What's up with Moroccan men??

Regardless of the day, the mood, the number of hours you slept last night, or any other pet peeve frustration, everything in life seems a little brighter from the rooftop, under a mild Moroccan sun. I can't lie, the last few days have been challenging and anyone who has hassled me enough to write them recently may have noticed the ambivalence in my voice when i talked about Morocco. Everyone enters into a study abroad experience with a minimum amount of expectations and, for those of us at Macalester and those of us planning to study "international things" for the majority of our lives, that standard is raised considerably. But expectations are never guaranteed to come true. The challenge for me these past days and weeks has been to accept the fact that I may always be confused and struggling with the myriad of languages spoken here -- and becoming fluent in none of them -- and that it will take time to feel truly comfortable with a foreign culture and foreign people. This, I think, is normal. But it's still an incredibly vivid feeling, whether or not I had anticipated it.

But today is a great day. Class let out early... and from 2:40 until dinner time (which is generally 10:30 or later) I am une femme libre. At this point, I am left to mess around on my computer, researching this and that and sending emails until my battery runs out or my friends get bored and drag me off to some cafe or to meet with the choice Moroccan boys of the time. And I say this only somewhat tongue in cheek -- one of the first surprises I had here was to learn the unbelieveably HIGH proportion of relationships between Moroccans (esp. guys) and American students. And these relationships, more often than not, turn into MARRIAGE! I've already heard at least 7 stories of American girls meeting and (eventually) marrying Moroccan men -- in only 3 months... and the last girl that stayed with my host family is currently in the States with her husband, which she met here, of course. So the big competition going on (that no one would say outright) is over how fast all the girls can hook up with, or at least date, a Moroccan guy. The issue of male-female relationships is not only a hot topic in the classroom, but also in private convos, talk at lunch, out at restaurants, cafes... actually just about anytime. It truly is interesting because Moroccan society holds men and women to vastly different and unequal standards as far as romantic and sexual relations go, but then there's always the non-academic, purely hormones-driven perspective that Moroccan men are damn good-looking! And that's an objective fact. So this is driving lots of debate over the ethics of dating in spite of cultural and linguistic barriers... and definitely more curiousity on our part to explore the issue -- "experientially." Now personally, I am just fine with my single self but it is amusing beyond BELIEF to listen in on scandalous stories. :) Hmm....Such is the life of a study abroad student.