The next day felt like I was in Star Wars IV. We walked out, saw the hot sun on the sand and were attacked by a Jawa!
Actually he didn’t really attack us. But at first we were kind of scared because he sat by us at the ATM as we pulled out money. But, as a general rule, Tangerians are VERY nice to foreigners. It was amazing how many people on the first day were looking out for us. The first night that we came in we had to sit outside for a bit. Why? You ask. Well, just to add to the shadiness of the deal we only reserved 2 hotel rooms for 2 people each. So, to avoid suspicion we only went to our rooms in groups of two. So as we were waiting to go back in we went and sat on the beach right in front of the hotel and Kyte pulled out her laptop to show something to someone and a guy came up to us and struggled with his very broken English/Spanish to warn us that, while most Moroccans are good, there are a few that try to hurt people so we needed to be very careful. So anyways, we weren’t too worried about the stray jawa and went on our way through the shops of Tangier.
Ladies, you’ll have to get in line and take turns with Andrew. He’s so hot right now.
Another store owner, where we bought our “jawa robes” told us how he used to have 3-4 monkeys but Americans had bought all of them to take back home as pets. They did have a few lizards left.
Garrett got the best one and then Andrew got 2nd pick and so mine was kind of lame. But it was good enough for a picture.
The one I bought was a lot better though. Don’t worry. The guys who sold them to us became our best friends ever.
We had a delicious fruit salad for lunch.
I never really had fruit salad until my mission but everytime that I did a certain song passed through my head. “Fruit Salad! Yummy Yummy! First Step: peel your banana. Second Step: toss in some grapes…” Ahh, memories. Here is another example of the nicest people ever. We took a pic here.
And then this kid jumped in and it was funny.
But then he started asking us for money. He wouldn’t quit until a complete stranger noticed us from across the street and went out of his way to tell the kid to go away. I was really impressed by the way they treated us. And that type of stuff happened all day. There was a pretty darn cool Mosque.
Sometimes the Jawas were actually really nice.
We got directions.
We wandered around the city a bunch and just soaked everything in. We stopped at this little field and relaxed in the shade a bit and saw the coolest little kids ever.
For sure the best thing was the people. We met a cab driver who arranged to take us to the top of the hill and to the Hercules cave the next day and he seemed cool enough. He agreed to 35 Durham and we were kind of confused on how that would work but didn’t really care. On the way back we asked this kid for directions but he didn’t speak Spanish. Only French. He was so nice though and spent a really long time struggling to communicate with us.
We made our way eventually back to the Cannon Plaza and saw our favorite little kid again.
I let him use my camera to take pictures and he had so much fun with it.
Here is a very candid shot that he took.
When I finally left his side for a group picture he kind of struggled.
Someone got a good one though.
We walked past a place that seemed very fitting for a group from Alcala.
We stopped at a music store where people bought turtle guitars and such and I randomly asked about a violin and the guy told me he had one for 400 Durham. I was all over that and planned on coming back for it.
Look how beautiful the city is at sunset.
My first view of Africa was surprising green. 
Tangier was pretty impressive as well.
Here I am descending out of the plane.
I had never done that before. The airport was in a pretty beautiful area. 
Look, its Arabic!
Our cab ride from the airport to the hotel conveniently foreshadowed much of the trip as the group quickly split into two cars. 
And here was my first view of the Mediterranean sea. 
Here was out first view of Camels.
Here was our hotel. 
Our rooms were right behind the M in RAMADA. It was very nice. Our first stop was a really neat flea market as we were heading into the city. 
There were some really funny looking people.
One of my favorite and most prominent features of the city was the many Jawas running around the city. 
Aren’t they so cute. At the top of the hill we climbed was a neat Plaza with a bunch of cannons and a really great view.
There was this awesome little kid selling gum so I bought some and took a picture with him. 
The city was really very pretty. 
With an almost constant awesome view of the ocean. 
The flea market we went to after that was a lot more crazy and chaotic but awesome. 
This guy was nuts.
Get it? There was this hilarious old man who kept trying to do magic tricks for us. He was also a really neat hat maker and Garrett bought one. 
There was a guy who made these crazy pastries.
PS, I love my camera. The following shot was taken during the dark hours of the night. 
We had dinner at this delicious and cheap Kebabs place. 
So that is the end of Thursday.
Here it is: the long awaited entry of Africa. This was a very interesting week and it is almost better that I am doing this in hind sight. I had already suspected the interesting results of this week. I had been kind of roped into Team A by association. I was there with Kyte in Granada when we walked down and they invited her and me to go with them. This was not going to be a sanctioned trip. It was against the rules to leave the Iberian Peninsula but this was the chance of a lifetime. Against my better, worrisome, judgment I decided to go. Don’t get me wrong, I am really glad I went but the group and the way in which I went could have taken a bit more thought. I don’t know. It’s just that, it being against the rules was used as an excuse to keep it a little exclusive. We weren’t supposed to tell anyone that we were going because we’d “get in trouble”. I quickly sensed however, that “trouble” had reference more to certain people than to our professor. And yet, Andrew, Kyte, and Garrett would be going and it would be a very fun trip so I jumped on board. However as timed passed I noticed that this group, while being great people, weren’t my friends. I didn’t make the connection with them that I always try to make with good friends. I was suddenly reminded of high school when I suddenly became popular by association and quickly realized that popularity was much more of a burden then a blessing. The popular people in high school weren’t really fun. We, as nerds, always had much more fun. In the end, the people who were nicer won out. Many times I thought seriously about dropping out. Amy, who has proven to be wiser than I, opted to do just that and received the full fury of team A. As Andrew decided it would be important to give Dr. Shumway a heads up he was mocked by all. I sat and watched the whole thing and did nothing so I am in no way excusing myself from any blame. So, that was the history of the “Africa Trip”. But we went and, aside from a little drama, it was awesome. So off we go. Don’t worry too much about the drama. We can think on this in a very happy light.