It was a Saturday night in early 2018. Meriem Abella was sitting on her couch in Lansing, Michigan, swiping through Tinder, through photo after photo of white boys flexing in gym selfies or standing on their boats holding fish. Then, she found Amine Tino’s profile.
Tinder told Meriem that Amine was less than a mile away from her. Meriem is North African and said she knew right away that Amine’s name was Arabic. She hoped they might be able to connect through shared culture. She swiped right and it was a match.
Meriem and Amine messaged back and forth for about a week. They talked about work and how much they both love to travel. Meriem is half Algerian, and Amine is Moroccan, so they also talked about North African meals and traditions they both love.
At that point, Meriem had never https://www.datingranking.net/local-hookup/owen-sound been to Morocco. And Amine had never been to the United States. Tinder had told them they were less than one mile away from each other, but the actual distance from Meriem’s home in Lansing to Amine’s home in Casablanca was more than 4,000 miles.
They were both disappointed to be so far apart, but by total coincidence, Meriem had already booked a trip to North Africa to connect with her heritage. She planned to spend a few months in Casablanca. Meriem had even found a place to stay just 20 minutes from Amine’s neighborhood, all before they had ever matched on Tinder.
Meriem’s trip was set for seven months after she and Amine had first matched. With that trip in mind, they decided to keep getting to know each other.
Meriem and Amine video chatted almost every day for seven months – helping each other practice Arabic and English, using lots of Google Translate and laughing often – until it was time for her to leave for Morocco. She told Amine that after she arrived she wanted to go straight to her Airbnb to shower and freshen up after her eight-hour flight, that she wanted to dress up “the same way anyone wants to get ready for a first date.”
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