Welcome to the sixth interview in my Adjusting to Expat Life series.  I’ll be running two interviews a week over the course of six weeks, writing about my own experiences adjusting to expat life in Peru, and rounding up the best expat resources on the web.

Interview #6:  A Vagabond settles down, for now, in Fez

One of my fellow Lonely Planet blogsherpas, Vago hails from Hawaii and runs the blog Vagobond, where he’s currently running an interview series on the benefits and hardships of international relationships.  Right now he’s living in one of my favourite cities, Fez, with his Moroccan wife.  In this interview he talks about why the language gap isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and the importance of staying connected.

How long have you lived in Fez?

I’ve only been in Fez for about 3 months but before that I was living for almost a year in Sefrou, a small town about 30 kilometers from Fez.

What made you choose to move there?

I met the girl of my dreams in Sefrou when I was backpacking through Morocco. I tried to leave a few times, but my heart kept bringing me back. Now we are married.

How do you make a living?

I teach English and do blog consulting and web design. I was surprised that there was so much demand for a blog guy who speaks English, but

the expat community here is fairly mono-lingual.

Have you lived abroad in other countries before? Where? Was it easier or harder to feel at home?

I lived and worked in the town of Parapat on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia back in 2001. To be honest, I enjoyed living in Indonesia a lot more than I enjoy Morocco. The weather, the pace of life, and the general good naturedness of Indonesians made life there quite a bit easier. In addition, Indonesian Islam is much more laid back than that of Morocco and that opens up a lot of possibilities for leisure and entertainment. I get bored silly sometimes in Morocco.

Are you part of a close-knit expat community, or are you closer to locals?

Both, actually. My work with Moroccan students, my wife’s family, and daily life in Fes put me in close proximity to the locals, but because I work with foreign teachers and my consulting work is primarily with ex-pats, I’m also a part of that. If I had to pick though, I would say I am closer to the locals than the ex-pats.

How much longer do you plan to stay?

As long as I have to. Getting a visa for my wife is a fairly difficult process, but hopefully we can escape sometime before 2011 to somewhere else.

Do you think about your adopted country as home, or as somewhere you happen to live, at the moment?

Home is where I hang my hat. I feel as much at home here as back in Hawaii. For that matter, I feel pretty at home no matter where I am.

What were the greatest differences you noticed when you first arrived?

There is no such thing as a queue in Morocco. Prices are almost never set. Since women don’t go out after dark alone and people usually eat at home, there is really no night life or entertainment as compared with other places I’ve lived.

What are the greatest differences you notice now?

The attitude towards litter and garbage is that you simply throw it on the ground. I’ll never get used to seeing garbage thrown on the ground in a park or while hiking with friends in the mountains. Another thing is interrupting, Arabic is an imperative and volume based language. If you wait for others to finish, you never get to speak. Same goes for lines, if you try to wait your turn, it never arrives.

To what level did you speak the language when you arrived?

When I got to Morocco I spoke and read Standard Arabic at a very basic

level. These days I speak and read high functional Standard Arabic and Darija (Moroccan Arabic), though I still can’t hold deep or meaningful conversations.

How did the language difference affect you?

Actually, I like it. Sometimes I pretend to speak no Arabic or French at all when I don’t want to talk to anyone. Then I listen to what people are saying. I can just tune it out like white noise and take a little time in my head to digest things and think about what I need to do.

How does or doesn’t having a local partner help you integrate?

It helps and hinders at the same time. If she is there, people just talk to her and even if I pronounce words well, they turn to her for translation. Actually, I do the same thing sometimes in the other direction. She is able to tell me about conversations around us that are beyond my level of fluency. Sometimes though, I find that I get along better when I am by myself in terms of haggling, getting directions, etc. I’m not sure exactly why that is.

Have you taken out or would you consider taking out citizenship?

No way. Not even a consideration.

If you don’t have citizenship, what are your feelings on living in a country where you have no political voice?

The funny thing is that as a foreigner, I actually have more of a political voice than everyone except the people who have way more money than me. If I were to stay in Morocco, I would gladly choose to remain a foreigner. One good reason is that Moroccans have a terrible time getting visas or even taking money out of Morocco. A Moroccan is only allowed to take 20,000 dirhams per year out of Morocco. That’s like 2000 Euros. Not enough for much.

Was there a moment when you suddenly realised the extent to which you had integrated? To which you hadn’t?

I’ll never be fully integrated but when I knock some old woman out of the way so I can get into a taxi with seven other people or when I’m sitting in a cafe watching the World Cup matches with 75 men and not a single woman, or when I tack inshallah onto the end of my statements in English…it’s these moments that I go “Holy Shit! That seemed completely normal.” and I know I’m more integrated than I think I am.

What advice would you have for ‘newbie’ expats? What do you wish you had known before moving to your new home?

Keep connected to three communities. The one you left via facebook and email, the expat community where you live, and your new local community. You will find all three of them to be havens for different times and reasons.

I wish I’d known how expensive it is to ship anything to or from Morocco. i would have brought more than a shoulder bag with me.

I think Vago’s got a point about the three communities, and I’ve definitely gone wrong in that area.  Of course I keep tabs on friends out of the country, and have a very supportive network here within it; I haven’t sought out the expat community here though, thinking I was speeding up my integration.  As I read all of these interviews, and other articles on other blogs, I’m increasingly convinced that it’s important to share the experience with other expats who know how it feels.  Back to the English and Irish pubs it is, then!

I’ll be back tomorrow with an interview with Todd of Todd’s Wanderings.