We got to sleep in a little (we got up at 0800…lol) and departed from Safi. We drove along the coast once again, and I fell asleep. We arrived in a town called El Jadida after about 1.5 hours, which had been used by the Portugese. We visited a cistern inside the town, and then wandered around the fort on the beach, complete with ramparts, old cannons and all. Then we went to lunch, which was, no way, MORE SEAFOOD. I had seen a Free Wifi on the restaurant, so I took out my laptop and went on the web to finish some stuff. I didn’t eat too much cuz I was tired of eating the same food for 3 days. After the lunch, we left to go visit a post office (we needed stamps to send postcards). I sent out my postcards with a huge group of people and we departed from El Jadida for our return to Casablanca. I fell asleep for a portion of the drive. Lotvi continued to tell us about the history of Casablanca and said we had time to quickly stop by the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, which made me very excited. It is the 3rd biggest mosque in the world, and the only one in Morocco that allows non-Muslims to visit. Also, its minaret is 200 m tall, and like Marrakech, is the tallest building in the city. We got closer to the mosque and I could not believe my eyes. The mosque was HUGE, way bigger than I had imagined. We stopped for 10 mins for pictures, and I ran out with my camera to capture pictures of the mosque. It was spectacular, the architecture was amazing, and I took LOTS of pictures with a lot of my friends. We ran back to the bus and got there with 10 seconds to spare…phew! The bus left, and we were back at the port in about 15 minutes. We did drive by Rick’s Café from the movie Casablanca. We got off the bus, thanked Lotvi, took a picture with him, and got in the LONG line to get back on the ship. We were all sad as we had an absolute blast in Morocco and did not want to leave. I got on the ship and waved goodbye to the Kingdom of Morocco.
Back on the ship, I quickly unpacked and checked my emails and wrote back to several people. Then, we ate dinner and shared our Moroccan experiences with other students who had been on different itineraries. After dinner, at about 2000, the captain came on the PA, and announced that we were departing soon and that there would be HUGE swells as we left the port. So, Rory and I secured all our valuables and decided to go upstairs to experience the rough waters. We met Z and Achal and went to the union. Soon, the ship departed, and the rolling began. I thought the last time (when we entered the port) was intense, but this was RIDICULOUSLY INSANE. We were sitting on the floor in the union, and people started sliding back and forth. Then, we hit an enormous swell, and everyone went flying to the port side of the boat. The chairs in the union also came loose and went flying into the mob of people. Some people who were standing and being stupid went flying and rolling, and a few of them got injured. I got up as quickly as I could and got out of the warzone. The ship had tilted a significant amount. I did not feel good at all, and I decided to go down and sleep in my room. I ran down the stairs as I felt like puking, and got to my room. I swiped my card, and opened the door, but it would not open. So, I pushed as hard as I could, and got it open a little. I looked inside our room and saw a disaster. Our beds had unbolted from the wall and were 10 feet from the wall. The small personal drawers we had next to our beds, had unbolted and tumbled across the room into the door, preventing it from being opened fully. It was a mess. There was stuff everywhere. I quickly cleaned up a little, and jumped on my bed. I felt extremely seasick, and I passed out. Rory came back, and put some more stuff away, and I couldn’t help him because I was still extremely seasick and felt like I was going to vomit any second. I quickly changed into pajamas and went to sleep. It was an insane day!
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