The little things

Before coming to Morocco, T and I did as much reading about it as we could. We had great advice coming from a lot of people, especially B, who worked at this University for five years. Even the University provides advice in the form of a fairly lengthy guide to settling in designed for foreign faculty. But what I have noticed in my first week here is that there are a lot of tiny but significant differences between the U.S. and Morocco. There are so many of these that no one can tell you about them. For example:

-No one gives you a detailed rundown of the money. The literature says, "Moroccan money is in dirhams." Right, just like U.S. money is in dollars. We also have cents, and Moroccan money has centimes. So you have to figure out which coins are centimes and which are dirhams. 

-Bathrooms. I'm still not sure if there are public restrooms around town, but even if there are, they won't be familiar. The public restrooms on campus that I've encountered look like this: 

Yes, I took a picture of a public toilet. Get over it.

Sometimes these bathrooms will have toilet paper, too, but sometimes they won't. There's an adjustment needed there.

-Lack of containers. Many foodstuffs, including herbs, spices, grains, pastas, and beans, are sold in bulk. When I bought my spices at the souk, the vendor wrapped them in bits of newspaper. Now they are sitting on my counter, wrapped in newspaper, in a plastic bag. I'm used to having a big spice collection, so at some point I need to figure out how to store all these spices.

-Speaking of plastic bags, you need to save all of them--grocery bags, any used ziploc baggies...everything. You need to save all jars and bottles.

-Fitted bedsheets. Don't have them. (Nor, apparently, are double beds common.)

-The water has super high mineral content. I have been boiling water to supplement our supply of Sidi Ali (popular brand of bottled water), and the boiled tap water has chunks of white mineral floating in it. My morning tea has a strange "skin" on top of it. How do people handle this? I don't know yet. It's too small to be mentioned in advice books.

You might be reading this list and thinking, "Why is she writing about this? These are really minor things. Boring, too!" That's my point. But there are a lot of them, and their accumulation contributes to culture shock. I'm sure anyone who has moved to a foreign country has experienced what I'm talking about. Heck, even when one moves to a new town, one encounters these little differences to some extent.

Finally, there are little things that I am missing, especially, right now, soy products.

Psst! Anyone who sends us a package is requested to throw in some soy milk and vegetarian jerky (of which Tofurky jurky [much better than Tofurky] is just one brand). I'll pay you back!

I am also keeping a running mental list of the things I wish I'd brought with me. I wish I'd shipped myself a big box of soy milk and jerky. I wish I'd brought more towels, a couple of board games, a pack of cards. I guess the key is not to dwell on it, but to say, "Next time I'll do better!"