Day 38: How to Dress for Success in Morocco

The only thing to disrupt my usual Monday schedule of toast, walk, arabic, walk, lunch, walk, Lla Mj's class, walk, riad was a sandwich. Rather than eat lunch with my family, I had one of the best meals I've had in Fes for 20 dh. We went to a sandwich place stand in the medina where they cut open a thick piece of pita and stuff it with cheese, grilled chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, sauce, olives, and french fries. All the fries are on the top and all the chicken, melted cheese, and sauce linger for you at the bottom. It was eye-opening.

After 2 hours of Lla's class, I went to the riad to study for the midterm we have on wednesday. We have to read 5 books and a couple articles for it. I have read three of the books so far (I read one last night) and a few of the articles, so I have some work to do. I read the fourth book tonight and hope to read the 5th tomorrow.

I skyped with my mom today who was chilling at home cause she has been sick. I've surpassed the data limit on my wi-fi stick but I'm not going to buy more until after the midterm. It'll keep me from getting distracted between now and then.

To liven up this post, I'm gonna talk about how to dress like a cool kid in Morocco. The key is to never admit you are sweating. You have to always be wearing your skinny jeans and your jacket, no matter what. When it's 95 degrees out, you still don't take your jacket off. Jackets must be leather or lightweight athletic jackets. Layering jackets is crucial too, but at least one must be worn at all times.

They also have a pretty narrow view on skinny jeans (intentional pun). Firstly, if you can move around in your pants, you're not doing it right. Secondly, you only wear blue or black jeans and they must be bleached down the back of the legs. Lastly, ripped jeans are not acceptable but, on girls, booty jeans are. 

For what you wear under your jacket, it's either solid color v-necks or crew necks. If you're out of those, two-color muted striped shirts are suitable substitutes. The trump card is soccer jerseys. You can wear them whenever you want and with whatever color pants you want. For example, in Morocco, red and blue-striped Barca jerseys go great with green pants (just an example though, only blue and black jeans, remember?).

As far as hair is concerned, it must have more gel in it than a Grease character or a resident of East LA. If it's not standing up, please stay seated. Girls can only have long hair but boys can't; for them, it's either Maroc-hawks or short hair. Each of these have popular mullet and rat-tail variants. The standard Maroc-hawk comes in two forms: full hawk and back-less, but it is important to note that not all Maroc-hawks are required to be gelled. Maroc-hawkers can save money in the gel department, but have to spend it on more frequent hair cuts to maintain a good Maroc-hawk. As a result, the cost-benefit analysis is inconclusive and our American research team has not reached a consensus on which haircut we prefer. 

Finally, it's important to have nice kicks to pull the whole look together. Nikes and Adidas are key and you really have no excuse not to own them in a society where you can get knock-offs in any store. Wearing them lets everyone know that you're ready to play soccer whenever wherever, which is important in a city where you can turn the corner and find yourself in the middle of 11-on-11 alley soccer, . Loafers can be worn too when you want to look nice. For girls, it's sneakers and flats; you only wear heels when you're headed to the clubs.

My brother Lotfi demonstrating acceptable attire

Now that you know these tips that our team has accrued over the past 5 weeks, put on your best outfit and head into the medina. Because it's socially acceptable to wear the same outfit for more than three days in a row, all you need is money, to pay shoe-shiners, and a bottle of gel, to keep your hair up, and you can survive in the medina for weeks.