Mmorocco

Reflections on a Semester Abroad in Morocco

Yesterday I graduated from University of Hartford. I am no longer a student, I am officially a college graduate. I am finally entering “the real world” with practically no solid plans for the future. People keep asking me how it feels. It feels like I've been standing on a diving board for the past twenty-two years, toeing the edge, and someone just gave me a good, solid push. That feeling when you're falling through the air and your stomach drops and you suddenly can't breathe and you're terrified but it's the best kind of terrified- that's what it felt like to graduate. Now, I've belly flopped into the pool and have no choice but to start swimming.

I'm not entirely sure what happened to the past four years. I met some incredible people. I realized my passion for writing. I developed terrible sleeping habits.

I do know that in the future, when somebody asks me about my life in college, I won't hesitate to say that studying abroad was the most educational and enriching aspect of my college career. That's not to say that I didn't learn a lot while on campus; I did, but studying abroad taught me things which I could never have hoped to learn while staying at school.

I spent a semester in Morocco, living with a Moroccan family and struggling everyday to learn Arabic and become assimilated into a culture very different from my own. The first two weeks of classes included a crash course in Darija, a Moroccan dialect, in which my classmates and I sat in a room for four hours a day attempting to absorb as much information as possible. Including writing hundreds of pages of papers and homework and tests over the years, I don't think I have ever pushed my brain to work as hard as I did sitting in Nawal's introductory Darija class. By the end of the day I couldn't remember which language I was supposed to be thinking in. I left everyday feeling exhausted and confused, but accomplished.

Academically, I learned a lot about Moroccan history and about Arabic but by living with my host family I was able to study the culture firsthand. At least in the beginning it felt like I was studying my family, but with every day that passed I became more assimilated. I grew used to their routines and formed my own. Soon I wasn't confused as to where I was when I woke up in the morning and I was no longer startled by the call to prayer. My family gave me a Moroccan name: Emina. I felt more and more at home in the Kasbah.

Without my host family, I still would have enjoyed studying abroad. I still would have learned a lot and I still would be prompting the students I meet now to study abroad. However, living with them gave me a much more intimate and comprehensive connection to Moroccan culture than I ever could have hoped to have without them. They made me feel comfortable enough to ask anything, not only about language but also culture and politics and religion. They fed me until I thought I'd never be hungry again; and then they fed me more. They took care of me when I was sick. They loved me like their own, and I grew to love them too. I think about them all the time and someday will travel back to Morocco to visit them. They are and will always be my Moroccan family.

At the end of three and a half months in Morocco, I had gotten so attached to my family and to the culture that while I missed my friends and family back home, it was extremely difficult for me to leave. Coming home was strange because I experienced reverse culture shock.

The initial culture shock of leaving the United States and arriving in Morocco was to be expected. I knew that things would be different from back home, but I had no idea how different some things could be. This shock was, ultimately, a positive one. My world and my reality was turned on its head and I was left completely disoriented and forced to survive. Not only did I survive, I thrived, and I learned so much in the process.

I think that everyone needs their reality to be shaken up every once in a while, if only to put things into perspective. I got a lot of perspective while studying abroad on several different aspects of my life which I could not have anticipated.

I had hoped that while studying abroad I would figure out what I wanted to do with my life, that I would suddenly have a plan for the future. For some of my classmates this was the case, but not for me. I didn't leave Morocco knowing what I would do after graduation, but I left with a new outlook on life. The future was still scary, and I was still unprepared, but I wasn't quite as stressed as I had been before. When I had complained to my host family about how I thought I'd never get a job with my English degree and how I was going to end up living at home forever and how I had no future, they laughed at me.

Not only was I getting an education, I was able to travel around the world to do so. Not only did I have a home to go back to but a family who would support and encourage me. My host grandfather, as it were, would tease me a lot but he constantly reminded me of how much opportunity lay before me. In the most gentle and caring way possible he made me realize how petty all my anxiety and fear about the future really was.

Moroccans cannot leave the country without a visa, which is close to impossible for many people to obtain. My host grandfather, in his late sixties, would most likely never get to leave the country. He would tell me wistfully about how he longed to move to Germany and get a job and marry a nice German girl. Then he would cackle and wink at me and tell me not to worry about anything, I would be fine. And I know that he's right, I will be fine.

I made a lot of questionable decisions in college, but the best decision I made was to study abroad. No matter what your goals are for the future, I believe that you should study abroad. It can only help prepare you. Go anywhere, it doesn't matter what country you go to, as long as it's something new and different. Now is the time for adventures; now is the time to study abroad.

Maral pictured with her family at graduation.

Maral graduated from the University of Hartford with a BA in English/Creative Writing and a minor in French. She spent a semester abroad in Rabat, Morocco through the Council for International Education & Exchange (CIEE) in Fall 2011.

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Post-Port Reflections of Morocco

A very popular experience for Semester at Sea Voyagers in Casablanca was the SAS-arranged dinner with a Moroccan family. Students were met by the families aboard the MV Explorer, where they took their hosts on a quick tour, and then left with them for dinner in their homes. I spoke with Nancy Abbott, a student from the University of San Diego, who relayed her experiences to me. Her group consisted of four Semester at Sea students. They were picked up by the mother of the family, Sauda ben-Moussa. Following the tour of the ship, Sauda took the students on a driving tour of the city where they were able to see the great mosque, both the new and old medina, the beach, and some of the lively parts of the city. Dinner started at around 9:00. Nancy described the house as very modern, set in a nice part of town, and comparable to an American home. The family consisted of a mother, father, a 23-year-old son, and a 25-year-old daughter and her husband. Despite the many cultural differences, such as being able to eat with your hands (which I’ve been told everyone enjoyed), Nancy said that she and her shipmates felt very comfortable and that it reminded them of being at home. The family was very interested in what was going on in the States and had a genuine appreciation for American culture and values.

Tucker Whitcomb, Cornell
Tucker was with a group that spent a night in a nomad village. He and a few friends met a Moroccan university student who was ecstatic about the opportunity of talking with American students. Their conversation ranged from politics, to history, to economics. One thing that Tucker realized were the differences between the American and Moroccan styles of education. From what he gathered by talking with this student, the Moroccan system is based much more on theory than in the U.S. For example, when the conversation turned to politics, the student did not ask about specific policies or current events, he wanted to learn what the Americans thought of the writings of Karl Marx and other political writers. For the Moroccan, “Talking to Americans was a dream come true,” according to Tucker. For the SAS students, it was a very revealing experience about life for some of their counterparts on Morocco.

SAS Student
I wasn’t able to catch the name of this student, but I really liked what she had to say. She was speaking with someone back home who asked how she could really get to experience the culture of a country. After her time in Morocco, this SAS student had her answer. While she was waiting for a bus, she sat down next to an elderly man who struck up a conversation with her. She said that it was an incredible experience and that she learned so much more about life in Morocco by just sitting at the bus stop than she ever could have learned by traveling around the country and visiting the sites.

Joshua Bernstein, University of Maine
“I want to talk about us,” Josh said as he took the microphone. He described the various places around the world that Semester at Sea Voyagers have come from, and how this group of 700+ people is now “beginning to form a family of sorts.” Faces are becoming familiar, which he described as very comforting fact when you are exploring a foreign country. “I was so happy and relieved to see family - Semester at Sea faces.” Josh recognized the turning point our community is at right now, but he also alluded to the fact that we are still in the beginnings of our journey together. He told an interesting short story to show how we need build on our great start, which I’d like to share with you.

There was a carpenter who was about to retire, but his boss asked him to build just one more house before he ended his career. The carpenter reluctantly agreed, but because he was in a rush to retire, he did not pick out the best materials as he usually did, but instead used whatever the store had. He also did not give the same level of care or attention to detail that he had always taken in his work before. The carpenter just rushed through the project as fast as he could. When the house was finished, the carpenter’s boss met him at the front door and handed him the keys – “This house is a gift to you in honor of your retirement.” The carpenter was completely taken aback. If he had known the house would have been for him, he would have put in just as much effort as he always had.

The community that we are building on the MV Explorer is ours. Every “wall” that we build, every relationship made, will contribute to a stronger and more meaningful experience for every SAS Voyager.

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Reflections on Semester in Morocco

Living with a host family allowed me to improve my French, develop basic conversational Darija, enjoy Moroccan cuisine, and learn about Moroccan culture. I will stay in touch with my host families in Rabat and Fez. My Moroccan host mothers fervently remind me to bring my future, currently nonexistent, spouse and children to stay in the comfort of their home during my next visit, inchallah. I know that I will always be marhaben (welcome) in the homes of my beloved Moroccan families.

I created a list of my academic goals, anticipated challenges, and expectations for personal growth for my four months in Rabat. I enclosed the list in an envelope and gave it to the director of my campus study abroad office. Near the midway point of the semester, I received the letter in the mail. Reading over the list, I am satisfied with my accomplishments. As would be anticipated with ‘study’ abroad, I have learned by living in Morocco, engaging in course work, and participating in an internship. Interacting with my host family, friends, and the host culture have facilitated the greatest growth.

Among my academic courses, Gender and Society in North Africa and Beyond has made the greatest impact on me. The course was predominately focused on the scholarship of feminist Muslim scholars. The scholars we studied challenge patriarchal interpretations of the Koran and seek women’s liberation through the study and reinterpretation of religious texts by women. The content instructed in this course contrasted with my previous studies of Western feminist movements which predominantly seek liberation through the rejection of religion, a system deemed to be innately patriarchal and oppressive. I am eager to incorporate the knowledge I gained in Morocco into my studies in the U.S. next year.

Managing Communication in Arab Organizations: A Case Study of Morocco helped deepen my understanding of the differences in the business cultures of Arab, Africa, and Western organizations. My experience interning at l’Association Démocratique des Femmes du Maroc (ADFM) helped illustrate the concepts and theories that we studied in class. By translating documents from French into English, I was able to enhance my French proficiency and become more familiar with the women’s activism of the ADFM. Based on my experience, I am more aware of the inner workings of small NGOs and feel more adept to work with international organizations like the ADFM in my future career.

It is impossible to communicate everything I learned about Morocco, myself, the world, and my place within it within the confines of this 500 word blog post. I hope that these three examples serve as a mere introduction to the wealth of knowledge and skills I accumulated throughout the semester. It is certainly not inclusive.

I will continue processing the experience throughout the upcoming months. Readjustment back to the United States will be challenging. I will miss Morocco. Despite the physical distance, the understandings I developed will remain with me. If fostered correctly, they will continue to grow and flourish.

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