Hola Estudiantes!
I had a great time talking with you all over Skype this past Monday. You all had great questions, and it was great to see the faces of the students that I’ve been writing to for the past month in a half.
Last week, I had the great opportunity to visit another country. I went to Morocco, which is located in Africa. In order to get to Morocco, we had to wake up very early in the morning to catch a bus to the coast of Spain. From there, we took a boat across the Strait of Gibraltar until we reached Morocco. It took about a full day worth of traveling to reach Morocco! Once there, we were able to rest because a full day of traveling is very tiresome.
The real fun did not start until the next day when we traveled to the Sahara Desert! You all might have learned in school that the Sahara Desert is the largest desert in Africa. We arrived in the desert at night and our hosts had a camp fire set up for us and played live African music! It was awesome to be able to look in the sky and see so many stars. I was able to see the Big Dipper, the Milky Way, and Orion’s Belt, which are all stars in the sky that form patterns. After having a large feast for dinner we went to sleep under the stars in tents. Although it is very hot in the desert during the day, it is freezing at night, so I wore a large sweatshirt as I slept.
The next morning we woke up very early in the morning so we could see the sunrise. Seeing the sunrise over the Sahara Desert sand was a very cool sight. The sun was so bright, that it was hard to look in its direction because it would hurt your eyes. After watching the sunrise, it was time to ride our camels across the desert. This was my favorite part of the trip. The first thing I did was give my camel a name. I named my camel, Marty. I wanted his name to be similar to my name. Riding the camel was very fun. There were a couple of times where I thought I was going to fall off Marty. There was one time in particular where my camel bumped into another camel and I just knew I was going to fall, but luckily, Marty caught his balance, and stayed on his feet.
Before we left to come back to Spain, we got to play a sport that many of you told me you loved playing. We played soccer! It was the American students vs. the Moroccan kids. It was very fun, and the Moroccan kids won 7-4. I wonder how you all would have done against them. I know you all would have done a lot better.
Last week, Edwyn and Luis had a question for me. They asked what types of animals I saw while I was in Africa, and wanted to know if I saw any monkeys. That is a great question. I saw, horses, camels, dogs, cats, and birds. While we were leaving Morocco, we stopped for five minutes in a forest where our directors said we might be able to see monkeys, but unfortunately I did not see any.
It’s been really fun writing for you all again. In the morning I will be leaving for Paris, so I will be able to tell you all about the Eiffel Tower and other great sites in Paris. I will also have pictures to share!
Hasta Luego,
Martin