Normalization

It’s Wednesday night here in Rabat and I’m getting ready to leave for Lisbon in the morning. Both my housemates have left for the weekend; one to Rome and one to Marrakech. Being home alone has given me a chance to think about my experience here in Morocco so far.

Being in Morocco over the last month and a half has been an amazing experience. I have met so many great people, many of whom I’m blessed to call my friends. I have seen so many beautiful sights, such as this little Madrassa (religious school) in Fes which is still my favourite sight here in Morocco. Life here is good!

With some of the crew

In one of the many Fes Madrassas

Many people who have been on exchange say that when you go on exchange, at first you romanticize the destination. You fall in love with the culture and all the things which are different about your new country. It’s in this time that you are not settled in a real routine- every day is a different experience with new and exciting things happening.

However this changes after things start getting busy. Days become more routine and regimented. You have seen most of what you experience on a daily basis so it has less meaning for you. Subsequently, the love you had for the country tends to dissipate. The premise of this idea is that you associate the new culture with the novelty of the experience. Once the novelty wears off, you start to resent the country because it challenge many things you believe to be normal. It forces you to grapple with a new way of doing things and an entirely new culture.

I feel as though I’m getting over the novelty of Morocco. I know how to handle myself in my area without getting mugged/worse. I’m starting to fall into a routine of schoolwork, extracurriculars, and friends. Life has a certain pace to it, which is the same from day to day. As a result, I feel like I don’t have much to blog about.

However, I miss Canada much less than I thought I would. I honestly thought I would miss it so much more. Now this is not to say I don’t miss Canada, I do. I miss my family and friends. I miss Queen’s and Calgary and Canada as a way of life. But relative to how much I thought I’d miss Canada, it’s much less. I miss small things about Canada; double-double coffee, ginger ale, indoor heating, and other small things. But honestly, I missed them more once I first arrived in Morocco than I do now.

In terms of the big picture, my expectation of Morocco hasn’t changed. I still love “the Morocco I see” a lot. I still really love the small cultural things that are different; little coffees, kissing people on the cheek, etc. I haven’t, and I hope to never, come to the point where I dislike Morocco or the Moroccan way of doing things. I have come to accept that the way things are done here is different from back home. Not better or worse just different, and I think it’s a good way to see a new culture.

Leaving for Portugal in just a few hours. I’ll definitely update this blog next week about my first international trip!