TJM: Total Jo Jo Move

Marvelous, Mind-blowing, Morocco "I don't think we're in Europe anymore." Links to other helpful sites & blog posts are  underlined .   Les Jardins Majorelle, French-inspired Moroccan garden   Palais Badii (the Badii Palace) in the Medina, the center of Marrakech Truly Experiencing Foreign Cultures Around this time last year, I spent the second to last week of my Australian semester abroad in Indonesia. I spent one week on a solo trip in Bali, and I absolutely loved it. Throughout that trip, I kept thinking to myself "This is the most foreign place I've ever been." Well, Morocco blows Bali out of the water in that respect.    Bali was incredibly touristy, and so was Marrakech, but the culture surrounding tourists in each place is very different. In my opinion, the general attitude of Balinese toward tourists is to please them and to help them have a good experience so the tourism cycle continues. In Marrakech,  t ...

BUEN VIAJE EN MADRID (Meant to be posted after leaving Madrid. Posted after Morocco trip due to low connection speed in Morocco.) Introducción a España  Our first 3 days in Europe were spent in walking the streets of Madrid, surrounded by beautiful Spanish architecture, easygoing Spanish people, & countless adds for tapas & jamón (ham). They LOVE ham here.  Getting around wasn't too difficult. On Google Maps, we had starred many of the places we knew we would want to go, then took the metro to the nearest stop & followed the blue dot as we walked & got a little off-track. Other fun places like local restaurants & pretty side streets were easy to find simply by walking the area.  Sometimes when I spoke Spanish to communicate with natives, I knew I was conjugating incorrectly & stumbled through my words, but for the most part, I communicated the necessary questions or answers efficiently, even if I only used words or phrases instead of full sentences...