So, just now i was looking at my Moroccan change and n0ticed something peculiar. Each coin had two different dates on them, one which was clearly the modern date, and one which must have been some historical period - they spanned from about the late 1300s to the early 1400s. So, I turned to my colleague and asked the above question, seeing if he could explain the historical significance of all these dates.
He responded simply by saying "it was the year it was printed."
I responded with disbelief, "you're telling me this money is 600 years old?"
No, of course its not. And, as he explained to me its not a historic date. All it is is the date on the Muslim Calendar.
"Ohhhhhhh..." was my response.
It's amazing how things can just seem so weird when you don't understand the context. First example, I was walking around the neighborhood near my office and noticed a lot of streest named "Oued ____," with the street I work on Oued Sebou. So I asked a coworker who this Oued Sebou guy was, joking about how common a name that must be ...although I'd never met an "Oued". It turns out.... that Oued means river in Arabic.
"Ohhhhhh...."
Last example, every morning when I was talking the bus to work and I saw a big mass of people gather in this small park by the side of the road. They didn't look active or energetic enough to be protesters, they didn't look passive enough to be sunbathers. Instead, the person on the bus who I asked revealed to me, they are standing outside the Spanish Embassy trying to get Visas. That was apparently the line.
You can imagine what my response was to that.
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