Day Two: Touring Rabat

Today was spent touring the city of Rabat with our guide, Fatima, an energetic Moroccan woman who we twenty-something year-old students had difficulty keeping up with. She spoke with passion and simultaneously a great sense of humor about her country.
We began with the Ruins of Chellah which contained Roman ruins as well as artifacts predating the twelfth century. Hugging the walls of the ruin was a botanical garden as well as a corner featuring a pool of water which was home to several fresh water eels. It is custom to feed the eels eggs the idea being that if the eel eats your egg you are a "good" person and if not...you may be going to Hell (this is not how Fatima worded it, I'm just elaborating).
From Chellah we visited the Tour du Hassan, a famous minaret built by Yacoub El Mansour and the King's Palace. The palace, as you might imagine, was an impressive building-large but elegant where the King works but no longer lives. Fatima described, with much enthusiasm, the King's wife Lalla Salma. She explained that Princess (her given title, though she is married to the king) Salma is a model for Moroccan women. An example in terms of fashion as well as etiquette.
The Kasbah was quaint with it's white and blue painted walls and small wooden doors yet overwhelming in size. Without Fatima I would surely have been lost within minutes. We followed her, by now exhausted by all the walking but eager as always to see more, to where the Kasbah faced the ocean and watched as locals swam in the water below us.
It is now almost 1am and time for bed. Tomorrow I will meet my host family.