Experiencing new things is something that I live for. I am currently studying in Morocco for two weeks. There have been many things that have been done on this trip so far, but yesterday was the highlight of the trip thus far. The day started with a visit to some date production facilities. With us were some students from the National School of Agriculture of Meknes. I thought this was a great part of the program as the trip had been mostly meeting with older people, and getting a view of the culture from the perspective of someone my age was very fun. This continued until lunch. After lunch, we headed towards the Sahara. We stopped in a small town on the edge of the Sahara and had an unplanned excursion on 4x4s into the desert. Driving around the Sahara showed me just how vast the largest desert on Earth was. It was endless hills of sand that simply took my breath away. After an hour of driving around, the group continued with our plan and had to move on to the camp we stayed at last night. The twist is that we got there by camel. Yes, we got there by camel and it was awesome. Getting on a camel is an interesting experience. I don’t exactly mean getting on it, but being on it while the camel gets up is interesting. It almost feels as though you are going to fall forward before the camel gets off the ground. Everything was alright though and the camel was able to get up. After that, I didn’t have to do anything except enjoy the ride. The first thing you notice on a camel is the breathtaking view. Camels are pretty tall so everything is just so much more grand from that height. I spent the first few minutes enjoying the peaceful view until the winds came. The wind started picking up and sand was flying fast enough to hurt any exposed skin. Being able to open my eyes for only a few seconds at a time, I saw a completely different desert. It was a moving, flowing entity that stretched to the horizon. It was something that had me all giddy on my camel. It was truly a sight to behold. Something else that was a sight to behold was what happened next. Suddenly, between the stinging grains of sand, I felt a drop, then another, then another. It was raining. Rain pelted the sanding leaving divots while sand continued to fly across the ground. I couldn’t do anything but get hit by this strange weather and watch in awe. Just as quickly as it came, the rain left. By the time we got to the camp, the rain stopped. I was exhausted from the day and quickly fell asleep. This way probably one of the more fun days I’ve had in my life, and this is the kind of thing that can only happen by traveling.
