Tag: abbymarco

By abbymarco

It is hard to believe that I only have one week left of my program here in Morocco. It seems like just yesterday that I was walking through the crazy medina for the first time, overwhelmed and nervous for the next four months. Despite all of the challenges about studying abroad here, I look back on all that I have done with such fond memories and truly appreciate all that I have learned here.

That being said, I am definitely looking forward to returning home to Philadelphia soon. I guess it’s true what they say- distance really does make the heart grow fonder. Before I left for this amazing adventure, I was so excited to leave GW and my home for a while; I desperately needed a change. After being away for so long, I have now realized all of the things I have taken for granted at home over the years.

...continue reading "Goodbye Morocco, Hello USA"

By abbymarco

This weekend, I spent four days camping with Berber nomads in the High Atlas Mountains. These people do not speak any Arabic, but instead use a spoken language called Tamazight. They live in tiny huts with their tribes made of wood and tarp, and they move three times throughout the year depending on the weather. They do not use the Moroccan currency at all; instead, they trade sheep and other animals and homemade products for the goods they need. Before leaving for the trip, I was a little nervous about being able to communicate with my nomad hosts and was unsure of what to expect in terms of their lifestyle. However, the trip ended up being truly the most amazing experience I have ever had in my life. I think a huge part of what made the trip so amazing boiled down to one thing: Moroccan hospitality.

...continue reading "Moroccan Hospitality"

By abbymarco

Studying abroad anywhere is certainly a challenging experience; adapting to a new culture, environment, and language is never easy. For me, the most difficult adjustment has been living with my host family, which, despite its many challenges, has also been my favorite experiencing. Coming into my semester abroad, I found myself completely unable to communicate. I had been relying on my few semesters of French in high school to help me get by in Morocco. However, where I live in the old Medina, few people speak French. My host family made up of my mom, dad, and thirty-year old host brother, speak only Darija, which is the Moroccan dialect of Arabic.

Unfortunately, not only did I not speak any Darija upon my arrival in Morocco, I did not know any Modern Standard Arabic, either. Since arriving here, I’ve been taking an intensive Modern Standard Arabic course where I spend two hours a day in class, Monday through Friday. While this has helped my communication skills immensely in my daily life here, communicating at home is still challenging. My host family does not know very much Modern Standard Arabic, and I only know as much Darija as I can pick up in the streets, so a lot gets lost in translation. However, I have come so far with my language abilities since first getting to Rabat, and each day, communicating gets easier and easier.

...continue reading "Living with a Host Family Abroad"

By abbymarco

My Moroccan life is anything but boring; being immersed in such a new culture means that every day brings a new adventure. Even on the "boring" school days, I always have exciting, weird, or new experiences simply because everything is so unlike home. Here are some of my favorite things to do in Rabat, Morocco:

1) I couldn't begin this post with anything other than the medina. The medina is the oldest part of the city that is encircled by huge walls. In fact, it was all there was of Rabat before the French came in 1912. The medina is lined with hundreds of vendors selling all sorts of food and fun little things. There are lots of Moroccan craft shops that contain a variety of items, like the well-known Moroccan carpets and embroidered fabrics, copper items, lamps, jewelry, antiques, wooden items, and lots of other unique gifts. The medina is always jam-packed with people bustling about buying their daily groceries, heading to the mosque, or meeting friends. As much fun as it is to aimlessly meander through the medina and get lost (which is easy to do, trust me), it is a difficult place to maneuver multiple times a day. I live right in the center of the medina, which is an amazing experience, but it also means it is always noisy and I'm constantly forced to navigate the crowds to get anywhere. Still, is it an amazing place to shop and wander, and the amazing smells of food stands make it simply irresistible.

...continue reading "My Favorite Things to do in Rabat"

By abbymarco

Like many people, I have found myself more focused on the “abroad” part of “study abroad” and less concerned with the study aspect. Of course, this seems only natural; who wants to spend all day, every day stuck inside doing work when they could be exploring a new place and culture?!

Lucky for me, I’ve found my study abroad program to be extremely understanding of students’ wishes to explore our host country, often times going easy on homework and weekend assignments. I have without a doubt found my abroad curriculum to be much easier than my coursework at GW, and I am perfectly content with that. I am still learning SO much, both in the classroom and out of it, while still having enough time to explore Morocco and beyond.

...continue reading ""Study" Abroad"

By abbymarco

Like many other people I'm sure, having the opportunity to eat new foods (and a lot of them) was one of the things I was most excited about when I began my study abroad experience. Moroccan food has certainly not let me down, as food and meal times are a huge part of the culture here. With so many exciting, new, and sometimes weird flavors, it's hard to choose just one favorite food... So here's my top five!

1. Couscous: I couldn't make it through this list without listing this Moroccan staple! Every Friday for lunch, Moroccans enjoy steamed couscous piled high with stewed meat and tons vegetables. The Moroccan spices and perfectly-cooked veggies that melt in your mouts are completely irresistible, and they're the reason I rush home after my Arabic classes on Fridays. Couscous is the traditional Moroccan meal that is only eaten on Fridays, the holiest day in Islam. And the best part is that it's eaten with your hands!!

...continue reading "New Food: The Best Part About Studying Abroad"

By abbymarco

There’s something about completely immersing yourself in a new culture that really makes you take a step back and look at yourself- your life at home, your actions, your belief system- in an entirely new light. Living in a society so different than your own makes you acutely aware of how you appear to the rest of the world, intentionally or not.

Now that I’ve spent two months in Morocco, I feel as if I have learned more about myself and my own culture than I would have expected; I thought I was coming here to learn about a new culture (I’m doing that too, don’t worry), not my own!

...continue reading "Perception of Americans in Morocco"

By abbymarco

As an English-speaking, white woman in the United States, I have never in my life been a true minority anywhere. Of course, I have taken gender, race, and minority classes and have learned about the experiences of minorities—I am a Human Services and Social Justice major, after all-- but there is something to be said of living that role yourself. In Morocco, women certainly do not enjoy the same luxuries as women in the United States, especially as a visiting American woman who does not speak either of the common Moroccan languages of Darija or French. An inability to speak these languages in Morocco is essentially the equivalent of being illiterate.

...continue reading "Suddenly Illiterate: My Life in Morocco"