So it has been a while since my last post. The nature of internet accessibility, and reliance, is quite different here than back home. This is something I enjoy quite a bit - the need/time to only really access the web for five minute bursts. None of those 2-3 hour binges (or often quite longer!) where I have the time to play 30 Lexulous games on Facebook, peruse every single Facebook update by friends since the last time I checked, check CNN, BBC, Interpol and the Marines' main pages, write a long, wordy blog update, check everyone else's blog updates, analyze new additions and new clearance additions on Anthropologie, Lucky Brand and Odd Molly, pay bills, spend money, etc etc etc. Here, life is more concerned with face to face encounters.

In Islam, it is a common perception that "alone time" is not healthy - that one should be surrounded with friends and family as much as possible. I must admit that this weekend, while in Chefchaouen, when I had my own room for the first time since getting here (Morocco!), I actually missed my roommate in Meknes. It was weird being alone in a room. It is definately going to be an adjustment when I return to Louisville, being in my own apartment again!

So I was saying that life here is more about the people around you, than the people on the phone, on Skype, on the computer. If you are in a room full of people, Moroccans namely, and you are on your computer chatting with someone, then that is weird. My impulse, (and the expectations of those around me), is to close the computer and sit with those around me, chatting (trilingually) about life, family, our days, our plans, etc. "Kefa hel? La bas?" "al-Hamdulillah". Always with smiles, eye contact, hand shaking, interactions on the most human level.

It is unheard of to walk by someone you know and just blithely throw out a "hey what's up?" and keep walking. Here you stop, smile, render a "salaam malaikum!", shake hands warmly, inquire about health and families, respond accordingly, then MAYBE keep on your way.

This all makes me feel I need to adjust my way of life when I return. It is just so much more healthy to live this way.

What do I feel like I'll miss/need to take with me?

-The social way of living. Person to person. Community and extended family.

-The generous spirited way of being - offering tea, coffee, time, affection.

-I'll be honest - the pure diet, free of alcohol. I respect Islam infinitely for their abstenance from such. I don't miss it at all here. They sure don't feel that way about caffiene  though, and for that I'm glad (and perpetually wired).

-The trilinguality - but how do I integrate the languages when I don't know that many French and Arabic speakers back in Louisville? I'll just have to figure that one out, aside from the fact that I'll be in Arabic classes. I'll need to work on that one.

That doesn't sound like as much as I thought it would be, but it is a start.

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