So this is very likely going to be my last post as next week will be absorbed by studying for my final exam. I never did a post about my trip to Asila and I never posted any of the pictures from that trip so I guess I will start there.
Asila is a small beach town about 1 hour outside of Tangier and yet it still took us about 3 hours to get to our hostel in the city from Tangier. Moroccan time never fails to disregard any and all plans you may have to be even remotely on time to anything. I may sound salty and it is because I am. But once we finally arrived in Asila my spirits were lifted. It was a very beautiful city with a lot of murals and art covering the stone and brick walls of the Old medina. At the same time, it was also a tourist trap. We tried to sit down at a restaurant to enjoy some dessert and tea after dinner and the waiter proceeded to explain in Arabic, Spanish, French, and maybe Darija too that we had to order an entree to dine in that restaurant. We then responded by leaving as quickly as possible after telling him we needed a minute to decide what to order. My patience for being bleed dry for money was pretty low at that point in time.
Our hostel was one of the nicest places we have stayed at to date and also one of the cleanest. It was a little northwest of the Old medina and the beaches in a fairly secluded residential neighborhood. I enjoyed the quietest night of sleep since I arrived in Tangier. The woman working the front desk amazed me with her ability to seamlessly switch between Spanish, French, and English as needed. When it came to Arabic, she could usually understand but not respond. The guests came from all over Europe and there were even a couple of people from Asia as well. It was definitely a much different experience traveling to a hostel outside of Ramadan in comparison to the first hostel we stayed at. At the same time though, I feel like much less of a tourist than when I took that first journey to Rabat from Tangier. Maybe that's why I get so agitated when I go to super touristy places. I'm not a native by any sense of the word but I've been living here for weeks and, especially when I am in Tangier, I don't feel like a tourist walking around the neighborhood and seeing the same people every day. There's still a lot to Morocco that I haven't seen but the place feels more like a home than I ever thought it would. I have the people I've met here to thank for that.
But then I have new cultural experiences such as going to a traditional Moroccan hammam (basically like a spa) that remind me I'm still a tourist in many ways. First of all I would like to say that this place was incredibly clean and I felt very relaxed at the end of the appointment. It started in true Moroccan fashion, 45 minutes late, and I walked in to notice we were the only ones in the place and the only ones who were male. I figured the people in the wash rooms were going to be male so I did not think much of it but then my host brother said "oh no this place is normally only for women but I know the owners so I reserved for just us." Now I'm thinking, am I going to be basically bathed by women and as it turned out my assumptions were correct. I would be lying if I said I didn't feel uncomfortable at any point during the appointment. However, it was an interesting cultural experience and I would do it again. Maybe. Maybe with men would be less uncomfortable.
So in the next week you guys can look forward to hopefully a video of me singing for the CLS end of the summer talent show on Wednesday. Also I will be posting more photos today of the past week or so.
Sorry for the short post but I've got a lot of work to do before I leave so I'll see you all back in America.
Thanks for reading,
Johnny M.
