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!