Change is what makes the world spin and human beings have this beautiful skill to adapt surprisingly quickly; that’s how we got so far as in our own little history. There is now a constant light breeze in the air, and the weather is decidedly cooling down.
The last time I wrote something similar was when I was doing a student exchange in Finland. That was more than 10 years ago. Times were different: money was cheap after the financial crisis, inflation low and the UK still in the EU, I wasn't married and didn't have two children.
In a different corner of the world Saudi Arabia went through tremendous changes in the last 10 years. The rise of MBS shook up the country; it opened up to the world in a way it hadn't before and it's now a confident and ambitious regional player.
I once again find myself properly away from home for the second time in my life. My personal circumstances are different and the reasons I am here too. Yet, I can’t quite shake the “Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore” moment. In Saudi Arabia it is amplified by the huge differences in culture, religion and traditions in general. Life starts later in the day, the prayer schedule and the heat dictate the time of meetings and the concept of time itself appears more malleable (which is to say that people arrive way too early or really late to appointments and that seems to be accepted as normal).
We haven't been here long, but I believe that Saudi Arabia will in a way remain inaccessible to the Westerner even if they learn the language and spend several years here. The cultural gap is simply too wide. Additionally, why would the host country go the extra mile to incorporate decidedly foreign elements?
However, paradoxically, I think there is a way I could relate to those locals in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, who may have a harder time coping with all the often sudden changes to their country. Maybe there is a way to share a moment where we take a melancholic look at the past together, taking stock of what has been lost, even if the pasts themselves are inevitably very different.
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