February 5th, 2009

This morning we woke up early because we were going to get picked up earlier than planned so we could have an hour or so to shop in Marrakech before hoping on the train to Casablanca. We all woke up still cold and tired but ready for another day and sad to know we were leaving Morocco, the Berber villages, and the amazing people we met behind. We were told that 4x4’s would pick us up at about 7:30 and around 8 there was still no sign so we started to walk. We continued walking through the village and up in the mountain following the road the cars were supposed to meet us on. 

 

After about an hour of walking we finally met up with the cars hoped in and did some off-roading out of the mountains and into Marrakech. We finally got to Marrakech around 10:45 and had time to shop until 12. We went to an indoor market, where I was able to buy myself a piece of art, get Rane his postcard, and both my grandmother and dad a gift.  I felt like a good bargainer I took up my basket of stuff and he told me a price I told him I only had certain amount and nothing more and he said okay and gave me my postcards for free as well as discounting the other things. Erica found a really cute leather jacket in the market she bought, some people bought masks, and a few of the boys bought the traditional robes the men in the villages wore. Once Allison, Kelly, and I were done shopping we still had 30 minutes and went to buy stamps to send off the postcards we had all bought. At about 12:10 we headed to train station to catch our one o’clock train. Mohammed brought each of box lunches to enjoy on the train. We got on the train at about 12:30 and ate lunch before we left Marrakech on our way back to our home the MV EXPLORER! We got back to Cassablanca around 4:30 and were back on the ship by 5:15 ready to take a long awaited shower!!! I ran down to my room took a quick hot shower and then met up with the girls in Kelly’s room to see how their time in Morocco was. Kelly and Abby seemed to have a good time and made lots of friends. Dylan and Erica got surprised with an atv trip and also met a lot of cool people. Courtney and Anna conquered Courtney’s fear of height when zip lining. When we all got into Kelly’s room everyone was so excited to tell each other stories the room was really loud and we decided to do this over dinner. 

 

The captain came over the loud speaker and announced we would be “rolling”(going through rough waters) again soon and to secure all your items. Dylan and I ran back to our room to get everything in place, and then we all met up for dinner to discuss our trips. After dinner I went by Tally and Katie’s room to see how their trip went they didn’t answer so I left a note hopefully I will see them at breakfast tomorrow. I then came straight back to my room to blog and sleep since I didn’t get much sleep my entire time in Morocco due to the cold. I hung out in my room blogging and talking with my roommate Beau and her friends while watching Hotel Rwanda. I noticed the girls eating some cookies and asked what they were. Beau told me it was a digestive cookie and I got so excited and asked if I could have one. The excitement was due to the Imodium I had taken to help me make it through my three days of hiking so I didn’t have to go to the bathroom in the small hole I had to pee in. (Sorry if that was too much info)  I didn’t anticipate the blog taking this long and was hoping to be in bed 30 minutes ago but I am now finally done and ready to sleep to wake up for global studies, and a full day of classes tomorrow. I am also going to try and take Erica’s aerobic class if it fits into my schedule as well as get Nathan to try and fix my computer again.