The past few days the many relatives/neighbors/friends we’ve met have come to say their goodbyes, but it’s not goodbye forever since we may be returning next year. We didn’t have a formal going-away party at home last night - instead I just went to Marjane with my family for a few hours, came home and did some final packing, and ate a late dinner with ice cream for dessert (a special treat!). I think I prefer the continued normalcy to a fancy, long event because the end-of-semester exhaustion is now hitting me. Our family gave Sophia and I gifts - a small red lamp, one for each of us - and told us that they will miss us; it means a lot to hear from my host parents that they consider us part of the family now, like their daughters, because they don’t wear their emotions on their sleeves.
The program could be improved upon in many ways - especially our schedule for this final week - but overall I’m still so happy that I had this opportunity to study and utilize Arabic daily abroad as well as experience cultural immersion and make new friends, both American and Moroccan. I definitely hope to return for a full year, but we’ll see what the future will bring!
I only spent 2 months here but being in a partially Westernized country for an extended period of time is making me look forward to several things in the States:
- Iced coffee. The coffee here is awesome because, as previously mentioned, it’s more milk and sugar than coffee but it’s always scalding hot which is not desirable in 80-90 degree weather! And I get to look forward to Pumpkin Spice Frappuccinos when I get back!
- Constant Internet access/strong Wifi. We have no Internet access at my home, and the Wifi isn’t strong at the school when all of the students and teachers are online at once.
- Air conditioning. In my opinion the heat is worse in America due to the humidity, but 100+ degree temperatures with no AC is pretty brutal at times too. AC exists here, but it’s not common because electricity is expensive.
- Wearing shorter dresses in the summer. I’ve had to wear pants and long skirts/dresses as a foreigner in the Arab world, so I’m excited to be able to wear shorts and skirts in the summer heat.
- Swimming. There are pools here, but you have to pay for them and swimming doesn’t seem to be a common summer activity for adults (much less women in general).
- Chipotle/Mexican food in general. Does this even need an explanation? There’s not really a variety of restaurants in terms of types of food served here - there’s Moroccan, general Arab/Mediterranean, and European.
- Going to the gym. I didn’t really have time to join a gym this summer, but also I think women can only attend during certain times of day which would have been a pain to work around.
- Seeing my family and friends, of course!