Week Thirteen!

Woohoo week 13!! This is crazy, the weeks are going by so fast. I don't wanna leave. This week was so much fun! School was pretty normal; it was the week after midterms, so we got our grades back and talked through the exams in most of my classes. I did pretty well on my exams, I won't have to redo any of them, so that's good. I am still really enjoying all of my classes, I love what I am learning, and it is nice to have a break from taking all science classes. I also feel like having classes all day, every day in Spanish is really helping me improve and get better. I am going to be so sad to finish these classes and go back to Oklahoma. Monday afternoon, we played volleyball with the AIFS group and it was a lot of fun. We played with Alberto, his nephew, and one of his nephew's friends from school, which was fun. I really love playing volleyball. After that, I went on a nice, relaxing sunset walk that was beautiful. We had a time change in Spain, so now the sun doesn’t set until 8:30-9:00 or somewhere around there, so there is more time to hang out during the day and then go on a walk to watch the sunset before dinner. I walked away I usually don’t go, and I saw the Capilla Real, which looked so pretty in the sunset light. On Tuesday, my friends and I went to some stores to buy some last-minute things for Morocco. We went to a few larger stores like Zara and Pull-And-Bear, and then second-hand stores that were cute. After shopping, we got some yummy pastries and then went our separate ways. On Wednesday, we played volleyball again after school, of course, and it was so fun. I am not good at volleyball, but it is so fun to play. After about an hour and a half of volleyball, we went to watch our friends finish up their soccer game, and then we all went home to change before meeting up again at a tapas place to watch the Barcelona futbol game. Thursday, I just went to school and then to get some snacks with my friends for our trip that weekend. Then we got some sad news, our bus that was supposed to leave at 7am got pushed up to 4 am, so we had to wake up super early. So the rest of Thursday was just packing and getting some sleep before our long travel day. Friday morning, I woke up at 2:30am to meet the rest of the program at the bus to head to MOROCCO! Even though it was super early, I was still super excited to be going to Morocco. After 3 and 1/2 hours on the bus, we made it to the port, where we took a cargo ship/ferry across the Strait of Gibraltar to get to Tangier. The boat was rocking like crazy, and we waited all 1 1/2 hours on the boat in the passport line, so I got a little seasick, which never happens to me. Once we were in Tangier, we walked through the Kasbah and the medina and the market, and it was super cool. I loved seeing the old parts of the city. Then we had an amazing lunch with soup, kebabs, couscous with veggies, and Arabic pastries and mint tea for dessert. It was awesome. After lunch we went to a cool store with handmade souvenirs like jewelry, pottery, rugs and much more. I got a small rug and I am so excited about it. We also went to a pharmaceutical store with oils and spices, where they gave us some samples and information about the different spices and oils they sold. I got some Argan oil which is good for skin, hair and pretty much your whole body. After the stores, we strolled through the Jewish quarter/market and saw some more of the city before heading to the hotel. It had been a pretty long day,so I pretty much just ate dinner and went to bed. On Saturday, we woke up, had an amazing, yummy buffet breakfast, and then hit the road to go to Tetoun. We didn’t spend too much time there, we walked down the main street, tried some Arabic pastries, saw one of the royal palaces, and walked through the medina before hopping back on the bus to go to Chefchouen. I loved Chefchouen a lot, it was so cool. In the market section of the city and near the river, all the buildings are painted a pretty blue color. When we first got there, we had an amazing lunch of soup, bread, tagine and more pastries and tea. We had a short walking tour of the markets and the city after lunch, and then we had about an hour and a half of free time. It was so fun to walk through the pretty streets and see all the stores and paintings, and views. Brenna and I got some cool matching leather bags, so that was fun too. After Chefchouen, we got back in the bus to head to the hotel in Tangier, where I just ate dinner and went to bed again. I was so worn out all weekend. On Sunday, we packed up and headed out of Tangier down the coast to Asilah. We drove by some beautiful houses and palaces before stopping at a lighthouse on the coast. We could see Spain from there. After the lighthouse, we kept driving down the coast until we stopped at a beach to ride camels. It was so cool. We got to ride them across the beach on the sand, and then my group rode them up the hill and down the street to where they were hanging out before we got there. It was so much fun to ride, definitely a check off the bucket list. After the camels, we went to the Cave of Hercules, which was beautiful. According to Greek mythology, Hercules lived in the cave at some point, so that's awesome. The opening of the cave looked like Africa if you took a picture from the far left side of it, and there was the silhouette of a man yelling too. From there, we headed into Asilah, where we walked through a newer part of the city and then the older part, the medina, and the shops. It was a really pretty little town, right on the coast of the Atlantic. We had some yummy fish lunch there before getting back on the bus to head to Tangier port and ferry. We rode the ferry back to Spain, only 45 minutes, and then took a 3 1/2 hour bus ride back to Granada. About halfway through, we stopped for dinner, which happened to be McDonald's, and it was amazing. I got back home around 2:00am, and I went straight to bed. So that was my week, it was super awesome and fun and I love it here. Miss you guys!