I have officially been in Morocco for over one week now and it has been quite an experience. The marathon travel followed by hours of "orientation" and bureaucracy, but I finally feel like I have found a steady rhythm of some sort. I got in all the classes that I wanted, and was even pleasantly surprised to find that I got into Advanced Arabic. So far the classes seem fairly easy, but more on that to come since it is still technically drop -add period in the university.
I just arrived from visiting Fes for the first time (excluding or 1 hr wait there when we came) and the trip was a blast. I went with Luke, Mike, and two Sams and we stayed in a hostel for very cheap but the conditions were perfect for us and they even served us free coffee and croissants for breakfast. The hostel got us an official guide for the medina in Fes which was so far the best decision for the trip. It cost each of us only 20 ds which is less than $3 for almost 4 hrs of walking, guiding, talking, and just being a very good guide. We got to see the famous tanneries and we got to visit a cooperative which is a government sponsored establishment that is paid to make crafts and sell directly instead of using a middle man that then jacks up the price. This cooperative sold blankets and rugs so I got a sheep wool blanket that is basically maroon and gold with Berber symbols on it (the cooperative was Berber and they did all of their weaving in the building.) We would have never found that or the tanneries without the guide, because for most of the places the entrance is barely visible and definitely not marked. The smells and sights made the trip absolutely spectacular.
We also found how far removed Ifrane is because there are at least 5-10 grande taxis going to Fes on Friday when we left, but we had to convince someone to take us back to Ifrane today, on Saturday. Also it is almost double the price coming back, and that was with bargaining and taking the lowest possible deal.
I am having a awesome time in Morocco so far. It is definitely weird to go from the hot, dieselly air of Fes to the crisp, cool snowy air of Ifrane, but in some ways it is kinda of nice to be close to Fes but not exactly in it. Pictures will be coming soon.
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Wow, Jeff. It sounds like you had an amazing time! The pictures are great. The hostel looks really nice. The tannery pictures look like chocolates.
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The tannery in no way smelled like chocolate. The white area in the back left of the picture is where they treat the leather before coloring, and the white has pigeon droppings in it because the ammonia softens the leather. That in addition to the smell of the dyes made the whole area very interesting, but not bad. The only way to explain it is that it smelled like Fes. Also, the hostel only cost 55 Dh, which is just over $6 and they gave us free coffee, croissants, and got us our tour guide. Pretty sweet deal
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