*TMI warning: Personal information about my digestive worries below*
There’s still so much that I don’t know.
I feel like the biggest takeaway today was that I know more French than I thought I did, which is a nice realization. But understanding is like a sieve, things fall through the cracks, and I have to get better at piecing together the meaning of everything.
However, as far as coming to Morocco to learn French, it was a good choice. The websites I read about the languages here were right. The people I’ve met all speak more than one language, and my day to day is a mixture of English, French, Arabic, and even some Spanish, since Spain is so close.
The Arabic is a big hole in my sieve, but I get pretty far with the other three.
It takes time to get used to a new place, and who you are in that place. It’s kind of weird to notice how I communicate here because I’m such a talkative person at home, and now I really have to listen to understand what people are saying. If I do talk, I try to make sure my grammar is right, and I do a lot of repeating my words in an effort to nail that down. However, I’ve noticed that in general, I have been speaking less, and when I do speak, I worry that I’m not making good conversation. Maybe this is my opportunity to get really good at asking questions! When I was on my walk with Fadwa, she did a on of talking and explaining what I was seeing, which is great, but it’s more difficult to bond and create a friendship with someone when there’s a language barrier.
I also don’t know what’s taboo here, so…wish me luck that I don’t make a social gaff. I try to make sure that when I speak French to an older person that I use the proper honorifics, but I’ve caught myself messing up on that from time to time. My mom raised me to be damn polite, and I’m not trying to lose grip of that now.
As far as personal changes, I definitely feel more queer here, if that makes sense. I think that because I haven’t yet encountered much queerness here, I feel my own more strongly.
Also, I think I might be developing traveler’s diarrhea. Maybe that’s TMI, but I haven’t really been strict about my consumption of only bottled water here because when I visited Rio it ended up not even being a worry. But here my stomach is really sensitive. I can feel that I’m producing a ton more air in my digestive system than I normally do. My burps have periodically tasted like bile, which is NOT pleasant. But at least the nausea is gone. Though honestly, it could be the sleep deprivation and jetlag messing with my stomach. In London I really did worry that I was going to puke somewhere public on accident and that had to be the sleep deprivation. Haha wish me luck!