Travel

Re-entry

Well, the adventure has come to a close.

I’m back in Fort Collins now, and am taking a few days to adjust and reflect. The biggest thing I’m feeling right now is the abundance of familiarity in everything around me, which is a good thing. The people, the things around me, but most importantly, the culture. I feel more comfortable with my surroundings. I spent five months outside of my comfort zone, with the most basic understanding of everything that was going on around me. Now, I’m appreciating the familiarity of many of the “little things” I didn’t have for the last semester.

At the same time, I really miss Andalusia. Granada is a beautiful little city, and it engenders a beautiful lifestyle. I miss my host family’s home cooking, the Fedérico García Lorca park, going about everything without a big rush (work to live, not live to work!), tinto de verano, and cute old people walking around town dressed to the nines. I miss the mix of beatufil and comical graffiti, and walking past several buildings that are half a milennium old without even thinking anything of it.

I’ve definitely come home, albeit a changed person. I look forward to going back to Spain as soon as possible, but at the same time I’m looking forward to resuming life back home with a better idea of who I am and what is truly important to me in life.

Transitioning

Sorry posting here has slowed down… I’ve been running all around Europe too fast to write it all down! I still plan to finish writing about Morocco and write about my trips to Liverpool, Amsterdam and Prague, but I figured I’d break from chronological order to comment on more current stuff.

This week was the last week of my study abroad program. Finals were low-stress, and thanks to having two of them early, I finished my last exam Monday afternoon. So I’ve had most of the week to get some good time in with my friends from the program and appreciate the awesome life I’ve had here.

I have extended my trip by about two weeks because I have three friends coming out to visit me. We’ve rented an apartment here in Granada, so I can spend a bit showing them all my Granadino stomping grounds, and then we’re headed to Valencia and Barcelona, possibly with some side trips along the way. It’s going to be totally awesome.

I’m pretty glad that I have people from Colorado coming out here before I return there myself; I’ve just begun to realize just how different it’s going to feel to be back in familiar territory, yet as a changed person. It’ll be nice to have a bit of home come out here first to ease my re-entry to American life.

Last night I said goodbye to almost all of my friends from the program – most of them flew back to the States today. I’m never good with goodbyes, especially with large amounts of people at once. Today, I packed most of my bags and so my last night in my host family’s house will be the typical “sleep in a bare bedroom” thing that I’ve come to know in the “Moving Day Eves” of past years.

After about 2 weeks with my friends here, I will fly back to Colorado on June 6. I will spend a day on my own in Dublin before ending my European (and partly African) adventure.

My Adventure in Morocco, Part 1: Fez

I have posted photos of my Morocco trip on my Picasa Web Album – check ’em out!

What an adventure! I’ve crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and set foot upon Moroccan soil. I’ve been plunged into a land of Arabs and Berbers – a country under the power of a monarchy, to boot. I’ve passed through huge marketplaces which have barely changed since mideval ages, and a sprawling modern supermarket like Wal-Mart From Another World. I have ridden Land Rovers and camels across the Sahara, camped in traditional tents, relaxed, drummed and danced with chill desert dwellers.

I’ve walked the dunes and meditated in solitude. (Or was it in communion with all creation?) I’ve explored the desert guided by the light of the full moon. And I’ve had the most amazing group of fun, loving, fun-loving people to share and enjoy the experience with.

I went to Morocco with about 50 students from International Studies Abroad, many coming from other programs in Madrid, Salamanca, Málaga and Santender. Our bus left Granada at 3:30 Sunday morning, a day before Spain’s holy week festivities were to begin. We crossed the Strait of Gibraltar at sunrise and crossed the border at Ceuta, an autonomous Spanish city on the African coast. The border was reminiscent of the Mexico-U.S. border, complete with incessant honking choruses and vans packed full of seemingly useless junk (even though you know a use has been found for all of it).

Upon crossing the border – and scoring one more stamp on my passport- dozens of cameras whipped out and were aimed out the bus windows. North Morocco was nothing like what I had expected – extremely green, like Colorado during April showers. We had lunch at a rest stop, where I had my first experience as a traveler with zero knowledge of the popular languages Arabic, French, and Berber, in that order. While essential travel communication is definitely possible, all of my travel up until this point has been in countries where English or Spanish are widely spoken. Being thrown into a completely different, somewhat non-Western culture is enough of a change of gears as it is, but add total lack of language skills to the mix and you have a pretty intimidating situation on your hands!

We finally arrived to our five-star hotel in the outskirts of Fez, where the king’s palace is located and a huge, ancient Medina contains mideval marketplaces and old stuff abound. Our hotel itself was a different story- European amenities, kind of a retreat from all the new things we explored in the city by day. The next morning, we went to the medina and toured several larger shops, where shopkeepers gave presentations of their goods to the whole group, and many of us would later bargain – “regatear” in Spanish – with multilingual salesmen. The medina really was a blast from the past; narrow walkways with people and load-carrying donkeys, with no motor vehicles to be found. Open-air shops selling fresh veggies and meat from the countryside. Several of us walked past a butcher right as he removed a dead goat’s head and extracted its brain!

Here are a few videos I recorded in Fez:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJpOeIRFlqs&w=480&h=385]

Street Performers in Fez

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNaxhvZaeiw&w=480&h=385]

Fez Sculptor

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hIRSsT5Hi4&w=480&h=385]

Fez Percussionists

…and don’t forget to check out the photos!