It's interesting to me how now, after a couple weeks, things are already starting to become so familiar to me that I don't even notice them anymore. I don't get lost anymore in the maze of alleys leading from my house to the building where we have class. I don't really notice the questionable piles of trash in the streets. I've stopped minding the looks/greetings/comments from random men. I've gotten used to everyone being about 10-20 minutes late for everything. My first instinct is to say certain things in French or Arabic instead of in English first and then searching for a translation. Sometimes it's annoying always searching for a way to express exactly what I want to say, but it's also fun when I am able to express myself. I've found myself remembering words for things I didn't know I knew, and I'm getting really used to only using French at home (even though I should actually be practicing my Arabic also).
One thing I can't get used to, though, is the food. Moroccan food is very very VERY carb heavy. Breakfast always consists of a tea or coffee and a combination of toast, baguette, and croissants. Lunch is generally some type of stew with bread. (The traditional way to eat the stew is using bread as a spoon and picking up the food with a piece of bread. My family uses spoons, though, thank goodness. Trying to use bread as a utensil causes you to eat way too much bread.) Then we have tea at dinnertime, around 7pm, which consists of bread, baguette, croissants, tea, and coffee. Then a small dinner late at like 10 or 11pm, which varies, but is usually more carbs... something like pasta or rice. Basically my diet is entirely carbs, cooked vegetables, fat, some meat, and fruit. There is not a lot of variety in the meals, which makes me miss American food so much. I definitely took for granted the ability to find any type of food I wanted.
Everyone in my program is settling in to Moroccan life. A group of us have decided to take belly dancing classes and surf lessons, which are both absurdly cheap here by American standards. We've also been planning trips, for example, next weekend we're going to Tangiers to go to the beach and a jazz festival. The week after that is our group excursion, where we're visiting all over Morocco including several days in Marrakesh and camping in the desert in southern Morocco. For our break we've decided to go travel around southern Spain and then spend some days in Portugal.
We just got my internship placements today, and we start tomorrow. I'm working at the Association Democratique des Femmes du Maroc (ADFM), which is a nonprofit women's advocacy organization that works closely with a lot of other women's groups to push certain measures in parliament. I'm pretty sure they're mostly political advocacy group for gender equality and women's rights, but they also run some education programs. It's interesting that on their website they describe themselves as a feminist group. The word 'feminist' seems almost outdated in American culture, but I keep having to remind myself that in Morocco the concept of feminism is not outdated or superfluous in politics but rather fairly modern and necessary. I'm excited to work with those women and hopefully get a better grasp of the types of social and political gender inequalities in Morocco today.
This past weekend we took a trip to Casablanca. The highlight of the trip was probably seeing the Hassan II mosque, the third largest mosque in the world, with the tallest minaret. (The tour guide emphasized this point). It was huge and beautiful. The pictures don't do it justice at all.
The mosque is built right on the ocean, and it was beautiful to watch the sunset on the ocean with the mosque all lit up like this. King Hassan II of Morocco, who built this in the early 1990s, said he chose this spot because of the line in the Qur'an that says "his throne was on the ocean" ('his' being Allah).
The other highlight was the Casablanca nightlife. We went to several clubs that were all VERY different, and each interesting and fun in their own ways. One, we soon found out, was a gay club. Homosexuality is very taboo in Moroccan culture, so it was interesting to find very blatant homosexuality inside the club when outside the club it would be very taboo for two men to kiss, for example. Homosexuality is actually illegal in Morocco, and you can get pretty serious jail time for being openly gay. That is to say, there are many gay men (and presumably women) in Morocco, but you have to be very secretive about it. So, it was interesting to see crossdressing and men kissing in the club when it is so taboo in general and in public. Another club we went to was very loud and crowded with a mix of traditionally dressed Moroccans and very westernly clad Moroccans. They were playing traditional music, and lots of women were belly dancing. One woman was actually wearing the traditional robe and head scarf while belly dancing. This was very strange - I continue to not understand so much about this culture. I'll write more on that later perhaps.
One thing I can't get used to, though, is the food. Moroccan food is very very VERY carb heavy. Breakfast always consists of a tea or coffee and a combination of toast, baguette, and croissants. Lunch is generally some type of stew with bread. (The traditional way to eat the stew is using bread as a spoon and picking up the food with a piece of bread. My family uses spoons, though, thank goodness. Trying to use bread as a utensil causes you to eat way too much bread.) Then we have tea at dinnertime, around 7pm, which consists of bread, baguette, croissants, tea, and coffee. Then a small dinner late at like 10 or 11pm, which varies, but is usually more carbs... something like pasta or rice. Basically my diet is entirely carbs, cooked vegetables, fat, some meat, and fruit. There is not a lot of variety in the meals, which makes me miss American food so much. I definitely took for granted the ability to find any type of food I wanted.
Everyone in my program is settling in to Moroccan life. A group of us have decided to take belly dancing classes and surf lessons, which are both absurdly cheap here by American standards. We've also been planning trips, for example, next weekend we're going to Tangiers to go to the beach and a jazz festival. The week after that is our group excursion, where we're visiting all over Morocco including several days in Marrakesh and camping in the desert in southern Morocco. For our break we've decided to go travel around southern Spain and then spend some days in Portugal.
We just got my internship placements today, and we start tomorrow. I'm working at the Association Democratique des Femmes du Maroc (ADFM), which is a nonprofit women's advocacy organization that works closely with a lot of other women's groups to push certain measures in parliament. I'm pretty sure they're mostly political advocacy group for gender equality and women's rights, but they also run some education programs. It's interesting that on their website they describe themselves as a feminist group. The word 'feminist' seems almost outdated in American culture, but I keep having to remind myself that in Morocco the concept of feminism is not outdated or superfluous in politics but rather fairly modern and necessary. I'm excited to work with those women and hopefully get a better grasp of the types of social and political gender inequalities in Morocco today.
This past weekend we took a trip to Casablanca. The highlight of the trip was probably seeing the Hassan II mosque, the third largest mosque in the world, with the tallest minaret. (The tour guide emphasized this point). It was huge and beautiful. The pictures don't do it justice at all.
The mosque is built right on the ocean, and it was beautiful to watch the sunset on the ocean with the mosque all lit up like this. King Hassan II of Morocco, who built this in the early 1990s, said he chose this spot because of the line in the Qur'an that says "his throne was on the ocean" ('his' being Allah).
The other highlight was the Casablanca nightlife. We went to several clubs that were all VERY different, and each interesting and fun in their own ways. One, we soon found out, was a gay club. Homosexuality is very taboo in Moroccan culture, so it was interesting to find very blatant homosexuality inside the club when outside the club it would be very taboo for two men to kiss, for example. Homosexuality is actually illegal in Morocco, and you can get pretty serious jail time for being openly gay. That is to say, there are many gay men (and presumably women) in Morocco, but you have to be very secretive about it. So, it was interesting to see crossdressing and men kissing in the club when it is so taboo in general and in public. Another club we went to was very loud and crowded with a mix of traditionally dressed Moroccans and very westernly clad Moroccans. They were playing traditional music, and lots of women were belly dancing. One woman was actually wearing the traditional robe and head scarf while belly dancing. This was very strange - I continue to not understand so much about this culture. I'll write more on that later perhaps.
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