August 7

Even though, we had planned a full weekend of activities, our plans didn't materialize in the way we envisioned. In the morning we woke up and had breakfast with the group. We were planning on going to Hercules caves, the beach and riding camels that day, but that didn't happen. We were all feeling like staying in and relaxing, so we did. Megan and I had a take-care-of-ourselves morning and straightened our hair and I painted my toe nails. It felt really good to have some time to ourselves

In the afternoon, we decided to finish our gift shopping and then go to dinner to Agadir. Although none of us (Andrew, Megan, Bess and I) were feeling like shopping, we had a very successful afternoon. One of our first weeks in Tangier, me and Martha (my roommate) went shopping and met this shopkeeper whose name was Khaled. Ever since we went, many people from the program have gone to visit him and he has gotten great business from the CLS Tangier students! He thinks me and Martha are single-handedly responsible for his business success among CLSers, so every time we go, he gives us gifts. When I went again he gave me a very nice pair of silver earrings. After buying many things from his store, everybody else in the group got a gift of appreciation from him! It was really nice!

After stopping by at his store, we went to a few other places before heading over to Agadir for dinner (Agadir is the name of the restaurant, we didn't go to the city!). Agadir is a small restaurant that serves traditional home-made style meals. It is the best food I have eaten since we got to Morocco, so I was very excited to go eat dinner there. When we got to the restaurant, however, there were too many people, so we decided to go to a different restaurant. La Pagode is a very nice Chinese restaurant not too far away from Agadir, so we just went there. It ended up being a very fun evening and we had a very interesting conversation about religion.

I am really enjoying my last weekend in Tangier!

August 6

Today is our last Friday in Tangier. I can't believe the program is almost over!

After class and our test, Megan, Bess, Tucker and I went out to dinner close to the beach and out for ice cream. Even though we didn't do anything extravagant, I really enjoyed their company and our conversation.

I am really fortunate to be a part of this program together with these amazing people!

August 4

Today was Amy and Ashley's birthday and our last movie night. We went to the Cinematheque de Tanger and watched a Palestinian movie. After the movie, he all had cake in celebration of Amy and Ashley's birthday (although Ashley was sick and didn't come). Even though it was a school night, Nina, Mohcine (speaking partner) and I took Amy to dinner to celebrate. We went to a restaurant close to the beach and had a very nice evening together. Amy is one of the sweetest girls I have ever met. In the beginning of the program she hung out with a group of people and they always did their own thing, so I didn't really get to meet her until the middle of the program. One night we stayed up talking about each other's lives and since then we've been friends. When I was super sick after the weekend in Asilah, she came to visit me at breakfast, lunch and dinner, to bring me food, medicine and to check on me. She even had my class and my professors sign a "feel better soon" card for me.

I am really happy I got to celebrate such a special day with her!

August 3: Tangier Tuesday

Our last Tangier Tuesday!!!

Sarah and I got along really well toward the beginning of the program, but because we don't live in the same building and we are in different classes, we haven't really hung out all that much. After realizing how little time we had left in the program, we decided it would be a really good idea to go on our Tangier Tuesday by ourselves and have a mini adventure. To make it extra special, we decided to wear our matching CLS shirts and scarves with the CLS colors- as you can see in the picture.

We left the AST(American School of Tangier) campus and took a taxi to go cafe-hopping! Our assignment for the day was to talk about how Tangier had changed throughout the years. We though it would be a good idea to go to the legendary cafes that are a part of Tangier's recent history. We got in a cab to go to our first stop, but we started talking to the cab driver, Khaled, and he asked us if we wanted to get coffee with him and talk about Tangier, so we did. He took us to a cafe he frequently visits and we talked about many aspects of the city, but also of Morocco in general.

After having coffee with him, we went to al-Minzah's cafe. Al-Minzah is one of the nicest hotels in Tangier and it has a wonderful bar/cafe. There we talked to Adnane and Youssef, the two waiters in the cafe. Adnane talked to us about his experiences in the city and how much it had changed from being a very small, open-minded city to a very crowded city. He was nostalgic about the earlier times in Tangier, but was really grateful to be a part of the city to this day. We had a great conversation with him, and what was even more amazing is that most of it was in Moroccan dialect! We were really proud of ourselves!

Later, we went to the legendary cafe Hafa. The view of the ocean and Spain on the other side is just gorgeous. We met up with a group of students who also decided to go there for their Tangier Tuesday experience.

I'm really glad Sarah and I got to hang our and have an adventure of our own!

August 1: Chaouen, Tetouan and Tangier

Early in the morning we had breakfast in our ryad and hiked down to the entrance of the medina, where our bus was waiting. We were going back to Tangier, but first stopped in Tetouan for a few hours. There we went shopping and had a group lunch at a very nice restaurant. We arrived to Tangier at night. Thankfully we didn't have tons of homework for Monday!

It was a great and very relaxing weekend!

July 31

On Saturday we had a free day- no plans made by the program except for an optional tour of the Casbah. Many people decided to go hiking on Saturday morning, and then walk around the medina. Me and Bess (in the picture) decided to sleep in and enjoy our free time in the morning and then we visited Ras al-Maa, which is a place where there is water flowing straight from the mountains and people were singing and dancing and enjoying the day. After that, Bess and I decided to separate from the group of other students and speaking partners and went to lunch with Adriana, the director, Abdal-Haq, the codirector, and two professors Azeez and Abdal-Lateef. We had a fantastic time at lunch!

We then went on the tour of the Casbah and took a ton of fun pictures, like the one I posted! We had a group dinner at night time and before then, we did a bit of shopping! Chefchaouen and its people are so wonderful! We really enjoyed our time there!

July 30

On July 30, we set out to Chefchaouen for the weekend. Chefchaouen is a small city located in the middle of the mountains. The group of 32 students+speaking partners was divided into smaller groups because no ryad could host us all. I stayed with 9 other people in a five-room ryad owned by a Spanish couple. The ryad was located almost at the top of the medina, so it was a hike to get to our place, but the view, as you can see from this picture, was incredible.