Study abroad #4
Morocco - March 13 to 28, 2026
My dear friends & family,
Today marks two-weeks living in the beautiful country of Morocco. Within these couple of weeks I’ve stayed in three different cities, begun learning the local dialect of Arabic (Darija), had a handful of lectures from incredible Moroccan professors, journalists, and activists, surfed, and shared a humongous amount of Moroccan tea with my new host family and program sisters.
We arrived to Casablanca, the largest city in the country, in the dark of night on March 14th after our journey from Ecuador. I have always found the experience of taking a long flight after a big life experience, like the one I had living in Ecuador, to be quite wonderful. The liminal space that the airport and airplane provide make for really ideal processing (and releasing) conditions, at least in my experience.
I spent that travel day deep in reflection—feeling all the gratitude for Ecuador and complete excitement for our next chapter. Similarly to how I wrote in my second study abroad blog post, my time spent bonding and connecting with those on this program has felt equally fulfilling to all of the travel and learning we’ve done. To undertake a twenty-four hour travel day with twenty-six people who were strangers only two months ago and to come out of it feeling even more love for them is honestly… not what I expected to feel.
The social aspect of this program was what I was most nervous for. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to spend every second of every day of three months of travel and learning with the same group of complete strangers. Turns out—everyone was correct in telling me that this program would attract really cool and interesting people. While we are all vastly different from each other, I can’t help but feel explosions of love for this group who makes me laugh every day, sometimes so hard I cry. There have been some tensions navigated between group members, an unavoidable reality of the intense experience we’re sharing, but for the most part it has exceeded my every expectation. I love this cohort of crazy wonderous people!
Just like how we started our time in Ecuador, we began Morocco with two full days in a hotel.
These two days we spent resting, doing a rather bad job adjusting to the time change, and exploring the famously bustling city of Casablanca. Much to our luck, we arrived during Ramadan—a lunar month in the Islamic faith made up of fasting, prayer, reflection, and strengthening of community. It being Ramadan meant that day time was much quieter than usual, with shops and restaurants being closed. However, after iftar, the breaking of the fast each night at sundown (~6:40 pm), the streets would come alive with people and shopkeepers opened their doors. It was a bit of an adjustment at first to realize that 24/7 access to food wasn’t a given, and eating and drinking in public was pretty inappropriate, but I would say it was all worth it for being able to witness this special time.
These two days in Casablanca felt short and blurry. I was doing a lot of sleeping at irregular hours, indulging in the hotel breakfast buffet, and trying to comprehend the fact that I had just moved to North Africa. I was in touch with my closest people from home a good bit and started to feel my first semblances of missing home—a feeling that has continued to follow me through Morocco.
I did have one grand adventure with June and Nova to the Hassan II Mosque (pictured above) on the water. We walked for an hour through the winding streets, avoiding many rogue motorcycles, until we stood before this magnificently towering edifice. This mosque (I think) is the only mosque in the country that non-muslim people are allowed inside of, and although we didn’t opt to take a tour, we heard from our friends just how ornate and grand it was. This was also my first time seeing the ocean in a good while and it felt nice to say hello ;-)
We departed from Casablanca with our comical amount of luggage in tow to Rabat, Morocco’s capital and our new home-base. As we pulled into the city center, I immediately noticed how much more pristine the city was compared to both Casablanca and Quito. I’ve since heard many Moroccans from Rabat, including our host-dad, talk down on other cities in the country, saying that Rabat is the cleanest and nicest of them all. They often chalk it up to the fact that Rabat is where the Moroccan King takes his permanent residence, as well as the city’s culture of caring. I’ve witnessed this culture of care, manifesting from Muslim faith and culture, in the way that little piles of kitty kibble appear around the city. There are genuinely one million stray cats here and it is very heartwarming to see that nearly everyone goes out of their way to keep care of them.
Our arrival in Rabat also marked moving in with our Moroccan host families. We were each picked up one-by-one—in our case by our new Moroccan grandma—who gave us hugs hello and proceeded to march us dutifully across the road and into the city’s medina, where all of our host-stays are located.
For those like myself who had never experienced a medina before, it is essentially the old walled part of the city where roads are narrow, street vendors are hustling, and the average bustle of a city becomes amplified by the close quarters and many people. This description also translates pretty well to our host family’s home. My new program sisters are Arianne and Annalise—two amazing ladies from Vancouver BC and Washington DC whom I love—and our shared host family is composed of 10+ people. It is a pretty amazing intergenerational household headed by a matriarch, her three sons, and their respective families.
I will say, living here has challenged me more than I anticipated. I cannot overstate how kind our hosts have been, especially the two young women who uphold the house and who we interact with most. But even so, the chaos of living with several young children, sharing a tiny bathroom with so many people, and many other cultural differences we’ve come to know, have contributed to these feelings of uncomfortability.
Of course, my gratitude and their kindness overshadows this struggle, but it is a struggle nonetheless.
I think the most memorable experience with our host family thus far has been celebrating Eid al-Fitr on Friday, March 20th. Eid marks the celebratory end of Ramadan, and for us included a massive breakfast, family coming into town to visit, and gifts and excitement for the little ones.
Something I didn’t quite anticipate is that the exact date of Eid isn’t universally known until it’s announced by the Ministry of Endowments and Islamic Affairs through an official naked-eye sighting of the crescent moon. This announcement happened to take place Thursday night as our family gathered around the table for iftar, and when the news broke on the TV, everybody started shrieking with joy.
Although we couldn’t quite grasp what was going on, and had no idea what to expect for Eid itself, the excitement was palpable and therefore very adoptable. Similar to Carnival in Ecuador, being in Morocco for one of their major holidays felt like divine timing.
Now for some rapid fire anecdotes accompanied by photos:
The doors in Morocco are beautiful, intricate, and feed my color-loving self.
The artistry (colors, textures, patterns, oh-my!) can be found in the least expected places and have provided me with ample creative inspiration.
I am now of the opinion that the most ceremonial part of the home should be the door. It is the portal of coming and going—entering and saying goodbye.
May the door of my future home be special like these doors of Rabat!
I would be remiss not to mention the glorious weather and temperatures we’ve had here. With the wild climatic swings of Ecuador and anticipating the heat that Nepal will bring, I’m really trying to soak up the plethora of 68° degree days.
Also, big shout out to Arianne, Lucas, and I’s surf day. I literally couldn’t hold back my gleeful giggles as we paddled and popped-up together on the perfect miniature waves. How lucky am I to have been taught to surf by my amazing Aunt, and now to be with friends in a place where we can make the most of it?
After ten days living with our families in Rabat—going to classes, learning about the status of Morocco’s agriculture and water sectors, eating an ungodly amount of bread (Moroccans love their bread)—we embarked on our two-week excursion to Marrakech and Ouarzazate, two cities to the south and southeast of Rabat.
At this point, just a few days ago now, I was feeling the most homesick I’d felt yet on this whole adventure. Initially, I was really unsure of what was causing this sudden longing for familiarity and ease, but giving these feelings some more time has helped me decide it’s a combination of the mounting academic stress and further leaps outside my comfort zone. While this program is definitely centered around travel and experiential learning, I’m simultaneously taking four honors classes and working towards a capstone research project, so while it’s definitely no Middlebury semester, I’m feeling the pressure.
And, in terms of the further leaps outside my comfort zone, when comparing my experience here in Morocco to the previous one in Ecuador, I’m (maybe stupidly) surprised by how vast the difference is. All of this was, of course, to be expected, but the daily rhythms are so different, the meals, the language and manner of communication. Not to mention, our relationship with our host family feels much less close—I think partially because of the heightened language barrier and partially because our family hosts so many exchange students that we kind of are just one of many…
But honestly, I feel lucky still to have been able to enjoy our time here as much as I have. Since arriving in Rabat, many friends on the program have dealt with either a nasty cold or some form of a stomach bug, both of which I have *knock on wood* managed to dodge so far.
To bring this story to an end, I will tell the tale of the past couple of days.
After arriving in Marrakech post a ~six-hour road trip (our group’s accommodation turned out to be an hour outside the city and we got very lost on the way), we toured a beautiful organic farm owned by a genuine and kind man named Omar, and had the opportunity to learn about Islam’s relationship with the environment from some Moroccan college students. One of their professors also gave us an incredibly interesting lecture about water scarcity and the potential/challenges that Morocco faces in terms of the precious resource. Between the farm, our conversation about faith with fellow students, and Dr. Sheikh’s lecture, this was certainly a stand out day.
Also of note: I’ve really enjoyed learning about North Africa as a region since living here, what they’re facing in terms of the changing climate, and also regarding post-colonial French rule. It is really fascinating how languages have amalgamated— Arabic, Darija, French… plus a heavy influence of both Spanish and English too. The legacy of colonialism remains complex and palpable.
And finally, this wonderful past weekend in Marrakech (proper).
My incredible mom booked June and I a room here in the city’s medina for our two days off, and we genuinely couldn’t have been more pleased. In much need of good showers and sleeps, and eager to celebrate our halfway mark on this trip (!), we made the most of every moment and the creature comforts afforded to us here. Also, Marrakech may be the most bustling place we’ve seen so far, jam PACKED with tourists and extraordinarily cute shops. I’m feeling quite excited about the colorful little tea spoons I bought, as well as some heavenly smelling jasmine argan oil.
Okay then!
I think that is all I’ve got to say for this rambling handful of Morocco reflections. I am looking forward to Ouarzazate and the second week of our excursion, in addition to every belly laugh and unexpected learning moment that await.
Again, I must express my overflowing and unrelenting gratitude for the chance to be here on this trip, to my mom for making our Marrakech dreams come true, and to all of those who have contributed to my experience and learning so far.
I continue to comb through my feeling of missing home, stressing about to-do’s, and also the paradoxical excitement and surrealness I wake up with each morning.
No video montage this time—but next time!
Thank you so much for reading.
So, so, so much love—
Lucy ✸
omg I’m so obsessed with the cats, the gorgeous doors, and those colorful spoons ahhh 😱 beautiful as always!!