Most of our friends have family have heard through the grapevine that we are planning to move to Dubai in November, after the baby is born. My project team manages a portfolio of projects, and our portfolio in Abu Dhabi is winding down so it will soon be time for us to either move on to back to the main regional office in Dubai. Well, this week, it is official! I received my "formal" offer letter from the company to move to Dubai! We're so excited!!!
Don't get me wrong - we have liked living in Abu Dhabi. I think the biggest source of stress with Abu Dhabi has been the limitations that come with a short-term assignment with our company - we only have one car, we live in an apartment that drives us nuts, and for the first few months of our assignment we had very little certainty about the future (Uncertainty is hard!). We weren't sure if we'd be here for 12 months or 3 months!
In fact, most families that I've polled at work have said they actually prefer Abu Dhabi to Dubai. Abu Dhabi is easy to navigate with a (mostly) grid-based traffic system, and pace of life here is not super crazy. I think the schools here might be easier for the expat kids to get into as well, I'm not well versed in that since we're not at that stage yet.
The exciting part of moving to Dubai is that this is a regular assignment, affording us a full expatriate benefits package. We'll be able to actually choose where we live (big plus for G since he'll be home with the baby all day while going to school online), we'll own both our own cars instead of sharing a rental, and while we're still not sure exactly how long the assignment will be, we know we'll be in Dubai at least through 2018, possibly longer depending on how my company's Middle East portfolio changes in the next few months. Plus, we'll get to bring another shipment from home, so G will probably travel back to Houston once we sign a lease in Dubai so he can sell our cars and pack some boxes.
We have some major decisions coming up! Do we lease a villa (basically a house in a developed neighborhood) or another (larger) apartment? What neighborhood in the city will we live in? What will we bring back to Dubai from Houston? We've already decided we're not bringing much furniture, we'd like to keep our furnished home in Houston well...furnished. Plus, a sea shipment takes 6-8 weeks, whereas an air shipment only takes 3-4 weeks, so we'll likely just take another air shipment with small household goods.
I'm always curious to know what other expats miss from home...G really misses having a yard with plants and a dog to come home to. We will likely end up in a villa because of this...although we'll see how he feels about having to pack up the kiddo in the car seat every time he needs to run to the grocery store. I really miss my boxes and boxes of crafting stuff - scrapbooks and sewing projects. I almost brought my sewing machine and I'm glad I didn't - I literally have nowhere to put it our apartment. I am, however, super excited to have all of that shipped to me when we move to Dubai. I know that I likely won't have much time for it with the kiddo, but I've been crazy busy before and still managed to squeeze in a project or two. There's just something about finishing a project that is really satisfying! Even if it's as simple as a set of potholders or napkins, it still gives me a boost of serotonin-induced gratification.
Anyway, we're both thrilled! The move will be messy and complicated with a lot of moving parts - a baby being born, house hunting, family visiting, packing a shipment, buying new furniture...and we can't wait!!!
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