Fez

Fès

This has taken me longer than I had anticipated. Writing this got me reflecting on Fez again (which meant too many good memories rushing back), and I still don't know where to start. It was definitely my favorite city. It was an experience, so lively and spiritual and beautiful. Not only did the city just live up to all of my Moroccan expectations and any dreams I had of the country. But I feel that it's there that I met the most amazingly warm and welcoming people. Shop owners, old friends, new friends, strangers, students. Everyone was excited to teach us what they could about Fez, life, love, friendship, stereotypes, language, and (of course) food.

Orange juice is my drug.

We arrived in Fez the afternoon of the 21st, after a few hours in the van from Rabat. And one of the first things we did was get a guided introduction to the medina. The Fez medina is madness, or at least it seems that way at first. A complete labyrinth of winding streets, dead ends, and unfamiliar noises and smells. Our initial walkthrough with the professors ended in a lunch where I discovered my favorite orange juice of the trip (a place I would revisit three more times). As a big, noticeable group of Americans (mostly girls), we were quite popular while walking the streets. I got offered, "1000 camels! A beautiful house! Jewelry! Children." Finally Dad, you can sell me off! The comments, while tiring at times, were always entertaining.

The labyrinth city

We were taken up to a fort that overlooks the medina. It was shocking how much the countryside looked like home. Rolling golden hills, just like my part of California. And this continued until our drive into the dessert. It was a bizarre sensation feeling at home thousands of miles away.

One of my other favorite sights that day was a university. Yes, a university. I wish mine could boast this level of decoration.

Koranic calligraphy  

Stolen from my friend Amy- me, the mint and the tannery

The tannery

And to end on a slightly stinky note, we stopped by a tannery. We were given sprigs of mint to offset the smell. Though I didn't find it nearly as bad as they had prepared us for. Dinner that night was fun. I went out with three friends and we did lots of shopping before stopping for some street meat. Not my best decision (it didn't end well the next morning), but it was delicious so I have no regrets.

While shopping we stumbled across a shop in search of leather bags. We spent so much time looking around and joking with the female shopkeeper in French that they eventually offered a seat to the male friend we had dragged along with us. And this, turned into a offer to have tea with them. "You have to say yes. It's our hospitality!"

Just the day before I had explained my expectations to Faith, my hotel roommate, "I'm trying to come into this expecting nothing. But, the one thing I want is to be invited to tea. Just once. And I'll feel like this trip was everything I ever wished for." I was internally freaking out as she invited us, so incredibly happy that it was happening. It was so nice to share tea, talk about languages (learning, teaching and sharing) and she had some gems when it came to life and love. My personal favorite being: "I don't know why girls nowadays date so many boys. It's like eating cake, once you've had too many, you stop tasting the differences. So find a nice cake that you like, and stick with it, before you loose the ability to taste." Each of us returned to her shop a least once before departing (often bringing groups of friends to buy plenty from her) to say goodbye and had one more glass of tea.

Call to Prayer

Our second day in Fez started early, for me that is. Sick from the street meat the night before, but determined to go explore with my friend, Greg. So I somehow gathered my nauseous self and we wandered around the exterior walls, up to ruins of the tombs of the Merinides.

Tombs of the Merinides

Later that morning, we started a two day lecture/discussion with English language master and phd students at the university. Professor Bekkaoui welcomed us and gave us a rousing lecture on Orientalism and the sustained image of the Arab world in the west. Our discussions with the students stemmed from this subject and turned into an eye-opening (on both sides) sharing of ideas. It was easy understanding their frustration with us when they kept asking us to generalize the US or American feelings towards things. And our response was constantly, "Yes, but, we all live in such different parts of the country and lead such different lives." And they explained how it's the same for them. They live in an "Arab country" but they can't define what Arab is, there's a large population of non-Arab native peoples (Amazhir, Touareg, etc.) and that it's sad how the US groups any and all Muslim countries together so effortlessly, without knowing the massive differences among them.

University Mohammed Ben Abdallah- Fez

This continued onto the next day. During which we shared lunch with them and continued our sometimes heated debates. The Americans were sad to say goodbye, but I know we're all grateful that our professor organized this for us.

After our first day at the university, I followed my professor, Victor, and three other students to his old stomping grounds. Victor lived in Morocco for 8 years, 5 of those in Fez. So he brought us to the shop of some of his very old friends. His friend, Aziz, and the friend's brother occupy a tiny shop on one of the larger streets in the neighborhood. Aziz was incredibly genuine and had some great philosophies on life. He speaks perfect, and terrifyingly fast French, so listening to him was at times a challenge. We chatted plenty before he showed us some beautiful Berber weavings and explained to us the intricacies of the art form.

Gates into the city

My last night in Fez was filled with more delicious food with friends, some swimming in the hotel pool and last minute cornes de gazelle, which quickly became my new favorite Moroccan treat.

An out of focus, but appropriate, depiction of the medina