First marriage proposal

When preparing to go to Morocco, I've heard and read many stories about men trying to buy European women for camels, or at least proposing them marriage. I was taking it half seriously, more as a joke. But since I arrived, these stories were confirmed by other trainees staying here, girls were telling me about their experiences with Moroccans and how annoying it is sometimes.

I was still not completely believing, I thought they are exaggerating. OK, I got few phone numbers from strangers, unknown people were talking to me at the street, many times passing by some guys I could hear: "you are beautiful" in English, French, even Italian. But no marriage proposals!!! I even started feeling a little bit jealous :P


And last week, finally, I had my "first time" ;o) I was with Kouta on a trip to Bouznika, and we went into the pottery shop. The owner of this stall had 2 camels, the main source of money for him during touristic period - you know, pictures with a camels, on camels, rides, etc. So as a typical tourist, I went crazy, cuz I've never seen camels from such a small distance, and as household animals. Started taking pictures of them - it was a clear message for the guy that he had something what definitely attracts me :oP He invited us for a mint tea (traditional Moroccan speciality, very strong and sweet at the same time), and while I was innocently taking pictures of everything inside his shop (sooooo beautiful and colorful pottery, I couldn't resist! You can see it on my pictures), he started negotiating with Kouta... He was asking her to propose me, that if I stay with him, the camels will be mine, and I will be staying with him in the shop aaaaall the time, because obviously I like it so much! How nice of him...! The fact that I don't speak a word in Arabic, and he doesn't know any English was definitely not an issue! :o)

I even started considering his offer, but unfortunately Kouta didn't share my enthusiasm, and the final deal was that we will come back in two weeks, and then continue negotiations (and ride his camels obviously!). I'm looking forward to it! :oP

On the picture this is me with my potential future husband and one of his dear camels... Isn't he cute?! The camel, of course! ;o)

My favorite topic - living rooms!

Something that was fascinating me from the moment I arrived in Morocco were living rooms. I was impressed how big they are and how different from European ones. The living room here is more than just a room with a table in the middle and chairs around it. It’s a whole area of the house, taking even 30% - 40% of its surface, that has the function of a gathering place and is adjusted to people’s needs. Around the room there is a loooong couch, all along the walls, soft and filled with pillows. On the floor there’s usually a nice, dense carpet, and there is also one or more small tables.

But the real difference is not even in the furniture, but in the fact that it is made for people to enjoy their time there. It’s highly pragmatic in this sense, but the value behind what I call “pragmatic” is to enjoy and make the most of your time there. You can really feel it when sitting in this room – you are starting to feel relaxed and comfortable, the tension of the day goes down, you feel at home. After having some food it’s normal to have a nap on one of those couches. You can easily fall asleep and no one is surprised, even if you are not at your home. Once Souhail’s brother came for lunch to our flat and afterwards he just lied down and slept for 20 minutes, the same when we had lunch with Kouta – let’s have some rest before we start working…

Comparing it to European concept of meeting with people and having food together – it’s unbelievable how far we are from fulfilling our real needs, how stressed we are and how much we are forgetting about what really gives pleasure and comforts people. We are trying to “behave well”, have an intellectual conversation at the table, impress other people how much we know about the world, what’s happening in politics, or what are we currently working on. There’s no space for just enjoying our time together without being well mannered, thinking about what others will think if I do this or that. Ok, I’m not saying that in Morocco there’s no such a thing as being well educated, or no certain rules of behaviors, or social norms. But these things here make so much more sense for me - they are more natural and "made for people".

Haha, finally starting a blog!

I think this is the moment to share my Moroccan experience. I feel that I reached this level, when my observations are something deeper than just seeing different clothing or other kinds of food. These things are obviously interesting and this is the first impression that I got when starting to live in a different country. But focusing only on this part of culture is not really touching its core, it didn’t make sense for me to describe this level without having a deeper understanding, being able to reach the value behind it.

But anyways, there will be also a lot of just random things, moments that I enjoyed, some funny and crazy stuff that we're doing here :o)

First of all, some pictures of my closest people here, we are working in AIESEC and having lots of fun together!



This is me with the most amazing MOSAIC Team, Executive Board of AIESEC Les Ambassadeurs: Souhail, Zainab, Sarah, Souky, me and Kouta during our SLF local seminar.

And these are our two faces - of devils and angels... Guess which one is the real one! ;o)