example a cup of coffee would be about 12 Dirham. Bartering is the main system of trade in Morocco, we even had to barter taxi prices! I found I am not so great at it; however since it is so common in many of the countries we are going to, I hope I will become much better at it. It was an interesting experience, I am used to seeing set prices and then deciding whether I want to buy it or not. In Morocco, it takes quite awhile to decide on the price. The key lesson I learned here is to offer a price much lower than what you are willing to pay, because the vendors will ask for a price 3 to 4 times higher than what the object is worth. Prices are determined by bartering back and forth. The second lesson I learned is to not be afraid to walk away if I think the price is too high. Even after 15 minutes of bargaining, if the price is too high you should walk away. This is also a good strategy because the vendors do not want to lose a sale, and will often consent to your lower offer.
We wandered around the souks, which are the markets in Morocco. The streets were narrow and winding with shops on either side. The area we were in was also residential, with sections of homes interspersing the souk. In Morocco, the outsides of homes are kept under disrepair to prevent robbery. However, if you look in the doors of some homes as people are walking out, you can see beautiful courtyards or decadent living rooms. Walking with John the photographer was very interesting because he frequently visits Morocco and is familiar with the city and culture. He told us that his favorite city in the world was Marrakech, a city southeast of Casablanca. Casablanca is a very modern city, whereas Marrakech stays truer to ancient Moroccan culture. After hearing that, Heather and I decided to skip the City Orientation of Casablanca, and head down to Marrakech the next day.
Around 5 pm, I met in the Union for my first SAS planned trip. It was Dinner with Moroccan Family. It cost $20, and may be the best $20 I have ever spent! The cost of the ticket was donated to charity, and wealthy Moroccan families cooked us a dinner. In the Union, we were split up into groups; I was in a group with 4 other girls. We were picked up by a man named Jawed and his wife. They had three children, an 18 year old son, a 14 year old daughter, and a 12 year old son. Their youngest son goes to the George Washington Academy, which is an American school. He speaks fluent English, French, and Arabic. The George Washington Academy was founded by Semester at Sea alums, which is how this family found out about the dinner. Jawed is an international businessman, and does very well for himself. We were picked up in a Jaguar! They were proud of how westernized they were, he had all the new Beyonce and Rhianna CDs. However, he was extremely excited when we wanted to listen to traditional Moroccan music. I am always very excited to learn about new cultures, and they seemed to be excited to have dinner with us. It was interesting to see how different they thought we would be. A lot of information they get about American culture comes from television, especially from MTV. I was more than happy to try to break those stereotypes.
As in Spain, Moroccans eat dinner late. We ate around 9:30, which gave us plenty of time to talk and get a tour of the house before dinner. They were very wealthy, and the house was enormous. There was a couch in the living room that could easily sit 40 people. I took a bunch of photos. Earlier in the souks, I had bought a traditional Moroccan Kaftan. Morocco is one of the only countries where a kaftan is the term for a woman’s dress, as opposed to a male’s robe. It is a beautiful light blue full length gown with gold embroidery. I wore it that evening, and it prompted Oma, the wife of Jawed, to show us her kaftans. They were absolutely incredible. While mine was generic, hers were made by a dressmaker to her exact specifications. One of her dresses had silver woven into the fabric, giving it a beautiful sheen. They were all handmade, with exquisite embroidery. I loved it! She then told us about the marriage ceremonies, celebrations that will last for 3 days and require multiple costume changes for the bride. They sound like a lot of fun!
Dinner was a four-course extravaganza. The first dish was Pastilla, something I recommend to everyone. I got the recipe, and I am going to try to make it when I get home. It is a dish of shredded pigeon (or chicken) with almonds, onions, and vegetables wrapped in filo dough (used in baklava), and then baked with cinnamon and sugar on top. It was delicious, it was slightly sweet, but still hearty. The second course was traditional Moroccan spicy meatballs in a tomato sauce with rice. Again, delicious. At this point I was filling up, but I couldn’t wait for the coming courses. The third course was also a traditional Tandoori Chicken dish, with lemons and olives. A tandoor is a clay cooking device that keeps a lot of the moisture in. We also had homemade French fries, which are surprisingly eaten very often in Morocco. They were thickly cut and home fried. To drink we had Coke, which is the main drink in Casablanca. There is a Coca-Cola factory on the outskirts of town that employs many of the city’s inhabitants. Coke is everywhere. For dessert we had fresh fruit. The oranges are perfectly ripe this time of year, and were some of the sweetest I have ever had. They sprinkled cinnamon on orange slices, which I recommend all of you try! It was soooo good, I am going to be substituting that instead of ice cream after dinner when I get home. I thoroughly enjoyed dinner, and especially the conversation. There is no better way to get to know people of a different culture than to sit down and share their traditional food with them. They seemed very excited to host us, they visited America last summer and had a great time. They started in New York, went down to Florida, then to Las Vegas, and to San Diego. I told them they should visit San Francisco, and they invited all of us to come back to Morocco. I might have to take them up on their offer!
Around midnight, we realized we had better get back to the ship. We had talked nonstop from the time they picked us up until they dropped us off. It was a wonderful, wonderful experience and will likely be a trip highlight!
