Fes!

Last night, a group of us went to Fes to explore and see the old Medina, the oldest city in Morocco. Which, coincidentally has the oldest university, which was founded by a woman. All I can say is that it was a fantastic experience, and was a lot of fun.
I also must reneg on my previous comment of not loving Moroccan food. The food we ate in the old medina was fantastic. Pastilla, kababs, tagines, msemmen.. yum. And the juice here kills juice in America. It's completely fresh, and you still have bits of the fruit in the drink. They grow oranges and like citrus here, so the fruits themselves are amazing. Except apples and bananas so far... I suppose I am a bit of an apple snob though. I tried banana juice... it just tastes like a melted banana milkshake.
Unfortunately, my camera was dead for this trip, so I have no pictures. I will steal from other people though.
The old medina is a fantastic weave of alleys and shops, allowing for a person to get lost after 5 minutes. We would have been so lost without Nour, our sole Moroccan on the trip. He negotiated for us, so we only paid half price for the hotel, got cheaper meals, and didn't get ripped off for our purchases.
He did say I am almost Moroccan due to my love for the driving and the sweetness of beverages. I can live with being an honorary Moroccan.
Friday night was fantastic. Most of the shops were closed, so we didn't  go very far into the city, but we were just 9 people enjoying food, the atmosphere and each other's company. It definitely didn't feel like we'd only known each other for a week or less. After a fantastic dinner at Le Palma (I think) we went back to the hotel, sat on the roof, overlooking a lot of the city. It was surreal to be overlooking Fes, in Morocco... when 2 weeks ago I was in Spokane. For the first time, I really felt the distance, but in a good way.
Saturday we ventured in to the medina, in search of the tanneries and shopping. To view the tanneries, you have to enter a shop, and then walk up narrow stairs, to look down at the process. It wasn't as bad of a smell as I thought it would be, but they did provide us with mint leaves to counter the smell. I wouldn't consider myself a fan of leather, but I can really respect the way they do it here. They get the hides from the slaughterhouses, and then they don't use any chemicals or electricity. It is simply manual labor and nature. The dyes come from plants, such as saffron for yellow, mint for green, and I believe poppy leaves for red. They use pigeon poop to help make the skin softer, and the whole process takes about a month to complete. And believe me, the product is amazing.
Goat leather is ridiculously soft, and they also use camel and cows. The man at the shop demonstrated the quality by holding a flame up to a jacket for about 15 seconds. No smell was emitted, nothing melted, and nothing burned. The jacket was barely even hot when we touched it afterwards.
After the tanneries, we had a semi-guide take us around to a few places. He had a few tidbits of information, such as the fact that the old medina has 9,400 streets and over 300 mosques. We were able to travel up to the tops of more buildings, and the view was quite fantastic.
We also went to a Berber rug shop, and a Berber pharmacy. The man at the pharmacy was hilarious, and showed us various oils and cream, as well as amber pieces and blocks made out of whale fat that is supposed to be an aphrodisiac. They had a green lipstick that turned lips a very bright pink, and the color lasted for quite some time. K got to be the guinea pig for that one. Near the end of our visit, he also told us about "Moroccan Viagra" and said that "you take it at night, and it gives you energy or helps with the jiggy-jiggy."
We then proceeded to the rug making shop, and met the owner of the shop named Hassan, who again took us to the roof of his building, pointing out the university. (which was pointed out to us at every rooftop. It looked quite impressive, but being as we aren't Muslim, we were not allowed in) He gave us a show of several of his rugs/carpets/blankets, which were quite impressive. Luckily, I didn't have enough money to even be able to be tempted.
We actually saw a lot of tourists, more than I would have thought. It was crazy and hectic, but so marvelous. 

Breakfast. Campus. Azrou.

Today was a very intensive walking day.
To begin, a lot of the exchange students, and a few freshman went to breakfast. Which was amazing. I'm not entirely sure what I ate, but it was good, and I actually got full. There was like a flaky pancake, and a harder...pancake thing. Someone told me the names, but of course I forgot. The mint tea here is one thing I am pretty certain I will miss upon returning to America. They sweeten the shit out of it, so it's just a bit of mint, with a lot of sweetness. I finally got to mingle with a few native Moroccans, and that was nice. Learned some new words, which is always a bonus.
After breakfast, we had an across campus scavenger hunt. Which sounded fantastic, until we got stuck on the second clue and walked alllllll around campus. It is hilly. It was warm. We ran a little bit. I still hate running. Of course, we lost. We didn't even finish, rather we jumped to the end to see the winner's get a prize. And there's video of our epic failure. A guy with a camera followed us around for about 40 minutes.. half laughing at us the entire time. He wasn't a random person with a camera, let me make that clear. He was part of the student association, recording the events.
The best part of the day was the trip to Azrou. It's about 20 minutes outside of town, and you have to take a grand taxi to get there. Meaning 6 of us, plus a driver, in an old mercedes. While it wasn't the most comfortable ride, the view was fantastic. We came down the mountain slightly, and got a good view of the town from the road. It was nice to actually feel like I am in Morocco. While Ifrane is nice, it's a bit insulated and has the nickname "little Switzerland" for a reason. The town was awesome, and we did a little bit of shopping. We also went to this bakery that had some amazing looking pastries for great prices. I guess that is one great thing about the influence of French culture here.
Classes begin tomorrow, which is a bit of a downer. I am not prepared.

From Bozeman to Fes/Fez.

I have now traveled internationally by air.
It was a...learning experience. The flight from Denver to Frankfurt was... interesting. The amenities were very nice, such as 2 meals, warm towelettes, a screen in the seat in front of me with various TV shows and movies. The leg room, however, was not. I am not built to fly for extended periods of time. I am certain the seats were narrower, and leg room smaller, than that of regular flights. Needless to say, it was not incredibly pleasant.
My traveling partner and I had hoped to explore Frankfurt, but had a hard enough time navigating the airport, and so sat outside gate B30 for about 9.5 hours. Nothing exciting happened...although if we had wanted to, we could have gotten severely hammered off all the alcohol they sell there. Alas, we sat and slept, and read.
The plane to Casablanca... was amazing. It was only about 1/3 full, and the seats were big, and the leg room was larger. I zonked out about 5 minutes into the flight, only to be awoken for a meal, which was actually quite good. Afterwards, I slept more... only this time I woke up to something much less pleasant- loud, obnoxious, French children.
The only good thing about being awake was that I could see the Spain coastline in the Middle of the night, all lit up, while simultaneously seeing the stars, and the African coastline.
Arriving in Casablanca at 1 in the morning was very nerve-racking. Luckily, the customs men were very nice, and we were just waved through baggage checking. The worst part was walking through the sitting area, being stared at.We had to wait for 5 hours before the train would arrive to take us to Casa train station to get on the train to Fes. Let's just say I would have felt more comfortable at a bus station at midnight. That airport is... janky.
Finally 6 rolled around and we hopped on a train that took us to the other station. Unfortunately, the sun hadn't risen, and there was a mass fog covering the city, so we didn't get to see much of it. The train to Fes, however, had some of the most beautiful countryside I have ever seen. We moved from the beach areas to the mountainous region, and the change in landscape was amazing. Unfortunately, I kept falling asleep, even with my camera in hand, and may have missed something.
Riding out of Casablanca was beautifully horrendous. The land next to the track was covered in small, makeshift houses, with garbage and trash scattered everywhere. The living conditions I can only imagine as near 3rd world, with small **** piled together, made out of metal scraps, blankets and other various materials. Having only seen such things in pictures, I was fascinated. That life is unimaginable for me, so I was entranced at what life may entail for these people. I was reminded that this world was not that much different from life back home when I saw a man peeing outside on a wall.
It was also nice to see morning life in Morocco. It was before 8, and yet there was a large group of men playing basketball, people waiting at other bus stations, walking along the streets to work, driving their cars to unknown destinations. (it should be noted, driving in Morocco is fantastically crazy. The real only rule is stay on your side of the road most of the time.) Life is just....life. So far, while things have been different, I haven't experienced much culture shock.
We arrived in Fes, greeted by some people from the University, and ate a meal at a nearby restaurant. Sitting outside, eating our meal, I was reminded of Seattle. The vibe was just similar.
The drive from Fes to Ifrane was crazy fun. I am in love with traffic here. It's like playing chicken all the time. We drove up the mountain, and the weather was unusually warm, so there wasn't any snow, and you could almost see the mountains in the distance. The King's Palace is across town from the University, and from the glimpse we got, seems quite impressive.
Campus itself is beautiful with fairly small buildings, all of a similar design, plopped on a hillside. There are trees everywhere... and with the sunshine we've been experiencing, it's been quite easy to adjust.
So far, so good. We'll see what happens when classes begin.

Pre trip

Hanging out in Bozeman, waiting to take flight on Tuesday.