I’ve barely kept up with Global Voices posts, Arabisto has fallen by the wayside, and sadly, this blog has practically gone defunct. I’m in the process of designing a new blog (okay, my friend Mykal is designing, I’m giving input), which should hopefully inspire me to post more often (since there’s only so much one can say about Morocco when one is 3,000 miles away). I also am without internet at home again.

Given that it’s the last day of the year, I’d like to take just a moment to reflect…I started this year in Haarlem, Netherlands, and am ending it in Boston, Massachussetts. It feels like I’ve come a long way…from starting the year out as a newlywed English teacher to ending it in a job I love, back in my own country and near my family. And yet, I don’t know which life I prefer. I miss Morocco dearly - from my family (in-law), to my job to my students, to the smell of the air…But I also love my freedoms here - going to the movies (in English!), the bars, feeling free to walk down the street in whatever I like without being harassed.

Living in Morocco felt like being on some sort of frontier - by no means was I the first (or last) to do it, but comparing my life there with that of the people I grew up with, or what I was used to, it felt like I was always pushing some sort of boundary (if only my own), finding some new edge. Adventure, even. Being here feels like the status quo - my New Year Resolution, incidentally, is to push that boundary - find something here that touches on that. It’s funny - in Morocco it felt so difficult at times to mobilize, get things done. Here, I have all of the resources I could possibly need, but no idea where to start. Things are too busy, there’s too much. It’s the “American way,” I suppose.

Needless to say, we’ll be back in Morocco as soon as we can. We’ve already talked about going back to live - not in Meknes, mind you, but Rabat or Marrakesh. Somewhere we can have the best of both worlds.

And so, I wish you and yours the best of this coming new year - make the most of it.  Choose resolutions that truly speak to you, and that you may keep.  Work on fulfilling your hopes and goals.  I know I will.