Adjusting back to life in America has been easy at times. Hard at other times. And just plain funny at others!
Today we’re going to focus on the funny.
It’s comin’ to you in list form cause I like lists and this is my blog.
1. When riding in the car, my children would ask “Why does this car have music?!”. They were confused because our vehicle in Africa was so old it didn’t really play music. We could have listened to Arabic radio, but frankly that wasn’t so fun. So we usually listened to nothing. Since January they have adjusted to this and now Sweet N often asks us to turn on the music!
2. When we arrived it was cold outside. Brrrr. We’re desert people, not snow people really. One day I asked Hudson to please put his coat on because it’s cold outside. He came into the living room proudly dressed in his jeans, socks and his winter coat. No shirt on underneath! He had a big grin because he was so excited to wear his new puffy coat but he had forgotten that he was supposed to be fully dressed UNDER his coat. Ha!
3. I had a hard time driving the speed limit. As in… I would be driving slooooow. I’d often look at my speedometer on the freeway and I’d be going around 50mph and cars would be flying by me. Ooops! Our city didn’t really have any freeways and we often drove on dirt roads or terribly damaged paved roads so we were rarely ever going more than 30 or 40 mph. 50 felt so fast!
4. I also still find myself thinking how inconvenient all the road rules are. It’s more more convenient (and fun) when you get to make up your own driving rules. I miss that.
5. I had to explain what a closet was to my children! Built in closets were a very rare thing in our country, so even though we would have them when we traveled, my kids were still somewhat unfamiliar with the concept and the word. We had a little lesson and that straightened them right out.
6. Once on a preschool field trip the kids teacher came back excited to tell me how well the kids did so well in the crowd, didn’t have fear of being amongst so many people and weren’t afraid to be a little pushy to get up to the front. Ha! That’s what African ‘lines’ will do for ya…
7. When I stick my foot or arm out from underneath my covers at night I still occasionally have the though “Uh oh, I hope the mosquitos don’t get me!” Funny, since there’s hardly a bug in our new city at all…
8. I am so thankful for my refrigerator light (among a thousand other small luxuries). When I open the fridge at night it’s so bright I can actually see things in there. It’s amazing!
9. When Mike traveled to South Africa in February I wondered if diapers were cheaper there and if I should ask him to bring some back for me to save money? Ha! We used to do this all the time whenever someone (anyone, really) was traveling outside of our country in north Africa, but I’m pretty sure things aren’t really cheaper many places in the world than where we are now. Hard to stop that kind of thinking after so many years!
I’m glad I made notes of these things, aren’t you? Such a funny thing transitioning from one lifestyle to another, especially with wee ones…
