Small Talk

Today Monica, who I will be working with, arrived from Canada. She is originally from Mexico but has been studying in Nova Scotia, Canada for a little over four years. So Olga, Monica, and I sat around in the living room telling stories. It's really interesting listening to stories of different cultures because there are things I would just never imagine. Olga has been living here for 6 months now, so she told us about how alcohol is officially illegal in Morocco because it's not allowed in the Islamic religion. She and her friends were once smoking hash and drinking beer in a car and they got pulled over and her Moroccan friends were a lot more worried about the alcohol, and said the hash was nothing to worry about. I didn't realize that the country's laws could be so determined by religion. They ended up bribing the police to not arrest them. However, it's ok for tourists to drink here because they are not forced to follow the rules of Islam, and there are places to buy liquor. She also told us that a few weeks ago she and her friends had a themed party where girls dressed like boys and boys dressed like girls, but none of her Moroccan friends came because they were scared of being arrested. Homosexuality is not at all tolerated here, but I can't believe that cross-dressing, even just for fun, could get someone arrested.

Later in the afternoon, Monica and I went to the café again and got some mint tea, which I am now obsessed with. Monica is from Mexico and was raised Catholic, but her grandmother was Muslim, and a few years ago she started researching Islam and decided it was for her, so she converted. So, she chose to come to Morocco because she wanted to go to a Muslim country and be able to speak Arabic. We walked down to the beach and when we were leaving two Moroccan guys started walking with us and talking to us. They didn't speak english very well, but they tried really hard to talk to us. They showed us the market just down the street and we walked around there for a while, checking out all the interesting things that people sell.

Tonight, Camille came home from a trip to the desert with his friend, Martin. Camille is also from Poland and has been living in Morocco for a year and a half. He showed us pictures from his trip to the desert, and we decided that we would take a trip down there soon because it looks absolutely amazing.

Getting Settled

This morning, Sarah woke me up and introduced me to Elizabeth, who is an American girl who has been living here for a year and a half, but is leaving in a few days. She showed us around Oudaya, which is the area we are living in, and brought us to her friend's house, which is just around the corner from where we are living. We got some fresh squeezed orange juice from a man at a little kiosque; he just squeezed half-oranges into a glass for us, didn't add sugar or water, and we drank it right there. It was delicious-- very sweet and fresh. We then walked down some roads crowded with Moroccans selling different different things, especially a variety spices, which they have huge bowls full of. We then went to the grocery store, Marjan, to buy some things for the house. I noticed that yogurts are very popular here in Morocco... they have a big aisle devoted to just that.

After dealing with a broken faucet that was flooding our kitchen, Sarah and I took a walk down to the beach. We talked to a man about taking surf lessons, which would be really cool if i have the chance to do it. Then we went to get Moroccan mint tea at a little cafe that overlooks the ocean. A woman grabbed my hand and started drawing henna on it, and of course i was too timid to pull away, so she conned me into paying her 30 durhams for it. I need to work on not being that stupid tourist.

Day 1

I arrived in Rabat, Morocco this afternoon and was immediately greeted by Simo, who recognized me from the picture I sent him a few days before. He drove me from the airport to the biggest mall in north Africa, which has about 35 shops. We parked there and went across the street to the local private university and met some AISECers. I met Sarah and Olga, who told me I would be living with her. Sarah is a girl my age from Montreal who has traveled to more places in the world than I have ever imagined and has a lot of amazing stories to tell because of it. Olga is 23 and from Poland, but has been living in Morocco for 6 months now. She says she is just so much happier living the life she enjoys in Morocco rather than finishing up school, and I can really imagine getting accustomed to the more relaxed mindset that I can already see takes its place in Moroccan culture. I spent the majority of the day relaxing by the AIESEC office and getting to know different people, mostly Moroccans, who I would be working with for the next few months. I went to an english class with Kouta, where the teacher, Neil, was teaching about Plato's Allegory of the Cave. He brought up an interesting analogy of how living in the US and never leaving can be like living in the cave. You think what you are seeing is reality because you don't know anything else, but when you leave and experience different cultures, you are able to see that there is so much in the world. That's why it is so important to make an effort to try new things, and why I am so excited to see what the next few months have in store for me.

Simo and another Moroccan man drove me around the city a little bit and took me to get a cell phone and then some authentic Moroccan food. I ate a kind of bread with cheese called Hashah (spelling?) and some Moroccan yogurt. Simo then drove me to the house where I am living with about 10 other people around my age, most of whom haven't arrived yet. The house is an old, authentic Moroccan building in a crowded, but very pretty neighborhood. It's very messy and doesn't have much furniture, dishes, or food, but I like it that way. I feel like I am really living in another country; We are completely on our own. Sarah took me to the roof, where I'm sure I will spend a lot of time, to show me a breathtaking view of the city. I know I have an amazing 2 months ahead of me, and I already wish I could stay longer.