4,200 Miles

I know it feels odd to start a blog post with a number, but as someone who has traveled all these miles to live within the heart of Morocco, I felt it important to share with you how far I have come. This same message of 4,200 Miles is what I uttered first climbing up the stone stairs of Hotel Continental on my second trip to Tangier, a city that will truly live on in my memory as one of the best and most memorable places to see what the night sky can be like in Morocco.

As you can see from the title of this blog post, my time here in Morocco has been extensive. For the past 2 months of my life, I have had the best experience studying Arabic 5 hours a day for 8 weeks, traveling to the most wonderful places and spending time with the great people you can ever meet, from my host family to complete strangers, Moroccans exemplify the qualities that make humans truly remarkable. Their kindness is a testament to the amazing potential within us all.

Also, I know a lot of people wonder if they ever have what it takes to travel the distance, I have chosen to study Arabic, and whether or not Morocco is a country worth visiting, but I can tell you from all the stories I am going to share in this blog post, all the positive experiences I have had conversing and interacting with this culture, Morocco is the best place you could spend the time of your life.

Reflecting on how I arrived here, I came as a 22-year-old master’s student from Kentucky, brought to Morocco with prejudices, biases, a fear of the unknown, uncertain if I could take on the challenge of learning a new language as I had never studied Arabic before. Yet within these 8 weeks of living with a loving host family, studying under the best Darija and Arabic teachers, shoutout to you Ustad Mubarak and Azzedine, I can say I am capable now of reading, writing, and speaking Arabic on a level that will take me even farther towards my goal of becoming a Multilingual Translator. I am going to tell you though, it’s not easy, going out of ones comfort zone, living with a family who at first feels like strangers, and studying a challenging language, but you will find here at CIEE Rabat, a support system, people like Madiha, Haddou, Assia, and Kamera, who will help you rise to the challenge and become better at the goals you set out coming here.

For me, the reason I was brought to Morocco was because I wanted to read the Quran in the original language.  I also wanted to add to the list of countries I had visited, and develop a new way to see Islamic culture, beyond the biases of what many Americans hold in their heart everyday as the truth about this people. So, at first, I want to bring you into what it is like for me to arrive here, the first day I came to Morocco was on May 14th before my program started and even within the confusion of the city, and the language, and the money, I met people who helped me get to my riad safely and I am forever thankful for their help. As for what it was like that first day in Morocco, it was filled with excitement, I made it to my riad, and found myself in the Medina Qadima, the Old City of Rabat surrounded by faces, different languages, and a whole world of shopkeeping people that is so bright and alive, you cannot help but think this moment of experience is so surreal.

Thinking back to that first moment of experiencing what Morocco has to offer, I remember meeting a group of Italian girls and having lunch with them and them reflecting upon their experiences traveling within the Medina and whole Morocco and the one thing we shared in common with what we noticed was this shared understanding and ground between the Moroccan people and strangers, which is that we are all people living together in this world, and as such we must help each other, a value known as collectivism. The idea of a community, of a family world is one of the best ways to summarize my experience in Morocco, that I was not just some foreigner in a strange country seeing everything that first day, but I felt welcome in Rabat, a part of their community too.  

This feeling of being welcome and at home transitioned as I left my riad and was thrust into the unknown of a host family who I had never met before and frankly who I had spent nights about in America imagining what they were going to be like. I am pleased to tell you as you can see by the above photo, my host family turned out to be amazing, this photo doesn’t even do them justice for sure. But here, this photo is one of my host parents, Latifa, and me as we are celebrating Eid al-Adha, and no surer truth be spoken than the fact that she was what made my experience in Morocco the best. Having a host family is no different than having a regular family, except with Moroccans, the kindness, the heart, the generosity is multiplied, if you are patient with them, that will take you a long way, they will want to do anything they can for you, as Latifa was willing to do for me. The host families here are so welcoming, everyday just seeing them with who they are as people is a new blessing, and I encourage anyone studying abroad any place to select this option, as you will feel comfortable whilst exploring whatever topic you are interested in learning.

As for the learning, I was a part of the Summer Arabic Language Studies Program or affectionately nicknamed AS for short, where for 8 weeks as I said I have been studying to improve my level of Arabic which was basically nonexistent before I came here. Through the intensive classes I have taken, I have become able to introduce myself, write in Arabic, conjugate verbs and construct sentences which is something I never thought I would be able to do in 8 weeks which is possible and through these photos below, you can see the progress I have made; which is why if you want to transform your level of Arabic and language learning, you should come here to Rabat and experience what I have done. The other thing I really want to share with you in this post is a video of me reciting Surah Al Fatihah of the Quran, through my lessons here I have been able to memorize and learn this wonderful verse, and so it too goes to show that if you put in the effort to come here and face the bravery that it takes to do this experience, you will reach your goals as well.

Link to Quran Recitation: https://youtube.com/shorts/vDsyp7xQjc8?feature=share

Finally, academics aside I want to take you into photos from my travel to that of Tarifa Spain, and the night I spent in Tangier, staying at Hotel Continental. From these photos you can see why the night sky of Morocco is so beautiful and how I was able to reach my goal of going to other countries through this experience. What is shocking for me was I was able to achieve all my goals coming here, that’s how great Morocco really is.

Morocco is a place where you will experience a new thing every day, a new challenge, and you will laugh as the silliness of your biases slip away, until you become a part of their culture, a Moroccan yourself. And so, with these final words given to be as advice during my entire experience, be free to choose your own life, take your time with it, and should you find yourself in Morocco, studying in CIEE Rabat, I wish you the best experience as I have had.

With respect and high wishes for the future,

Future Translator Katie Fritsche