Morocco, my home

Moroccan wrote in the comments to a previous post: "I'd love to hear how you find Morocco, culturally speaking. :)". Well, first of all I have to confess that I've only been to the north of Morocco. I have never been any further than Chefchauen and that's still very much the north. I want to go to the south, to the "genuine Morocco" and I will as soon as I get a chance. With this said I'll say that I feel very much at home here in the north and I don't find the culture to be so different from mine.

As you probably know I'm Spanish. I was born in Sweden and didn't move "back home" to Spain until I was 20 years old, but I'm very very Spanish. Unless I tell people they would never guess that I haven't spent my whole life in Spain. Anyway, the cultures in southern Spain and northern Morocco are very much alike and people think and react in very similar ways. It's only logical, because after all the people on both sides of the border was part of the same country for over 800 years. Our common history go way back, many many centuries, and those common roots are still very much alive in history, food, music, literature, buildings, way of life... The descendants of the refugees from AlAndalus are very proud of their cultural heritage.

The bonds between Spain and Morocco are very strong. In spite of several wars and times of not so friendly relationships both countries are tied together by centuries of common history. We share a border and both countries benefit from that. Most people here in the north watch Spanish TV, because you don't need any special equipment to watch it. Thanks to that Spanish is still the inofficial second language here in Tetuan. I'm able to communicate with people when my Moroccan isn't good enough and that's a great help. Being Spanish in the north of Morocco really is almost like living at home.

Morocco Spain living+in+Morocco Moroccan+culture Moroccan+life being+a+forreigner+in+Morocco AlAndalus alandalus Tetuán Tetouan