Istanbul and Caleb

After about a week in Morocco, my group spent a week in Turkey in the beautiful city of Istanbul. This trip made me appreciate that I took a history of the West class last year. All of my readings of Byzantine history are bit more meaningful now since I have been to the historic city of Byzantium. It is also now cool to say that I have been to both ancient Roman Capitals—Rome and Constantinople.

Istanbul is an incredible city, and a very big one. The population is estimated to be around 20 million. The city is also intercontinental between Europe and Asia. There is a very European feel to the city because of the cobble stones, trains, and western style.

The harbour view is absolutely incredible. One of my favourite parts of being in Istanbul was riding the ferry to simply get from one part of the city to the other.

My time in Istanbul included visiting many historic Mosques. Some used to be churches, and others were built by former Ottoman Sultans. I also got to see a whirling Dervish ceremony which is Sufi Muslim and includes traditional music and people spinning. It was quite interesting.  

We also came to Istanbul right after an election so we had quite a few speakers talk about current events in Turkey as well as many of the political issues that Turkey has faced.

View from the hotel

Other highlights include visiting a Hammam—a Turkish bath. This is an experience that my Program Director “refuses to be denied”. It included a sauna, a few steam rooms, a bucket bath, a powerful scrubbing by a Turkish man, and a soapy message. It was a cultural experience to say the least.

I also got a chance to participate in Turkish music. A few of us were looking for a café to listen to some traditional Turkish folk music. We ended up walking past a café, that is intended for jamming, with two musicians play music. I grabbed a guitar off the wall and tried to keep up. Just as many things are different cross culturally—so is guitar. They played in different keys than I was used to and played with different rhythms, but it was very fun and I learned a lot.

Istanbul was all around an incredible experience. I spent a week there and I feel like that I have not even touched the city; there are many incredible historic sites that I did not go in, There is a lot of food that I did not have time or stomach capacity to try, and I also need more time to work on my guitar so I can keep up with the Turkish folk stars.

Morocco and Caleb

From November 6 to November 14, I was in the beautiful land of Morocco. It was my first trip to Africa and I do not think it will be my last.

The first destination was the city of Marrakech. It is a lovely city with fun markets, various spices, wonderful coffee, cheap food, palm trees, beautiful mosques and palaces, and many interesting people. The accommodations for my group was very close to a bakery and café. The bakery was filled with pastries and croissants. A croissant came to be about $0.10 American so it was a wonderful way to start the day. And the café served a drink called nus-nus (half-half) which is steamed milk and espresso for $1—also a great way to start the day.

Our time in Marrakech was filled with hearing speakers about the culture, having a Moroccan Arabic session, bartering at markets, and being able to enjoy music. We had one evening where we heard two musicians whose ethnic line came from slaves who escaped the African slave trade. That made the music incredible. There was an African feel to it, as well as an Arab sound. It was a mixture of many different factors which reflects the culture of Morocco. Morocco is in Northern Africa, just below Spain, was colonized by France, and on the outside of the Arab world. All of that plays into a very distinct Moroccan culture as well as music.

To say the least, I really enjoyed the music so I ended up buying an instrument. It was a way for me to really put my bartering skills to the test. I tried out a few stringed instruments in a music shop, and my asking price got me a small three stringed lamb skin instrument of some sort. I have no idea what is called or how it should be tuned, but it has been really fun to try and play it.  

Using the Moroccan instrument and the limited Moroccan Arabic we knew to make children's' song.

Another destination for our travels was the Eureka valley. It had incredible scenic views and was an opportunity to learn about the Amaghaze population in Morocco. The Amaghazes—also known as Berbers (translates to Barbarians)—is an ethnic minority in Morocco that faces many identity difficulties. Their language and culture has been difficult to maintain in an urbanizing and globalizing world, but it was great to see actions being taken to preserve it. Our day in the Eureka Valley included a beautiful hike, traditional cooking, mint tea, and more music and dancing.

The Eureka Valley

Former camp cook goes to work

Superstar dancers

After Marrakech and the Eureka valley we travelled to Fes. Fes was incredible because it has one of the oldest medinas in the world. This means that it as an old medieval part to the city, which also happened to be where our hostel was. The medina was like a maze and was very fun to navigate through. Our time in Fes was filled with various speakers, tours, and time to explore. A highlight in Fes was coming out of a café and having an 11 year old sales man try to convince us to come to his parents’ restaurant. This sales men ended up being our tour guide through Fes as he brought us to his cousins scarf shop, and then to another relatives leather store. Like I said before, the Medina was confusing, so having a tour guide was very helpful. The evening included lots of laughs, cups of tea, and the purchase of a few presents that may show up at Christmas time.

The gate to the medina

What the evening with the salesman/tour guide became

Our time in Fes almost took us to the end of our time in Morocco, however we had an evening and a morning to explore Casablanca. The Atlantic coast in Casablanca was beautiful and was also a place where many young men spent time playing soccer. I saw this and realized that I was a young man who likes soccer… so there was some potential for fun here. I walked on the beach wanting someone to invite me to play with them and before I knew it someone yelled Swesteiger (A name of a famous German Soccer player… I am blonde so I guess it makes sense) and passed a soccer ball to me. I ended up playing in a game which I was the only non-Moroccan. It was interesting because I really like to communicate in sports, but there happened to be a language barrier. That meant my communication was a mixture of French, Spanish, Arabic and English. I am not great at any of those languages, but it was really fun to try and communicate with people.

A quick stop in Rabbat on the way to Casablanca. This is where Tom Cruise was in the new Mission Impossible movie.

The next morning included a visit to the King Hassan II mosque. It is only a few years old and is the third biggest mosque in the world, and the biggest outside of Saudi Arabia.

This blog post ended up being longer than I expected, I guess that just proves that it was a wonderful trip.

A little update

Hello my friends,

I hope all is well in your lives. I have heard of this white substance called 'snow' falling on some of you. I am so sorry. But in all honesty, I am getting a little chilly myself. Jordan is getting cold! And by that I mean that it is has been as low as 15'C some days. Those of you experiencing frost right now may be wishing for me to stop complaining, but please let me explain myself. With spending a month in a very hot and humid climate in El Salvador, and then coming to a scorching hot desert (it was 40 a lot of the time.. lots of sweating), 15 feels a little cold. I guess it is all relative, but the fact that I come back to Canada in mid December is going to be a shock to my system.

All joking aside, Amman, Jordan, and the Middle East in general has been great. Throughout this semester I have always been amazed as I learn more about the culture and history here. Recent classes and guest lectures have covered topics such as tribalism, refugees, feminism, Arab Christianity, Islamic history, and many more topics. Every time I feel like that I start to learn more, I become very overwhelmed with all that I don"t know. These topics and situations are so complicated and then the media is given the task to try and simplify it. It has been very interesting reading western articles, and following elections talking about the Middle East and Islam.It is sad to see generalizations that can be incredibly offensive, but I can understand the difficulties in covering such a large and complicated topic.

I am about to learn a lot more about the Muslim world as I travel to Morocco and Turkey (3 continents in one trip). It will be a fun two week trip. But that means I do not have that much time left in Amman. After the two weeks of travel, I will have two left in Jordan... and then I am back to the land of Moose and Maple syrup.

I have many hours on planes and buses on the trip to come so I will have time to write own some good stories to share with you.

Until then, enjoy some fun photos

Last day of tutoring at the American Academy in Zarqa 

Pondering from a castle