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PART 1

So where to begin, school has picked up here so its been hard to keepeveryone posted with weekends packed with adventures and the weeks withschoolwork and homework to be done in anticipation for the weekend. Onthe 24-25

of Jan we went to Fes, then on 31 Jan to 1

Feb we went to Rabat(the capital of Morocco), the 14

-15

Feb we went to Kenitra (a coastal city just north of Rabat), and the 21

-22

Feb we went to Asillah which is close to Tangier. Before I go any further I have to preface our travels by saying thatthe traveling we have done thus far has mostly been with other internationalstudents that are roughly 5 years younger than us. As a result our trips havetended to be more about partying than either Alicia and I would have likedand so consequently many of the historical sights that are off the beatenpath have been missed. We do aim to change this theme of our adventuresin the future.So lets begin with our trip to Fes. Going to Fes we had only one realobjective, which was to explore the old Medina as it is one of the largest inMorocco. When we first arrived we had a rather large group that made itnearly impossible to find reasonably priced hotels that we could all stay at.After some looking we were able to find one and immediately set out to findfood (the story of our lives here), after a bit of searching we were finally ableto find a kind of hole in the wall restraint that served remarkably good food.Our biggest achievement of the night, though, was finding a café to smokehookah or sheisha (flavored tobacco). After spending afew hours at the café we decided to call it a night torest up for the trip to the Medina. The next day weheaded out reasonably early and with the help of Mike,a student who studied in Fes at the American LanguageInstitute, we not only made our way to the Medina, butalso some decent places to eat that served an assortment of breakfast items.A big deal, especially for Alicia. After passing by the Kings palace, we soonentered the Medina and it didn’t take long for the hagglers to latch on to us.After getting past the main entrance through the old fortified wall (a classiccharacteristic of medinas), the hagglers left and we were finally left toexplore markets freely. Animal lovers beware, the souks are not for the fainthearted as most are lined with freshly butchered carcasses along with avariety of birds hanging outside shops. Exploring further in we did find acarpenter who was crafting, at the time, handles for masonry tools. But afterexpressing some interest in his work he quickly demonstrated his lightningfast ability to make a ‘top.’ The man had to head for prayer, but Alicia and I

were so taken with him that we bought awooden container, I suppose its now a jewelry box. We had also wanted to visit theMosque, but since it was now prayer timenon-muslims were not allowed inside,so wedecided to try and make our way to therenowned tannery. Apparently in the medinathere are two tanneries, one that is tailoredto romanticizing the process and the otherthat is crude uncensored work of leathermaking. We got the latter, and Alicia and I will never be able to smell leatherthe same way again. We were lead to first the courtyard where they separatethe wool and fur from the skin, then to a creekwhere they wash the hide, then to a courtyardthat was more of a maze of vats that containedeverything from lime to dye that the hide wasleft to soak in, to the leather softening rooms,and finally to the shops where they fabricate theleather into shoes, padding, etc. One of the bigplusses of this experience, besides seeingmanual laborers working to create somethingbeautiful in the end, was that we were lead uponto a hill where we were treated to a overlookof the entire medina. After returning to theMedina and being suckered into paying ourtannery guides for their service we were able tovisit the old mosque of Medina. My first time in a mosque, it was a pleasantexperience and is set up in a way that you feel secluded from the outsideworld. There wasn’t too much to explore, so we soon left and headed back toour hotel in Fes. Ironically some of the Moroccan students Alicia and I hadmet here at the university were in Fes that weekend so we spent about anhour looking for them and then getting picked up by one of their parents togo have dinner with them. It was nice to visit with them although, they hadtheir friends with them and the language barrier seem to prove difficultespecially in a restraint environment. The next day was mostly spentcommuting back to the University which was relatively painless andconcluding our first real trip to Fes.

The next weekend we made the trip with Mike again, and few otherpeople to include Emily, Kendra, Britney, Leah, and Jamie to Rabat (thecapital of Morocco). Because of taxi complications that emerged as a resultof the taxi stand turning into absolute mayhem on Fridays after 3pm, Aliciaand I ended up left behind in Ifran.Fortunately we met three Moroccangirls who were also student at theuniversity here and, with atremendous breath of fresh air,allowed us to ride with them andtheir parents to Meknes to catch atrain to Rabat. Unfortunately wearrived too late and had missed thelast train, so we called Imame (one of the girls that gave us a ride who is assweet as can be) and asked if she could show us where to find a taxi toRabat. Next thing we know her and her dad are driving us all around Meknesto find a taxi and before letting us go her dad negotiates a spectacular pricewith the taxi driver. A two hour cab ride later we are dropped off in Rabat andhave no trouble meeting up with Mike and the rest of the gang. It should besaid that on this weekend both Alicia and I were especially under the weatherwith some sort of illness that we have yet to fully recover from, so that nightwas a early night. The next day we left the hotel and eat breakfast in themedina. After finishing we dropped our bags off at the hostel for that nightand left for our first destination, Chellah. Chellah is an ancient fortified citythat commands a view of the valley below. Once inhabited by thePhoenicians, it fell to the Romans, and then to the Berber. An interestingoutpost, remnants of all previous inhabitants still exists with Latin writing,