It's official! This exact day. October 17th, 2011, was when I left USA for Dubai. I remember that day and those previous days quite clearly. 2 days prior I had a big hooplah going away party - catered Mexican food, mariachi band, 30-40+ friends and family. I remember at that time feeling excited and "ready." The next day was just packing up and getting the last of my things sorted. Then the day that I was leaving (I had a night flight), I remember waking up and feeling knots in my stomach and thinking, "holy s***.... I'm MOVING. TODAY. To DUBAI!" Those "excited" feelings quickly turned into... anxiety, nervousness... a bit of panic. Deep breaths.... deep breaths. Luckily I still had some last minute packing and re-organizing to do and the hours went by quickly. Then... my mom came a bit earlier than planned and.... it HIT me. BAD. Her coming was the sign for me leaving. For.... who knows how long? I ha then proceeded to have a total breakdown. A lot was to do with doing a last walk-through of my house and literally having a flashback of a LIFETIME of memories. I had been in that house for 20+ years, so memories from my youth flooded into my head followed by tears, my grandparents (who are now deceased) staying with us, numerous friends and family living there, Thanksgiving dinners, BBQ's - both me hosting and just low key family events, etc etc. What REALLY hit me, and I don't know why it didn't hit me earlier (denial?) that.... who knows where life would take me and I may never be in that house again. That's what really started the flood work of tears. And these weren't "sniff sniff" tears, it was "SOB SOB SOB...." like I could hardly talk. My mom and I went to our local Thai restaurant... I tried to compose myself but the minute I started thinking about memories of the house and maybe NOT ever going back there, they started up again, and.... it was just a mess. My mom was patient and just kept talking about random things and saying everything will be okay, etc etc. Before I knew it, my uncle came to pick me up, I had my last last walk through of the house, and.... adios!
Fast forward ONE YEAR, and here I am today. I have a new home, new friends, new environment, pretty much everything new. Are things okay? Yes! (mom's are always right). The time FLEW by and I really can't believe it.
Soo... as I am going to Bhutan next spring, I'm going to use their "Index of Happiness" to evaluate my last year (and yes, they actually have a formal and official rating system to evaluate the happiness of the people . How cool is that!:
1st 3 months: 25%
Some of that percentage is obvious stuff, having every single aspect of my life turned upside down, coming here alone and not having a support system (I REALLY missed fam and friends!), sleeping on an uncomfortable couch in a small'ish one bedroom apt at our family friends couples apt, being a bit isolated (they live in a quiet and bit far away neighborhood), not having a car and relying on taxi's, etc etc. Others were more external - me being stupid and deciding to single-handily move and pack a HOUSE -> which lead to 2 major low back herniations -> PAIN! Also, it took forever to get my resident visa, which here you can't really do anything without that visa. Work was a bit difficult physically because of the back and also mentally because of a difficult manager. It was basically a LOT harder than I thought to adjust think because of the so few "comfort" things I had at that time to get me through it. As I was not familiar with Middle Eastern mentality, I waaay to easily was getting frustrated and angry about the inefficiency, tardiness, over-promising, and vagueness of everything. For example, there is an "easy" way to do something, which seemed too obvious to me, and then the "Dubai" way, which was complicated and lacks common sense. But that's the way they do things here and I couldn't understand that (now I can). I guess my American upbringing is to blame for that :-).
6 months: 45%
During this time frame, I cured my own back (heheh!), I got my visa (yea!), got my own apartment (yeaaaa!) and got a car (woo hooo!). Although all those things were stressful, it was a great learning experience and introduction to life here. I was and still am proud that I did all that by myself. I've been too spoiled in the States with relying and/or being dependent on other people. So that was an accomplishment. I had been meeting people, but no close friends just yet. My eating and exercising were waaay off, work still had its' challenges with a difficult person, and at this point was still ready to pack up and go home the minimum 2+ years I promised myself I would be out here.
1 year: 75%
The last 6 months have definitely taken a turn for the better. I can finally say after a year I feel relatively happy, comfortable, and relaxed being here. I've gotten used to the intricacies (frustrating ones at that) of life here, and now embrace them without getting my blood pressure up. A bit part of that positive transition was re-vamping my eating (enough said about that in my blogs!) and lifestyle. Again, having tidbits of your "old" life in your "new" life can do wonders, and for me incorporating exercise my routine did just that. Although I don't have nearly the amount of friends I had back at home, it's not about quantity but quality and the handful of friends I have are pretty cool people. I REALLY love the area where I live, and have made an attitude adjustment to difficult people at work and now work has been enjoyable and pleasant. It helps I really love what I do! I do have to same time REALLY flies by, and I'm glad I am incorporating my passion for traveling also - my summer and fall trips were fab-u-lous!
Sooo... there you have it. Happy Anniversary to meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. 1-year down, ??? to go. And this is now really open-ended of when I'll be returning home to the States.
Random side note -. I'll be home in Chicago the 1st week in Chicago, I'm super excited to go home and have some "normalcy." Here in Dubai, yes, it's called Las Vegas of the Middle East, and it will be nice to have some normalcy back in my life!
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