One month in.

One month ago today I arrived in Morocco. Which means I have 1 1/2 more here. That's not a lot of time, really. I am glad I have it, even after all the sick yesterday (and I am feeling much better btw.) I can't believe some of the other students only have 2 weeks now. I have hardly bought anything and not seen very much of the country. More than I saw of Tunisia, as crazy as that is (which is why I hope to go back eventually), but still not very much!

I have definitely learned a lot of language here, both standard and Moroccan, though I do wish I had more :) haha, so hard to satisfy, but that's why I am staying longer than almost everyone else. I have also noticed some interesting things about the use of French and language attitudes that I may be able to wrap into something for a class at the very least, but possibly even my dissertation.

The next few weekends I am going to try to travel a bit more. Some people are going to a city near the coast and I may head over there with them (though if they continue on to a city further up, I may just stay in the nearer one. I also know people in two different cities within weekend distance - Meknes (45 min) and Rabat (2.5 hours) and I plan to go to both before leaving. Since I have one full week here after my classes end, I am starting to look at possible destinations and potential couchsurfers to stay with. Most of the Moroccan couch offerers are guys (or at least it's a guy who made the page) so I'll end up staying with non-Moroccans, but that should be fun, too.

It turns out to be very hard to meet Moroccans. There aren't a lot of groups to join or classes to take. People tend to meet others through their friends. I realize it's a lot like that at home, but there are a lot more places at home that it's acceptable for young people to hang out. Here, some more modern people will go to cafes, but it's still mostly older males. And that's not really my scene. It's typical for guys to get married around 30 or 35 to a girl significantly younger - and I have no interest in being seen as a possibility by them. So people meet their friends mostly at home and maybe go out walking or shopping together. Maybe get something to eat, depending on how much money they have, what their parents are ok with, etc. I was hoping to meet younger people, in order to get ideas on what kind of research might work (plus it's more fun to talk to people of a similar age/interests) so I have been trying outside and now have one Moroccan friend. The first couple times we talked I think she didn't know what to do, so we just helped each other learn more words and phrases. The third time started similarly, but we talked more after that. She speaks pretty English and ok French as far as I can tell so far, so we can get a lot across. We'll see how it continues.

Well, it is time to leave the study center - it closes from 1-4:30 on weekends. So I suppose that is all you get for now!