Marrakech, Morocco
Through a trip with CityLife Madrid, I traveled to Marrakech, Ait Ben Haddou, and the Sahara Desert with 50 other study-abroad students. This trip was a total of four full days and five nights. If you are studying abroad in Madrid, I highly recommend checking out their website. They have a lot of resources for new students and amazing trips like this one.
I hope you enjoy experiencing Marrakech from my point of view.
It's intimidating coming to a foreign country when you don't know a soul. It's even more intimidating when everyone already has their groups, and you're trying to find a place to fit in.
On our first day in Morocco, I sat intimidated, often by myself at the beginning, at the prospect of branching out. However, I quickly met people from Germany, Denmark, Iceland, Suriname, the USA, Italy, Poland, England, and Australia, each with their reasons for going against the grain and choosing to study abroad. Getting to learn and connect with others with the commonality of being crazy enough to move to a new country for four months was an experience that brought me so much comfort. Each person was vastly different; however, minor commonalities brought us together and enabled us to connect.
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In Marrakech, the medina is famous for its shops, which you could easily get lost wandering. We were introduced to Ben Youssef Madrasa, which housed the most stunning, handcrafted details in every room. After this, we were given roughly five hours of free time after being given a tour and brought through the market. During this time, I spent five hours with a new friend in the markets, roaming and getting lost in the alleys.
I have prayed for the community as I have struggled to find it in Madrid. Although I am blessed to live with amazing, kind people, which has made the transition a bit easier, it’s a shock coming from Baylor, a Christian university, to Madrid, where Christ’s presence appears to be vacant from everyone’s life, not only Christ but also the act of intentional conversation. What I enjoyed most about the day was not necessarily getting to experience the beauty of Ben Youssef Madrasa or the wonders of the markets in Marrakesh. Still, it was getting to do it with someone else who emphasized intentional conversation and living in the present moment.
