Departing Europe, a Moroccan Escapade, and Tel Aviv

Hello from Tel Aviv, my home for the next month or so while I’m doing research in Haifa. If you look way back to my posts from 2017, this is the same lab where I worked during my exchange semester in Haifa during my junior year, and I’m picking up the project more or less organically from where we left it since I’ve followed its developments in the past two years.

Nerja, Spain

But first: the end of the Spanish experience. I did indeed leave the hostel about ten days early because I found the working conditions distasteful. First, while I had been fully prepared for it to be fairly menial and uninteresting labor (with the goal of learning Spanish while doing it), it was the combination of multiple factors that made me leave it. Firstly, the hostel was quite small, which meant that there were only four people involved in running it: the owner, a manager, and two volunteers, myself included. For a hostel that accommodated approximately 20-30 people, having three people on-site to operate the hostel, check in and out guests, and do 100% of the cleaning and daily chores was pesado, as the Spanish put it. Especially on days where one person would be off (we had only one day off per week), the work could be exacting. The manager seemed generally nice and forgiving of errors, but had a way of giving orders rather than requesting or discussing what needed to be done, which was off-putting for such heavy work, especially when he himself rarely did any serious cleaning. Additionally, the fact that us volunteers lived at the hostel meant that we also dealt with guests’ questions or problems or concerns even when not working, because it felt rude to refuse a simple request by proclaiming “not my problem, I’m not working,” so the end result was that this whole job felt like much more work that I’d bargained for. However, at the end of the day, I did accomplish much of what I was hoping for because my Spanish improved substantially over the course of those few weeks, and for that I appreciate it.

Benimaclet, Valencia, Spain

El Palau de les Arts, Valencia, Spain

Cartagena, Spain

So, I ran off to Valencia where my friend Daniel from Rennes was doing his Erasmus semester – it was a taxing drive to get there actually, I took two blablacars for a total of about ten hours of transit in 90-degree heat, but I made it by evening. Valencia is a vibrant city, and being able to fold into the Erasmus life was a wonderful break from the relatively small-town life in Nerja. I had a really enjoyable time getting to know Dan’s friends in Valencia, and exploring the city from its Roman and Islamic roots to its glorious Renaissance architecture to its hyper-modern ciudad de las artes y las ciencias and its massive university was a pleasure that was worth far more to me than remaining in Nerja. It was one of the few cities that I’ve spent a substantial amount of time in as a tourist lately – five entire days – so I really appreciated the break from the usual racing around that I do. But given horchata and vegan paella, how could I leave?

Cartagena, Spain

Granada, Spain

I did return to Andalucia though to meet up with my mom in Granada, so I went back via Cartagena (rather than Murcia ciudad) and spent a quiet two days exploring this seaside port town. I was impressed mostly by its history – Cartagena’s most prominent history and archeological significance is Roman – but particularly by a museum in the bomb shelter caves of the Cerro de la Concepción that details the history of the Spanish Civil War and Cartagena’s surprisingly deep involvement in it. I enjoyed the stop but I definitely maxed out much of what can be seen in Cartagena. I eventually continued the journey onward to Granada and spent a great couple of days with my mom exploring the Alhambra and the city and going tapeando.

Laval, France

I flew back to Nantes and caught a ride to Rennes, and met up with my brother who was spending a week visiting in Bretagne. We did the classic tour, mostly staying in Rennes but going to Saint-Malo and the Mont-Saint-Michel, and even Laval to see Marie, and meeting up with my friends for drinks and dinners and soirées which were enjoyable. I also tried to work out a lot of my forms and documents for Rochester because as medical school approaches there’s a lot of administrative work to be done (the most annoying being the medical visits and tests because all of that has to be accomplished in France, which would have been manageable if I’d had the time, or in Israel, which is difficult because of the language barrier). But it was an enjoyable time showing my brother around and having him experience a taste of my Breton life.

Fez, Morocco

We returned to Paris for an evening because my brother had his flight the next morning, and I took advantage of it by meeting up with Jérémie and some of his friends there for drinks, and by staying in the lovely Butte-aux-Cailles where I lived last summer which was as charming as ever. Then I flew directly to Morocco for my first-ever trip onto the African continent, spending four full days between Fez and Chefchaouen. It was a fascinating experience – I’d really had no idea how big or historically significant Fez was, nor appreciated the complete history of the Berber peoples, the Moroccan kingdoms, and the nature of French and Spanish colonialism in the country. Marrakesh is without doubt the most touristy location in Morocco and it was originally my goal to do a trip to there and Casablanca, but it didn’t really work out with flights and I’m actually relatively happy for it because it allowed me to appreciate a part of the country that’s slightly less visited and perhaps more truly Moroccan – while there were many aspects of it that doubtless revolve around tourism, there are still trades that are practiced as they have been for hundreds of years that are remarkable to see to say the least. The most interesting in Fez for me was the tanneries – for such a cool site, they were remarkably hard to find in the city. I got lost several times in the narrow streets and passages of the medina and found the way in almost by accident, guided mostly by the suggestions of passersby and the increasingly foul smell of the tanning pools and the animal skins. 

Tannery. Fez, Morocco

The workers were fascinating to watch: waist-deep in multicolored circular pools, submerging and bathing skins all about them, you really do have the impression that you’ve traveled back in time by a hundred years or more when watching them. Wandering through the walled medina, which is the largest I’ve ever seen as it stretches across miles of narrow thoroughfares and shops nestled into and between stone buildings, it was not uncommon to have to flatten against the walls as a heavily-laden donkey passes by, led by a shopkeeper or their children. The meat markets frequently sold live animals which needed to be held into place as they were weighed or examined, and butchers frequently slaughtered animals before the eyes of their customers before selling their meat. It was dramatic to say the least, and an experience to which I was not at all accustomed. That being said, there were many modern aspects of the city once you leave the walls of the medina, with large apartment complexes and cleanly-paved and tree-lined avenues and gardens that spread across the modern city. On the whole, though, I found it very reminiscent of Palestinian cities that I’ve visited – Ramallah and Al-Khalil in particular – but generally a bit cleaner and with more money. 

Chefchaouen, Morocco

I made the trip to Chefchaouen which was a surprisingly long bus ride and enjoyed wandering through its famous blue streets and houses. It was nice in some ways to have a break from Fez – Chaouen is much smaller and therefore much easier to take in, it was a great place for a 24-hour excursion. A notable aspect of the whole Morocco trip was that I was there during Ramadan, and while many restaurants and cafes were open to tourists, the locals were certainly a bit more subdued than they might otherwise have been – but I found one of the most charming parts to be wandering at sunset, and watching everyone drop what they were doing to break their fast. I had been warned by plenty of people about Moroccans being extremely pushy and taking advantage of tourists that don’t know how to say no (and in many ways I found that justified given the amount of people that wanted to “help” me by selling me hashish), but on the flip side I found many Moroccans genuinely kind and generous, and I was very often asked to join in the break-fast as I walked by – it was simply a communal standard of generosity and inclusion. Meanwhile I did try my best to talk to the people running the hostels I stayed in, who were all Moroccan, and try to hear their impressions of their cities and of Morocco in general. I usually communicated in French or English, each of which were equally prominent, which was also unusual for me as I’d never been in a French-speaking Arab country before.

Chefchaouen, Morocco

Fez, Morocco

Anyway, I left Morocco after one final night in Fez, and had a very busy last few days in France during which I tried to meet up with as many people as possible (generally successfully), and packed my things up to leave my apartment, which involved finding people to give away many of my things to. I had a kind of crazy departure because I had to check out of my apartment and do the état des lieux de sortie (essentially proving that I hadn’t damaged anything) the morning I left, so at 6:30 AM, and then had to catch a ride to the Nantes airport which ended up being quite complicated because my ride could only drop my off at a point in the north of the city rather than at their airport, and there were very few ubers on a Sunday morning. I was delighted though to be generously hosted by Simone for the day which was a really wonderful reunion after more than a year.

With Aroma's best אייס קפה

I moved into a studio apartment on Ibn Gabirol last week, which is very nice and certainly meets all of my standards, and now that it’s been about two weeks my life has settled a bit, and the lab work has really gotten going. I commute daily to Haifa (about 1.5 hours each way, when all is said and done), but I enjoy the train rides and usually find a way to amuse myself without too much trouble, and I’ve been trying to meet people in Tel Aviv – it will take some time but I’m enjoying myself. I’ve had an excellent time so far going out to dinners and drinks with Simone, Amy, and Gaby, and being able to explore the vibrant Tel Aviv boulevards and beaches and its enchanting culture.

Tel Aviv, Israel; 15 June 2019.