Maghrebian showdown: Morocco vs. Tunisia

Hello friends! Due to a sad lack of WiFi, I wasn't able to blog about Morocco while actually in Morocco. I've been home for about a week now, battling lingering intestinal problems (dr's verdict: not a parasite! yay) and intellectual, post-travel burnout, but I'm about ready to get back up on that blogging horse. Overall, Morocco was a blast, especially because I got to share it with my Mom (who also conveniently footed the bill). I was really surprised at how different from Tunisia it was, though...both in its Arabic and its culture. It felt much more "foreign" than Tunisia, much less Western, and also much less-developed. Its people were equally as welcoming, though, and its culture almost richer. I'll be posting pictures and descriptions over the next few days, but because I'm a total nerd, here's a basic comparison chart to tide you over....

I pretty much just wrote things as they came to my mind, and as you'll see, some are more significant than others. The bolded column indicates my favorite when I had a preference.

Morocco	Tunisia
Fresh squeezed orange juice	Fruit smoothie “cocktails”
Ceremonial, yellowish mint tea, poured from a silver teapot at a high height into ornate glasses	Often oversteeped, brownish mint tea, usually kept in an industrial-style water boiler…but it often comes with pinenuts
Shisha illegal at cafés	Shisha EVERYWHERE
Comparative sampling of dialect: Jooj, bzehf, bshal? (two, a lot, how much?)	Zooz, barsha, bu qaddesh? (two, a lot, how much?)
Coffee with cinnamon	Coffee Arabiya with too much sugar
Tajine= a sort of rich stew, made with onions and either a meat (beef and prunes, or chicken and almonds) or vegetables	Tajine= a sort of quiche-type thing, made with egg, potato and spinach. This is a hard call for preference, but I’m gonna go with Tunisia, simply b/c Moroccan tajine is too dang heavy of a meal to eat during the summer.
	Tuna (on EVERYTHING)
Bigger cous-cous grains (easier to eat AND less messy)	Smaller cous-cous grains (drier and more delicious)
Breakfast: yogurt, berber pancakes (baghreer and Msemin) and corncakes	Breakfast: French pasteries, bread with fig or apricot preserves
Spanish and hilariously red-faced, overheated British tourists	French tourists
Locals don’t use silverware; scoop their food with taboona flat bread	Locals don’t use silverware; scoop their food with French baguette
Toilet paper! And flushable.	Toilet hoses and BYO TP, non-flushable
Street food: kebabs, or really disgusting sandwhiches with processed meat, rice, and….ketchup?	Street food: delicious sandwiches with fresh vegetables and fries, harissa or salata mushwiya for a dressing, and your choice of tuna, chicken, schwarma, kefta, tajine, omlette, merguez….all for dirt cheap!
Better carpets—variety, color and quality	Better jewelry souks—quality, craftsmanship, prices
More elaborate mosaics and fountains	Cooler painted doors and cast iron gates/windows
Better ceramic tiles	Better ceramic bowls/platters
“Salad”—rice with peas, carrots and peppers Salad Moroccaine—tomato, onion and hard boiled egg	Salad Mshwiya—“burned” peppers and tomatoes, puréed with harissa OR Salad Tunsiya—onions, tomato, cucumber and parsley in a lemon vinagrette
Seemingly efficient and well-loved King, with a castle in every major city. I would need more time to scope out the situation fully, but YouTube and Gmail both function without any problems.	Seemingly resented and corrupt “President,” with a well-guarded house in every major city. YouTube and many other sites are blocked, internet is screened, and freedom of speech/press in general is questionable.
French spoken by pretty much all people, although it still correlated with education. English and Spanish also widely spoken.	French spoken by most people, but a definite trend of more educated = better French. Italian and German also fairly widely spoken.

All Sahel that ends well

Last weekend we took our first group trip, to a central coastal region of Tunisia known as the Sahel. We first stopped in el-Jem, where we visited the ruins of a roman colosseum. Having seen the colosseum in Rome and another in the south of France, I wasn't particularly excited. However, this one beat the pants off of the other two--first for the lack of crowds, but also how much of the structure remains AND is fully available to the public. Without Western ropes and guards, we were free to scramble all over (and under--this was where Gladiator was filmed, so you could go through the gladiator/tiger chambers). Here's a picture of me and Drew doing just that. I also bought a necklace in el-Jem, which I apparently paid too much for--I need to get better at this bartering thing. (Good thing I'll actually be getting bartering "lessons" tomorrow).

Next we stopped in Mehda--a cute coastal town whose local boys were enjoying diving off little rocks en masse into the beautifully blue Mediterranean. Several of our guys stripped down to join them, much to the amusement of the boys, as did one girl (much to the rather creepy interest of the men on the shore and the older boys, who all began swimming after her...I opted to stay dry). Here are pictures of one of the boys as as well as just a shot of the cute town, which was bordered by a field full of white graves bearing black and green (holy color) Arabic inscriptions.

After that, it was down to the resort town of Monastir to spend the night at a 4 star hotel--thank you, State Department. The hotel bordered on a white sand beach with crystal blue water that stayed shallow for a long way from the shore. It was weird to be in a place so clearly geared towards tourists. Not only was there toilet paper, but there was NO hose (FYI: by and large, Tunisians use a little hose to wash up in the bathroom. TP is sometimes available in touristed areas but is considered dirty here and can't be flushed) and there was a bar with (limited) alcohol, where I purchased the first beer I've had since I've been here (while progressive, Tunisia is still a Muslim state and alcohol is difficult to find and often prohibitively expensive). The beach itself was a weird contrast between the familiar site of lobster-red, leathery, topless/speedo-clad European beach goers and Tunisian families with mothers wearing Burquinis (I kid you not--look them up!) which are surprisingly stylish swimsuits that include sleeves to the wrist, leggings to the ankle, and a waterproof veil.

The next morning we visited the ribat (fort) in Monastir which was much like Oxford castles except, like with the colosseum, we were free to wander in and out of rooms and stairs without the hindrance of safety bars or any of that non-adventuresome nonsense. Here's the view from the top of the tower. We also visited the mausoleum of Habib Bourguiba, Tunisia's first and beloved president who lead the country through independence and is largely responsible for the non-secular, feminist nature of Tunisian poltics/society relative to the rest of the Arab world. I'm still trying to get a better grasp on modern-day Tunisian politics, which is proving difficult, as Tunisians are hesitant to mention Ben Ali (and when they do, they look around uncomfortably and end in elipses). At the least, I'm now very familiar with his face, as there is no shortage of images posted in markets, on the sides of buildings and in stores. On the one hand, I know that he's done a good job of continuing Bouguiba's policies towards religion/gender, which I approve of. On the other hand, the government blocks YouTube, which I definitely don't appreciate. It's a good thing I don't have any freetime here--I wouldn't know what to do with myself!

Hokay, back to homework now. Thanks to everyone who has been following along with me and leaving me comments from various corners of the world--and for those who asked, yes, the homestay situation is improving (although my French is only getting worse as my brain gets altogether over-languaged). !بسلام