A Semester of Much Needed Exploration & Excitement Past Review
By David S (English, International Relations, Tufts University) - abroad from 01/20/2012 to 05/12/2012 with
AMIDEAST Rabat - Area & Arabic Language Studies
I learned so much about myself, about Moroccan/Arab/Islamic culture, about life, etc. It was so worthwhile--I encourage everyone to consider it! It's so much better, in my opinion, than the European semester abroad--especially for those of you with wanderlust who have been to Europe before. Going abroad in Morocco will be much different--it won't be as clean and pristine in the slightest, it won't feature the heavy mixed-gender going-out culture, it won't have all the different types of food your heart desire. But that's importnat. Because when else are you going to live in Morocco? There's a beach right in Rabat, there're plenty of places to go out and have fun, and the culture you explore and learn about in this country is so much more unknown and exhilarating.
Personal Information
| How much international exposure did you have prior to this program? | 1 month - 6 months |
Review Your Program
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* Overall educational experience
Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc. |
In my opinion, AMIDEAST has the perfect amount of academic rigor: it's not so intense that you have to slave over your classes, but you do learn a fair amount--especially in Arabic. But you still have time to go home and hang out with your friends and explore Morocco. |
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* Host Country Program Administration
On-site administration of your program |
Doha, the program administrator, is a coordination goddess sent from above. She makes you feel so relaxed and fixes everything. The only thing that wasn't well administrated was the very first day, but I think they're changing that after all the student evaluations. AMIDEAST is very receptive to student feedback, which is great. |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
HOMESTAY. My homestay was INCREDIBLE. My Arabic excelled because of it and the food was phenomenal. AMIDEAST has awesome connections with local families who have all done homestays in the past. They are all aware of US culture and will let you do your own thing (only one family didn't originally let the students do this and they were talked to by Doha and all was fixed). Also AMIDEAST puts you in neighborhoods with your friends and you can have a homestay with another American, which I actually don't recommend. The former is much more comfortable and doesn't let you crutch on your English. Also a member of each host family normally knows some or a lot of English just in case. |
| * Food: |
YES. MOROCCAN HOST MOTHER COOKING IS THE MOST DELICIOUS. After 6 months in Morocco I have been avoiding harira, tajines, and anything with cumin on it just because I need a break, but at the time it was all phenomenal. Breakfast gets a little old quickly (bread and jam, every single day) and all the girls ended up gaining weight, so just watch out. Also you can be kosher or vegetarian--Moroccans are very understanding of dietary situations... except ones that don't eat bread. You must eat the bread. |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
My host brother went out of his way to make me feel comfortable, show me to his friends, and now we're all good friends. As a male, I met a lot of incredible Moroccan dudes who I went out to coffee with or practiced my Arabic with. All around Morocco, in fact, I kept making friends--many of whom I still correspond with over Facebook. Also, I taught English to high school students and that was another really cool way to explore the culture. AMIDEAST and Doha will set this up for you in a snap. |
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* Health Care:
How well were health issues addressed during the program? |
I didn't have any problems, but once a girl fell off a horse and another one had an ingrown toenail. They both went to the doctor and he prescribed them the same remedy: oranges. What? Luckily Doha took them to a specialist and got them fixed up. |
| * Safety: |
Okay. So. Morocco is safe as long as you're smart and a man which is one of the most irritating parts about it. My program was 90% female, and then men took great strides to support bystandard intervention and walk the girls home. Morocco has a huge problem with instituted harassment, and girls are cat-called and bothered relentlessly every single night unless they're walking with a man. If you're a girl, keep this in mind--don't walk alone at night, be smart, don't get too irritated immediately (though I think this got so frustrating that by the end of my program all the women were pretty much ready to leave). Basically anything women do on the street, looking at something, touching their hair, is considered flirting and the way Moroccan men go about this is to tell women they're beautiful or gazelles or strawberries or Beyonce. Which gets old really fast. HOWEVER, AMIDEAST goes out of its way to educate you on this process and tell you what you need to do to avoid this as much as possible. We all learned phrases to tell Moroccan men to get away or ask them if they would say these words to their sisters. There's a lot of reading material on the topic of harassment in the beginning of the year, too. Taxi drivers are so supportive of female independence and will drive them for free if they're getting harassed OR will drive someone else in the car for free if that person just wants to make sure his/her female friend gets home safely. Basically: be careful. Harassment sucks and is unavoidable, but if you're literally street smart you can make it so much better. It might get old, but I think it's an important thing to witness/live through, but of course I can't really say much because I'm a guy. However, I was also really frustrated because I couldn't intervene as much as I could have because of the impassable language barrier when it comes to street darija. |
| If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program? |
Yes
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Finances
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* Money: How easily were you able to live on a student's budget?
(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost) |
Once I lost my wallet but it didn't matter because I survived on 5 US dollars for 2 weeks. |
| * Was housing included in your program cost? | Yes |
| * Was food included in your program cost? | Yes |
| Not including program expenses, about how much money did you spend on food and other expenses each week? | $10 |
| Do you have any general money-saving tips for future study abroad participants? | We got really thrifty because once you get used to the dirham (1/8 of a dollar), it becomes your normal currency, so we'd spend 10 minutes cutting 10 US cents due to barter culture. Don't get this thrifty. Or get this thrifty but forget about this when you go on spring break or backpack after your program. (And get ready... London expenses versus Moroccan expenses are almost laughable.) |
Language
| * Did your program have a foreign language component? | Yes |
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How much did the program encourage you to use the language?
0 = No encouragement, 5 = frequent encouragement to use the language |
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| How would you rate your language skills at the beginning of the program? | Intermediate |
| How would you rate your language skills at the end of the program? | Advanced |
| What was the highest level language course you had completed prior to departure? | 5 semesters of Arabic. |
| How many hours per day did you use the language? | |
| Do you have any tips/advice on the best ways to practice the language for future study abroad participants? | Get Moroccan friends who don't know English. Tell your host family you want to practice your Arabic only. Use Arabic to get around. |
Other Program Information
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* Where did you live?
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* Who did you live with?
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* Who did you take classes with?
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| About how many local friends did you make that you will likely keep in touch with? |
A Look Back
| * What did you like most about the program? |
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| * What could be improved? |
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| * What do you know now that you wish you knew before going on this program? | How awesome Morocco is. But either way you'll learn in the end. |
