I had journaled quite extensively during my time in Morocco, however, I unfortunately lost my journals in Istanbul, so I will be writing based off of memory and pictures. This was my first time traveling to any Arab country or any country in Africa, so I was very excited to explore and learn about cultural differences from the West. Our trip started with us missing our connection in Charles De Gaulle, so we got a bonus 9 hours of sightseeing in Paris which ended up being a fun experience despite the cold temperatures that I had not packed for. Our trip was spent with the IES Abroad team in Rabat; Ouswa, Fatima, and Ismail were members of the team who traveled with us everywhere we went. They served as great guides and friends who helped us learn about Moroccan history, culture, and even some Darija – the local Arabic dialect spoken in Morocco. Between them, ChatGPT, and Google Translate, I learned enough to at least attempt to haggle with merchants in the median souks. We started our trip in the capital city of Rabat – it was a fairly clean and calm city with a relatively small medina. This is where we got our first taste of Moroccan food – particularly khobz and atay (bread and tea). The Moroccan tea is basically green tea with mint which we probably ended up drinking every day. It’s super fun to pour – the higher you pour it from the better (just watch a video). We spent our time in Rabat touring the major attractions of the city and even got a private tour of the Parliament building and got an explanation of how the Moroccan political system works. After Rabat, we went to the city of Tangier in the north, 8km away from Spain across the strait of Gibraltar. This was probably my favorite city and favorite old medina. It had beautiful views of the city and the straight, as well as lots of cafes scattered across to enjoy the vibes of the city. I had copious amounts of tagine – one of the most popular dishes in Morocco. Tagine refers to both the dish that it’s served in, as well as the food itself. It’s a clay pot that generally has some type of meat in it, chicken was common, as well as vegetables and fruits. A bit of water is put at a hole in the top of the tagine, and when it has all evaporated away, that’s how you know the tagine is done. While I probably ate too much tagine while I was there, it’s a very yummy dish if you don’t have too much of it. Next we went to the medina in the town of Fes which had the best shopping of all the medians we went to. Fes is the home of the famous leather tanneries (google Fes leather tanneries and you’ve probably seen a picture before) which were really cool to see. They gave you a piece of mint on the way in so you could smell it to cover up the questionable smell of the leather dying process. In Fes I got a leather jacket as well as a headscarf for our upcoming trip to the Sahara desert in Merzouga. Also, we stayed in a beautiful riad in the Fes medina, which is a traditional Moroccan building with a courtyard in the center. The whole building uses handmade mosaics which really added to the beauty of the building. After Fes, we headed to Merzouga for our desert excursion. This was a long 8 hour bus ride, but I spent most of the time talking with Ouswa, learning about Morocco and telling her a bit about the US, and learning a bit of Darija which made the car ride go by a lot faster. 4x4s in the desert was probably my favorite part of the trip – slightly terrifying but we drifted our way up to the top of a sand dune for incredible views and cool pictures. We also rode camels in the dunes and did a bit of sandboarding which made for an overall incredible day. Unfortunately, I also got sick in the dunes from getting a bit too cold at night (the desert gets really really cold at night), and the next 48 hours were not very fun. I slept through most of our time in Marrakech, trying to recover from my sickness, and got better by the time we got back to Rabat. Once the program was over, I was lucky enough to stay in Morocco longer and meet up with my brother to go back to Marrakech and hike Mount Toubkal – the highest mountain in the Arab World, Morocco, and North Africa.
Overall, I really enjoyed my time in Morocco. Seeing how people live in the old medinas was such a shockingly different life than the American suburbs which was really cool to see. I also really enjoyed getting to know Moroccan people, particularly the group who was with us for the duration of the trip – I can truly say I made some Moroccan friends that I’ll go back and visit sometime soon.