Growing up, I was into video games from an early age. My brother, 7 years older than me roughly, got a Nintendo for some occasion (trying hard to remember, but when you are 6 or 7 those memories are blurs.) Regardless, I am almost certain this Nintendo was not for me. If it was, the older wisdom of my brother (who will always be both older, and wiser) concealed it in such a way that it was a gift for him, and that sometimes I would be allowed to play. At least this is how I remember it.
I would play Mario of course, along with whatever other games were around. Watching my brother became sort of a hobby, as once again, his older, wiser self was so much better at those video games than I was at the time. On the other hand, watching an adult… my mother… attempt to play Mario, which she enjoyed I believe, was just humorous, and made me feel good. Thanks mom! (sorry as well, because I don’t want to ruin your gaming reputation.) One game that I recall, and actually still play sometimes to kill some time (I have them on my computer here) is the game “Gauntlet.”
To describe “Gauntlet” for you: It is a timed maze game, consisting of different increasing difficulty levels, set in what I consider to be medieval times, in a dungeon of sorts. At the beginning of the game, you can choose one of 4 characters (these characters have names!!), each having different abilities based on what those mythical characters were trained in or how they were built. Your choices of wizard, dwarf, female warrior, or male warrior were the four choices. The dwarf moved fastest, because he was small. The warriors, could withstand more hits because well…they were freakin’ warriors. The wizard, while old, and of average speed, could cast a spell and take out an entire room of bad things. Yes, there were bad things, and it was your job to reach the end of the maze before your life AND the time limit was up. (PS. I was so mentally stimulated and involved with video games that I recall having a few dreams about various games, and that I was actually playing. “Bionic commando”, “Gauntlet”, and “Ikari Warriors” were some dreams I can recall just now…)
One of the “bad things” in “Gauntlet” was some sort of blob-like thing, that looked like the state of Florida. I love geography, and so I associated Florida with this panhandle having monster (the things little boys find associations with!) Anyway, this blob-like character would chase you… and it was fast. Its only goal in its maze existence was to suck the energy from your character, rendering it useless, and well, video-game dead. Once it got a hold of you, you had trouble getting away. (NOTE TO READER: the term “video-game dead” is much more different than “dead.” “Video-game dead” means you can come right back to life somehow, whether by just coming back, or turning off the game, and turning it on again. How terrible would video games be if you could only play them once, and when your character was dead, you could no longer play. Also, think of how warped it is that we do not even question how fantastically brilliant the concepts of “Extra-lives” and just “lives” in general are compared with real-life. We just say “yeah! let’s go again,” putting that video-game character in death-defying situations without reservation, or caring.)
What the heck does this have to do with life in Morocco?!?
The past month has done a number of things to me. More accurately, this past month means Ramadan. It is over, and like many things, this has both an up-side, and a down-side.
Ramadan is a joyous, relaxing, incredible experience. You get great food (sure, that is my opinion), you get fantastic company, and you get to sit around, read books, watch tv shows and movies, work on college applications, and do your best not to feel bad about it. On the off chance you actually feel bad about it, you attempt to meet with people, and do work… only to find that everyone else is “busy” and well, relaxing.
In some ways, Ramadan is like that Florida-esque looking monster in “Gauntlet” that tries to suck the life out of you. I know that sounds horrible, and maybe it is a bad comparison. But sometimes, I felt drained, for absolutely no reason, like the life was being sucked right out of me by some invisible “Florida” looking monster.
Well, My character (I usually played the dwarf… HEY! don’t laugh, just because I considered myself small and fast, I associated with that character more than the others) has successfully gotten away from the life-sucking entity (I really do not want to associate Ramadan with a monster… it is such a great time. But the association in my mind is just so so humorous I had to share it.)
BUT, over the past few days I underwent an 80′s style “Snap back to reality,” get your stuff together, and realization that these next two months at least are going to be super-freaking-busy.
I also realized that I am so used to the laid-back style of Ramadan, that I was overwhelmed slightly at the look of my coming times (does this mean I was just “whelmed”?) I will be traveling a whole lot, trying to jump from here to there, and get everything done, and getting my “Eric-like” structure, routine, and efficiency back on track.
I also wondered how getting back to American fast-paced, no holds-bard life would actually be possible. The contrasts of Ramadan to normal life for me in Morocco is crazy. I just imagine what it will be like when I get slapped in the face by America (which at the moment, brings up the picture of a very pretty women slapping me… no mom, this has never happened, I have never been slapped in this way… not by America, or any women. I hope to continue this trend for a long-time.)
Koala Bears are cuddly and cute, but I remind you that this is only a facade, and that you should keep your distance. In actuality, Koala Bears smell like a rotten wet-dog mixed with moldy cheese, and are intensely mean, so much they might rip your face off (and then you would have to be in a horrible movie with Cage and Travolta!)
Sometimes life can be like a Koala bear, and somehow I feel during Ramadan I saw a Koala Bear from afar, and tried to embrace and hold it. Now I have to quickly adjust, (Koala) “Bear” the brunt of the oncoming craziness, and go with the flow, hopefully not resulting in my face being ripped apart. I can deal with the bad smell.
While I am excited to be busy again, the coming adjustment period ought to be, well… fun to say the least.
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