Sahara (for real)

Riding a camel is not quite as uncomfortable as everyone says it is, but it's still kind of uncomfortable. Every time you get on and off you jolt forward and backward and you feel like you're gonna fall. But we all made it on fine.

I named my camel Gary. He was quite the steadfast desert companion. 10/10 would recommend. Here is a glamour shot of us together:

Side note- yes, we all wore turbans. It keeps the sand out of your face and prevents your head from getting sunburned. I am proud to say that I have become an expert in turban wrapping. People even asked me to do theirs! And here are some of my shameless turban selfies.

Headphones and turbans are my new aesthetic. 

Queens of the desert, basically. 

The desert was so beautiful. The best way we could come up with to describe it is that it was like a Windows screensaver. It looked like a painting. It didn't feel real.

Our guide was really nice. He spoke French and even new a few words of English, which impressed me so much. Even people living in the middle of the desert can learn languages. I'm realizing how much English is taking over, which makes me sad because it isn't even that pretty or logical of a language. The ride was bumpy and the second I got off I could feel my inner thighs burning. But it was worth it. 

Once we got to our camp site, a bunch of us decided to go climb this really talk sand dune. I almost didn't, because I was tired and it looked really steep, but I went up at my own pace and crawled on my hands and feet and eventually made it to the top. And it was beautiful. It was too dark to take pictures, but I could see so much of the desert. We were so high up and looking down would normally have terrified me, but I just felt excited. We talked for a while but then got really quiet because we heard a voice. DJ Yous was singing the call to prayer from the camp site at the bottom of the dune, and we could hear him all the way up where we were. It was beautiful. We stayed silent and could here what sounded like people laughing and talking from far away in the desert. It was so quiet, and the sand absorbed a lot of sound so there was no echoe, but we could also hear things far away. It was beautiful. Sitting on top of that sand dune felt magical, like we could have been in any time period. It could have been 500 BCE or 1200 CE for all we knew. 

I brought my copy of The Alchemist with me on the trip. Though I didn't have time to read it, it was amazing being in the exact same setting as Santiago. I've picked out some quotes from that book that I love, and here are a few that have resonated with me most on this trip:

"Here and there, he found a shell, 

and realize that the desert, in remote times, had been a sea."

"Maybe God created the desert so that man could appreciate the date trees, he thought"

"When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too."

"There is only one way to learn, the alchemist answered. It's through action."

"There had been a time when he thought that his sheep could teach him everything he needed to know about the world. But they could never have taught him Arabic"

Especially that last one :)

So we came down from the sand dune and ate tagine by candlelight. We were all pretty tired so we fell asleep quickly. The stars were out but the moon was so bright that we couldn't see too many when we went back. 

However, we woke up at 4 am to head back to where the cars were parked, and by then the moon had calmed down and there were SO MANY STARS. I never wanted to look down. We got on our camels and headed out while it was still pretty dark. But as we rode, it got lighter and lighter, and we made it back just in time to see the sun rise over the sand dunes. 

We ate some more good Moroccan bread and cheese and drank tea, then we headed back to the vans for a crazy long ride back. One thing I like about the bus rides is getting to have random debates and discussions with my NSLI friends. Jack has been my main man to discuss things like that with, and we had a long talk about the future of American politics. Good thing we're both poly sci/IR majors! 

All in all, I feel incredibly blessed. I got to see a part of the world that otherwise I would likely have never even considered travelling to. I also got a pic with a camel named Gary. Pretty good weekend, I would say. 

Here is a description of the trip in Arabic:

And here is the English translation:

One more week left in this amazing place, let's hope I make the most of it!