Wares, Weaving, and a Wedding...just another day in Morocco

At lunch we were given the option of going back to the medina area to visit a pottery school. Like I said before, the Moroccan government set up these vocational schools to give students who fall out of the traditional education system an opportunity and to preserve the traditional handicrafts. Our guide took us through the school, and we were able to see the various stages of how their crafts are made. We watched a young man (probably aged 22 or so) on a potter's wheel making serving bowls. It was really cool. Then we saw the kilns where they fire the bowls, vases, cups, etc. We also watched a guy painting patterns on the wares...it was incredible how meticulous the art is. Then was the crazy part. Some of the clay fired is used to make mosaics for fountains, tables, etc. What's amazing is that all the tiles are handmade--we watched two guys chiseling away making fairly intricately shaped tiles with a hammer and chisel.

Then once again we were overwhelmed. We walked into a room where they had all the tabletop mosaics on display. It was amazing how big some of them were, and knowing how they were made just heightened the feeling of awe. Then our guide took us to a shop where they sold their pottery. There was just soo much on sale there...the store owner gave us all a 20% discount on everything.


After that, we drove back to the medina and went in to visit a weavery. We went through this almost pitch black, tiny corridor that you had to duck through to get to a little brown door, but once we were inside, we were wowed. The place was huge! It apparently used to be an animal+people motel type establishment--the animals would stay on the ground floor, the people above. Some of the looms there were over 100 years old. It was great.

We went back to the hotel so we could shower and get ready for dinner. Dinner was supposed to be at the hotel, but we all dropped 30€ more to eat at fancy Moroccan restaurant in the medina. We all took seats at the tables as the 4-piece band walked in. They played pretty much all night. Wine and (bottled) water was included with the meal. The first course was bread and this really yummy soup. After that was a salad course, which were 7 or 8 different plates of food that we passed on in a circle. Then shish-kabob and sausage were brought out. Yum. Then pastilla, which is sort of chicken pot pie moroccan style. It's shredded chicken with spices in this pastry-esque crust topped with cinnamon and powdered sugar. It was a pretty interesting mix of flavors, and really good.


Right as we were finishing the pastilla, the lights in the restaurant dimmed and a colored light started to flash. Here was the first part of the main show...and it was pretty underwhelming. The first performer wasn't a very good dancer, nor was she attractive. At one point she walked all the way to me and danced right up to the back of my chair, and I wear she intentionally bounced her breasts on my head. Not cool. Oh and did I mention she was doing this while wearing a headress of candles? After than she swallowed some fire and left.

Next was a magician. He was pretty funny and did some really cool tricks. He called up Caitlin from our group as a volunteer and asked her what kind of animal she would like to appear. She said a "big black dog." So he had her place this handkerchief down her dress and look up at the ceiling. Then he began to slowly pull it out, and all of a sudden Caitlin start to freak out like there was actually something moving in her dress. We were dying of laughter. "I don't like cats! I'm allergic!" she blurted out seemingly for no reason. For a brief moment, we really thought we were going to see an animal, but then the magician lifted out the handkerchief to reveal nothing.

(At this point, the cous cous was brought out. Yellow grain and chicken. YUM.)

Then there was a percussion group, a singer, another couple of dancers and a "wedding." Here they wanted to show off the traditional bridal gowns and a little of the practice. So it looked like Jared was getting married to four women. They put each of the girls (2 from our group, one was Jared's girlfriend) separately in this seat thing that four women picked up and spun around. It was pretty interesting. Then we had dessert, which was fruit and pastries. We left about 3 hours after we arrived. 30 euro well spent.

The wedding party. Becca in the blue, Shelby in the very large headdress, Jared far right.

The next day, we all got wake up calls at 6:45 a.m. because we had to be out by 8 to go about our last day in Morocco. First we traveled to Assilah, which is a beautiful coastal town about 30 kilometers from Tangier. We walked through the small medina, where we learned that every year a international culture fair takes place where they show off the art and history of another country's culture...artists come and paint murals and sell crafts on the street. There were murals from Mexico, Europe, and other places.Assilah in the background.

Standing next to art for sale.

We bought fresh bread for 3 dirham a loaf and ate on the bus. We followed the beach for a while before making it to the countryside of Tangier, where we stopped for a camel ride. It was really fun. You got on the camel while it was sitting, and the guy would pull the rope on the camel and yell "Up! Up!" (in English) and the camel would stand. When we were done, he'd yell "Down, down!" and the camel would sit and you felt like you were going to fall.

CAMEL.
Cliff overlooking the beach by the camel rides.

Then we went to Tangier to do just a little bit of shopping (didn't buy anything) before heading to the port. We were at the port forever waiting to get on the ferry because all the people with cars took almost an hour to get off. It was frustrating. Then we finally got on the ferry and still had to wait to leave the port. This time, the ride was not treating our stomachs well at all, so we all went outside. It was much better to be out in the fresh air.

Last glimmer of the African sun.

We made it back to the bus and had an uneventful 2.5 hour ride back to Seville. We made it home just around midnight. Then I did a little homework before getting to sleep.

Tomorrow I leave for Italy! I'm flying into Bergamo and then I'll take a bus to meet Blake and Matt in Milan before we travel to Venice. Should be fun, and I promise I'll take a lot of pictures. Until then, paz.