Over the weekend I took a trip to Morocco with a large group of University of Delaware World Scholars. For those of you that didn't have to memorize world maps for sixth grade social studies class, it's in northern Africa. It was one of the coolest experiences of my life. I definitely had some stereotypes in my mind before I arrived. I'm not going to lie, I somewhat expected that I was going to be trekking through the desert on a camel to get from place to place. Sure I did ride a camel, but for like 10 minutes on a cold beach.
I was out here looking like this kid.
But anyway, speaking of the cold beach that I was on, that debunked another stereotype that I had of Africa, which is that it is hot. Morocco was actually cold as heck. I did not pack accordingly, and actually ended up wearing one of my host brother's sweaters for one of the chillier days. He was a really cool guy, and while most of my peers were with more traditional families, my friend and I were put in a home with just one guy who was only 28. This led to more modern conversations that also changed how I thought about African countries. Although he was different in that sense, he still made excellent traditional Moroccan food with tea. If you've never had this type of cuisine, I would definitely recommend. The flavor is different to anything I can think of in the United States. After a few days staying with this host, we ended up traveling to Chefchaouen, which is a really cool tourist city that you've probably seen in a lot of pictures.
Everything is blue, and it is basically just one giant shopping town for different authentic Moroccan items. It was probably one of the most visually stimulating places I've ever been. I loved just walking around all of the different alleys and just exploring a city that is on many peoples' bucket list.
We were in a few different cities while we were there, but what is really interesting about in Africa is that all the cities are fairly modern, but they are spread out, and in between them is exactly how you would picture African villages looking. The whole country was very contradictory towards itself. It was an extravagant mix between the old and new world. I would tell everyone to consider going once in their life, and I will probably try to go back sometime soon.
