Gibraltar, Morocco and Portugal!

I am pretty sure I warned everyone that I was a horrible blogger, so there should be no surprise that I haven’t been on the ball for the last few weeks. I keep meaning to blog but then more things happen then the mass amount of information a blog post would entail overwhelms me. It’s a vicious cycle. But it ends today. I have been to Gibraltar, Morocco and Portugal over the last few weeks, and have learned so much not only about myself but also about the world in general; I don’t even know where to begin.  

Gibraltar and Morocco:

The five days that I spent in Morocco was such an eye opening experience. Yes, I got to do all the touristy fun stuff; playing with monkeys and climbing up mountains in Gibraltar was amazing, and who doesn’t dream of riding down the beach on a camel, but my trip meant something so much more. Through open and honest conversations with people I encountered, I broke down the stereotypes and perceptions I had about the Arab world, and feel like I connected to the culture in deep and real way.

We have a lot of ideas about the Arab world; it is often seems so different from our own, but I was shown time and time again how similar humans are and how we are search for the same things. A lot of times, we choose to only see the differences between cultures. We put up labels and hate and tear each other down. We can see the world as black and white, as “us” against “them”. In my time in Morocco, I learned that at the end of the day, we are all only humans, living and working and trying to make sense of the world.

I met such a wide range of people in Morocco, from very liberal to very conservative, and I wish I had the time to tell you about every interaction that I had, because they were all so special. One particularly moving experience was going to have lunch with a family in rural Morocco. We sat on long cushioned benches and (tried) to eat cous-cous with our hands. Then over sugary mint tea, we were able to ask whatever questions we wanted to, in order to learn about the culture. We learned that they had never heard of an atheist, and knew very little about other religions. The women had stopped going to school very early, and they were to be submissive to the men. Their role was clearly to take care of the family, and they were not permitted to work. As easy as it is to point fingers and say how wrong it is that women do not have rights, this is the only way of life that they know. The women know no different nor do the men. Although they believe that women have fewer rights, when I asked a father what he wanted for his daughter, you could see the love on his face when he responded that she was a very smart girl, and he wanted her to get an education. These are truly good, kindhearted people who just live so differently that I am not sure that we can fault them for their beliefs.

Like I said, I did and learned so much in Morocco, I have just given you a little taste, when I get home, ask me all about it, I would love to give you every dirty detail (ask me about the bathrooms). 

After learning so much about the Islamic culture and seeing the generosity of humans, it was devastating to return to Spain and learn about the bom

bings in Boston. It was a crushing reminder that there are bad people in the world; I was naively under the assumption that the world was all sunshine and rainbows. It makes me sad to think of the impact that the actions of one Muslim are going to have on their community, a group of people who I now know as being loving and kind.

Portugal:

So, after such a deep meaningful life discovery, some friends and I decided that we really need a break and headed to Lago, a beach town in Portugal. All of my other travels have been about history and learning, but this one was not. I had a much-needed break from exploring cathedrals and mosques, and just was a very selfish little girl; I laid on the beach and did not do much of anything. We went on a boat tour and saw beautiful caves and then we ran on beautiful beaches. Lagos is heavenly and my trip was relaxing and perfect. I got to relax with the girls who mean so much to me from my program, and even though I felt a little selfish, sometimes you just have to take a break.

 

And everything in between:

Time has been flying by and I now have a little less than a month left in the program. There are so many thing I need to do and see that I am feeling so overwhelmed. After spending two hours cooking with my host mom, I began to think about how hard it is going to be to say goodbye to everything. When I got here (three months ago exactly) I told myself that I wanted to fall in love with this world and Granada, and wow. I fell hard. I fell head over heels in love, knowing that I would have to leave, and my heart is already breaking. Since I still have a few precious weeks left, I am going to enjoy every single second, and try to blog a little bit more!

Hope things are still going swimmingly in the good old US of A, see you all soon!