Fes

View of Fes from the tannery

This weekend we had our excursion to Fes, a city two hours away from Rabat via bus. Our host dad told us that Fes was the cultural center of Morocco. Our program leader described it as being more conservative than Rabat with a more traditional approach to life. So, with our duffel bags and very modest clothing, we set out for Fes on Saturday morning.

We didn’t have loads of time to meander around the city itself, but we did spend a long time in the Old Medina. The Old Medina is like our medina in Rabat, only pushed to an insane level. It’s bigger and more like a maze than the medina in Rabat. This medina tries to get tourists lost so they spend more time and money.  Speaking from the perspective of someone who is directionally challenged, I would’ve been in there for weeks if we didn’t have a guide. I mean, we had a guide and I still got lost 3 times. I’m not kidding.

Our first stop in the medina was at a restaurant near the Blue Gate of Fes. We ate on the roof of the building after climbing up a 4 story narrow staircase. I still don’t know how they managed to bring us our food. I ordered the camel burger. That’s right, I had a camel in burger format. Contrary to what I’d heard, it tasted nothing like chicken. It was a little tougher than normal hamburger meat but I can’t really describe the taste. It had a very unique tint to it. It was good, for sure. It's not lost on me that I've eaten a camel here before I've ridden one.

My camel burger

After lunch we trekked around the old medina. It was disorienting, but completely worth it. We visited the tannery (Fes is known for its leather), the old mental institute that sits in the center of the medina, and a large conglomeration of copper-workings with a lot of smaller stores in-between. Not to snitch on gifts, but I got Evan the one present he asked for, so older sister mission accomplished. The best part about the medina was probably how people would walk through the narrow streets with their donkeys just about every five minutes. It made you feel pretty cultural.

After we all made it through the medina, (why yes, the group did have to wait for me to find my way yet another time), we went back to the hotel and had iftar. My host mom does it better. Just saying. After dinner the group went to the hammams in Moulay Yacoub, a city known for the healing power of its sulfur water.

The next day our group visited Volubilis, a ruin of an ancient Roman settlement. Gaius Octavius extended the Roman Empire into Morocco during the Pax Romana, and that’s how we got Volubilis. Lauren, one of the girls on this trip, is very into Roman history and she was running me through the elaborate past of the ruins while we visited. She pointed out the aqueducts, would say whether the tile had Islamic or Roman origins, and she actually cried when she saw the bath houses. I was not that well-informed about Volubilis before going, nor am I incredibly passionate about Roman History, but I definitely could appreciate how gorgeous it was. What was even more impressive was how magnificent it was on such a massive scale. It was pretty amazing.

This week has been a pretty intense week language-wise. They really push through the material. One week ago we were going over simple nouns and now this week we’re doing irregular plurals, possessives, and verb conjugations. In fact, I have a test tomorrow over all of this. As you can imagine, I’m slightly less prepared than I want to be.

One thing that we did this week to work on our Darija (regional dialect) was a facilitated language learning activity. We had to find around 6 locations by asking different civilians where things were.The problem is that Morocco has a certain custom about directions. Basically, if you ask where something is and the person doesn’t know, they make it up. So we got quite a few detailed directions to absolutely nowhere. Our Language Learning Partner was being very obedient to the rule that he shouldn't help us, so we pretty much trekked across the whole city. We walked past one building five times before we realized it had been what we were looking for. Such a fun time.

The secrets of mint tea

In other news, I have seen two semi-riots and four fights in the past couple of days. It was explained to me that this happens during Ramadan because people are reacting to the lack of nicotine. It’s a little nerve-wracking to see, but the police are on high patrol during the month so I've never seen it get to an intense level.

But by far the most important thing that happened this week was that my host mom showed me step by step how to make mint tea. My life is absolutely complete. There is nothing more I need to do here. Well, except learn how to make all of this food. That might take a while.