Beauty from the Inside

 During the summer, one of my PRESHCO friends who had stayed in the area after the semester invited me to go on a trip to Morocco with her through Erasmus which was their last trip before the start of the next semester. Unfortunately, the trip did not work with my schedule, and I worried I had missed my only opportunity to do a group trip to Morocco. 

After my friend sent photos of her trip and told me stories, I knew I wanted to experience the country for myself. Thus, I went online to see if there were any group trips available with other organization. Fortunately, I found a trip to Gibraltar and Morocco through We Love Spain. Although I hadn't thought about traveling to Gibraltar before, I was excited to check it out. 

The other students on the trip all happened to be from the United States and they were doing the same summer study abroad program but were in different cities. Therefore, everyone already knew at least one person while I knew nobody. At first, I was worried that I would feel isolated from the group, but that was the opposite of what happened. Many of the students were excited to get to know and learn more about me; from my college and academics to my hometown to my future plans. They were both surprised and intrigued by the fact that I had been in Spain for several months. Many had lots of questions for me and wanted to hear all about my experiences, especially what it was like living with a host family because many of the students were living in apartments. Staying with a host family was by far my favorite part of PRESHCO, and I was lucky enough to be with a couple that treated me as if I was their own daughter. I knew I wanted to bring my host parents a small souvenir from my trip. 

When I was in Gibraltar, there was a trip to La Cueva de San Miguel. I wasn't sure exactly what that was, but I figured I would go. When the bus pulled up to the outside of the cave, I saw a cliff towering over me that looked like any other cliff I had seen. I assumed we would be walking through a musty, dark, and dirty cave, and that would be it. I didn't anticipate there being anything that memorable. 

However, my mind and my world changed when I was invited inside. The interior of the cave reminded me of a manmade structure at a Disney Park, as the inside of the cave looked too intricate to be completely natural with all of the detailed rock formations on the ceiling and walls. The rainbow lights that had been installed and the dancing colors they reflected off the rocks made me feel like I was in some type of fantasy land. The beautiful light shows made the rocks come to life. I regretted making an assumption about the cave before I was invited in. It was interesting how the appearance of the cave from the outside and inside was like night and day. Someone who didn't go inside would have no clue about the profound riches within. That is, the cave was just like any cave from the outside but that did not relate to what it looked like on the inside. 

After we left Gibraltar, we caught the ferry to Ceuta. During the ferry ride, I was able to see two continents and three countries that within a short distance, all of which were very different in terms of the landscape, cities, culture, and language despite their close proximity.  It made me realize that despite our differences, we are all citizens of the world and have a place in it. 

After we arrived in Morocco, we went on a tour of Chefchauen. During the tour, the guide mentioned how all of the living spaces looked similar from the outside. However, they could look drastically different from the inside. He mentioned that the Moroccan people value privacy and they do not tend to have their social class be the first thing others learn about them, which can be made obvious based on the appearance of a house or apartment. Thus, homes for low income and high income Moroccans often look similar from the outside. "You won't know if someone is wealthy or poor unless you are invited inside", the tour guide said. I thought this was interesting, as it really forces you to get to know someone based on who they are as a person, not the physical possessions they have. This is a quality that stood out to me in the Moroccan culture during the short time I spent there. Being rich or poor is a state of the soul more than a state of the wallet.