Day 37-39: The Sahara Camel Tour from Heck

We went on the tour because it would be a great way to see the Sahara desert without having to plan everything. And because Lara thought it was really important to sit on dirty camels and reconnect with her Arabian desert roots. *

There were 10 people on our tour. Here are their brief bios (Claire can provide more extensive ones if needed):

-Lara and Claire (as usual, everyone thought we were 12)
-23 and 28 year old dating Californians (one with many tattoos)
-Japanese Married 30 year olds (one with motion sickness)
-23 Year Old Japanese Cook who met a 27 year old Japanese techie guy in a Casablanca train station and convinced him to come on the tour
-Couple (she 28; he 31) from Hong Kong with fresh Wharton MBAs in hand

In the Sahara, it supposedly rains for four hours every two years. So, when our camel trek began with pelting rain that hurt and wind that whipped the plastic bag on Claire's face (put there for this exact purpose; we didn't have a towel), we felt highly blessed.

When we got to the tents, the couple with Wharton MBAs from Hong Kong refused to share a tent. They also asked where they could hook up their laptop.

One of the Berber men said: "No electricity, Korea."

But they didn't like this, and so shouted quickly: "It's CHINA! We are not from Korea!"

Berber man: "I mean Japan."

Wharton: "It's CHINA!!!!"

Then they took out a bottle of wine they got at the Morrocan quikie mart. She smelled the cork and said, "I don't think it smells that good." He took it from her and said to the group at large: "Well I bought the most expensive one they had!"

We think that this story shows that people who go to business school should try really really hard to not be acting all rich and lame, even when they are stressed about being unfairly called Korean.

*Born in Egypt, Lara lived in the Middle East (Saudi Arabia) until the age of 6.