Well, it's been another week here in mountainous Ifrane. School goes, classes are full of lectures and get boring sometimes, but sometimes the readings are really interesting and we are getting to the point where midterms are coming up (yikes!) and I've got to start writing final papers on the topic of my own choice (YAY). What a great way to end the month of February (next week guys! It's CRAZY).
Last weekend a bunch of things went down, despite my attempts to keep it low key and relaxing. Friday after classes I went to the Marche with Jess to pick up some groceries. We ran into Gabby and Audrie, and walked along with them towards the market until we caught different cabs and split off. We bought some really good cheese (Edam cheese, aka "Red cheese" for it's outer red shell) and I bought myself some danish peanut butter. After not having actual cheese since I've been here, that stuff was dang delicious. The peanut butter was quite satisfying as well, though I'm looking forward to the best peanut butter in the world coming my way thanks to the lovely thoughts of my Madre who's care package is on its way to me and will get here soon. After our trip to the Marche, we hung out in the cafe for a bit and then met up with Ariel to talk about our trip to Volubilis, the Roman Ruins about an hour and a half drive from campus. The plan was to meet up at 9am the next morning and spend the afternoon at the ruins, getting back around 5pm.
Around 8pm that night, I met back up with Jess at the restaurant to head over to Aggie's bar for a dinner of pizza and red wine. Alyssa, Mouna, and Brittany ended up tagging along, which I loved! The more the merrier :) With good pizza and a nice glass of wine to go with it, I was pretty content, especially with the conversations going around the table. The manager has made friends with a lot of the international American girls here, so halfway through dinner he gave us a free bottle of wine, which was shared by us all around the table. Don't worry, I had 2 glasses of wine the entire night, so I was not impaired.
Done with dinner and sitting around the table talking, I notice that Alyssa has gotten up and hasn't returned to the table with Amanda. Amanda comes back and informs us that Alyssa's godmother has just died. Wanting to make sure Alyssa was okay, Jess and I paid for our food and the wine, and went outside to check on her. Mouna and Amanda ended up staying behind. Alyssa didn't know what to think: she knew her godmother had died, but being so far away from home it was hard for her to actually believe it. We started walking her back to campus and ran into Austen, Jared and Seynab who were on their way to meet us. We informed them what happened, and we all comforted Alyssa and headed back to the cafe on campus for some ice cream and chocolate waffles. Best Idea Ever. Not only were they delicious and the right kind of food to make a heartsick girl feel better, but we surrounded her with love and company, making the night as good as it could have been for her after hearing that kind of news. We sat at a table there for a good hour, laughing and keeping the mood light and munching on sweets. Then we moved to Building 38 (dorm on campus) and played spoons (aka plastic forks) until midnight. Alyssa was thoroughly touched by how we took care of her, and couldn't have asked for a better group of people to be with in such a time. I was super glad our plan to make her feel loved worked :)
Saturday morning I met Jess, Gabby, Seynab, and Denise and we walked over to the grand taxi station to find a ride to Volubilis. For 600 Dhs, we got a cab to take us right to the Ruins and stay there until we were done to drive us back to campus. Not a bad deal if you ask me.
Volubilis was incredible. And it couldn't have been a better day to go. It was such a great feeling to walk around the ruins and feel the warm sun on my face. It took us a little over 3 hours to explore the entire ruins. Old, beautiful mosaics, magnificent pillars and archways, the delicate wild flowers growing up and over the ancient stones.. it was so amazing to see just how ornate and detailed the Roman city was during its time of greatness. Around 1pm we ran into the Al Akhawayn group who went for a class fieldtrip (Lena, Dylan, Maiya and Jared were all a part of this group) and then we finished up and headed back to the taxi. After the ride, the taxi driver told us that if we ever needed a taxi, we should call him and he would take us anywhere we wanted to go. I still have the guy's card.. I should probably utilize it sometime.. though I can't speak french or Arabic, so we'll see if that happens or not... either way, it was a really friendly gesture of him, and we all enjoyed his company. He played music for us on the way up and back: the French rap was my favorite. I'm actually thinking of getting some of their music, and usually that thought doesn't occur to me because I'm not a huge fan of rap.. French rap, however, is pretty good stuff.
After Volubilis, I met up with Austen, Alyssa, Seynab, and 6 other people to head towards the apartment that the West Point guys are renting to cook dinner. We have all been craving Mexican food, so we decided to try and make some ourselves. Guacamole anyone? :) From the marche to the apartment I ended up twisting my ankle on uneven pavement (predictable right?) but we made it to the apartment safely. Once there, we started the food preparation. Rachid decided to make us "sweet meat," tagine-style. With that we accompanied it with bread, rice and beans, and guacamole made with avocados and lemon juice (Austen called the entire dinner "Moracos" because it was a mixture of Moroccan food and tacos). Then for dessert there was a fruit salad and nuts. Not only was this meal the biggest I've had ALL SEMESTER, but it was THE MOST DELICIOUS. we ate communal style, right from the tagine pot, eating and talking and bonding. In such a space, it was definitely a family style dinner. It was so fun- the cooking, the bonding, the stuffing-our-faces, the lounging around by the fire... I thoroughly enjoyed myself that night, even when Mouna, Sara, Seynab and I decided to head back to campus around 11pm instead of staying out until 4am at the club.
I love these kinds of weekends :)
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