As I seem to (finally) be spending more time IN the UAE than outside, I’m again starting to get out and do things here – some more interesting than others (and to others).
I have a couple of friends that I met during our stay in Brussels (Waterloo) and have gotten together with them a few times. Melody lives in Dubai. She was in a fashion show of a friend’s shop a few weeks back and invited me come and watch. I sat with a lovely Australian woman, Karolyn, who has taken me under her wing and been taking me around to see things and meet up with some of her friends. She lived in Abu Dhabi for several years and now lives in Dubai. I also see Julie who lives in Abu Dhabi (my other friend who used to live in Brussels). When we can get together, I hitch a ride with Richard and spend the day with her. I also have seen women I met through FAWCO, the umbrella organization for the American (and international) Women’s Clubs around the world. It’s a start.
The Wafi Mall, where the fashion show I attended took place, is located by the Raffles (the same chain as the one of Singapore Sling fame) Hotel. I actually won one of the gift certificates from the shop, so got a dress and something for Sarah plus the promotional discount on offer for the day. Richard thinks that the architect who designed the mall got the wrong memo as to where it was being built as it has glass pyramids and a definite Egyptian motif. In contrast, there was some sort of Russian culture promotion, so giant-sized matryoshka greet you in the main atrium. This is close to where my new friend, Karolyn, lives, so we may be due for a return visit.
Clearly coming to the UAE was different than the last international move. We knew we were on the short list to move when Sarah graduated from secondary school at the end of June 2013. So, no, we didn’t really have time to deal with the “empty nest syndrome” – we were too busy getting ready for the move to the UAE. Accordingly, what has been significantly different upon our arrival here is that we didn’t have to look for a school (Sarah was in kindergarten when we left Maryland), plan our housing accordingly and automatically meet new people while getting her settled. Although I didn’t join the American Women’s Club of Brussels right away, we were in BE for six months before that happened, once I did join, it was easy to meet people because they have a clubhouse. I’m still trying to find out if the ex-pat women’s organizations are able to do more than meet socially. This is something that I definitely miss about the AWCB, the variety of things that one could do. I think some financially support charities here – I’ll let you know what I find out.
I also have had my first experiences with medical care here. There is a clinic with an entrance just off the Dubai Mall, and even though I now have a driver’s license, Richard uses the car most days, so I can get there by metro. We have insurance through Richard’s office and like in Belgium there is socialized medicine. Unlike Belgium, I didn’t have a co-pay – even for prescriptions. I don’t know how it works as far as who is paying for this, but I didn’t pay anything out of pocket for visits with two different doctors. I have heard that emergency services for non-Emiratis are limited, and thus not a good (to really bad) experience, but I don’t know first hand. I also think that Richard’s office may have better coverage as a number of people have less of a selection as to their health care providers.
Now to the really mundane – you know that I’m really running out things to write about because this involves furniture shopping. To help legitimize this paragraph, I think that buying furniture is a sign that you actually are living somewhere. Despite promises to myself that we would NOT buy any here, we got a couple of small book cases for Richard – the haunting images of storage units in Maryland, Oregon, Waterloo, plus the family antiques in Richard’s mother’s house loom large here. He has been warned that once they are filled he either has to start sorting and discarding or stop buying books – yeah, like I know this is going to happen. He does seem to realize we have reached our furniture/book case limit – at least in theory. I think I’ve got +/-18 months before we have this discussion again…
Other than that the “yes, I live here, but still feel more like a tourist activities”:
- taking the brand new tram to the other side of the Marina – Jumeira Beach Residences (JBR) for a quick look at the local beach access (it’s been open less than a week, so has some glitches, but certainly the best way for us to get to that side of the Marina)
- double take looking at the gold plated Porsche near the Jumeira Beach Hotel (the one that looks like a wave near the Burj Al Arab Hotel) and
- spotting a white-haired Japanese-American woman sporting Elvis-inspired blue suede shoes that she got on sale – wait a minute – that’s me!
Judy and Richard - 1001 Arabian Nights 