A La Mode: Life Lessons from the Sahara Desert

I figured it isn't really worth it to recount all the missed time in between the last post and this post. So, I'm just going to talk about my fall break trip to Morocco. So overall, it was pretty dang awesome. Lots of traveling, but in the end totally worth it. Fall break started off with me getting ALL of my homework done Saturday, which meant that I didn't have to worry about doing it over break (aka, in the bus, where we all know I would have gotten car sick) or the day we got back from break, when I would be using that time to shower and do all my laundry from the trip. So, got all the homework out of the way and was all packed and ready to go by Saturday afternoon, which was good, because it was an early morning on Sunday - had to catch a 5AM cab to the airport to catch an early flight to Malaga. Landed in Malaga and it was immediate rejoicing - the sun was out, no jacket or scarf was needed and the soaking up of some vitamin D was happening. Then we proceeded to eat our way through our time in Malaga (with a walking tour thrown in - which then required us to eat because we burned so many calories). So, had lots of tapas and sangria, churros with warm milk and coffee, fajitas with chips and guac. And then it was off to Morocco, with yet again, another early AM wake up - this time, 4:15.

Quick side note here, if you haven't noticed yet, a common theme of fall break is starting to show up: early mornings. Here is a list of our mornings and what times we had to be up, with the additional fact that most evenings were quite late.
1. Sunday, Oct. 28th: 4:30am for a 5am cab
2. Monday, Oct. 29th: 9am (yay for sleeping in!)
3. Tuesday, Oct. 30th: 4am to meet ISA Spain at 4:30am
4. Wednesday, Oct. 31st: 7:30am breakfast, 9am walking tour of the Medina
5. Thursday, Nov. 1st: 7am breakfast, 8am buses left for Erfound
6. Friday, Nov. 2nd: 5:30am sunrise
7. Saturday, Nov. 3rd: 7am breakfast, 8am in jeeps
8. Sunday, Nov. 4th: 6am breakfast, 7am in bus
9. Monday, Nov. 5th: 740am train
10. Tuesday, Nov. 6th: 830am leave for 9am class (right back into the swing of things)

Back to my retelling of fall break. So, meet up with the ISA Spain group at 4:30am and proceeded to head to Morocco. Bus to Ferry to Bus. And arrived in Fez in the evening. In Fez, we had a guided walking tour of the Medina, where we went to a carpet shop, a jewelry/trinket shop, a tannery, a pharmacy and a weaving/scarf shop. It was really cool and definitely gave me a look into a different culture and way of life, and made me very grateful to be living where I do. Then it was on to Erfoud and the desert!! Which meant, first the bus to Erfoud and the 4x4 Jeeps through the desert to our "haimas" (tents/camp). We stopped for lunch at the Oasis - which was really cool. After driving through flat, scraggly hills, with lots of rocks and sand, it was really nice to come around a turn and be faced with a long strip of green trees and a winding river. Arriving to our camp that night, it was really cool to see all the stars and the Milky Way, and then to watch the moon rise. The next day was a long one - it started off with the sun rise and didn't end until long after the sun set and moon rise. After getting up before the ass crack of dawn, actually getting up to see the ass crack of dawn, ended up being totally worth it, even if the sun takes a long ass time to rise, unlike its friend, the moon. But after breakfast, it was time for the long awaited and much anticipated camel ride. I would like to point out that I made the mistake of asking a question along the lines of if the camels were used every day, only to be corrected that they weren't camels but one-hump camels (works better in french, one hump camels are 'dromadaires', two hump camels are 'chamaux," whereas in english, they are just camels). But clearly, camel riding is the closest I am going to get to riding a horse this quarter, so I definitely appreciated it. Also, we all named our camels, and mine was Samuel (the cam-u-el) and he was the pony of the camels, go figure. Halfway through our camel ride, we came to this huge dune, which we proceeded to climb up - all the Berbers were dragging us up the side of the dune by the end, because life lesson #1 learned in the Sahara, no matter how many stairs you climb in Paris or how much walking you do in Paris, climbing a sand dune will be really hard and exhausting no matter the size of the dune, hell, just walking through the sand will be hard enough. At the end of our camel ride, we walked into the nearby village and all 80+ ISA students descended on a hotel's swimming pool. Not sure a swimming pool has every been loved that much. Then it was a walk back to the camps, a quick nap and then dinner festivities commenced, which included a pre-dinner concert/dance party and then a concert at dinner. Next morning, it was back in the jeeps to the buses and to Meknes. Lots of sleeping and movie watching. Night in Meknes at a fancy hotel, where dinner consisted of pasta with spicy meat sauce, spanish rice, chicken, french fries and a flan for dessert. The next morning it was back on the buses to Malaga, then on the ferry for a quick jaunt back across the Strait of Gibraltar and back on the buses to finish in Malaga. Here is where life lesson #2 learned in the Sahara comes in to play, no matter how many road trips you take to and from the cabin/Ohio/Colorado/Montana etc., nothing can prepare you for busing to the Sahara desert. NOTHING. After getting back to Malaga, all we really had left was our day of traveling to get back to Paris. We walked to the train station, trained from Malaga to Sevilla, took the bus from the train station to the airport, sat around waiting for the plane, took plane from Sevilla to Paris-Beauvais, then bused back to Paris, where I finally hopped on the metro back towards apartment. So after many days of traveling, finally back in Paris! Where I promptly showered and did all my laundry and then went to sleep. And the next day, right back into the swing of things.

Life lessons learned from the Sahara Desert:
1. No matter how many stairs you climb in Paris or how much walking you do in Paris, climbing a sand dune will be really hard and exhausting no matter the size of the dune, hell, just walking through the sand will be hard enough.
2. No matter how many road trips you take to and from the cabin/Ohio/Colorado/Montana etc., nothing can prepare you for busing to the Sahara desert. NOTHING.
3. Even though you might not get that many pit stops during bus travel, and thus think that not drinking water is a good idea. Drink water. Because then when you do spend a whole day out in the sun (and drink some water), you will end up dehydrated and then be miserable for quite some time.
4. Wear sunscreen. And if you think you have enough on, put more on. I ended up with some color, but mostly on areas that didn't receive 2 coats of sunscreen.
5. Take more pictures than you think you should. Spend more money than you think you should. I did neither and kind of regret it, but at least I have the memories and some pictures.