Kit Kat McFlurry, bonding, and the measurement of success

     Today's post is simply musings, leftover notes, and anything else that I forgot or may not have had a home these past two weeks.  I just know things don't quite feel complete here, so I wanted to do a wrap-up.

     I don't think we have Kit Kat McFlurrys here in the United States.  We should.  They are amazing.  If an opportunity arose to get one, we did.  DQ Blizzard ripoff?  Who cares.  Delicious Kit Kats and caramel all blended together in ice cream.  I wish I had one right now.

     I think learning some French would have served us better than learning Arabic/Moroccan Arabic for Casablanca.  It seemed everywhere we went in town, French would have sufficed just fine.  It wasn't easy trying to draw upon stuff from 25 years ago, but it was better than nothing.  The Arabic was definitely useful for the first stretch of the trip in Ifrane, Meknes, and Fes, though.  I'm glad Ahmed gave us some relevant words/ phrases to use.

     The gap between the wealthy and poor in Morocco is really large, but even worse is how large a percent those groups are.  The number of people who are "economically vulnerable" is close to 45%.  It is rampant in the rural areas we drove through.  Not only were we privileged with taking the trip, but we were a privileged group-- one that could, relatively speaking, purchase or do whatever we wanted to there.  The Morocco Mall is huge and filled with stores such as Gucci, Fendi, Louis Vuitton.  We could make purchases there.  According to Deyea, she thinks the average Moroccan comes to this mall to see it as a site.  Like we might go to a park or monument.  Not to actually shop there.  I guess it is built for the tourists and wealthy Moroccans, while everyone else sticks to shopping in the medinas.

     Have you ever seen a Yamazuki bike?  I hadn't until this trip.  Did I ever mention how rampant counterfeiting is in Morocco?  This thing had to be a joke.  Some hybrid Yamaha-Suzuki thing that looked like it wouldn't make it up the smallest of hills.  Whoever owned it probably thought they were cool?  I don't know.

     I don't know how the girls will get by without our little bus driver from Casablanca.  He really was pretty cool.  But they will miss him most--because he let them honk the horn.  Repeatedly.  I believe he had been trained like a Pavlovian dog to honk whenever the girls went "beep beep".  I imagine some of them are driving around Fort Wayne right now in their cars.  With a sad "beep beep" and honking their own horn.... which is probably not as widely accepted, nor expected here.  Unlike in Morocco, where it was the norm.  People honked everywhere for everything.  It was a cacophony of surprising honks and alerts that were directed at anyone and everyone.  It has been so quiet driving into school these past two days.

     I didn't know how close our group had gotten until yesterday afternoon.  I went into work at noon for a couple of hours before my class at 3pm.  As each minute ticked by, I found myself getting more eager to see the 7 others who were in my J401 class.  I couldn't wait for 3pm!  Oh, glorious Chronos, speed up these moments so I can see my brethren again.  And the time came, finally.  Ashley, Rodrigo, Lynsey, Kelsey, Kyle, Melissa, Seyoung... we were together again. We shared our own secret laughs and stories, our own glances at each other in the class, our own knowledge that we had been through many things together.  We all probably realized how close our group had gotten.  This didn't end there, as I spoke to Chadi in between classes and he said how weird it was to be eating breakfast alone.  He was right.  It felt weird to be doing anything alone.

Me.  Enjoying life.  Encouraging all of you to do the same, everyday, everywhere.

     We were going to ask Stephen his thoughts on all of this, but the bum didn't show up for class.  I think the rest of the group all managed to make it in.  Way to be odd man out, Stephen.

     This trip brought us closer together.  Through the bonding around a new, foreign culture.  Through the academic and functional work we did together there. Through the multiple benefits of travel and experience.  I think, for the most part, it was an absolute success.  Even if everything wasn't perfect, the pieces that were, counted for much, much more than the trivial misses.

This is what traveling--whether alone, with friends, or with family (or a combination of those)-- can do for you...me...anyone.

So, if I can ask you to do something, it is this:

Please. Get out. Find the money and the time. See the United States. See all the things that people who come to our country attempt to see and experience our different cultures. From Southern hospitality to the West coast lifestyle. From the Amish to New England Yankees.

And once that's done, look outside the United States. You'll be ready to leave your comfort zone and appreciate everything a lot more. You'll almost guarantee you won't come across as an obnoxious, ignorant American to the rest of our world. Nobody wants that.  Hopefully we've got a few less of us now after this trip.

Remember, be good.  And if you can't be good, be good at it.