FINALLY!!!!

To My Favorite Fans:

Must apologize for my lack of blog posting.  I have done a pretty terrible job at keeping this current.  But...here's the thing...it is not the highest of my priorities.  So you will just have to take it as it comes!!

This next post though will be one to compete with them all.  I have done so much in the past month or so since I have blogged.  I have traveled a little bit of Germany as well as crossing another continent off of my check list.  Got to love checklists as a pilot.

First I must start with my classes.  Classes are going well.  I have just living it up here with the class.  They are fairly easy...thank God for English class and English being my mother tongue.  I have learn a few things about the style of teaching.  I have come to the conclusion that some teacher just want to hear what they think and that is what I will give them.  Also, I have learn that if you "mess up" during a presentation, the teacher will belittle you infront of the entire class.  The prof tore this poor guy apart for saying something wrong.  She stopped him in the middle of his presentation and told us all how wrong he is.  Hopefully I know my stuff when I have to present....   The Sprachkurs is coming along.  I still have trouble with it, but I am certainly learning.

Second I will talk about my travels in Germany.  Just making around the country as well as I can afford.  The International Programs Office puts on free trips which I take a lot of advantage of.  We went to Würzburg which is in Northern Bavaria.  We went to a wine tasting palace and tried some very delicious sweet white wine.  Here are some limited pictures of that...

This is just one of the numerous rooms that held the wine.  It so reminded me of Harry Potter.  They had over  1 million liters of Wine.  One of those barrels costs 35 thousand Euros...So mom and dad....I know what I want for Christmas.  

And more churches.  Each Church is really cool, but I am getting my fill of churches. 

The castle right on the river.  I know you can't see it well, but on all of the hill were grape vines.  The entire town is just full of wine.

Thinking about the Schmidt's every where I go!!!! :)

So far my travels have been very limited: Germany.  That is so sad.  I want to see so much more.  So what does Seth do?  He buys a ticket to Morocco to see his long lost friend Luke William Duley.

This is his adventure (switching out of third person now):

It all started on the 2nd.  My flight is to leave at 4ish in the early evening.  It is from Frankfurt Hahn.  I wake up at 7:30.  I catch the bus at 8:16 to go to the train station.  I take the train to Frankfurt (the one that everyone knows about).  From there I take another bus for 2 hours to Frankfurt Hahn.  I must wait for 3 hours to get on the plane.  I get through security....if you think it is a joke in the US...I got stopped because I Pepto.  The guy had to scan and drug sniff it.  I was just glad he didn't end up taking it because I like to keep regular.  I get on the plane.  I am one of four people that were not Arab.  You think it is going to be a bad joke, but it isn't.  I board and had the lady my ticket which says UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.  I asked her where to sit.  She looks at me and then back at the spot where it says my nationality and tells me she wants me to sit in the front exit row...more leg room for me!!

The three and a half hours were just okay.  Picture the classical flight were there are 45 toddlers and the one sitting right behind you has restless leg syndrome.  I got a 3.5 hour unwelcomed massage.

We finally made it.  I am in Northern Africa.  CRAZY.  Everyone is rushing to pass control.  I find out very quickly that there is no sense of order.  Which coming from Germany is quite different.  I make it through and now it is time to find Duley.

It was super easy to find him.  After all, all you have to do it look for the white kid.  I find him meet his buddy Zach (awesome guy...I knew from the beginning that him and I were going to be friends).  We take a taxi to Ifrane.  Which is about 1 hour.  First we stopped at the market to get some drinks because I was pretty thirsty.  After the market, we hop in the taxi and continue to the location where Duley has spent the last 5 months.

We finally arrive!! I am suppose to go and check in because they have a "strict" policy of guest.   We just walked right past the front gate.  One benefit of going to a Moroccan School...they don't question the foreigners.  I meet everyone and then it is time to hang.

That night we cracked open the Hookah. Real Hookah!!! It was in the dorm room (Sorry Lindsay).  We almost got written up...I hid in the bathroom.  It was crazy!!! You know how we got out of it??  The room owners said that they just thought it was apart of the Moroccan Culture....works like a charm!!

The next day is when the activities start.  I went to class with Luke.  It was rather boring.  At noon, a group of us (Steph, Seth, Lou, Luke, Rachel, Rob, Liz, Liz, Katie).  At least when we said Katie, only one person answered.  Anyway, we took at taxi to Fes.  We were going to just chilling there for a day and a half.  Fes had the world largest Medina.  It was basically a maze.  Here are some pictures of Fes.

The Duley!!

The gate to the Medina.  It is literally like stepping back in time when you pass through the gate!!

Told you it was a maze!

The tanneries.  It smelled so terrible. 

Those are pools of hinds where they dye the leather.  You can get goat, sheep, cattle, camel, human probably, anything. 

Look at that sky!

It was so beautiful.  I will say that when walking through the streets and the pray call came on I felt like I was in Black Hawk Down.  

Everyone loves the dish network. 

Probably one of my favorite pictures.  It is just so powerful.   It is in a mosque.  

Hand craved. 

Action shots of Duley and I. 

Duley has the same pose and I can't keep still. 

Looking up from the Water fountain. 

The terrace of the Hostel where we watch a storm come in.  It was just heat lightning, but it some show!

Looking from the outskirts of town. 

 

That was Fes.  It was so beautiful, but it was probably last on my list of favorite cities.  The next was Chefchaouen.  That was my second favorite city we visited.  We took a bus to get there.  It is in the mountains and it was just peaceful.  It was calm compared to Fes.  That is either the culture or because it is the Hash Capital of the world.  One or the other.  It is called the "blue city".  I will just show you!

They put Christmas lights on the tree.  This is in the middle of town.

Surrounding by the mountains.

Sky matches the city

I really wanted a purse.

We had trouble navigation through the maze so what Luke, Lou, and I did was take a D and flip it.  Head left, Tails right.  We saw so much.  We took a turn and met this guy.  He invited us in for some Moroccan Whiskey (mint tea).  We talked with him for 2 hours.  It was so interesting.  He learned English from movies!! 

So blue.  I loved the city!

The gate that surrounded the town.

The trail to the Spanish Mosque

Classic Chefchaouen falls.

On the trail

View of the city

Look at Luke!!

Liz blocking me haha

I was so damn hot in Jeans. 

Another pose

The "V"

From the Mosque

Beautiful.

Spanish Mosque.  I think it was a church that was converted. 

Selfie!

Blue Heaven

Water fountain.

The city center.  That is an old Spanish fort. 

Chefchaouen was grand but the best city was the next.  Tangier.  Tangier is right on the ocean and you can see Spain!!! Picture time:

That is Spain.

It smelled so salty!

I told you I can't stay still.

The road signs.  Let's just say I was a little lost.

It was not a fondue place....it was our hostel.

This is in Asliah.  It is about an hour away by train.  We took a dip in the Ocean here.

My "delicious" food.

Fucking Morocco. That is raw meat and fried ants in my fries.

Part of the wall of Asilah. 

Moroccans love their blue.

Wow...look at their knockers.

The art throughout the town was so grand. 

Thank God I had my Pepto because I had dararrahha!!!

Just a friendly little flower.

From the pier.

Look at those thighs!

Native American in Morocco!

The beach.  We had to watch out for the used razors and then trash, but it was great to find seashells.  

The most delicious swordfish I have ever had.  Granted it is the only swordfish I have had, but hey whatever. 

Seth and Steph.  

FIRE!!!

The trip was great!!! I had so much fun.  We then had to take a train back from Tangier.  It was so hot on the train that they opened up the doors as we were going.  So what do I do....hang out of the train and catch the breeze!!

Sorry mom.  I did a no no.

We made it back.  After all of it we were so tired.  I still had a couple of days to rest.  We just hung out and ate watermelon from the Sahara...best watermelon ever!!! The next pictures are from the taxi to the airport and such!!

Cute Picture!!

Action shot!!! Sorry Rachel, we can't see you. 

These are just pictures of the road! Enjoy.

The most sassy taxi driver ever. 

Fresh dried figs!! So darn tasty!

It says God, Country, and King or something like that. 

Luke's School!!!

Big Bug.  

Extra Protein.  It flew into his room and Lukey and I were jumping around like little girls.   Just kill it!!! 

 The trip was a trip of a life time.  I had to eventually come back to school.  Luke put me on a taxi and sent me to the airport.  It was about an hour drive.  The drive spoke French and Arabic.  So what that means is it was a very silent hour.

Good ole Ryanair.  World's Cheapest airline.

 I took the plane to Frankfurt Hahn, but I still needed to get to Frankfurt Main.  So what do I do?...I make friends with the people that were sitting next to me.  There is a bus, but I just wanted to get home.  The people offered to drive me to Frankfurt.  RED FLAG!!!! But I decided it is going to be a great story.  So I took it.  The people were so nice!! I enjoyed talking with them.  They were German Moroccans.  They lived in Gießen and the woman actually went to Philipps University Marburg.  I was in solid.  Thank you guys for much for the ride.

I was meeting my friends at the hauptbahnhof to just stay in Frankfurt all night.  The last train had departed so we had to wait unitl 5:30 am to take the first one.  We just had a big city adventure in Frankfurt.  It was great!!! I have the best friends ever.  This whole trip was filled with great friends and great times!!!

I took this picture when I got home.  I had been awake for 25 hours and need a shave/shower.  I think I looked pretty good for being awake that long.  I still haven't shaven because I am afraid if I do, I will lose my tan and look like a poke ball.  I don't want that to happen again!!

Well this is the end of the trip.  There are a lot more pictures out there, but I just don't have them. You will have to check the facebook for those.

It was a wonderful trip and I am so fortunate to have experienced all that I have!!! I hope you enjoy the post and until next time.

Sincerely,

Seth C. Livengood