Story & Photos by Jacquelyn Zeman – News Editor
From May 18 to 30, a delegation of nine students and four professors from Grand Rapids Community College traveled approximately 4,146 miles to Morocco. Collegiate News Editor Jacquelyn Zeman went on the trip and documented the experience each day. Read on for her photo-illustrated travelogue, and her updated introduction post to her trip right here. For a day by day look back at Morocco, follow her on Instagram and Twitter at @jacquelynzeman.
Day 8 – May 25
City: Essaouira
The day we spent in Essaouira was very windy. We started out that morning by taking a walking tour of the ports where boats would go in and out of the channel, and saw all the fishermen waiting around the docks.
While it was too windy for any of the locals to fish, all of the fishermen were hanging out around their boats, which provided a very lively exchange of men talking and trying to sell their catch from the other day. All of the boats there were wooden, and close to the exact same shade of blue. The same light blue color of the boats was everywhere in Essaouira – from the taxis, to the accents of buildings.
It was so windy that the seagulls were having a really hard time flying, and were running into people standing around the docks.
The medina in Essaouira was much different than the medinas in the other cities we visited. The walls of this medina were much more spread out, and I felt like it was easier to shop that way. Since we were allowed to go off and shop in smaller groups, I was determined to try bargaining on my own.
I learned that if I kept bargaining until the shop owner let me walk away, I knew I had gone too low. Only one shopkeeper that was trying to sell me a set of teacups actually let me walk away. It would usually take at least five times of being re-offered a new price, and working down until I got to my new offered price that I went along with.
For lunch that day Teagan, Hannah, and myself decided to get crêpes. While the crêpes were just Nutella hazelnut spread and banana, similar to what we have in the U.S. for Nutella, it was really interesting to be able to order our crêpes on the street, and watch them being made.
