Hello Morocco!

            Whew…. Want to talk about different cultures. Morocco’s your place. After leaving Granada we took a ferry across the Mediterranean to a port just outside of Tangier, Morocco.  That night we spent the night in Tangier, and that was quite the experience. To be honest, I hated it. It was dirty, and FULL of solicitors. You didn’t walk anywhere where someone didn’t bug the crap out of you to buy something. Then at dinner, there was about 6 of us Americans, and literally as we walked down the streets people would yell at us, grab us, move tables together for us, speak any language they thought we spoke just to get us to come to their little outside restaurant. It was horrible. Even after we found a place, well were forced to a place, they gave us a HAND WRITTEN menu ha. And of course tried to like give us stuff we didn’t ask for and pretend like they didn’t know what we were talking about. Long story short, I have no desire to EVER go back to Tangier…ever.

            After this first night I was ready to get out of there, like Morocco in general. I figured Meknes would be just like it. Now that I’ve been in Meknes for almost a week, I can happily say that it is NOTHING like Tangier. They are not a tourist city and truly enjoy having Americans come and learn about their city and culture. I really haven’t solicited at all. Heck some people just want to come up and say Hello and welcome us to their city. There are a few guys that usually try to take advantage of the ISA girls wallets, but our directors warned the girls of who they are and how to avoid them. They aren’t really trying to harm the girls, just take advantage of their money and their US citizenship. But overall, people in Meknes are great and very welcoming.

            Two Moroccan guys deserve special shout out because they have helped out my apartment-mates and I since we arrived. Nabil and Khalid… both of them are a little older (late 20’s early 30’s) and have jobs in agri-business. They work for a company that distributes a lot of wine and alcohol for Morocco. They are really good friends with on of our directors and have befriended many previous ISA students. They actually was with our directors when we arrived in Meknes and showed us where our apartment was. They also have showed us around town, bought us tea and even pizza late last night. Not to mention the fact that they helped us all study our Arabic and French the entire day yesterday over a bottle of complimentary wine from them.  Bottom line, for someone like me with no background in French (the main language of business transactions) or the local dialect of Arabic (Berber/Dirjha) these two guys are lifesavers and welcome around anytime.

            So when we arrived in Morocco and until a few days ago (Friday exactly I think) it was Ramadan. Ramadan is a huge religious “event” in the Islamic culture where they fast (including water) from sun up to sun down. This was fascinating just because everything was like closed during the days, then really busy and loud at night. Then, 3 days after Ramadan (Eid is what it’s called) is pretty much a big “party.” Party in quotes because not like a Wickham family party, or one thrown at the Garage Majhal (Sorry I think I butchered that spelling Billy haha), it’s more of a celebration and big feast. It was very fascinating to see and experience even though we didn’t really take part.

            We finally went to see our university today, Moulay Ismail University. Moulay Ismail was once king of Morocco and he was the one who moved the capital city here to Meknes for his 50 years as king. The only time Meknes has been the capital. But he built extravagant walls around the entire old city, many of which remain today. I live in the new city but am walking distance away from the old city. He also built a grainery that was big enough to hold enough grain to feed the entire city for 20 years. We toured it and it was the BIGGEST thing I’ve ever seen. Walls are 10 feet THICK and about 40 feet high with just empty square footage to store grain. It was unbelievable. The university itself is within walls that are about 30-40 feet high. Walls surround the entire campus with 3 HUGE Aladdin type doors at the front and only a small door in the back. It is a very cool campus, small but awesome. I should have my schedule by tonight with classes starting tomorrow.

            I don’t want to bore you with a long winded day by day explanation of what has been going on (if I haven’t already haha) but I will make a list of things that remind me of where I am and the cultural differences. Most of them should be funny, but no guarantees:

T.I.M.’s (This Is Morocco)

When the store had to open up the “forbidden closet” where they hide the beer and liquor in the supermarket, then asked us to see our Passports because they don’t sell to Moroccans until today (3 days after Ramadan).

Then the subsequent glares we received as we checked out with our black bags of alcohol. And of course, the bottle I had had no bar code so they proceeded to yell across the store for 5 minutes in French about how much it was. I have never felt so dirty in my life from all the stares I was being given haha. (Don’t get me wrong, Moroccan’s enjoy a good glass of wine or a beer now and then…but it’s definitely not something they boast about)

There are really no cross walks in Morocco. If you can even fathom how this works, you literally play the game Frogger in real life. There are some stoplights, but no one goes there to cross, you just walk across one car at a time literally touching the other cars (going at a pretty good clip) as you walk by. I know some of you may not even be able to see this in your head, because it is extremely dangerous and unheard of, but nonetheless how it is. It turns out it’s very efficient and kind of fun.

Traffic in Morocco also follows really no rules. There are no lanes, you just swerve and drive up to 4 cars wide and beep your horn every time you pass someone ha. So LOTS of beeping, worse than any major city I’ve ever been to. No ones mad, it’s just how it works.

When we walked out of the open air market (that had nearly a million bees swarming all the sweet goods, literally you couldn’t see what the people were selling because bees covered everything in sight) but upon walking out we had to squeeze around a butcher shop on wheels. There was a truck and in the back they were cutting up a pig blood splattering everywhere ha.

When you’re woke up at 4:30 AM every morning by a megaphone yelling Arabic phrases from the Quran. Each morning there is a call to prayer really really early, and each minaret has a megaphone on it so it is heard around the entire city. This happens 5 times a day…it is very eerie.

When my roommates and I go to buy Risk, the board game, and end up paying $60 US DOLLARS for a stupid board game. We split it 6 ways so it was only $10 US dollars apiece, but still OUTRAGEOUS!

When a huge homemade lunch magically appears on the table every day around 1 o’clock thanks to our awesome cook Nora! She also cooks us dinner and leaves it in the fridge, does our dishes, and helps us keep this place clean. She probably hates us for being so dirty, but she’s the best.

Alright wow. I should try to write in my blog more often to keep it short, but it gets busy and it’s hard to decide what to write in this thing. Hopefully you all enjoy and let me know in the comments if you have any specific questions!