A Birds-Eye View of Madrid: Public Baths, Camels, and Stereotypes

Jamie Claros is a junior at Boston College, studying abroad in Madrid, Spain for the fall semester.  As an Eagle in a foreign country, she wanted to share with us her birds-eye view of the Spanish culture.  This series will chronicle her study abroad experience, detailing the food she tries, the people she meets, and the places she explores!

¡Hola mis fellow collegiettes™!  Two weeks ago I went on a trip that might possibly end up as the best trip of my study abroad semester: Morocco, Africa.  I was intrigued by going to a country and continent that not many have the privilege of experiencing (I mean, come on, how many people do you know that have been to Africa?!) and learning firsthand about a culture so different from my own.  Not to mention, BC fully supports the trip and even pays for half. 
 
I’ll be honest, going on this trip I had two main goals: get my passport stamped from Africa and ride a camel.  They may not have been the most creative goals, but that’s what I had my eyes set on nonetheless.  Little did I know I would leave with so much more.
 
Our four-day trip consisted of visiting three major areas of Morocco: Rabat, the political capital and most city-like of the three where we stayed with a host family for two nights; the Rif Mountains, where we had lunch with a family of humble means that lived in a small village; and Chefchaouen, the most Spanish-influenced and touristy of the three.  The differences between all of them were incredible, and it really gave me a broader look of Morocco as a whole, instead of solely what tourists usually see. 

One of the first places we went to after arriving. Beautiful.

It was so intimidating at first to live with a host family who had such different customs and who spoke only French and Arabic.  I had to rely on my high school French— which I quickly realized I had forgotten most of and is quite minimal to put it nicely (Sorry, Ms. Gontier!).  It was such a great experience, though, to realize we could still communicate and bond even with the language barrier.  On the second to last day, we went to a Hammam, or public bath, which is basically a huge sauna room of naked older women bathing themselves with brillo-type sponges to exfoliate.  For about $6, you could pay one of the women working there to exfoliate and bathe you.  What an… interesting experience to say the least. 
 
Eating lunch in the village also gave me perspective on how fortunate we all are to be living in the States, especially as students of Boston College, and how much we should truly appreciate it.  To hear their stories and beliefs, and realize how truly happy they were to be living in a small home with no real bathroom or bedrooms, really made an impact.  As Americans, we’re always taught you need a certain standard of living to be happy.  But these people were happier than most people I’ve ever met, and some of the warmest and most inviting, as well.  Leaving them after one afternoon was almost as hard as leaving actual family members before going abroad.
 
Aside from the more cultural and learning experiences, I gained a much deeper connection with all of the fellow BC’ers who had also participated in the program.  On our last day at dawn, in the more touristy area of Chefchaouen, we hiked to the top of a mountain and took in all the sights around us.

Eagles overlooking Chefchaouen.

My absolute favorite part of the whole experience, though, was interacting with all the Moroccans our age.  We spoke about everything from their religion, the women’s decisions to wear headscarves, to politics and what they like to do on the weekend and what stereotypes they had about Americans. Fun fact: the first American stereotype one girl said was, of all things, that we don’t love our parents and we send them to live in a facility as soon as we can.  Who would have thought?  It was also amazing to see how bright every one of them was.  Even though the vast majority of them will never be able to leave the country because of strict laws and regulations, they all spoke at least four languages.  On my last night, I met one guy who spoke seven different languages. Seven. All fluently and all from countries he’s never visited and never will. It made me even more determined to actually learn and speak the language more while I’m here studying abroad in Spain.
 
I could go on for days about this trip, but I’ll just leave it at this: it was by far one of the most enlightening, enriching, and eye-opening experiences I’ve ever had.  I learned a lot about a people and religion that I came in with little to no knowledge of, and got to discredit firsthand a lot of stereotypes that we as Americans usually have about people and things we don’t know about.  If you plan on studying abroad in Madrid, I would highly recommend this program; it’s taught me so much and made me want to share all the valuable lessons taken in. 

PS. I did get to ride a camel! So cool!