The biggest adjustment that I have had to make here, the one that is still giving me trouble, is not the weather (it really isn't that different from North Carolina in the summer time). It isn't the driving (it isn't that much worse than driving in South Carolina). It isn't the difference in money. It is the work week running Saturday to Wednesday.
It still throws me when people set meetings for Sunday, or say that they are anxious for Thursday to get here. Every Saturday feels like Monday, Monday feels like Wednesday, Wednesday feels like Friday. My mind, after thirty years of school and work beginning on Monday and ending on Friday, still wants to call the second day of the week Tuesday. After living in the rural South, the only thing that feels right is that most stores are closed on Friday (which feels like Sunday to me) morning. The other expats who have been here for years seem to have adapted, so I would guess eventually I will too. The good news for me is that when my former co-workers get to work on Monday morning, my work week is more than half over already.
This blog began as a description of our life in Al Ain, UAE (United Arab Emirates). Brn worked at the UAE University Libraries Deanship for three years and Bss homeschooled our four children, D, B, P, and O. After returning to the the USA for five years, we are living in Abu Dhabi now.
4 comments:
Well, I'm not saying that summer isn't worse, just that it is not that much worse. Asheville, being in the mountains, is usually about 10 degrees cooler than the part that Greenville was in. When you add in the the humidity in Greenville, it really isn't much better than here in Al Ain. Now, if I lived in Dubai...
I'm sort of surprised how quickly I have picked up the date thing. I had to give out my birthdate twice in one day recently, once to someone here, and once to someone back home, and without hesitation gave it in the right form to both people.
Well, Al Ain is a lot more tolerable than most other places in the UAE. It even rained in Al Ain some days back (when things were really murky in Dubai with dust all over).
I would do anything to have Al Ain mornings here in Dubai. You wake up and you can breathe fresh air without the added value (humidity) and fumes from cars, etc.
The one thing I don't like about Al Ain is that you could drive on forever and there's nothing there.. just a bunch of scattered houses.. then again, if I had a family with kids, etc. I probably would have preferred Al Ain over anywhere in the UAE.
I agree with everything about Dubai. When I was there two weeks ago to pick up the family at the airport, it was like being in a sauna. Actually, I think that I have been in some saunas that were more comfortable.
Al Ain is really spread out, especially the part that I live in, but with a family, the space is nice.
When you go back home, you will probably find that it will be Saturday, and you are going to call it Monday, and Friday will be Sunday. It happens to us everytime we go home for the summer.
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