Two Week Check-In!

It is currently January 19th and I have been here for roughly two weeks!!

I landed on January 4th with all of my luggage in stow. It helped that it was a direct flight, despite my family and I driving roughly two hours to the airport. I definitely recommend looking at different airports to see which has the best deal and shortest flight! I arrived in the morning and received airport pickup with a local student through my university. They were super welcoming and definitely calmed my nerves about the whole experience. I also found out that my apartment was brand new! With lots of new construction happening in Casa Finance City, a lot of the buildings are under construction or just now opening— even my mattress was still wrapped! I also booked a double room, meaning I was supposedly going to have a roommate, but I have been the only one living in the room for the past fourteen days. This has actually been a great benefit and I love having the big space to myself, and I am now also best friends with my neighbors! Lots of international exchange students live in my building, so it’s nice that we eat breakfast (which is free in my building) and always walk to class together.

Speaking of class, I only have classes Tuesday and Friday due to taking some online classes. I will also be taking an Arabic language class, but that does not start until the middle of February. My classes have been great, and they thrive off active participation, questions, and conversation instead of traditional lecture. All of my professors have been super nice, I can easily understand their English, and our daily group projects are creative and require outside thinking, which I love! As for the students, everyone has been super friendly and open as well! With two different cohorts, a French cohort and an English one, it made it hard to communicate with certain groups who did not fully understand English, but there was a good balance between groups, so I still had plenty of people to chat with! We had our free team-building day with ESCA (my university), and we got to meet a bunch of local and international students. We got to try local cuisine and play team games to inspire competition and collaboration. Most of my friends are actually from Russia, but I also have some from France, Belgium, and Morocco as well.

I am embarrassed to say this was my first meal in Morocco but it is true lol

In my free time, I have been exploring the lovely city of Casablanca! My biggest shock was that most people speak French in most settings (I do not have a lot of trouble with communication; a lot understand general English because it is common to speak three different languages here). This includes restaurants, stores, services, and transportation locations. I only ever hear Arabic in casual conversation, never out and about! I was also really shocked to see not a ton of Moroccan restaurants in my specific area of Casablanca. Instead, we see lots of chains and modern restaurants instead of local places. Despite this, there are a lot of local places in Casablanca itself, just not the newer areas—definitely try the medina and older areas for an authentic meal! As for local food, it is lots of bread and chicken. I have tried couscous (my favorite), tajine, kefta, m’semen (Moroccan crepe), and rfissa. They have all been decent-sized portions, especially the rfissa, which was humongous. As for drinks, I have officially turned into a tea lover. As an advocate for iced sweet tea, I did not think I was going to be obsessed with Moroccan mint tea. However, I drink it at least twice a day now and drink it with all of my meals. It is tradition to pour your tea from as high up as possible, which is super funny when watching everyone do it at once.

First time having mint tea!

My school here in Casablanca

As for cultural differences from the United States, it definitely has a lot more similarities than I thought before I arrived! The city can be compared to most major cities in the United States, except it is a lot cheaper (a 30-minute taxi is roughly $4), cleaner, the people are so nice, and there is a much lower crime/homeless rate—despite the casual pickpocketing, which my friend experienced last week. He was not paying attention while casually on his phone, and a man on a motorcycle came by and grabbed it! A good samaritan chased after him and was able to retrieve it with no worries, but still a crazy experience for the first week. There are also a lot of stray cats on the streets. In general, the city reminds me a lot of Lima, Peru!

First night in Casablanca with new friends!

I would not say I am experiencing any culture shock at the moment besides some generic differences from an Arabic country like gender separation in hall floors and prayer time. I do miss my family, but I am also extremely excited to explore outside of Casablanca!!!