Why I said yes to this adventure

I was at the supermarket and saw a Coleman icebox when I realised why I had said yes to coming to live in California for ten months.
It is because of our stay in Saudi Arabia in 1978-1979... almost 30 years ago! My father was working there and my mother and my sisters and I had followed him for a year. Until then I had only lived in Nîmes and found the experience freeing. I was a provincial little girl with a strong Southern accent and it opened my mind. When I came back to the same school, talking to the same friends I could feel the difference. I had started to learn English playing with our neighbours, Jane and John Eastham, and little Cameron, I was used to an international environment, Jeddah was where all the embassies were then. It made me a geography champion, a star pupil in English ( without much effort I have to admit) for years to come... I had lived in a tropical area where it only rains once or twice a year and the sun always sets around half past seven all year around. I had been in contact with children who had lived in several countries and spoke several languages. To be fair their knowledge of rude words was outstanding.

Though Southern California has no tropical climate the latitude is that of North Africa (so we have no long Summer evening like in Britain) there are similarities. The Saudi Arabia I remember had a childlike quality, a mixture of optimism, innocence, faith in expansion and consumerism, love of cars, of course, both endearing and irritating. In the UK, or in France, the humour is very ironic and sometimes too sarcastic. I'll never forget the day someone in London said to me: "That was summer!" after one day of sunshine in June! I was so disappointed!
In Jeddah we live in an enclosed European compound, called Armaska, with swimming pools, tennis courts, places to entertain, a little shop; and here I live in a "gated community" complete with an electric gate, a pool, gardeners, a warden who cruises on his little golf cart!
Besides people drive cute Chevrolets, the aforementioned Dodge pick-ups, consume goods in gigantic Malls, live in a children's world, absorbed by toys, games, children's films and literature. Ah! the second floor of the magnificent supermarket called El-Moktar entirely dedicated to toys!
I was only a little girl then so I wasn't fully aware of Women's condition in Saudi Arabia other than my mother could only go out of the compound with long skirts and arms covered. Yet there was also the amazement of discovering the Sahara, snorkling in the Red Sea, camping in Yambu.

In spite of all this I can see how different those two experiences are and am looking forward to unfolding the rest of this adventure.