Essaouira

For the last week of the trip, all the Legacy International kids are reunited in Essaouira. This is a beach town on the Atlantic Ocean. We still study and all that but we're staying in a hotel instead of home stays. 

Every day is pretty relaxed and a little more independent. We wake ourselves up, we get ourselves breakfast (from the hotel), get ourselves to school, etc. We're still supervised a lot of the time, but it's a different feeling than being dependent on a host family. 

We have two hours for lunch and we can go wherever we want. (Don't you worry, guys, we still have a government stipend). We also have about 3 hours of free time in the afternoon. It's really enjoyable. We can walk around the medina, go to the beach, go shopping, buy REALLY good shawerma, whatever we want. 

Today, though, we had the afternoon off. This meant 8 hours to do anything. I did some crazy shopping, about 4 hours actually. Shopping in the souqs are different and takes a while because of haggling. Which I did a lot of. I think I said "ana taliba" or "I'm a student" about 8,000 times today. I successfully got a djellaba price from 400 dh to 230 dh. I saved 11 dollars on Moroccan salt and pepper holders (because I bought five). And I walked away from more than one teapot. 

Rug store I unsuccessfully haggled in. 

It's interesting to be back with the kids that went to Marrakesh. It's kind of strange to go from the group dynamic of 12 people to the group dynamic of 29. 

I've been pretty good at budgeting my time. I do whatever after school: go shopping, to the beach, both. And study after dinner (both Arabic and AP World History). I've been really productive. I do my homework, get some reading done, and I reorganized my terribly packed suitcase. 

I like the fact that I can walk everywhere I need to go. This makes it really easy to get stuff done. It's also beautiful. The weather is nice. Windy, but id take that of liver humidity any day. 

Walking through the souq with my friends. 

False alarm at our hotel restaurant that overlooks the ocean. 

Candid af. 

Learn something today. 

Corie.