Transcending cultural barriers or something

Obviously, a lot of things about Morocco are different than America. Things ranging from the language(s) to the predominance of religion to the lack of bacon and cheese variety. However, we're slowly discovering that there a few things that are the same in both cultures. 

Cooking shows on TV. It's apparently just becoming a big deal here, but there are two cooking channels and we spend a lot of time watching them with our family. It's a nice fix when felling a teeny bit homesick, but also a really good way to learn vocab and potential new foods. 

Hospitality of grandmothers (and ladies of a certain age) and old dudes being awesome. Our host mom makes all of our food from scratch and makes sure we're fed before she even considers anything else in life. Same thing goes about proximity to our space heater (open flame) when we're in the house. And host dad is just an awesome dude. Our family has another house about 10k from here and they have bees there. Whenever he decides to go check on them, he just walks over. There's no real rhyme or reason when he goes- as far as we can tell, it's just "sometimes."

Card games. As our language is similar to that of a two year old, we can't really fill the silence between meals with anything of substance, so we needed a filler. Our family already had Uno, so that was enjoyable. We brought cards and have successfully showed them BS (politely called "liar" to stay culturally appropriate. گاداب) and Spoons. We also bought Moroccan playing cards and earned a game called 15 that's pretty fun. Also, the Moroccan playing cards are really pretty. 

On that note: anyone looking to prep a care package (or seven) for us, more decks of American playing cards or card games, like Phase 10 and Uno, would be greatly appreciated! 

Snowball fights (and snowmen and all snow related things). We had more snow this week, and it was a good chance to meet the kids in the neighborhood. While at the Dar Chebab, we had a snowball fight with a few kids, then a few more and a few more and a lot more. It was a lot of kids and a lot of cold in the snow, but now everyone knows we're here! It was a scene that could have taken place anywhere that kids live, and was pretty entertaining. We also kept trying to make snowmen and finally succeeded with our LCF. 

(Fun fact: she just saw Frozen a few days before and we sang almost the whole day.)

Okay there are a million differences between life here and life back in the States, but there are also a million similarities. Good people are good people anywhere, and they make the world a little better. 

Final site placement update: 12 days until we hear where we will live for the next two years!