Toubkal

This weekend, I climbed Toubkal-- the tallest mountain in northern Africa. I went with Olga, Sarah, Caitie, Romain, Roman, Gabriel, Hicham, Rachid, and Lucas. With all those people, there were a lot of personality clashes and some fights, but it ended up being a really fun weekend regardless. I rode their in a car with Hicham, Rachid, Olga, and Romain while everyone else took the train. On the way, we stopped in Marrakesh and got some snails and pig's head from the vendors in the main square. It was kind of weird eating the pig while it's full head was sitting right in front of me, but I guess it's good to know exactly what you're eating, right?

We stayed in a hostel in Asni that night and left in the morning to start hiking. It took about 4 and a half hours to reach the refuge, where we stayed that night. I thought the hike up was fairly difficult and tiring, but I realized after the next day that the first day was nothing.The hike from the refuge to the peak of Toubkal was extremely, extremely difficult. In fact, only 5 out of the 10 people who went on the trip with us even made it to the top. Almost everyone got altitude sickness, or was too tired to continue, so they turned back. I was actually the only girl who made it! If I had been alone, though, I probably would have given up in the middle of the mountain and not wanted to move because it was so hard and scary. Coming down was way worse than going up because the rocks kept sliding from under me and it was impossible to keep balanced. The view at the top and the feeling of accomplishing it was worth it though. I had a lot of fun hiking and am really glad I did it, but I would definitely never, ever do it again. Hicham, Rachid, Sarah, Lucas, and I stayed at the refuge again that night and hiked down in the morning. The third day was a lot of fun because we had all actually slept and didn't feel rushed to get anywhere. On the drive back, we stopped at a cooperative for argan oil where we saw how the women make the oil and got to sample some.

Tuesday, Nadia, Monica, and I had an info session for our project at AIESEC. It went fairly well, I guess, but it was difficult to do what we had planned because there were way more people than we were expecting. Afterwards, I went with a few people to drop off the car at Kenitra and we took the train home. We had a lot of time to kill while waiting for the train, and we ended up laughing the entire time. I really like the people I've met here -- we can be doing absolutely but still manage to have a lot of fun.