Paris!

If you found out on a Wednesday that you didn't have to work at all the next week, what would you do? Travel? Stay at home and rest? Catch up on all the things you've been neglecting (like a semi-responsible adult)?

I chose travel!

We get the Moroccan, Muslim, and American holidays off at school. Yes, it is pretty awesome. However, from the teaching standpoint, its kind of a planning-nightmare. One of the BIG Muslim holidays was approaching, but the dates are tentative and based on the lunar schedule. So basically, we knew there would be a break somewhere in mid-October. First it was Monday/Tuesday. Then it was Wednesday/Thursday, school on Friday, then the normal weekend. (Right there- school on a Friday after 2 days off and before a weekend...pointless planning nightmare.) But then the King decided to declare Tuesday-Friday off for schools and the school tossed in Monday also! Thus...a full week off!

The BIG holiday pretty much shuts everything down (even a week later a lot of things are still closed) so leaving town is best. Jasmine (roommate) and I were trying to decide where to go.  Spain, France, Italy, ... oh, the tough choices! We were about to resort to a coin flip but Paris won out in the end. Surprisingly, since neither of us really wanted to go to Paris. But we hadn't been and the flights were cheap so why not!


We planned a week in Paris in a matter of two days! And it was awesome!

We did the typical taxi, train, bus, plane, bus, metro ride to our final destination! I jokingly (but really not jokingly) mentioned to Jasmine that someday when I travel and only use one or even two forms of transportation, I won't believe I've actually traveled!

We stayed in a little apartment in Le Marais. Which is apparently a more popular and famous neighborhood than we knew/expected. It was within walking distance of almost everything and the metro was only a minute away! Thank you airbnb!
 
We got there late Saturday night/Sunday morning. We had beautiful weather on Sunday! Blue skies and warm, sunny weather (not as warm as Casa, but we were hoping to escape that anyway!). We started the week with a hop-on/hop-off tour of the city. I love being a tourist! Snapping photos from the open roof second level of a bus all throughout the city....it's fantastic! And a quick and easy way to see the sights and get a feel for the city!

We took full advantage of our week in Paris! We went to the top of the Eiffel and watched the sunset over Pairs. We went to Louvre and Musee d'Orsay. We saw Notre Dame and St Chapelle. We took a boat tour down the Seine (although, I fell asleep for a good part of it!). We wandered down streets,sampled wine, and enjoyed lots of delicious food! We ventured out to Versailles and biked around the gardens (we also got lost and quite confused in the gardens. I blame the terrible map we were provided.). We also escaped the rain one day inside the aquarium and went to Disney Paris on our last day there!

I was completely surprised by Paris! It was not at all what I had expected it be, and I couldn't be happier about that! I don't know if I will go back to Paris, but I will certainly encourage others to visit!

Berber Hike

After a classy, relaxing weekend in Tangier I went south toward Marrakesh to hike up in the mountains and stay in a little Berber village.

To sum up the weekend, it was beautiful. Gorgeous. Quiet. Refreshing. Breathtaking (in more than one way since we did climb a mountain!).

So much for those clean, new shoes!

The village has no cars. They have only had electricity and running water for the last few years. Our guide showed us the school they built two years ago. One room (half the size of my classroom) with little tables and enough chairs for the 33 students. All between the ages of 3 and 6. With only two teachers. (Have I mentioned how thankful I am for my small group of 17 students!). The guide was also excited to share that some of the older kids go down the mountain to continue their education and return home over the weekends to help with life in the village.

A true highlight was spending time on the rooftop enjoying the countless stars! Living in the city this year has been wonderful, but I do miss being able to see the sky like I could on campus.

TanJazz!

A few weekends ago I crossed yet another Moroccan city off my travel list!

Tangier is located on the coast where the Straight of Gibraltar connects the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. It has a very European feel and lots of Spanish influences. It is also much more laid back compared to Casa and it was a nice (and cheap) escape!

I went with NINE others to Tangier for the Jazz Festival there.... okay, I really just went to see Tangier. But there was a Jazz Festival happening also and that was why many of the others wanted to go. We left right after school ended and in true travel style took several forms of transportation to Tangier. Grand Taxi, Tramway, Train, Kangoo (think mini-van meets SUV), with plenty
of walking in between each (that is why we have legs right!)

We arrived in Tangier later on Friday evening and were all ready to just go to bed! The ten of us shared a 'cozy' two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment! I slept on one of the three mattresses in the hallway.



The festival didn't start until Saturday night so we had the whole day to explore the city! We started with a nice breakfast in a cafe (complete with Mint Tea!) then ventured to the medina (city center). We wandered around and ventured down random streets and into some shops. We found some pretty spectacular views of the water and port! We could even see Spain! (it was faint and slightly hidden in fog, but still Spain.

We went down to the Corniche (boardwalk) for dinner. We watched camels sleep on the beach, a few people kite-board (that is definitely on my list of things to try now!), and enjoyed the beautiful Tangier weather.

Then it was time for TanJazz! The festival was at the Italian Consulate...such a beautiful location! The performers were from all over the world and all did an excellent job! One girl sang, played the piano and the trombone! It was quite impressive. TanJazz was a great and relaxing way to spend the evening.

Sunday included another cafe breakfast (more Mint Tea!) and then a journey home. That train ride seemed longer for some reason but traveling in the light allowed us to see some cool things we had missed Friday night.

I really enjoyed Tangier and certainly wouldn't mind visiting again!