The Little Similarities

After living here for a year, the massive, undeniable differences one encounters on a daily basis seem to fade into the background of the subconscious without much fanfare. Without exposure to daily life stateside, a new standard for normalcy creeps in, steadily budging out old expectations for how things are supposed to run. Fact: it is normal to open one's door and find a herd of sheep and goats munching on the garbage left by neighbors. Fact: sour milk is delicious. Fact: river water is better for you. This is how it works over here.

So, after being entirely engulfed by such a different set of norms, and embracing what used to seem like a strange set of daily expectations, the things that remind me most of the States are similarities I was too overwhelmed to notice last year; namely, the whole back to school mess. With the beginning (sorta) of school this week kids here have begun to behave just like their peers in the States, especially the recent High School graduates.

Kids, who only three months months ago were taking their final standardized tests, walk around dispersing advice to their slightly younger peers as if there was some sort of chasm of wisdom between them. One group of friends went around saying goodbye to some of their old teachers, despite the fact that they would still be living at home for the next few years. Others took their new found status as graduates to mean that they could complain to me about "these kids today."

My favorite reoccurring source of entertainment, however, are the interactions between three best friends who decided to live together as they attend middle Morroco's version of the University of Binghamton. It's big, it's not too far, and everyone you know goes there. I could listen to these kids discuss the unquestionable awesomeness that awaits them for hours on end.

These conversations are precisely the things that make me feel closer to home. Bootlegged movies and pirate download TV shows don't do the trick because the whole time the cultural divisions between the actions of my computer screen and those outside my window are strikingly obvious. The people in these two scenarios do not seem like they could ever agree on anything, let alone be part of the same society. When these kids discuss their future, however, I recall dozens of nearly identical conversations that occurred not only the summer before college, but also the summers before study abroad and senior year. While this realization may seem obvious to most, it is comforting to know that such youthful idealism is not a western trait, but a wholly human one.

When they joke of how they might put in a hot tub just to attract girls I usually just laugh and silently hope their experiences will not disappoint. I think of how my expectations of college life were initially crushed and then exceeded and wish that they enjoy the next few years. Because while I know that they do not honestly believe that they will have parades of girls rolling through their house on a daily basis (this is Morocco after all), they do have an anticipation that whatever awaits them will be much better than what they've already seen. They believe and hope that this is only the first step to a life that doesn't involve the ennui they as 18 year-olds perceive in this town. They don't really know what they want, they just know they want to get the fuck out of the BZ. If there's something more American than that I don't know what it is.