Spending the Day in Africa

Title isn't exactly self-explanatory. Yes, I did go to Africa but I did not leave Spain. If you are thinking to yourself that this is impossible, don't worry I had the same reaction when our program director told us about this trip. There is a town in Northern Africa, it shares its borders with Morocco, that is owned by Spain called Ceuta. Like everyone else that I know I had no idea this place existed. Also you may be asking how could I have gone to Northern Africa just for one day. The answer to that question is that it was a very long day. We had to be on the bus, which was at the Universidad de Sevilla (about a 40ish minute walk from my place) at 5:45am. That's right, I didn't have to wake up at 5:45am, I had to be at the university by 5:45am. After an unsuccessful night of trying to get to bed early I woke up around 4:30am after about 3 hours of sleep.

Being completely honest, my expectations for this day trip were extremely low. I knew very little about this place and didn't like the fact that it was such an early and long day, spending about 7-8 hours traveling round trip to Ceuta. When we got to the port to take the ferry over to Ceuta the day started to turn around, the 1.5 hours of sleep helped, but it looked like the weather was going to be nice for the day, which I was extremely excited about after the week of rain we had just experienced.

After the hour long ferry we ended up in Ceuta. We took a bus to the university and met up with some local students who we were going to spend the day with. The first thing we did was attend a seminary about Ceuta and the dialect that is unique to the city. Our group was then split up into two smaller groups so we could have a chance to talk with the local students. About an hour later we headed out to explore the city and have some lunch. My group consisted of about 6 American students and 10 university students. I greatly enjoyed this part of the day. It was so much fun talking to everyone and exploring the city with them. They showed us the beach and a castle. Except for it being windy, the weather was great. It was so nice to walk around in the sun after the past few weeks of rain. After a little bit of exploring we headed to lunch at a bar that had tapas. I didn't get anything too exciting but someone from my program was convinced by a university student to get el corazon del pollo (chicken heart) and I ended up trying a piece. I am glad that I can say I have tried it but that's the first and last time I will be eating it.

The beach!!

View of the city near the university

The castle we walked through

Lunch!

After lunch we met up with the other groups for a bus tour of the city. Ceuta is an extremely pretty place and I enjoyed seeing it from a bus for a bit, the early morning and knowing that we had a long return back to Sevilla started to sink in and I really needed the break.

View from the top of a hill during our bus tour

Hanging out with new friends!

After the tour we had some free time and all ended up at a group of bars and had gelato or a drink before we made our way back to the ferry terminal. We said our goodbyes and exchanged contact info (aka our names for Facebook) and started our way back to Sevilla, where we arrive 18 hours after we left.

Even though it was a very long day, it was an amazing experience and I am so glad that I got to go (even though it was mandatory for my program and I kind of had no choice whether I wanted to go or not)¡ I met some great people who I will hopefully keep in touch with and be friends with for a long time. And I also got to explore a part of the world that not many people know about.