Day 27: Take a Hint

Thursday, July 18

Cultural Differences: Regular Edition

Part 6: McDonald's

Just look at it. LOOK AT IT.

(The reason it is so empty is because of Ramadan. Normally that place is jumping because it has air-conditioning.) 

McDonald's here is considered more of a luxury than it is in America. It's a bit more expensive (I think?) than it is in America too, but not by much. $2.70 for a small cheeseburger, fries and drink. But here, Moroccans consider the food expensive, so it's a real treat to go here. Like, going-on-a-first-date-to-McDonald's type of treat. (If that happened here in America, the girl would probably start exploring her options).

"And I just looked up your credit score. It's terrible."

So today, in an effort to avoid the daily soup, I went here instead of going directly home after class. I've never been so excited to go to McDonald's. (In fact, I don't think I've been to a McDonald's in America in more than 10 years.)

*****

As to the rest of my day: So, I woke up at 5am to work on my presentation for today, because there was no time to work on it last night. There never is. And at 9:30 I took a taxi to school alone (because my roommate is still sick). 

So, our presentations this time had to be about a famous city. Much like our last presentations, everyone else chose all these old, historical, lovely, important cities like Beijing, Rome, and Mexico City, full of rich cultures and history. Then there was me, and since I'm the classy one, I chose Las Vegas, which is famous for its "night life" and all that that entails.

"Deal with it."

Didn't realize the city was only established in 1905. It's just a baby!  But it turned out to be a good city to use my new vocabulary with. So, as before, I regret nothing.

I'm super craving (the newer) Ocean's 11 now, though, after doing all that research. I swear, Brad Pitt is always eating in those movies.

"I don't see the problem."

Then, as I said, I went to McDonald's after chilling at the school for a few hours.  I feel a little bad, eating in front of the few people who were actually there and who couldn't eat yet because the sun hadn't gone down, but I didn't feel bad enough to stop stuffing my face.

Afterward, I caught a taxi from there back to the apartment. The taxi driver was super-friendly-like, asking me all these questions about where I was from, what my name was, trying to pronounce my name over and over again. Then, of course, he was like, "What is your phone number?"

Me: "Ah. No, no. Nope. I have a boyfriend."

Him: "Here? In Morocco?"

Me: "No."

Him: "Then what is the problem?"

And this went on until we got back to my neighborhood. As I paid him, and he turned around to give me change, before he would actually hand it me:

                Him: "Your phone number."

                Me: "No."

                Him: "Please."

                Me: "No."

                Him: "Please."

                Me: "No."

                Him: "Please."

                Me: "No."

                Him: "Ok."

Then he gave me my change and I got out of the taxi. He didn't seem angry, just defeated.

At 9 that night, I had another meeting with my conversation partner, with one of my classmates this time (because she skipped her conversation time the previous night). We walked around the Old and New Cities for a while, but everything is still mostly closed from 9-10pm. So we went to the mall, but everything there is all from Paris and it's all got Paris prices.

But after a while, the shops started opening back up, and we went to the Old City into the maze-like market, because our conversation partner knows how to navigate it.

Me and Habiba.

Then at promptly 11 this time, I and my classmate had to leave, because we were going to have a test the next day and we needed time for studying, or whatever. We shared a taxi back, and halfway through the trip the "counter" (the thing in the taxi that counts the price) went off. Now, they always warned us never to get into taxis that don't have "counters", or that have "broken counters", because then the driver will try to rip you off and charge you more than necessary. (They tried to pull this one on us in Fez. "Oh, the counter is broken, but it's 20 dirham per person to the Old City from the train station anyway." Not true! We eventually found non-sketchy taxis, and it was actually 12 dirham for everyone.) So, when the counter went off tonight, we thought for sure he'd turned it off and that he would try to overcharge us.

He didn't! We paid 12 dirhams (which is actually cheaper than normal at night), and that was it.

And then I didn't study at all when I got home. I went to sleep instead.

But all-in-all, it was a very busy day.