Winding Down

I don't know if anyone still reads this blog anymore, hell I forget about it and I feel like all of the exciting stuff has come and gone, but I'm going to update it anyway.
So less than two weeks from today I will be flying home to America. I can't believe my semester abroad is almost done. I honestly don't know where it all went; I feel like I just stepped off plane from France and into Rabat, confused and jetlagged, a little unsure about everything in this strange country, afraid to eat the food, and not knowing a word of Darija.
And now I've tried so many new foods that it takes a lot to phase me. I've experienced being sick more times in the past 3 months than since I started college two and a half years ago. I lived with a family that  on a good day, I can have a successful 5 minute max conversation in French with, and who thinks it's weird that I want to shower every day. Sometimes I feel like a completely different person because I have lived a completely different lifestyle for three and almost a half months. Being surrounded by a Muslim community has taught me that people are people, and that doesn't change wherever you go in the world. I feel like I can confidently travel anywhere now...well except maybe other less developed parts of Africa.

I just hope I don't forget what it was like, leaving behind the comforts of a first world country, and being entirely pushed out of my comfort zone for a few months.
I don't want to forget the way I felt on Eid, when I witnessed my host family slaughter two sheep for a sacrifice, and how that was the first time I truly felt culture shock and honestly didn't know what to say when my host mom asked me what I thought of the holiday.
I don't want to forget that first lunch with my host family in Fes with my roommate, where nobody said a word during the entire meal, I wanted to just burst out crying because it was all so weird and foreign to me, and I probably ate about 5 bites of food and then said I was full, just because I was so scared of getting sick from food that I had never heard of in my life.
I don't want to forget my day of learning Darija and having absolutely no idea what was going on, and feeling stupider than I ever have in my entire life.
I don't want to forget the first time I bartered successfully in the old medina, and got a 400 dirham rug for 300 dirhams.
I don't want to forget how me and my friends became friends with some hanut owners and how they always laugh at our attempts to speak Amazight and count from 1 to 5. Sometimes 1 to 10, for my friend. I don't quite have that down yet.

But then I think about America, about being able to eat soooo much food, driving my car, seeing my friends and family, and living a truly free life, and I get beyond ecstatic.
I think about how much I've changed this semester, how many places I've visited, how many different people I've met, and you know, I think it's time to go back to America. 

Less than a month left

So it's pretty crazy.
I have less than a month left in Morocco. It feels like just yesterday I was talking to Rachel, guessing what life would be like in Morocco, wondering how I'd change, what I would experience, and how overall, it was only a tiny slice of time out of my life.
And now it's almost over.

It's weird. I can barely remember what everyday life is like in America. So I know that I probably won't remember most of what Morocco is like after a month back in the good ole USA. But I guess that's not what's truly important. I think what's most important is that I got out of America and was able to realize just how made we have it there. A lot of people complain about America, about politics especially as of lately, how it's crumbling...but honestly that's not true at all. America has everything you'd ever need and more. I think we live such a comfortable life in America that it blinds us to the reality of the rest of the world and makes us focus on problems that well, aren't really problems in the grand scheme of everything else. I hope that I remember that I should never take anything for granted in America. Because that's the most important part of the living abroad experience in my opinion.

Anyway though, now that all of the trips and traveling part of my program are over, I've been able to establish more of a routine in Rabat. It's been interesting figuring out what to do during the weekends here, since there are limited options. Usually I go out to eat with my friends, we walk around the old medina, maybe go shopping, and find a place to hang out. I've been trying to go to the beach more even though it's too cold to lay out or go swimming without a wetsuit just because it's so beautiful and something I'll definitely miss a lot. I used to complain about being bored in America a lot, but now I have a different take on being bored. Walking is a great cure to boredom. I used to hate walking, I never really saw the point of it, but now I've realized how much fun it can be to just walk around with friends, talk, and people watch. Simple solutions.

The other day I was at a hanut (it's basically a hole in the wall convenience store, they're everywhere in the old medina) and there was a worker standing outside stirring around some seeds in a pot that was above a fire. I was curious as to what the seeds were called, so I pointed to them and looked at the worker and said, "Shnu smytk?" which in Darija means, "What's your name?" and can be only be directed to people. So basically I butcher Darija on a daily basis and it's a huge joke. But it's all pretty funny. It's going to be weird not speaking 3 languages every day, well in my case, attempting to and usually failing. But hey, at least I try!

I tried posting pictures of my trip to Spain and France but I can't figure it out anymore. So I'll keep trying to, otherwise I'll just post stuff on Facebook.

Miss you all in America, less than a month!