Life in Saudi - There's No Place Like Home

We haven't been home since last summer and we are definitely feeling the need to be back on the bayou!  It's just another one of the things about being an expat that I didn't expect.  It goes beyond wanting or needing to go home.  We HAVE to go home.  It's almost like having to recharge your emotional and mental batteries.  Everything that I don't like about being here is a little less tolerable when I reach the point of having to go home.  Every challenge I face is a little more frustrating.  Everything just seems harder.  The first time we went back home after moving to Saudi, I experienced a sense of peace that is hard to explain.  I had my family, my friends, good food...the list goes on.  Everything was familiar and I was at peace.  When I am at the point of having to go home, I just want to feel that peace.

There are the obvious things like friends and family that are great about being home.  But the one thing that I can't wait for, and that brings me great peace, is driving myself around!  I've said many times that I wouldn't want to drive here because the roads are so crazy, and I still don't want to, but I HATE not being able to drive.  I long for the day when I can get behind the wheel of my car, crank up the music and go wherever and whenever I want.  Here is a day in the life of me with a driver...

I had a parent-teacher conference today at Connor's school so I emailed the dispatch center and scheduled my car.  At the scheduled pick up time I looked out of the window and to my surprise, the driver was actually there!  I walked outside and the driver greeted me warmly, took Connor's carseat out of my hand, opened the back of the SUV and put the carseat back there (like where you would put groceries).  I thought well normally one would strap the carseat in, but I don't need it until on the way home so whatever.  I got into the car and noticed that it was brand spanking new.  I'm talking plastic still on the shift and the third row seats new.  (Sidebar - Leaving the plastic on is quite a thing here.  We once had a driver pick us up with the plastic still on all of the seats.  Harry and I looked at each other and laughed and said we are not riding around sitting on plastic covered seats so we ripped it all off before we got in.  I think the driver may have had a mini stroke.  Haha!)  So I made a comment to him about getting to drive a brand new car and he then told me that he was a brand new driver.  Brand new as in this was his first time driving someone.  A wave of dread came over me at that exact moment.  1.4 seconds later he asked me which way to go to get out of the compound.  You'd had to have been to our compound to know just how crazy of a question that is.  

He actually knew how to get to school!  One point for the brand new driver!  I explained how to maneuver through security at school and tried to get him to park when I saw an available space but he was not understanding me.  Whatever.  I directed him where I needed to be dropped off, got his phone number, and told him that I would call him when I was ready and that he needed to come back to that exact spot to pick me up.  Okay, no problem madame.  (Another sidebar - whenever someone says no problem in Saudi Arabia, expect problems!)  

So I got out and got started with the meeting.  I was there for an hour, tops.  After the conference, Connor and I went outside and I looked around thinking he may be parked right near the building.  He wasn't so I called.  No answer.  Called again and again, no answer.  I called the dispatcher to let him know so then he called the driver.  The dispatcher said he was outside the gate and security wouldn't let him back in.  I got really angry and asked why he left in the first place?!?  The dispatcher said that the driver would be calling me.  At this point I'm fuming mad and sweating because we are outside and trying to figure out how I was going to get him back through the gate.  I couldn't walk up there to tell the guard to let him in because he had my abaya in the car with him!  Only a few seconds had passed when the driver called me.  I couldn't understand anything he was saying and then he started screaming, "Look at me!  Look at me!"  Easier said than done when you don't know where he is!  I was about to loose it on him at that point.  Finally I saw him right down from where we were standing.  He had just told the dispatcher that he couldn't get back in the gate and now he was just right there.  I don't get it.  And WHY didn't he just drive up to me, I'll never know.  Anyway...he started fumbling around not really knowing what to do and thinking that he's helping me but he's just getting in my way and making me even more angry.  As I was strapping Connor in the carseat he kept telling me that he would fix it.  I just ignored him and continued.  Then he said, "Too much time waiting here."  I kind of just looked at him, a little confused, thinking maybe someone tried to make him leave the campus because he was sitting in the car waiting on me.  Then he says, "Too much time waiting here.  I didn't eat lunch."  I was a little thrown off.  He picked me up at 2:00 pm and it was now 3:15 pm.  It really ticked me off because he said it as if I had been keeping him all day and not giving him a break.  He picked me up well after lunch time and was only with me for a little over an hour.  Not my problem.  I just said something like oh, okay and then walked around to get my abaya on and get in the car.  As I was getting in I noticed that he was messing with the carseat so I had to tell him to leave it alone.  Even though the a/c was on, it was warm in the car.  When you are already sweating AND have an abaya on, it feels like an oven.  He was controlling the rear a/c from the front so I had to explain to him how to set it so that I could control it from the back.  I literally had to say no down, to the left, not that button, yes...that one, to explain how to set it to rear control.  Then he had the nerve to tell me that I could use the knobs in the back to set it LOL!  All that just to go to a parent-teacher conference. At that point I decided to simmer down and remember that it was his first trip.  Other than sweating and feeling carsick, the rest of the trip was uneventful.  Thankfully!  

So today was a prefect example.  While I haven't experienced this exact scenario, stuff like this happens all the time.  The only difference is that I've reached the point of having to go home and I was almost sent over the edge several times within an hour and a half.  Everything just seemed harder to deal with.  Everything was ten times more frustrating.  The driver, the language barrier, the heat (and it's not even that hot yet), the abaya, the carsickness.  It was all a little less tolerable.      

If only it were as easy as clicking my heels three times.  We have done a lot of traveling in these last few months, but there truly is no place like home.  I just keep reminding myself...in three weeks I will have my peace.