Starbucks in Morocco

...without the Starbucks
Morocco has a strong café culture that Starbucks and their large coffees to go and their convenient drive through windows would fail here. After being in Morocco this long, it's normal to see about three or four different cafés on one block. I came here hating coffee and if I drank it in the states it was mixed with lots of goodies so that way I couldn't taste the bitterness of coffee. Now, after being in Morocco, when I go back to America, I probably won't be able to start my day without coffee - I never thought I would say that...
I am now becoming a regular to a café where the server knows my drink and my pastry that I like to get - I never thought I would say that as well...

My breakfast

And one good thing about my drink and my pastry (there are many good things) - it's about less than $2 including tip! Oh, and check out how many sugar cubes they give me for a little cup of coffee - yup there's four there. I only use two but some Moroccans will use all four (just imagine their dental care here...it's...yeah).
Before going to my café, I fill my backpack with my laptop, internet stick, all my French books, my French dictionary, my reading book, notebook, and whatever else I want to "work" on when I'm there. I go to the cafés like I'm Moroccan but I don't act Moroccan when I get there. Let me explain their café culture. Moroccans are always at a café and if they are not at a café...wait, that's not even possible to not be at a café. Everything revolves around the café life - the economy, the social aspect, friendships, and life. In the olden days, cafés were men only clubs while the women only clubs were in the hammams. That concept is dying of course but some girls won't go certain cafés because they are known as "men only".  The girls are welcome to go to the "men only" but if they do, they will probably get harassed and continuously stared at. Now don't freak out! I go to a nice café where I can do my French studies without getting harassed.
A lot of Moroccans do nothing when they go to cafés. A few (very few) will read the newspaper, no one reads books and most of them people watch, chat with friends, or play with their phones (in my standards of stuff, that's nothing to me). So you can just imagine my surprise and enthusiasm when I actually saw a Moroccan reading/studying a textbook the other day - a marketing textbook to be exact! Crazy!
Now, me on the other hand, I bury myself in my French studies or my current book (which is Eat Pray Love) - very not Moroccan. But hey, I haven't quite learned how to relax and do nothing at cafés. Hopefully one day I can. Time will tell.
Well off I go to bury myself in my French books at a café. Bslama!