My Time in Morocco

Canada Day Abroad

I had the most amazing Canada Day celebration of my life the other day! Due to family connections and luck, I got a meeting with the Canadian Ambassador here in Morocco. I am very interested in working in the foreign service and being an Ambassador would be a dream come true so we talked about his career path, what the job entails and what steps I could take to get my foot in the door. At the meeting, I got an invitation to their Canada Day celebration at the Embassador’s residence which is usually reserved for high up Moroccans and other diplomats who work with the embassy.

The residence was a beautiful house/mansion with a large garden and a pool. Ouma and I arrived at 7:30 and the garden was absolutely packed with people. They had tents lining the garden fence with Beavertails, poutine with real cheese curds, crepes with maple syrup, two open bars and a station with maple syrup put on snow and rolled up on a stick as you would find at any maple syrup farm in Canada. It was incredible! They also had this big stage with this incredible band from the Ivory Coast who played Canadian songs like Hotline Bling! In the back end of the garden, there was a platform with a net to play ball hockey where you would try to score on the goalies who were also the Ambassador’s sons. I got a beautiful slap shot straight into the net! I watched other diplomats and Moroccan business people give it a go and talked strategy with anyone who would ask me.

I met diplomats from England, the US, Dominican Republic, and of course Canada. I met Moroccans who worked at the embassies in Rabat and who had worked with the Canadian embassy in the past. I met someone who works in solar, another in Finance, several lawyers and many others. I got so many business cards by the end of the night! By 10 pm most of the people still at the party were a bit tipsy courtesy of the open bars and so that’s when the dancing started. We danced and sang which included a conga line and making room on stage for people to demonstrate their moves.  Everyone was incredibly friendly and gracious. I had so much fun letting my hair down and dancing my heart out until midnight. I also ate so much maple syrup! I felt incredibly proud to be from Canada and I loved watching people enjoy so many Canadian things