Dubai: The Unfluffy Stuff

One of my very best friends emailed me recently to find out what Dubai is really like.  She loves reading about all the fun we're having and all the new things we're experiencing, but she wanted to get the dirt, too.  She said when she blogs, she writes about the fluffy stuff, you know, the things you wouldn't mind complete strangers knowing about you.  It's weird to think of people around the world knowing everything about you, but when we started this blog, I wanted it to be the truest representation of our experience possible.  So, in an attempt to write about all things Dubai, this blog is dedicated to the unfluffy stuff (and Alyssa Lawther). 

With all big moves and especially internationally, things are not always perfect.  I even experienced this when moving from Texas to Colorado.  The adjustment period is rough.  Your friends and family are too far away, all the things you know and love are far away, everything's different, and you can't rely on old comforts to get you through because they're not there anymore. 

When I moved to Colorado, I was instantly in love.  It's an incredibly beautiful state with so much to explore.  I loved every second of being in the mountains, but I missed the familiarity of Arlington, watching my nieces grow up, and being able to get dinner with friends, work out at my favorite gym or even drive down a familiar street.  Given the choice, I would never move back to Arlington because Denver has so much to offer, but I still missed everything I had known for 29 years.

This move has been the same times ten.  

Dubai has so many amazing things to offer.  There's always something going on.  The people here are super friendly.  The beach is right across the street.  We live in one of the coolest locations ever.  I have a whopping 12 students in my class.  Ladies' Night is available every night of the week.  The service is incredible.  The food is delicious.  I'm learning so many things I never would have learned if we hadn't moved here.  We have incredible opportunities to travel.  We're saving for our future home in the Rocky Mountains.  We're gaining amazing experience for our careers.  I could go on forever.  

What's not amazing is this:  Casey's schedule.   

Casey works Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and he's gone from about 8:00 am to 7:00ish pm.  I work Sunday through Thursday (the weekend is Friday and Saturday) and get home around 4.   Doesn't sound like that big of a problem, but it is. We never get a day off together.  We never get to explore the best things about this city - the desert, brunch, concerts, days at the beach... We get a measly two hours at night and maybe 5ish hours on days that he's off, and honestly the two hours at night don't really count because we're both so tired we're basically zombies.

In Denver, we had the best weekend schedule ever.  We slept in, stayed in bed as long as possible, cuddled with the kitties, made banana nut pancakes, walked to Starbucks, and then explored the mountains or made plans for the rest of the day.  Even a day with no plans was amazing compared to what we have now.  

Now we never get to sleep in.  When I'm working, we wake up at 6:15.  When Casey's working and I'm off, we wake up at 7.  Our apartment is so small that we can't sleep while the other one is getting ready, so we both just wake up for the day.  (I know... no biggie for all you moms out there, but I'm cherishing my years with no kids and trying to get all the sleep I can get!)

On the weekends, I can either go to brunch, which is getting kind of old, hang out at the apartment organizing and cleaning, or go to the beach with someone if they're not at brunch.  There aren't many fun things to do on Casey's days off, so he's pretty much just recouping from working so much.

We've been trying to be super couple who celebrates each others' days off by doing something fun, but that's just making us tired and cranky because one of us always has to work the next day.  I'm trying to keep things in perspective and tell myself this is his schedule for only one semester, things could change next semester, and if this is the worst thing about my life, it's pretty amazing.  But moving halfway around the world is stressful enough, and we didn't expect his work to be an added stress.  We moved here to experience new things together, and there doesn't seem to be enough time for that.  Things that aren't a big deal suddenly seem like a big deal because we never see each other.  I'm finding myself becoming possessive of our time together and trying to make it as perfect as possible, which never works and probably actually backfires because nothing's ever perfect.  The thing that was really getting me through was the promise of an amazing summer together.  We're planning a trip to Austria (Finally - eeeeeeeeeeeeee!  I've been dying to go there since I saw the Sound of Music when I was four!), Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Italy, and we were supposed to spend a month back home visiting North Carolina, Texas and Colorado, BUT he will most likely have to work... of course... so we'll only be able to do one of those trips.  Lame.

Like all things that suck, I know this will pass.  He could get a different schedule next semester, or this schedule could become our new normal.  The most important thing is that we're in this together and we're going to make it through the rough patches of this move so we can experience all the amazing things Dubai has to offer.

Thank you for reading my rant.  On to more exciting things now!

Alyssa, you're welcome. :)