Study Abroad and Domestic Study Away

A week is all the time I have left in Morocco as I'm writing this, and I’m already imagining the next time I come back.

Let me, then, list a few of the things I’m going to miss about this beautiful country. The incredibly warm, open and friendly people, from taxi drivers blasting Gnawa music in the chaos of the city streets, to women selling fresh bread and pastries in the markets. The food, with a million different tajines and couscous dishes, spiced lentil appetizers and olives on the side of every dish. The holy month of Ramadan, when everything slows down, the rhythm of life changes, people come together more than any other time of the year, and all places serve harira and oh-so-delicious little cookies. The hustle and bustle of the medinas, in contrast, with dozens little unmapped streets, shops where you can buy anything, cats on every corner and the overlapping calls to prayer from a mosque on every street. The diverse landscapes, from the breezy beaches, over the jagged peaks of the Atlas, to the hot plains and dunes of the desert. The diverse culture, with so much music, architecture and folk art to enjoy.

I’m glad that I had the opportunity to take courses focusing on Morocco’s history and culture, diving deeper into the diversity particularly of its Amazigh heritage, including the Tamazight language.

Of course, navigating the new culture has definitely brought its challenges, too. Haggling, for the longest time, felt like insulting the shopkeeper with every attempt at lowering the price, and it took quite a bit of practice to start enjoying the process. The language barrier, too, was at times tricky to deal with. I came to Morocco hoping to practice my previous Arabic knowledge, and quickly found out that the local dialect, Darija, was nothing like the standard Arabic I’d studied before. Moroccans are thankfully incredibly multilingual, so I dusted off some French from high school, threw in a bit of English when necessary, dove into conversations with a just-gotta-make-it-work-somehow linguistic freestyle approach, and then quickly realized that my Moroccan friends were also mixing languages all the time.

Though Morocco might not be the most conventional study-abroad experience, it sure was a unique and powerful one, and I’m glad the country became my home for at least this semester.

Hiking Jbel Toubkal, a mountain in southwestern Morocco: