While preparing to travel to Morocco, my advisors always spoke about cultural exchange. Exchanging ideas on politics, religion and language while going on excursions and experiencing traditions with students and teachers really helps you understand the culture you are residing in. When the students come home to America, they will always carry with them the culture where they stayed. What they choose to do with those memories and new knowledge is up to them. Showing the similarities and differences between two distinctly different cultures will help shape the students’ decisions on how they will choose to live their lives in the future. In time, some pre-study abroad habits seem spoiled, unhealthy or irrelevant. In other cases, little things from home can be more appreciated now that students have had to live without.

Morocco has very little processed food. We usually shop every two days for fresh fruits and veggies, meat that was just slaughtered and olive oil that is made less than 20 miles away. To purchase our food, we talk to the vendors, haggle over prices and exchange pleasantries. The best part of all of this is a sack full of the freshest, most flavorful, and healthy food you can get for the equivalent of about 75 cents, American money. This is where Americans can take the hint; farmer’s markets (usually) offer better prices for fresher, tastier and healthier organic foods. Nowadays in America the worst food for you is the cheapest and going to a health food store can put a real dent in the wallet… make healthy, good food more reasonable and we will be better off in return.

Something I was told not to expect in Morocco was lines when waiting for the checkout at a grocery store or for when going to restaurants. I first experienced the lack of lines at McDonald’s. Instead of the four or five neatly formed lines behind the registers, there was a mass gathered around the counter. People with their trays were coming out, but lifting their trays above their heads to get through the mob. We would stand in a “line” and if we weren’t tightly enough packed, other customers would have no qualms cutting in front of us. Invasion of bubbles is a regular occurrence, so it is just the culture. Although, with this mob mentality, I would hate to be caught in a crisis. Now I understand how people can get trampled if something bad were to happen. Common courtesy is to wait a turn, to make it easier and less stressful to get your meal at a restaurant seems to make sense. I’m keeping this mentality when I go home.

In a previous column, I mentioned going to the hammams where an attendant will scrub you while you relax in a sauna-type environment. The locals will go a whole week in the summer without showering to spend the afternoon getting pampered. While I do not advocate going without the showers for that long in our humid Nebraska summers, I HIGHLY advocate the building of hammams. While we would have to get over our shyness, it is like hanging out in a hot tub, plus pampering. It is a place to be social and be comfortable, while being naked. If anything, it is a place to build confidence and realize everyone is different and you can be comfortable in your own skin, literally.

One of the last things I’m taking back with me is more respect for the rules of the road we have in America. Not only do we pack seven people into a taxi here; here in Morocco we don’t even drive within the lanes of the road. I am sure this is a crossover from the “not standing in lines” bit. When I get into my Blazer at home, I am just slightly afraid of everyone cutting me off and honking their horns at me, telling me to get over so they can pass and also finding people at the stop lights trying to sell me their products. As much as I speed and hate getting tickets, I like to think America’s safety standard is much higher than here in Morocco. We wait for people in the crosswalks and stay in our respective lanes most of the time. Here this is not always the case.

So, while I am happy with all the things I have learned – not only the language but the culture – I am glad we do some things differently. Our customs here in America might not always make sense while you live here, but it is not until some things are taken away that we really appreciate them.