A few definitions

1. Juice: would be known to our American readers as squeezed fruit, but is actually something similar to a smoothie. Juice in Morocco is made in a blender with plenty of fruit, sometimes yogurt, definitely milk, and likely sugar. Zero ice. It's always delicious, and it's shocking how many things have juice (avocado juice, for instance, is delightful). At first, it was easy to laugh it off as crazy, but then the idea of cranberry juice cocktail came to mind, and we realized that juice is a pretty fluidly defined word. Bonus: the verb for "to juice" in Darija is the same as "to wring out"

2. Salad- alright American pals, before you scoff at the following, take a second to thing about the dressing you last enjoyed on a salad. Host Family #1 makes a delightful dish of romaine, orange bits, and sugar. They also have others of fresh tomatoes and cucumbers, or a pasta salad situation, but they realized that I liked the romaine combo, so it's the more frequent dish. 

3. To have a cold- this is something that seems to be similar everywhere, but expressed in different ways. Right now, Toby is getting over a cold. HF1 has determined that the cause of it was that it was a little cold in Meknes or Fes last week. Alexis is right in the middle of a cold, and it's been decided that the cause was a small sunburn from a sunny day this weekend. It has nothing to do with the way we hang out sometimes (literally all of the time). Again, it seems funny at first, but then we remembered warnings from grandmothers about how not wearing a hat can also cause a cold, or not swimming after a meal means something. 

It turns out, people are funny and well-intentioned and awesome everywhere.