Just got back from a nice little trip to St. Louis to see an old fraternity brother and his wife. The weekend was packed with museums, great food-and-drink, and nostalgic conversation. It’s funny, really. When you see someone you haven’t seen in a while, and it’s like everything just falls back into place as though […]
Tag: Morocco
Hamza.
I remember the day Avery and I were walking through the orchard, before I’d moved there, and when we climbed up on the cliff overhanging the river, there you were just sitting there in your yellow and blue jacket. All by yourself. It was one of those beautiful spring days, a little breeze just barely […]
Challenging Assumptions About the Modern Arab Myth: an Exploration of Moroccan Cultures and Traditions
Earlier this month, I gave a lecture to a group of United Methodist Men (and later to a local Rotary Club) about my experience with the Peace Corps. I am publishing that lecture here with only a few edits. I have also spliced in Wikipedia links every here and there. Please don’t regard those links […]
Some Thoughts on Reverse Culture Shock after Being Gone for Two Years
So, I know you’re all wondering what it’s like being back. I’ll do my best to explain it briefly. In a nutshell, it’s this strange sensation that makes you feel like you never actually left. But there’s this huge gap in your head and, to a lesser degree, your body that makes you feel like […]
The Open Sea
Yesterday, when I was headed to board the MSC Poesia in Barcelona, there were two large buses shuttling passengers to the harbor. I stood in line next these absolutely beautiful Spanish girls and just thought, “Awesome.” Then when I showed the bus driver my ticket, he said, “No, no, your bus is the next bus. […]
Barcelona.
It’s honestly just a bit weird being back in a culture again where I don’t know the local language and can’t easily get around. Every time I take my change from someone at the restaurant, I have this awful tendency to say “Chokran” instead of “Gracias.” I really hope I don’t do that in America. […]
Silence of the Lambs, or what I like to call, Abdelqader Day
“Fouaaad. Fouaaad,” Soufianne chanted my name from his bike as I walked up to the gate of his house. Calling it a ‘gate’ makes it sound like a nice, walled-in community of some such. It’s technically the gate to the local fish market, of which the house is just conveniently connected. I yelled at Soufianne […]
A Capstone Experience to my Service – a visit from the Country Director
On Monday, the Country Director and the person in charge of gifts and grants for all of Peace Corps drove out to our province in the Middle Atlas. It was an opportunity for several volunteers to come together and talk about (and show off) some of the work we were doing based on the grants […]
Ramadan Mubarak Said
Since Ramadan started, my landlord’s son, eleven year-old Mohamed, consistently shows up at my door every evening at approximately six o’clock sharp, which is about an hour before the call-to-prayer that sounds when everybody breaks fast (el-ftour). Mohamed always has on his blue shorts and a blue wife-beater that says something in English on the […]
To England and Back Again
There’s a scene in an episode of the Simpsons where Bart & Lisa are in London and walk into a candy store. The store owner warns Bart and Lisa to be careful, saying, “Word to the wise, British candy is a bit sweeter than what you’re used to ‘cross the pond,” but not heeding his warning, the […]
