Also yesterday was the first day of Ramadan! My roommate and I thought about fasting to be respectful, but decided not to after a neighbor told us that to fast would make people think that we are converting to Islam. The greatest comparison I can make between Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr is to Advent and Christmas - everyone buys a lot of food in preparation, there are special Ramadan TV shows, children get presents on Eid, etc. The meal we had to break the fast last night was incredible with lots of traditional Moroccan food.
Cultural observations I’ve made thus far:
+ Children are raised differently here. Barae, my 4 year old host brother, can run around the house and scream when others are trying to sleep but only gets scolded when he annoys my host parents or if they think that he is bothering/being disrespectful to us. (He is also very obsessed with technology like a lot of children these days.)
+ People in Meknes feel very safe even though petty thefts and what we consider sexual harassment occur.
+ Ambiguity and a lack of answers is preferred over giving definite answers. An example: After an exercise where we practiced using different expressions other than those listed in the book, I asked the teacher which ones we would need to know for the exam or if we needed to know any of them for the exam. His reply? “Mumkin (it is possible)” which answered neither of my questions. I tried rephrasing myself and had no success. This is definitely a little frustrating sometimes.
+ Moroccans generally eat late - around 3 or 4 PM for lunch and as late as 1 AM for dinner! As a result, people go to bed late including kids.
+ Everyone is scared of cats because they live in the street and a lot of them are dirty/possibly rabid :( People don't really have pets here.
+ Moroccans are generally very generous and hospitable, especially my host family who continue to treat us like guests. Visits can be last-minute and tend to last for hours.
+ When my roommate and I approach a shopkeeper, they usually try to speak in French with us first before they then try English even though we are trying to speak Arabic to them! Almost everyone’s second language is French due to the former French occupation.
The hardest thing for me has been that "privacy" and "alone time" are not really concepts here, at least at home. Our room has windows to the main room of the house and a glass paneled door, so our family and sometimes even guests have just pushed open the window or the door to talk to us at random when they see/know we're inside. I knew this prior to arriving here but it has still been tough at times to get used to.
I'll try to explain more about my studies (which are still overwhelming but I've been learning a lot) and my excursions in another post! Kul a3m wa intum bkhayr ("every year and you are well", a traditional Ramadan greeting)!