Maroctober, Looking Back.

🗓 posted Nov 05, 2011 by Josh Erb
🔢 608 words
🏷

I must apologize, my cherished readership. It appears that I have been neglecting my audience. Almost a month between posts is unacceptable. There is a reason for this, though. I have slowly come to realize that I am in my slump.

For those who might not be familiar with it, a slump is commonly experienced during any significant time abroad. It is the period in which the mystery and allure of a new country slowly fades away to boring routine and unending frustration. It is, more or less, the most difficult time for me to achieve anything except for a state of stoic apathy towards everything and everyone around me.

(To my friends who are here with me: disregard that statement about "everyone." It's mainly just for effect.)

I am a bit surprised of course, after charting my progress compared to my previous year in France it would appear that my slump has arrived around a month early. No logical explanation for this has come to mind. I suppose a few possibilities might be because I am more aware of it this time around, my circumstances are different, or because each experience is a separate, unique experience and I'm foolish for comparing the two.

In any case, I have been continuing to do some amazing things despite this slump. For example this past weekend I travelled to a beautifully "azure-d" town in the north of the country called Chefchaouen. I highly recommend this mountainside town to anyone visiting Morocco. Here are some pictures to explain why:

I said "azure", but that might be wrong.
To be honest I have trouble with blue.

It's hard to remember you're in a slump in a place like this

No matter where you go in the city, you will most likely have to walk uphill.

The view from the highest point in the city.

During this weekend excursion we also travelled to Ceuta, Spain. While it was nice to visit a city that in my opinion is best described as a bit of "European dandruff" that fell down onto Morocco, it was only a two hour excursion whose main purpose was to renew our 90 day traveller's visa and save the study abroad program coordinators a bunch of work. That being said, I had a lovely two hours of making a fool out of myself in Spanish.

Unfortunately the battery on my camera was running low, so I have absolutely no pictures to back up these statements. On the other hand I ameliorated my Spanish speaking capabilities ever so slightly, so that should be proof enough.

So there you have it. As per usual you can find more pictures from my weekend here. There some stuff I left out, including a two hour hike to an amazing waterfall.

I should also probably inform you that I am officially on my fall break vacation. So I will be doing nothing but exciting adventurous things for the next two weeks. This upcoming Monday is a very important Muslim holiday which consists of slaughtering a sheep in celebration of God sparing Ishmael from being sacrificed by Abraham. The party lasts for two days. After which I will be setting off for a week long Portugal/Spain trip. I am hoping to update you sometime after the holiday and before I leave, but don't hold me to that. In any case I will surely take the time to fill you in, dear reader, before the end of the month...hopefully.

So until next time, whenever that may be, thanks for taking the time

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