Before my travels to Spain, I had never left the North America continent. Yet on this study abroad trip, I went to not one but two new continents! After a couple of weeks studying global health in Málaga, we traveled across the Gibraltar Strait to Morocco.
Immediately after coming to port in Morocco, I felt like was in an entirely new world. All of the road signs were now in French and Arabic, languages I had never seen written on signs before. While I was proficient in Spanish, I didn’t speak any Arabic or French. My primary form of communication shifted from words to shrugs, finger wags, and pointing.
While we were only in Morocco for three days, we were jam-packed activities every single day. After getting of the boat, our first activity was a tour of the old, central market known as the Medina. We walked through countless narrow alleys and felt our hearts race when our tour guide announced “you can’t use Google Maps here because the streets are so narrow they block the signal. Don’t get lost!” as he sped walked away from us.
On this tour, we visited the Kasbah, a highly secured fortress covered in gorgeous Arabic artifacts and architecture. Walking in Tangier, but especially when entering the fortress, highlighted how important the religion of Islam is to Moroccans and the culture of the city. We arrived on a Friday, the holy day in Islam, so the streets were entirely empty and no shops were open. This is a stark difference to the United States. Although stores tend to close on Sundays, you can still get your needs met; in Morocco, the world stops on a holy day.
After our tour of the Medina, we journey 30 minutes out to the Mediterranean coast. Despite being very sleepy and wanting to take a nap on the bus ride, I was wide awake for one reason: no traffic lanes. The roads were jam-packed with cars driving wherever, whenever, and however fast they felt. Our driver was from Morocco and remained completely unflustered, but I certainly did not share that calm state of mind. Even after this trip to the coast, the lack of traffic safety continued to be important part of our trip, especially when we would have to walk directly into flowing traffic just to cross the street.
Is that…a camel? Yes! We drove 30 minutes to the coast to ride camels. This was a truly monumental and memorable travel experience for all. We followed this very international experience with dinner at McDonald’s, as the culture shock was very intense for everyone on our study abroad trip.
The next morning, we went to a traditional Moroccan cooking class. We made tangine, bread, and participated in a traditional mint tea ceremony. We had the chance to speak with Tangier natives and learn about their day-to-day lives. This cooking class also took place on Saturday. Even in the early morning, already the city was 10x more alive than Friday. We accompanied this cultural experience with one-on-one conversation with Moroccans, which provided far more insight than just wandering the city.
Although this portion of the study abroad trip was not comprised of hours-on-hours in the classroom, this is certainly where I learned and changed the most. This was also the most uncomfortable I hand been on the trip. I was hot, confused, and constantly stared at (believe or not, I do not look Moroccan). I missed the basics comforts of home like traffic control, air conditioning, and strict pest elimination rules. I was immersed in a culture surrounding a religion I know nearly nothing about. Yet, for all the differences, there were far more similarities. People were kind, curious, passionate, family-focused, and wanting to share their culture — just like in Pittsburgh. Although I found myself needing more rest every day due to being overwhelmed, Morocco was my favorite part of this trip because it pushed me outside of comfort zone and into a entirely different world.
Although our time in Morocco was short, our journey is not over yet! Next up: a journey north to Barcelona!