Morocco: 'Exploring the Market', 'Meena Gets a Boyfriend', and 'Another Precarious Situation'

We spent the entire next day wandering through the biggest market in Morocco. Davy, a sas student who leads our morning meditations and preaches 'one love!' from behind is lengthy dreads, skateboarded around us as we made our way to the main square. The locals that this was a strange sight. The market was insanity at it’s finest. The moment we got there Katie got a snake thrown on her, then was hassled for money for touching the snake. I was cursed for getting video of a snake charmer. Farther into the streets of the market, a donkey ran into Meena. I perfected my bartering skills and ended up being able to get most things for 20% of the original price.

A few minutes before we left our riad home, there was a knock on the door. Our landlord said that she came as an interpreter for Mohamed, a local boy. He had fallen in love with the girl in the red shirt earlier in the day. It was Meena! We all had seen him hanging around us on the streets. I guess he had pestered our landlord, Dominique so many times that she believed he was actually in love and agreed to come over and translate. He bought her a pair of sunglasses; he wanted her to join his family for dinner. Meena appreciative of the fact that she now had a 15-year-old Moroccan boyfriend, still had to let him down. She kissed him on the cheek, but he tried to go for more! As we walked out, Mohamed had lined up his friends and they all chatted loudly as we walked past and waved a final goodbye to ‘Read Real.’

Three girls and myself took the late train ride back to Casablanca. No worries, it was serene as a fellow backpacker playing the acoustic guitar serenaded us.

Once we arrived, Meena and I thought we would avoid the pestering taxis by walking a block away and hailing a taxi from there. This attempt to be frugal ended up with us trekking through a ghetto at 2300. Imagine: I am wearing a pink shirt and a pink polo hat with a big backpack and Meena looks equally ridiculous. Please picture us walking down the middle of a street in the bad area of downtown anywhere, we stuck out like a florescent light in a dark hallway! We were thankful when a taxi answered our prayers and took us away from the hoards of shady men that lined the streets eyeing us down

Final Reflections: What I love about Morocco is how everything from the home designs to the markets is designed to allow everyone to be very social. My misconception that women here are discriminated against was burned to the ground. I learned that women choose to wear their traditional attire. I loved my independent experiences and feel like this trip was more of a cultural experience whereas Spain was more of an informative historical tour.