LAST

So.
Not sure if anyone is reading this anymore now that I'm back.
But.
Back in America.
Time for a recap.


The good-bye party was wonderful.  It was on a rooftop terrace complete with an open bar and tapas.  Aside from all of these amazing factors, it was so hard and sad saying goodbye to everyone.  Had an unforgettable last night in Sevilla with friends I'll never forget.  To everyone in B&S - I love you all :)

Didn't go to sleep that night considering we had to be on the bus to the airport by 4:45am.  Not sleeping made it pretty easy to pass out the second I sat on the plane and remain that way for about 7 hours.  Got to Chicago with no problems - minus the fact that my carry-on weighed more than me.  Found mom, dad the bro and sis right outside the luggage claim thanks to a goofy "Welcome Back" balloon purchased in the airport.  Felt so good to be reunited!!!  Spent 2.5 hours in the car on the way back to Madison and was greeted by more family and friends at the hotel -- all ready to celebrate my graduation!


Graduation day was fun.  Kept true to the Wisco tradition and took pictures on Abe's lap.  The actual ceremony was pretty long and uneventful but luckily our hotel had an open bar to get things started afterward.  Went to dinner at a brewery and tasted some yummy fun beer and then went out on the town by the capitol.  Best part of the night - participating in a "Boot Race" with my mom, aunts and Vicki :)

And now, all the fun is over.  Graduation is done, family is back in Green Bay and I'm in Madison WORKING.   Starting work on Sunday and the (what seems like) freezing weather in Wisco made reality hit alarmingly fast.  Just trying to keep on keeping on and adjust to the reverse culture shock.  Missing Sevilla like crazy, missing my Sevillan favorites and wanting to return to la vida espanola.  


Last comments/thoughts:

• I notice SO many more people speaking Spanish - not sure if it's because I'm all of a sudden surrounded by more Spanish-speaking people or I just didn't notice it before.
• I didn't set my computer and iPod clock back to central time until today probably because everything would have been real once I actually changed it.
• I can't stop randomly speaking Spanish words.
• I can't stop randomly relating things here to things from Spain, Europe, etc.
• The missed flight from Istanbul to Barcelona and the extra $300+ dollars paid to get another one are really starting to make things difficult now that I'm back.
• I'm already planning my return to Europe...hopefully 2012 in IRELAND.

[Warning: cheesiness ahead]

To everyone who read this blog -- darn you all for being so hard to leave in the first place and so easy to miss these last four months.  Thanks for reading about my Spanish adventures as well as loving and supporting me unconditionally while I was abroad.  And thank you for being here for me when I got back - I wouldn't be able to adjust without you guys :)

And to my sweetest Sevilla -- you gave me an amazing four months that I'll never forget.  You were by far the best decision I have ever made in my life for so many reasons.  You taught me so much about life and changed me into a better person and for that, I am forever grateful.  I left part of my heart with you, so take care of it until I get back <3 

Nature's first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf's a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

--Robert Frost

Feria de Sevilla

Our 2nd spring break started with some good friends helping me celebrate my 22nd birthday.  Had SO much fun.  We got tapas at Bar Coloniales and went out for a night on the town.  Thanks to everyone who helped me celebrate - you guys are awesome!

The first stop on our journey was Madrid via a 6 hour bus ride.  Madrid was a lot of fun...not because of the city itself but because of the experiences we had and memories we made there.  Not really much to see there besides the Mercado de San Miguel, Botin - the oldest restaurant in the world, Puerta del Sol, Plaza Mayor, Catedral, Royal Palace, El Prado (2nd largest museum in the world) and Campo Santiago - home of my true love, Cristiano Ronaldo and the Real Madrid futbol team.  

After all my traveling, I've learned that the trip is what you make it; it's not only about the things you see/do.  Especially as my stay in Europe is coming to a close, my main goal for Madrid was to experience a little more of what Spain has to offer, meet new people and enjoy some good company :)  I would say that I definitely achieved this goal...first off, we shared a room in the hostel with 2 girls from Barcelona who we made good friends with.  We got to learn a little bit of Catalan (the dialect in Barcelona) and had a lot of fun with them.  The first night, we bought 3 bottles of wine but realized we had no opener.  Us and the Barca girls tried for about 2 hours to get it opened with keys, scissors, pens, etc. but didn't succeed.  When we finally got it opened, we couldn't drink it in the common areas of the hostel (silly rules) so we drank the wine, in our hostel, on the floor, in the dark, while whispering...all to avoid waking up another person already sleeping in the room...talk about hitting rock bottom.  The next day, we took a 3 hour tour with a tour guide who was high the whole time.  And finally, we created our own little bar crawl to celebrate Mifflin.  Went to 5 bars, took a shot at each and found a Taco Bell by the end of the night.  I'd say that's a success... :)

Now ROME is a different story...

I loved everything about Rome.  The history.  The monuments.  The boys.  And of course, the FOOD :)

Started our Roman adventure when we flew from Madrid to Rome on 2 hours of sleep.  Also lost my phone on the plane...shocker, but that's neither here nor there.  Started off by getting some great Italian food at a restaurant that had 100 different pastas -- fantasy made reality? I think so... We then went to the TREVI FOUNTAIN where reality started to sink in.  We took pictures, made a wish and sat on the steps for a while just to soak in how lucky we were to be in Rome.  (We found out later that we didn't follow the "rules" for making a wish in the Trevi Fountain...so our wishes that we contemplated for some time may never come true!).

We then hit up the Pantheon and the Spanish steps which were both amazing sights.

We went to Vatican City on Wednesday which is a walled-off part of Rome that consists of some 100 acres and holds the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica, the Pope's house, about a bajillion museums, etc.  

Day 3 of Rome started out with the famous Colosseum.  Even by the 3rd day we still felt like we were dreaming seeing all of these famous monuments.  We also went to Paletine Hill and the Roman Forum.  (These 2 things are a big part of Roman history - Paletine Hill held the cave that was the alleged home to Rome's founders, Romulus and Remus and the Roman Forum is the ancient city center).

The legend of the Trevi fountain says one who  throws a single coin into the fountain will return to Rome one day.  I will not be upset if this comes true for me in my life :)  Already missing Rome.

Got back to Sevilla and experienced the infamous FERIA DE ABRIL.  For those of you who don't know, Feria is basically like a carnival, wedding and tailgate all mixed together.  A wedding because people dress up in beautiful dresses and suits to celebrate, a carnival because there are rides and a tailgate because there are tons of tents ("casetas") where there is food, drinking and dancing.  Feria is Sevilla's biggest festival and the reason we had this week of from classes.  I was able to see what Feria is all about this weekend and even got to go to a bullfight.  Overall, Feria is making it SO hard for me to come to terms with the fact that I'm leaving in a few short days!

As for now...2 days of class, 2 days of finals and it's back to the US for this girl.  BITTERSWEET.

100th Day

Today is an extra special day - my 100th day in Sevilla (and also my 22nd birthday)!  So, being a corn ball who loves making lists, I have compiled a few lists for your viewing pleasure:


22 Things that will be missed when leaving Sevilla:

1. 1 euro bottles of wine and 1 euro shots
2. Tortilla Espanola and Lentaja
3. Speaking Spanish
4. Not having any household responsibilities (cleaning, cooking, laundry, etc)
5. No work or homework
6. Spanish friends
7. Calle Betis, Calle Alfalfa and discotecas
8. My senora - even though there's been ups and downs, I haven't had anything serious to complain about and have it much better than some
9. The aesthetic beauty of this city - I've truly taken it for granted.
10. Having 'Pues', 'Vale', 'Venga', etc. being accepted in conversation
11. The incredibly late bar time
12. Being able to travel to incredibly amazing places
13. Being surrounded by such historical monuments/buildings
14. Casuality of drinking - free beers and tintos at class activities!
15. Botellon by the Torre / Rio time
16. The relaxed style of living here - rhythm of life is much slower
17. Always having some sort of trip / event to look forward to
18. Being able to speak English when you don't want someone to hear/understand something
19. The beautiful weather and the strong Sevilla sun
20. The fairytale feeling I get when something is so amazing I am forced to ask myself, "Is this real life?"
21. My new friends here - we all went through this amazing experience together and now we're all going back to separate parts of the country :(
22. The life I've created for myself here - it's a second home :)

Things I am excited to come home to in Wisco:

1. FAMILY, FRIENDS, DOGS (claro)
2. Having a cell phone and not worrying about how much saldo is on it
3. Driving / not having to walk everywhere
4. Candy, sweets....and more candy and sweets
5. Not worrying about international bank fees
6. Graduation
7. Country USA
8. Drinking MILK again
9. Watching TV (on an actual television, not a laptop) - I need the E! Network, Tosh.0 and Ellen back in my life
10. Mix drinks (that cost less than 7 euro)
11. Having more to say than 'si'
12. Having more than a small armoir of clothes to choose from!
13. Having an income again
14. Pre-gaming and having music to play while doing so
15. BIG breakfasts
16. Mexican food
17. The luxury of having toilet paper, toilet seats and soap in ALL public bathrooms
18. Being able to wear sweats in public
19. Iced coffee
20. Not having the feeling of being a guest in someone's house
21. Dealing with Fahrenheit, miles, pounds, dollars instead of Celcius, kilometers, kilograms and euros.
22. Scrapbooking my entire 4 months here :)

Life is good.  Celebrating it.  Madrid tomorrow, Rome on Tuesday and Feria de Sevilla on Friday.  2 weeks.

Semana Santa

Disclaimer: long post ahead.  Prepare yourself.


Bonkers.  Semana Santa 2011 was just that - bonkers.

My first spring break started out with me almost missing my connecting flight to Athens, Greece in Barcelona (foreshadowing? - you'll see why later...)  On our flight from Barcelona to Athens, we met another American student who was actually studying abroad in Athens.  We got to talking and became friends really fast - maybe a little too fast.  After he found out that our flight was landing at 3:05am and we were planning on chilling in the airport until we could check into our hostel, he offered for us to stay in his apartment.  I (being the apprehensive one out of the two) immediately thought of the movie "Taken" and how the story started out exactly like this.  S, my travel buddy, thought we should do it since we were so tired and didn't want to start our Athens stay being exhausted.  Long story short - we put our faith in humanity and learned that there actually are good people in this world.  We stayed with our friend and had our own little couch-surfing experience.  In hindsight, it was a risky decision but was absolutely crucial to how our Athens stay ended up.  Our generous friend, Jeff, gave us recommendations of places to go, places to eat, what to eat and some Athens specific traveling tips - he even made us a travel itinerary of things we should do.  Everything we learned from him was dead on and our trip would have been completely different if we hadn't couch-surfed that first night.  After almost missing my flight and couch-surfing, I knew this would be a crazy trip, to say the least.

A is for ATHENS and Awesome

The amount of history in combination with the Greek mythology made Athens so interesting.  Here's what we saw on our (cleverly named by S) "It's All Greek to Me Tour":

• Acropolis which housed the Parthenon (monument dedicated to Princess Athena): these two sights are what some people call the most historical monuments in the world.  
• Parliament Building: complete with a procession in honor of "Day of Remembrance"
• The archeological museum: I'm not much of a museum person, but the museum was sweet - learned a lot about Greek mythology and the Greek Gods
• 2004 Olympic Stadium: even the official pool they swam the races in
• Old Olympic Stadium: from the 1890s
• The President's house
• Hadrian's Library
• National Gardens
• Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
• Folpappos Hill
• Temple of Olympean Zeus
• Hiked up another hill where we had a great view of the city
• Congress building which had a market inside

Athens after thoughts:

1. I am now very interested in Greek mythology
2. It's so sad how everything historical seems to be in ruins now
3. When America is old enough to have this much history, what are we going to have to show for it?  No Parthenon, no Temple of Zeus...but football fields?  Tall buildings?  Cool...
4. There are tons of stray dogs roaming Athens.  They are all so cute but look so sad. :(
5. Greek food = cheap and delicious
6. Kebabs are everywhere in Europe and I am not mad about it
7. We didn't have a map, which ultimately allowed us to see more things since we would roam around aimlessly
8. Aside from seeing all the touristic spots and monuments, it's the small memories that make the trip worthwhile (ie. our couch-surfing experience, meeting hostel-mates from all over the world).
9. Staying in hostels is awesome when your hostel-mates are cool. 

ISTANBUL = the land of mosques and kebab

After anxiously awaiting our trip to Turkey, we were greeted by Istanbul in a not-so-pleasant manner.  Here's why:

• Had to purchase an unexpected Turkish Visa in the airport,
• (What felt like) Freezing rain.  Definitely spoiled by the Sevilla weather,
• Couldn't find our hostel - walked around for a half hour with our heavy bags and were given wrong directions numerous times,
• Couldn't communicate as we don't speak Turkish and very few people spoke English,
• Hostel didn't have internet, maps in English nor directions to get to any of the monuments
• Couldn't find anywhere to exchange our currency to Turkish Lira
• We were laughed at/made fun of by so many people...Where is the Turkish hospitality?

Despite all the strikes against Istanbul, things got much better...

• Food is dirt cheap in Istanbul.  Thank you, God for creating 1 euro kebabs.
• Shopped in the biggest. market. ever.  (literally).  To get a sense of how big it is, a sign upon entering read, "Up until recently, the Grand Bazaar was home to 5 mosques, 1 school, 7 fountains, 10 wells, 1 water dispenser and 1 ablution fountain." Needless to say, we got lost many times trying to find our way out.
• Saw the Blue Mosque, the Burnt Column, Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Palace, Dolmabahce Palace, Spice Bazaar, Point Zero (believed to be the center of the universe)
• Experienced Turkish tea and coffee.  Turkish tea = delicious // Turkish coffee = strong and has a mud-like substance at the top and bottom.
• Enjoyed the beautiful view of the Marmara sea

At this point, the Istanbul experience was great.  Despite being thrown off our original plans numerous times and dealing with the curve balls Istanbul threw at us, I was content with my time in Turkey.  That was until we discovered there were 2 airports in Istanbul and we were at the wrong one trying to board our flight to Barcelona.  With no time to commute to the correct airport, we missed our flight and had to buy another one for 220 euros (refer back to the foreshadowing explained at the beginning of this post).  If that's not an epic fail, I'm not sure what is.  Ended our stay in Istanbul in the Ataturk airport eating Sbarro for dinner and sleeping in coffee shop chairs.

BARCELONA = Gaudi's Canvas

After arriving to Barcelona about 18 hours later than expected, we were determined to enjoy our last leg of the trip.  I can definitely say that we conquered Barcelona - in a short 50 some hours in Barcelona we...

• Saw an amazing view of the city from the roof of the Arena de Barcelona - a ginormous shopping center,
• Saw the Arc de Triumph, 
• Walked through Ciutadella Park, 
• Stumbled upon a mass in the Basilica de Santa Maria del Mar (beautiful)
• Stood in the same spot Christopher Columbus sailed into after discovering America (there's a monument dedicated to him there),
• Stumbled upon a Semana Santa procession - Sevilla is famous for it's Semana Santa celebration so I was bummed I was missing it.  Luckily we got to experience Semana Santa in Barcelona!  We saw the typical parade type celebration where men carry giant floats throughout the city accompanied by bands and other people dressed up in religious outfits,
• Went inside the 1992 Olympic Stadium,
• Visited Guell Park: huge garden with architectural monuments designed by Antonio Gaudi. Tyra even hosted a season finale of America's Next Top Model in this park :)
• Saw the Sagrada Familia: another famous (and unfinished) work of Antonio Gaudi and Europe's most unconventional Church (as described by my guidebook).  So amazing and definitely the coolest Church I have ever seen,
• Went to Easter mass inside the Sagrada Familia

I'm starting to believe that Spring Break is God's way of teaching us life lessons.  As was the case of my spring break 2009 in PCB (most of you probably know that story), I learned many life lessons on this trip:

• Being American has such a bad connotation in Europe,
• You don't know what you got till it's gone. Sevilla's humid 90 degree weather never seemed so pleasant until feeling the freezing rain (and ultimately getting sick) in Turkey,
• Having a set schedule/plan for everything is not always the best way to approach things.  Having everything deviate away from our original plans only made things that much better,
• Everything happens for a reason.  There IS a reason why we were forced to stay in Istanbul another night...there IS a reason why God did not want us in Barcelona until the next day,
• There really is no place like home.  Sevilla never felt so much like home until returning to it after ten days of traveling.  Makes me nervous to leave for good in a short 2.5 weeks.

FIN (END).

Pues....

Hola amigos,


Lo siento que no he escrito en los ultimos semanas.  Hoy es el ultimo dia antes de Semana Santa en Espana y manana salgo para...Hahah just kidding - not in Spanish.  Haven't written in a while - tomorrow marks the first day of our first spring break.  We have off all next week for Semana Santa (Holy Week) and just wanted to give a quick update before I leave for Athens tomorrow night!


The weather has been beautiful lately - almost a little too beautiful at times.  It's been about high 70s and sunny for the last 2 weeks...there was even a couple days where it's been over 90 degrees.    Thus, there's been a lot of laying out in the park and hanging out by the river to "tomar el sol" (sunbathe) and hang out.  The Spaniards are crazy and still wear long pants and shirts...and then look at us like we're crazy wearing shorts and t-shirts.  Conveniently located by the river is the "Festival de Naciones" - a festival where you can buy different meals and desserts from stands representative of different countries around the world.  Heaven?  Not quite yet...One of the stands offers Mexican food.  Heaven.  Contrary to popular belief, Spain food is actually NOTHING like Mexican food and Mexican restaurants tend to be very unsuccessful here.  So we of course went straight to Mexico :) The sun, the river, friends and Mexican food all in one place makes it easy to see why we've been doing this all weekend for the last couple weeks.

[@ the Festival de las Naciones]

For my finance class, we visited a company that produces Jamon Iberico - a popular type of ham that requires specific upbringing of pigs and a time-consuming production process.  Not sure if I mentioned this or not, but at most restaurants and even some houses, it's common for there to be pig legs mounted on some sort of contraption where the ham is then sliced off of and consumed.  The company we visited was the most prestigious Jamon Iberico producer (about 18 euros for about 5 little slices) so it was interesting to see the process and of course all the pig legs.  After the company visit, we walked through a cave - which was crazy cool.  

Went on another hike where it rained (more like downpoured) all day.  So that was fun.  Also checked out the Museo of Bellas Artes (Fine Arts Museum) - which is the 2nd best/biggest museum in Spain.  

Other than that, just trying to live up to good student standards (not).  Group projects are really starting to be a pain - all conveniently due this week or the week in between our 2 spring breaks.  Trying to get those done in addition to finishing up the rest of the homework for the semester to avoid having to worry about it during our 2 weeks off/travel time has been taking up most of the time during the week.

Random updates:

• The man who lives above me has FINALLY (knock on wood) stopped singing/dancing flamenco.
• After 7 weeks without a phone, I FINALLY got my movil back from the hostel in Portugal.
• My group members and I took 2nd place in our Gymkhana competition (scavenger hunt).  We won a free boat ride on the river :)
• Rum & coke's are called "Cuba Libre" which translates to "Free Cuba".  Reason: Cuba was under the Spanish reign prior to the 1890s when the 2 countries went to war over Cuba's independence.  The US (neutral at the time) sent it's ship the USS Maine to protect their interests in Cuba when it exploded, at the fault of Spain.  The US, ticked at Spain, entered the war to help Cuba after this catastrophic event and won, thus allowing Cuba to gain independence.  It was later found out that it was actually NOT Spain's fault that the ship exploded.  This story has huge historical impact for Spain - so much, that they apparently name alcoholic drinks after it.  Anyhoo, the point of this randomness is when a Spaniard asked me if I knew why it was called a "Cuba Libre", I actually knew why (thanks to my history class I'm taking here) and after I explained it to him he replied, "You're the only person I've ever asked that question and received the correct response" (in Spanish, of course).  Yay me for learning historical facts, conversing with Spaniards and conveniently finding a way to connect drinking to class :-D
• Time is moving much too fast.  4 weeks until I'm back in the US....probably the definition of bitter sweet.
• ALMOST 22 - can't believe it's been a year since I turned 21 haha.
• Leaving for Athens, Greece tomorrow.  Then Istanbul, Turkey.  Then Barcelona.  Then Easter, 4 days of class and my birthday.  Then Madrid.  Then Rome.  Craziest 3 weeks ever? Yes.  Real life? Still trying to find the answer that one...

[Gymkhana Group]

[@ the disco :)]

See you Easter Sunday peeps (hopefully) with a blog post and lots o' pictures :)

Waka Waka

Left early Thursday morning and after a 2 hour bus ride followed by an hour long, nausea-inducing Ferry ride, we were in AFRICA -- no big deal.  

Concerns before leaving for Morocco:

• Dirty water - our director told us that the water is sub par when coming to cleanliness and many people get sick from it.  He suggested we even brush our teeth with bottled water.
• Food - we had also been informed that the food has an effect on those with weak stomachs that makes them "ir al bano todo el dia" (go to the bathroom all day). 
• Ferry ride - in the past, numerous students have gotten sick on the Ferry ride and would puke everywhere.  Getting motion sickness even when driving in cars as well as a friend on the trip who has a fear of people throwing up was cause for high concern for me.
• Men - a cultural characteristic of Morocco is that the women only leave the house when necessary.  Which means basically everyone walking around in the city were men.  Walking around in a huge group of Americans always ends up in us getting stared down by the Europeans, so we were somewhat prepared for this, only to find out that it would be 10x worse than in Europe.

We touched ground in Morocco and headed straight to the "Escuela Taller de Tetuan" - the school of craftmanship.  We were fortunate enough to run into Moroccan students working on their pieces and immediately saw the skill, patience and precision that was required of the students.  We were able to see the departments of painting, wood work, carving, sculpting, ceramic tiling and embroidery.  

We had lunch at a cute restaurant in the city.  I wouldn't necessarily call it a meal - more like a FEAST.  We soon found out that all of the meals in our Moroccan experience would be the same way.  We ate the typical meal of Morocco: couscous, which is a very small noodle in the shape of a ball accompanied with veggies and chicken.  The second thing you can't help but love about a Moroccan meal is the tradition of having tea and cookies after the meal.  The tea is absolutely delicious (Morocco is famous for it's mint flavored tea - ashe nana) so I had no problem with this.

I got to see La Medina of Tetuan - the market.  In Morocco, it's very common to buy anything you need (food, toiletries, clothes, etc.) at La Medina - little side stores and stands set up throughout the street.  We also walked through the tannery where leather is made out of sheep skin.  That was...interesting to say the least.  Smelt gross, looked gross...

On Friday, we bussed it to Tangier straight to the Coca-Cola factory of Morocco.  We weren't able to take pictures inside the plant, but it was SUPER cool to see the production process from start to finish.  We drank some free Coke products including the African-exclusive products of Poms (apple flavored soda) and Hawai (a fruit juice).  Both delicious!

Next on the adventure was seeing the Caves of Hercules.  Supposedly, Hercules would go to the cave to rest in between performing his 12 tasks.  There was a lot of metaphorical structures in this cave as well and it looked over the Atlantic Ocean.  We weren't too far from the Mediterranean Sea either.  And of course, who goes to Africa without riding CAMELS?!  Fortunately for us, we were able to saddle up and take a camel ride, which was crazy.  Never in my life would I have thought I would have the chance to ride a camel.  Check that off the bucket list.

(me falling backward after almost being attacked by the baby camel)

We had a mixer-type activity (accompanied with tea and cookies, only a short hour after our feast of a lunch also accompanied by tea and cookies) with a few Moroccan business students in Tangier after that.  These people are crazyyy.  All of us from Madison think that it's so hard to get into the business school and stressed about it for at least a year of our lives...well, to get into the Tangier business school, students are required to know (speak, understand and write) FOUR languages: Spanish, French, Arab and English.  Whaaaat?!

Spending our dirheim (the currency in Morocco) was something we were all looking forward to.  We had all heard stories of how good the shopping is in Morocco - hand made ceramics, leather goods, knock-off name brand items, etc.  I was a tad bit thrown off at the fact that 1 euro = ~10 dirheim.  Hearing the cost of something as being 80 dirheim automatically makes you think of 80 euros or dollars...but in reality, it was only 8 euro.  Also, we were told to never accept the price you are told as the price you pay.  Thus, I got to experience the art of regatear (bargaining) and ended up getting some pretty sweet deals on some cool stuff :)

After thoughts of Morocco:

1. I wish I could bring the tea and cookie tradition to Spain.  Or at least my homestay...
2. I have mixed feelings about the bargaining.  Cool to be able to get a sweet deal but irritating that "no" doesn't mean "no".  If you really do not want something, the vendors think you're trying to bargain with them to get a lower price.
3. Wish we could have seen the Mediterranean Sea - guess I'll have to save that for Greece :)
4. The people of Morocco seem to be either rich or poor.  There's not really a middle class...
5. Crossing off "Visiting a 3rd world country" off my bucket list.
6. Wondering what it is about Americans that Europeans/Africans find sooo amusing that they feel the need to stare at us 24/7. 
7. We saw the best of both worlds in Morocco - products made by hand (Taller school) and products made by machine (Coke factory)
8. Waka Waka by Shakira now has a different and more significant meaning for me.
9. How the heck am I going to get all of my souvenirs/gifts back to the States?
10. Wishing that pictures reflected the true beauty of all the sights I've seen in Morocco (and Europe in general).  Cameras do NOT do nature justice....praying my mental pictures will last a long time.

Shukran y ma'assalama (thank you and goodbye in Arabic)